wayfarer58

Greetings All! This is huge! When we are in Christ, we occupy the same position as He does, and have the same power & authority as He does. Incredible! Dave

Greetings All! It is significant because it was customary for the most honored or most prominent individual to be seated at the right hand of 'the host'. This placed Jesus in th most powerful place in the heavenly realms, save the position of the father. Placing an enemy 'under foot' was, and still is, a sign of absolute authority over the one upon whom the foot rests. In Christ, Dave

Greetings All! Because their spiritual eyes, like ours often times, are closed. Due to a lack of faith, they are unable to see that "...all things are possible with God." It operates in each Christian and, by extension, in the church. Paul uses the glorious resurrection of Jesus as his example. In Christ, Dave

Greetings All! In general, both meals are to be celebrated in fellowship. In other words, these aren't to be separate events in our daily lives, but a part of them done, perhaps, in a special way. The difference is seen in that the Passover meal was very ritualized whereas Jesus simply commands us to "do this in rememberance of Me." Dave

Greetings All! It is by their blood on the lentils and doorposts that the lambs protected Israel on the first passover. In order to obtain that blood, the lambs had to die. I suppose it would be in that when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, we are washed in His blood. In that way, the wrath of God will pass us over when it is time to destroy the world. Dave

Greetings All! I see it this way. If a bird is in a cage, it has no choice but to live and act in accordance within the constraints of that cage. That is all it's ever known or done. If the cage door is opened, the bird has, in fact, been set free. It is now up to the bird (assuming the ability) to make a choice of how to live and act - within the constraints of the cage, or outside of the cage in true freedom. We live in a cage of sin. Sin is all we've ever known or done. Jesus opened the door and sets us free to live in the freedom He provides. We now have the option of exiting the cage or staying in the cage. The truth is, we exit, then re-enter, then exit, then re-enter, then exit, then re-enter, then exit, then re-enter, then exit, then re-enter, then exit, then re-enter, ...well, you get the picture. It is the Holy Spirit who encourages us to exit, shows us how and gives us the power (ability) to exit AND live outside of the cage of sin. He also warns us not to re-enter the cage, but we, all too often, fail to heed His warnings. Dave

Greetings All! a. Anyone who has yet to be redeemed is, in fact, a slave whether or not they acknowledge such. b. The Scriptures are clear that we are slaves to sin. c. God offers the ransom. d. Because we are not slaves to satan, but to sin. Satan is simply a liar and one who encourages us to remain enslaved to sin. e. Because in order to complete thae analogy God would have to pay ransom Himself the ransom since He has always owned us, even while we were voluntarily enslaved to sin. Dave

Greetings All! For me, this is simple. God long ago said that the punishmnet for sin (not doing His will) is death. Period. I have sinned. No doubt about it. The punishment due to me is death. Period. God has said, however, that he will accept the death of Jesus as payment in full for my sin IF I also accept it. It was in His mercy that He made this decision. And I gladly accept! This is my understanding. Dave

Greetings All, This is a very important point to grasp. Despite old hymns, sermons, and speeches, we were not set free when Jesus paid the price for our redemption, we were bought and now belong to God. Prior to our redemption we were owned by sin (not satan); this is a rather etherial concept and much harder to grasp than, say, being owned by a person. We are now OWNED (lock, stock, and barrel as they say), by God. Despite the repugnance with which we see the very idea of one human being owned by another human, and despite the diminishing sanctity of personal property, when one owns something, one has the right to do with it as one pleases. And the 'thing' which is owned has absolutely no right to do anything other than those things expressly allowed by it's owner. Thankfully, we are not owned by a human (except in the sense that Jesus is a man), we are owned by God. And thankfully, our owner does give us a great deal of freedom. But that freedom is not absolute and does have it's limits. Our lives should in every way acknowledge Him to whom we belong, doing only those things which please Him, and refraining from anything which would grieve Him. Dave

Greetings All! a. Slaves or prisoners of war were those freed by ransoming. b. I think that Jesus and the New Testament writers used this analogy because it was one that everyone could see and understand. Slavery was a way of life in NT times. And it wasn't the type of slavery which was a part of early American life. This type of slavery, especially among the Jews, had certain rules. Redemption was one of those rules. c. I think it helps explain why we do what we do, especially before we've been redeemed. While it is tru that , once redeemed, we are no longer 'bound' to sin to do sin, old habits die hard and the idea of having been a slave to sin helps explain why it is so difficult for us to completely give up our old way of life. Dave

Greetings All! 2 Corinthians 5:21 (For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us...) comes closest, I think, but is somewhat incomplete because it does not speak of our healing which was also paid for at Calvary. But, in the eternal sense, Isaiah 53 is certainly exemplified here. Dave

Greetings All! This, to me, is impossible to really understand. I long ago settled it in my own mind by deciding that this is just the way God has decided it will be. I have done word studies, topical studies, read essays, lessons, etc. and I still don't understand how it can be other than that 'with God all things are possible. Kind of a non-answer, but that's the best I can do. Dave

Greetings All! Actually, it is Luk_4:18-21 that convinces me that Jesus understands His mission and it's prophetic fulfillment. Of course, Luk_24:25-27 indicates His clear undrstanding of the suffering prophesied in Is 53. Dave

Greetings All! It's been a very busy week and I just got to the study for the week. Here is my response to question one (not that anyone has been waiting anxiously to see what I have to say ) a. Firstly, Isa_52:15 clearly says 'many nations'. This puts the 'action' outside of the scope of just Jews. Throughout the passages such non-specific words/phrases as men, land of the living, many, and their are used. At no point in this passage is His work limited or confined. b. Just as with sacrifices in the sacrificial system discussed in last weeks lessons, the sacrifice requires the active participation of the one for whom the sacrifice is made. In this sense, universal means all those who participate in (actively accept) the sacrifice Jesus made. c. Only in the sense that Scripture makes it clear that some will not accept the sacrifice. The amazing thing is that God (Jesus) knew from the beginning that there would be some who would not accept His offer, and He mad it us all anyway. Dave

Our actions have a cost, to ourselves and to others. God is a God of justice, but also a God of mercy. In other words, He cannot repent of His 'rules' nor the consequences (death) of breaking them (justice), but he can provide a way for paying the cost (life), and still allow the sinner to live. This also shows us God's holiness ("...their is no shadow of turning." James 1:17). The fact that the sacrificial system exists at all, shows us God's nature: absolute justice, absolute holiness, absoulute mercy. With mankind, it is impossible to demonstrate all three simultaneously, "...but with God all things are possible." (Mt 19:26) Dave

God had already told mankind the penalty for sin (Gen 2:17, etc.). He owed us nothing. It is clear that animal sacrifice was insufficient (Heb 10:4, etc.). But God made provision for those who were desirous of resuming their relationship with Him to do so via the sacrificial system. And, of course, this system foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. Dave

The way I see it there are, at the most basic level, two elements involved in a sacrifice for sin: confession and atonement. In our lesson, Pastor identifies seven elements, but I believe that the final six are all a part of atonement. As far as what elements are necessary today, obviously confession and atonement are still required. Insofaras our lesson: Confession Bringing an animal with no defect - Jesus is our perfect sacrifice Lay his hands on its head - we 'lay our hands on' Jesus when we allow him to bear our sin for us Slay the animal - Jesus was killed for our sin The remainder of the elements do not apply today, with the possible exception of the final element, '(t)he meat is eaten by the priests', which may be seen in believers (priests, 1Peter 2:9) participating in Holy Communion (John 6:51). The reason the other parts are no longer necessary is because we no longer need an intermediary between ourselves and God who needs to be purified and supported. Jesus accomplished all of that for us. Dave

I think that there are several reasons that some (most?) people, at least in the western world, see animal sacrifice as repulsive. One of these reasons is most certainly our societies move away from the farming culture of the past. We have insulated ourselves as much as possible from death in general, human or animal. Obviously we have butchers to take care of our food, but also, we now have funeral homes to attend to our dead. In generations past, funerals were in the home. Also, we are much safer as a society. Workplace deaths are, thankfully, infrequent enough to make the news when they occur. So, despite the fact that we do 'see' death on a regular basis on TV, movies, videos and the like, the fact is that we are really removed from those deaths except on the rare occasion when we are forced to deal with it by it's immediacy to our lives. Another reason, in my opinion, is the anthropomorphization of animals. Giving animals all of the characteristics, looks, foibles, emotions, etc. of humans tends to make us think that killing an animal is the equivalent of killing a human. You can see this in the Disney films, Bugs Bunny, etc.. These are not animals, they are humans that look like animals, thus the revulsion. Our whole society is enamored with the idea of animals being equivalent to us, when, in fact, God made us stewards over the animals. We are to tend to the flocks properly, but they are, after all, flocks (or herds, or gaggles, or whatever). I hope I haven't offended anyone with my thoughts on the subject, but they are my thoughts. Dave

Here are my answers to today's questions: a. According to Webster anger is "A violent passion of the mind excited by a real or supposed injury...". (BTW, the Hebrew and Greek words translated as anger run along the same lines). While we are very ready to be angry at some harm done to us or someone close to us, we must have that same, or even an increased anger towards sin because, if for no other reason, sin is an offense to the God who created us. b. Our anger often results in uncontrolled, unreasonable response; i'e', the 'crimes of passion' that we read about all too often. And while we may often control ourselves enough to reason out an appropriate response in proportion to our perception of the nature of the offense, God ALWAYS responds appropriately in accordance with His already revealed nature. We have no excuse! We know the nature of God, we know the expectations he has of us. We know what the results of failure to meet those expectations must be. Thankfully, we can also know the One to deliver us from God's righteous response to our sin. Thank you Jesus! Dave

Here's my $0.02: a. The context in which he was living makes it clear that John was refering to Jesus as a lamb in a sacrificial sense. The sacrificial system was a part of daily life. Everyone knew what type of sacrifice was to be given for what reason. No, John was making a very specific statement. If John had simply been refering to someone sent by God, he could have used other teminology (e.g., prophet, teacher). Because Jesus was at this time a full grown man, the reference couldn't have been to Him as a child. I'm sure John knew the import and inference of what he was saying, to have said it twice emphasizes the fact that he said what he meant and meant what he said. b. At this time, Israel considered themselves a people set apart, which they were, but not to the extent that they thought. Jehovah was their God, not the world's. What He did, He did for them, not the world. To indicate that God had sent a sacrificial lamb to atone for the "sins of the world", and not just Israel, was not what they expected, and, likely, not what they wanted. To put the entire world 'in their boat', gentiles and Israel receiving forgiveness through the same sacrifice, was probably an affront in their minds. Blessings! Dave