For the Redemption of the Transgressions - Hebrews 9:15

Why Christ died. What kind of testament He is the mediator of.

Author: Randy Pritts

Todays Text:

kjv@Hebrews:9:15 @ And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

"For this cause..." v15

There are many today that do not see the need for Christ. All this business about the death and resurrection, about blood and sacrifice, about mediation and high priest, it makes no sense to them. What use is any of this to the modern man, be he "woke", or be he "enlightened"?

It always scares me when I hear of someone suddenly being woke or enlightened, especially with the youth, as if they have thought of a thought no one has ever thought of before, as if that thought is somehow superior to all of the thoughts conceived of before it. It is a snobbery that is saying "that was then and you were sleeping, this is then and my eyes have been opened, I see things as they really are; and I am the one in charge here".

Behind every cult and false religion there is this idea of wokeness. I myself have to be very careful in my own faith not to fall prey to this. My LORD and Savior commands me to be meek when it comes to this and humble, He extorts me to remove the plank from my own eye before plucking the spec from another's. There is nothing meek and humble that can be said about today's secular form of wokeness. There is no allowance for contrary feedback, for contrary evidence. They simply shun the past, shun the establishment, shun the past attempts of righting the ship and the progress though slight that those efforts have produced. It is as if only they know best, it is up to them to do this for us, we best stand aside and let them do this, for only they and them alone are truly woke. By my estimation, this mind set meets the definition of "conceit" not the mythical definition of being "woke".

Perhaps they are not old enough to have heard this, but there is no new thing under the sun. What they are calling "wokeness" has been used as mass mind control before. Oh but they are so excited, become so fanatical, nothing else seems so real and so enlightened; it seems to them that the stars and universe have for the first time ever completely aligned. Such are the tricks and illusions the mind can perform in the hands of a controlling masters.

You see it's our compassion for others, that's the enticement; are wanting to do what is right, do unto others, undo the wrongs and reverse them right. You see social activism and religion are not all that different, and as such they both suffer from the same vulnerability: the are easy to be abused and misused and taken over by corruption. I worry today for our secular brethren. They are wanting to do right. They think that their eyes can now see what has to be done to indeed do right. But, sadly they are in too much of a hurry and too much of a frenzy to do this right, despite their honorable intentions.

What does this have to do with Christ's death and sacrifice? His blood and purging of conscience and dead works? Let me take the next few minutes to explain it to you!

"...for the redemption of the transgressions..." v15

Now the terminology that the two sides use would likely use would be vastly different, but the bulk of what the two sides are attempting to rightly deal with comes down to the concept of transgression. Expressed here is the idea of violation, violation man toward man, violation man towards society, violation (if you believe in HIM) towards God. I don't think that there is any question that this is what we are both talking about, be it cultural violation, racial violation, sexual violation, social violation, legal violation, on and on. Are we agreed?

The Christian would say that the problem here has to do with man's heart, it is the heart of man that makes him to violate. The secularist would lean towards it being a problem with the system, there needs to be a change in our moral and legal codes and institutions; the individual is the way he is because of the imperfections and corruptions of "the system". What it might well come down to is whether you believe that the heart of man is essentially good and getting better or that the heart of man is predominately deceitful though well intending and fallen.

Let's explore this idea of system a short while. You know that the Law of Moses is essentially a system. One would expect that it being handed down from God it would amount to the perfect moral and legal system. That however was not God's full intention handing down this system. There is a curious idea that is brought up in kjv@Romans:4:15 "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression", meaning if God had not handed down that Law there would have been no knowledge of having made transgression. this is a very difficult concept to grab hold of.

Transgression will always be transgression whether one has knowledge of it or not. Take the man that unintentionally says something that everybody else but him in the room concludes is being racist; him not being aware of how other people might receive his statement, how his statement might violate another person's racial identity. This man's not knowing does not change the fact that a violation towards another has been done. That is not what is meant "there is no transgression". The thing is though that nothing positive can ever be done about this until the man is confronted and then knows.

The second stage of this is where the meaning of this really gets interesting. Okay, so now the man knows, the "law" or expectation of things it has been made known to him. What is he going to do with this knowledge from here on? Is he going to halt any further violation or is he going to continue in spite or defiance of it? Now the Law of Moses covers a whole lot of different things but we can more times than not correctly say that the heart of man (even the most religious and legalistic men) are going to continue in spite or defiance of it?. In some cases such as drugs and addiction it can even be said that the man can no longer do anything else but this even the times that he really wants to.

So if the Law of Moses legal/moral system was not able to obtain man's compliance nor was that even the intention, what then is left to be said on the secular side of things about moral code and law and that being the source of mankind's corruption?

Now let's talk a spell about the term "Redemption" which means ransom. How does one ransom themselves out of a hole they have dug and can't get back out? And how does this relate to this topic involved of violations?

I think about the man blind folded against the city wall, a Soviet firing squad lined up in front of him. He is wonder how it ever came to this. He was once an enlightened intellectual youth and became fanatical about the revolution. HE did all that he could, even turned his bourgeois parents in and off to the Gulag. He fought hard for the cause back then but later found out that the cause now was working very hard against him. He had become one of those so-called "useful idiots" and this totalitarianism was nothing like the Marxist ideals he had been awakened to and fed on to believe. How does he ransom himself back out? How does one go back to the way things were and clean the slate and do it better a second time? How shall he explain this to his parents tonight in heaven if there glory be?

Likewise, how does one explain their life of eighty two years clawing and fighting against God, pursuing a much more righteous cause (at least in one's own eye) if it be in violation. For that matter how does one explain thirty years of violation? or five years? or one moment? I can not explain nor talk my way out of this. I am but a hostage captive to a choice I made, a course that I took, the consequence now come to bare I can only now begin to see. Who then since it not be from me shall ransom me from this dark indebted hole?

The Law then has made me to see. Sadly though that same law provides no offer for redemption, not of the type that I will eternally need. The same truth holds true in a more down to earth secular sense. There are already more than enough laws and there are a myriad of different political and economic and social systems. They all fail from the lack and deception of one thing - the heart of man; the heart both of the man and the heart of their collective nations. Each generation will try on their own to climb their way out and fill the hole that they have come out of with some up to date moral code and system. With each attempt there are but new hole or hole dug even deeper, and there is the consequence of digging each, and there is a payment past due for we are only bankrupt that is soon to be foreclosed on. If there be anything left for us to be awakened to and enlightened about it should be this alone and sobering fact.

"...the law worketh wrath..." v15

How I wish it were not so. To be able to comply with it would have been so much better. But we are not capable of doing only that. Don't believe that the Law actually "worketh wrath"? Think of it this way, we tend to see the Law in terms of the letter of the law, black and white, thou shall and thou shall not. Consider for a moment what Law would mean by the spirit of the Law, what it was intended to present or show to man, that which could easily reside corrupt within him.

The Law of Moses digs in very deep and is very detailed down to the minute and is intricate; overly so most people would say. We tend to think of this Law as being for the individual when in fact it was intended to be the law of the land for one entire called by God nation. The Law delves into business and contractual agreements because that is one place the the corruption of man's deceptive heart has been known to be seen. It delves into familial and neighborly relationships because a whole lot of corruption and deception is known to be found there. It delves into ceremony and ritual for the very same reasons. There is not an area of life it does not delve into like a magnifying glass for those of a curious mind to look into and visually see. Look at the heart's behavior, look how it acts and reacts and devises and proceeds.

We tend to look at the Law as being but ten commandments when in fact by some estimates there are as many as 800 or as few as conservative 632. Obviously there is no way that a man or woman here on earth is going to be able to keep that many commandments. Just as obvious though should be the fact that even by the few that we do try to keep, we mostly fail at them. Before giving up, we are more than likely to shrink them down to a more obtainable size or at least down to a level that we can try to justify ourselves and or actions with.

So if we are incapable of doing the Law, why then did God give it and how then could HE be mad? Could it be that we tell our selves that we do the law and therein are justified when actually neither is the actual case? Could it be that in frustration refused now and rebelled to even try to do it? Could it be that we hold ourselves above the Law, that the Law is beneath us, that the idea of there being such is offensive to our self and presumed good self nature? Could it be that like the racist man we don't care who might or might not be offended, we will simply speak our mind and do what we do and to hell with the other whiny little babes. If this is true, it would certainly give God cause to be angry (I'm getting angry for HIM just thinking about it).

Comes back down doesn't it to that concept of transgression or violation. What constitutes a violation? The breaking of Law does not actually constitute a violation (it was a violation of something or somebody long before that). No, the Law is there to make the violation known and the punishment of such enforceable. Thus it can be said that "...the law worketh wrath...".

"...the mediator of the new testament..." v15

Mediator means go between, testament in this case is speaking of something like a legally binding "Last Will and Testament"; it is how the wealth and interests of a deceased persons' estate will be handled and distributed. In order for the Will to be in effect, the person has to have died. In the first testament there was no death involved by the "testator", the blood of bulls and rams and goats were used temporarily side step the need for that. The testator had not even been born as of yet. In the second testament the "testator" both arrived, lived forth, and died. His "Will" is now in effect for all the heirs called out to inherit. In this case, because the "testator" to us dead but in the presence of God is living, He is the first born from the dead and thereby qualifies also to become a rightful mediator. I know that this is using archaic and legalistic language, but there is something very important to be found here.

What this means is that the testament of Moses worketh unto wrath, the testament of Christ works towards peace. Before the deceptive and corrupted heart of man can do anything toward the path of lasting and eternal ultimate good, it has to be brought into a state of peace with God, God then reaches in a changes the heart and the souls' rebellious condition. Oh the secular man might give his all to try to change himself, the religious man might try to hold himself to change, the simpleton might try to be as he is and pay no mind to either gentlemen, not one of them without Christ though is able on their own to make this much needed change. You see, the peace comes from the purging by blood, both the dead works passed and so too the scarred up conscience. The peace also come from the remission (pardon/forgiveness/deliverance) by the very same blood shed for us by Christ Jesus. One cannot get from here in wrath to there in peace without the blood and mediation, but once this is done there is the wealth of other tools and giftings that are inherited.

"And for this cause..." v15

Hopefully this helps explain why Christ died/what kind of testament He is the mediator of.

In a world filled so full of corruption, and a generation where certain juveniles believe themselves to have awakened from this, a world were there have been so many laws and ideologies and full scale systems past/present/future, it is good to know that all of this is not without divine reason. It is sad that the heart of man rebels in order to be like this, the outcome will always come to be the same, but the heart of man can be assured of the hope that is found in Christ Jesus that the way to salvation and redemption and remission and regeneration has been laid.

And this thankfully brought about forevermore by the precious blood of Jesus!

Comment Board: RedemptionOfTheTransgressions Tags: Redemption, Remission, Transgression, Mediator, Blood, Ransom, ,

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