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The Gospel, The Ευαγγελιον in the Old Testament; The Reason for the Apostles Use of this Particular Special Theological Word

May 5, 2024

The truth is that we all want to hear good news. Some good news I saw today was the Green Wall of Africa. The United Nations with local populations south of the Sahara have started to make central Africa green again. This not only brings wealth to Africa but also community. The strange thing is though, when we look at most news sources it is usually bad news. So then in the world there different types of news, good and bad. It makes me feel happy to see hope of a better future filling Africa, I wish I could say the same thing about other parts of the world. In a sense then good news is also rather psychological. For good news to be good your have to ‘feel’ in your heart and in your mind that it is good news. One has to be convinced that the news is true, authentic and that it can change something in one’s life for the better.

The ancient people were no different to us. They also liked to hear good news. Perhaps there was a hunting expedition for food, and they were able to trap some meat to eat for a month, or that it was a great harvest so it was less likely that the villagers would go hungry next Winter. They had basic needs for survival and we are no different. It is sometimes easy to forget our basic needs of food, heat and warmth. This Winter was interesting in Finland. The temperatures in Southern Ostrobothnia dropped to about -32 c and we were running out of wood. In fact I went outside and chopped wood. The electric pump does not work that well at these temperatures. It was certainly good news that I had an axe!

So then whether you are religious or not, you must be curious what people thought two or three thousand years ago. Yes, the Bible has writings that old and even if you don’t accept it as Scripture, it does not mean it has no value to you. It is true that I see Scripture as God’s word to us, but I think if you find Shakespeare’s Macbeth interesting, something made up then; how much more valuable then might the Bible be?

At this point you have to make a choice; either you believe what I say, or you have a ‘better’ explanation. I respect your viewpoint, but I think I also have a valid point too.

Gospel in its most basic kernel means good tidings or good news. There are two things we want to discover:

The way ‘gospel’ was used in the Old Testament
How it is used and modified by the Apostles (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit)

Why did the Apostles choose the word Gospel (ευαγγελιον)?

I am taking a break this Week from the theology of the theologians and want to follow through and learn about the idea of the Gospel came from. Obviously, we need to do research in the Hebrew Old Testament and the LXX (the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament.)

Background of the word Gospel, euangelion see also bsr in the OT.

Twice it can mean ‘reward for bringing good news’ and in the piel (grammatically) it is represented in the lxx as ευαγγελιζω (to announce good news)

1 kings 1 42; While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. Then Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a valiant man and bring good news.” 1 Kings 1:42

Explnation

There was some trouble in Jerusalem with planning and scheming for the throne of Judah and Israel. A conspiracy was going on to usurp King Solomon’s right to become king. Adonijah was expecting good news from Jonathan that he would be the next King and not Solomon.

‘Bring news’ here is in the piel grammatical form. Piel is intensive here showing the happy expectation of kingship for Adonijah. It did not turn out the way Adonijah had foreseen! The word ‘good’ is a modifier of the type of news that was expected.

Notes:

וְט֥וֹב = good

תְּבַשֵּֽׂר׃ = bring news (V‑Piel‑Imperf‑2ms)

Ευαγγελιζω is also a compounded word. The English word euthanasia which means a calm death has the same preposition ‘Eu’. Eu or Ευ means ‘good’. We find the second part in angels (messengers) who ‘announce’ the news.

Easter; The Easter Cross & The Death Of The Human Will

March 27, 2024

Today I ask the question Why is Easter important? I want to start off with an object lesson. In my student days I was once given an inked wood cut poster of Marin Luther. Martin Luther alongside Erasmus were somehow involved in the initiation of the Reformation. I really like this old fashioned picture painter by Edward Matthew Ward. Yes, books used to be chained in the reading room. In this particular case the chains are thicker than normal and there is an hourglass on the other side of the table and the sand has run out. On the Museum and Gallery org site (from museumandgallery.org ) He says that these chains are a symbols of the inner turmoil going on inside the heart and soul of Luther.

He then quotes a passage from somewhere:

“Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ’the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. There upon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before ’the justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me the gate of heaven.” (From Here I stand by Bainton as well as the above web site.)

Anyhow my view at this point follows Luther and John Calvin. The following blog is my understanding of the Fall. I will finish off the blog with some discussion on the question of justification of Faith with the help of Herman Bavinck in the Reformed Dogmatics

Easter is the great festival of Christianity and the culmination of God’s word to humanity (In Scripture) and by the Word of God (in our Lord Jesus being fully God and fully man, the Mystery of mysteries.) This is very personal as Bavinck reminded me that all we were as far as being alive to God; we were dead twigs. Something that is dead cannot make decisions. God the Unmoved Mover by the Holy Spirit breathed life into me so that by faith and by grace I could follow the way of Christ. A car without an ignition cannot move so a human being without the Holy Spirit cannot be spiritually alive in terms of salvation. The third Person of the Trinity is our ignition and life Creator.

But while we were dead in our trespasses and sins Christ, The Son of God, willingly died for my sin and your sin. It is now possible by faith, by grace for a human being to enter God’s Kingdom. This fact that Jesus died on Calvary and his resurrection are not any ordinary events. These events are the crucial events for the whole of the human race. This is not another Hegel or Pannenberg thesis, antithesis and synthesis of an event, as though one event modifies another event in the making history. No, my friends, there is no modification of history here as Christianity remembers the deeds of the past. We look back to the cross and the resurrection which is the crucial and the centre of the cross, Where the two beams meet, where our roads cross, This is indeed the Divine Will for the human race.

Why do I take this view as a Christian. Scripture tells us in Genesis that Adam and Eve sinned… You may say; Do you take this seriously?

Yes, I do.

Let me reason with you.

If one takes the story of the fall literally, it is true.
If one takes the story of the Fall generically (Adam and Eve as symbols) it is true
If one takes the story of the Fall as a myth, it is true.
If one takes the story of the Fall as legend, it is true.
If you reject the story of the Fall in the name of science, it is still true.

We all sometimes in our human life do wrong. We all have our selfish ways. Even our good deeds somehow are tainted with, “What’s in it for me?”. Even if we wanted todo the right thing, God already knew that we could never save ourselves.

This is human nature, and this is the effect of the fall and even if you reject this theological, historical Fall; You still sin! The Bible says that if you sin your dead. Even reflecting on our own human nature shows that we are dead towards God as God and sin cannot live together.

Something special needed to happen in human history for us to be able to come closer to a true and living relationship with God. As far as sin in our lives are concerned there are many books to try to help us but they fail.

Self-help books to make us healthier.
How to be the next millionaire
Brain train

The list could go on. I’m not saying these books are bad but what I am saying they are trying to fill that spiritual void. Then there are various belief systems;

Buddhism, A practical religion that rains your mind to make you a more compassionate human being.
Zen that this world you see is not the real one.
Humanism to make better human beings through our own helps.

It gets a little bit more complicated after a while. I am not trashing these ideas as there is some grain of truth in all of them but in the end, they will never satisfy the human soul completely. This to me is a good enough reason to look at the Easter story in a little more depth. Each human being is different too and the way of reading Scripture will a lot of the time be influenced by our own bent on the Truth. But even here with the various types of humans:

The scientific human
The introspective human
The willing human
The doubting human
The busy human
The rich human
The power-crazy human
The sports human
The party orientated human

Lets look at a couple of examples:

The Scientific objective human

This person believes that science has all the answers, and they spend their lives looking for the possibility to cheat death. They need hard evidence from the laboratory to come to a conclusion about the afterlife. Possibly if they looked at the papyri and early documents of the Bible then they could start to believe in the power of the Scriptures.

The Feelingful introspective Human

This person goes out looking to fill their emotional needs. They may dabble in drugs and alcohol to make themselves feel better but in the end, they lose all hope. Actually, our Lord taught that it is only when we realize we cannot do anything in our own wisdom to please God, that God starts to work in our lives. So, some drug addicts and experiential searchers can get into heaven too.

When we think about peoples’ circumstances and our own circumstances, we realize how lost we are. All human beings’ sometimes have sinned or have been hurt because of sin and wrongdoing. We have all missed the mark we have all done wrong. Never mind not being able to reach God’s standards, we cannot even reach our own standards. Our consciences (the voice of God) speak to us and condemns us.

This then is a real conundrum and even if speak in non-religious terms we can see how serious the human condition is. Which ever way we look at it by our own means such as:

Self-help.
Psychological therapy.
Get rich.
Work out (sports).
Party all night get drunk and have sleep overs.
Join a political party and fight for a cause.

I’m sure the list could go on that by using our intellect that we could possibly find happiness! Outside of religion every avenue open to us will fail. I’ve painted a grim picture of a humanist future. The governments can possibly make life a little bit more comfortable or uncomfortable with who is in power.

In a way every government is capricious, and they change their minds all the time. My answer to this dilemma is that there is indeed a God, there is indeed a Creator. For the Christian there is indeed the Trinity. In the past Pagan’s were on to something when they realized that there is a season for everything. Farmers used to mark the new year possibly on the full moon or equinoxes. They looked to the signs for the future harvest that they would have enough food to eat and survive.

There is truth to this, but it points to a greater truth that there is a higher intelligence that we do not understand. People can live because there is food to eat. People can live because they have clean drinking water et al. Theologically this is known as common grace, God’s love and His gift to the whole of the human race.

Even this cannot make us happy as we look at what the human race has done to our theatre of living on this planet earth. Woe betide that we will go to other planets and cause serious harm to them too. Should we even go to other planets if we cannot even take care of planet earth? Even with all of the resources on planet earth we cannot even take care of the poor and sick of where we live.

These are very serious questions.

The Trinitarian answer is the Easter Story. The Easter Story is God’s answer to the human condition. God’s answer to the human condition, your condition and my condition are found at the foot of the cross. The story of the Incarnation, the story of God becoming an ordinary life, living a life of submission to the will of God has been brought to this point. The point above all points, the reason above all reasons. Here, this particular moment that as far as the human condition is concerned, God in Christ was nailed to a wooden cross and hung there. Our Lord had a spear stuck into his side and blood and water gushed out.

What was our Lord’s answer while he was hanging there between the sky and the ground;

The first answer was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Luke 23: 34
The second answer was the resurrection! ¹⁸ … and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Revelation 1:18

People do not have power to save themselves But in Christ God comes into your life and the Holy Spirit is able to make you a new creation.

In simple terms God’s law was broken.

The Gospel is pretty straight forward:

…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Taken from biblegateway.com, Romans 10. 9-10)

In both aspects God is moving towards the sinner and the sinner is reciprocating God’s gift of salvation. It is never the other way around. No matter what a person does in their own strength, it is never possible to become a Christian. The human will of choice is dead to sin and it can never make decisions that can bring salvation in its own power. Having said that even though you are spiritually dead to the things of God, God is love and by the work of the Holy Spirit you can be brought into salvation through what Jesus did for you so that by faith you too can become a new creation with a new heart that seeks after God. Different Christians depending on their disposition come to follow Christ from different premises.

Perhaps you have been praying and you feel Jesus is close to you. You say a prayer of repentance, that you are sorry for what you did, and you want to serve Jesus…
Perhaps you had a dream and Jesus came to you in the dream and our Lord Convinced you that he is the Truth.
Perhaps you have been looking at all the historical evidence of Jesus and his life and you have become convinced that Jesus is Lord.
You have been brought up in a Christian Family and you have come to faith without realizing the point when you were a child of the world and then a child of the kingdom of heaven!

There is no one ‘right way’ a person can become a Christian as our Trinitarian God works in mysterious ways.

Reflection

Up to this point I have been writing for the casual reader. If you are a casual reader that is OK and you can stop reading and I hope you enjoyed the blog. Up to this point we learned that the human heart is very sinful and very deceitful and there is no way spiritually a person can get to heaven in their own strength. The road here however is wide open for everyone and by repentance and confession one can indeed become a follower of Christ. It may be that you have decided to become a Christian then my advice is read John’s Gospel, pray, and seek out mature Christians you can trust and ask them to help you.

The next section is more theological and if you like a challenge and want to think a little deeper about Justification by faith, its history and so on then feel free to continue reading.

Justification by faith and its relationship to good works in the thinking of Martin Luther or the forensic and effective aspects of justification by faith.

Martin Luther in the early days of the Reformation did not separate the forensic and effective aspects of Justification by faith. After Luther this kernel of truth got lost in the history of the times.

Bavinck starts to explain Luthers Position:

Faith, therefore, includes two things: believing that we are sinners and believing that out of grace God justifies us for Christ’s sake. We also have to accept the first [that we are sinners], not because we experience it ourselves, but because God says so.

(Taken from Reformed Dogmatics; page 191, Herman Bavinck, edited by John Bolt)

Bavinck makes it plain:

We need to accept that we are sinners because (God has told us that)
Because of Christ God can make us holy in his Son

Bavinck then quotes Martin Luther to show this:

“Even if we do not recognize any sin in ourselves, we must nevertheless believe that we are sinners. Hence the apostle says: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby justified” (1 Cor. 4:4). For just as the righteousness of God is alive in me by faith, so by the same faith sin is alive in me; i.e., by faith alone we must believe that we are sinners, because it is not obvious to us. If truth be told, most of the time we do not seem to be conscious of ourselves [as sinners]. Therefore, we must stand by God’s judgment and believe the words by which he tells us that we are unjust, because he cannot tell a falsehood. “

(Taken fromLut/Jer’x Works, 25:215 (“CIA 56:231; Ficker, I, 69); cf. Luther’s ”67365, 25:239 (W’A 56:252; Ficker, 11, 89)) (This image was taken from wikimedia)

To this justification Bavinck shows the active and passive aspects of Luther’s’ theology of justification:

“Contrition, accordingly, precedes the faith that embraces the righteousness of God in Christ. Now if people thus believe God at his word that there is no righteousness in themselves but only in Christ, they justify God, and that is passive justification. “To justify God in his words” is “for him to be made just and true in his speech, or, alternatively, for his speech to be made just and true. This happens, moreover, by believing and accepting [those works] and by holding them to be true and just.” But this passive justification by which we on our part justify God “coincides with God’s justification of us actively, because he regards as righteousness the faith that justifies his words.” ‘The two coincide: “When he is justified he justifies, and when he justifies he is justified.” Indeed: “God’s passive and active justification and faith or belief in him are the same. The fact that we justify his speech is his own gift, and on account of that very gift he regards us as just, that is, justifies us.”

Passive justification is:

Contrition, repentance precedes faith.
Believe God at his word that He is just (you confess that you are a sinner)
Holding to God’s works being holy and true

Active justification coincides with:

God regards the faith as in Christ our justification

Thus; “When he is justified, he justifies, and when he justifies, he is justified.” Thus the effects of this justification has its correlate good works in Christ: “The death of Christ is the death ofsin and his resurrection is the life of righteousness, because by his death he made satisfaction for sin and by his resurrection he brought about righteousness for us. His death, therefore, does not just signify, but also effects the forgiveness of sins. And his resurrection is not only “a sacrament of our righteousness but also effects it in us.” “All our good exists outside us in Christ, because that good is Christ,” but all of this also exists in us by faith and hope in him.19 In the same way Luther can say that our sin is covered by Christ’s dwelling in us, that God justifies believers because they confess their sins and seek their righteousness in him. (From ibid Bavinck)

Thus Bavinck saw Luther’s’ correlation of ‘forensic’ and ‘effects’ over half a century and more before Tuomo Mannermaa did, but Tuomo did well to see this. If this indeed is the situation on justification by faith, then what has been taught from the time of Melancthon through the German theologians is a theology that is not true to its Lutheran roots (Luther’s teaching). Bavinck reminds us in volume four that some of Luthers writings were lost until 1899! This has indeed affected ethics in the Finnish Lutheran Church with too much emphasis on mercy and forgiveness and not enough emphasis on contrition, repentance and so on. Obviously, this is indeed a serious situation as it allows ‘sin’ to grow in the Church and defame God’s name.

Reflection

God loves you as much as he loves me. God loves us so much that he had a plan to save us. God became a man and for a moment an instant at the cross, God the Father could not even look at his Son, as he took on the sins of the World. If we confess with a contrite heart that we are sinners (God’s gift) and if we believe in our heart Jesus as Lord, we will be saved.

We have come a long way in this blog and it is only as a child of faith that we have any hope of coming to God’s throne of grace.

We have also at the end touched on the fact that the Lutheran Church through some of its scholars got derailed from the rails of Luther’s teachings. Sin has crept into the Finnish Church thus repentance is needed and in Christ holiness to fill the Church again.

I have also learned from this blog that I need to return to the doctrine of justification again and ask God in Christ to teach me more to help the Church to grow again by faith in Christ.

Tags:christianity, faith, gospel, jesus, salvation
Posted in Easter, Lent | Leave a Comment »

Lent 6: Palm Sunday; Are you a Slave or a Master?

March 21, 2024

‘Service’ is something a lot of people nowadays do not understand. We live in a time of world history where each person thinks; “What will I get out of it for myself?” I suppose it is human nature to think about one self but it is also human nature to think about others. This Week we will be looking at Palm Sunday and if the Gospels were made into a play this event would be the last act, last part of the story of the incarnation of Christ. Usually in a country, any country the mark of the ascendancy to the throne of anyone would be a great celebration. Only the so called most important people in society would be invited to the festival. It is interesting that our Lord Jesus also was hailed as king. The king of the Jews and the gentiles. There were no important people at our Lord’s Coronation of Coronations. Sometimes there are people who really decided to serve:

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” (Taken from; royal.uk/21st-birthday-speech-21-april-1947)

This is what the late Elizabeth 2^ndSaid on here 21^st Birthday. She said she would ‘serve the people’. A lot of people focus on how wealthy she was, but few realize that she made a promise. This promise in effect made her a servant. As a human being she made mistakes a long the way, but she loved the Lord Jesus. Wealth was not the driving force.

What is the driving force in your life and have you ever thought about it?

We now turn to the story of Palm Sunday. A good place to start is to read it.

The Triumphal Entry
¹ When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
⁵ “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”
⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!”
¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:1-11 NASB

Background Information

According to William Barclay there were over two and a half million people getting ready for the Passover. It is very interesting that our Lord chose to ride into Jerusalem this way. Our Lord was not the first Royal person to ride into Jerusalem this way. In the Apocrypha before the Roman era we read that the Temple was desecrated by Greek soldiers. Antiochus Epiphanes about 175 B.C had sacrificed pigs on the Holy alter in the Temple. The Greeks were eventually overthrown and the people celebrated.

Barclay writes about this event:

“Therefore, they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto Him that had given them good success in cleansing His place.” On that day the people carried the palm branches and sung their psalms; it is an almost exact description of the actions of the crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem.” (From dannychesnut.com/Bible)

This is kind of interesting and also the fact that Barclay mentions Judgement starts at the sanctuary Ezekiel 9:6.

When reading the story of Palm Sunday I also think we need to keep it in it’s theological context Philippians 2. 1-11 fits the bill but we will look at this later.

For now, we can say that our Lord Came into Jerusalem on the back of two animals. John Calvin says that this signified that our Lord was sending the message that he was king over the whole world. King over both the Jews and the Gentiles. Matthew is very precise to the prophecy:

⁵ “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’” Matthew 21:5

The other two Gospels only mention the colt. It is also very interesting that our Lord was not riding a Stallion or some powerful horse of war. A colt by definition is only between one year and four years of age. This prophecy shows that our Lord did not come as a warrior into Jerusalem as a king that was to wage war against literal physical armies.

The crowds all two and a half million of them would have been quite a site for the High Festival of the Jewish nation as our Lord rode into Jerusalem having coats and palm branches laid in front of him as he entered the Holy City. Matthew goes on to write:

⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9 NASB

The crowds new they needed help from God. For the crowds that day our Lord was their saviour, their Messiah, their King! A few days later they would be chanting ‘crucify Him’.

The crowd were on fire, they were excited about their Messiah:

^“When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” Matthew 21:10 NASB

They knew who Jesus was:

^“And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:11

Perhaps William Barclay was right that perhaps the people of Israel looking at their history remembered their earlier deliverance from the Greeks. Perhaps this is one reason they had an image of our Lord defeating the Romans.

The means by which Jesus entered Jerusalem was as a king of peace. Riding a donkey and a colt which ever way represented peace to the Jews and the Gentiles. The crowds must have seen something odd about our Lord not riding a royal war horse.

Calvin also mentions a little bit more about this story from:

³⁸ shouting:
“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke 19:38 NASB

“Luke adds a few words, Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest; in which there would be no obscurity, were it not that they do not correspond to the song of the angels, (Luke 2:14;) for there the angels ascribe to God glory in heaven, and to men peace on earth; while here both peace and glory are ascribed to God. But there is no contradiction in the meaning; for, though the angels state more distinctly the reason why we ought to sing, Glory to God ― namely, because through his mercy men enjoy peace in this world ― yet the meaning is the same with what is now declared by the multitude, that there is peace in heaven; for we know that there is no other way in which wretched souls find rest in the world, than by God reconciling himself to them out of heaven. Matthew 21:9”

The whole tenor of this story shows that our Lord was about bringing peace to humanity from heaven. The rationale and the summing up of what has been said about the incarnation life of Christ is found in Philippians 2. 1-11.

Be Like Christ
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, ² make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,

and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name,

¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,

of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11

Reflection

Queen Elizabeth certainly understood the ramifications of Kingship. It is a life of service. Palm Sunday was about our Lord being the servant of God. The one who would serve the people. A service that also mean that a few days later he would be crucified. The people did not understand the relationship of peace and war. What is your understanding of service?

Are you in a position of authority for yourself or are you there because you feel that this is your duty. Is your view of Jesus as a great conqueror who will walk all over the nations or is it that In Christ the barrier that separated us from a relationship with God has been broken and peace has been established.

As our Lord taught us in the Beatitudes we need to do some soul searching and start to put others needs in front of our own selfish needs, and ambitions.

Tags:faith, God, holy-week, hosanna, jesus, palm-sunday
Posted in Easter, Lent | Leave a Comment »

Lent 2: By the gift of faith reciprocating our Love towards God in a Fallen and at Times an Ugly, Greedy, Selfish World; Matthew 26. 14-26

February 23, 2024

Last Week we looked at the woman who anointed Jesus for burial. We learned that as a general rule of thumb all the Apostles and perhaps Judas the betrayer may have been oblivious of Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion. Judas however we learned was the money man and he was a bit of a rat in the sense that he would use dark means to achieve it. He not only betrayed our Lord but he also betrayed the rest of the disciples. They ate, drank, slept at the master feet for three years. The Apostles and our Lord became a ‘family’ and they looked out for each others needs. The Apostles really felt this betrayal and it is no wonder that the Gospels paint this negative picture of him as the son of perdition. Lets read the text and quickly look at it:

Judas’ Bargain

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am keeping the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’” ¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

The Last Passover

²⁰Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve. ²¹And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” ²²Being deeply grieved, they began saying to Him, each one: “Surely it is not I, Lord?” ²³And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. ²⁴The Son of Man is going away just as it is written about Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus *said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

Verses 14-16

In these verse the heart and soul of Judas is laid out:

“What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?”

We can see here that our Lord carried a large sum on its head and Judas being a crooked businessman was out to claim his reward. Judas decided to be a rat in the rat race to make some serious money.

They offered him 30 pieces of silver. In those days what could you buy for 30 silver pieces?

30 pieces of silver was about 4 months wages. (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_pieces_of_silver)

I don’t think Judas would steep so low as to want our Lords death even though he was a crook as it says retrospectively in Matthew 27:

³Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

Judas was remorseful, he regretted what he did. He crossed the line even for his own personal ethics. It was enough for him to take the money back to the elders and then he killed himself. He committed suicide.

Verses 20 – 25

Judas after playing this dirty greedy trick continued with the pretense that he was a devout disciple of our Lord. He was sitting there with all the other disciples at the Passover meal that was going to have a new meaning. All the disciples were deeply grieved except Judas. In that upper room the disciples were searching their hearts. Judas asked the same question:

Judas: “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”

Jesus: “You have said it yourself.”

This is on the eve of our Lords crucifixion and our Lord and the Apostles high point of the Jewish calendar. As Jews they were remembering the Jewish nation being saved from Pharaoh. They became slaves in Egypt and this story is how the Lord God had rescued them from slavery. Here now though in this story there is new meaning to it. The Messiah (The saviour of Israel and the world) was going to be the sacrifice to turn God’s wrath away from us so that we could could come into God’s presence as children of God. As the blood at the time of Egypt was splattered on the lintels of every Jewish home so would the blood of Christ be shed at Calvary so forgiveness would be possible between God and Man. This night the most important night was when our Lord told us how we ought to remember him and thus the institution of Holy Communion was established.

This then is the Passover meal for Christians and the highlight of the three years of our Lord with the Apostles. Satan had already entered into Judas Iscariot. Even Judas hasn’t any excuse because in those three years he heard our lord talk about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Judas allowed his heart to fill up with greed for worldly pleasures. Judas’ heart was ripe for the picking and thus Satan entered Judas and our Lord was betrayed.

The other disciples were not perfect either but they still didn’t understand what was happening to them. Even though they also had their faults, they loved our Lord and although they ran away at the moment of the soldiers arresting our Lord… this is basic human fear for self-preservation. I believe they ran away because they were confused and didn’t fully grasp the enormity of this arrest.

This story for the Christian is of enormous importance and the Holy Spirit wants to show us the enormity of this situation. So what can we learn from this. I am going to sum things up in three points;

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Guard your heart by taking on board the Lord’s teachings.
As a Christian Holy Communion demands of us to search our hearts and to be thankful

To him for the grace he has poured into us by the Holy Spirit to the glory of the father.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

God loved us so much that he sent his Son into the world to die for us. From that point of view the Sacrament of Baptism is something we ought to remember on a day to day basis. Yes baptism always refers back to this event of events. The event that the Son of God paid the highest price for us. When we entered into the waters of chaos it represents that we are dying to our old selfish life and when we come out of the waters of chaos we no longer live for our selves but for Christ and in Christ and sharing in Our Lord’s resurrection. For example Romans 8, 1 cor. 15 et al. Although the Apostles at this moment were confused they soon wouldn’t be and by the Holy Spirit in Christ would change history and the final fate of the Roman Empire.

Judas however did not keep his eyes and devotion fixed on the Lord. On the contrary his greed led to his demise. Although he showed regret he did not show that he was sorry or repentant. Although he took his own life; we do not know why he took his own life. It may have been that he was sorry but it may also be that he was ‘found out’. He was a traitor within his community; rejected by the elders that did the dirty job of having our Lord murdered and rejected by the Apostles for his treachery. There was no other place for him to go. Judas built his own gallows always to be known as the son of perdition.

Judas was just an ordinary man but we ought to stop and think that in the right circumstances this could have been my fate or your fate. We only stand by grace.

Guard your hearts by taking on board our Lords teachings.

Our hearts and minds should forever be in the Gospels. Here for example in the Sermon on the mount Jesus lays out a plan for discipleship. The beatitudes are very very deep and if we pray before God with an open and honest heart in Christ by the Holy Spirit we will find full spiritual maturity. For example:

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

When we are brought to a place in which we realize that we cannot bring anything good to God through our own effort, only then can God start to work in us. God has done everything.

Even though we disobeyed and put our pride first:

God gave us life.
God gave his Prophets.
God gave his Son.
God gave us faith.
God gave us salvation.
God gave us love.
God made it possible in Christ to have an eternal relationship with the Trinity

We didn’t give anything back but from the gift of faith and grace.

We were able to:

Reciprocate Gods love through out gratitude
Love our neighbour
Love God
Joy
Friendship trust
Fellowship
Et al

Because of the gift of faith we show gratitude to God By

Loving our Trinitarian God
Loving our Neighbour
Loving his creation, animals, plants, rivers, the air we breathe et al.

Reflection

There are no perfect human beings except our Lord Jesus. Although he was perfect, humanity was guilty of crucifying the Lord of Eternity. Even at the Last Passover Christ was still pouring his love out on us. Jesus did not condemn Judas. Judas condemned himself by not seeing the ‘real riches’ that heaven had to offer. When we reflect on Lent it is important that gratitude flows out to Christ and to our brothers and sisters in the Church, and to the whole human race if it is possible.

Tags:betrayal, bible, christianity, jesus, judas
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Lent 1: The Incident at Simon the Lepers Home. Matt 26.1-16

February 18, 2024

Lent is a time of preparation for remembering our Lord’s death and resurrection and by faith what he did for us. The reflection for us today is based on Simon the Lepers house and the woman who anointed Jesus in preparation for his burial. The story begins:

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ²“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ⁵“But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

⁶While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, ⁷a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. ⁹“This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

¹⁰Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹The poor you will always have with you,^[a] but you will not always have me. ¹²When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

¹⁴Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Taken from Bible Gateway.

The main theme of this story is about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. This story is about the last stage of our Lord’s life in this world since his incarnation. Take note that while Jesus was in Bethany, the chief priests and elders were hatching a plan to kill Jesus. Also take note that after the main story Judas one of his own disciple was going to betray Jesus. The stage was set in the house of Simon theLeper. There are many conjectures who he was and whether he was healed or not. We know nothing about these things but we do know that some serious things were happening in the close knit world of these disciples. The other disciples seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that Jesus was going to die. Here a woman outside of the twelve had great faith. She was mourning for the death of her Master. She anoints Jesus body with the costliest perfume. The disciples were more interested in the cost of the perfume and how it could have been sold. Even here we see various motives at work.

Jesus our Lord seeing these things need to teach the disciples why this was happening. Our Lord explains to them that he is going to die, that he ‘will not always be with them’. Jesus tells them plainly that the woman is preparing his body for his funeral.

They still did not understand. Money and wealth can affect people in different ways and here in the microcosm of the disciples world various intentions were being played out

The woman saw beyond all the disciples and grieved for our Lord.
Other disciples thought it was a waste of money because it could have helped the poor
Judas Iscariot was angry because being in charge of the money he wanted to steal from it.

There would have been other motives individually but this is all that I can gain from this story at the moment. Judas saw an opportunity to make some extra money by handing Jesus over to the elders of the people. We don’t know the complete intention of Judas but later on Judas did commit some form of Suicide.

We too like the disciples have intentions and motives in life.

The woman was full of love for our Lord and she knew that he was going to die. Perhaps she did not see the whole story that His resurrection would take place three days after his death . She saw enough to realize that Jesus was very special, He was the Messiah.

Looking back retrospectively back to this story we know that these disciples would also die for Jesus. They were still immature and did silly things arguing over how the finances could be used. But they loved the Lord Jesus their Messiah, the true king of Israel and the world.

Tradition says Peter was crucified upside down; Andrew got crucified in Russia; Thomas was murdered in East Syria by four soldiers; Philip was murdered after he converted a Roman proconsul’s wife to Christianity; Some stories say he was murdered in Etheopia; We know that John outlived them all and we are blessed with John’s Gospel, the Letters of John and the book of Revelations.

(from christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/whatever-happened-to-the-twelve-apostles-11629558.html)

Judas’ greatest sin was to love money and wealth and we know what our Lord said about that; “You cannot serve God and mammon” at the same time.

We also need to stop and look at our intentions. Are our intentions and motives and pure like the woman who anointed Jesus preparing his for burial. Do we spend time in prayer, seeking the will of God in our lives, with humble submission to Scripture which searches out those deep inner things we try to hide from everyone except God. On the other hand have we been like the disciples who were oblivious to what was happening around them until our Lord was arrested? Or do we have a dark deep secret that we want to be rich at any cost, even at the cost of getting someone into trouble for some sort of payment.

We have to be honest with ourselves and ask the question; Do I love God most or do I love myself most. There may have been many roads that led to Rome but even for the Romans I think the Appian way was special.

We need to stop and remember Jesus’ teaching about two roads; the road that takes us to God’s Kingdom and the road that takes us to the same place as those rebellious angels and to their hot lake. God is Love and he wants us to draw close to himself. Yet we must ask the question if heaven is so perfect where there are no tears. Why is heaven without tears. Heaven is without tears because Jesus Christ took our sins in his death and by his resurrection we can be brought into new life. Life without hatred, or greed, or selfish ambition et al. Those who make it into heaven are those who realize they are sinners and come to the cross of Christ and out of a pure heart asks God to forgive them and save them from their sins. The majority of these Apostles had some serious faults and it is these people ‘the nobodies’ God took and by the Holy Spirit changed the ancient and modern worlds we live in.

So then my friends what is your decision? When God meets us he offers us the narrow road, the difficult road (so we think). In reality when we become citizens of heaven this world loses its luster. Even if we had all the wealth in the world and all power, death is the equalizer… Those who choose to be with Christ, death is no equalizer because Christ paid the price at the cross.

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St Paul on the Resurrection

April 9, 2023

The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection
¹ Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, ² by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; ⁷ then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; ⁸ and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

This to me is one of the most wonderful chapters in the whole Bible. You might ask why, and I can explain why;

Jesus rose from the dead with a resurrected body and the day will come that we will also have resurrected bodies. You might ask the question; Why is the body important after we are dead?

If you are without a body but have a soul and spirit it sounds good enough. My friends, it is not enough! How do I know your identity if I cannot see you face?

We all have gestures and we all speak words, and this is the wonderful thing about a body. This chapter is wonderful because Paul goes into great detail to explain to us why the resurrection is so important. I am not an expert in the resurrection, but I hope by the end of this commentary we will all have a certain amount of expertise that we can share. I will just go through a basic commentary for the first eleven verses and then I will look at some of the technical stuff afterwards to make it more interesting.

1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1-11 The first 11 verses set the scene and is a summary for the preaching of the Gospel that they heard; It is also a summary of what the essence of the Gospel is in a nut shell. He starts from the foundational beliefs before moving into the deeper things that make being a Christian a worthwhile thing.

Verse 1

1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, NASB

This is a reminder to them of the gospel they believed in. They stand in these basic teachings;

Verse 2

2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. NASB

The Apostles were those who were sent by Jesus and we need to take their words very seriously. St Paul was also an Apostle and he was validated by the other Apostles. If the Corinthians reject St Paul, then they reject the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I was reading this section, I found it interesting that John Calvin mentioned the Sadducees. Obviously, they had a problem with the resurrection. If we mirror read the text, there must have been some who were saying things contrary to the Apostles. Even if we cannot prove that it was the Sadducees there were those who just would not agree with the resurrection; At that juncture John Calvin is surely right. From https://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/1_corinthians/15.htm

Verses 3-8

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. NASB

Here Paul sums up the series of events (verses 3-8) from the death and resurrection of Christ all the way to when he got his Apostleship. So, let us sequence it out;

1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures

2. Christ was buried

3. Christ was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures

4. Christ appeared to Peter

5. Christ appeared to the other disciples

6. Christ appeared to more than 500

7. Christ Appeared to James

8. Christ appeared to all the Apostles

9. Christ appeared to St Paul

This list is very important because it shows solid eyewitness account to the resurrection. Look at how many times he uses the word appeared in the text. A historian who reads this bit which is one of the oldest letters in the whole New Testament sees a heavy weight of evidence for the resurrection. Before Paul even goes into the subject of the resurrection, he shows them the evidence. This evidence cannot be refuted by the Corinthians and it ought not be refuted by us. We need to take this seriously and to fall on our knees and worship God for everything he has done for us in Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is really exciting stuff.

Verse 9-11

9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. NASB

Paul calls himself the least of the Apostles. We see from the Book of Acts and Galatians that Paul was a persecutor of the church. At the time he was happy at the martyrdom of Stephen, but something happened. Jesus Met Paul and he was chosen to be an Apostle out of time. When Jesus was going on about his itinerary around Palestine for those 3 years Paul was not there. Yet as far as the Apostles were concerned after his conversion he was accepted as an Apostle. God works in mysterious ways and his plans are beyond our plans.

So, let us dig a little deeper here in these verses and find out a little more about Paul the Man and look at the facts;

1. Paul did not see himself fit to be called an Apostle

2. Paul persecuted the church and he was forgiven

3. Paul was chosen by Jesus, literally out of the blue and Paul was converted.

4. Paul had to work harder than all the other Apostles

Reflection

We can see that indeed Paul did work harder than all of the other Apostles and if tradition is correct, he was rewarded by being beheaded in Rome. He truly repented of his sins and sold himself completely to the service of Christ; He suffered, was ostracized, laughed at, mocked, stoned and left for dead! There are people that mock Paul even today, but we can see from the evidence that he was one of the Apostles. He was an Apostle because Jesus chose Paul to work tirelessly for the gentiles. In Galatians; How could Paul stand up to St Peters hypocrisy if he was not an Apostle? The Corinthians accepted him as an Apostle and as Christians we accept him as an Apostle. The Apostolic Hand on this scripture in this chapter is seriously important for us today and we can be assured that we are in safe hands when trying to understand the resurrection that will also happen to us one day.

Posted in 1 Corinthians Course, Easter | Leave a Comment »

Death on a Cross

April 7, 2023

Our Lord Jesus’ Death on a Cross

The heart and centre of Christian theology comes from the Easter Story. Any mainline denomination including Protestants and Catholics including all the other variations bow the knee in humility for what our Lord Jesus did for us at Calvary.

(The image below is used under the free commons licence SIKU – Edge Group)

I would have liked to have gone through all of the Passion narratives this Easter but then I wouldn’t complete it. Over the next couple of years as a meditation I want to go through the whole story carefully, but this takes time. This time we are going to go to the story of the crucifixion. On first reading we see how great God’s love is for all people. Jesus loved people such as prisoners, women, the poor, Gentiles, his disciples. Through this message of the Gospel, that he would reach all people over the whole world. God’s mercy and compassion reaches to the ends of the earth no matter what a person’s religion, ethnicity, or no religion. Our Lord’s message is a call to repentance and to forsake the sinful selfish road for a road that Jesus as personal Saviour through faith and obedience.

When we live our own selfish life are we really free?

We might think we are free because ‘we can do what we want’ and we can sin how we like.

Is this true freedom?

Some may call it freedom but in reality, when a person puts themselves first it can mean that one can carry anger, jealousies, and bitterness towards other people. One can make enemies at the workplace or at other places.

With certain actions there can be negative effects:

Alcohol can lead to alcoholism.
Drugs can lead to dependencies.
Broken relationships can lead to loneliness’s?

Then

alcoholism can lead to divorces and depressed children
Dependencies can lead to stealing so that one can afford to buy more drugs
Loneliness can lead to various illnesses or even suicide.

So then, when we trust our own devices are we really truly free. My answer is no we are not free. Freedom in its truest sense comes through obedience to faith in the person and actions of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Our Lord holds out an olive branch to the ‘whosoever will believe…’ In fact, if you are an addict, alcoholic, or lonely, Faith in Christ can turn your life around even before entering heaven. Christians have been accused of using religion as a crutch. My answer is that it is better to have a crutch than no crutch at all and end up in the gutter with no hope.

The Crucifixion

22 Then they *brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. 23 They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. 24 And they *crucified Him, and *divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. 25 It was the third hour when they crucified Him. 26 The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

27 They *crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. 28 [And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”] 29 Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. 32 Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

33 When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” 35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Behold, He is calling for Elijah.” 36 Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. 38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

40 There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome. 41 When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. Mark 15:22-41

Commentary

We need to be aware about the facts and before I continue to interpret, it is important to look at the forensic evidences of the four Gospels. This is what a detective would do at a crime scene. Perhaps there is a knife on the ground with blood on it. Perhaps there were three witnesses and each witness had the same story but some of the facts did not match up in the order given. This does not mean that the witnesses were lying but the detectives job is to investigate and by looking at all the facts come to a conclusion which is the likeliest thing to have happened.

Our Lord Jesus died a horrible death, and it has been recorded by four writers. The one thing that is certain is that Jesus died, and all four writers agree that Jesus was the Messiah. These things needed to be said because there are times that the Evangelists sometimes put the order of events differently or on the face of it some facts on the surface may seem to contradict.

Verse 22-23

Jesus was brought to the place of the skull and he was offered wine/vinegar/ myrrh and in this version it says he refused to drink it. In johns Gospel however Jesus asks for the wine/vinegar/ myrrh and he drinks it. I haven’t looked at any commentaries yet suffice to say I think there is sometime of theological meaning going on here, so we need to dig a little deeper to find out.

Calvin and Professor Judith lieu both agree that the sour wine was about mocking Jesus even in his death. Calvin on John however says that this wine here is a separate event on the cross, when Jesus actually asked for real genuine wine because he was thirsty. (

A harmony og the Gospels, pages 193-196,
John Calvin, The Saint Andrew press
The Gospel of Luke, page 195, Judith Lieu, Epworth Press

)

Reflection

The Good News that Jesus gives us is true freedom. Even while he was on the cross, he saved a thief by letting him into Paradise. His words on the cross were only to do with forgiveness. On the cross he said Father forgive them for they know not they do. For a moment in the whole of eternity God the Father could not look at his son because of the sins of the world that He, our Lord Jesus bore in our place. Jesus loves you and he invites you to come to him and by faith it is possible for you to be in God’s presence forever.

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The Road to Crucifixion and the Faithful Woman’s Anointing of Her Master

March 13, 2023

We are now coming towards Easter and it is a time to prepare our hearts and minds for what our Lord Jesus went through for us so that we could be in perfect communion with God. This is the reason why I took a break on the Genesis Creation Story. After Easter I will back to the Genesis Creation Story.

In this section we will see the planning and scheming of the leaders planning to murder Jesus through lies and treachery. We also see great faith demonstrated by the woman who prepared Jesus’ for burial while he was still free and alive.

Jesus had finished his woes to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. If Jesus was unpopular with the leaders before this occasion, he is definitely less popular now:

When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.” Matthew 26:1-2

Verse one, brings the woes section to an end and the effect of this was for the leaders to plan to kill Jesus in whatever way they could without getting into trouble with the Romans or getting the blame for starting a riot.

The disciples still did not grasp the seriousness of this situation that in a short period their Master our Lord was to be killed by the scheming of these leaders. As a side issue even Judas who was a thief perhaps did not grasp the fact that his betrayal would lead to the death of Christ. Obviously, Jesus’ death had the effect of playing on his emotions and this led him to commit suicide. Another side issue is Peter who said he would never turn his back on Jesus when confronted by various people he denied his Master our Lord. When we come closer to these situations, we will look closer at them and in more detail.

The Chief Priests and Elders reactions

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.” Matthew 26:3-5

So we have various groups of leaders gathered together

• Caiaphas the Chief Priest

• Other Chief Priests

• Elders of the people

• Scribes

All these high-ranking officials got together with one goal; to kill Jesus. This means that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were of one accord. Usually, they argued about politics and religion but here on this rare occasion with one objective; to kill Jesus. They also agreed using, ‘any means possible’ that is the implication of by stealth, meaning ‘secretly’. Stealth (dolos) can be translated as depending on context:

• as bait

• fig. craftily

• deceitfully

Whatever translation you put on ‘dolos’ the outcome would be the same; they decided to kill Jesus.

Then at the same time they were afraid of the Roman authorities:

But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.” Matthew 26:5

Obviously, a riot would cause a lot of physical damage but also the Romans would not be too happy to have to step in and clean up in their usual manner with death by sword and crucifixions. All the time holding the leaders responsible. In other words, the leaders were afraid. In the story we will see these leaders again and again. At this point the disciples had not grasped Jesus’ words that he was going to die. Perhaps the disciples were very tired and started to make irrational decisions. First, we have the disciples acting irrationally towards the woman over the expensive perfume. By this time the disciples had been with Jesus for three years and it was coming close to completing their graduation. Judas was also going to act irrationally.

Both stories where the disciples are mentioned money is mentioned. They haven’t realized the enormity of the situation. Peter didn’t grasp the enormity of the situation either when he said he wouldn’t deny Jesus. We are also Jesus’ disciples and we have faults too just like the disciples. Perhaps it would sometimes help if we could imagine that we were in their situation at the time. How would we have fared? Dare I say it? Imagine you were in Judas’ shoes; How would you fare? Even though he was a thief what was the real reason for him betraying Jesus? He felt upset enough after to go and kill himself so he knew he did wrong and was not able to cope with it.

I wonder how the Good Samaritans would have talked Judas down from killing himself after handing the Son of God to the authorities, the rejected King of Israel. If this was Macbeth, a great evil crime was committed, the murder of king Duncan; ‘regicide’. Macbeth was fully conscious of his murder of King Duncan, but did Judas fully understand and fully grasp his involvement in the murder of King Jesus? I’m not making any judgement on this but it is a very interesting question. Perhaps one day we could answer this question but in the story the most important person here is our Lord Jesus and we will cross each bridge as we come to it.

The Precious Ointment (image taken from ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume#/media/File:EAM_-_Perfume_amphora.jpg)

6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table. 8 But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste? 9 For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. 11 For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. 12 For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. 13 Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” Matthew 26:6-13

Which is more important?

• Jesus’ death?

• The expensive perfume?

None of the disciples (all of them including Judas) listened to what Jesus actually said. Jesus said that he was going to die soon. They focused on the value of the perfume not on the death of Jesus.

The other thing is that Jesus always had respect for women. Somehow, she had the faith and she understood that Jesus was going to die. More information can be found at the following places:

• Matthew 26:6-13

• Mark 14:3-9

• John 12:2-8

The woman’s name was Mary and was related to Martha and Lazarus. She would have been there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. My perspective is that she had the intelligence and faith to have realized that Jesus our Lord was going to die. Anointing Jesus was an act of faith and although her feelings are not shown, this act was with sadness and sorrow, from the deepest recesses of her soul. She was on the fringes of the disciples, yet at this moment in her life she had more faith than all of the Apostles put together.

Reflection

The plot to kill Jesus has begun and in this section, we saw who some of these people were. There was a lot of evil happening around Jesus and he knew that Judas would betray him. What a contrast between the faithful woman and Judas. Mary anointed Jesus’ head with very expensive oil preparing him for his coming death. (Judas just wanted to sell the oil and make a profit)

Peter James and John can also be contrasted with Judas. The reason the disciples fell asleep in the garden was because of genuine grief for our Lord Jesus whilst Judas was wheeling and dealing to make some dirty money out of Jesus’ arrest.

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Anselm on Reconciliation and the Atonement

April 2, 2021

ANSELM

Last Week we looked at Irenaeus and how his method was more Biblical and historical withing the framework of the rule. Anselm is not like that. He is more philosophical and he grinds things down to basic premises. Without atonement and reconciliation there would be no relationship with God. Anselm is another way of looking at these great themes of our salvation especially now at this Easter Weekend.

Anselm 1033-1166 was archbishop of Canterbury, thus he always had responsibilities on the political scene. Anselm’s life thus revolved around the monastery and one of the functions of any monk was to pray. Southern says that from the time that Anselm arrived in Bec (in 1059), one can see ‘three threads running through the whole development’ of Anselm’s life and thought; 1) Anselm received his intellectual tools from Lanfranc in who’s footsteps he followed. 2) Anselm immersed himself totally in St Augustine’s thought and language. These two points in some way influenced the writings of ‘Prayers and Letters’ and the ‘Proslogion’. 3) From 1078 new influences in the world took Anselm outside of the Monastery. His theological questioning was also growing due to contact with Roscelin. Jewish arguments were brought to the attention of Anselm via Gilbert Crispin. There were also the teachings from the Laon school which was brought to the attention of Anselm via Boso. These were contributary factors for the culminating works of the Proslogion of 1078 and his more mature work of the Cur Deus Homo in 1098 (15/437). In our search for Anselm’s understanding of reconciliation and atonement we shall concern ourselves mainly with the Cur Deus Homo? (why did God become man?).

Anselm is one of the first theologians to have written a systematic theology on the atonement (1/87). Anselm rejected the view that, ” The Devil, it was held, had obtained, as a result of the Fall certain rights over humankind, either on his own account or by divine permission. Freedom from this bondage was won by means of the payment represented by the blood of Christ” (1/87). (It would be unfair to say that Irenaeus held this view completely as there is also atonement language in his writings). Anselm rejected this view. He wanted to give an account that was rational in relation to the Atonement. Gunton says that at places Anselm is being too systematic with his approach to the atonement and the incarnation (1/88). This does seem to be the case, as in the CDH Anselm does put a great deal of emphasis upon the death of Christ and not enough emphasis on other historical questions in the second part of the CDH.

Anselm viewed the Fall,”…as sin, which was the cause of our condemnation, had its beginning from a woman, so should the author of our righteousness and salvation be born of a woman. And as the Devil had conquered man by the tasting of a tree, to which he persuaded him, so by the suffering endured on a tree, which he inflicted, should he, by a man, be conquered” (2/38). It is interesting to see in this quotation that Anselm does give the Incarnation a high priority, as does Irenaeus. But it must be said that in between the Incarnation and the Passion, the historical works of Christ (for example the miracles etc) are omitted.

Whatever the case maybe concerning the ballance of atonement ~n the CDH there are important points to consider for the rejection of the ransom language which was mentioned before. If one for example holds to the ransom language it does have too much of a dualism in ~t. In Mark 10/45 for example where it says, ” to give his life a ransom for many” (1/88). If the blood of Jesus is treated as a literal price which was for payment to the Devil, then this is going beyond what the NT actual ly al lows in its language (1 /88). The next point to realize

is that ransom language gives too much autonomy and too much authority to the Devil. Gunton quotes CDH1/7,” the Devil and man belong to God alone, and neither one stands outside God’s power; what case, then, did God have to plead with his own creature, in his own affair…?” (1/88 and CDH 1/7).

Satan can only give out punishment according to what God allows. Ransom language does not give an account that is reasonable enough to explain the atonement. Satan is only a creature like all of the other creatures and if he should be given a priority of place as is implied in the ransom language, then the authority of God is undermined. With the rejection of ransom language Anselm turns to a new metaphor which is language of ‘satisfaction’. ‘Satisfaction’ was taken from the legal establishment (1/89). The starting point for Anselm is,” The entire will of a rational creature ought to be subject to the will of God” (2/63). If this formula is broken by sin, then the one that has committed the sin is ‘owing to God’.

Anselm has a particular concept of Justice. God will not allow injustice to have its own way in the universe, otherwise the universe would be seen as irrational (1/89-90). If the universe is seen as irrational, then God does not deserve the name ‘God’. Sin must be punished, ” And since it is not possible to bring sin into accordance with right order without satisfaction being made, except by punishing it, if it is not punished, it is let go without being brought into due order” (2/65).

The important words in the above quotation are ‘right order’. If we also look at CDH I/15 (pages7l-72) where it has the expression ‘order and the beauty of the universe’, we start to see that Anselm sees satisfaction in terms of the welfare of God’s creation. Satisfaction initially is not in terms of the honour of God. Anselm writes that nothing can harm ‘the power and dignity of God’ (2/15/pages7l-72). It is with this in mind that Gunton writes, ” The point is that God does not demand satisfaction for sin because he is in some way personally affronted or offended by transgression” (1/90).

As well as God who is seen as the guardian of universal justice we must also take into account ‘the seriousness of sin’ (1/90). To do something that goes against God’s will is a very serious thing. In the dialogue between Anselm and Boso, Anselm writes,” You do not, therefore, make satisfaction unless you return something greater than that for the sake of which you were under obligation not to have committed the sin”. Then Boso replies,” I see that reason requires it, and yet, that it is altogether impossible” (2/pages 100-101//CDH/I/21). Anselm goes on to say that if it wasn’t for faith, he would despair of there being any possibility of reconciliation to God (2/100).

It is within the framework of justice that mercy must be understood. Man is in a state by which he is incapable of paying God back for his sins. At the same time God cannot forgive man without there being a payment for the debt of sin. God’s Mercy has to be understood within the framework of justice. After what has been said, it must also be noted that ‘satisfaction’ must not be understood in terms of the primary emphasis being on penal substitution.

When Anselm uses the word satisfaction we must also take into account the word ‘poena’ . Satisfactio and poena must be seen as alternatives. Gunton writes,” Satisfaction is therefore according to Anselm the way by which God is enabled not to exact a tribute of compensating penalty from the sinner” (1/90). Then Gunton writes, ” He (Anselm) is therefore not propounding a version of what came to be called penal substitution, in which Jesus is conceived to be punished by God in place of the sinner. There is a substitution, an exchange, but it is not penal in character” (1/90-91).

The framework for the theology of satisfaction in terms of ‘human fallenness’ is only a secondary consideration. The main “focus is on the goodness of God and the excellence of creation’s crown” (1/91). Satisfaction was made because of a gracious act of God. God was not willing to see his creatures annihilated. This act of God is to be understood in terms of a Trinitarian framework. Anselm writes,” Hut this Man (Jesus) freely offered to the Father what it would never have been necessary for Him to lose and paid for sinners what He did not owe for Himself” (2/166 book i I/8). Anselm in the same chapter goes on to say,”…He offered himself for his own honour, to Himself, as he did to the Father and the Holy Spirit i.e., His human nature to his divine nature, which is also one of the Three Persons” (2/170). Barth makes use of this motif and he makes this abstract motif relational, ” … the only One who is judged… He is the only who has come and acts among us as the Judge” (16/237-238). In the same context Barth is also fond of the language of Jesus Christ being ‘ for us’ (16/235). The point is that Anselm did extremely well to think up this motif, yet he misses to bring it into the context of ‘our time’ as opposed to God’s eternity.

CONCLUSON

To begin with both Irenaeus’ and Anselm’s historical settings and hence world views were different. At the same time however they wanted to make a defence of the Christian faith. In the AH, Irenaeus begins by outlining the heresies and showing what is ‘apparent’. After this groundwork has been covered, only then does he begin ~n a rational way to demolish the heretical positions. Contrasting to this method, Anselm has inherited certain philosophical tools for use on behalf of the Christian faith against other religious or atheistic systems. He begins by trying to whittle down ‘ as he sees it’ to the common denominators of the Christian faith, particularly such things as, Fall, Incarnation, Passion etc. Both theologians took the Fall seriously and though their methods differed a great deal, it is interesting that some of the motifs later to be mentioned (in our conclusion) have remarkable similarities. The point is that Anselm looked at reconciliation and atonement from a rational perspective. It has to be noted though that it is ‘faith seeking understanding’ (not natural theology) which is one of his presuppositions. Irenaeus doesn’t spell out a concept of faith seeking understanding, but maybe his ‘rule of faith can in some way be seen a loose equivalent (both presuppose the existence of God). In their search for explaining how God reconciles man to Himself, maybe a way to explain their contrasting methods, one can use the analogy of the Mathematician and the historian. The mathematician uses abstract concepts to gain insight into universal truths, Anselm tends to use this method. Irenaeus on the other hand sees the historical data and sets out to explain and evaluate the data in the best way he knows how. This is a crude analogy, but it does show that both methods are valuable in

explaining reconciliation and atonement.

Concerning the Fall, for both of them Mary plays an important part for its reversal . For Irenaeus Mary corresponded to Eve (in the reversal procedure), for Anselm Seeing that a woman was responsible at the Fall it was only fitting that a woman should be present at the incarnation. Obedience is also an important concept for the two of them. In Irenaeus, Christ obeyed the Father at every point of the natural sequence of human development and thus reversing the Fall at each of those particular points. For Anselm aswell the obedience of Christ was also important. Christ offered himself to his own honour. There is a contrast though, for Anselm propitiation seemed more of an abstract mathematical sum in putting the universe in harmony in relation to its Creator. For Irenaeus on the other hand, the obedience of Christ came out of love and there is more of a personal element of fellowship. With the previous statement it must also be stressed that mercy (as an abstract concept) seemed to replace the love motif as found in the Hible. This contrast must take into consideration their historical contexts. Concerning Satan, it may be true to say that he is given a more elevated role in Irenaeus due to the ‘ransom’ concept, it has to be stressed though, that even in Irenaeus Satan is still only a creature like all other creatures. In the plan of the historico-salvation, ‘the obedience of Christ’ is more important. Irenaeus and Anselm agree on the obedience of Christ but the history-salvation motif is unique to the second century theologian. Irenaeus and Anselm also contrast on the concept of sin and evil. For Irenaeus evil ~s held relative to free will thus sin is not treated as seriously as maybe it should be. Sin for Anselm is a very serious concept because it is this particular evil that knocked the universe out of right order. (presumably Anselm inherited this concept of evil from Augustine, then later after Anselm, Calvin) . So then at certain points anselm and Irenaeus do contrast but ‘at crucial points they agree’. Without the perfect obedience of Christ it would be impossible for salvation to be effected. The other point that I want to make is that, one could probably say and should say up to a point that both theologians seem to be ‘both sides of the same coin’ (colloquialism intended). The reason why I say this is that a great deal of the motifs used by Irenaeus and Anselm is found in the theological grammar of Karl Barth but that is another question.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) THE ACTUALITY OF THE ATONEMENT/ BY COLIN GUNTON. 2) CUR DEUS HOMO?/ ANSELM.

3) EARLY CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES/ JND KELLY/ 5TH EDITION. 4) MAN AND THE INCARNATION/VINGREN

5) AGAINST HERESIES VOLUME 1/ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS/TRANSLATED HY DOMINIC J UNGER.

6) THE WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS HOOKS 1-4/ T AND T CLARK 1867. 7) IRENAEUS 2 HOOKS 4-5/ T AND T CLARK 1869.

8) IRENAEUS/ DENIS MINNS OP/OUTSTANDING CHRISTIAN THINKERS SERIES.

9) THE EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS/ TRANSLATED BY HENRY HETTENSON. 10) NEW DICTIONARY OF THEOLOGY/ IVP.

11) VISIBILE PATRIS FILIUS/JUAN OCHAGAVIA/ ORIENTALIA CHRISTIANA ANLECTA/171/1964.

12) THE GLORY OF THE LORD/ VOLUME II/HANS URS VON BALTHASAAR. 13) ANSELM AND A NEW GENERARION/ EVANS/ OXFORD PRESS. 14) NEW AMERICAN STANDARD HIHLE.

15) SAINT ANSELM/ SOUTHERN.

16) CHURCH DOGMATICS VOL IV,I BY KARL BARTH (THE DOCTRINE OF RECONCILIATION).

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Part 1 Irenaeus’ interpretation of reconciliation and the atonement

March 27, 2021

I have completed the book of Ruth, so I wanted to do an ‘Easter Special’

This is half of an essay I wrote on the Incarnations for the points of view of Irenaeus and Anselm. Irenaeus was a very important voice in the early Church. He personally knew St Polycarp from Izmir in Turkey. He was also a Bishop of Lyon (France). The next quote is from Wikipedia

“Irenaeus (/ɪrɪˈneɪəs/;[1] Greek: Εἰρηναῖος Eirēnaios; c. 130 – c. 202 AD)[2] was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in what is now the south of France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by combating heresy and defining orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp,[3] the last known living connection with the Apostles, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist.[4] ” from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irenaeus

Compare and contrast Irenaeus and Anselm’s interpretations of reconciliation and atonement.

To begin with we shall look at Irenaeus and Anselm separately, we want to do justice to what they actually said within their historical contexts. Only then shall we give a brief discussion, in order to illuminate both comparisons and contrasts relating to our question. If we were to talk of the rules that governed their respective theologies, then the syntax they both employs are different to each other. Von Balthasaar says there are three collecting points for the theology of Irenaeus; 1) One point is that we need to think in terms of God hidden and revealed, in terms of unity and Trinity. 2) The relation of being and becoming, especially in particular God and man. 3) In the ordering of salvation, the relationship of time and eternity in terms of old covenant, gospel and church etc (12/58). Anselm on the hand is more philosophical in that he identifies three ‘ forces of change’ in the Cur Deus Homo; that of 1) will, 2) power, 3) and necessity (13/187). As can be seen there is no similarity of approach to how God reconciles and makes atonement for mankind. If anything, their particular approaches and hence their methods tend to be poles apart. For example, Irenaeus is not afraid of using the Bible to the fullest extent in his scheme of salvation. On the other hand, for Anselm, he uses as little Biblical information as possible to allow him to give a convincing argument for the need of the Incarnation and passion. Anselm then is more concerned with philosophical criterion which is a part of his training. (In this essay the Cur Deus Homo will be abbreviated to CDH and Against Heresies will be abbreviated to AH).

IRENAEUS

Irenaeus was concerned about the gnostic heresies due to certain apparent reasons, especially because it tended to use a Catholic language but with a different meaning for the initiates of Gnosticism ( 12/41 ) . In summary the Valentinian system began from Buthos and from him emanations’ went out from him until matter was created (it has to be stressed that Buthos always remains untouched by evil 1 matter). So according to the Valentinians, matter was made out of ‘ignorance, grief, fear and bewilderment’ (5/26. This is contrary to the Genesis account where the phrase ‘and God saw that it was good’ is repeated (Gen,chapter 1 verses 10,12,18 etc.). The distinction between God and creation becomes blurred (12/380). The concepts of person and idea also become blurred etc. Balthasaar writes,” Every concept becomes an aeon, every conceptual tension becomes a male-female relationship” etc (12/39). A great deal more could be said (but cannot be said due to length of essay) but one can see that this outline shows a new (false) foundation for the Christian faith.

Irenaeus believed that- mankind fell in solidarity due to the sin of Adam, this process through the work of Christ can be reversed. His main concept is ‘recapitulation’. He borrows Paul’s idea from Ephesians 1/10 ‘to sum up all things in Christ’. He sees this text in terms of as Kelly puts it,” He understands the Pauline text as implying that the Redeemer gathers together, includes or comprises the whole of reality in himself, (Christ) the human race being included”(3/172). Kelly goes on to say that Irenaeus takes advantage of Paul’s use of first and second Adam language. Christ being understood as the ‘second Adam’. Christ then as the second Adam recapitulated or reproduced the first Adam in the same way, in terms of birth from the virgin earth horn from the virgin Mary.

We also need to compare what Unger has to say, “It (recapitulation) must convey the idea of being brought to ahead as a unifying principle and of somehow resuming all things. This process of recapitulation of all things begins with the Incarnation and will be completed with the glorification of the body, yet because the Word pre-existed creation and was in the planning, and was operative from creation on, the Incarnate Word recapitulates all things. He summarizes in Himself all creation and unites all people and angels too to Himself as under one head, and in so doing He duplicates, or resumes, the acts of Adam either by similarity or by opposition” (7/185-186). As can be seen God’s plan of reconciliation precedes creation and works its way through to the end times. Through this term then, Man is not seen as an afterthought, but he is at the heart of what God will for his

creation.

Irenaeus’ important point is that Christ as the second Adam went through all the same sequences of human life such as birth, even including death. Each stage of human life then was being made holy. In doing this Christ reversed Adam’s sin at each stage of human development and thus brought about a new redeemed humanity. An important point to remember is that when Adam sinned so did the whole of the human race. The whole of the human race that was yet to be born was, as it were, locked up in Adam. Christ as the second Adam, in his ‘mystical body’ again brought about deathlessness and undid what the first Adam had done. For example, as the first Adam was disobedient the second Adam was obedient and so on (3/173).

The question that we have to ask ourselves at this juncture is,” If the Christian God is such a good God, why did he allow evil to exist in it? Concerning this major question, it has to be linked to the understanding of free will (8/66-76). Whatever the case, Minns makes his argument around AH 4/37-38. In AH 4/37.6 Irenaeus implies that if God should have created his creatures only for the good then freedom would in some way be hindered. Though Irenaeus’ argument is not full proof, it is a groundwork for an optimistic view of the Fall. Whatever the case may be, Irenaeus does have a concept of being and becoming. That is to say that God ‘is’ and that his creation is constantly growing and increasing (8/70). For Augustine and Athanasius however the free will of Adam and Eve was central for the outcome of the whole of creation. This situation could only be reversed, if God himself became incarnate (8/69).

In opposition to the Valentinian system, God was directly responsible for the creation of this world. Irenaeus directly contributed in the explanation of the Trinity through the notion of the ‘two hands of God’. The two hands were Jesus and the Holy Spirit, they were co-working with the Father in creation (Word and Wisdom 10/345). This allows Irenaeus to say that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. The point is that creation is to be seen as the product of love. This also takes away any platonic philosophical basis that creation is evil. There are some writers that try to intimate implicitly that the Son before creation had a creature 1 likeness about him. Ochagavia writes, ” Since the Son was not created out of nothing, as creatures were, we can infer that, before he was established, He existed in God in an unstable state, namely, without a determinate form and circumscription” (11/110). This mind is reading too far into the writings of Irenaeus. There is language in Irenaeus that explicitly rejects such a notion; ” For the Creator of the world is truly the Word of God” (6/105).

Concerning the doctrine of Man, he was created as a child with the view to grow into the image and likeness of God. Instead he did the opposite by disobeying God. If the Fall had not happened man would still have grown into communion with God and would have reached the status of manhood. Wingren goes on to say that it is this very communion that man had with God that has been broken due to disobedience (4/51-52 ) . Though man disobeyed God all in the end would work out for the good of man, ” …The Lord restored us to friendship through his incarnation, becoming the ‘mediator between God and man’. He propitiated on our behalf the Father, against whom we had sinned and cancelled our disobedience by his obedience, restoring us to fellowship with our Maker and submission to him (9/80//AH5/17/1). Man was made in the image (tselem) and likeness (demot) of God (Genesis 1/26). Irenaeus sometimes when he uses the term ‘image’, he sometimes refers to the creation of man and at other times he refers to Christ, depending on context. The original image of God is the Son and it is in his image that man was created. Man is different to the rest of creation because of this. It must be noted however that man has not yet reached his destiny, because he needs to grow up from childhood to adult hood, and this is what he is predestined for. Though man has been created in the image of God he still remains a created creature while the Son still remains the Creator. Man though, he was created with the view to reach maturity, but he yielded and was taken captive by the Devil (4/21).

Because Christ was a real man, he was able to defeat the Devil who had gained power over mankind due to the Fall. The previous sentence implies that the Incarnation itself effected the redemption; this is not entirely correct. This is the line that a commentator in the CDH takes concerning Irenaeus. Irenaeus when talking in terms of redemption is explicit that it is affected through or by the blood of Christ. The concept of the Devil owning the rights of humanity is present in the thoughts of Irenaeus. This thought though is not exhaustive to the theology of Irenaeus. Kelly writes,”…the essence of Adam’s sin was disobedience, the obedience of Christ was indispensable; it is obedience that God requires, and in which man’ s glory consists” (3/174). Concerning reconciliation Wingren summarising says that we need to recognize that there is a general move in the NT of God’s 1 love (because God is love) towards man. Thus, Irenaeus strives to bring this out in his writings.

The burning question then because of this is,” How shall anyone be able to overcome this adversary of mankind unless he is different from the man who has suffered defeat”? (4/21). The answer to this question is that only the Son is stronger than the Devil. The Incarnation then becomes central for Irenaeus due to saving man from this bondage. A proviso needs to be mentioned at this juncture due to ‘bondage language’. It is true that Irenaeus writes in terms of a ‘rational transaction’, at the same time though he uses propitiation language. We cite for example AH5/1/1-2, ” The lord redeemed us by his blood and gave his life for our life, his flesh for our flesh, and poured out the Spirit of the Father to unite us and reconcile God and man, bringing God down to man through the Spirit, and raising man to God through his Incarnation, and by his coming truly and surely conferring on us immortality by means of our fellowship with God” (9/80).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) THE ACTUALITY OF THE ATONEMENT/ BY COLIN GUNTON. 2) CUR DEUS HOMO?/ ANSELM.

3) EARLY CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES/ JND KELLY/ 5TH EDITION. 4) MAN AND THE INCARNATION/VINGREN

5) AGAINST HERESIES VOLUME 1/ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS/TRANSLATED HY DOMINIC J UNGER.

6) THE WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS HOOKS 1-4/ T AND T CLARK 1867. 7) IRENAEUS 2 HOOKS 4-5/ T AND T CLARK 1869.

8) IRENAEUS/ DENIS MINNS OP/OUTSTANDING CHRISTIAN THINKERS SERIES.

9) THE EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS/ TRANSLATED BY HENRY HETTENSON. 10) NEW DICTIONARY OF THEOLOGY/ IVP.

11) VISIBILE PATRIS FILIUS/JUAN OCHAGAVIA/ ORIENTALIA CHRISTIANA ANLECTA/171/1964.

12) THE GLORY OF THE LORD/ VOLUME II/HANS URS VON BALTHASAAR. 13) ANSELM AND A NEW GENERARION/ EVANS/ OXFORD PRESS. 14) NEW AMERICAN STANDARD HIHLE.

15) SAINT ANSELM/ SOUTHERN.

16) CHURCH DOGMATICS VOL IV,I BY KARL BARTH (THE DOCTRINE OF RECONCILIATION).

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Archive for the ‘Easter’ Category

The Gospel, The Ευαγγελιον in the Old Testament; The Reason for the Apostles Use of this Particular Special Theological Word

Easter; The Easter Cross & The Death Of The Human Will

Lent 6: Palm Sunday; Are you a Slave or a Master?

Lent 2: By the gift of faith reciprocating our Love towards God in a Fallen and at Times an Ugly, Greedy, Selfish World; Matthew 26. 14-26

Lent 1: The Incident at Simon the Lepers Home. Matt 26.1-16

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

St Paul on the Resurrection

Death on a Cross

The Road to Crucifixion and the Faithful Woman’s Anointing of Her Master

Anselm on Reconciliation and the Atonement

Part 1 Irenaeus’ interpretation of reconciliation and the atonement

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