I was just reading this paper and thought it speaks about this issue:
Certificates and Sacrifices
Colossians 2:14
Tom Hallas
Field Director, Asia Pacific
YWAM
The road to Alexishafen is paved with broken corral gravel, sometimes. It
winds its way across little creeks, through coconut plantations and beside sago
palm swamps. I lived there about 40 years ago in a shack alongside that road. I
never got to Alexishafen but a story told to me of an incident that took place
previous to my arrival has stayed with me for 37 years.
The podium was filled with all the dignitaries that could and were able to
gather that day. The main event for some – the dedication of the first massive
bamboo and thatch cathedral of the Catholic Church – was over. The senior
Archbishop presided over the ceremonies. The highest official of the
Government, the District Commissioner, was there with all the chiefs and heads
of clans for miles around.
The master of ceremonies was about to bring the official part to a close. The
Archbishop would thank everyone for coming, say the benediction and offer
thanks for the massive feast waiting to be devoured.
Out of the crowd three men advanced towards the front of the podium. They
walked cautiously but quickly. The hush of those who were “in the know”
seemed to quieten the masses. There was a sense that something unscheduled
was about to begin.
The man in the centre could be seen from a good distance to be quite
nervous. The District Commissioner’s sensibilities were alerted to prepare for a
shock.
Suddenly, the man in the centre was laid on his back and held down by the
man on his left. The man on his right produced a large knife previously
concealed. Without hesitation he thrust the knife towards the reclining man’s
throat and opened a deep wound from ear to ear.
Almost robotically having had many an experience of seeing fatal wounds
inflicted by tribal peoples on each other, the District Commissioner was out of his
chair shouting to his driver and, within what seemed to be an instant in time, he
was down that road, where I had lived, speeding towards the Madang District
Hospital. The poor man was confirmed to be dead on arrival. According to the
record after many days of enquiry, it was discovered that the victim was expected
to rise from the dead in three days. He would then lead his people into the
knowledge of how to obtain materialistic goods from the white man’s world.
Cargo cultism still gripped the minds of most of the tribes in the Madang
province. Cargo cultists are preoccupied with materialism. They believe that
everything comes from the spirit world: babies, goods called cargo, knowledge,
life, everything, even the bad things from bad spirits that need to be appeased.
Apparently, the white man had cracked the code on how to obtain the cargo that
was destined for the Madang District villagers. They were sure that all these
goods – houses, cars, trucks, etc—were rightfully theirs, but, through obtaining
some secret power or knowledge, the whites were able to intercept them and
take the cargo for themselves.
They were convinced that it was the white man’s Jesus who had given them
this power and that what was needed was a tribal Jesus. They chose a good
man—one known throughout the clans as a model person, known for his
kindness and goodness according to tribal standards.
This was his tribe’s moment. There had never been a gathering like it before.
It was not likely that such a moment would happen again for a long time. It was
highly unlikely that it would be possible to get the extremely divided tribes’ vote of
confidence about one person again. This was their fullness of time.
It is this last comment in the telling of the story that had stuck with me. The
Fullness of Time.
What constitutes this moment? What criteria were in place to say this about
the coming of Jesus: “In the fullness of time, God brought forth His Son” (Gal
4:4)?
How did those very simple living people with their horrific presuppositions, yet
for them beautifully clear logic, come to the conclusion that this was the gathered
tribes’ “fullness of time”, their moment in history?
“This was a repeat of Jerusalem”, the answer came from the storyteller. All
the political, religious and social systems were fully represented. Similar ducks
all in a row mixed with the mystery and magic of the spirit world.
For the Apostle Paul, the Jerusalem moment was not a mixture of mystery
and magic. To the Apostle, this was a moment when mystery was taken away.
This was an open show (Col 2:15).
I’ve often wondered, why was the first Century AD chosen to be the “Fullness
of Time?”. Why not before? Or later? Perhaps the 21st Century? In Texas
where the death penalty is carried out with an injection—civilized, clean, no
blood, no noise and in private?
Is there some dark side to God that requires the blood, noise and lots of pain?
Do centuries of blood flowing from bulls and goats form a clear enough shadow
of what the Father was to expect of Jesus?
Was the Father waiting for the human race to evolve sufficiently to produce
such a violent civilisation as that of Rome in order to satisfy His blood lust and
huge anger towards sinners?
It could be debated that He may have gotten more satisfaction from the
Chaldeans. One could argue that the Vikings would be excellent candidates as
well.
Jesus prophesied to His disciples that He would be handed over into the
hands of evil men and that they would do with Him as they pleased. The
Chaldeans would have skinned him alive. The Vikings would have dragged him
naked across ice and snow.
I’ve been talking to a friend for over 30 years about the Story of God. I’m
afraid that the first few years of our dialogue were laced with heavy doses of
punitive justice ideas from me. Recently, she blew up in my face. She’s now 83.
“I will never have anything to do with a God who is preoccupied with sin and
blood”.
“Whose sin are you worried about” I asked. “Yours?” Her silence indicated
that my question had been given a response.
“Well”. Said I, “He doesn’t hold your sins against you”. “What?” She had
never heard anything like it before, least of all from me.
I read to her from 2 Cor 5:19: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not counting our sins against us”. “Are you part of the human race” I
asked. “Now don’t take yourself out of the human race either as a special or
hopeless case,” I interjected, before she could answer. “Well, what about all the
blood and guts of those terrible Jewish sacrifices, and that ghastly movie made
by that extremely violent man….what’s his name? ….Gibson”. “What’s that all
about?”
“Good questions” I enthused.
It has always been a point to be clarified for me. What is there in God that
needs to be satisfied? Is this His pre-requisite before forgiveness can be made
available? Didn’t He originate the plan and commit to the processes relating to
reconciliation before there was even a relationship breakdown? The Godhead
decided on the forgiveness plan before humans were created and before they
ever sinned. How can the Originator and Source of forgiveness suddenly have
some huge reservations that can only be taken away by such hideous violence?
That psychological profile could only be assessed as bipolar, extremely
schizophrenic.
Some would offer even a worse explanation…like God planned that humans
would fail so that the only way to relationship with Him was through His
redemptive process that required the satisfaction of His wrath against sinners.
Jesus was to become the Father’s punching bag.
God did actually give us the power to reject Him, but not the permission or
approval. For us to participate in His reality, to enjoy relationship with Him and
live relationally as He does, we had to be designed with the capacity to
voluntarily give our responses of love out of liberty and the depth of our
distinctiveness. The downside of this empowerment is the risk of rebellion and
all its darkness. Without the risk, no freedom, no volunteerism, no love, from us.
The best is that we would be magnificently designed, yet totally pre-programmed
robots. Offering conformity, but not worship with genuine love and affection.
The bad news is that the downside happened. The amazing news is that the
initiators of this wonderful story have given themselves as real participants in the
solution to reconcile us and restore us to fellowship free from condemnation or
accusation.
I said to my friend, “ The Scripture says that those who say that they have no
sin are liars”. “By what standards? She pouted. “By what standards would you
prefer?” I appealed. “Sharia law? ….where you could be stoned if your husband
accuses you of adultery?” “Hindu law? … where you could be drenched in
gasoline and set alight, simply because your husband’s family have judged you
unacceptable and rejection-able?” “Perhaps tribal law is better?....What tribe?
And in what era? The Maya, the Inca, the Sawi? Or maybe by some ancient
tribe that has captured you during a battle?”
“What if we put all the standards together and then bring a judgment against
your behaviour?” “Oh my, aren’t we thrilled that we live in the enlightened and
liberal era of the 21st Century?”
It is not Yahweh who is hungry for blood but the demonically inspired masses
and individuals throughout the centuries who have tried to satisfy their lust for
revenge without fulfillment. The rage continues today. ‘Where are your
accusers?’ Jesus asked the woman caught in adultery. “Neither do I condemn
you”. This, spoken in the face of the law of Moses that clearly identified stoning
as the required punishment according to the accusers.
What about the systems that would investigate and accuse us as well as
individual accusers. What shall we call the record of these accusations? Col.
2:14 (NASV) calls them ‘Certificates’ or the written code with its regulations. The
Romans had them, the Jews had them, and Herod had his, particularly when it
was convenient to condemn somebody. The traffic cops in Australia have them.
What standards came to bear down on Jesus? He was innocent and yet he
was condemned by all their systems. To God, these systems and the civilisation
that existed, are representative of the total of what human penal justice would
demand. I say ‘representative’, not an exact measure, as it is the one who was
condemned that makes this whole act representative.
It is His life, applied as a substitute for us all and a substitute for all that can
be certificated against us that makes this to be the moment that it is.
That is just what it is—a moment in space and time when all converges in to
this life—the One who spoke the worlds into existence and He through whom all
things came into being. This was the time in the mind of the Father, Son and
Spirit, that the gathered assembly of accusers, through the life of His Son, could
become sufficiently representative of what all of humanity could offer as a
standard into which the innocent Son of God be placed to carry the weight of the
total volume of the certificates that could be written against us (Col 2:14). He
bears also the effect of the regulations attached to the certificates.
I asked my friend, “Who could write certificates against you?” God is not
writing any. He is taking the certificates against you upon Himself…. nailing
them to the Cross. They were torn up in His body and are therefore cancelled
out. “He has taken all my certificates?” she asked in amazement. “Yes,” I said,
“that is what it says—all of them”.
It does not matter in which era you live, by what standards you are accused
or even how severe the consequences or the punishment. They have been torn
up.
When the systems could not get better or worse. When they could not be
more united over a single issue. When the Fullness of Time had come and the
issue of the written codes in the hands of our accusers had been settled in the
Cross, God raised Jesus from the dead. So now He can declare us forgiven
without the possibility of some accuser nullifying God’s work of reconciliation.
Oh yes, we still have to face the court of today with their regulations and take
the consequences if accused correctly, but heaven declares us to be forgiven in
Christ.
“What about all the blood?” she asked. The desire for blood is in the heart of
the accusers. God made it quite clear to Abraham His friend that he was not like
the blood-thirsty gods of the nations.
Some required infant or child sacrifice. Yahweh was not demanding sacrifice.
It is a revengeful spirit that demands sacrifice. It is an accusing spirit that
convinces us that a sacrifice is needed. Yahweh is the only one who sacrifices
Himself in order that the accuser has no more power through accusation. He
made an open show of Him triumphing over him through the Cross (Col 2:15).
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not holding our sins
against us and bearing the worst consequences that the most severe
combination of systems in human history could subject us to.
We were dead in our sins. Dead men walking, losing our sense of being.
Becoming non-beings. If we are to be subjected to all the punitive demands of all
of history’s penal codes, then we are undone. But God made us alive together
with Christ and He forgave us all our sins (Col 2:13).
Forgiveness was always in the Father’s heart. Now He can declare it openly
without the possibility of contradiction by any accuser. In the fullness of time He
made an open show of all our accusers and the powers supporting them and He
triumphed over them on our behalf. He tore up the certificates—all of them.
I am convinced that the scene in Alexishafen could have been a whole lot
different had the clans understood that they had already been included and that
Jesus was truly their Christ.
This is the real challenge. How many of us accept that we have been
included in the generosity of His beloved Son? Or are we like the clansmen? Do
we still think that there is another sacrifice to be made?
tomhallas@bigpond.com
You can also read it here:
Certificates And Sacrifices
