Diminishing the Work of Christ on the Cross

[tulsa 2011]

Diminishing the Work of Christ On the Cross

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many,; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ......For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27.For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3: 16, 26-29

Genesis 13: 16 says "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbed." Paul seems to contradict Genesis 13: 16 in saying that there is only one seed from Abraham, which is Jesus Christ. But as is often the case, there is something subtle being taught here, something the person who remains in the spiritual condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14, who understands only that which is literal, cannot easily see.

Just as there is no more temple in which God resides, no more animal sacrifice, no more feast days which people of God must observe and no more circumcision to be done,there is no more Old Covenant Israel of the flesh by descent from Abraham. The shadow of a physical seed - from God's man, Abraham - was fulfilled in the spiritual substance which is Christ Jesus. That which is entirely physical as shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 16-17) pointing to the spiritual substance which was to come - Christ - was done away with when the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant (Hebrews 10: 9) - at the Cross.

To insist that the shadows of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled in Christ is to diminish the work of Christ on the Cross and can be part of the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24: 15.

"And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." Daniel 11: 31

"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days." Daniel 12: 11

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Daniel 9: 27

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." Zechariah 12: 10

Who are "they" in Zechariah 12: 10? The literal view would be that "they" are Jews alive at the second coming of Christ. But the Jews living at the very end did not pierce Jesus. As a metaphor, Zechariah 12: 10 can be seen to point to the abomination of desolation of Daniel 9: 27. "They" have pierced Christ in the sense that they have diminished his work on the Cross by, in part, teaching that all the shadows of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled in him and done away with as works of the flesh. In bringing about the abomination of desolation in the modern time, some kind of literal desecration of the temple is not involved. Instead, as Daniel 9: 27 says, the abomination of desolation brings desolation which is poured upon the desolate.

The seed to whom the Old Testament promises were made was not to the multitude of Old Covenant Israel of the flesh. It was to Christ. Although in the physical, Christ was a descendant of Abraham, what Paul is saying is that Christ is the one spiritual seed from Abraham, the man of faith who believed God. Being the spiritual seed from Abrahm in Galatians 3: 29 means that when you belong to Christ, you too are the spiritual seed of Abraham, which is also the spiritual seed of God. "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Romans 9: 8

And in the remnant of Romans 11: 1-5 Christ fulfilled the promise that he would redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). In Romans 11: 1-5 Paul starts by saying that God did not cast away his people. Then he begins talking about the remnant of Israel by quoting I Kings 19: 10 14 18. In I Kings 19: 9-10 Elijah says to God that "...they have thrown down thy alters and slain the prophets...and I even I,only am left..."

But God answers in I Kings 19: 18, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed down unto Baal..." This is the remnant of Israel, and Paul's point is that at times when Israel was in apostasy, God preserved a remnant with which to begin all over again with his people Israel. Then, in Romans 11: 5 Paul says "Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Paul is stating the principle of the remnant, and clearly implying that Christ fulfilled his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel in this remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to begin his people Israel all over again as those reborn in Christ. There is a big difference spiritually between that remnant of Israel which accepted Christ and that multitude of Old Covenant Israel which rejected Christ and continued in that rejection as Talmudic Judaism. It is that multitude, and not the remnant, which dispensationalism raises up as Israel.

Exodus 4: 22-23, Hosea 11: 1 and Matthew 2: 15 all point to Christ alone as being the one seed to whom the Abrahamic promises were made which is confirmed in Galatians 3:16. Again, what is said in Exodus 4: 22-23 Hosea 11: 1, and Matthew 2: 15 is subtle, at one point Christ is Israel. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."

 

[tulsa 2011]

Dispensationalism has diminished the work of Christ
on the Cross, in part, by teaching that all the shadows of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled in him and done away with as works of the flesh. In bringing about the abomination of desolation in the modern time, (Matthew 24:15) some kind of literal desecration of the temple is not involved. Daniel 9: 27 does not say the abomination of desolation is literal desecration of a temple.

In addition, by insisting that "all Israel" in Romans 11: 25-26 must mean the multitude of Old Covenant Israel who shall be saved, dispensationalism diminishes the work of Christ on the Cross by saying, in effect, that he failed in his mission to save Israel. But Christ fulfilled his mission in saving the remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to save. Paul explains the remnant of Old Covenant Israel who were saved in Romans 11; 1-5.

John Darby, the father of the theology called
dispensationalism, said that the
"Church has sought to settle itself here, but it has no place on the
earth... [Though] making a most constructive parenthesis, it forms no
part of the regular order of God's earthly plans, but is merely an
interruption of them to give a fuller character and meaning to
them..."

John. N. Darby, 'The Character of Office in The Present Dispensation'
Collected Writings., Eccl. I, Vol. I, p. 94.

"Them" are all physical Israel. The church, for Darby exists to "give
fuller character and meaning to all physical Israel." Darby, known as
the Father of dispensationalism, thought that the purpose of the
Christian church, the ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation
of Israel reborn in Christ, the Israel of God, made into The Body of
Christ like the Catholic capital C Church, was to honor all physical
Israel. The dispensationalists say that God's people the Jews are
earthy. They are involved in physical and literal things, like the
blood sacrifice of animals, a literal bloodline from Abraham,
circumcision, and a physical temple building.

In dispensationalist doctrine, God has two distinct peoples, Old Covenant Israel
and the Capital C Church. John Darby said that the Church forms a "parenthesis," meaning that in dispensationalist theory when Old Covenant Israel - its multitude - rejected Christ, the Church became "plan B," implying that Christ was not able to save all Old Covenant Israel, hence diminishing Christ's finished work on the Cross. The dispensationalist Church, in dispensationalism, becomes a temporary people of God, a "pause," Darby called the "parenthesis" in God's "real" plan, which is for the people of Old Covenant Israel defined by their physical DNA, their blood line from Abraham.

The Capital C Church as the "parenthesis" people, who are not of Abraham's physical bloodline, shows that in dispensationalism Christ failed in his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). He had to put off salving all Israel Old Covenant Israel - the multitude - to some time later, maybe during the tribulation.

Some people who follow most of the doctrines of dispensationalism will say that dispensationalism does not contradict John 10: 16, that there is one fold, not two, and Romans 12:4-5, that there is one body in Christ, not two, because some day the Jews will all be saved and then there will be one people of God.

But - dispensationalists do not teach that the dispensationalist Church and dispensationalist Israel will become one in the future.

Charles C. Ryrie (born 1925) says:
"basic promise of Dispensationalism is two purposes of God expressed
in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction
throughout eternity." Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today,1966, pp.44-45.

"Israel is an eternal nation, heir to an eternal land, with an eternal kingdom, on which David rules from an eternal throne so that in eternity, '...never the twain, Israel and church, shall meet." Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas, Dallas Seminary Press, 1975), Vol. 4. pp. 315-323..