242 Who Killed Jesus According to the Epistles? Part 1

So who actually killed Jesus. Many would say that He was killed to satisfy God's demand for justice. That God need the death of His Son to enable Him to forgive mankind. As a result we have been taught that in essence God killed Jesus. However, what is the Biblical evidence? We will continue in this series and look at the Epistles and see what they say as to why Jesus died. We take a close look at what it means to come and give his life as a ransom. To whom is that ransom paid. Come and join us on this engaging dialogue.

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SHOW NOTES

Who killed Jesus according to the Epistles?

This is the third essay on the cause of Jesus’ death and we begin by noticing again one of the reasons Jesus gave for his incarnation.

Matthew 20:28 NLT For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others

and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6)

Service.

Jesus came to serve us. He did so by wonderfully inspiring our lives and raising our

future expectations. He came to deliver us from certain doom to a manifest hope and joy. It was change us—not to change God that he came to live, die and resurrect. God and Jesus together decided on this divine intervention (John 3:16-17).

His miraculous acts of healing and compassion were for us not God. He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13) and made breakfast for them (John 21:12-13). At the marriage supper of the Lamb Jesus will seat us and serve us (Luke 12:37). He and God are working together in all these acts of service to human beings.

The Ransom.

A ransom was paid to free a slave or a hostage. In our day Ransom Ware requires

payment for release of data held hostage. Satan held us in psychological bondage through our warped ideas of God. God in Jesus had to die to convince us of what God was really like. The robe, ring and sandals were the ransom the father paid to the prodigal son to release him from his wrong ideas about his father and himself. We did not, could not, believe God was extravagantly good to the core of his being. When we had done our worst by executing his Son, he burst forth from the tomb with forgiveness and acceptance we finally realized we could not stop God loving us. This was the ransom God had to pay to release us from our bondage to evil.

Luke 22:19 "He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in

pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do

this in remembrance of me.’” (1 Corinthians. 11:24).

The teachings and actions of Jesus are to become as internalized as bread is. Giving his body meant letting us do as we wished with his body. Shame on Jesus’ best friends who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane when he most needed support. Shame on humanity who hung his body naked on a cross for all the universe to see what they thought of the Creator God.

John 3:14-17 "And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so

the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have

eternal life. 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so

that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent not his

Son into the world to condemn that world but that through him the world might be

saved."

Here we have the truth stated again. God gives his son to us. We can treat the son as we wish to. We can torture the son to see how deep his love is for us. The benefit from God, if we do not refuse this benefit, is physical and moral transformation and eternal life for us. There is no statedchange in or for God. Before we move on, we consider the meaning of the verb “believe.” “Believing” is the crucial action man must make. But believing what? There are many synonyms for belief such as faith, trust, and confidence. When all the adjectives are stripped away “believe” means: Jesus loves me, he has great affection for me. He knows me by name and I am precious to him. He has forgiven all my faults and failures. He has written my name in his book of life. He has my picture on his fridge. God in Jesus Christ cannot stop loving me.

This is what Gethsemane and Calvary demonstrated. I can sleep while he is dying, I can betray him, deny him, abandon him, torture him, reject him, abuse him, mock him, execute him but my treachery will NOT pause his love for me!

God and Jesus are theologically congruent in every way in their desire to love and serve

humanity.

The literal blood of Jesus is only mentioned twice in Bible.

Luke 22:44 NLT He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his

sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. (hematidrosis)

John 19:34 NLT One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and

immediately blood and water flowed out.

Both instances are referring to the same phenomenon. The pressure of our social and physical rejection caused the hemorrhaging that eventually ended Jesus’ life. The other references to Jesus’ blood are symbolic references to his life given in death.

The Passion movie by Mel Gibson portrayed the way to appease a pagan god. It is by extracting as much blood as possible before the victim dies. The more painful the extraction of blood the greater the possibility of persuading a pagan god to do what the worshipper wants. Jesus’ death was different. While we tortured and executed him, because he was divine, he had to lay down his life before he could physically die.

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the

sheep.”

Jesus sacrificed his life for us or better still TO us. His death was not to persuade God to forgive us because God was inspiring this voluntary death. By contrast, human shepherds breed, protect and care for their sheep and then eat some of their sheep so they can live. They are not good shepherds!

Whole other New Testament writers describe Jesus’ death as a sacrifice Jesus NEVER refers to his death as a sacrifice.

“A sacrifice is the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession

to a deity, as in propitiation or homage” (Dictionary.com).A sacrifice can be connected to propitiation which implies an intent to change the receiver’s or the deity’s mind. Here is an example. “God smelled the smoke of the burnt offering, and he was pleased” (Leviticus 1:13). The Old Testament sacrifices were attempts to change God’s mind by

giving him food. The truth for the “Lamb of God” is that God gave him to us to change our

minds about God. His mind did not need changing. He was always on our side.

An offering pays homage. It is a symbolic or literal demonstration of appreciation. A synonym for offering is gift. It is not a sacrifice because no change of the mind of the deity is being attempted.

We are ready to consider the Epistles.

Jesus’ torture and suffering and death destroyed the web of lies that Satan had spun. It is the truth about God’s great love for us which delivers us from his delusions about God and ourselves.

Romans 3:23-25 KJV For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (Gr. hilasterion) through faith in his

blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the

forbearance of God;

The Greek word “Hilasterion” is connected to the cover of the ark of the covenant, the mercy- seat, the place of propitiation. It also occurs in Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 9:5. It is translated as Propitiation in the KJV which implies appeasement of an offended deity. It is a most unfortunate choice since Jesus was not appeasing his offended farther. The father was in Christ effecting the change in mankind (2 Corinthians 5:21). Many newer translations avoid using propitiation. Here are two.

Romans 3:23-25 NRSV "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now

justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God

put forward as a sacrifice of atonement (Gr. hilasterion) by his blood, effective through

faith."

Romans 3:23-25 NLT “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious

standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through

Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for (consequences of) our sins. 25 For

God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. (Propitiation not used for hilasterion)”

Sin means taking offence and it is commonly believed that God took offence when we sinned. However, the opposite is true. There is more to sin than disconnecting from God. We can disconnect from God but he does not disconnect from us. Satan has disconnected from God but he is still alive because of God’s unconditional love. “Sin” is first used in the dialogue between God and Cain which means it is possible to sin without a definition of sin. Sin is a wanting more than one has that leads to falsehood and violence which are the hallmarks of evil.

Romans 4:25 NLT “He was handed over (paradidōmi) to die because of our sins, and hewas raised to life to make us right with God.”

“paradidōmi” is also used in Romans 1:24, 26, and 28 where it is translated as “giving over” to the results of our choices. Jesus was handed over to the consequences of our evil actions against him. He was not punished by God for something he did not do. We murdered Jesus because he was an embarrassment in his love and compassion towards those we hate and despise.

Romans 5:6 "Christ died for the wicked."

Christ did not die to change God’s mind. The motivation of God is kindness (Romans 2:4). This death affected all sinners, not just human sinners. Christ gave us his identity after taking our identity as sinners.

Romans 5:8 "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while

we were still sinners."

He did not forgive us because we had enticed him to do so by noble work or altruistic motive or sacrifice. He forgave us because this is his nature. He loves us unconditionally.

Romans 5:10 "For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son

while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved (healed) through the life of his

Son."

Our friendship with God was restored by his death at our hands. God came searching for Adam and Eve after they decided to hide from him. They thought he considered them enemies, but this was a lie. The cross demonstrated that God is our truest friend. God took the initiative in reconciling us to himself even though we were in the wrong. This was a moral action not a legal act. We found out that there was nothing we could do to stop God loving us (1 Peter 2:21-23).

Try me in a kangaroo court—and I still will love you!

Forsake me, betray me—and I still will love you!

Spit in my face—and I still will love you!

Beat me to within an inch of my life—and I still will love you!

Press a crown of thorns into my scalp—and I still will love you!

Nail me to the cross naked—and I still will love you!

Break my heart—and I still will love you!

Nothing you can do will make me not love you,

You will never be beyond my love for you. (Smuts van Rooyan)