Hi Mike

I have your article on the “law.” It is very wonderful. I just have some questions about it.

Didn’t Jesus come in our place so that we wouldn’t have to bear the curse of the law?

I understand that he came to fulfill what the law and the prophets testified to “types and shadows, fulfillment of prophecy”. Doesn’t it say Christ became a curse for us? If so, why?

Couldn’t God have forgiven mankind without Jesus dying on a cross? Why blood? Is there anywhere in scripture that says Christ bore the wrath of God for mankind, and why?

Sorry about all the questions, but I will have more in the future for you. I love the articles on your site. I am not trying to refute what you are writing; there’s just a lot of stuff I have been taught in the past about righteousness that has to do with Christ coming and fulfilling the law in our place, and now righteousness has been imputed to us by faith so it is much different from what we have been taught in church. I belong to a non- denominational church, good people, good pastor, but I see a lot of truth in your writings. May God bless you and keep you brother.

Grace, mercy and peace in Christ Jesus

C____

Hi C____,

Thank you for your questions. The teaching so common to orthodox Christianity that Christ came to keep the law of Moses in every jot and tittle could not be farther from the Truth. Christ’s statement in Mat 5…:

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

… is a reference only to the prophecy that God would one day fulfill His promise to send a prophet like Moses, who would be a great reformer. In fact the time of “fulfilling” Christ is referring to is called “the times of reformation:”

Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them [ only] until the time of reformation.

These “carnal ordinances” are nothing less than the entire law of Moses, which Paul specifically tells us “was not made for a righteous man” like Christ. The truth of all of God’s Word is that if Christ had ‘fulfilled the law’ in the sense that is taught by the orthodox churches of Christianity, He would have had to stone the adulteress woman and the man she was with. He would have had to “prepare twice as much” on the sixth day and never gathered food on the sabbath as he allowed and then defended His disciples for doing. He would never have been allowed to deliver His ‘But I say unto you…” so- called sermon on the mount. Every time Christ said “But I say unto you…” He would break the law of Moses and teach men to do so.

No, Christ came to reform the law, not keep it. This is not to say, as I am so commonly accused of teaching, that we can now lie, cheat, steal and commit adultery and murder. Laws against such things are for the lawless:

1Ti 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

The law that is for a righteous man is so far superior to the law of Moses which “is made for the lawless.” Reread that paper, The Law Of Moses Versus The Law Of The Spirit,. If necessary read it a third time.

You ask:

Why blood? Is there anywhere in scripture that says Christ bore the wrath of God for mankind, and why?

The answer to why blood is that it has been decreed by God:

Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

That is God’s call. We may not like His ways, but the Truth is that they are far above ours. When it is all said and done the glory that God’s ways produce, will show us the foolishness of our own carnal reasonings that are contrary to his ways. Christ could never have been “made a curse for us” if He had never died as He did:

Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law [ A “ministration of death,” only “for the lawless”], being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

No, there is no scripture that says that Christ bore the wrath of God for mankind. What he did bear was the penalty for our sins.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death [ which Christ paid and still pays in His dying to the flesh daily, in us]; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

This verse here in Colossians is alien to an orthodox Christian mind taught the lie of ‘the sinner’s prayer is all you need to assure your place in that blessed and holy first resurrection.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. The very thought of anything being “behind of the afflictions of Christ”, is anathema to the most educated leaders of orthodox Christianity. The real Truth right from the mouth of our Savior Himself is:

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

But the sinner’s prayer doctrine is much more popular than the doctrines of Christ

So far as why Christ had to die, read After The Counsel Of His Own Will. There is no great struggle between God and Satan. It is God who is “working all things after the counsel of His own Will.” While he uses the words ‘wrath’ and ‘indignation’ in reference to his feelings about man’s rebellion against Him, it is made clear that all of God’s anger was and is predestined to be wrath and indignation. It is not an uncontrolled unexpected event. It is God working all things, even the things He tells us he abhors.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Read those papers. They will answer your questions and many questions you haven’t even asked yet.

Mike