I read, for example, in Matthew the Son of David coming to Israel and Judah. He rarely interacts with Gentiles and even tells the Twelve, when he sends them out on mission to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, to not go to the Gentiles and Samaritans but only to Israel. Yet at the resurrection Matthew paints a Jesus who says to not only to Israel but to all nations and make them his disciples. Just read the entire book of Acts. The message the early church proclaims is not a Messiah who was crucified for sins–though that is present–but a Messiah who was resurrected from the grave to fulfill God’s promises in the OT and now appointed as God’s judge. The early church proclaimed a resurrected Jesus to both the Jews and the Gentiles. That’s what sparked all the controversy in Acts for the church. And that is just two examples off the top of my head at 11:30 pm.

During this time of seeing how important a theme the resurrection is in the New Testament, in my corner of Christendom (Reformed Evangelical Protestant, SBC), I have noticed that the resurrection is often not discussed, if at all. When it comes up, it is in passing and no exposition is given upon the resurrection. Usually those who do often do so because of the discussion being about how the world is going to end and what happens when it does. The resurrection seems like it is just part of what happens at the last day.

On Easter, in my experience, when we are to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus I hear sermons and exposition on the even of Good Friday, namely the crucifixion. I think most notably of my pastor in KC, MO. He has got to be my favorite expositor of Scripture. The authority and compassion with which he speaks is captivating while at the same time his insight into the Scripture is both deep and complex yet also simple and clear. God has truly gifted this man with the gift of preaching. In his preaching, I have observed more and more that the resurrection has gone largely untouched while at the same time the cross of Jesus is clearly expounded and unpacked. The members of my church back in KC can clearly articulate a theology of the cross, one that is fairly balanced in the major theories of atonement (but most definitely it is a church that holds primarily to penal substitution). But, as simple observation, I’m not certain they can articulate a theology of the resurrection, both Jesus’ resurrection as well as the resurrection of humanity. Let me very fair to my pastor here. I spend Easter at home in Columbia with my family so I’m not in KC where a resurrection sermon is preached. Furthermore, my pastor spent about 18 months preaching in Hebrews where the death of Jesus is focused on, but the resurrection is not neglected only the death receives the most exposition by the letter. Now he is wrapping up a series on the prophet Malachi, a text that doesn’t display a lot of resurrection themes. I do keep this in mind.

When I listen to guys like R C Sproul, John McAurthur, and John Piper (to name a few off the top of my head), the same can be said to be true. There is a clear articulation in their preaching and teaching of a theology of the cross but not so much a theology of the resurrection. And usually when I do hear these pillars of my Christian faith speak of the resurrection, like on Easter, it is only to point back to the cross where at which point their clearly defined theology of the cross is articulated again.

So as I sit here in my bed–okay not my bed but the bed in my parents’ guest bedroom–I have a couple of questions. The first question has to be, what is a theology of the resurrection? What does the resurrection (both Jesus and the believer) mean and what are its implications on soteriology and ecclesiology and missiology and the sacraments etc.? In other words, what does Jesus’ resurrection mean in terms of the salvation of both the individual and the people of God? What impact does the resurrection have on our understanding of the sacraments (Lord’s “Dinner” and Baptism) and the church? What is the significance of the resurrection in the evangelism of the lost world? What does it do to our methodology and message? What does a theology of the resurrection look like and where does one start? What narratives are needed to articulate this theology? Evangelicalism is quick to move to the Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, narrative in the Old Testament to articulate the meaning of the cross. What narrative is needed for the resurrection?

The other pressing matter in this observation is this, why is this theology of the resurrection missing (for a lack of a better term)? Why isn’t it being articulated clearly? Why aren’t we debating the meaning of the resurrection as much as we are debating the meaning of the atonement? I know one answer is that the cross is what is being challenged. But is that because the world accepts the resurrection that has been proclaimed, or has the world not heard the resurrection and therefore is not challenging its meaning? Again I can only speak of my own pocket of Christendom. May be someone who reads this post is in a pocket of Christendom where a theology of the resurrection is clearly articulated.

I don’t have answers to these questions and so I’m not asking to lead a discussion in a certain direction. I am honestly asking these questions and seeking honest answers to them. I would deeply appreciate feedback to them if you would like to provide some.

In Matthew 2:16-18, the evangelist tells the story of Herod the Great massacring the children of Bethlehem that are two years of age or younger because of the Magi announcing that the Messiah had come. He viewed this would-be king as a threat to the throne he has recently secured with help from Rome. In Matthew 2:1-12 the Magi enter Jerusalem having seen the star to guide them to the child. Herod finds for the Magi the location of the coming Messiah so that they may go and present their gifts they brought to him. Herod tells the Magi to come back and report the location of the child that he too might go and worship. However, the Magi were warned to go home by another route because of Herod’s evil intentions. In Matthew 2:13-15 Joseph is warned to take his family to Egypt until the threat of Herod has passed. So Jesus, two years old at this point in the story, is taken from Bethlehem to Egypt, fulfilling Hosea 11:1 (NET).

When one comes to Matthew 2:16-18 the reader sees an enraged Herod for he has realized that he has been tricked by the Magi (2:16). So he sends his men into Bethlehem and orders all the children two years of age and under to be slaughtered so as to not make the mistake of not killing the future ruler of his kingdom and threat to his line remaining seated on David’s throne. Matthew says that this murder of the Bethlehemite sons fulfills what was spoken by Jeremiah 31:15 (NET),

The LORD says, “A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.”

The question is how? In Jeremiah 31, this text is a metaphor for Israel in morning over her current state of exile. In 722 BCE Assyria came and took the nation into captivity, depopulating the country of her native people and razing the capital of Samaria to the ground. But the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles ended when Cyrus decreed the Hebrew people were allowed to return to their native land “beyond the Jordan.” How does Rachel weeping in Ramah for her children and refusing comfort over the loss of her children become fulfilled in Herod’s slaughter of the male children in Bethlehem?

First let us get a picture of what Jeremiah was preaching when he wrote Jeremiah 31:15. Starting at the beginning of the previous chapter (Jeremiah 30), the prophet is told to write down everything he was told by Yahweh in a book (30:2) Yahweh was making a promise to restore Israel and Judah to her previous fortunes (30:3). Yahweh looked upon his beloved nation in exile and was moved to mercy. The condition of the nation was so bad that it resembled a man in labor pains (30:6). The wound that exile inflicted upon them is “incurable” and “severe.” There is no medicine and no healing, no one to plead the people’s cause (30:12-13, 15). Their lovers, their allies, have all abandoned them and care nothing for them. Yahweh has punished them mercilessly (30:14). The nations who carried them away mock Israel and Judah as, “Zion, whom no one cares for” (30:17).

Yet Yahweh promises to restore Israel and Judah. Yahweh will be their God and will raise up David to be their King (30:8-10; cf. Jeremiah 23:5-8). The nations who scattered Israel and Judah into exile and out of their land will be destroyed (30:11, 16). His wrath will not be quenched until they are all destroyed and Israel restored (30:23-24). Yahweh will heal the wounds of Israel and Judah and restore their fortunes (30:17, 18). He will end the yoke of exile (30:8) and return them to their land, rebuild their cities and the palace (30:18). The people of Israel shall sing thanksgiving to Yahweh, and be multiplied and honored (30:19-20). Their prince, the Davidic king, shall rise out from amongst the people and Yahweh will draw the king into his presence since no one would even dare to approach the God of Abraham (30:21).

Thus in Jeremiah 31 Yahweh continues to tell of the “grace” (Jeremiah 31:2 ESV) that his people will find. Yahweh has loved Israel and Judah “with an everlasting love” and remains faithful to her (31:3). Thus Yahweh will rebuild Israel and return her to her land. They are to dance and make music because they will plant vineyards and enjoy their fruit and in joy the watchmen will cry out, “Come! Let us go to Zion to worship the LORD our God!” (31:4-6). Yahweh will regather the people from the lands of exile to which they have been dispersed. Blind and lame and pregnant, all weeping and pleading for mercy, Yahweh will lead back to the land of Ephraim as their father and they his firstborn. They shall be lead by brooks of water along a straight path upon which they will not stumble (31:7-9). The nations shall see and declare that Israel’s exile has come to an end (31:10). Yahweh will purchase back Jacob from his captor and return him to Israel. There Jacob will enjoy Yahweh’s blessing and be “radiant with joy over the good things the LORD provides” (31:12). The men and women will be merry and joyful and dance in their affection and delight in the goodness of Yahweh that they are enjoying (31:11-14).

Israel at present in Jeremiah’s message is morning over her current state for she is gone and the nation is no more (31:15-16). Yet God commands Israel to weep and grieve no longer. He is promising hope. They will be returned to the land (31:17). Israel has sought Yahweh’s rest (31:2). Israel has justified Yahweh’s sentence of exile and admitted his wrongdoing (31:18-19). So Yahweh tells Israel to prepare herself for her return to the land. She is to set up road markers. They will return and she will be a place of blessing (31:21-22). Of the land of Judah and its cities the people will say, “May the LORD bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells” (31:23). Yahweh will reverse Judah’s fortunes and watch over them as they build and plant, not destroy and tear down (31:25-28) No longer will they use the old saying “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (31:29). Everyone will be punished for their own sins. If the leadership goes astray, the people and nation as a whole won’t be destroyed. Only the leadership will be punished (31:30).

Yahweh in that day of restoration and healing will make a new covenant (31:31-34). He will write his law upon the heart of the people, not on stone tablets. He shall be their God and they his people. No longer will there be a people who say, “Know the Lord.” Everyone will know Yahweh. From the king and rulers to the poorest peasant, all will know Yahweh. And Israel’s great sin (Jeremiah 30:14-15) will be forgiven and remembered no more.

Yahweh then places a guarantee upon this promise. The one who has created the firmament and the chaotic seas has declared it. If that order which he has fixed departs from him then Israel will cease to be a nation. If heaven can be measured then he will cast off Israel for ever (31:35-37). Rather Israel and Jerusalem shall be rebuilt and established forever, never to be destroyed or overthrown again (31:38-40).

This is the promise of Yahweh through Jeremiah to his people, Israel and Judah. And Cyrus decreed that Israel and Judah be restored in their lands. However, the Davidic monarchy was not reestablished in Judah. Judah was never free from the rule of foreign nations. Yes Assyria and Babylon were defeated, but Judah was ruled over by Persia and then Greece. After the brief rest the land was given under the Hasmonean leadership, Rome conquered Israel. Israel and Judah never saw all that God had promised to give to them. They were never restored to the ideal that David had seen. They were still waiting for their exile to fully end.

And Matthew’s use of Jeremiah 31:15 in Matt 2:16-18 argues just that point. Herod was not a Davidic king. Herod was a Hebrew proselyte, not a member of the house of Jesse of the tribe of Judah. He was not of the ancestry of Abraham. He had not legitimate claim to the throne. He was as much a Gentile king as the Caesar who placed him in power over Judea. His attack upon the people of Bethlehem was a sign for Matthew that Rachel was still morning her loss as she was still in exile.

And Rachel’s morning would end when Yahweh raised up the Davidic king. Israel’s exile would end when the king took his rightful throne and God established the new covenant to forgive Israel her great sin. For Matthew, Jesus is that King. From Matthew 1:1 he has been arguing that Jesus is the Davidic king. His message is clear, the king has come and the time for Rachel’s morning to cease has arrived in the person of Jesus. In him the kingdom has come (Matthew 4:17). He is the Immanuel that Isaiah had promised (Isaiah 7:14; cf Matthew 1:23), the ruler from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; cf. Matthew 2:5). He leads Israel out of her exile in a new exodus (Hosea 11:1; cf. Matthew 2:15). He is the light that shines of Naphtali and Zebulun (Isaiah 9:1-2; cf Matthew 4:15-16). Jesus is the Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 42-53; cf Matthew 8:14-16; Matthew 12:18-21). Jesus enters into Jerusalem not on a steed for war but on a mule of peace (Zechariah 9:9; cf. Matthew 21:5-6).

The time of the new covenant has come. Matthew records for his readers in Matthew 26:27-28 (NET), “And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’” Israel’s sins have been forgiven in the death of Jesus. Upon his resurrection Jesus received his authority and throne as the Davidic king (Matthew 28:18). Israel’s exile is over and those who through faith follow him out of exile in the cross and in the new exodus of his resurrection will be delivered and vindicated against this world and its evil and into the new creation of the reign of heaven and resurrection life.

That is, in small part, Matthew’s message. He is arguing that Jesus is that Davidic king who the prophets, like Jeremiah, looked to come and lead Israel in a new exodus, ending her exile and scattered state amongst the Gentile nations, into a restored land of blessing. Jesus is the Davidic king who would reign over Israel under the terms of the new covenant that would forgive the sins of Israel and remove her guilt. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to restore to Israel the kingdom of David in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the gospel of Christmas, the King has come in the incarnation of Jesus. Only those who have come to see that they are in exile, weeping like Rachel, can be lead by this king, under a new covenant, in a new exodus out of this present evil age and into the kingdom of heaven and its new creation.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Having surveyed the story of God in the Bible, I began to work towards a definition of the gospel. Starting in the Old Testament and moving into the New Testament, I looked at how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. Then we moved into Paul and how he looked at the gospel. Having done that and really tried to expound what I mean by the gospel, I want to conclude this series with a final post that simplifies the gospel definition and speak to the response of faith and repentance to the gospel. Hopefully this series has been helpful to those who have read it because it has been helpful to me in trying to re-articulate the gospel in light of my paradigm shift away from so much of the traditional Protestant justification = forgiveness of sin = gospel. Reading the story of Jesus by Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts, and John has really altered the way I read the New Testament as a whole. Reading the story of Jesus against the backdrop of the story of Israel has changed how I read the Bible as a whole, God’s story of creation and redemption.

The Gospel Defined
So let me restate how I have defined the gospel after looking at the New Testament. The good news that I, as a follower of Jesus Messiah, am to proclaim is this: God is fulfilling his promises made in the Old Testament Scriptures in the person and work of Jesus Messiah, by sending the Spirit into this fallen world and raise up the Davidic Priestly Servant-King, to recreate the world by the Spirit under the rule of Messiah, to call Israel out of her exile and return to her land under the watchful Shepherd of Messiah, and to draw the Gentiles out of their lost and dark pagan ways and into the light of this newly created Israel in a newly created world. Jesus death and resurrection announce the beginning of this work of Yahweh to recreate the world and Israel and to restore them to their original purposes for which they were created, to fill the creation with Yahweh’s image.

To simplify this message I would put it like this:

In fulfillment of his promises, God sent the divine Messiah-King, Jesus of Nazareth, into this world to restore the creation to its original purpose through his life, death, and resurrection.

This incorporates all that I believe the New Testament speaks to when it talks about the gospels. Yes there is more that must be said to fill out the contours and shape of the gospel but this gives a simplified definition that would be more useful in evangelistic purposes. It allows for the story of God to be told to those who need to hear it. It isn’t just spouting off doctrines but putting those doctrines in the context of the story from which they are derived. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 this definition really allows the whole of Scripture to speak together in one harmonious voice.

Faith and Repentance
Now before I finish this series I want to speak a word about faith and repentance. Jesus and the Apostles give these two things as the only appropriate response to the gospel. Jesus says in Mark 1:14-15 (NET), “Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!’”

Faith is a trusting in God to fulfill his promise. Faith is a sinner seeing who Jesus is and what Jesus did and trusting that all that Jesus is and has done is true for them. Jesus is now this sinner’s king, and the sinner bows in submission to Jesus. The sinner sees Jesus as his sole and only standing before Yahweh, representing the sinner as the Holy One and the Righteous One. The sinner sees Jesus death on the cross and resurrection from the grave as the only hope of submitting to the just demands of Yahweh against the sinner’s rebellion and being able to pass through to the other side into blessing. That through Jesus’ death, the sinner has accepted God’s pronouncement of guilty as true, justifying God’s claim. That through Jesus’ resurrection the sinner will rise from the grave, fully vindicated and declared righteous and holy before the Creator. Through Jesus’ perfect obedience to the covenantal demands God has placed upon his people the sinner is no longer counted disobedient but rather obedient. Faith unites the sinner to the person and work of Jesus, so that Jesus represents the sinner before the Father and all that is true of Jesus is true for the sinner.

Repentance is the opposite side of the same coin. Where as faith bows before the King, repentance is to turn away from the former tyrants of Sin and Satan and their rebellion. Repentance is abandoning the rebellion against the Creator and kneeling before him in humility and servitude. Repentance is now living in the kingdom that King Jesus instated during his incarnation, mission, and ascension. While that kingdom has yet to be fully realized, repentance is the living out the king in the present. Because by their uniting faith, the sinner is now holy and righteous, by repentance the saint lives out holiness and righteousness. Repentance lives out the New Testament ethic, “be what you are.”

The Spirit and the Sinner’s Response
Now I fully realize that most of what I have said nearly anyone can agree with if they are Protestant Evangelicals. But I feel that I must discuss the role of the Spirit in faith and repentance. This will turn many heads away because of the nature of my beliefs about faith and repentance and the Spirit. So with that warning I proceed.

Having read the New Testament I still cannot escape the reality that faith and repentance are part of the new creation, worked by the Spirit, in the sinner. When the Spirit recreates a human being, it begins by creating faith in the heart. The Spirit indwells and creates the fruit and characteristics that mark out the kingdom of heaven which arrived on the scene when Jesus invaded the world in the incarnation. Faith and repentance are part of the recreating work of the Spirit in the world. The Israelites that return from exile and the Gentiles that turn to the light of Messiah and his kingdom are those whom the Spirit has recreated and united to Jesus.

Conclusion
So in conclusion, the gospel is God fulfilling his promise, made through the OT prophets, to recreate the world into the paradise he intended it to be and to recreate humanity into the vice-regents they were supposed to be by sending his Spirit into the world to raise up raise up this new creation’s king, who by the Spirit will end the exile of Israel and call the Gentiles out of their darkness and into the light of his kingdom. The response of the Israelite to leave his or her exile, and the Gentile to leave his or her darkness and enter Messiah’s light, is that of faith and repentance. But this response is part of the Spirit’s recreating work in these sinners’ hearts and persons.

I have enjoyed this series greatly. To put down in words the things about the gospel that has changed for me over the past year or so has been a great…release. As I look over this series, I notice how much of a hermeneutical and linguistic shift I have undergone in the last two years or so. I do not sound like the typical Evangelical who talks merely about sins being forgiven as the good news. I believe that’s part of what is going on in the gospel, especially in terms of how it relates to the sinner. But to narrowly define the gospel in such terms misses out on all that God has promised to do in Jesus, has done in Jesus, is doing in Jesus, and will do in Jesus. The gospel is cosmic in scope and humanity has been given the exalted privilege to participate in the spread of the Spirit’s recreating work and extending the reign of Jesus over the lives of rebellious sinners lost in exile and darkness.

And at the same time, I have noticed that my theology hasn’t changed. I’m still a fully committed Calvinist, and in someways more committed than before. As I wrote these posts I became more excited about the Reformed faith precisely because I see how it can be retold to a world that doesn’t want to fight the same old battles with Rome, and those battles must be fought. But for those parts of the world that don’t know of those struggles, articulating my theology like this really opens the door to speak more into their lives with the story of God than the story of Luther/Calvin vs. the Pope. I still follow Calvin’s theology, but I am not feeling like I have to express it in the same static categories and language. Calvin’s theology has come more alive during this series than ever before. I pray for those who read this post series will read and see their own theology (whether it is Reformed or not) come alive and become a great passion for them.

In my previous post I defined the gospel in terms of how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. That is to say, they viewed the gospel as God fulfilling his promises made to Israel to establish a new creation by his Spirit, ruled by his Servant-King from the house of David, ending Israel’s exile, and drawing the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness into the light of this new Israel in this new creation. God fulfilled these promises by raising up Jesus of Nazareth, who came and took dominion over the present evil age and creation, offered up his life as an atoning sacrifice for his people’s transgression, and was resurrected as the firstfruit of the new Spirit-wrought creation and the king over that new creation.

Now how does the Apostle Paul fit into this picture? When one reads his letters one does not see a lot of talk about a kingdom. He rarely speaks about Jesus earthly life and ministry, his teachings and healings that demonstrated him to be the Spirit-indwelt Servant-King from the stump of Jesse. Paul speaks minimally about the kingdom, though it is not absent from his theology. He talks about the gospel in terms of Jesus’ person, death and resurrection and their meaning. He is combating a certain form of Judaism that requires Gentiles to convert to Judaism to be accepted into the people of God. So how does his battle’s over the meaning of justification and the gospel fit into the picture seen in the gospels?

The Person of Jesus
In Romans 1:2-4 (NET) Paul defines the gospel this way, “This gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here Paul defines Jesus’ incarnation as the birth of the Son of David. He came and did what the coming Son of David was to do according to the prophets. He came and called Israel out of exile. He called the Gentiles out of their darkness and into his light. He healed and exorcised demons and liberated captives. Jesus came and died the death the Davidic Son was to die. The Spirit then raised him to life by resurrection. In this resurrection he became the powerful Son of God. He is now king over those who live by the Spirit and in the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit. He is king over the new age and creation created by the recreating ministry of the Spirit of Yahweh. He is the first of the new age of the Spirit.

And therefore in Romans 1:16-17 (NET) we read Paul to say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, ‘The righteous by faith will live.’” Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel and it is the power of God to save because Jesus Messiah has been raised and appointed as the Powerful Son of God. Jesus is the gospel and he reveals God’s righteousness. He makes a person righteous and his justification, declaration to be in the right, effects life for the sinner who trusts the Messiah.

In the person of Jesus life is available to those who believe. For Paul, Jesus being the powerful Son of God rescues us from the evil age that we now live in and delivers us into the eternal age of righteousness to come. As the ruling and eternal Son of God and Messiah Jesus can grant the righteous status that transforms the sinner from one who is actively participating in Satan’s rebellion into one who is actively participating in the Spirit’s recreating work under the ruling Messiah.

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
Paul defines the gospel also in this way, “Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand…that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NET). Here Paul locates the good news in the work of the Messiah, his death and resurrection. As I have argued earlier, Paul sees Jesus as the Righteous Servant-King of Isaiah 53. The servant-king surrendered to injustice and bore the sins of his people, offering his life as the offering to atone for their transgression. Yahweh vindicates the servant with resurrection. The Righteous One then justifies his people, returning them to covenant blessing and proper standing before Yahweh in himself.

Paul understands that Messiah represents his people before Yahweh, as Adam represents his people (1 Cor. 15:20-22; cf. Romans 5:12-21). This representative union means that whatever is true of the representative is true of the the represented. So what is true of Messiah and Adam is true of those whom they represent. As Jesus is the Righteous One and is life, those whom he represent are also righteous and have life. His justification and vindication is true of those who belong to him by their union-through-faith. As his vindication resulted in his resurrection so our being vindicated results in our own resurrection.

And Messiah’s death also represents God’s wrath being poured out upon this present creation and evil age. In the death of the Messiah, sinners can come freely and surrender to that wrath with the hope that they will be resurrected. In Messiah God carries out his sentence of guilty, maintaining the justice of himself and his Law which pronounces the sentence of guilty. But in Messiah the sinner can be vindicated and raised righteous before that same God and accepted into the age to come. The believer’s faith that unites him/her to Messiah represents the eschatological verdict which transforms being announced in present. Thus in Messiah God is both just and the justifier of the one who has the faith of Jesus Messiah.

For Paul and the whole of the Bible, justification is more than merely being granted a status. It is the effecting justice on behalf of someone. For the king to justify the poor, orphans, and widows he does not merely say that they are in the right and do nothing for them. He punishes those who oppress them. The king delivers them from the hand of the oppressor as well as declares them to be in the right. Thus in Paul the believer’s justification includes not only the declaration that a person has a right standing before God, he or she is found to be faithful to the covenant in Messiah, but God will also indwell the person with his own Spirit to liberate that person from sin and Satan as well as resurrect him or her on the last day when death has been executed. God acts on behalf of the sinner who trusts in him for deliverance from their enemies, including God himself.

Hebrews and Gentiles as One People of God by the Spirit in the New Age
Thus in the person and work of Messiah the Spirit that God pours out upon this age to recreate it gathers to Messiah his people. The Spirit recreates them, starting with the inner self, and brings them into the age to come and into their great reward of resurrection into the new heavens and and new earth, the Kingdom of the Son. The indwelling Spirit serves the believer’s down-payment while at the same time begins the form the coming age in the believer in the present.

And the Spirit does not draw in only Israel in terms of ethnic Jews, physical descendants of Abraham. The Spirit draws in Gentiles as well. For the Messiah was to rule over a world where Israel’s exile is over, thus the Spirit draws in Israel, but also over Gentiles. Messiahs’ death and resurrection completes the work of the Law in the evil age, condemning it, and ushers in the new age of the Spirit. Thus the Law no longer divides Israel from the Gentiles for it has been brought to its appointed end, Messiah. Thus as part of his recreating work, the people of God–Israel–is recreated to be comprised of both Hebrews and Gentiles as one people. Now the Gentiles can enjoy the blessings that Yahweh will pour out upon his people in the age to come.

And so my definition of the Gospel doesn’t really change in light of Paul. The meaning of who Messiah is and what Messiah did are made clear. But for Paul the gospel is still God fulfilling his promises to Israel to recreate the world by the Spirit and raise up his Priestly Servant-King from the stump of Jesse to rule over it. In this new world Israel’s exile is over and the Gentiles are drawn into the blessings that Israel will enjoy being restored to covenant blessing. For Paul, the time of the Law is over and the time for grace and faith is upon us. Through union with Messiah, the sinner can surrender to God’s wrath against his/her sinful rebellion with the hope that he/she will experience resurrection into the new age with all the blessings that come with it. Their present faith that unites them to Messiah announces God’s eschatological verdict both against them and for them.

Having examined both the Old Testament story, that serves as the background, and the story of Jesus of Nazareth, I feel it is time to begin to define the gospel, the εὐαγγέλιον. Within this framework that I established, I observed everywhere in the New Testament where εὐαγγέλιον or εὐαγγελίζω (“I bring good news”) appears. In the Gospels and Acts, the most common theme that was attached to “gospel” is that of “kingdom.” Paul attaches it to Jesus Messiah, both in Jesus’ person and work. In the Gospels and Acts, God’s fulfillment of the promises made about a Davidic Messiah as well as Jesus’ resurrection are also tied into the use of the term “gospel.” Paul most often seems to use “gospel” as a technical term more than anything, thus it is important to see this term as encompassing both Jesus’ person and work. The following is my attempt to define the gospel as the New Testament defines it.

The Old Testament “Gospel”
In the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, “gospel” whether as a verb or noun usually just refers to good news from the standpoint of the hearer of the message. In the verb form it means to proclaim or announce or deliver the message. In the noun form it is the message. It is primarily used in the histories about the Israelite/Judea monarchial period. It also appears in the the Psalms as well as some of the prophets.

Isaiah’s use of the term is most interesting because it appears in the section that the New Testament picks up and uses in telling its story and message about Jesus. In Is 40:9 the city of Jerusalem is to proclaim the good news that her God, Yahweh, has come. In Is 52:7 the announcement of good news is that God reigns. And in the exercise of this reign, God redeems his people and ends their captivity and restores them through his Davidic Servant-King. Isaiah also uses the term in Is 61:1 where the Servant is annointed by the Spirit to free captives, heal the sick and wounded, and liberate prisoners, and help the poor. So it seems to me that for Isaiah the “gospel” (if he would use the term) is Yahweh coming and raise up his Servant-King from the house of Jesse (David’s father) to recreate the world by the Spirit, end Israel and Judah’s captivity, and draw the Gentiles to Israel and to worship the one true Creator Yahweh. In Isaiah the good news is this kingdom that Yahweh is going to set up.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
In the Gospels and Acts, it seems to me that the good news that Jesus announced and proclaimed to the people was that God’s kingdom had in fact arrived. And the Gospel writers wanted their audience to see that Jesus was the Servant-King who was to reign over that kingdom. Just see how Mark describes Jesus preaching the gospel of God in Mark 1:14-15 (NET), “Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!’” Matthew writes in Mt 4:23 (NET), “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” In Luke 4:18 we read, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.’” Again in Acts 8:12 (NET) we read, “But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women.”

When one follows the narratives of the Gospel writers, they situate these events that I have just cited in the context of Isaiah’s prophecy of a coming kingdom from God, ruled over by a Davidic Messiah. It seems right to say that this kingdom with Jesus as its King that recreates the world into the paradise God intended and has promised it to be again is the good news. Jesus healed and freed like Isaiah 61 said he would. He obeyed like Isaiah said he would. He went and called Israel back to himself, her king, ending her exile. He announced the good news of this kingdom to the Gentiles, drawing them into the light that Israel now is under her true king. God is fulfilling his promises to call the world into the kingdom he was creating in the new world he is creating.

The question then becomes what does Jesus’ death and resurrection have to do with this? Part of the mission of the Servant-King is to offer his life up for the redemption and vindication of the people of God back to covenant blessing (Is 53). Through his death, by surrendering to injustice, the Servant-King atones for the transgressions of his people. But rather than be left for dead, he is raised to life as the Righteous One. And through him and his vindication in resurrection his people will be vindicated and restored to a proper covenant standing and receive covenant blessing. Listen to how Jesus predicts his death in Mark 10:33-34 (NET), “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. hey will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.” Again Jesus describes his death like this only a few verses later, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45 NET). Jesus portrays his death in terms of the Davidic Servant-King in Isaiah 53. Thus Jesus’ death and resurrection restores the people of God into proper covenantal relationship with Yahweh.

For his death, Jesus says, instates the new covenant. Luke writes in his gospel, citing Jesus, “[Jesus] took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:19-20 NET). Jesus is seen here mediating the new covenant that God put in place to permanently forgive sins and ensure the obedience of the people of God in the kingdom of God. So here is Jesus fulfilling his prophesied role of not only a Servant-King, but of a High Priestly Servant-King as promised in the telling of Melchizedek and of Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah’s prophecy (Zechariah 6:10-15). Jesus death is the death required to ratify a covenant and his blood is offered up upon the altar of the Lord to forgive sin, avert divine wrath, remove uncleanliness and unholiness and guilt, and to restore the people to stand before their God in his presence.

And Jesus resurrection not only instated Jesus as the Righteous One of Isaiah 53, but it also began the Spirit’s work of recreating the world. Jesus, as begotten by the Spirit in his birth, is the Spirit-indwelt leader. But he was created as part of this order. In his resurrection, Jesus is no longer living in a body that is cursed but in one that is free from decay. He is living in a body that has been recreated by the Spirit of Yahweh to live eternally in the eternal kingdom promised in the prophets of old. The new creation has begun in the coming of the Spirit to resurrect the Messiah.

Therefore it seems to me that the good new that the New Testament is proclaiming is that God has sent his promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus went about this world, living in total obedience to Yahweh, taking dominion over the earth and its demonic rulers, healing and restoring the people of God, calling Israel out of exile, drawing Gentiles out of their pagan darkness and into the light of a restored Israel under his rule. He went to the cross to deal the decisive blow to sin and the demonic rulers by offering up his own life to atone for the sins of his people (Jew and Gentile) and was resurrected by God as the Righteous One and ruler over the Kingdom of Heaven and of God. His resurrection began the new age of the Spirit for in Jesus the recreating work of the Spirit has come. He is the firstfruits of the new creation.

Instead of a really lengthy post I’m going to place Paul into a second entry. I want to be sure to give the reader ample time to digest what I have said so far and to allow Paul to have adequate space to speak.

Four hundred years of history transpires between the last promises made by Yahweh to his people and Yahweh’s next move. Yahweh has promised to completely reverse the current world order that his people, Israel, are living in. No longer will they live on a planet that his hostile against them. No longer will the nations rule over them. No longer will they be a nation that is a point of laughter to their neighbors. No longer will they be ruled by a king who leads them astray from blessing and into curse. No longer will they disobey their covenant, and bring upon themselves the wrath of their God. God is going to recreate the world, raise up a Servant-King-Priest who will reign over Israel in this new earth. And Israel will be a light that will draw the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness and back to their Creator. Yahweh has promised and Yahweh is about to deliver.

The Cousin
An angel appeared to a family from the Israelite tribe of Levi, a priest and his wife, Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were barren and very advanced in age, beyond the normal age for childbearing. An angel, a divine messenger, appeared to Zechariah while he was on duty at the Temple and told him that he and his wife will have a son that is to be named John. Zechariah didn’t believe the angel and was struck mute until the child was born and named John.

But Elizabeth became pregnant and she gave birth to a baby boy. When it came time to give the baby a name, Zechariah named him John. And at that moment Zechariah could speak again, just as the angel said would happen. John grew up became a very powerful preacher. He challenged the people of Israel with a message of repentance because someone was coming. One who was before John was coming after him, the Lord. He pleaded with the people to change their lives so that they would be ready to meet the Lord when he comes and be ready to follow him.

This message did not sit well with those in power. The ruling family over Israel, the Herods, did not like how he called out one of the leaders for an affair he was having with his sister-in-law. He was arrested and later executed for his preaching.

The Birth of the New David
About the same time Elizabeth became pregnant, the same angel appeared to Mary. She was pledged to be married to Joseph, from the family line of Judah and David. The angel told Mary that the Messiah would be her son. The Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive a son. When this happened Joseph planned to quietly end the betrothal with a certificate of divorce, but the angel told Joseph the nature of the child’s birth and to take Mary as his wife and to name the child Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.

So when there came time for the child to be born, Joseph had to travel to the town of Bethlehem, where his family is from, to register for a census put in place by the Roman government. When they got to town, all the available rooms were full and so they had to stay in a stable with the animals. Mary gave birth to a son, and they named him Jesus. That same night a whole company of angels appeared to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem to inform them that that their Messiah had been born. They came to the stable where they worshiped their Messiah.

A couple of years later some Magi from Parthia came to Jerusalem to find this King who was to be born. Herod the Great, patriarch of the ruling Herod family, pointed them towards where the child was to be born using the prophets of old. However his goal was to find the child and to kill him so that his own throne could be established and protected. When the Magi found Jesus and offered their gifts the were warned to leave for Parthia along a path away from Herod. When Herod found out he ordered the death of all male children in Bethlehem two-years of age or under. Joseph, by a dream, took his family to Egypt until the threat of Herod had past. When the time came, Joseph and Mary relocated back to Nazareth.

The Ministry of the New David
Growing up, Jesus demonstrating a wisdom and knowledge beyond his years. When John was preaching by the Jordan in the Judean countryside, baptizing those who came and repented in the Jordan River, Jesus went to be baptized as well. John refused and said Jesus, being the one of whom he spoke being greater than he, should baptize him. After John agreed to baptize Jesus and Jesus came up out of the water, the sky opened and the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and a voice from the heavens declared Jesus to be its Son. Jesus was led into the wilderness where he encountered the devil and was tempted by him for forty days and nights.

Jesus then began to preach in Galilee about God’s kingdom. He preached that it had drawn near and they needed to believe this good news and repent of their sins. He performed many miracles, healing the sick and lame and injured, casting out demons, restoring the world to what it was supposed to be. He taught what life would be like in the kingdom of his Father. Jesus defied the established religious leadership with his teachings on ethics and who God is and how they interpreted his covenant law to maintain their power and prestige. Even Herod was afraid of Jesus for he believed that Jesus was John the Baptizer come back to torment him.

While Jesus was happy to tell the Samaritans that he was their Messiah, a prophet who would lead them into all truth, he would not do so for the Israelites. They correctly believed him to be the coming Davidic Messiah, but they did not understand the kingdom he was to rule over and that they were to take part in. It is the kingdom of his Father in heaven breaking into this world to defeat evil, end Israel’s exile, forgive sin, recreate the world, and draw the Gentiles out of their dark pagan ways. It was not a kingdom that was to make Israel its own nation again. Jesus’ kingdom was something otherworldly. So he would not acknowledge their naming him Messiah.

In fact, while he told his disciples, his closest followers that he was the Messiah, he spoke of being Messiah in a way they too did not understand. He was to be handed over to the ruling authorities, both Hebrew and Gentile, be mocked and flogged and rejected, crucified, and resurrected on the third day. In the minds of his followers and their contemporary Israelites, that did not compute with their understanding of the Messiah.

The Death and Resurrection of the Davidic Messiah
So Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and of God. He lived it out, showing what this kingdom would look like in this world. He preached and ministered for three years, three Passovers. During the third Passover, Jesus was welcomed into the city as a heralded prophet, riding on a donkey. When he entered the city he went to the Temple and saw how perverse the Hebrew people had become. He totally destroyed the corrupt system they had, removing the moneychangers and those who were trying to make a buck off of the worship of their God, Yahweh. Between this and the Messianic fever the people had about Jesus as a result of his ministry like raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, the leaders of Israel decided they wanted to kill Jesus and fast. They recruited one of his followers, Judas, for thirty pieces of silver.

On the night of the Passover, Jesus and his followers shared a meal together. It was the Passover meal, but Jesus reinterpreted the bread and wine to point to his own death–his broken body and spilled blood. It was to be repeated by them to remember what he was about to do. That night, Judas went to the priests and the Hebrew leadership to help them arrest Jesus. Jesus went to the Garden at Gethsemane to pray for the anguish he felt as he knew his time was short. Judas and the Jewish authorities met Jesus in the Garden and arrested him.

Jesus was tried for crimes he didn’t commit by the Jews. He was handed over to the Romans and to Herod for trial. Eventually, the Roman governor, Pontus Pilate, agreed to have Jesus crucified to appease the Hebrew people and their leadership. Jesus was led outside the city and promptly executed so that his dead body did not defile the city during their Passover holiday. Jesus died at the same time the priests were slaughtering the Passover lambs for the people.

During this time his followers ran and bailed on him. Some dared to watch the crucifixion but all in his movement were saddened by the death of their Messiah. However on the third day, having been buried in the tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, some of the Jesus’ women disciples went to visit his tomb and found it empty. An angel told them that Jesus had risen. On their way back they encountered Jesus and thought he had taken the body, not knowing that it was indeed their Messiah. When they saw it was him they ran to the other disciples and informed them that he had risen like they had been told. He was alive.

Over the next forty days Jesus appeared to his disciples and began to teach them about the kingdom. He ate with them and fellowshipped with them. He told them that the same Spirit that had empowered him and raised him from the dead would come upon them as well and that they were to take the story of Jesus and the message of his kingdom to their fellow Hebrews and into the whole world of the Gentiles as well. They shall baptize those who become Jesus’ disciples and teach them to obey all that Jesus taught.

Taking the Message to the World
After the forty days, Jesus was taken up into heaven. And his followers did exactly that. They waited in Jerusalem for the Spirit to indwell them. Then they began to teach their fellow Israelites about the resurrected Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And they also began to preach this Jesus to the Gentiles as well. They began churches all over the Roman world.

And these followers continue to this day to tell the old old story of how Jesus came down from glory and ushered in the kingdom of his Father that will recreate this world and restore it to what it was supposed. He will reign over it and all will be as God intended it to be when he created it.

Now that I have told the story, in the next post I will begin to get more specific about what is the good news, the gospel, that the we are to share from this story of Jesus.

With the newly released Manhattan Declaration, from November 2009, comes a bit of controversy. The document in and of itself is controversial in what it asserts, namely the encouragement and engagement of civil disobedience to uphold certain principles. It is controversial because leaders in Protestant-Evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy have signed this document and encourage others to do the same. It is also controversial because to get these groups together “the gospel of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1) has not been clearly defined, thus other leaders–especially Evangelical–have refused to sign the document and encourage others to refuse to sign it as well.

In light of this and other considerations, I have decided to take an opportunity to present my definition of the gospel of Jesus Messiah. But to do that, I want to first tell the background story to the gospel. I feel that because the Bible is the story of God–both from and about–one needs to know the story before defining any single part of it, like the gospel.

Creation and Fall
The story starts with God. God creates the entire universe, both heaven and earth and everything in between. And God created vice-regents, creatures who were to bear his image and represent him upon the earth on he created. They were to take dominion over the creation and fill it with his image through procreating and spreading to the farthest corners of the earth. These vice-regents were called adam, human. The only prohibition God gave his vice-regents was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequences would be death.

Something went horribly wrong. One particular creature, the serpent came to the humans. The man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, were tempted by the serpent to eat from the fruit of the forbidden tree. And here not only a failure but an inversion, a reversal, occurred. The humans, both Adam and Eve, failed to take dominion over the serpent and subdue his shrewdness and ate the fruit of that tree. In doing so, they forfeited their authority over to the serpent and to the creation. As part of God’s curse upon his vice-regents, he placed them under the creation so that they were forced to do labor to take dominion over the earth. War would erupt between creation and its vice-regents. Procreation would now be a process of pain. The humans were exiled from the presence of their Creator. And so began Humanity’s rebellion that will plague its relationship with its Creator until this very day.

Jealousy, envy, and murder ended up taking root in humanity in the next generation as Cain, the eldest child, murdered his younger brother, Able, when he failed to present the prescribed to Yahweh and was rejected. Eventually humanity, the vice-regents, were so repulsive to their Creator that Yahweh wiped all but one family out in a major flood, something no one had ever seen before. They were given the same charge as Adam and Eve, take dominion and procreate. But humanity failed to do so and so God cursed them by creating different languages to drive humanity to the different parts of the earth.

Hope
When Adam and Eve sinned, resulting in the entire created order being cursed by God, a promise to undo the curse was given. A child of Eve would crush the head of the serpent while the serpent crushed the foot of the child. God would raise someone up to reverse the awful curse and restore creation and humanity to the way God had created them and had designed for them to be.

This promise sustained the people all the way through Noah. Then God called out from a pagan world a man named Abram. He promised to give Abram land, seed, and to be a channel of blessing to all of humanity. In short, God chose Abraham to begin to fulfill his promise to undo the curse and exile that he placed upon his creation with Adam and Eve’s failure.

God grew that family into a large family named Israel. This people had twelve tribes, named after the sons of the man from whom they take their name. And God promised to one of these sons, Judah, that he would give Judah’s line the scepter to rule of God’s people and creation. Before God took Israel into the land promised to their father, Abraham, God put them in Egypt until he was ready to pronounce judgment upon the people who lived in that land.

Taking Possession
During Israel’s stay in Egypt, they were made slaves of the Egyptian people–exactly as God told Abraham centuries before. The people of Israel cried out to their God for deliverance and freedom and for the land they were promised. After four hundred years in Egypt, God answered. He raised up Moses and Aaron to rule over the people and to speak on his behalf. These two men went to Pharaoh and demanded he free Israel. Each time Pharaoh refused, resulting in God unleashing ten total plagues upon Egypt. The tenth and final plague destroyed all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, including Pharaoh’s heir to his throne. Israel left, pursued by Pharaoh, and crossed the Red Sea to freedom. At the Red Sea, God destroyed Pharaoh demonstrating his power and showing Israel that he is their God and will fulfill his promise to take the Land.

Under Moses, God gave the people the laws and ceremonies that would define them as his people and were required to live in the land he had promised. If they failed to live by them, breaking commandments and not offering up the proper sacrifices, God would bring upon them certain curses. If they lived according to this law, God would bring upon them certain blessings.

Then God raised up Joshua to lead them in battle against the people who lived in the land. Israel’s conquest was as much God judgment of these sinful people as it was fulfilling his original promise to Abraham. God gave Joshua success and Canaan, the promised land, was subdued. Possession of the land was taken.

The Monarchy
However, the people rebelled against Yahweh and did not follow the law he gave them. So God would invoke the curses and raise up neighboring nations to conquer Israel. Then in mercy God raised up leaders from within Israel to free the people from their captivity. After centuries of this, the people demanded a king. The first king was a king like the surrounding nations would have to show Israel that their desire to be like the nations was evil and sinful.

Then he raised up David, from the line of Judah, God’s king. David ruled over the people as God would have had him, executing God’s justice and protecting the people. David made sure the people obeyed the law and performed their worship as they were supposed to. So God promised David that his family would always sit on the throne in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. His son Solomon took the throne. Solomon’s son Rehaboam succeeded Solomon, and so forth and so on. God kept his promise.

However, David was imperfect and committed sin. God punished David by dividing his own house into a heinous disaster. Solomon committed idolatry with the hundreds of wives and mistresses he surrounded himself with. To punish Solomon, God split up Israel, ten tribes in the north under another monarchy, while the remaining two tribes stayed under David’s house.

However, both monarchies failed the people of Israel (north) and Judah (south). So God sent prophets to Israel and Judah to plead with them to repent of their sin and return to Yahweh. He was waiting with open arms and forgiveness. He still loved them. Judah made strides, Israel did not. So God invoked the covenant curse of exile upon both nations for their repeated failures. Assyria took Israel in 722 BCE, almost completely depopulating the nation. Babylon took Judah in 586/7 BCE when she destroyed Jerusalem.

The Promise
But these prophets did not leave Israel and Judah without any hope. God made a promise to his people. He would recreate the world and restore it to God’s original purpose for it, and humanity to its original purpose.

First, God would send his Spirit into his creation and raise up for his people, Israel and Judah, a king from the house of David. This Spirit would empower this Davidic king to rule over Israel and Judah as if it were God himself. This king, also called God’s Servant, would perfectly obey Yahweh and obtain the covenant blessings that Yahweh has promised.

Second, God would end the exile of his people and bring them back to the land of Israel and Judah. There they would be ruled over by this Davidic king. And they would experience the blessing that would come with such a ruler, one who would rule over them as if it were God himself. And under this Servant-King, God would establish a new covenant with the people, ensuring their obedience as well. And Israel would again experience the blessings that God promised them.

Thirdly, God would recreate the land. No longer will lions eat man and cattle, no longer will the wolf stalk after the lamb, no longer will the venomous viper be a threat to little children. Men will live lives longer than they can possibly imagine. The land will be a new heaven and a new earth, bountiful beyond the imagination.

Fourth, God will draw the Gentiles to this new heaven and new earth inhabited by Israel and ruled by this Davidic Servant-King. They will be drawn out of their pagan darkness and into the light of their Creator, Yahweh. And the whole world will be as it is supposed to be. All of the families of the earth will experience the blessings of God, not just one. Shalom and justice will inhabit the land. The paradise that was once lost will be restored in this new creation.

When Israel and Judah returned from their time in exile, they returned to Judah, the land, but none of the promises above were really fulfilled. In point of fact, God raised up more prophets to continue preaching these same promises to this post-exile community of Israelites and Judeans. God would one day recreate this world under the his Davidic Servant-King, and set the world to right. In fact this Servant-King would be the very priest who would mediate the new covenant of between Yahweh and his people. They had to wait for Yahweh to move.

Text: Mark 5:1-20 NET

The Bible is a story, God’s story

One of the convictions I have recently come to while reading the Scripture is that, more than anything, it is a story. No, it is God’s story. It is the story about God. How he has created the universe, how it went astray, and how God is restoring that creation to what it was originally intended to be. It tells the story of how the world around us is as horrible as it is. The Bible tells the story of why we as human beings trash this planet and each other. It is our story. And God wants us to read the Bible this way. He wants us to read this story.

To be sure, this story is actual history. It really did take place in space and time. For if this story did not happen in history, like the stories of the Greek gods or the Egyptian gods, then the meaning of this story is lost. God is no longer creator, he is no longer redeemer. Who God is we see in how he acts in actual history. The Bible is the accurate telling of the story of God in actual human history. But it is still a story nonetheless.
What this means is that the bible cannot be reduced down to mere propositional truth statements. It cannot be reduced down to only systematic theology. To do so is to drown out the voices of the various authors and to lose sight of the grand story that is the Bible.
And so when we come to Jesus and his part in God’s story, there is a context to Jesus. We must understand Jesus in the context of the larger story. Too often, when I have read the gospels, I have merely assumed that Jesus was predicted in the prophets in a few passages and never really went back to see how those prophecies worked and how Jesus fits into them. So before we get to Mark, we need to step back and look at the wider context of the Bible and how Jesus fits in.

Recounting God’s Story from Adam to Jesus

So let us recount the story of the Bible, God’s story, so far. God created the world. He created humanity to represent him upon and in that creation and to rule over it and spread his image over and in it. But humanity failed to take dominion over the creation. The relationship that humanity was to have over the created order was turned on its head when humanity surrendered the authority and dominion that they were to have over to creation and did not subdue it.

So God punished the creation and humanity for its rebellion. But promised from the seed of the woman one would come who would and defeat the rebellion, crushing the head of the serpent who usurped humanity’s dominion for itself while the serpent crushed the offspring’s foot. And so God began this story of redemption in Abram, calling him and promising great blessing to his seed. The promise of the seed has now come to Abram. And God produced an entire nation, comprised of twelve tribes, from Abram’s children called Israel.
God redeemed Israel from slavery to show that they are the people of the true God, the Creator of the universe. He established laws and ceremonies for them so that they could be his people and he could be their God. In this nation the world was to see God.

As promised to Judah through Jacob, God established the scepter in Israel when he raised David, son of Jesse, to be king over Israel. David was God’s man, unlike the previous king who was a man that the people wanted, a king like the pagan and sinful nations around them. Yahweh then established a covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7. God would see to it that a son in the line of David would always sit on the throne over Israel. When the king went astray Yahweh would chastise and rebuke him so that the errant king would come back. The throne would always belong to David’s house.

Indeed God was faithful to his word. Solomon succeeded David as king, and Rehoboam succeeded Solomon. The family line remained on the throne. But like David, Solomon fell into sin and idolatry. As punishment, Yahweh divided the nation into two kingdoms. Israel was the kingdom of ten tribes in the north, governed in Samaria by wicked kings. Judah was the nation in the south and was governed by the line of David in Jerusalem. Israel immediately went astray and fell into idolatry. Judah stayed on course, somewhat, depending on the monarch. But the king was always from David’s house as Yahweh promised.
God sent prophets to both Israel, in the north, and Judah. These prophets warned of the coming invasion from the north; that Yahweh, their God, would invoke the covenant curse of exile if they failed to repent and return to their covenant relationship. Yahweh was ready to take them back if they would just come back. He was ready to accept their worship and sacrifices. The south did on occasion under the kings like Uziah and Hezekiah and Josiah. The north failed completely.

Yahweh invoked the covenant curse of exile. In 722 BCE, Assyria invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and completely destroyed its capital, Samaria, and depopulated the region of Hebrews. In 586/7 BCE, Babylon sacked Jerusalem and completed its third trip into Judah to take back exiles. The Israel that was established under Moses and Joshua and reigned over by David was gone.
But these same prophets, particularly Isaiah, also promised that there would be a day coming when Israel would be returned from her exile. God would do three things, two really. First he would raise up a new king from the house of David. Isaiah goes back even further and says this king will come from Jesse, David’s father. He is to be a second David. The second thing is that Yahweh will pour out his Spirit upon this king to lead and guide the people, and upon the land to recreate the earth in the Edenic paradise that existed before humanity fell. God would then call not just Israel out of exile in Babylon and Assyria, but all of the nations to come back from their exile from the presence of God. This servant would bear the guilt of his people, those who would be called back, before God and be raised to new life as the Righteous One. And those who this Righteous One intercedes for will be vindicated and delivered from their exile and returned to paradise.

Judah was released from her captivity by the Medo-Persian emperor Cyrus. They went back to the land of Judah and rebuilt Jerusalem and their temple. But there was no King, no Servant, no Righteous One. God did not pour out his Spirit upon the land and recreate the earth into paradise. These promises went unfulfilled and in fact were still being promised through prophets whom God raised up in this post-exilic community of Jews. The expectation of an anointed king, a Messiah, was still there. The people are expecting a king from David’s line to rise up and restore them to their former glory under King David.

This is the context to our story. Just look at how the Gospel of Mark opens up, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1) Note the two titles that Mark ascribes to Jesus. Messiah is the title of the expected king would come and liberate Israel from her captivity and restore Zion to her former glory. In Psalm 2, the king of Israel is called the Yahweh’s messiah. In 2 Samuel 7:12-14 those from David’s house who sit on the throne of Israel will be called by Yahweh his own son. In Psalm 2 Yahweh declares to the king that the king is Yahweh’s son when he is put on the throne. These are titles that indicate that Jesus is the expected king.

Look further at Jesus baptism in Mark 1:9-11. When Jesus is baptized into the Jordan River, the Spirit of God descends upon him and a voice from heaven declares, “You are my beloved Son. In you I take delight.” As in Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 42 the Spirit comes upon the Davidic king-servant. As in 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 2 the Davidic king is called God’s Son. Jesus is the King-Servant that has been expected in prophets of old. The last days Israel expected are here. As Jesus himself says when he enters into Galilee to preach, “The time is fulfilled and the God’s kingdom has drawn near” (Mark 1:14-15).

This Spirit who anoints Jesus is the Spirit anticipated in Isaiah 11. He is given wisdom and knowledge, as his teaching demonstrates. He fears Yahweh, as he does not fail in his temptations in the wilderness. Jesus is shrewd as his interactions with those who oppose him demonstrate.

As Isaiah predicts, Jesus goes about and begins to enact his reign. His teaching and miracles demonstrate his authority as the Davidic King-Servant. Nature, demons, disease, frail and injured human bodies all respond to his command. The people are astonished and frightened by his authority. Jesus also brought back to mind the grace that God was doing in his work. Yes Jesus was showing his power, but it an authority that was merciful. The coming Messiah was to liberate the poor and captive and to restore health and sight.

After convincing his disciples that he was indeed the Messiah that Isaiah had promised, Jesus’ message took a startling change. It was not one of removing the yoke of Rome from the neck of Judah. Rather, upon their confession of Jesus as Messiah (Mark 8:29), he began to talk about the Messiah having to surrender to the authorities—his own kinsmen as well as the Gentiles—and suffer and die at their hands. But on the third day he was rise again. This is what Isaiah said he would do in bearing their sins and cleansing his people. This is how Isaiah said that Yahweh’s people would be vindicated and returned to paradise. Yet they did not believe him. Jesus said in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” This is what Isaiah said in his prophecy (53:10-12) but it did not fit their notions of how this King-Servant from Jesse’s house would restore them to their lost land of paradise.

But Jesus did surrender to the authorities. They hated him because he challenged their authority. He challenged their hold on the people. His power displayed in mercy offended them and they wanted him dead. So through bribing a member of his inner circle—as foretold by their own prophets—they forced Jesus through a farce of a trial, perverting justice. They sent him to the Gentiles and they condemned him knowing there was nothing to condemn him for. He was crucified. He bore the worst sinful humanity could throw at him. He took on their evil upon himself, surrendering to the will of the Yahweh. And in dying, Jesus offered up his body, his life, and his death as the means to atone, to make restitution, for those who would follow him. He went to that cross to represent his people, the many, so that God could execute his wrath fully upon them in Jesus.

In displaying such love, such mercy, such obedience and righteousness, God vindicated Jesus and raised him from the dead. He was vindicated over the injustice, vindicated over humanity’s sin, over the power of the evil demonic forces that plague and rule over the earth. God declared Jesus to be just and righteous and holy and rewarded him with a body that marks the new age that the Jews had indeed been expecting. He was given the life that comes from the new age and new creation that the Spirit was going to bring about, predicted in Isaiah.

That’s the context in which we come to our passage.

Healing a Demoniac

As we begin Mark 5:1-20, the reader must remember what has just happened. At the conclusion of Mark 4, Jesus does something very significant. The disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. While crossing the lake, a violent storm came upon them. Even these fishermen who knew the lake well were terrified, probably because they know the lake so well. They wake Jesus and complain about him sleeping while they are about to die. Jesus’ response is one that is very shocking, he rebukes the wind and says, “Be quiet. Be still” (Mark 4:39). The wind storm stops and waters are completely calm. The disciples in Mark 4:41 have only one question, “Who is this that also the wind and the sea obey him?” That is the question Mark leaves his readers with as he transitions into our text. Who is this Jesus that controls even the weather and the seas?

This is big too because the sea in the Jewish mind is much more than a mere body of water. It is the very symbol of chaos. Just look to Genesis 1 where once earth is created, it is covered by the sea and the earth is without shape or form. In the Psalms and the poetic writings of Israel time and time again the seas are portrayed as chaos and monsters arise out of them. In the New Testament times the great beast of John’s Apocalypse arises from the sea. It is the sea that separates the people from God and is removed when the reader of John’s work reaches the end. Yet Jesus has the authority and power to take dominion over the sea and to calm it at his very command. Only the Messiah was going to be able to do that. Only Yahweh could do that.

And so in our text Jesus and his disciples cross the sea and arrive at the region of the Gerasenes. Now a brief word about geography here. The city Gerasa, from which Gerasenes would come, is about 33 miles away from the Sea of Galilee. It’s territory did not extend that far, herdsmen wouldn’t be able to make that trip in the kind of time that Mark speaks of here, and there are no hills and caves. The city that governs the region of the Gadarenes, as in Matthew 8, doesn’t solve the problem. It is most likely the town of Kersa which is six miles from the Sea and a short distance from the Decapolis. Kersa is an Arabic name that is closely related to the Greek Gerasa. The need for hills and caves along the sea shore in this region is solved as well (see Brooks, Mark in the New American Commentary, pages 89-90).

When Jesus gets out of the boat a man with an unclean spirit, a demon, comes to meet him. I find Mark’s description of the man in Mark 5:3-5 to be quite stunning. The man possesses unnatural strength, constantly breaking any shackles or chains placed upon his wrists and feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Furthermore he would cry out in the mountains and tombs of the region while also cutting him. This guy scares me. He would make anything seen in any movie—including the now beloved “Paranormal Activity,” and no I haven’t seen and don’t need to in order to make that claim—like child’s play.

As Mark records in 5:6, this man doesn’t just coolly walk up to Jesus. He runs to Jesus. He sees Jesus getting out of his boat from a distance and just takes off running. When he gets to Jesus he bows down, in a position of worship. He is acknowledging something that Mark wants the reader to learn. There is something unique about this Jesus. He does works that only God can do and this demoniac bows to him after running a distance to meet up with Jesus.

Note his confession about Jesus in 5:7, “What do you want with me Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg of you by God not to torture me.” The demon asserts that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God. Most High God is a term that goes all the way back to Genesis 14:17-24 when Abraham met up with the priest-king Melchizedek. So to be called the son of the Most High God is to refer to the king. The son language goes back to Mark 1 and the titles being references to the anticipated Davidic King. The demoniac recognizes who Jesus is as the rightful king and Messiah. Knowing this and what it means for him, that Jesus can do with him as he pleases, he strangely invokes God’s name to plead with Jesus not to torture him. We see in 5:8 this was the demon’s response to Jesus command to leave the man. It is important to note these speakers when you read these texts as even though they are demons they can speak the truest statements.

So Jesus enters into a conversation with the demon and asks his name, “What is your name?” The demon answers, “We are Legion because we are many” (5:9). The fact that it is not just one demon oppressing this poor man but several could explain why his behavior was so horrific. Each demon might be responsible for different aspects of his self-destructively violent behavior. And the demons keep begging Jesus not to cast them out of the region. Take note that the verb for beg, parakaleo, in 5:10 is an imperfect tense verb, the action is incomplete and keeps repeating itself.

So in 5:11-12 the demons look around and see a large herd of pigs and beg Jesus to be allowed to go into them. Why the pigs? What about the pigs attracted the demons to them? One reason is that they were the first thing they saw that Jesus might consider allowing them to go into. They weren’t going to bet on getting a shot at another human being. Pig herding might have been big in that region and so there was an abundance of pig herds. But more than that, pigs are unclean animals. The demons are unclean spirits. Unclean is attracted to unclean and so the demons were drawn to the pigs.

But note how Mark describes Jesus response to their proposal of entering the pigs. Mark says, “Jesus gave them permission.” The aorist verb there is epitrepo, which means “to allow” and demonstrates the Messianic and Kingly authority that Jesus has over the demons. Mark is demonstrating the authority that Jesus has over this wicked, perverted, and chaotic order. Thus Mark has identified Jesus as the Davidic King who has authority over demons.

And once in the swine, the demons were free to act in their full self-destructive behavior and drowned the two thousand pigs in the Sea of Galilee. The demons could be seen as returning to the chaotic abyss where they belong. But Mark’s point is that Jesus exercises full authority over the demonic realm as the expected Messiah who has come to establish God’s kingdom in the new heavens and new earth. Just as nature and the weather, and in the next stories disease and death itself, have to obey him so do demons.

Now follow the actions of those who owned the pigs and saw this. They ran back into the town and reported what they saw. The people of the town came to where Jesus and the liberated demoniac were sitting, seeing the man now in his right mind. Note their reaction to seeing what Jesus had done, “fear” and “awe.” What Jesus did was something that hadn’t been done and it scared them. So they asked him to leave their region. They didn’t want him to be around them. They sent their Messiah and Servant-King from Jesse’s Stump away because they didn’t see him for who he was like Legion had.

But as Mark concludes this story, the former demoniac isn’t afraid of Jesus like they are. Again using the imperfect form of the verb parakaleo, Mark 5:18 says the demoniac begged Jesus to let him follow him. Now normally this is the point where Jesus says, “Shh. Don’t tell anyone. Just offer up the appropriate sacrifices according the Law of Moses.”

But this isn’t quite Jesus response as we read 5:19, “Go to your home and to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he mercied you.” Now first I must note that completion of what Jesus did for this man. Mark uses the perfect tense “has done.” The demons are gone and they aren’t coming back. And I chose to not say “have mercy on” but rather “mercied” because it is in the active voice. What Jesus did was to enact mercy in the life of the demoniac. Jesus “mercied” or “graced” the man. He did not just show a merciful disposition towards the man, though Jesus certainly did. Jesus went beyond that and performed mercy in the life of the man through the exorcising of the demons and thus purifying him.

Also note who cast out the demons in Jesus statement, “the Lord.” The Greek term is kyrios, which the LXX (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses for Yahweh. Jesus tells the man to go to his home and proclaim what Yahweh, the God of the Jews, has done for him. The man is to proclaim the gospel no doubt. But he is to speak of what Yahweh has done. But what does Mark say the man does? Mark records in 5:20, “He went away into the Decapolis and began to proclaim there what Jesus did for him. And all were amazed.”

He was told to proclaim Yahweh, instead he proclaimed Jesus. In this man’s mind, he could not separate out the work of Yahweh from the work of Jesus. It was one and the same. This Davidic-King is so acting out God’s will that it is seen as God acting. Jesus is perfectly representing God and accomplishing God’s will, that to the man it is God acting. So we see Jesus being that faithful King who obeys God and calls the people of God back to their God, as Isaiah prophesied he would.

But note further that the man went to the Decapolis. That is not a Jewish region. Mark is telling his readers that Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah who came only for the Jews. His people are both Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, rich and poor. Jesus is not racist, sexists, or concerned with age and economic standing. Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom.

Rethinking Jesus and the Christian Life and Message

And that is the point of this story; Jesus is establishing the kingdom of God. Mark is arguing, no proving, that Jesus is the expected King-Servant from Jesse’s stump. And as that King-Servant, Jesus is setting up a kingdom. A kingdom that is free from oppression by a decaying creation and the demonic realm. Jesus is not merely being merciful to people, though he is exercising mercy. Jesus is demonstrating his authority over creation. He is showing that he is the king of the realm which is seen when Yahweh pours out his Spirit upon the land.

This King came and died as an offering for sin, to cleanse a people and to atone for their sin. His reward for his sacrifice is resurrection. God vindicates his Servant by not allowing the enemies of his Servant to prevail against him. They killed him but God raised him. God delivers Jesus from death and the grave. And upon his resurrection he enters into the new age and creation that Isaiah spoke of. That new age and the kingdom that inhabits it has been inaugurated and is here now, awaiting its full consummation in Messiah’s return. It came when the Spirit that came upon Jesus raised him with the resurrection body of the new creation. It is here right now.

Jesus told us the way to participate in that new age and kingdom, God’s great story, in Mark 1:15, “Repent and Believe the good news.” The way we can benefit from the Righteous One’s justifying work and intercession is to believe the good news that he has brought the kingdom near and to repent and return to the Yahweh. But to do so means we must conform ourselves to the image of the crucified Messiah. We too must die. We must take up our cross and follow him. Our lives must mirror Messiah. We must speak truth to our enemies. We must fight disease. We must free the poor from oppression. We must fight the battle against spiritual forces that oppose the coming kingdom. We must love and enact mercy in the lives of our fellow human beings. Those who truly want to enter into the resurrection kingdom will themselves follow suit and die to themselves.

But we must see something very important. Jesus was willing to die because he knew that he would rise. As Isaiah puts it, “I offered my back to those who attacked, my jaws to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting. But the sovereign LORD helps me, so I am not humiliated. For that reason I am steadfastly resolved; I know I will not be put to shame. The one who vindicates me is close by. Who dares to argue with me? Let us confront each other! Who is my accuser? Let him challenge me! Look, the sovereign LORD helps me. Who dares to condemn me? Look, all of them will wear out like clothes; a moth will eat away at them” (50:6-9 NET). Jesus could turn his back to his attackers, his beard to be plucked because he knew that God would vindicate him against them. He obeyed Yahweh and went to the cross.

Consider this prediction of Jesus about his death and resurrection in light of what I just read, “Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31 NET). Or Jesus third prediction in Mark 10:33-34 (NET), “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.” Jesus viewed his resurrection as his hope, his vindication, in enduring the cross.

Note how Paul views the resurrection and suffering together in Philippians 3:10-11 (NET), “My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” For Paul to suffer as he does is because his hope is the resurrection. It is in the resurrection that we can have Messiah and know him fullest. But to be resurrected means first we must die. We must be what some called cruciformed, conformed to the image of the crucified Messiah. Sometimes we look at Hebrews 11:29-35 and think that’s what our ministry is going to be like. We forget to read the rest of Hebrews 11 and see that is as normal as the previous part. But the hope they all shared—those who faced lions and saws—was that of resurrection. We think that what is normal for the Christian life is shutting the mouths of lions. We don’t think it’s normal to be sawn asunder and poor and imprisoned. But that is normal because God calls us to be conformed to image of the crucified Messiah, trusting that he will raise us like he raised Jesus, just as those whom Hebrews speaks about to us.

So my question to you today is first this, what do you hope in when you die? Is your hope heaven? Or is it something greater? Is it to be in a place where the wolf and lamb go out to pasture together; where the lion and the serpent and the oxen all lay beside each other in the fields? Is it a new heaven and a new earth lit by the very presence of God in the person of Messiah where there are no tears or death or sorrow? Is it to live in a world where you can live the life God created humanity to live? Is it to return to the paradise that Adam and Eve forfeit in the Garden and to have God call you his own? The only way to have that future is through the hope of the resurrection. It is those who are raised up by Jesus that enter into that kingdom and new earth and heaven and age.

So the question then becomes do you trust Jesus to do that for you? Do you so trust Jesus that you are willing to take your cross and to fill up the cup of Messiah’s suffering by dying yourself in going downtown and serving the poor? Are you willing to take up your cross and go overseas to some disease-ridden, third world country that hates the gospel and proclaim that the King has come and his kingdom is here now? Are you willing? Do you trust Messiah to vindicate you when you go to your cross and die? This is what Jesus means by repent in Mark 1:15, take up your cross and follow him, be conformed to his crucifixion. Do you believe that he will deliver you from death in resurrection power like Paul believes?

Furthermore, are you willing to admit that God is right? Are you willing to admit that you have transgressed his law, both in Adam and personally? That you have rebelled against him and are ready to face his wrath? Do you trust the Righteous One, Jesus Messiah, to intercede on your behalf, to represent you before God the Father in the heavenly realm and to be your righteousness? Do you trust God to vindicate your surrender to his wrath and justify his contention against you in the heavenly court room with resurrection? Do you trust him?

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.–James 3:13-18 (ESV)

Every week I attend a Bible study which is currently going through James. Last night we covered James 3 and a very striking observation came over me: this is a very tightly woven together epistle. James has a very compact work here.

Notice first that James mentions wisdom in James 3:13, 15, 17. In this paragraph James is contrasting heavenly wisdom (ἡ ἄνωθεν σοφία) and wisdom that is not from heaven (οὐκ ἔστιν αὕτη ἡ σοφία ἄνωθεν κατερχομένη). Wisdom from heaven is “pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartiality, and sincerity.” This peaceable wisdom from above leads to a harvest of righteousness because it sows peace. And it is this wisdom that James 1:5 commands us to pray for, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

And as this wisdom sows peace by those make peace, they reap a harvest of righteousness. This peace and righteousness comes from wisdom. And note that this wisdom also produces meekness. Compare 3:13-18 with James 1:19-21,

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

The peaceable wisdom that produces meekness enables us to receive the “implanted word, which is able to save [our] souls.” Therefore the person will be a doer of the word, not merely a hearer. The one who has heavenly wisdom will look into the word of liberty and obey it because heavenly wisdom that produces meekness a person works good conduct.

Wisdom produces a harvest of God’s righteousness because rather than being quick to speak and slow to listen, it is peaceable and open to reason. It is gentle and sincere and full of mercy. Therefore the one with heavenly wisdom is able to bridle his tongue and bless God’s people. The wise person has the rudder under control (James 3:1-12). With wisdom a person is not both a source of blessing and curse, fresh and salt water. He has tamed what no man has ever tamed, his tongue.

But because heavenly wisdom is impartial and sincere, showing no selfish ambition and vile practice, the wise man will take care of the orphans and widows. The wise person’s religion will be approved by God (James 1:26-27). There will be no partiality shown to the poor man. He will be seated in a good place. The wise person will love his neighbor and therefore fulfill the whole law, that word and law of liberty.

And thus in showing his good conduct by works done in the meekness of wisdom, the person who has this wisdom from heaven will have thus shown his faith to be that faith that justifies and saves (James 2:14-26). This faith will be accompanied with deeds and works because it is a faith that is wise. Because the wise man helps the poor the wise man does not say be warm yet provides no warmth. The wise man will love the poor man and so cloth and feed him. The believer who has heavenly wisdom will be like Abraham and Rahab who believed God and acted upon that faith.

Therefore do as James commands in James 1:5 and ask God to give you heavenly wisdom. Then use that wisdom that God has given you and love your neighbor as yourself. In that wisdom, sow peace so that righteousness will be harvested. In that wisdom, demonstrate that you are a child of God, having received the perfect Word of liberty that has caused you to be born again. Pray for wisdom.

In my quest to gain a whole-Bible understanding of justification I want to look at another psalm that utilizes righteousness/justification language, Psalm 82. I say whole-Bible because the Old Testament forms the background to and informs the New Testament’s understanding of justification. The theme of justification runs through the whole Bible and so I don’t want to isolate the New Testament from the Old Testament. There will be some differences between the two testaments but there will be commonality too. I go to Psalm 82 because it contains an appearance of the verbal form of sdq. The psalmist writes,

1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!

Briefly, this psalm is about Elohim pronouncing judgment upon the the Canaanite gods, led by El. The divine council in 82:1 could also be rendered “the assembly of El” (Psalm 82:1 NET). The crime is that these gods have judged “unjustly” and favored the wicked. What they should be doing is defending the poor and the weak, rescuing them from the hand of those that would oppose them. Therefore the sentence rendered and carried out is that El and his assembly are to die like human beings. Though they are divine, like any man or woman they will die. They have been stripped of their status as gods. The psalmist concludes his prayer for Elohim to rise up in the place of the El and his assembly and to judge the earth because all the earth belongs to Elohim (“you shall inherit the nations” could also be rendered “you own the nations,” [Psalm 82:8 NET] showing that Elohim already has possession of them and is not waiting for a future time).

Now I want to zero in on Psalm 82:3-4. I found an interesting verbal pattern in these two verses, a-b-a-b. In the “a” part of the pattern there is a qal imperative linked to the noun dal (NET: “poor”; ESV: “weak”) by a maqqef. In the “b” pattern the verb is an hiphil imperative that concludes the sentence. Both verses 3 and 4 open with the qal verb and end with the hiphil verb. And so what I am seeing is that “Give justice” (ESV)/”Defend” (NET) is paired with “Rescue” (NET/ESV) and “Maintain the right” (ESV)/”Vindicate” (NET) with “Deliver” (NET/ESV).

The hiphil imperative rendered “Vindicate” (NET) or “Maintain the right” (ESV) is haseddiqu from the verbal root sdq. Literally the verb could be read “Cause to be just/not guilty/innocent” or “Cause to be declared just/not guilty/innocent” or quite simply “justify.” In this context, being paired with the verb “deliver” as well with being paralleled with the verbs that mean “defend/give justice” and “rescue” it seems to me that haseddiqu is not a simple declaration. Elohim expect the gods to act on behalf of the poor that goes beyond a simple declaration. The declarative terms in 82:3 are paired with action terms in 82:4. So not only does Elohim command the false gods of Canaan to declare the poor to be in the right against their enemies, negating the case brought up against the poor, but to then make the wicked stop oppressing the poor. The gods are expected to act. They didn’t and so they are cast down like in Isaiah 14.

The more I read the Old Testament the more I see justification as both pronouncement upon a person but then also acting on behalf of said person. Not only does God see us to be in the right, but he then acts accordingly to our being in the right. That is what it means for someone to justify. To recognize them as in the right and to act accordingly.

In my tradition, justification is always stopped at the pronouncement of “In the right.” God does not then act according to that declaration. I think of the story of the woman in Luke 18 who asks the unjust judge for justice against her enemies. If the judge would have said, “You are in the right in this matter,” but did not see to it that the men oppressing her were dealt with to end her oppression, then can one say that the judge gave her justice? The declaration must enact something or it is of no use and only empty words. The declaration means nothing to the one who is declared, “in the right.” That would be a severe miscarriage of justice for the woman.

I think that justification needs to be reworked to reflect not only God’s declaration of the sinner to be “In the right,” but God’s then acting in accordance with that pronouncement. I really do believe that this declaration upon us comes only by faith when we are united to Christ at conversion, and again at the eschaton when it is revealed that our faith was true, genuine, persevering, saving faith. On the one hand it is Christ being declared in the right for us, representing us before the throne of God, and on the other it is Christ bestowing that declaration upon us who have represented him to the world. But as part of God’s justification of Christ, he was raised from the grave as the firstborn of the new creation. By union with Christ, we are able to participate in that new creation as he represents us in that new creation. Upon Christ’s justification of us whom he has been united to he raises us up at the eschaton to fully participate in the new creation. This seems to me to be more reflecting the ideas of justification that have a background in the OT.