In the above passage we see Paul introducing the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles in Pisidian Antioch to Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus might have been known to some of them, for Jesus’ popularity had spread to other lands, but for most of them, they were probably quite ignorant of what happened to Jesus in Jerusalem and why. Paul tells them that he and Barnabas and others, who knew and walked with Jesus, have the responsibility to present the message of salvation, the GOOD NEWS, to the world that has come in and through Jesus Christ. The Romans, at the behest of the Jewish elite, executed Jesus on a cross. By condemning Jesus to death, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Jesus' agonizing death on the cross fulfilled the Psalmist's words: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22:14-18) In Jesus’ dying moments He experienced everything the prophets wrote about him. He fulfilled their words of what the Messiah would experience in his last few minutes on earth. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7-9) In the land of the living where people were enamored with violence and sin, He was sinless. He carried their sins to his death. He became God's propitiation for the people's sins. Paul tells the people of Antioch, by the death of Jesus, God ransomed Jews and all others from the hands of the oppressor, the devil. But God’s Messiah, Jesus, did not inhabit the tomb long, for as with Jonah, He was in the earth’s domain for only three days. God raised him from the dead. After his resurrection, he presented his resurrected self to his followers and commissioned them to tell of this Good News that God through faith in his works would give all people, everywhere, eternal life. By being raised from the dead, He fulfills the promise God gave King David: I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you: When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever. (1 Chronicles 17:10-14) Of course, David a man of flesh eventually fell asleep, he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. But his offspring, God promised would never face decay, instead He would reign forever over the house of David and all others. The Good News is that Jesus paid the price for sin and death. Through him eternal life is guaranteed to all people who place their trust in his work on the cross. He paid the complete price for the transgressions of humans, for their rebellious nature to the God of creation.
This promise of eternal life to all people began in the Garden. God made people in his image, in his likeness. In their freedom, Adam and Eve chose to go their own way. This was part of God’s plan for humans from the beginning of time. God made humans with the privilege to organize their lives as they desire, not necessarily as God desires for them. Eve, because of Satan’s words, chose to be like God, to plan out her own existence. This desire to be separated from God brought a condition of sin and rebellion in humans. The crescendo of this rebellious nature happened In Noah’s time, hundreds of years after creation. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5) God dealt with this generation by destroying them through the flood, starting over with mankind through Noah’s family. Yet the decay of sin was still present in humans. However, God was gracious to mankind and chose not to punish them further; instead, He gave them grace through an idol worshipper: Abraham. God called Abraham’s family out of the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, northern Turkey. Later they settled in southern Turkey where Abraham’s father, Teran, died. Then God through unmerited grace told Abraham to leave the land of his forefathers and settle in Canaan. He also told Abraham things that were improbable or even impossible: The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3) This intervention into Abraham’s life left Abraham with a choice: either believe these words he heard from God or keep his mindset of believing in his idols. He chose to believe God’s words, which God credited to him as righteousness. God gave Abraham right standing with him because Abraham chose to believe God’s words instead of his inclination towards serving idols as the direction in his life. Abraham so much believed God’s words that he even was willing to give up his only son Isaac as a sacrifice because God requested that of him. For him, in his fleshly understanding, God could fulfill his promises to him through his son Isaac, but God asked him the unimaginable: give Isaac to me on an altar of sacrifice. Because Abraham stood solid in his faith, God affirmed his words to Abraham by saying to him, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:16-18) Now Paul is affirming this blessing to Abraham in the synagogue in Antioch. He and Barnabas and others are going to all lands spreading the Good News that was given to Abraham, through your offspring [Jesus] all nations on earth will be blessed. This blessing is encapsulated by faith in Jesus Christ, the resurrected One. Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
God has never lost contact with, or forgotten, his eternal plan to make humans into his own, eternal children. Through freedom as God has freedom, the human race lost contact with God, rebellious to him and his nature. To the Antioch congregation, Paul is declaring the Good News of God’s salvation plan to alter the composition of mankind, making them born-again people. We see Paul quoting Psalm 2:7, You are my son; today I have become your father. We know Christ from the beginning of time was united with God the Father. He has always been with the Father, a part of the household of God. But Jesus called himself, the Son of man. Christ became flesh as we are flesh, and his flesh died, as we will die. When resurrected, He became the universal created one, from the flesh, as the son of man, to eternal life: Today, you are my son, passing from the fleshly garment of a human into the raiment of eternal life. We too who are buried with Jesus in faith will hear that announcement in our own resurrection: Today, your are my son or daughter. We are the seed that fell on good ground. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23) We will flourish because of the work of Christ in us. We are those that Jesus is not embarrassed to introduce us to his Father. For we are those who accept the Good News of transformation of the flesh into eternal life. This is a promise not only for us but to all the people of the world. Each of the redeemed can say, I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. (Isaiah 61:10-11). The blessings of Abraham have come to all of his descendants. And who are his descendants? All who are clothed in righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ, the Jews first and then the Gentiles. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29) We should consider the blessings of Abraham as ours. He went to a new land, a land he did not own. There in that land he was promised that he would become the possessor of it. All of this was unimaginable to his flesh, unobtainable for sure by human effort. But God promised it to him, and it was fulfilled through his descendants who came out of slavery. We too have been in slavery to sin and rebellion, but God has delivered us from slavery through the blood of Jesus Christ over our lives. The Jews were delivered from Pharaoh’s hand, through the blood of lambs. We have been delivered out of sin and death by the blood of THE LAMB. Our release has been completed. We now have a land to occupy, forever known as the kingdom of God. We are no longer homeless, bound to the waywardness of this world. We have a home with the eternal Father. He will never leave us or abandon us, for He gave his only begotten Son for us. This is the GOOD NEWS that Paul was trying to hammer home. God’s salvation plan from the beginning has been culminated IN JESUS THE CHRIST who lives forever, so WIILL WE. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17) Praise the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment