Why do we celebrate Easter? Why did Jesus have to die? What was accomplished on the cross? What is important about Christ’s resurrection? Thabiti Anyabwile and Erwin Lutzer help us to think through these important matters.

In this article Ben Montoya encourages Christians begin to develop understanding of contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.  Ben explains an apologetic method that he has found particularly useful for engaging skeptics with the truth of the gospel. [...]

Last Sunday hundreds, if not thousands, of churches celebrated the Fourth of July as a part of their Sunday morning worship.  Hopefully, I will convince you that this is anti-biblical!

In April at the Together for the Gospel conference Thabidti Anyabwile spoke a sentence that, I believe, will shape 21^st century western ecclesiology.  He said, “the church is not mono-ethic but it is mono-cultural.”  In essence, he means that all nations, tribes, and tongues will represent the Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of God is a unique culture that transforms the nations represented. 

Ephesians 2:13-15 says ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. ¹⁴ For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, ¹⁵ He did away with the law of the commandments in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

Michael McKinley, in his lecture Unity and Diversity, observes three avenues of truth that Paul speaks to in this section of his letter to Ephesus. 

1. Progress in Redemptive History.  In Jesus, no longer were the promises of God maintained in Israel, but broke through for the nations to inherit. 
2. Missiological.  The church, unlike Israel is not homogeneous.  A part of the Gospel’s power is to unite cultures, nations, and tongues under the centrality of Jesus’ reign.  Therefore, the church must reach out to all nations.
3. Ecclesiological.  Again, the church is not homogeneous.  Where there is political, economic, or cultural diversity in an area; there is still only to be one church bringing together the backgrounds of all peoples through the common foundation of partaking in the Gospel of Christ.  The church that reaches one type of person isn’t exhausting the full meaning of the Gospel.

Why is this important?  When the church gets together and any agenda takes precedent over the common foundation of Jesus Christ (or implies a common bond apart from that foundation) should be thrown away like yesterday’s trash. 

For instance, how would a member differing in nationality or political interest feel if you implied that praising God would involve praising Him for America?  Is this not extra-biblical legalism?  The hostility Paul addressed in Ephesians was Jew/Gentile relationships and he said that Jesus created one new man. By implication, if the Gentile held on to his rights, preferences, or needs as a Gentile he would abandon the sufficiency of Jesus’ gospel to bring him near to God.  But also, if the Jew held onto his rights, preferences, or needs as a Jew he would also abandon the sufficiency of Jesus as well. 

Likewise, if we celebrate our patriotism inside the church are we not alienating those who Jesus brought near to God?  I say we forget the praise of Independence Day (or any other national observance) because God has given us a better freedom by making us a new citizen in the Kingdom of Christ!

How do you vindicate the actions of Israel with the way of peace that Jesus taught? How does “complete destruction” run parallel to “turn the other cheek?” To the careful and honest reader this creates a sincere question that takes thought to work through. We can’t come to the conviction that God changed his ways from the Old to New Testament, and we definitely can’t say that it’s a different God operating in the Old and New Testaments. So what is the solution?

I think the solution lies in seeing Israel’s war and conquest within the biblical framework of history. Here we see it as an exception and not a rule in the way a country behaves. And we see the complete work of a Sovereign God over the nations interacted through multiple ways.

So here are a few points that show us that God is just in having Israel take the Promised Land (mainly in the book of Joshua) by war.

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What is a covenant?

We do not have covenants in our culture. When we make a business decisions, we make contracts. But, when God chose to reveal his relationship to humanity in redemption, he chose the covenant. In many situations, we want to take the Bible and apply it to our culture and transform our culutre. However, when it comes to the giant idea of covenant and how God revealed Jesus through the covenant, we want to take our lives and dive into the world of the Bible.

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The Blessings and Cursings of the Covenant

When God gave the covenant to Israel, he did not hide the outcome of their faith or faithlessness. Rather in Deuteronomy 28, He clearly told them of the blessings the nation would experience for their faith and obedience but also of the curse that would come if they were unfaithful. The outcomes of the covenant are directly related to God’s plan for his creation that we saw in Genesis 1-3. Faithful Israel will either fill the earth with God’s image enjoying his blessings, or unfaithful Israel will follow Adam and be under the curse that leads to death.

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God of the Covenant

The first thing we see from Genesis 1-3 is that God is Creator. We constantly see in the Bible, that when something happens that is good, God is the creator or originator. We also saw by the example of Genesis 1-3, that when something happens that is bad, man is the one messing it up. Thus, our relationship with God is that of Creator to rebel; it is hostile.

But the first thing we see about God is that he reaches out to humans even in our sin. Let us look at the covenant of Abraham and see the God of the Covenant. In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham and we see three incredible promises that reveal God’s grace. First, God’s grace will allow men to be under God’s rule again like in the Garden of Eden. Verse 1 assures Abraham, “Fear not, Abram; I am your shield.” God’s grace leaps from the page at this point when we remember humanity’s rebellion, yet God will be his people’s shield. Second, verse 5 says, “Look towards heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them, so shall your offspring be.” God’s grace will make a people to fill the earth just like the charge in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1:28. Finally, Genesis 15:7 says, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” God’s grace places his people back in a land to be the people underneath his authority like the Garden of Eden. Man messed up the Garden, but in his grace reaches out to restore what the Garden should have been in righteousness.

The rest of the Bible shows in history how God completes and fills out this covenant in Genesis 15 to restore the Garden of Eden throughout the entire world and make man what he should be. God completes this mission through covenant.

The Fulfillment- God of the Covenant

Jesus is the God of the Covenant. We see in Colossians 1:16 that all things were created by Jesus and everything that was created was for him. John starts his Gospel by claiming Jesus was the Word that was God from the beginning of time (1:1). Philippians 2:6 claims Jesus is God saying that he did not use his deity for his advantage when he came to earth. And Acts blatantly exclaims Jesus as God when it says that God gave up his own blood for the church (20:28).

Any reading of the Old or New Testament that does not see the fulfillment of the revelation of God to be Jesus is inadequate.

Prophet Priest and King

Within the life of every nation, there are certain officials and offices that move the nation along. Here in the U.S., we have senators, governors, mayors, the president, supreme court judges, and the list goes on and on. In God’s nation of Israel, he gave them three main offices: prophet, priest and king. These offices meant more than economic security, healthcare prosperity, and national defense. God gave the offices of prophet priest and king in order to reveal himself and give leaders to guide the nation to know God.

Now, it’s true that the nation had different types of leaders than these three. I think of Nehemiah who was described as a governor. My mind wanders to the judges who saved Israel on multiple occasions before they had a king. Even Esther provided some form of leadership during exile as queen of another nation. All of these examples are of people God used to bring the nation to repentance from sin into relationship with God. But in comparison to broad strokes in the Old Testament, God mainly used the prophet priest and king to lead his people to salvation.

Prophet

There seems to be a lot of confusion in our day as to what a prophet actually is. Many think of prophecy and think of predicting the future. The average image is more like the freaky Ghost of Christmas Future than an actual biblical prophet. But, in the Bible, the prophet of God was much more interested in forthtelling than foretelling. To be true, some of the proclamation that prophets were given by God involved future actions like Jeremiah predicting coming judgment in Jeremiah 19. Still, the main objective for a prophet was to hear the Word of God and proclaim it. In some sense, the prophet was the first preacher.

The most understandable picture of a prophet to me in the Bible is within the relationship of Aaron and Moses in the book of Exodus. When God called Moses to lead his people out of captivity, Moses complained that Pharaoh and Israel would not listen to him. But God proclaimed in Exodus 7:1, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go.” So Moses spoke to Aaron, and then Aaron spoke to the people. This is exactly the relationship of the prophet with God and Israel. God spoke to the prophet and the prophet, in turn, speaks to Israel communicating on behalf of God.

In short, the prophet spoke the Word of God to the people of Israel. Whether it was Moses giving them the blessing and cursing of the covenant, Jeremiah speaking of impending judgment, Isaiah giving hope in a restored Israel, or Hosea declaring Israel an adulterous whore; God gave the prophets His Word and they proclaimed what God wanted the people to hear.

Priest

Of the three offices, priest is the easiest to identify for me. When I think of the word priest, I picture the Roman Catholic Church. I think of confession. I hear the words, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned,” with the reply, “How long has it been since your last confession?”

I don’t agree with Roman Catholic theology, but the fact that the priest is available for repentance from his congregation does help me grasp the idea of priest in the life of Israel and the covenant. The priest was the mediator between God and man. When an Israelite wanted to offer a sacrifice for repentance; the priest was there. When he came to give an offering of thanksgiving; the priest was there. When he would come to worship and give to God in the Temple; the priest was there. The priest was available on behalf of Israel to welcome them into the presence of God.

God’s grace is evident in all the prophets and kings; Grace to give us the very Word of God through the prophets and Grace to lead the nation in righteousness through the king. But, seeing the priest mediate between God and man, grace abounds. In the priest, we understand God’s provision for tainted, dirty sinners to experience the presence of God.

Don’t talk to me about dead ritual or dry information in the book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and parts of Exodus. I don’t see it and that’s not the pathos of these parts of Scripture. Rather, these sections tell us of the availability of a righteous God given to unworthy people. I picture an Israelite filled with shame after screwing over a brother and stealing from his flock, hurting his family, or taking a sacrifice to Baal because his crop isn’t producing like God promised. Now, this Israelite weeps as he finds out that he can return and repent from the priest. I think of Jacob cheating Esau, Jeremiah weeping for the exile, Hosea burdened for Gomer, and Nehemiah praying for repentance as they all had hope through the priest and the sacrificial system to still experience God despite their sin. God deals with sin and he did it through the priesthood.

The priest was set up from the origins of Israel. As God gave the covenant to Moses in Exodus, he set apart Aaron and his sons to be his priests in Exodus 28 and 29. God consecrated them, set them apart to represent Israel before him. Even their clothes bore witness to their purpose. Exodus 28:29, “So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord.”

The entire book of Leviticus is dedicated to priestly duties, expectations, and procedures. Leviticus shows how the priest is to offer sacrifices for sin, thanksgiving, and peace. The priests are instructed in different feasts that bring together Israel for worship. In short, Leviticus is a manual to show God’s provision for making dirty people clean.

After Genesis 3, man understood by knowledge and experience that they were separated from God and righteousness. The priest is God’s grace to Israel to welcome them home to his presence despite the fact they didn’t deserve it.

King

The nation of Israel spiraled out of control when they had no central hope, no leader. In fact, a whole book of the Word of God, Judges, was written to show the state of Israel without a king. They sought for their own gain, whatever prospered them at the time. Many times this meant trusting in other nations or other nations’ gods (Judges 2:13; 2:19; 3:7 4:1 6:1 13:1. Judges summarizes the time without a king simply as “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Now, contrast that with the hope built within the king for salvation in later books of the Bible. In Isaiah 9, the people who have walked in darkness for so long will see a great light, and it is very interesting where this light comes from. Listen to Isaiah 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom…” The very hope of Israel’s messiah was bound up in the coming of a king!

The book of Chronicles is a gospel centered overview of Israel’s history starting at Adam looking all the way to the end of the exile. The chronicler looks through Israel’s entire history and shows God’s grace and salvation to a people who do not deserve it. It’s a very. Chronicles is very hope filled and one of my favorite books in the Bible. But do you know where all the hope for knowing God comes from in Chronicles? Salvation comes from the king and the temple. The king led in righteousness and the temple brought the presence of God. The reader sees that either the king brought reform and repentance like David (1 Chronicles 13:3) or will lead the people to idolatry like Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:1).

The last important point to understand with the king is to see God’s covenant narrowed toward King David. 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17 record the covenant the God made with David. Now, this is not a different covenant than God made with Abraham, but rather it’s the same covenant narrowed. If you read these two chapters (and obviously I want you to) you see the same promises given to David that were given to Abraham: 1) a land for the people 2) an offspring that will save and 3) a great name among the earth. From this time forward, you see the hope of Israel wrapped up in the line of David and the Son of David.    

The Big Deal

We just talked a lot about three offices in a nation far removed from our own. So, it can really be a temptation to get frustrated and say ‘who cares?’ It reminds me of the typical college kid that goes to class. In that season of life, their perspective is narrowed to the weekend. So they may sit in class with their shades drawn fighting to stay awake and continually think (or say out loud if they have no social awareness), “dude, who cares.” But, as they continue to live, grow up, and assume responsibility in their respective fields; the education that sunk in through the years comes to mind and suddenly they seem to care. As we practice building our faith through reading the Old Testament, we will find that we seem to care more and more.

Why is it important to understand the role of Prophet Priest and King? So many times as readers of the Bible, we identify with the prophet priest and king when we should identify with the ones who followed the prophet priest and king. The difference is in seeing God’s grace through these offices, or seeing a moral example to follow from the men who held these offices. We should see the Prophet Priest and King as God’s provision to lead his people to salvation instead of mere example. God’s provision leads to faith and life, example leads to law and death.

The Fulfillment- Prophet Priest and King

Jesus is the Prophet Priest and King of the Covenant. Jesus is the Prophet of the Covenant. Mark, in his Gospel, says that people recognized Jesus taught, not like a scribe, but like one who had authority (Mark 1:22). Matthew showed that Jesus gave his law in Matthew 5-7. Many times, Jesus is called teacher and people mistook him as a mere prophet (Mark 8:28). Like the Prophets who proclaimed the Word of God, Jesus perfectly taught us the Word of God, his very life.

Jesus is the Priest of the Covenant. The entire book of Hebrews is dedicated to the perseverance of Christians because Jesus is our High Priest. We can enter to the Throne of Grace because Jesus went before us as our Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Jesus is the King of the Covenant. Many times the Gospels call Jesus the Son of David referring to the promise that God would secure David’s son’s throne forever (Matthew 1:1; 9:27; Mark 12:35; Luke 1:32).

Any reading of the Old or New Testament that does not see Jesus as the anticipated or revealed Prophet, Priest, and King is inadequate.

Temple

The temple of God had a very unique and special purpose in Israel. I will not be able to capture the sense of wonder that accompanied the Temple. No story could explore the depths of the magnificence surrounding it, no fact could describe the splendor of its sight, and no amount of praise could reflect the amount of joy the Temple gave. Why was the Temple so glorious in Israel? God was there. His presence is the satisfaction that man thirsts for since the fall in the Garden of Eden, and the Temple was a flowing fountain to drink of God’s glory.

One would do well to understand the Temple in terms of new creation and redemption. The temple flows in a linear story of God redeeming man and takes them back to signal what the Garden of Eden should have been with man continually experiencing the presence of God.

The first revelation to Israel of God’s presence came in the tabernacle. In Exodus, when God rescued Israel from the bondage of Egypt he led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:22). When God redeemed Israel, he directly led a people for the first time since the Garden. Not only did the presence of God lead them, but when they set camp Moses would enter the tabernacle and meet with God face to face (Exodus 33:9). God was restoring a relationship with the rebels that sinned against him.

I think the Bible is full of neat things, and sometimes I feel like a nerd studying because I feel like I’m putting a big puzzle together. One of the neat things to me in the Bible is the visual appearance of the tabernacle that God dwelled in. Now I’m not much on finding meaning in small details in the Bible and think broader strokes can be more beneficial. But, one theologian G.K. Beale points out that the visual appearance of the tabernacle pointed Israel back to the Garden and signaled that God was active in making creation new again. Think about it, Exodus 25-27 lays out the plans to build the tabernacle according to design shown to Moses on the mountain (25:9). In the plans for the tabernacle, God specifically tells them to design the Golden Lamp stand with almond blossoms and flowers (25:32) and to decorate with needle work the different parts of the tabernacle (26:36). Also, God specifically tells them to cover the curtains of entrance for the tabernacle with “cherubim skillfully worked in (26:1).” I agree with Beale when he draws that God is picturing for Israel that he is restoring the Garden of Eden with decorations of fruit and flowers and the Cherubim guarding the presence of God (cf. Genesis 3:24).

Next, we see a more permanent place for God’s presence in the Temple. The book of Chronicles sets out the hope of God’s presence as the nation of Israel and specifically David and Solomon seek to build the Temple. David secures the supplies and Solomon sees the fruition of the building. The reader can feel the excitement of the most prosperous times of Israel at this point as God is fulfilling the covenant by giving them the land, his presence, and hope.

Sadly, though, the Temple doesn’t last forever because of Israel’s constant disobedience and idolatry before God. God sent the nation prophet after prophet like Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah telling them to repent or the nation will fall. But they didn’t listen. So, finally, after much patience God sent Assyria and Babylon to ransack Israel and Judah. And when Judah fell, so did the Temple. Seeing the Temple fall is what made the exile hell for Israel. No more could they experience God’s presence, no more was there hope for returning to the Garden of Eden, and no more was the covenant in effect. The presence of God made them different from all other nations, but now they were in exile. Hope was gone.

 The Fullfillment- Temple

Hope is revealed. Jesus is the Temple of the Covenant. The Temple brought the presence of God to Israel. Jesus brought the very of presence of God, himself, to earth. John 1:14 says, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.” The Word, Jesus, has already been established as God in 1:1, and the word for dwelt is a verb form of the word for tabernacle. It literally would read “the Word ‘tabernacled’ among us.” John points us back to the glory of God’s presence in the tabernacle and boldly testifies Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s presence and we have seen his glory!

Any reading of the Old or New Testament that sees the Temple fulfilled outside of Jesus is inadequate

The People of the Covenant, Israel

We have seen the greater party of the covenant, God. Now we will look at the lesser party, man. By remembering the beginning of God’s relationship with man, it is realized that grace is given to build up a nation that knows God. We have talked about Genesis’ theme of preserving the seed so the curse and the devil can be defeated (Genesis 3:15). But not until the book of Exodus, does the nation of Israel play a prominent role.

Now, the reader sees real fruit to the promise God gave Abraham claiming that his descendants would become a great nation (Genesis 12:2). Even in the midst of slavery, the nation of Israel was kept in tact and grew to a large number under the oppression of Egypt (Exodus 1:7). But God did not leave his children as slaves; instead, he allowed them to experience this suffering to demonstrate He is the God of deliverance as Moses, one of the preserved seed in Genesis (Exodus 6:14-20) was raised up to lead Israel out of Captivity. God showed his great power to save by not only delivering from the power of sin to create a people but delivered from the power of the great nation of Egypt to create a people as He claims, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God (Exodus 6:7).”

Remember from earlier, in every covenant each party has their responsibility to uphold the covenant. After God demonstrates his grace and power by delivering Israel out of Egypt, God gives Israel their responsibility to the covenant and end of the bargain. Exodus 20-23 tells Israel how they should act as God’s people. Everything from their responsibility of loving God to loving each other is summarized throughout these chapters. In the later books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy God explains how the nation is to live righteously and deal with sin through the sacrificial system so that they may forever be the people of God.

One unfortunate cycle we see in Scripture is that man is always unfaithful to the covenant while God is faithful. Literally as God was giving Moses law for Israel to keep, Israel proved their unfaithfulness by building another god they could worship in place of the loving, true God that brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 32). This began a vicious cycle that Israel could never escape. God raised up types of saviors constantly in Israel’s history like judges, leaders, prophets, priests, and kings to deliver his people back to the covenant he made with Abraham and Moses, and Israel would repent for a while only to go back to their unfaithfulness of breaking the law of the covenant and worshiping other gods.

Because of their unfaithfulness, God constantly named Israel as rebellious. He called them a stiff necked people (Exodus 32:9) people who did right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25) an adulterous wife (Ezekiel 16:32) a people with a whoring heart (Ezekiel 6:9) a spoiled loincloth and a broken flask (Jeremiah 16:7-9 and 19:10-11). These are not flattering words anyone aspires to have written at their graveside, but it is exactly how God chooses to describe the people to whom he showed grace so many times. Israel was to be a “people, a name, a praise, and a glory (Jeremiah 16:9)” for the Lord, but they ruined their existence by their unfaithfulness.

Israel never turned from their unfaithfulness. Until the end of the Old Testament, God called them to return to the covenant through prophets. But sadly, Israel never had an ear to hear.

 The Fulfillment- People of the Covenant

Not only is Jesus the God of the Covenant, but he is the People of the Covenant. Jesus being both God and man is one of the great mysteries of Christianity, but yet it is taught that Jesus fulfilled the requirement of an Israelite under the covenant to gain the inheritance of God. Matthew constantly portrays Jesus as true Israel as he shows Jesus’ life walks through the history of Israel. Jesus was the offspring of Abraham and David like Israel (1:1) Jesus was rescued from Egypt like Israel (2:13) Jesus experienced temptation in the wilderness like Israel (ch. 4) Jesus gave the Law from the Mountain as did Moses to Israel (ch. 5-7). The reader can see that in every major milestone in Israel’s formation, Jesus experienced the same life. But when Israel was formed they failed to fulfill the law, Jesus said on the other hand, “I do not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt. 5:17)”

Any reading of the Old or New Testament that sees fulfillment in the People of God outside of Jesus is inadequate.