An Introspection

How to Talk about the Ransom
from the Heart
Audio MP3  

“For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (John 12:49, NIV).

Jordan Gray

Some are fortunate to have known the doctrine of Christ’s ransom sacrifice since childhood. One likely thinks about the ransom in terms of justice, and justice satisfied. This is a strong scriptural argument to show that while condemnation spread to all from father Adam, fixing this root cause allows life to flow to all of humanity (Romans 5).

There are many factors to address in conveying to others how the ransom contains within it a redemption for all lost in Adam. But at the base of this type of explanation is the fact that justice needs to be satisfied (justice is the foundation of God’s throne, Psalms 89:14). Yet using justice alone to explain God’s love for all of His creation may not be understandable to people who are perplexed as to why God would not intervene in horrific matters of injustice, genocide, oppression, and slavery.

But there is another way to tell the story of God’s Plan for man that uses God’s understanding of human blindness and ignorance as a case for His outpouring of unmerited mercy.

A Case for Mercy

Mercy triumphs over justice (Psalms 136). Though God sees all of us as unjust, some think that by following certain rules or standards, we can be better than others who are unjust. Consider how Jesus approached the blind eyes, and deaf ears, in a culture entrenched in Law.

Looking to Jesus

Jesus, during his first advent, gave the best witness on the Ransom. Not only did he speak like never a man spoke — but he healed the sick, fed the hungry, and raised the dead. He even died on the cross, providing the actual ransom sacrifice! But even Jesus, who came to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37), did not turn Israel’s stony hearts to flesh right then. Why were they so blinded to his teachings?

Deceived by the Law

Was not the Law that Israel was under preparing them to receive Christ? Then why was Israel not ready to receive Jesus’ message of truth at the first advent? Let us look back at an early record of one singular law in the Garden of Eden, and its impact upon two humans living in near-perfect conditions. What happens in law-based cultures?

Adam and a Culture of Cover-ups

The Scriptures say that Eve was deceived and transgressed. But Adam, knowing the law, sinned (1 Timothy 2:13,14). When Adam’s first attempt at a self-covering of fig leaves did not hide him, he chose to blame Eve (his own flesh!) and even tried to blame God in the same breath (Genesis 3:8-13). Adam’s skillful maneuvering under a single law demonstrates well our human propensity for self-preservation. Adam started the culture of cover-ups in humanity that still persists today (Genesis 3:12).

Sin and Blindness in Israel

Flash forward to Israel. They, just like Adam, were under law, but this time 613 laws! Those outside of Israel, without the specific laws and penalties, freely transgressed without a guilty conscience. To them sin was not even counted (Romans 5:13). But Israel — at times partaking of things that were explicitly forbidden under the Law — registered them in their conscience as guilt. Then came fear of penalty, self-coverings, and sin multiplied. An increase of sin is directly proportional to an increase of law. (Thankfully, for the time being, grace abounds when sin abounds, Romans 5:20.)

Within the Law-based, performance-based, Israelite culture, righteous “points” would be earned for overtly doing righteous acts (so it was deemed well advised to hide any transgressions). The more righteousness you could display — and the more you could hide your faults — the more emboldened you might be in advertising your robe of self-righteousness. Outward righteousness was a valued token in this culture. Enter Pharisees ...

By the time Jesus appeared at his first advent, his hard hitting questions to the religious authorities threatened to remove their lawless robe of self-righteousness. To prevent their own uncovering (fearing shame), they defended self by plotting to kill him. They had him beaten and crucified publicly. Jesus knew this was a tactic of those leased temporary power in this world. He said this of the limitations of their power: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4 KJV).

Pharisees and Self-Righteousness

It is good for Christians to have Paul as an example, so well versed in the deception of seeking righteous merit points by following the Law. This remains a problem today, seeking righteousness by achievement (like Job and the rich young ruler). Note Paul’s admission at appearing self-righteous through the Law. “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” and chief of all sinners (Acts 23:6, 1 Timothy 1:15). He had been the best of the best at hiding his guilt — and using the Law to do it.

Flesh Connection to Law

Paul explained, “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” (Romans 7:11, KJV). Paul explained that we are in bondage to the law in the flesh, and are released when we die to the old, and become alive in the spirit. Christianity is in a mixed state — not yet freed from the flesh and its entanglement with law, and not yet fully alive in the spirit.

It is a truly wise, kind, and loving God who, while we are yet in the weakness of flesh, allows us first to be deceived, blinded by the ideology of the god of this world — so that in time, He can pour out His abounding mercies towards us. God’s plan does not include leaving us all in a world of laws and rules, in a world devoid of mercy. In Hebrews, Paul says, “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Hebrews 10:28 NIV). But a change is coming.

The Way that Seems Right
 

However, for now, people either try to meet the requirements of laws, or excuse themselves, sometimes even supposing the laws to be unjust. In Romans 14, Paul refers to these two perspectives on law. The weak (for conscience sake, fearing judgment) condemn those violating rules and laws that they work hard to fulfill — while the strong, for whom all things are lawful, despise the weak for passing judgment upon them.

It is for each of us to ponder how we think about rules and laws. Either extreme drives further polarizing, repeatedly dividing humanity, right down to our own homes. The results can be bitter, “knowing” we are right. Oh, the not-so-blessedness of always being in the right.

Truth Can Lead to Blindness

The Pharisees could not see their own blindness. Christians might suppose, “We are not blinded or deceived the way Israel was under the Law. We see the truth of the Scriptures more plainly.” But knowing the truth, and applying it in our hearts, are two different things. In our heart we should activate these truths, change our actions, and be unlimitedly kind towards one another. Otherwise, knowledge of the truth becomes irrelevant. It could puff us up. If we measure righteousness by the things we know, we could hyper-focus on knowledge as a means of seeking personal advantage.

It is not unprecedented to think that we, too, can go into blindness even by way of the truth (although it does sound strange). Pastor Russell, in an article titled “Snare — a Trap — a Stumbling-block,” explores the risks of handling precious truths when they are not positively impacting our hearts (R4781). “Let us, therefore, take heed to the illustration given us in God’s typical people, lest our table, so bountifully spread and served by the Master himself, become to us a snare, a trap and a stumbling-block into blindness — the ‘outer darkness’ of the world.” For Israel, the Law became a stumbling block. To these, Jesus came to speak the truth. Being focused on the Law, aiming to perform all the requirements of the Law, there was little else they could see or hear around them.

This was the kind of blindness and deafness that Jesus aimed to remove from humanity. He came to remove the list of requirements that were written against us. By allowing himself to be judged guilty under the Law, he was saying, “Look, that type of judgment is irrelevant.”

But Israel was so blinded by the Law that their hearts were hardened by the burden of the laws and they could not get free of them. The same is true for us if we make our interpretation of Scriptures, our set of beliefs, that which saves us (by holding those beliefs). Instead, we need to adopt the mind of Christ and become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Jesus said, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39,40 NIV).

The Law in Early Christianity

When Paul spoke to his fellow Christians, he asked them what was deceiving them into thinking that, by doing various points of the law, they could possibly add to their righteousness. In fact, he pointed out that if there were a way to be made right by the Law, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2). Jesus’ death on the cross was necessary, because the Law is not the way to life.

Pastor Russell says we should not be as children following certain fixed rules, but as philosophers grasping the underlying principles (R1045). Do we in some ways suppress what is the meat of the word? Have we made the details of Scripture (not unlike the Law) the main focus, and become unintentionally blind to the deeper philosophical matters of the heart?

When one tries hard to achieve the righteous requirements of the Law, one has a certain expectation of reward for the effort. This is a slippery slope. True righteousness comes in realizing that the mercy we receive is unlimited when we allow that mercy to flow through us to others, even those who may revile and persecute and say all manner of evil against us falsely.

We are all the Recipients of God’s Mercy

We cannot flow mercy to others if we do not believe mercy is flowing to us. So the question comes back to us, What do we believe? If we look at God as a God of rigorous justice who watches our every move, then this is the way we will deal with our fellow Christians and neighbors. But if we see God as a God of mercy, we will extend mercy to others, a true testimony to the ransom. Jesus showed us a way out of the idea that rules and regulations were the way to life. He showed us the way out of conflicts and warring with one another.

Bless and Do Not Curse

Jesus asked us to love our enemies. We all struggle with that challenge. Yet it is likely that people who give us the most difficulty in life are the very ones to whom we are called to bear witness to the truth. When others say a harmful word or when they attack us — let us see them as Jesus saw them. And Steven. Let us see them as Saul who, thinking they are doing God a service, attack us, blinded by fear or power. Let us be as the righteous, not resisting the attack, but pouring mercy upon them.

Directly opposite mercy is the Law by which we judge others and make them lower than ourselves, which is an anti-witness (Philip-pians 2:3).

We should realize that people are in blindness, perhaps doing the best they can with their beliefs, pressures and circumstances. Sometimes they are in positions of power, sometimes they are subjected. We can bear witness to the truth when we esteem those around us as better than ourselves. With mercy we can accept an attack, yet bless them with mercy just as we have abundantly received. What a testimony to the cross of Christ that would be.

Summary

God in mercy provided Jesus Christ’s ransom sacrifice for all. Those who receive abundantly of God’s unmerited favor should let mercy flow outward from them also. Jesus’ service can bind up the bruised and broken, free captives from the burden of the Law, and release us from sin and death. We talk from the heart about the Ransom, by living the Ransom. Mercy in — and mercy out.