243 Who Killed Jesus According to the Epistles Part 2

We conclude this close look at that passages that talk about Jesus death and discover that what we have been led to believe is just not supported by scripture. Jesus did not need to die to change God's mind about us and enable him to forgive us. He died because we killed Him in His endeavour to get us to change our mind about God.

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Who Killed Jesus According to the Epistles Part 2

Healing or salvation was achieved by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. After the resurrection he demonstrated no desire for revenge on us even though we expected rejection for our disgraceful behaviour. “Peace be unto you. Fear not.” was Jesus’ greeting after the resurrection. This was to assure the disciples that he was not going to take revenge or punish them for their part in his death. We are healed by the work of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Peter 1:5) and the Spirit came because of the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension. Hebrews 2:14 shows that Jesusovercame death and the devil.

1 Corinthians 15:3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been

passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said." (Isaiah 53:1-12.)

God did not use some mystical process to lay our sins or our guilt and shame on Jesus. We placed our guilt and shame on him in the way we treated him. We rejected, abandoned, denied, betrayed, mocked, tortured, and finally executed him. God did not punish his beloved Son through us. We chose to do so and we need to take responsibility for our choice. We were not pawns that God used to kill Jesus. We acted out our own evil desire. Jesus died because of the emotional and physical stress we caused him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 RSV For our sake he made him to be sin (experience the

consequences of sin) who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We used to think Jesus’ identity came from his behavior (2 Corinthians 5:16).This is not true. Jesus is God (John 1:1-3). He took our sinful or false identity (sinful human nature) and gave us his identity—Son of God. “In Christ” means we have our original identity back. Can you believe this good news? Faith means that we choose to believe God’s view of us as opposed to our view of ourselves.

We can now reconcile people to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18 NLT And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to

himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.

We do NOT reconcile God to people. He has always been on people’s side. He knows they never chose to be sinners. It was Adam’s choice, not theirs.

Galatians 1:4 NLT “Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned in

order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.”

Jesus loved us to the end and he endured whatever we demanded of him. We executed him and he forgave us the sin of murder. “Father forgive them . . .” It is not at the Second Coming that we are given freedom from condemnation. We have freedom from Satan’s lies, our guilty consciences now! We no longer fear God, he is the Saviour of our souls.

Galatians 3:10, 13 RSV "All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is

written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the

law, and do them.' ... Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a

curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.'"

The curse of the law is condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7-9). The curse or sting of sin is death (1 Corinthians 15:56). Jesus despised the shame of torture and the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus exposed all shame as untrue with his resurrection.Ephesians 1:7 "He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins."

After we had executed Jesus, we realized his love for us even though we executed him. This is how we know he forgave our sins—he took no revenge. The Greek word translated forgiveness can also mean freedom.

Ephesians 2:16 "Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means

of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.”

This means that the cross affects us internally. It is not a legal solution but an emotional solution to our ever-present hostility towards other people. The change is internal, in us. It gives us a new identity—we are royal children. This is why we can get along with others now. They are also royal children. A common purpose brings us together. What about diet divisions? What about refusing smokers and beer drinkers for baptism? What about using marihuana when we know that many need mind altering drugs to cope with the hurts of the heart?

Ephesian 5:2 “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved

us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God."

One way of understanding this statement is the Christ was the Lamb of God brought to us as a sacrifice. Sacrifices were to change the receiver’s mind. In this case we are the receiver. God’s lamb was to change our mind about God. Can you love a person without sacrificing something for them? God’s heart is bigger than our problems: Down’s syndrome, alcoholism, addiction, greed. Prostitutes and publicans go in ahead of you because they are not in rebellion against the Spirit. The unforgivable sin is persistent rebellion against the forgiveness of God, the refusal to forgive others (Matthew 6:14-15).

Colossians 1:20 "and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace

with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross."

We were reconciled to God. God was not reconciled to us because he never left us. We left him in Eden and have been running from him ever since. At the same time we have accused God if hating us a planning to burn us if we do not toe the line of his commandments. Some even believe that God will burn rebellious sinners forever.

Colossians 1:22 NLT Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of

Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and

you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

This verse reveals God’s attitude towards us which was demonstrated by the cross of Christ. The emphasis is on the kindness of God (Romans 2:4) which leads to a change in us. There is no hint of any change in God or Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:10 “Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he

returns, we can live with him forever.

”He died so that we could live with him forever. Clearly it is not God’s life which is extended but our life.

Titus 2:14 "He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make

us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

The cross changes us. It does not change God.

Hebrews 9:22 NLT “In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was

purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

“Everything”—refers to the earthly sanctuary NOT to heavenly realities.

Hebrews 9:26 "He has appeared and for all at the climax of history to abolish sin by the

sacrifice of Himself."

Sin must be abolished in us and sin is not abolished in the sinless God.

Hebrews 9:28 "so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the

sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation

to all who are eagerly waiting for him."

Christ’s death at our hands indicates that God keeps no record of our sins (1 Corinthians 13:5) and as a result we have freedom from death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7, 9). At his resurrection Jesus had no words of incrimination for his embarrassed disciples. This is God being revealed at his best.

Hebrews 10:12-14 NLT But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice

for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right

hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his

feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever gave a perfect identity to those who are being

made holy in their performance.

It is man that is changed by the sacrifice of Christ. This sacrifice was offered to us to change our minds. The cross does not change God. The cross reveals God to us and this picture of God results in the resurrection of love in our hearts

1 Peter 2:22-24 RSV "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die

to sin and live to righteousness."

This wonderful effect is on us, not on God. He built the bridge to get us home to God.

1 Peter 3:18 "Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died

for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was

raised to life in the Spirit."

Suffering for our sins means at least what we did to him during his passion. Sin is more than the breaking of a law it is rather believing falsehoods about God and others. Forgiveness means disarming these falsehoods. Notice that we are brought back to God. It is not God who is brought to us. He has never left us. Adam and Eve hid from God who came searching for them.

Peter was a proactive, outspoken, loyal, committed, soft hearted, genuine follower of Jesus. Soft hearted because of the dialogue between Jesus and Peter (John 21). Peter was the first to declare Jesus as God but also first to deny him. Peter gives a warm picture of God which is absent in the writings of the Reformers. The Reformers were into Law and Justice rather than the affection of God for us.

Penal Substitution Atonement

The reformers produced the Penal Substitution Atonement Theory (PSA).

Proponents of PSA use at least the following scriptures to motivate this theory that God had to kill Jesus before he could legally forgive us. This idea is termed divine justice.

Genesis 22 (Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac), Exodus 12:23 (Innocent lamb provided protection from destroyer), Leviticus 17:11 (innocent lamb has sin placed on it and killed for forgiveness),

Isaiah 53:2,10 (It is God’s will to crush his servant Messiah).

Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28 (Jesus gives his life as a ransom), Matthew 27:46 (Jesus cry of

depression in Gethsemane and dereliction on the cross) 2 Corinthians 5:21 (God made Christ to be sin), Galatians 3:13 (Jesus became a curse for us), and 1 Peter 3:18 (Jesus is the divine substitute). Romans 3:25-26 (Jesus is a "propitiation" an appeasement of divine wrath, demonstrating God’s righteousness and allowing Him to be both "just and the justifier").

1 John 1:7 "But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have

fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin."

The light (transparent) through the death of Jesus restores the truth of who God really is and this is what separates us from the falsehoods we have received from the devil.

God is NOT the source of good and evil, only good (1 John 1:5). The light of God is that he

created us to love and serve us. He did not create us to be his servants or slaves (John 15:5).

Darkness is attributed to God by the following teachings: an ever-burning hell, God causes illness and death, the LORD gives and takes away, God made us to worship and serve him, God is going to punish sinners at the end of time.

The “blood of Jesus” means his life given in death. We pushed Jesus with our cruelty to test the limits of God’s love, to find out at what point God would declare he could love us no further. We never could find a place or time when God stopped loving us.

1 John 2:2 NLT He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our

sins but the sins of all the world. (Cp. John 12:47)

The sacrifice Jesus made was to us! To change our minds. The sacrifice was not to appease God but to remove our fear of God. Our picture of God in Eden can be predicated on Adam and Eve being removed from the garden and a flaming sword preventing them re-entering. This pictures God as being unwilling to associate with them anymore. Is it true that God drove them out?

Moses wrote the story 2000 or 3000 years after the creation and fall. The stories were modified with each generation until he wrote them down.

1 John 4:10 (NLT) “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and

sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

It’s not that God was offended by man’s sin and needed to be somehow persuaded to forgive our sins. He wanted relationship with us so badly that he was willing to do anything to take away our anger against him and to bring us back home. To accomplish this reconciliation Jesus had to teach us the truth about God and so take away the lies we had believed about God.

Revelation 1:5-6 "and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the

first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who

loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. 6 He has made us a

Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever!

Amen."

Satan can replicate all the miracles of Jesus but he never could allow us to take his life. His kingdom is driven by self-centeredness.

According to Revelation 5 only the slain lamb can deal with the suffering in the world (6:10-11).

This chapter tells of a cosmic crisis which God cannot solve but the slain lamb can and does solve it.

If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian

virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology;

hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement;

fortitude without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care

without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is an expression

of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love.

(Richard Rohr)

Ian Hartley, November 2021

Some scriptures in the O.T. indicated that Messiah would die. Genesis 3:15; Psalm 16:10; Psalm 22:1, 7-8, 14-16, 18; Psalm 31:5, Psalm 34:20; Psalm 69:21; Psalm 109:4; Isaiah 26:19; 50:6; 53:7, 9; Amos 8:9; Zechariah 13:7, 12; Jonah 2.The role of Serpents: Numbers 21:8-9 (John 3:14-16).

When we acknowledge the problem caused with our rebellion we will be healed. This is what looking at the bronze serpent accomplished for the Israelites. Looking at the serpent meant confessing that their rebellion drove away God’s protection and the serpents that were there all the time now had access to them.

Jonah: Jesus refers to Jonah’s experience in the fish where Jonah gives up hope and cries out to God (Jonah 2). How did Jesus come to this statement? (Mt 12:39-41; Lk 11:29-32). Jesus gives up all hope and cries out to God on the cross with “My God. My God why have you forsaken me?” People of Jesus’ day refused to listen to him and refused to repent.

Less direct Scriptures:

Luke 7:41-42 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” (He who has been forgiven little loves little.)

Luke 11:21 For when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe—22 until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings.

John 12:31 “The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

Hebrews 2:14 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had[a] the power of death.

1 John 3:8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who

has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of

the devil.

This scene from the movie Trading Places illustrates the situation we are thinking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehVgQYed60