Daily Archives: December 17, 2014

Lesson 1 of Series Revelation 1:1 ‘Must’

Revelation Commentary

Lesson I: Blessings And Cursings

First, a moral God cannot lie.

The promised blessings of the Covenant had been fulfilled many times over, but God had delayed his ultimate wrath because of His longsuffering and mercy. When the people sinned in the Wilderness, He had threatened to destroy the entire people and make of Moses His nation, but Moses interceded and they were spared.

The moral dilemma in 68 AD was that the entire fleshly race of Mankind had been infected by Sin and was therefore corrupt. But the Covenant required holiness as a condition of the eternal promises. It was therefore impossible that a fleshly people could inherit eternal promises. The eternal aspect of the Covenant required that there be an eternal Heir, which could not be if the sinful fleshly nation were all destroyed because of sin. This had provided a false sense of security for the descendants of Abraham, for they thought their fleshly nation was indestructible because of God’s promise. However, they had not reckoned with God’s power to raise the dead.

Christ The Eternal Heir

Although the entire nation had gone astray, in the resurrection Christ became the eternal Heir to the promises because of His unending life, and so the promises continue in effect through Him. From the moment of the resurrection onward, there was no necessity for any other fleshly heir in order to fulfill the promises. Because His flesh was descended from Abraham, the promises to the fleshly seed became eternally effective in Christ in His resurrected body.

Curses

It was therefore possible for God to bring the promised curses upon the entire remainder of the fleshly lineage of Abraham as it was necessary to fulfill His word. The promise of cursing in Deuteronomy 29:18-21 reads:

“Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ …The Lord would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy would smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book would settle upon him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord would single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law,” (RSV).

Delayed fulfillment of the cursing was not to be taken as permissiveness, nor slackness, but rather as a token of mercy and grace in order to bring men to repentance. God rebukes and chastens the sons whom He loves, but when corrective measures are unheeded, the wrath of His judgment is sure, for God cannot lie. For the Jewish nation in the time of John the Revelator the time was up and they were due for repentance or judgment. The message of Jesus as well as that of John the Baptist was “Repent” to avoid “the wrath that is to come.”

 

Lesson 2 of Series: Judgment Against The Jews First

Revelation Commentary, , , ,

Why was it ‘Morally Necessary” that God Judge the Jews First?

Romans 2:2-11 sets forth the rationale for God’s righteous judgment against the Jews. In verses 2-3 we see that, in order to deter sin, judgment rightly falls upon those who do these evil things, lest sinners should hope to escape, and lest God’s purposes should be misunderstood, (verse 4). It is God’s nature as a holy God to bless the righteous and to condemn the wicked, (verses 5-8). He shows no partiality in judgment, (verses 6 and 11).

Since salvation was to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, (Rom. 1:16), it is also just that God’s righteous wrath be revealed first against the Jews, but also against the unrepentant Gentiles in their time. This order: “the Jew first,” does not reflect any respect of persons in judgment, nor a superior position in grace. It simply shows God’s sovereign choice of method in revealing Himself and His salvation to the world. He chose to use the Jews as an example, a pattern, and as a type and shadow. Having had the privilege of receiving God’s revelation in the Law, the Covenant and the Prophets, they were held accountable for recognizing Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all that was previously foretold and promised. By the same token, after Gentiles receive the Gospel, they too are equally responsible.

The Jews Held Accountable

The life, works, death and resurrection of Christ had been fully revealed to the entire Jewish world in the period prior to AD 70, (Colossians 1:5-6). It was therefore morally imperative that they be brought to account. Romans 1:18-32 declares that God’s wrath is being revealed against those “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” At that time, this applied specifically to the Jewish nation. It was they who were without excuse, (v.20), because they had been fully exposed to the knowledge of God, (v. 21), had had the truth of God, (v. 25), and knew about the promised judgments of God, (v. 32).

To those Jews Paul declared that “…the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” (Rom. 2:24). It was morally imperative that God defend His Name against blasphemy.

Distinction Between Jews and “Those Who Call Themselves ‘Jews'”

Indeed, the name ‘Jew’ itself was being misused by these unbelievers, for Paul shows that true Jewish identity depends upon faith, not upon circumcision of the flesh, but rather that of the heart, “…in the spirit, and not in the letter,” (Rom. 2:28-29). (See also Deut. 30:6; Jer. 32:29.) In fact this passage in Romans 2 from verse 17, “Behold, thou art called a Jew,” through verse 29 furnishes a definition of the kinds of people “who call themselves Jews and are not, but do lie,” as mentioned in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9.

In Romans 3:5-6, Paul chides those Jews for suggesting that God might be unjust to take vengeance upon them for their sins. Then he says: “God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world?” This clearly indicates that judgment and vengeance against these Jews was a prerequisite, and was morally imperative if God was to judge the entire Gentile world later for these same sins.

The Word Must

Therefore, this word must, (Revelation 1:1), indicating a moral imperative, foreshadows what is about to be revealed to John. It was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. God’s righteous wrath upon the unbelieving wicked is described symbolically as the destruction of “Mystery Babylon,” (Revelation 17 and 18).