Jesus died as man because God could not die- Jesus is the physical manifestion of the invisible God. The reason Jesus died is to save you from spending eternity in hell.
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:24)
Thats nonsense – Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable
If Jesus had not died we would have no way to pay for our sins. The Bible is very clear the soul who sins must die.(Ezekiel 18:20) The punishment for sin against God is death. With Jesus’s sacrifice we have Jesus dying in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve. Jesus’s death on the cross shows us that forgiveness is not cheap and easy. It shows us how seriously God takes our sin. That sin is so disgusting and horrible to God that he must punish it. It is not enough for God to say “Oh well, it’s all good.” When we can look around us and see the atrocities that man commits against man. No! Every human life is precious, every moment of human suffering is an affront to God and it all stems from human rebellion and sin. But at the same time God loves us and does not want to destroy us. God’s mercy wants to pardon us but it is not that simple.
You say “Why not forgive everyone and be done with it.” Let me ask you this. What would you think about a judge who simply pardoned everyone brought before him. Rape? No big deal! Theft? It’s all good. Serial killer? What does it matter! Let’s just forgive him and be done with it. Such a judge would be a perversion of justice. Or put in a different way… what if there was a sadist who loved to torture people, and God forgave him, should God let this man into heaven? What would he do, once cheaply and easily forgiven? We can assume he would go on torturing people, ambivalent to God’s cheap & meaningless blanket forgiveness. Justice demands that the guilty be punished and not allowed to go on harming others.
Through Jesus’s death, God’s eternal immutable characteristics of Justice and merciful love remain intact and in balance.
By sending Christ, God’s justice is satisfied, in that sin has been severely punished, and God’s merciful love for us is satisfied, in that we have been spared destruction and eternal separation from him.
Some Questions for all to ponder as you read this Post:
Are the reported sacrifices of Isaac and of Jesus related?
Are they narrative-tied?
Does one of these events unfold with the other in mind?
Does the sacrificing of Isaac prefigure or foreshadow Jesus’s? (Or alternatively, does the sacrificing of Jesus refer back to the sacrificing of Isaac?)
The Premise is YES, AFTER ALL…
BOTH ARE PROMISED-CHILDS, MIRACULOUSLY CONCEIVED
In their respective accounts, both Jesus and Isaac are promised-childs, miraculously conceived gifts from God (neither mother was supposed to be able to give birth but for differing reasons, Sarah because of age and Mary because she was a virgin). This is relevant because few figures share this property, and it is central to both Jesus and Isaac.
Verses on Jesus being miraculously conceived:
• Luke 1:30-35: “The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. … Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered … the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
Verses on Isaac being miraculously conceived:
• Genesis 18:9-10: “[The angels] said to him, … “…behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” … Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself…”
• Genesis 21:1-4: “and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age,… Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
Aside from Isaac and Jesus, there are only six other miraculous births in the Bible, the others being Jacob & Esau, Samson, the Shunammite woman‘s son (2 Kings 4), Samuel, and John the Baptist.
BOTH ARE CALLED THEIR FATHER’S SPECIAL “ONLY SON”
In both stories, Jesus and Isaac are explicitly identified as their father’s special “one and only son.” This is relevant because few father-son relationships are described this way in the Biblical texts, and yet this unique specialness of the son to their father is central to both the story of Isaac and Jesus.
Verses on Jesus being God’s “only son”:
• John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,” • Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over” • Romans 5:10: “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” • 1 John 4:9-10: “God sent his only Son … he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Verses on Isaac being Abraham’s “only son”:
• Genesis 22:2 — “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” v12 — “…you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
BOTH ARE TO BE SACRIFICED BY THEIR LOVING FATHER
In their respective accounts, both Jesus and Isaac were to be sacrificed by their father. This is relevant because few figures in story or history share this property, and yet it is a defining feature of Isaac and Jesus.
Verses on Jesus being sacrificed by his loving Father:
• John 4:9-10: “God sent his only Son … he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” • John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,” • Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him overVerses on Isaac being sacrificed by his loving Father.” • Genesis 22:2: “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
–BOTH ARE TO BE SACRIFICED IN THE SAME PLACE (MORIAH)
In their respective accounts, Jesus and Isaac were to be sacrificed in the same location (hills of Moriah). This is relevant because no other Biblical figures share this property, and God commanded Abraham to travel about 50 miles to sacrifice Isaac at just this location, without ever offering an explanation. (It is as if God expected something special to happen there later?)
Verses on Jesus being crucified in the location of Moriah:
• John 19:17: “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” (cf. Mk 15:22, Mt 27:33, Lk 23:33) This is relevant because this hill (Golgotha) was a hill of Moriah. We know this because the hill Golgotha and the Temple (in Jerusalem) were 300 meters apart, with the latter being built on a hill in Moriah (called Mt. Moriah), and the former also being a hill in Moriah (part of the same range). • 2 Chronicles 3:1: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father DavidVerses on Isaac being Abraham’s “only son”:” • Genesis 22:2: “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
BOTH ARE TO BE A SACRIFICIAL LAMB TO GOD (ON WOOD)
In their respective accounts, both Jesus and Isaac were to be sacrificial lambs to God.
We know Jesus was meant to be a sacrificial lamb for two reasons:
• Jesus was crucified during passover, which is when Jews were to sacrifice their unblemished lamb.
Texts report it explicitly:
• John 1:29: “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (v. 36 — and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”)” • 1 Peter 1:18: “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things… but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
We know Isaac was meant to be a sacrificial lamb because of context:
• Genesis 22:1,7-8: “offer him there as a burnt offering… Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.”
BOTH CARRY THEIR OWN WOOD UP ON THEIR BACK TO DIE ON
In their respective accounts, both Jesus and Isaac were ironically expected to carry the very wood up the hill that they were to be sacrificed on. This is relevant because no other Biblical figures share this property, and it is one of the few details given on the story of Isaac’s being sacrificed, while also prominently featuring in the account of Jesus’s death.
• Genesis 22:6: “Abraham took the wood and laid it on Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.”
We know this because:
• Victims of crucifixion in general were expected to carry their cross as far as possible.
• It is reported explicitly in John 19:16-17: “So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull.”
BOTH VOLUNTARILY SUBMITTED TO THEIR BEING SACRIFICED
In their respective accounts, both Jesus and Isaac (much stronger than Abraham) submitted to their father’s will to be sacrificed, without resisting. This is relevant because it is hardly expected in such a case, and yet is an essential and unique characteristic of how Jesus and Isaac went to die.
We know Jesus did not resist for two reasons:
• The reports of Jesus’ death are numerous and details, and yet there is no indication that he tried resisting.
• Quite the contrary, the reports consistently identify him as not resisting (not in his arrest [Matthew 26:50] or in his trial either).
• Acts 8:32, 35 — “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent”… Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.
• Matthew 26:50: “And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.”
Isaac was perfectly capable of fighting back (he was the one who carried all the wood up on his back). There is no record of any struggle or that he resisted in any way.
BOTH NARRATIVES CONCLUDE: GOD WILL PROVIDE
In both the story of Jesus and Isaac, the account ends with the message that “God will provide,” specifically he will provide sacrificial replacement so his loved ones do not. This is relevant because, while the analogue to Jesus shifts from Isaac to the ram, this was necessary to incorporate the final element: the substitionary death. The text emphasizes the ram was killed “in the place of his son.” The text really seemed to want to highlight this feature, saying they sacrificed the ram “in Isaac’s place”; the story needed to say that.
In the case for Jesus, he is sacrificed and dies for our sins.
• Romans 3:25: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood–to be received by faith.” • Genesis 22:12-14: “[God] said, “Do not stretch out your hand against [Isaac],….” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
BOTH FATHERS ANTICIPATED THEIR SON’S RESURRECTION
In both stories, Jesus and Isaac were expected by their fathers to be resurrected by God.
Jesus’s father in this case is God, who being omniscient knew. Several texts also testify to God’s awareness.There are two reasons to think Abraham believed this of Isaac:
• Abraham did not object, and Isaac did not resist. By extension he in turn trusted his earthly father. • The whole situation was a test of Abraham’s faith in God’s promise just before:
• Genesis 21:21: “God said… ‘it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’” • Genesis 17:9: “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”
In other words, insofar as Abraham believed both… • …that he would kill Isaac • …that Isaac would live on to have children and continue Abraham’s line, Abraham seemingly had to trust God would raise Isaac from death. This was noticed by Jews long before.
• Hebrews 11:17-19: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”
BOTH NARRATIVES INVOLVE A SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE
Here the Muslim and other sceptics will say “Ah, but they aren’t the same because Isaac was rescued …”
ISAAC DIDN’T DIE
Unlike Jesus, Isaac did not actually die. (He lived to ripe old age and was 180 years old when he died – Genesis 35:28-29). Instead, at this indeterminate age as a young man, he was spared. This is relevant because the death of Jesus is essential to his narrative, and it is missing from the story of Isaac.
However, unless God was going to permit the death of Isaac gratuitously simply to mirror exactly the crucifixion, wasn’t this the best way to do things from a foreshadowing or prefiguring perspective?
After all, which is better:
(a) A prefiguring where Jesus and Isaac are in parallel to their end and where finally Isaac too is killed, but no notion of substitutionary death provided by God is involved as in the Jesus story. In which case BOTH deaths would have been needless and pointless.
Or
(b) A prefiguring where Jesus and Isaac parallel, yet where Isaac is not killed, and in its place is the parallel of a substitutionary death provided by God: the Ram. The SUBSTITUTIONARY sacrifice by Christ’s death then, rather than being pointless, on the contrary is a GLORIOUS death offering us all hope.
[Note: Also included is the foreshadowing in Genesis of Abraham saying God would provide the “Lamb.” This is relevant because instead only a Ram is provided in the story, leading many theologians to point out an ostensible implication that the foretold Lamb sacrifice on Moriah is still to come.]
Footnote:
The Quran while it has mention of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son is incomplete on several key points. Firstly, it fails to mention the name of the son, leading to conjecture that it was Ishmael not Isaac.
Secondly and even more remiss, it fails to mention any reason for the sacrifice. Its symbolism is completely lost on any Muslim reader.
The purpose of sacrificing his son is left unexplained. From Tabari II:84 we read:
“When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, Satan said, ‘By Allah, if I cannot deceive the people with this, I shall never be able to do it.’”
Satan not only swears by Allah, he says that the bogus connection between Abraham and Islam is his best way to fool mankind. He was right! It’s also interesting that the deception would be over sacrifice. Judaism, Christianity, and all rational civilizations use sacrifice as the means to promote justice and maintain spiritual or societal order. Commit a crime and you will be required to sacrifice your money, your freedom, or your life. If crime is without cost, anarchy reigns.
In Judaism, the sacrificial rite for the forgiveness of sin was rich in symbolism. It was based upon the “Mercy Seat” of the Arc of the Covenant. And it was connected prophetically to the blood of an unblemished lamb or dove. It’s all explained in the Torah. In Christianity, Christ became the perfect lamb and sacrificed himself on our behalf.
But in Islam, there is no sacrifice. While the Sunnah perpetuates Qusayy ‘s senseless slaughter, it’s for appeasement, not atonement. There is no symbolism, no prophetic implication, no retribution, no justice and no moral reason, as forgiveness is capricious in Islam. And that’s why totalitarian governments use draconian measures to maintain order. Muhammad was an amoral thief empowered by situational scriptures, so he failed to appreciate the necessity of sacrifice and he never understood the Biblical concept of sacrificial atonement.
It’s why the “ransom of great sacrifice” mentioned in the Quran is left unexplained. So much for an all sufficient book. To really understand the significance and purpose of Abraham’s sacrifice you have to read the Biblical account and compare it to the event it foreshadowed which is the Crucifixion.
“The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was drawing near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Him to death, because they were afraid of the people. Then SATAN ENTERED JUDAS, called Iscariot, who was numbered among the Twelve. He went away and discussed with the chief priests and temple police how he could hand Him over to them. They were glad and agreed to give him silver. So he accepted the offer and started looking for a good opportunity to betray Him to them when the crowd was not present.” (Luke 22:1-6)
HISTORY’S MOST HEINOUS SIN: THE MURDER OF JESUS
The most heinous sin that has ever been committed in the history of the world is the brutal murder of Jesus Christ, the morally perfect, infinitely worthy, divine Son of God. And probably the most despicable act in the process of this murder was the betrayal of Jesus by one of His closest friends, Judas Iscariot.
Judas was one of the twelve apostles that Jesus had personally chosen and who had been with Jesus during his entire public ministry. He had been entrusted with the moneybag for the whole group (John 13:29). He was close enough to Jesus at the Last Supper to be dipping bread with him in the same cup (Mark 14:20).
On the night of the Last Supper, Luke tells us in Luke 22:3–6 that “Satan entered into Judas. . . . He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray [Jesus] to them. Later he led the authorities to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:47–48). With that, Jesus’s fate was sealed.
When Luke tells us in verse 3 that “Satan entered into Judas,” several questions come to mind. One is whether Satan, in a moment of opportunism, mastered a good Judas or whether Judas was already walking in line with Satan and Satan simply decided that now was the time. That question is not the focus of this Post; suffice it to say Judas was a thief and a lover of money, and he covered it with a phony, external relationship with Jesus. Finally he sold him for thirty pieces of silver. A good follower of Jesus he was not.
Another question, which we will focus on, is why Satan would use Judas in this way, since the death and resurrection of Jesus would result in Satan’s final defeat, and there is good reason to think Satan knew that. The last and most important question is: Where was God when this happened? What was his role or non-role in the most spectacular sin that ever was? These two questions will now be considered in turn as the central focus of this post.
SATAN’S ROLE IN HIS OWN DESTRUCTION
The question why Satan would lead Judas to betray Jesus is intriguing. Doesn’t he know that the death and resurrection of Jesus would result in Satan’s final defeat (Colossians 2:13–15; Revelation 12:11)? There’s good reason to think Satan knew that.
We can be sure that for as long as possible Satan had wanted to first stop Jesus taking the path of self denial and suffering that would lead to the cross. He hated what he saw Jesus doing on those 40 days in the wilderness, before Jesus began His ministry on the way to the cross. Satan tried to turn him away from the path of suffering and sacrifice. In the wilderness, he tempted him to turn stones into bread and jump off the temple and get the rulership of the world by worshipping him (Matthew 4:1–11). The point of all these temptations is: Don’t walk the path of suffering and sacrifice and death. Use your power to escape suffering. If you’re the Son of God, display your right to reign.
Satan tried and failed then to get Jesus onto his worldly agenda. Having failed in that, his next challenge would be to stop the crucifixion. When Jesus predicted He would suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and be killed and Peter rebuked him and said, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22). In other words, I will never let you be killed like that. Jesus did not commend him. He rebuked him with the words, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23). Hindering Jesus from going to the cross was the work of Satan. Satan did not want Jesus crucified. He knew it would be his undoing.
But fast forward, here he is in Luke 22:3 entering into Judas and leading him to betray the Lord and bring him to the cross. Why the about-face? Why try to divert him from the cross and then take the initiative to bring him to the cross? We are not told. This is an attempt at the answer: Satan saw his efforts to divert Jesus from the cross failing. Time after time, Jesus kept the course. His enemies tried to stone Him, but Jesus evaded them. That was not His destiny. Then was not the time (John 7:6, 7:30). His face was set like flint to towards the end He kept predicting in detail. Satan realised the inevitability of it and concluded that there is no stopping him. This realisation was a game-changer.
Therefore Satan resolved that if he can’t stop it, he will at least make it as shameful, ugly and painful and as heartbreaking as possible. Not just the death itself, but everything in the build up; death by betrayal; death by abandonment; death by denial (see Luke 22:31–34). If he could not stop it, he would drag others into it and do as much damage as he could. It was this spectacular sequence of evil acts that brought Jesus to the cross. And Satan was behind them. But Satan was merely the puppet and the prompter. He wasn’t the script writer.
GOD’S ROLE IN THE MURDER OF HIS SON
This brings us now to the second and most important question — where was God when all this happened? Or more precisely: What was God’s role or non-role in the most spectacular sin that ever happened — the murder of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son?
All that counts is what God Himself has shown us in His Word. Conjecture, speculation, second guessing and personal opinions count for nothing. Our opinions are worthless. All that counts is what God Himself has shown us in His Word. And the first thing He shows us is that the details surrounding the death of Jesus are prophesied in God’s Word hundreds of years before they happen.
The Scriptures prophesy that evil men will reject Jesus when He comes.
Matthew 21:42: “Jesus said to them [quoting Psalm 118:22], ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?’”
The Scriptures prophesy that Jesus must be hated.
In John 15:25, Jesus quoted Psalm 35:19 and said, “The word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’”
The Scriptures prophesy that the disciples would abandon Jesus.
In Matthew 26:31, he quotes Zechariah 13:7: “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’”
The Scriptures prophesy that Jesus will be pierced but none of His bones will be broken.
John quotes Psalm 34:20 and Zechariah 12:10 and says, “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. . . . For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They will look on Him whom they have pierced’” (John 19:34–37).
The Scriptures prophecy that Jesus would be betrayed by a close friend for thirty pieces of silver.
In John 13:18, Jesus cites Psalm 41:9 and says, “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’” And in Matthew 26:24, Jesus says, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!” And in Matthew 27:9–10, it says, “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me’” (Jeremiah 19:1–13; Zechariah 11:12–13).
And not only the Scriptures, but Jesus himself prophesied, down to the details, how He will be killed.
In Mark 10:33–34, he says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise.”
And on that last night, Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times” (Matthew 26:34).
IT WAS ALL ACCORDING TO HIS SOVEREIGN WILL
From all these prophecies, we know that God foresaw, and did not prevent, and therefore included in His plan that his Son would be rejected, hated, abandoned, betrayed, denied, condemned, spat upon, flogged, mocked, pierced, and killed. All these are explicitly in God’s mind before they happen as things that He plans will happen to Jesus. These things did not just happen. This was never Satan orchestrating events or pulling the strings in an out of control rampage. All this was foretold in God’s Word. God knew they would happen and could have planned to stop them, but didn’t. So they happened according to His Sovereign Will. God was always in absolute control.
And all of them were evil. They were sin. It is sin to reject, hate, abandon, betray, deny, condemn, spit upon, flog, mock, pierce, and kill the morally perfect, infinitely worthy, divine Son of God. And yet the Bible is explicit and clear that God Himself planned and orchestrated these things. It is explicit not only in all the prophetic texts we have seen, but also in passages that say even more plainly that God brought these things to pass.
GOD BROUGHT IT TO PASS
As the Post ‘Understanding the Nature pf Prophecy’ to be found here:
demonstrates, what God foretold by His prophets wasn’t merely describing future events, He was making a decree and declaring their future fulfilment.
Messianic prophecies of which there are over 300 in the Old Testament, are advance notice of what God had already pre-ordained, hundreds of years earlier. And the very fact that the gruesomeness of it and that God was not just allowing, but causing these things to happen exactly as prophecy predicted, is the proof of God’s sovereignty and conducting of them. This was not some plan that got out of control. It all happened exactly as it was meant to happen and right on schedule. And this at a stroke explains the obsessive objections to Isaiah 52-53 as Messianic prophecy by Muslims Jews, atheists and others. Those verses effectively authorised and legitimised what they want to either deny happened at all or happened out of God’s control. And small wonder, for example, in Isaiah 53:6, 10, we find this:
“We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and THE LORD HAS PUNISHED HIM for the iniquity of us all.
…. Yet THE LORD WAS PLEASED TO CRUSH HIM SEVERELY. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord ’s pleasure will be accomplished.” (Isaiah 53:6, 10)
So behind the spitting and flogging and mocking and piercing is the invisible hand and plan of God.
And I say that carefully and deliberately. This truth is too big and too weighty and too shocking to be glib, flippant or sensationalist about. The Bible unmistakably tells us that the invisible hand and plan of God are behind these most spectacular and heinous sins in all the universe — more grievous and more spectacular than the fall of Satan or any others. The reason we can use these very words is because the Bible says it in those very words.
THE HAND AND PLAN OF GOD
In Acts 4:27–28, we have the clearest, most explicit statement about God’s hand and plan behind the horrific crucifixion of his Son.
“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, to do whatever YOUR HAND AND YOUR PLAN HAD PREDESTINED to take place.” (Acts 4:27-28)
Note the two strands: “to do whatever your hand (cheir) and your plan (boule) had predestined to take place.”
Those are the two words that need highlighting: the hand of God and the plan of God. It is a strange way of speaking — to say that God’s hand and plan have predestined something to happen. One does not ordinarily think of God’s “hand” predestining. How does a hand predestine? Here’s what it means: the hand of God is an anthropomorphism, which ordinarily stands for God’s exerted power — not power in the abstract, but earthly, effective demonstrations of power. The point of combining it with His “plan” is to say that it is not just a theoretical exercise; it is a plan that will be executed by God’s own hand. This explains Isaiah 53:10: “It was the will of the Lord to bruise him; He has put him to grief.” Or more literally, with the King James Version, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; He hath put him to grief.” The Lord bruised him. Behind Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel, was Jesus’s own Father who loved Him with an infinite love.
THE GOSPEL: GOD AT WORK IN DEATH
Why should this matter to us? It should matter because if God were not the main Actor in the death of Christ, then the death of Christ could not save us from our sins and we would perish in hell forever. If God was the protagonist and Satan the antagonist, make no mistake, the former always had authority over the latter. The reason the death of Christ is the heart of the gospel — the heart of the good news — is God was doing it. Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If you break God’s activity from the death of Jesus, you lose the gospel. This was God’s doing. It is the highest and deepest point of His love for sinners — His love for you and me. And once we grasp this profound truth, other things fall into place. The problem of evil while it doesn’t evaporate, can be understood. God not only permits evil, He employs evil to achieve His plan of greater good. If the crucifixion narrative shows us anything it is that God has the last word. Ultimately God triumphs. As the song goes “Jehovah has the final say”.
If you separate God’s activity from the death of Jesus, you lose the gospel.
And this also explains how Muslims atheists and others go into mocking denial mode and project a caricature of the events as “cosmic child abuse”.
Muslims trying to argue that no loving God would subject His Son to such a horrible death, gives Allah the pretext to whisk Him out from His ordeal. If we see the cross just the work of Satan alone, that destroys it as the supreme self sacrifice in love that it was. That God the Father directed events is actually not so shocking when you turn the coin over and realise that Jesus went willingly and knowingly and did it in the same love for us as God the Father had. Their love, their collective purpose and will are inseparable. When Jesus prays for a different outcome, none was offered, none was available. That prayer in Gethsemane, signifies Jesus struggle to overcome all His human self preservation instincts. But it is also exemplary and teaches us how to pray in adversity, as we should do, just as Jesus did subjecting His own human will to The Father’s divine sovereign will. Thus the outcome was never in doubt, as Jesus affirmed moments later when Peter drew his sword:
“Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up a sword will perish by a sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on My Father, and He will provide Me at once with more than 12 legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that SAY IT MUST HAPPEN THIS WAY?” (Matthew 26:52-54)
WHY GOD DID IT
God explains His will and purpose. Scripture tells us the purpose of God:
“What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, GOD DID. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering,” (Romans 8:3).
God condemned sin in Jesus’s flesh with our condemnation. He did it so that we are free.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written: Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed.” (Galatians 3:13 – see Deut. 21:23)
God cursed Jesus with the curse that belonged on us. So we are free of the curse that is the consequence for sin.
“HE MADE the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Who did it? God did. He imputed our sin to him, and now we go free in God’s righteousness.
“Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down BY GOD, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4)
“But He was pierced [KJV “wounded”] because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.” (Isaiah 53:5)
Ultimately, and perhaps somewhat amazingly, it was God Himself who put Jesus to death. This was the greatest act of divine justice ever carried out, done “by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23) and for the highest purpose. Jesus’ death on the cross secured the salvation of countless millions and provided the only way God could forgive sin without compromising His holiness and perfect righteousness. Christ’s death was God’s perfect plan for the eternal redemption of His own.
Far from being a victory for Satan, or an unnecessary tragedy, as some suggest, it was the most gracious act of God’s goodness and mercy, the ultimate expression of the Father’s love for sinners. God the Father put Jesus to death for our sin so that we could live in sinless righteousness before Him, a righteousness only possible because of the cross. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So we who have come to Christ in faith have done so recognising that we are guilty of His blood, shed on the cross for us. He died to pay the penalty for our sins (Romans 5:8; 6:23). It was my sin as much as anyone else’s that nailed Him to that cross.
He was wounded and pierced and crushed for our transgressions. By whom? By God (verse 4) God wounded him. God crushed him. For you and me. And we go free.
Thus, the authority of the Devil and his demons has already ended. Matthew 28:18 makes it very clear that Jesus has all authority now, which means that Satan has no authority over Christians. As a result, we can now live in accordance with Colossians 1:10–14 and “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. . . . He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The Bible uses the word grace to explain the victory Jesus achieved for us on the cross because there is no logical reason that God would love us and die in our place to liberate us from captivity to Satan, sin, and death, other than by his wonderful nature.
SATAN: DEFEATED BUT STILL A DANGEROUS FOE AT LARGE IN THE WORLD.
Satan lost at Calvary big time. But a defeated enemy even without authority or legitimacy is still a dangerous opponent as long as he still has rule. He inspired persecution and replicated martyrdom of the Apostles. He inspired the cruel treatment of Christians as recorded by Roman historian Tacitus where the Christians were arrested by Roman authorities, many of them convicted, and then thrown to the wild beasts and dogs or crucified while being set alight to serve as lamps to illuminate the darkness of night. Tacitus says that Nero relished this punishment making it a spectacle for the crowds to see. However, many had pity on the Christians for their suffering and deaths were due to Nero’s own hatred.
As we discover half a millennium after the events of Holy week and the resurrection had happened and Satan’s authority and power of death destroyed, he comes up with his own counterfeit religion. This achieved what he had always aspired to (Isaiah 14:14), and as he wanted and failed to get Jesus to do, by having people bowing down to him, (Matthew 4:9-10). More importantly it was a crude attempt to defuse the power of the cross by casting doubt upon it and a denial that it ever happened (Surah 4:157). Blood Atonement, the Bible’s crimson thread, of which the Cross is the ultimate expression, is nowhere in Islam. Sins are not even serious they are rectifiable mistakes and everyone is born innocent. All antithetical to God’s Word. Not to put too fine a point on it, all exactly what you would expect to find in a Satanically inspired religion.
To this day Satan is fighting a rearguard action still causing as much mayhem as possible, still in the business of enslaving souls and taking as many people to hell as he can. And Islam is his principal tool of religion which challenges the Gospel of Christ head on.
THE CROSS OF CHRIST: THE WORK AND LOVE OF GOD.
The reason why all this matters is this. If you embrace the biblical truth (and I pray you will) that God ordains heinous and spectacular sins for the global glory of his Son, without in anyway becoming unholy, unjust, unrighteous or sinful in that act, then you will not shrink back from the cross of Christ as a work of God.
You will not be among those who mockingly deride it as “cosmic child abuse” or as Muslims try to twist it to mean “Satan inspired the Bible’s greatest story”. When you can grasp that God preordained all of it, and prophesied it in all its lurid details hundreds of years before, then and only then can you come to the cross and fall on your face. And you will say: This is no mere human conspiracy. This is the work of God and the love of God. You will it receive as His highest gift. And you will be saved. And Christ will be glorified. And I will not have posted this in vain. Amen.
The Post is drawn from and inspired by the following article by John Piper: