OUR KINSMAN REDEEMER

In the Old Testament the kinsman-redeemer is a male relative who, according to the writings of Moses, had the responsibility of acting on behalf of a relative who was in need.

The Hebrew term is gâ'al and means 'to redeem' (according to the Oriental law of kinship) to be the next of kin and to deliver or redeem property or person. The kinsman redeemer is illustrated very clearly in the book of Ruth, where Boaz is seen as the kinsman-redeemer.

"Yahweh is Israel’s Redeemer, the one who promises to defend and vindicate them. He is both Father and Deliverer (Exodus 20:2). There are numerous Old Testament appeals to God as rescuer of the weak and needy (Psalm 82:4; Daniel 6:27; Jeremiah 20:13) and preserver of the sheep of Israel (Ezekiel 34:10–12, 22).

In the New Testament, Christ is often regarded as an example of a kinsman-redeemer because, as our brother (Hebrews 2:11), He also redeems us because of our great need, one that only He can satisfy. In Ruth 3:9, we see a beautiful and poignant picture of the needy supplicant, unable to rescue herself, requesting of the kinsman-redeemer that he cover her with his protection, redeem her, and make her his wife. In the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ bought us for Himself, out of the curse, out of our destitution; made us His own beloved bride; and blessed us for all generations. He is the true kinsman-redeemer of all who call on Him in faith."

https://www.gotquestions.org/kinsman-redeemer.html

Christians see their kinsman redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ. All human beings need to be redeemed from sin and this required a perfect sacrifice. Since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God there is no one born of Adam who had the necessary qualifications... so God himself undertook to be born of a woman (to come as man undefiled by Adam's nature) and fulfil the role on our behalf.

Christians believe Jesus is God, but to be our 'kinsman redeemer' he needed to have a human body prepared for him like unto ours (the virgin birth), but not only that he needed to lay to one side all the power of deity and live as man. He could not use his divine power at all if he was to be our 'kinsman' and our 'redeemer'.

Christians who are born again of God's Spirit COULD live perfectly holy lives by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit except for 'the sins that so easily beset us' (Hebrews 12:1). "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1John 1:9).

To be our kinsman Jesus needed to live the life of a man empowered only by his obedience to the Father by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and not by any applying of his own divinity.

Jesus lived his life on this earth as a man by the word of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

There is a passage in Philippians where it is said of Jesus that... "who existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

I really cannot explain it better than this... I do pray you will be enlightened.

GOD IS SPIRIT

The Almighty Creator of the material universe is not part of the material universe, He is not made up of the material of the universe which he made... He therefore must be immaterial, he must be SPIRIT.

God the Almighty Spirit prepared a body in the womb of Mary so that he might enter into the realm of time and space, the realm of sinful man, and as a man and by means of that body, live and die to deliver mankind from the penalty of their sin.

Is such an act beyond the abilities of Almighty God? And is it not in keeping with a Merciful yet Holy God.

These are truths that precede all else. Our books are or are attempts to explain God's history with all its complexities, but the underlying truth is simple. God is Spirit, he is pure and holy, and man has fallen short of his holiness.

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION

What is the eternal reason for creation?  This is the ultimate question.

Creation embraces both the spiritual beings we know as angels from eternity past, and the physical creation of time and space, the physical sphere in which we have our part. 

What is the purpose of creation?

I would suggest it is to glorify God.  To 'Glorify' God is to magnify, to expound, to reveal the true nature of God.  To expand on a comment by one of my old teachers; glorification is 'revelation in the interest of absolute truth'.

But why would a God who has everything need to defend his person, why does he need to defend his truth?  Surely he is sufficient in himself?

Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote (somewhere in his Systematic Theology) a passage that went something like this:

'In eternity past before the creation of angels, evil existed only in the abstract, as an antithesis to God.  The creation of living volitional beings brought about the opportunity for evil to take concrete form and in the fullness of time to be destroyed, thereby leaving the goodness of God victorious and unchallenged.'

To establish the supremacy of good over evil necessitated a situation where  a lesser volitional creature  could bring about the reality of evil so that it became a fact not an antithesis.  To then defeat evil by means of justice and love would be clear indisputable revelation 'in the interest of absolute Truth'.

The angels were created and Lucifer, by his own volitional choice, chose to rebel against Truth and so brought evil into reality.

The rest is history AND eschatology.  See both the Old Testament and the New.

THE BOOKS OF JUDGEMENT AND AQUITTAL

In Revelation all the dead, small and great, stand before God; there are two sets of books opened that have the names of every person who has ever lived.  1. the book of life, which according to Revelation 13:8 is the Lambs book of life, and 2. the books of works.

Daniel 7:10  refers to them. "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened"

And in Rev 20:12-15  "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire"

All believers however are found in the Lamb's book of life.  All those who are not found in that book face judgement according to the record of their works found in the books of works.  They are not judged for their sins because Christ paid that penalty.

Men are without excuse in rejection of God, and when they do they are in effect relying on themselves. They rely on their works which are all written up ready for the judgement to come.

I have included all New Testament references to books here:

Philippians 4:3  And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Revelation 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Revelation 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Revelation 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Revelation 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Revelation 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Revelation 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

OMNISCIENCE FOREKNOWLEDGE AND CONFLICT

Regarding the Creator:

God is eternal and therefore his omniscience, his decrees, his foreknowledge are eternal... but we are not.  We are of time and space and to understand such eternal things we must place them in order.

Omniscience:

By its very nature omniscience is a Divine attribute for it is ALL knowledge.  As such it contains not only the history of creation but every possible variant to that history. 

From God's omniscience the Divine purpose was decreed.  The decrees of God constitute the history of creation including the part sentient beings play in it.

Foreknowledge is knowledge of what has been decreed.  Omniscience knew everything that was foreknown but before it was decreed could only be a variant, a possibility.  The decrees made it a fact.  Isaiah 46:10 "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure"

Election, predestination etc are all within God's foreknowledge exactly as Peter says "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, my means of the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1Peter 1:2)

Regarding the Creation:

God who is all knowing, all wise, all loving, just and righteous would surely have made things perfect.  According to Genesis 1:31 that is exactly what he did... so what went wrong?

Before God made the Heavens and the Earth and before the foundations were laid it is evident that Satan had already brought about a rebellion in heaven... for the angelic realm sang for joy over the creation (Job 38:7) and yet very early Satan was in the Garden to subvert humanity.  Had God in his omniscience foreseen this?  Of course he had, so why didn't he choose another plan.

The doctrine of the Angelic Conflict gives the answer:

Man was created to resolve this conflict, a conflict between Satan and his angels and God who condemned and judged them to everlasting damnation for their rebellion. 

In Ezekiel 28 we have in the first ten verses a prophecy against the Prince of Tyre, the earthly ruler.  In verses 11-18 it becomes a lament over the King of Tyre a supernatural being that from the contents of those verses can only be a description of Lucifer.

In this lament we see he was an anointed cherub, a special being of great beauty and authority yet in pride he rose against his allotted position in Heaven and was cast out of Heaven as defiled.

In Isaiah 14:12-20 we see a similar heavenly condemnation referring directly to Lucifer the morning star.  We see his pride, his condemnation, and judgement.  Yet today we still see him free and active in the role his other names describe.  Satan is the Hebrew saw-tawn', Devil is the Greek diabolos both of which mean adversary.  Lucifer became an adversary to all that God has purposed... The fact that he is still free and active implies a successful appeal against God's condemnation and judgement. 

Such an appeal would be an affront to Gods' perfect nature yet God who is eternally just has given him the right of appeal and has set up the Creation as a venue in which this appeal could be played out. Man as an inferior creature to the Angels was to be used as evidence against Satan in this appeal.  

The original session was held in heaven but the appeal was to be held on earth. The human experience in the Old and the New Testaments reveal Satan's defence is primarily in his accusations against God's witnesses.  Job is an excellent example of this. 

With God's permission Satan tested Job to the extreme, which testing marvellously worked together for Job's good, but at the same time his unwavering faith in the unseen God was a single indictment to Satan's rebellion against the God whom he had seen.  This aspect of the case goes on throughout history. 

The promise of a redeemer, the coming of that Redeemer, his death for sin and his resurrection from the dead is the strategic victory for people of faith and is the promise of a future eternal resurrection.  Jesus Christ is that Redeemer and his death and resurrection is the strategic victory and substance of our faith.  Our faith in God's redemption is refutation of Satan's accusations, not our efforts at goodness.  In ancient times men knew God as the redeemer:

"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me" (Job 19:25-27).

     

If only one human being believes in Christ, being redeemed through faith, it is proof Satan’s appeal is not valid. If the lesser creature (man) through faith accepts and worships God, the greater creature (Satan) has no excuse for his intentional rejection of God .

Operation footstool terminates this Satanic defence (Psalm 110:1; Ephesians 1:20-22). It is the time when Christ’s enemies are placed under his feet in total subjection and is the beginning of Satan’s incarceration of one thousand years.

The closing arguments of this trial are then entered into, with the millennial reign of Christ being the final argument for the prosecution. At the end of a thousand years of peace the Satanically inspired rebellion is the final proof that Lucifer can only induce rebellion and destruction.  God is the only source of happiness contentment and continued life, the very source that Lucifer rejected.

Conclusions:

God's omniscience is the starting point to all these things.  From the position of omniscience God is able to see all the possibilities and their ramifications, and decree what will be.  Those decrees allow the volition of his creatures to coexist within the sovereignty of God.  

In his omniscience God saw the rebellion and fall of Satan and all that that rebellion brought upon the world, but in concern for justice and truth decreed it would be so.  

Human freedom of volition plays a vital part in this conflict.  No, man is not sovereign, we cannot dictate that we will never die, nor where we will exist when we die, that is God's sovereign will, but in spite of our fallen nature God is able to use our faith in him to prove to Satan his indefensible guilt.

Could Almighty God have stopped it from happening as it did?  Of course, but freedom of volition is an integral part of his Justice, and the Angelic Conflict is all about justice. Can a being without volition serve perfect justice?  No, for how could a robotic being prove God's goodness, it is doing what it is programmed to do; and can a robot express love? Man however is not robotic but has been made in God's image which includes the divine characteristics and the volition to express them.

Yes God could have stopped Satan and could have interfered with Eve and Adam's volition but that would have destroyed the basis of God's defence... the freedom to choose

God's foreknowledge is not the same as omniscience, it falls within the decrees and covers both the fall and the reconciliation of humanity. 

His foreknowledge includes our positive acceptance of the Holy Spirit's reproof. All those who believe in Jesus Christ were decreed (elected) by God in eternity past before the foundation of the world to a position of eternal life and godliness, of glory and virtue (1Peter 1:2), and as I have said on a number of occasions those who reject the Holy Spirit's reproof are left where they are, under just condemnation.

In regards to those whom God elected, it is exactly as Peter tells it... "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father..."

GOD'S REST

Hebrews chapters 3-4 speak of God's rest for those who believe his promises.
Promise 1: Christ died for the sins of the world (that's an awful number of sins and includes all of mine) (1John 2:2).
Promise 2: Because Christ died for all our sins, when we confess those sins the Father is faithful and justified in forgiving our sins AND in cleansing us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).

Paul learnt this secret, for in Romans 7:25, after acknowledging his carnality and the huge battle he had with sin (even to the point of utter wretchedness, vss 14-24), he was able to give thanks to God for deliverance ... through Jesus Christ our Lord... and end with a pragmatic acceptance of the situation, "so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin".

For those who would pick up on this and say O well let us live according to the flesh, Paul has previously said Romans 6:2 "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Paul expects those who are born of God's Spirit to exercise their minds (not the flesh) to serve the law of God.

Christians need to follow Paul's advice: believe in God's promises and (with the mind) serve the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus for it has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

This law of the Spirit of life can be referred back to the great and precious promises 1 and 2 mentioned above and expounded by Paul in Romans 8:3-8:
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."

If we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just in forgiving those sins and in cleansing us from all unrighteousness....this is God's promise, believe it, count on it, reckon it to be true, and enter his rest

THE ESSENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL

The essence of the Christian gospel is this; “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15

Scripture never says He came to set us an example, and those who say this and teach it as the spirit of the gospel, distort the scriptures to their own ruin. Many in Christendom have come to believe Christianity to be no more than a life of respectable behavior and that it is all that God requires. This idea is in effect the basis of all religion and it is this belief, which separates religion from the truth. The truth is that Jesus Christ died for sinners (Rom. 5:8); but if we are able to gain acceptance with God by our respectable behavior, then his coming was needless, his death was for nothing, and why? Because if we were able to please God by our own efforts, religion would be sufficient, his coming would be unnecessary. The fact that the Bible tells us that Christ came to save sinners is God’s declaration of man’s inability to save himself; and the fact that none of us are righteous (Rom. 3:10) is evident to anyone who measures himself against the standards of perfection.

Those who protest that such a comparison is unfair do not look beyond this present life. In their ignorance of God, people compare themselves to other people and inevitably reach a satisfactory estimation. Their expectation of eternity is simply a mystical continuation of this life without its bitterness and heartache. They have no understanding of the righteousness of God’s kingdom and no comprehension of the holiness of God.

If we are honest with ourselves we must see that we are not righteous as God is righteous, not holy as God is holy, and therefore not reconciled to God. It is because of this, and the fact that we cannot achieve that reconciliation by our own standards of righteousness, that we are lost. If we are honest with ourselves we must come to the realization that we need God to save us, to reconcile us to himself and it is at this point of our need that the Scriptures reassure us, in that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15 and “ all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. 2 Cor.5: 18

Why is Jesus Christ so important? In the gospel of Luke 1:35, we are told that the child who would be born of the Virgin Mary would be God’s son; not the son of a human father, but the result of the Spirit’s power impregnating the womb of Mary. Her child would be the son of God. In this way the Saviour would be free from the inherent sin of Adam, and by constant obedience to the Father would remain free from personal sin. Why is this necessary and what has this to do with our salvation?

The ‘wages of sin is death’ Rom. 6:23a (and because of inherent and personal sin we are all dead to God), therefore to pay the wages of sin one must first have the necessary assets. Those assets are a perfect sinless life, which Jesus Christ in his birth and in his life demonstrated to all of creation. The wages of sin were paid when the perfect Saviour sacrificed his life; bore the wages of our sin in his own body on the cross (1Peter 2:24) and died. It was in his death that the penalty for our sins was met; it is in his resurrection from the dead where we have our guarantee of present and future salvation.

It is by God’s grace that we are saved, it is not of human righteousness nor of any work we can accomplish; salvation is ours through faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Saviour and simply a matter of believing and accepting all that he achieved on our behalf. When we do no more than believe, God’s holiness is uncompromised and he is free to give to us eternal life and an inheritance in his eternal kingdom.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, will not perish but will have everlasting life. John 3:16

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16:31