teaching notes : progress of redemption

Intro :

We haven't talked much about redemption yet...

Moses introduced the idea, but it hasn't been much of a focus.

There have been a few predictions though (aside from the title of this series) :

Psalms 130:7,8 O Israel, hope in the LORD;
For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.
And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.
Isaiah 59:20 "A Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob," declares the LORD.

Expectations So Far:

Setting: Mankind is Sinful, alientated from God and one another.
Major Promises:

1. A great nation (Patriarchs and Egypt)

- descended from Abraham, through Isaac
- a blessing to the entire world

2. God will judge sin (and how), but also overlook it (Exodus and Wanderings)

- God's holiness means none of us can get near Him without dying (He judges sin).
- God is willing to transfer his wrath and our guilt to another innocent party (an animal sacrifice)

3. David will have a son who will rule forever; Israel will be cared for and safe forever (David And Solomon).

- a hereditary king will rule forever
- Israel's enemies will be defeated, and Israel will peace forever

4. God promises to remove sin from his people (Kings and Prophets).

- God will judge the sin of the entire world
- God will completely remove sin from his people
- Gentiles will be a part of God's people

5. The best is yet to come (Exile And Return).

- the latter glory of the temple will exceed the former (maybe minor...but worth reviewing)

Christ's Life

(our focus is not on Christ's life or death/sacrifice but on what it adds to the redemption narrative)

Birth - Death

Born of the tribe of Judah as a descendent of David

Between Matt 1:2-16 and Luke 3:23-38, doubly so

(many take Luke's geneology to be Mary's recently; others argue that Joseph's father died and that one is his second/adopted father)

Becomes Teacher/Prophet/Miracle Worker

jesus makes wine - john 2
jesus feeds the 4,000 - matthew 14
jesus drives the money changers out of the temple (john 2:13-25)
jesus heals many (matt. 8, matt 15, etc) (isaiah 53)
things are so in line with expectation that the crowd decides to make him king (israel tends to do such a great job of picking kings...) - john 6:15
finally - everything kind of comes to a head on palm sunday. the crowd goes wild...(john 12)

Death On A Cross

christ is arrested by the jews, handed over to the romans and crucified.

Christ's Resurrection

after three days in a tomb, christ is raised from the dead.
he appears to the disciples, and ultimately ascends to heaven, leaving his holy spirit for his followers.

Christ is the sacrifice enabling redemption

Hinted At In His Teachings, But Not Proclaimed Until After His Resurrection

The disciples were taught the point of his death after his resurrection

Luke 24:45-48 45.Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46.and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47.and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48."You are witnesses of these things.

Stated directly By The Apostles

Rom 3:21-26 21.But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22.even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23.for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24.being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25.whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26. for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The amazing declaration is that Mosaic law did not provide redemption

It was a means of receiving the redemption of Christ.
"in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed";

Sin's penalty Is Transferrable...To Christ.

The Revelation of Christ

Fulfillment of Revelation

The Blessing Is Jewish

Gen 12:3 "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed"

Redemption Matches Mosaic Patterns

Blood has been explicit since Moses (and possibly earlier; see Cain and Abel in Gen 4 and 'garments of skin' in Gen 3:21)

The Christ Is Davidic

2 Sam 7:16 "Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever"

The New Covenant Is Started

Jer 31:31-34 31."Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32.not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33."But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34."They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Heb 8:7-12 quotes this and then declares that Christ started this new covenant ("Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come", Heb 9:11)

Additions To Revelation

The Blessing To All Nations (Abraham) Is Christ

Gal 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you."

The Christ, David's Heir, Is God

Weren't expecting that...but the use of the word 'eternal' in 2 Sam. 7 makes more sense now.

The New Covenant Is Started Prior To The Global Worship/Rule Of God

The prophets spoke of both (see "Kings and Prophets")...turns out the 'New Covenant' starts early.

God is Love

God's Love Wasn't Shown Clearly Prior To Christ

We have seen love mentioned, but it hasn't been a (the) major theme yet in the story.
The extent/reality of the love of God hadn't yet been shown. (like the Holiness of God in Exodus)

God's Love Is Incomprehensible

God Loving Us Means That God Cares More For Us Than For Himself

Love is something we owe God; that makes sense.

Matt. 22:36-40 36."Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37.And He said to him, " `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38."This is the great and foremost commandment. 39."The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40."On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

That God loves us is something hard to comprehend

-it violates some concepts of authority.
-love is a form of weakness

we often disdain those which loves us
whoever loves least has all power in a relationship

I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that God loves me.

God's Love Demonstrates Itself At Enormous Cost

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life"
Mark 15:1-38 The crucifixion

i hate talking about it because :

- often used manipulatively / cheesily
- how do you not cheapen the event?

Believing The Love Of God

there is a lot that god allows that seems unloving and unkind

read job lately?
why are the righteous punished with the wicked (read jeremiah's life)
god brings israel out of egypt...but what about all that died in slavery there or as children?
the idea of hell...

there is no room to say that god is not loving however.

1. this should comfort you
2. this should change the way you look at the world

worldview is completely shifted - god, the infinite power, loves you.

God's love is the foil to the problem of pain.

Mimicking The Love Of God

Phil 2:3-11 3.Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4.do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5.Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6.who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7.but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8.Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9.For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10.so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11.and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What an amazing thing to say about God and what a difficult challenge for us