6.9.26 – Ahead of, Not Instead of, Part 5

As we draw these studies to a close, I want to encourage you to hear me carefully. I am not saying there is no atonement in the gospel. John writes, "He is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole cosmos." Atonement runs from the beginning to the end of the gospel. The question has never been whether atonement is real. The question has always been: What is atonement? For ten weeks, I have been telling you: Atonement is not God's wrath being pacified by death. It is His life overcoming the forces of death. Atonement is cleansing, the holding together of heaven and earth, so that God's presence can dwell with His people. Jesus is the atonement for the whole world. John says His indestructible life is the answer to the death-dying condition every human being lives in. He is the cleansing, the consecration, the living water, the meeting place where heaven and earth come together. He is more than enough. That is more atonement than Penal Substitutionary Atonement ever offered.

Some say this is absolute heresy. "You will answer for this one day. This is a demotion of Jesus. You are pulling back His glory. You are softening the cross." But here is what I actually said: His obedience was real. His faithfulness was real. He merited the fullness of the Spirit by walking the path no one else could walk. He confronted the forces of death and overcame them. His life is indestructible. He is the cure prepared before the wound. He is the atonement for the whole world. That is not a smaller Jesus. That is a larger Yeshua.

Most people have been given a Jesus who is, to use the words, teleologically unique and ethically paradigmatic. What does that mean? Teleologically unique means the salvation He brings is His alone. There is no other path. We cannot reproduce it or replicate it. We can only receive it. Ethically paradigmatic means His death is the pattern, the model, the shape our lives are meant to take. Salvation we receive. Sacrifices are not supposed to live—sacrifices die, that is what they do. But Paul says you do live while dying daily. Your life is offered up in the giving of every day, every breath, every choice: how you interact with people, how you repair the world, how you welcome the presence of God into this fallen place. The cross has not ended your story. The cross began it.

Paul continues: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God." Transformed—not pardoned alone. Transformed. That means doing something. And not just for us. There is a quote from Desmond Tutu that I love: "God without us will not, just as we without God cannot." God without us will not. From the beginning, God has expected us to be partners in creation. I know it is not popular, but that is the truth. He will not redeem the world without us. But He will not—what is God without us? He has chosen to redeem the world through His Son and repair it through the people His Son is gathering. The second half is just as important. Just as we, without God, cannot, without Him, we cannot do it on our own. We do not have the life, the strength, the new heart. But in Jesus, He has given us everything we need: indestructible life, Spirit poured out, the new heart promised in Ezekiel made real. We can become because He has gone ahead. The redemption of the world is the meaning of those two participations. That is the gospel. He has gone ahead, not instead.

As we finish, let us remind ourselves that chen is favor that flows through demonstrated faithfulness—the standing of the Righteous One. Moses placed his life on the line for the guilty people. Joseph became the savior of Egypt. Noah saved God's house. Today, on this 17th day of counting toward the firstfruits of the wine, we close right where we began: He (Yeshua) is the Righteous One in whose favor the Father stands. This is the ground we stand on. His faithfulness is the merit we share. His indestructible life is the life God calls us to walk. Traditionally, every single Shabbat, disciples sing: for the sake of our Master, and His merit, and His virtues in Him, God be favorable. "Our words, the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight"—He went into the conditions we were already in (death), carried it through to the other side, and emerged with a life death could not hold. And He turned to us and said, "Follow Me."

That is the atonement we have been missing. Not God satisfied by punishment, but the faithful Son, the cure prepared before the wound. He is the meeting place of heaven and earth. He is the atonement for our sins and for the whole world.

This is the narrow path. This is what the cross means: He goes ahead, not instead. Will you follow Him?

Shalom,
Alan

P.S. If you want to go back and look at any of the daily studies, they are on the lightintorah.org website, under the DEVOTIONAL tab.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4.4.26 ~ Can You Count to Three?

Image
Today, Saturday 4/4/26, many will celebrate the day that Yeshua was visibly seen risen from the grave (John 20:1; Matt. 28:1–10; Luke 24:1–10)! The day after His resurrection, Yeshua would be out ministering to the doubts of His disciples, helping them realize that He is alive and that the purpose of His resurrection would be catalyzed by their lives. For the disciples closest to Yeshua and those who stood at a safe distance away, it was a time of doubt. The enemy was in hot pursuit. They were fearful for their lives, but just at the God-appointed time, their salvation appeared.  Does that sound vaguely familiar? It should. Earlier this week, on the day after Passover—the 15th of the first month—the natural-born Israelites and those who joined them through the blood of the Lamb exited Egypt and headed toward the sea. In just a few days, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pharaoh would not be happy that he let the Israelites go; he felt betrayed, and he was hot (Ex. 14:5–9). Mose...
Read more

3.20.25 ~ Pray for Boldness, Not Escape

Good morning! Yesterday, we learned some essential truths about how to 'be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46:10). Today, I want to ask you a different question based on life's ability to throw a wide variety of circumstances at us!  One of the most difficult situations is when we are threatened by someone or some circumstance. Have you ever been threatened?  Oh, maybe no one came up to you with a gun, or shouted at you with malice, or told you that you were going to be tortured or punished.  Maybe all the threat you ever had was the innuendo of rejection, or the social snub or something much less violent than jail time.  But my guess is that if you are traveling the road with Yeshua, living a Torah lifestyle, you know what it means to be threatened. Every time the circumstances of your life look as though they are about to cave in, you are threatened.  It might not be a threat from a physical enemy, then again...but we all know that in one form or another t...
Read more

3.22.25 ~ Zeal Without Boundaries: The Sabbath and the Golden Calf

Shabbat shalom! Although the portion of Vayakhel/and he assembled is almost entirely focused on the construction of the tabernacle, it begins by reminding the children of Israel that no work may be done on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:2,3). Why does it begin here rather than jumping right into how to construct the Tabernacle? Enquiring minds want to know :-) By placing the topic of the Sabbath against the construction of the Tabernacle it's God's way of defining the boundaries of the Sabbath...that even the most intimate work for the Lord needs to be put aside for His 'Date Day'. However, upon further investigation, there’s another layer to understand that connects us back to the golden calf (Ex. 32). As we know, while Moses was up on the mount getting the instructions from God the children of Israel decided to make an object that would replace Moses, their deliverer; The object, later known as the golden calf, originally intended as a 'necessary' means to have God in th...
Read more