Twisted Scripture | Hebrews 9:18-22 | Greg Boyd

we are continuing into a twisted scripture today we are delighted to have Greg back from vacation so you guys welcome it on back thank you good morning one of the hills and good afternoon evening morning whatever PUD Michener's good to see you all or see you all podracers can't see you but we know their hate for the pause thing it ought to go to that young lady who I did an outstanding job last week because that not a great sermon it was coming awesome just like the lego movie everything is awesome everything was awesome about it fantastic fantastic I appreciate the the time to get away it really helps God's has blessed us with some really young gifted speakers and it really helps to let go and go off on vacation I once a year my family gave up our pennies and our kids and our grandkids and others come in we go to this cabin and we just have a blast it's just a highlight of the year I hanging out with grandkids for a week of course you go crazy but but it's a wonderful kind of crazy and you need to take a lot of naps afterwards but if it was just just a blast just absolute blast um okay we're continuing this series here oh by the way don't remind me that the tag on my shoe is still showing because see it's supposed to yeah it's a look-see I most of my clothes I in here from my son-in-law who as a manager of the buckle and when something's going a little bit off style I I get them if they fit and so I said well what about the tag he goes it's that that's part of the look so if you don't get this you're just not cool okay I'm just I'm cool you're an act we're gonna say I can jiggle it I can alright don't they get you out of here I'll take them off now we're uh we're in a series we looked at Romans nine how that got twisted in the book of Job all that gets twisted and last week look at Jeremiah 29 and how that's been twisted so what we're gonna look at a passage that we believe has gotten twisted and has to do with the question a difficult question of why did God require all those animals to be butchered in the Old Testament what was up with that and that since those animals are supposed to be a prototype of the sacrifice of Christ why did Jesus need to die for us to be saved that's kind of question where we're dealing with here now what I'm going to be saying will for for some folks thank for all folks some of this is going to be new and for some folks all of its going to be new and so you're going to require your thinking caps to be on this is going to be a teaching time sometimes we go more motivational times they go more theological we like to get into the theology and so this is going to be one of those teaching theological things so stay tuned and and and and hang in there you don't have to end up agreeing with me I always say God gives people the right to be wrong if you want to be but pay attention and hang in there with us the passage is Hebrews 9 listen to this it says not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood that's the Old Testament for when ended the author here is it's in a context where he is making the comparison between the Old Testament sacrifices and the superiority of the sacrifice in Christ says for when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the scroll itself with all that stuff and then all the people with all that stuff saying this is the blood of the Covenant now remember that phrase well beginning to it about 15 minutes the blood of the Covenant is important this is the blood of the Covenant that God has ordained for you and the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tenth because in the the Tabernacle at this point in time was this big tent that they would gather in the tent and all the vessels used in worship sprinkled with blood indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin why why perform on father I thank you for every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and pray that it will not return void but will a turn will rather accomplish all that you and Tenant and and and have purpose here lord I pray that we have attentive minds and open hearts to receive your word and anything I say that is true I pray you just give it a divine authority and if ever I say anything it's false little and flat on the ground and be forgotten and most of all Lord I pray that you'd use this to continually purify our view of you and understand you and to know your character and your purposes and what you've accomplished in Christ and why you required these animals to be sacrificed he'll give us understanding and clear away misunderstandings tear down strongholds set captives free so we can be not just people who fear you but people who you lighten you and love you and dance before you and dance through life and live out the passion and the beauty of the kingdom that Jesus looking kingdom and Jesus name we pray and all of God's kingdom people said amen amen amen there's no denying that the Old Testament portions of it are full of blood animals getting sacrificed all over the place I first for those of us who are sensitive to animal suffering some parts of the Old Testament are hard to read you haven't have any reading Leviticus read that book lately and you just can't cringe it's just gory and it makes me so so so glad that I'm a New Testament guy instead of being born in the Old Testament I don't know if I would have operated well by then just imagine this okay they're not reading a new coming here so there's blood all over the place and so it's like imagining when we first came into this building for example my consecrate the building when I enter into a covenant God in the basis of what he's gonna do here so I tell all the people you remember before the service bring in your cats and dogs and bulls and calves and goats and monkeys and whatever anybody could find and and and we're going to have a slaughter fest here because because it requires blood we're making a blood covenant here and then you come in here and so then you know we we slaughter the animals all that blood and we put it on the walls that's what they had to do the tent got a purify the walls with some blood the animals and then I take it I sprinkle all you guys with some blood I just I get a little spray machine spray all down with some blood because you need to be purified and these worship instruments all the vessels of worship have been covered in blood so we need some blood on those drums we some blood in the keyboard we some blood on the guitars and let's put some animal guts on the microphones just to make sure they're covered it's like ah it's like a Carrey movie or something you know and movie Carrie it's a horrific and yet that's what they had to do with the question is why why what was that accomplishing without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins why is it you know it's not surprising that people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens who look at all this animal sacrifice they say God is a bloodthirsty monster in the Old Testament that's the perception of it not address a little bit later on but why must it be the shedding of blood the forgiveness of sins now the most common answer that's given among conservative Protestants especially the last five hundred years or so by it's the answer that many of you a most of you were taught is that the blood is required because God had must vent his wrath against sin God is too holy to have any fellowship with sinners unless the sin is covered by the blood unless it's atoned for unless the sacrifice is made his wrath needs to be appeased God got it yes he's loved he's also justice and those two must be reconciled and so reconcile is justice in order to love he must pour out his wrath he must justly condemned sin and so in this view the reason why Jesus died was to satisfy God's wrath against sin is a satisfy the justice of God Jesus stood in our place he was a substitute by being the one at whom God vented his wrath so now he doesn't have to vent it against us and that's what allows him to now see us as innocent and to forgive us it's called the the penal substitution view of the atonement now everyone agrees that Jesus died as our substitute no question about that but the question is did he is that the way he was our substitute P no means penalized he was punished for our sin by the father so the father convinced his wrath on him is that view correct now we tend away while we totally believe that Jesus died as our substitute we think that use of this scripture that explanation for why there must be shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins is gotten twisted and results in some some people getting a pretty strongly Missy gives view of God who needs to be a piece before he can be forgives so I'm going to add raised five questions about this perspective I actually have a lot more questions about it and objections to it then I'm going to give you I'm under a time constraint if you want to go deeper in this there's a book out there called four views of the atonement and I wrote a chapter of that where I could give a full critique of this view but you can also then read the person who defends this view and you can just yourself which one you think has a better argument and and I'm sure you're coming with the conclusion that I do okay so here's question number one how is this you we always got to start with Jesus always start with Jesus how is this view consistent with Jesus revelation of God among the things that are problematic here is this in the penal substitution view you almost have a wedge driven between of God the Father and God the Son God the Father he's got you he's like this Inspector Javert and name is he's got this justice that he cannot like the one he just cannot let go of it this Jean Valjean must be punished and he'd rather commit suicide than to ever let justice go so God the Father has got to judge sin and that means that we're all condemned to hell but then Jesus steps in says no I'll take you the place of M punish me instead you almost can get depression that God is almost a rageaholic we're so mad someone's got to bleed and he doesn't care if it's humans or Jesus but someone's got to bleed so Jesus says okay upon me instead so they can go free and so he vents his wrath on and the son and that he's satisfied and now he can love us he got that off his chest was it there's a wedge between the father and the son a gap it's why you find from the eleventh century on and especially after the Protestant Reformation on a tendency for some laity and some even theologians to have a love for Jesus but they're not so sure about the father Martin Luther loved Jesus most terrified of God the father because the father represents this aspect of God that isn't very christ-like you see the good side of God in Jesus but but there's another side Calvin called in the heart of God there's a horrible decree this dark side of God that decreed before the foundation of the world geordie of human beings would go to eternal hell but Jesus came to save those that weren't part of horrible decree so you got this all split personality but the thing is the New Testament portrays Jesus as the full revelation of God he is Hebrews 1:3 the exact representation of God's very essence Hoopoe status in Greek God is Jesus like all the way down Jesus says if you see me you see the father and he's telling the truth he's not just saying I'm showing you the nice side of the father but not the other side Jesus came to reveal God's love not sure could seal his wrath when you look at Jesus you are seeing God he got in human form and that just a part of God pulses the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him in bodily form and so our job is to do it Paul did he said I I don't know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified that is his definition of God he defines everything through the lens of the Cross and to trust that God really is like that and that means if we do that that there can't be any gulf any gap any separation any dichotomy between Jesus and the father what Jesus thinks about us is what the father thinks about us the way Jesus loves us is the way the Father loves us his attitude towards us is the father's attitude towards us he reveals God the Father that's question number one number two is this and somebody questions more of an observation the penal substitution view makes the myth of redemptive violence the centerpiece of history the myth of redemptive violence follow this area is the myth the lie that violence can be redemptive it looks like in the short run but it never is in the long run and it's the lie that human beings that believe from time immemorial and it's what has kept history a ceaseless merry-go-round of cyclical bloodshed that's human history it's because we keep on believing this lie if only we can kill enough of the bad guys well then the world be a better place if only we kill our opponents well then we can rule of course then there will be a wonderful place and we keep on thinking this we keep on killing it goes round and round and round and round we'll see in this view of the atonement the decisive the way to solve problems the ultimate problem that God had to deal with was was to kill somebody violence is the way to all problems and see if you're serving a God for whom violence is the way to solve problems then you'll be inclined to be a person who will use violence to solve problems friend of mine Tony Barlett wrote a book it's a pretty academic book but it's called cross purposes and what he shows there is that see this view the penal substitution view it wasn't the view of the early church it didn't come into being as a theory until about the 11th century and when he Bartlett's shows us that it's not a coincidence that at that same time we find Christian violence beginning to escalate and it continues unseen on stop for the next five hundred years it wasn't from the 11th century to the 16th 17th century we find Christians killing Muslims Christian killing heretics Christian killing Jews killing witches and then Christians killing Christians with a 30 Years War in the Hundred Years War and 25% of the population of Europe was exterminated because Christians were killing other Christians it was going on and on and on it would continue to go on except for the secular feudal lords put an end to it because it was hurting the economy they had the peace of westphalia we're calling a truce no Christians are no longer allowed to kill anybody and so the outlaw of the thing but it's not a coincidence because we always listen to this we always become the God that we worship we always take a we tend to make God at our own image and we tend to take on the image of the God we worship it's a it's a cyclical thing and so if violence is the ultimate solution to things as evidenced on the cross you'll be inclined to be a people who engage in violence to solve problems and so it has been unfortunately from the 11th century now the fact that that contradicts what Jesus tells us and how to solve problems he tells us to love our enemies to never retaliate to never resist evil with with physical violence he tells us to pray for those who despitefully use us and to serve those who are enemies that contra Dix to this and that itself is an argument against the penal substitution view something else is going on here folks number three if God's justice must be satisfied like Inspector Javert does God ever really forgive see Inspector Javert and layman zurab could could not forgive because justice the ultimate principle what can God forgive if he can't let go of his justice think about this I forgiveness is about releasing a debt if someone wrongs you there's a debt that's occurred because they treated you beneath your worth and forgiveness is about letting that debt go just listen that's all it is but see if God has to punish somebody for sin do you ever let any debt go if you want me $100 and I'm gonna and you can't pay it so I'm going to throw you in the prison which I never would do of course but this is a story so if I'm going to throw you in prison and then someone comes along and says hey listen here's the hundred dollars he owes you let him go free you'll be happy for that but I didn't forgive you I got my money so also if God's got to kill somebody to vent his wrath in order to let us go free did he ever forgive anything the answer is no he got paid he collected his debt forgiveness is impossible if justice is irrevocable and so here's the thing the Bible tells us over and over and over again that God forgives he really forgives he didn't we didn't don't get off the hook because somebody else pay the debt he lets go of that's that's what forgiveness is in fact throughout the Bible you'll find God forgiving without requiring any sacrifice you ever notice that the Miller might repent he forgives him the Israelites repent he forgives them he's like the father of the prodigal son the min of the prodigal sons coming home man he's the father's running towards him and he doesn't say grovel a little bit or make atonement or appease my wrath or sacrifice a cat no he's just I love you and he hugs them and then they they throw a celebration that's what God the Father is like all right and that tells you then that something's off something's off to the theological view that makes it impossible for God to really forgive number four if God is too holy to be in the presence of sin that's the argument hey God is too holy to have anything to a sin and and so after embrace sinners unless some unless as sinners paid for but if that's true how is it that Jesus who is we always remember the exact representation of God's nature Hebrews 1:3 how is it that he always hangs out with sinners and he even became our sin identified with our sin on the cross if God is so allergic to sin well what's up with this and this is this is the embodiment of who God is Jesus attracted the prostitutes and the tax collectors and he had went to parties with them he fellowship with him Oh with him all the time now they steered clear of the Pharisees because they had the kind of holiness that puts those kind of folks off that judging kind of hold is I'm too holy to ever associate with the likes of you but God is not - holy deborah associates with likes of you if Jesus is the clear what God is like God is so holy he loves to associate with the likes of you he gravitates towards them and they gravitate towards him and he then he enters into full identification with her sin on the cross and that just tells us that it's not that God has to kill someone to hang out with sinners no he exalts him all the time he dives into their mess and that's how he how he redeems it and finally final question is this how is it just to punish an innocent person Jesus for the guilt of others he wanted about that which is everyone else is guilt the kind of thing you can just transfer from one person to another this person did something terrible and they're guilty I tell you what I'm gonna take that guilt and put it on you how does that work it will make something specially problematic is that the Bible explicitly tells us that God doesn't roll that way for example in Ezekiel 18 it says this the person who sins is the one who will die because the consequences of sin is death not that God will kill them it's just the natural outcome of sin unrepented of is death a child shall not suffer the iniquity of the parent nor a parent suffer the iniquity of a child the righteousness of the righteous shall be their own and the wickedness of the wicked shall be their own and that's explicitly saying that guilt is not the kind of thing that can be transferred so the way that Christ makes us righteous and what does cross accomplishes it's not a matter of this mystical transference it's something else going on whatever it means to say that there's no forgiveness without the shedding of blood I submit to you it's not because God has to vent his wrath on someone or something in order to love and forgive others something else is going on so what else is going on here what does that phrase mean now I'm going to do two things there I'm going to first talk about the animal sacrifices and that's going to be kind of a new part here so pay attention with that and then I'm going to apply it to the sacrifice of Jesus at the end of this we're going to see I think have a different perspective and what it means when the Bible says there's no forgiveness without the shedding of blood here's the thing about animal sacrifices that's really interesting God didn't invent that it's not unique to the new of the Old Testament at all in fact it's a staple of human religion going back to the beginning of time thank you fighting with Cain and Abel right there making sacrifice is interesting enough God never told them to do that they just start doing it and we find in history that most religions have practiced something like animal sacrifices and sometimes even child sacrifices it's a staple of pagan religion and it's always done to appease the gods you want to give them what they want because if you don't then they're gonna send drugs and cancer and diseases and famines and earthquakes so we got to keep the gods happy so pagans have been doing this throughout all of time and in the ancient Near East where Israel was that section of the world it was especially intense all of the cultures practiced animal sacrifice and some of them practice child sacrifice parents explain to your kids or kids in the service here about how bearable how barbaric that was but we'd never do it today so here's the thing given that and then some evidence I'm going to give you here in a moment given that everybody it's part of that culture and we always to some degree conform to the culture it seems quite certain that the Israelites were already practicing animal sacrifice before God ever told me to do so and this like God is like a missionary who comes to the culture and a missionary coming to a foreign culture just can't turn over everything at once you've got to accept aspects of the culture that maybe repulse you but unless you do that you'll never get a foot in the door to begin to move the culture in a different direction God is a heavily missionary to a fallen world and so he the animal sacrifices we're going to see here now is something that he accepts as an accommodation to the culture but he does it only for the purpose of moving that culture forward to a time when they're no longer needed and they'll see that it's not his really his will you can see that the sacrificing of animals in the Old Testament was influenced by the culture by the way God speaks about it by the way they speak about it so for example some of the instructions God God gives makes it clearer that the animals sacrificing didn't start with the Old Testament so we read this for example in Leviticus 17 since the priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord remember that phrase they must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the go demons to whom they prostitute themselves it's clear the priests were already sacrificing this wasn't a new thing to them trouble is that they are sacrificing to go demons now these go demons are a particular kind of demon that everybody in the ancient Near East believed didn't even that they had the face of a goat and so the Israelites were offering sacrifices like everyone else did but to the same demons that everyone else was sacrificing to though they didn't know those demons they thought they're just appeasing the gods so the Lord here saying this look it's like it'd be too much to ask me to get stop sacrificing all together that's just part of the culture that will take a couple centuries but if they're gonna sacrifice animals well then do it to me do it out of relation with me and allegiance to me so stop doing that start doing this and do it in my house which is how they regarded this tenth in the Old Testament and so this was the heavenly missionary strategy for weaning them off of their relationship with go demons all right you can also see that this practice is influenced by the culture by virtue of the fact that the language they use is identical to the surrounding cultures we just read they're supposed to sacrifice the animals as a pleasing aroma to the Lord you find as dozens and dozens of time the Old Testament the Lord smelled the sacrifice and it was pleasing to him a sweet-smelling savour now here's the thing that's the way all ancient Near Eastern people talked about these sacrifices way before the Israelite service time start talking that way we have ancient literature where we find that the belief was this when you offer up your animals and sometimes your children the aroma goes into the air and the gods that are just above the clouds they smell it mmm and then they come down and they eat the animals or in some cases the children and they believe that what the fire consumed them that was the God's consuming them so they were literally feeding the gods and it all began with a smelling aroma up in the air and you want to feed the gods because if they get hungry ticked off well that's when they start throwing Thunderbolts and and earthquakes and diseases and famines and things like that so you're appeasing the gods by giving them their food and seems pretty clear that the ancient Israelites that was there that's the way the culture of you God that's why they initially viewed God he needs to be appeased with these sacrifices and he enjoys the aroma of these things now that later on becomes a mere metaphor for pleasing God and you find it in the end of the New Testament but early on it's pretty clear that the folks literally thought this way about God so here's what's going on folks remember read everything in the Bible through the lens of the Cross what happens on the cross God condescends comes down and takes on not only a human form he takes on he bears our sin and when he bears our sin on the cross guess what he takes on the appearance that reflects that sin on the cross on the surface that looks like Jesus is a God forsaken guilty criminal and so the arguments of the cross is a mirror of our sin we see ourselves in that in the cross but that reveals what God really is like the cross and so as we read the Bible we know that God is a sin bearing God and so we come upon passages like this well we know that this is God the heavenly missionary accomodating bearing their sin and the minute he does that he's going to take on the appearance of a God who condones this stuff he looks like in these passages a rather typical ancient Eastern God who's up in the sky GaN mmm I love the smell of those sacrificed goats and chickens that's just fantastic gonna go go down there and have me some but of course we know God's not like that so God's accommodating their fallen perspective and that's exactly what we should expect got to do since he's decisively revealed in Jesus Christ so he's he's weaning people off of there's go teeth and these go demons and he's accommodating their fallen state out of mercy so he can move them forward now which direction is he moving em it's my third point and some strongest proof that this wasn't God's original idea we find later on as the Veals rites grow and as the prophets start writing that God explicitly repudiates animal sacrifices and so we find this in salt says you have no delight in sacrifice if I were to give a burnt offering you would not be pleased oh wait a minute didn't then we just read that he likes to smell of it whenever that sweet aroma stuff something's changed here folks the sacrifice that is acceptable to God and now they're ready to get the truth it's a broken spirit a broken spirit and a contrite heart O God you will not despise this is what God's been after the whole time you wanted to sacrifice as well if you need a sec rifice animals do it but what I'm interested interested in is the heart behind the whole thing and I don't I'm not pleased with the sacrifice at all in and of itself and then we read in Isaiah this what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts enough of this men tolerating this stuff for three centuries let's put a stop to it I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats oh really yeah that's not the impression you get early on but that's where getting told now when you come to appear before me who asked this from your hand and this Lord saying this this wasn't my idea in the first place hey it wasn't me who told you to do all this stuff I was accommodating it here's the sacrifice that he's looking for cease to do evil he loves that sacrifice learn to do good tremendous sacrifice seek justice rescue the oppressed defend the orphan plead for the widow what God is saying here folks is realizes this it's time to grow up it's time to grow up I I met the God who needs to be appeased with blood I don't take the light in your sacrificing the animals in fact I love those animals it bugs me every time you have to do that but I comma dated first season the sacrifice I'm interested in is this do you have a contrite heart a broken spirit when you when you bring that sacrifice and you want to know my heart now you're ready to hear it here's what a sacrifice should look like take care of the widow take care of the oppressed take care of the foreigner I do justice love mercy come against iniquity stop the evil that's the kind of sacrifice God has always been looking for he put up with the animal sacrifices because he's a guy who always meets people where they're at in order to move them in a different direction so God's accommodating this to wean people off of the the goat demon relationship and begin to eventually teach him that he's not a God who needs to be appeased with the shedding of animal blood and then there's a third thing going on and that's this in the meantime and find God doing this a number of different ways in the Old Testament he uses this practice is very barbaric practice of sacrificing animals and he gives it a new meaning he infuses it with a new meaning they were doing it for this reason but God begins to teach them to do it for a different reason now the reason has nothing to do with God's need to vent his wrath you don't find a hint of that as the reason why animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament to appease God's wrath or something no the lesson he's teaching with the shed blood is this let it be a reminder a symbolic reminder to you that the consequence of breaking covenant with the god of life results in death unless you repent so it's about the need to repent the wages of sin is death and this is why the Israelites whatever they entered into a covenant with God or with one another the way they would do it is by cutting an animal in two in fact the word in Hebrew for making a covenant is literally to cut a covenant and it's called to cut a covenant because you cut an animal in two but one part on this side one part on that side and the Covenant partners would walk through in between these animal parts and then exchange their vows and what they were saying is if I break covenant with you let it be to me as it is with this animal the consequence of covenant breaking is death and that's why it was called the blood of the Covenant as author of Hebrew says the blood of the Covenant it teaches the Covenant breaking leads to death and so God is using this practice that they were already doing to wean them off their sacrifices to go demons to show them eventually that he's not a God it needs to be appeased but to always be reminding them that the consequence of covenant breaking with him the god of life results in death that's what's going on with the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament and once people get that there's no need for animal sacrifices so it comes to an end now how does this relate to then to the sacrifice of Jesus what's going on the New Testament here's the thing when we come the New Testament we learn something very important about why breaking covenant with why sin results in death because we're taught here in a way that was only vaguely revealed in the Old Testament but now we see it explicitly that when we break covenant with God we just lis come under the reign of his arch enemy Satan we're either in the kingdom of darkness a kingdom of God or in the kingdom of darkness and sin separates us from God and therefore puts us under the oppressive deceptive destructive reign of Satan and all the other fallen powers and and we end up being blinded we end up being deceived and that keeps us alienated from God we buy into lies and it starts right in Genesis 3 where's the evening by sin - a lie about God that's that's the captivity that we're in that's why Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4 that if anyone is blind to the Gospels because the god of this age is blinded them they can't see the truth so they don't want the truth so they can't they can't receive the truth we're in bondage here and this is the problem that God needs to solve with the cross and and so we find that salvation very frequently in the New Testament is spoken of as being deliverance deliverance from Satan's captivity I give you a hundred verses on this but I only have time to give you one check out acts 26 this is the gospel in a nutshell this is the Lord speaking to Paul on the road to Damascus and the Lord says Paul I'm going to rescue you from your people the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you listen to this now to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that there's another reason they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me is this is the good news in a nutshell let's break it down the reason why I post preaching the gospel the good news the good news is always about settled on a cross even defines the gospel is the message of the cross when you preach this in the power of the Spirit it has the power to open people's eyes the enemy is blinded them but the cross with the help of with the working of the Spirit in our hearts can open the eyes of people so they can now begin to see truth they can see what God really is then begin to get free of all the deceptive ideas about God that they've been afflicted with under the enemy's oppression and when their eyes are open now they have the capacity I won't force anyone to do this he's not like that but they they have the possibility of choosing to turn from the power of Satan to the power of God that's where the word repentance means Metanoia you can turn around and go in a different direction now that you see now you see who God really is now you can turn and that opens up the door to this beautiful possibility now you can finally want and finally receive forgiveness of sins and when that happens now you're incorporating into the the Bride of Christ and the community of all those who are ongoingly being sanctified being made christ-like because of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ that is the church folks this is the gospel in a nutshell and you see here that the problem that God needs to solve with the cross with the shedding of blood isn't the problem of God trying to reconcile his justice and his love I go on I'm just conflicted here how do I love these people when they're sinners enough to hold it's a sin that's not the problem so the problem of God figure out how to forgive us that's never been a problem for God the problem God's dealing with is that this race of people who are rebels that he inexplicably loves with the incredible passion they've fallen into bondage these people who he wants to be as his bride have fallen into bondage to Satan in the powers so they received and they're blinded and anything guy's a monster and they run the other direction and they don't want or even see the need to ask for forgiveness because they're in darkness and the whole message of the gospel is about how to go from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved son and God's solution to this problem is the shedding of blood that's the shedding of his own blood as he becomes a human being and as he goes to the cross and enters into solidarity with our sin and takes on the consequences of sin that we deserve and allows fallen humans and at the working at the behest of the fallen powers allows them to inflict him and have violence against him well see that that expression of love it is the most perfect expression of love there is that there ever could be because you couldn't cross a farther distance out of love for a bride that deserved at less than what God did for us he crosses an infinite distance become a human being and then as it were crosses another infinite as the all holy God identifies with our sin goes to the furthest extreme he could go for a race of people who could deserve it less and that perfect love that perfect self sacrificial love the way light dispels darkness just by its nature you try to light darkness has to flee that explosion of love is what broke the back of the demonic Kingdom and it's the only thing that could do it and that perfect revelation of who God is a God is love John says and love is defined by the cross this is the perfect revelation of who God is and that revelation now has the power to blow apart all of the false views of God that have that the enemy has strapped us with and that have afflicted us and prevented us from having a passionate relationship with God and that perfect expression of love on the cross has the power it tells us what our worth is before God that we have unsurpassable worth because he was willing to pay an unsurpassable price for us and that has the power if we allow it in our transformed by the renewing of our mind to transform all of our thinking about ourselves as a blow apart all of the The Devil's lies about how you're not worth anything you don't matter to anybody you know but for nothing you've got no significance the cross can blow that apart everything we need to know about God and everything we didn't know ourselves is found in the cross that's why Paul says now I'm starting to preach that's why Paul says that in conscience to that that the cross made a mockery out of the demonic realm and that it will depart it complete disempowered state in the powers this is why also Mina saw first John if I find passages like this he says whoever sins is a child of the devil that seems a little harsh we see Jesus does wherever sins as a slave to sin saying the same thing we put ourselves into that family we're under we're under his bondage but the reason the Son of God has been revealed he came to earth and and the reason he did that was to destroy the works of the devil and what are the works of the devil making human beings his children God wants them back they're supposed to be his children not Saints and so the way God does is is not through violence he does it by allowing violence on himself by shedding his own blood without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins why it's not to protect us from the wrath of God it's to free us from the of Satan all right and only by that means only because Jesus blood was shed only because that blood was shed could we come out from the depression and have our eyes open and see who the true God is only because of that shed blood could we then what to receive forgiveness from God he's always been offering it and whenever people turn he gives it without requiring any kind of thing to be killed but uh we as long as we're blind we don't want that without the sacrifice of Jesus we wouldn't see the true God wouldn't want the forgiveness but because of that and only because of that shed blood now we can see the gods of God who never needs to be appeased in order to love he doesn't need to be appeased and it was around satisfied in order to a forgive his justice in his love aren't like competing in him he is loved all the way down as justice is an expression of his love and when he is loving tonight enforce justice he doesn't do it and that's what forgiveness is all about it is easy because his essence is love yes he's just perfectly just but I like dr. severa where he's compulsively so know when it's loving to let go of justice in order to forgive that's what God does and now that we could see who God really is in the cross we can see he's the God who's not against us he's a guy who's for us praise God I got of life who wants to come and give a Punnett life the entity comes to kill steal and destroy and he's been doing it from start but Jesus comes to restore that life to give us life to the full life that is God's life shared in us and as we can receive forgiveness now we can be incorporated into Jesus into Christ into the Bride of Christ because of the shed blood we can see that God freely gives forgiveness freely loves freely give grace freely restores freely transforms us through these changes our destiny he doesn't require a payment a pay back a debt rates or anything he just doesn't praise God because that's kind of God he is he pours it out with all this shedding of blood there's no remission of sins but it's not God who needs to show the blood it's us and blow any shed is his ultimately they didn't know that in the Old Testament but now that we know the truth we can look back and see what God was preparing all the way and the revelation of the whole thing is the opposite of God it says first I got to get my blood before I can love you this healing I can Jayde a person's picture of God the in fact if that view is right then the pagans were right all along gods the gods need to be appeased they get their blood one way or the other and if you don't give in their blood well then we're damned no no the God revealed in the cross is not at all like that so does anybody be shed he says I'll do it and now you see this one more thing at the center of history there is an appeal substitution view the central problem-solving act in history was violence as God killed his son thereby inclining people who follow that view to think that violence is the solution to problems but now this view is called by the way it's called Christus Victor the Christus Victor of Utah it's Latin for Christ as victorious and it was the dominant view of the church up until the 11th century if you asked anybody for the first thousand years of church history hey why did Jesus die the instinctive answer would have been cause we didn't get free - the devil got agitated to defeat the devil and the Fallen powers only changed the 11th century but in this view look at instead of violence being the centerpiece for who God is in the centerpiece of history now what we see Illustrated is the truth that the only way to overcome evil is not through violence but through self sacrificial love it was by his willingness to suffer violence not inflicted that he defeated evil and if people are looking at that as the clue to what God is like and the clue to solve problems now you'll have a people who trust in self sacrificial love rather than violence to solve problems and you know something someone taught us that way back when yes Jesus said never retaliate never return evil for evil never sink the level of the enemy rather you love those enemies serve those enemies pray for those enemies now I will be inclined to do exact which Jesus said we should always be doing and that's what defines the kingdom Sobek question I leave with this is this okay I want to pray here for a moment I think all of us to some degree have a polluted view of God I don't think any of us see God and it is a purely cross like all the way down we've all have residue but I'm interested in people who for whom this is a living issue not just once in a while but you tend to live with a suspicion that maybe maybe there's a part of God that that that is not cross like that isn't self sacrificial love maybe Greg is giving too much of a fluffy God hear this you know the Hammers going to fall at some point maybe you got this view from from some teacher or from you're only in the Bible or whatever but there's a you wonder if maybe part of God is this master god that could predestined he can do whatever he wants right we're at his mercy he could beat us in people to hell if he wants to maybe there's some truth to that maybe Jesus just does reveal part of God if you have that affliction you have trouble trusting that God really is as beautiful as he's revealed to be on the cross I like to pray for you and so I ask you to stand up this is the issue that your Russell if just stand up or you're at I'm gonna have the rest of us pray for you as well thank you have people starting to stand around the auditorium just stand up um if you find that you do you need to appease God do you find yourself wanting to make deals with God I tell you what God I'll do this if you just want to send cancer my way or I'll do this if you'll just heal somebody if you feel like you've got to earn back that love and that's your motivation maybe for not doing certain things because your feature the hammer is going to fall on you if you do you have the peas God with your good behavior or your peas got it with your right beliefs your peas God with obey the right law or whatever I want you to stand up because that stronghold needs to be broken to whatever degree the beauty of your life will never outrun the beauty of the God that you worship and it's so so important that we have a all together beautiful picture of God and that's defined by the cross anybody else want to stand up now I'd like the rest of us as it to look around and just pick out two people that you will pray for as I'm going to leave some prayer here and I just want you to apply that prayer to these people here because prayer has the power to break strongholds and this is a stronghold now we have responsibility to be transformed by the renewing of our mind as well but sometimes that's much more if there's if there's a power pole behind the stronghold so that's we want to be praying against here so Heavenly Father pray with me and apply to the two people you picked up make sure people in the back are covered have any father I thank you for the power of the Spirit that's present in this place I can sense it since it all service long and father right now we as the body of Christ in union with you we want to intercede on behalf of these these folks have stood up and said yes this is an issue that I struggle with father however the mistrust got there whether it's sermons or songs they've heard or the the examples of their parents or however we come against it in Jesus name we declare that the weapons of our warfare is Paul said are not carnal but they're spiritual to the tearing down of strongholds wherever we come against every thought and every imagination that there's the sentence of up against the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God is Jesus Christ and him crucified we don't know anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified father anything in the minds and hearts of these people that is not consistent with that that causes suspicion that causes fear we bind it in Jesus name Holy Spirit drive it out drive it out and help them to see only the beauty of your nature as it's exactly represented in Jesus Christ crucified and and we stand on the authority of the victory of the Cross and come against Satan and and demonic powers that afflict these people we declare you have been defeated once and for all in Jesus name and these are Kingdom people but as evidenced by the fact that they are standing up right now and and therefore you have no authority any longer in their life you once did you haven't no longer because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ hallelujah they are covered by the blood and so we bind you and command you to leave off of them and because these are this is kingdom property bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ hallelujah hallelujah and Holy Spirit flood them right now flood them with a confidence drive out all fear wherever there's the appeasing God they'll be fear fear that we haven't appeased enough father run out that fear by rooting out that picture of you and replace it with the God who gives freely loves freely saves really forgives freely cleanses freely Lord to replace that motivation with the motivation that Paul tells us to have be compelled by the love of God as they see your beauty they want to live for you they want to get their lives to look more christ-like let that love be their motivation the gasoline I wish the kingdom engine runs hallelujah set the captives free look who the Sun sets free is free indeed when the Sun sets free is free indeed set them free set the captives free break the chains break the yolks and free them Lord to dance enjoy in your kingdom rather than sloth around and fear set them free and now with the rest of us stand as I close with this we leave this place I pray that we be a people who are constantly renewing our minds putting aside false conceptions that is the way the enemy keeps us in bondage it's the lie that he started with in Genesis it's a lie he continues with today put the lie aside and trust that God is not only as beautiful as he's revealing the cross but he definitely more beautiful than you could ever conceive of him being if you get the sense that maybe maybe I'm thinking got it's too beautiful perish the thought because the only thing that's possible is for you to fall short of capturing his beauty you'll never exceed it and the beauty of our lives will never outrun the beauty of our conception of God we always become the God that we worship see the beautiful God and then imitate the beautiful God to put the beautiful God on display to a world that desperately needs the beautiful God and his name is Jesus Christ and by his shed blood we are freed and we are forgiven and all of God's kingdom people said amen amen god bless you guys go ahead love in the world

Channel: The Narrow Gate

Views: 17,349

Rating: 4.5632186 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Satan, Sin, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Christian, The Gospel, Truth, Lord, Salvation, The Word, Preaching, Study, Sermon, The Father, Faith, Hope, Love, Apostle, Disciples, Heaven, Hell, Demons, Angels, Prophets, Saints, The Cross, Calvary, Crucified, Born Again, Scripture, Prophecy, Holy, Justification, Sanctification, Regeneration, Soul, Church, The Blood, Prayer, New Covenant, Grace, Christianity, Martyr, Pastor, Messiah, Savior, Atonement, PRAYER, repent, Hebrews 9, Greg Boyd

Id: 5tgrrTNK068

Length: 47min 24sec (2844 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 01 2014