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Christian Chronicles, May 2000 - Volume 3, Issue 54
| The
Editor's Pen | Perspectives: The
Opening of the Graves | Mid-East Update | Fruit of the Vine |
| Descent Into Darkness | The Tearing of the Veil | Malu's
Testimony | Jesus Was Thirsty |
| If the Resurrection Had Not Happened
| But Where Is That Blood? |
The May 15th issue of Christian Chronicles marks a new beginning. For the first time, an electronic version is now available to those who prefer it. Anyone who has an internet connection may begin viewing the online version by filling out the simple form on our website. Just click on the "Subscriptions" links, fill out the brief form, and you will reach a page with directions to the current issue. Paper subscribers will find the correct address to the current edition online at the bottom of the even-numbered pages of every paper issue.
We apologize for using so much of our limited space in this issue to deal with administrative matters. Our subscribers know that our steadfast practice is to draw the attention of the reader God-ward, rather than toward ourselves. We beg your indulgence as we introduce this new service. For our desire is to serve each of you more fully, and we surely do not want to lose anyone who wishes to continue receiving the paper version of this theology monthly. We shall seldom deal with internal matters in this forum.
Thank You!
Perspectives: The Opening of the Graves
Then, behold, the veil of the Temple(Mt 27:51-52)
This is another of those passages that we tend to read over without much notice. The opening of the graves catches our interest momentarily, but then we move on to more "interesting" things. There is, in that momentary catching of attention, however, the seed of all our hope. For here is the first phase of the first resurrection.
The first resurrection occurs in three distinct phases. First, these saints (and Jesus Himself three days later) are raised. We should note that it was not merely two or three graves that were opened, or only a handful of saints who were resurrected. When the Bible speaks of this event, the word is "many."
In a way, it almost seems an unnecessary detail. Our hope would have found firm basis in Christ’s resurrection alone. But God, knowing the skeptical human heart, understood that many would say that the resurrection did not pertain to anyone but the Son of God Himself. The devil is always about the business of tearing down our hopes. Therefore did God choose to give us a promise of the resurrection to come in the persons of those saints who were raised on the day of the crucifixion.
On the other hand, it was no small event in its day. The opening of the graves would have caused some small turmoil had it happened only in the context of the earthquake that also happened. The disturbance of graves is a frequent occurrence during earthquakes, yet it always receives mention in the press. Let us set the scene for this great event.
It was dark. Very dark. In the middle of the day the sky had faded from daylight to a terrible and fearsome darkness. This was no mere solar eclipse, where the light takes on an other-worldly cast, but the darkness of midnight, with neither stars nor moon to lessen the terror. Surely, the thieves on either side of Jesus were moaning in their agony, but Jesus was silent apart from the several utterances He made before yielding up His Spirit. That alone would have struck fear in the hearts of many.
Then the earth quaked. Again, this is no small detail. It was more than a minor shaking of the ground, for the rocks split. In darkness as thick as pitch the ground began its terrible rumbling, followed rapidly by a great shaking. Consider the sounds the rocks must have made as they split. Each one, like the crack of a high-powered rifle, made their fearful hearts quake a bit more as they split the darkness. Few, if any, of the people in Jerusalem that day had ever experienced an earthquake. They were a primitive people, and many probably did not even know that the earth could quake.
Because of the darkness, no one saw the saints arise from their graves. It was not until the light returned that it could be seen that the graves had been opened. Imagine the shock, the utter horror, as the people went to the various graves and found them empty. Or their terror in meeting those who had formerly occupied those graves.
No, it was no small event, and the real surprise is that it received so little "coverage" in the accounts of that day given in the Bible. Yet, God is always the Master of Understatement. A brief notation is sufficient to assure us that it happened. A couple of verses are enough to place our own hope of resurrection on a firm foundation.
If the resurrection of many saints on that day was big news, the translation of the saints at the rapture is going to be much, much bigger. Far more is written in the Bible concerning the rapture of the Church than is written concerning that first phase of the first resurrection that occurred those many centuries ago. But those were raised that we might know assuredly that the promises of our resurrection are sure.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists first published what has been commonly referred to since June, 1947, as the Doomsday Clock. It has moved back and forth between about a quarter to midnight and two or three minutes till midnight since then, depending upon the level of international tension. The world views this "clock" expectantly as a sort of barometer of how near we are to destroying ourselves in some sort of nuclear holocaust. It is evident that science is not very sanguine in their hopes that we might forestall a worldwide catastrophe.
What the world, however, sees as Doomsday is not doomsday at all. There will surely be a great military conflagration on the earth, but it will not signal the end of the world or even of humanity. It would, but for the intervention of our Lord, who will stop the final conflict before it reaches the cataclysm. No doubt, when the hostilities of the tribulation period begin, the science community will move the hands of their "clock" up to within a few seconds of midnight. It is a silly notion, one that openly contradicts clear prophecies of the Bible concerning those times.
Christians might better direct their attention toward what we could call the Rapture clock. For, while we know not the day nor the hour of our translation, we do know that it will occur prior to the tribulation period, and that period begins with the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East Peace agreement brokered by the nation of the beast, and signed by Israel and her neighbors.
While there are fluctuations in the peace process, the movement is inexorably toward the goal, now stated openly, of a comprehensive peace. While the world watches their "Doomsday Clock," let us lay hopeful eyes on the Rapture clock. We do not know the day or the hour, but the season of Mideast Peace is surely upon us.
We Christians like to let other people know that we are Christians. We like to talk about the Bible and be seen going to church on Sundays. Though we might be mildly embarrassed, we like it to be known that we teach Sunday School or sing in the choir. We safely point to those outside our number and decry the sinfulness of unbelievers. All these things make us "feel" like good Christians. There is nothing wrong in any of that. We should hate sin, but not only of others, but our own as well. But none of that has any bearing at all upon our fruitfulness.
When a Christian seeks fruit, the message centers on the cross at Calvary. We can talk until our tongues fall out and our hearers faint, but if we do not take them to the cross, we shall not bear any fruit. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins.
Not a single soul was ever saved by hearing how comforting the Bible is, or how blessed one is by giving. When a person is saved, it is because he has finally understood the awful significance of the death of Christ on the cross. When that sacred Blood has covered his own personal sins, then does the wondrous light of God’s grace fill his whole body.
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour
(Mt. 27:45)
Matthew does not elaborate, but presents this simple statement. Luke adds a tiny bit of detail when he says that the darkness was over all the earth. Both say that the darkness began about the sixth hour, which would have been noon, and lasted until the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon. The picture is one of great drama.
One pictures in his mind the rolling in of a great bank of heavy clouds, blotting out the light from the sun. More likely, the light itself simply faded quickly into darkness, as though the sun had been extinguished. Torches must have been lighted, and the bystanders were surely struck by the gravity of the moment.
We tend to think of it as a rather small detail in so large a drama, but it carries the freight of great significance. After all, the One about whom this passage is written is Himself the Light of the world. It is more than fitting that light all over the world should hide its face during the hours when its Author suffered the infernal horrors of a darkness that should rightly have been ours. What the world saw that afternoon was the darkness of the tomb, the shadow of the grave. When Jesus closed His eyes in death, He was reaping the wages of sin, not His own, but yours and mine. The One who was Himself Light suffered the judgment that should have fallen upon us. The very next verse in Matthew speaks of Him calling out to a God who had forsaken Him. The darkness in His soul spilled out and covered the entire earth.
How appropriate that, once the judgment for our sins had been executed upon Him and He had been placed in the dark folds of the earth, light should once again be seen, heralding an age of grace. How fitting that the most evil work perpetrated by mankind was cloaked in darkness so deep that only artificial light could reveal it.
It was the feast of the Passover in Israel. Every family had brought its sacrificial offering to the Temple for the shedding of that substitutionary blood that would push their sins ahead in time one more year. The high priest was in a quandary. For the veil that hung between the holy place and the most holy place had somehow become torn, parted from top to bottom on the day before. The holy place is where the weekly offerings were made, but the most holy place (also called the holy of holies) was the chamber into which only the high priest could enter, and that, but once each year, on the Day of Atonement. This veil of fine linen separating the two chambers was thick, four inches thick. No man could tear it, but yet it had been ripped apart. It was dark when it happened, though it was the middle of the day, sometime between noon and three in the afternoon, so that no one actually saw it happen. Jesus had been crucified the day before, and when He had been nailed to the cross, a swift darkness covered the land. It was during this time of deep darkness that the veil had been torn. Matthew tells us that it happened in the moment that Jesus yielded up His spirit (Mt 27:50-51), which would have placed it at around three in the afternoon. There was no time now to replace the veil before the sacred feast began, and the priests and high priest knew not what to do.
Surely, their hearts must have beat with a sinister rhythm when they entered the Temple that afternoon and saw the veil. For this was the veil that barred access to the dwelling place of God among them from all but the High Priest. The tearing of that veil was of high significance, as high as the loss of the Ark of the Covenant so many centuries before. When the news of the torn veil reached the members of the Sanhedrin — that body of villains who had tried Jesus and found Him guilty in an illegal trial — their souls must have quaked in the certainty that they had indeed crucified their own Messiah. Jesus’ words must have returned to their minds, ringing in tones of heartfelt accusation. What had He said to them? "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’" (Mt 23:37-39).
What panic must have stricken them as they scrambled to somehow replace that veil before the high priest must enter the holy of holies on the morrow. This was the day on which atonement must be made for the sins of the Jews, the day on which the high priest was to carry the sacrificial blood into the holy of holies and sprinkle it over the mercy seat, covering the tables of the law. If it were not done, and done properly, then all the offerings of centuries past would come to naught, for their sins could not be pushed forward.
We are not told how the Jews solved this seemingly insoluble problem. We do know that the Temple sacrifices continued for approximately forty more years, until the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Their panic was pointless, and whatever remedy they improvised that Passover was a great sacrilege. Let us examine that veil and its purpose, and discover what its tearing implied.
It was a barrier. Beyond the veil no one could pass except the high priest, and he could enter the holy of holies but once each year. If anyone entered other than the high priest, he would be struck dead immediately, for the glory of God dwelt there. Or, it had dwelt there until Ezekiel saw the Spirit of God depart some six hundred years earlier, just prior to the invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Nevertheless, the penalty for entering behind the veil was immediate death. The high priest had to follow rigid cleansing and preparatory rituals before he could enter the most holy place, lest he also be struck dead. If he entered the chamber without the requisite blood, he would be struck dead. That veil was the shield that protected sinful Israel from the awful glory of God. No sinner can stand in the presence of the glory of God and live. Seeing it torn from top to bottom must have created great trauma in their fearful hearts.
However, with Jesus’ death on the cross, the way was opened to all men into the very presence of God. That was the significance of the torn veil. Whoever will may now come directly to God, with no priest or intercessor necessary, for Christ Himself is our Intercessor. No more Temple sacrifices were necessary, for that Blood had been shed which finally and fully paid for the sins of all men, from Adam till the end of the world. Jesus did not carry His blood into the Temple, but into heaven itself (see Heb 9:16-28) where He also entered the Temple not made with hands to sprinkle it over the mercy seat there. My friends, Jesus’ blood did not soak into the dust at the foot of the cross, but He carried every drop of it to the heavenly Temple, where it remains today, the ransom price for each of us. When we by faith accept the shedding of that Blood as the full payment for our sins, we are born again, and able at last to stand before our God. The holy of holies now is in the hearts of believers, where the glory of God dwells. Heb 10:19-22 tells us that the veil of the Temple represented the flesh of Jesus Christ, torn that we might be saved. Until it was torn, none could enter in. Now, anyone who believes may enter, and boldly, with confidence of heart.
The Jews eventually replaced the torn veil, signifying their rejection of the sacrifice of their Messiah. Temple worship continued for forty years after the tearing of the veil. They continued to offer bulls and goats and lambs and doves, declaring publicly that the sacrifice of Christ on the Calvary meant no more to them than the killing of a dog. It was an horrendous offense, and led eventually to the destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus Himself had prophesied, as detailed earlier in this article. The priests said, "No, you may not enter into the presence of God," though Jesus had torn the veil Himself as He hung on the cross. His death opened the way to God for all men, and not just the Jews.
If you believe that Jesus’ death paid for your sins, then you may enter behind that veil at any time you choose, communing with God in prayer, interceding for yourself and others, singing praises of His grace and mercy, who loved us enough to die for us, who also is our High Priest, ever pointing to His own shed Blood as the payment for our sins. For the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (see Heb 10:4).
I was a Roman Catholic, like reportedly 95% of Filipinos are, and I considered myself a Christian, like everybody did. We were proud to be called the only Christian country in Asia. I guess, like them, I just didn’t know what I was talking about. I believed in God, but He was not real in my life. I was content to "idealize" Him, or even to know Him "mentally," to "study" Him. I knew God was there, but that knowledge did not save me. I considered myself a good person, leading a simple, ordinary, stereotypical life. If my life were a sound, a noise, it would be that of an overhead engine, continuously droning on, dull and without direction.
In the late 80’s my family migrated to the States. I had just turned twenty-one, and was not eligible to accompany them. As I watched them board the plane for their new lives, I secretly looked forward to my independence. As the plane departed, however, the sudden realization descended upon me that I had just lost the crutch upon which I had learned to lean all those years. Later, I would see that this was the beginning of God’s plan for me.
Less than a year after my family had left, my cousin Roma’s marriage started to crumble. She was being ministered to by Christian friends, and had begun attending their local church. I was happy that she was finding solace there and, when she invited me to attend with her, I went, being the compliant person that I am. My Christianity began slowly, almost tentatively, as I began to learn who God really is, and how He works in the lives of His children. I did not yet understand God’s grace, still considering myself a "good" girl. That was just before my twenty-third birthday. Now, my birthday truly has become a reminder of the time that a new life sprang forth in me. I consider that the day I met the real Jesus is the first day of my Life.
Yet, something happened. Something unbelievable. Something unthinkable for a "good" girl like me: I got pregnant. Indeed, I thought it was the worst sin on earth. Bitterly ashamed of myself, I began to understand at last how all-encompassing the grace of God is. Had I not become such a sinner in my own eyes, I might never have come to know the goodness of God or the extent of His love. No longer "good" in my own eyes, I was humbled before One who truly is good. When sin strikes at the heart of you, like it did me, its vicious grip will not let go. I thought I had a choice of being loved and protected by one with a beating heart or being loved by One. I learned that I could be loved by both.
We lived together during my pregnancy and after the birth of my son, until he was a year old in ‘95. Then, history was to repeat itself. My life was shattered anew when my husband announced that he must migrate with his family to the States. He was not yet twenty-one and had no choice in the matter. I was being left behind again by someone I loved. When something like that happens to you twice, you tend to be somewhat anesthetized the second time. I believed his promises of returning to me, but I also did not depend upon it. My wooden heart tried to beat normally each day he was away, and there were times that I thought I would die of sadness.
In the meantime, my cousin called me back to her church. Gradually, I began to live, like a petal slowly unfolding. I did not find the judgment in this church that I might have found in the church of my childhood, but the love of God was pervasive. I volunteered to play the keyboard, and there the Lord strengthened and healed me. Little by little, with the power of His Word and the urging of the Spirit, I and the father of my son were led to Matthew 6:33, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." We asked our heavenly Father for forgiveness, and He then appointed December 14, 1996 as the day of our wedding, just before my husband departed for the States.
In the years since then, I have seen how God’s purpose has prevailed. Both of us grew steadily in Him, each in our own garden while we were apart, and have learned that His desire is for us to be reconciled to Him. And as we have slowly learned to conform our lives to His Word, we live in the certain hope and faith that we shall soon be reunited to serve God together.
I cannot pinpoint the exact moment of my salvation like so many can. It came without fanfare. There was no lightning bolt, no trumpets, no blinding scales upon my eyes, no great storm. No upheaval brought my Lord into my life. That very moment of saving faith, the exact turning point of my life, could have happened one day in graduate school when my Christian professor asked his friend to tell the class about Jesus. Or it may have been during my first few times in church when the preacher said, "You are here because someone prayed for you." Or perhaps it was the first time I read Jeremiah 29:11 on TV and the words seemed to leap off the screen into my heart. I cannot say for certain when the moment was. But I can say now that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior, and because of Him I am saved and I am changed. I rest today on His many promises, not least of which is that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. Had I not become pregnant, God’s grace might never have become more real to me than some mystical concept, some philosophical twist that was not to be applied personally, but merely understood intellectually.
When the Word of God applies His grace to the human heart, however, life becomes altogether new and exciting. My prayer today is that God will supply the grace to keep me faithful to Him as He leads me on this great journey that we call life. What an adventure it is already turning out to be, and I know that it will only become more so as I mature spiritually and become involved more fully in whatever personal ministry the Lord has for me. To God be the glory!
~~Malu Rullan, Baguio City, Philippines
According to the Apostle John, the next to last thing Jesus said on the cross was, "I thirst." No doubt those words came out as a croaking sound, weak and almost indistinct. Bleeding to death as He was, he was very near complete dehydration. Weakening, slumping against the spikes that bound him to the cross, He was surely very short of breath as well. One of the tortures of crucifixion is the self-inflicted suffocation that occurs when the legs weaken and the body sags. It is a terrible way to die, one of many and diverse forms of suffering.
Jesus’ thirst is often presented in a pathetic way. Oh, poor Jesus! How it must have humiliated Him to have to ask for a drink of water. And then, how mean of the soldiers to give him vinegar with which to slake His awful thirst. Isn’t this the way that scene is most often portrayed? But He did not request anything to drink in order to ease His last moments on the cross. It was not a pathetic request, nor one of swimming pathos. Rather, when our Lord asked for drink, he had a much more practical aim in mind. He did not mind the suffering, great though it was. He had come to suffer, and did not expect to be relieved of any of it.
No, Jesus made no pitiful request for water. The fact is, He had something else to say, and He very much intended to say it clearly. His last words on the cross, as recorded by John, needed to be shouted against the darkness that enfolded them all on that quaking hilltop. So much of sound theology has fallen prey to the devil’s obfuscation over the centuries, as noted elsewhere in this publication regarding the loincloth and the cleanliness of the bloodshed at the crucifixion. This request for drink is but another example when it is portrayed as it so often is.
Jesus’ throat was surely very dry. It is a certainty that He could barely speak. But His request for drink was no pitiful whine. He knew that the Scriptures must be fulfilled which prophesied that He would be given vinegar. His reasons for making the request were two-fold: 1.) The Scriptures must be fulfilled (John 19:28), and, 2.) He had something to say which needed to be a shout of victory.
According to John, Jesus’ last words were, "It is finished!" (Jn 19:30). In order to understand their significance, let us go back to the early chapters of the Gospel according to Matthew. On the mount, Jesus had just uttered the beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-11) and the similitudes (Mt 5:13-16). These opened the discourse that is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. then He continued with these words, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled" (Mt 5:17-18).
Jesus was a Jew. He was under the Law of Moses, obliged to keep every jot and tittle, just as every other Jew was required to do. No one had yet been able to keep it, not even the Pharisees. This is why Jesus said, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:20). Nobody had been able to keep the Law. It had not been fulfilled. Neither was it fulfilled when Jesus kept it, for its penalty was still outstanding. The penalty of the Law had not yet been executed against those who had sinned previously. And many sinners would yet come after, and their sins would have to be judged as well. Jesus had not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Throughout His entire life, He would not violate a single precept of the Law. Jesus not only paid the penalty of the Law on our behalf; first He kept it on our behalf.
Having kept the Law in its entirety, Jesus could not be condemned by the Law. It had no power to kill Him. Had He violated even one jot or tittle, He could not have paid its penalty on our behalf. He would have had to suffer its penalty for His own sins. However, since He was sinless, He was eligible to suffer the penalty of the Law on behalf of others. This He did on Calvary. By paying the full penalty of the Law on behalf of every sinner who ever had or ever would live, Jesus fulfilled the Law. This is the work that He came to the earth to do, and this is the work that He finished that dark afternoon on Calvary. "It is finished!" surely was a shout of victory. He had finally bruised the head of the seed of the serpent (see Gen 3:15). Now, any who would believe could be saved. Through faith, His own righteousness would thereafter be charged to everyone who appropriated that sacrifice for himself. Every sin ever committed by every person ever born had been fully paid for.
Yes, Jesus wanted the world to know that He had finished the work His Father had given Him to do. He needed that drink to make his victory shout audible far and wide, and so He said, "I thirst."
If the Resurrection Had Not Happened
There would be found the grounds for our despair. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, our hope would have been baseless. The raising of the many saints on the day of the crucifixion not only assures us of our own resurrection, but the temporary resurrection of those saints was also the surety of the promise to His disciples of Christ’s own resurrection. Those saints came out of the graves so that the apostles and disciples could be expectant concerning Christ’s resurrection. Jesus did not go into the grave without leaving his disciples with the certainty of His resurrection. If the saints who had been in their graves for years and decades and centuries could be raised, then He would arise also. Even in the face of such compelling evidence, however, the disciples were fearful.It is not by the crucifixion of Christ that we may know that we are saved, but by His resurrection. The shedding of His blood on Calvary was the price that had to be paid for our sins, and that blood was shed, for without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. But it is not the shedding of the blood that gives us the assurance of our salvation. It was Christ’s death on the cross that effected our redemption, but it was His resurrection that is our assurance. For what did the Apostle Paul say? Speaking of Jesus, he said, "...who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom 4:25). That is, He was raised on account of our justification. That little word that is translated "for" is better translated "on account of," or "because of." If Jesus’ death had not been sufficient payment to effect the redemption of every man, woman and child who ever had lived or who ever would live, then Jesus would have remained in His tomb until today. The resurrection of Christ is our assurance that our sins have been forgiven. The empty tomb is the guarantee of our salvation.
As Jesus hung on the cross, blood seeped and poured from His many wounds. From His wounded brow, to the stripes upon His back and shoulders, from His hands and His spear-pierced side to His feet, blood poured from His body. Oh, we see the crucifixion in such antiseptic terms. A trickle here and a spot or two there. His loincloth is never shown as stained. And if it were, it would be wrong, for our Lord did not die wrapped in a cloth. He hung naked on the cross, His shame complete. And just as the priests in the Temple were covered from head to toe with the blood of the sacrificial animals, so also was Jesus covered from head to toe. But the blood that covered Him was not the blood of bulls and goats, sheep and doves, but His own precious blood. It was not nearly as pretty as portrayed in our imagery, but the crucifixion was horrendous. By the time Jesus yielded up His Spirit, every drop of His blood had spilled onto the dust at the foot of the cross.
We know that His body had emptied itself of blood on the cross, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (see 1 Cor 15:50). Did it soak into the ground on Calvary, mingled with the earth forevermore?
For hundreds of years the priests had carried sacrificial blood into the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple to pour it over the mercy seat, covering the tables of the Law, thereby covering the sins of the Jews. It is not possible that Jesus’ blood remained on the ground at Calvary. The earthly tabernacle was but a copy of the tabernacle in heaven, and when Jesus went into heaven, He carried His own blood with Him to sprinkle over the mercy seat there (see Heb 9:16-10:4).
Jesus willingly shed His blood on Calvary, but it became a precious cargo on His trip back to heaven. For, had He not poured it over the mercy seat in heaven, none of us could be saved. But there it is, and there it shall remain for all of eternity, testimony to His great love for us.
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