The Gospel, Part Five

A Devotional Series from Genesis

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

3/29 Reading Portions: Exodus 40; John 19; Proverbs 16; Philippians 3

Genesis 3:15

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

CRUCIFIXION

Yesterday, our meditations were upon the crushing of Satan’s authority. Today, we will consider how his authority was crushed—through the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the bruising of Satan’s authority and the bruising of the Messiah’s heel, the same Hebrew root word is used: שׁוּף (shoof). It is a primitive root that means “to gape,” “to snap at,” or “to overwhelm,” and has been translated into English as “break,” “bruise,” or “cover.” So, when we consider this last portion of the verse,

…the Hebrew verb for “bruise” takes on an interesting form. It uses the first-person plural: ואתה תשׁופנו עקב If we were to translate the words of this phrase literally in English, we might write: “And you will Our bruise heel.” In other words, YHVH God is saying that in crushing Satan’s authority, when Jesus as the Son goes to the cross to experience the infinite and eternal wrath of God for sins He did not commit, this was not only experienced by the Son, but by the Father and the Holy Spirit as well. When Jesus cried out,

“It is finished.” John 19:30

…it was evidence of His deity, because if God was offended by our sin, only God could exonerate by His satisfaction for the penalty being paid. Therefore, Jesus was not merely speaking on behalf of God as a human representative. He is incarnate YHVH God and was speaking as God Almighty. This is an important feature of the truth of Christ’s crucifixion and His substitutionary atonement at large. Therefore, though I have written and preached this several times, it is worth my repeating it because I still continue to hear this horrible misunderstanding of the gospel as it concerns the cross….

There is something preached and taught concerning the Father’s disposition upon the Son’s crucifixion, and it comes as a result of a misunderstanding of an Old Testament verse:

“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do You idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” Habakkuk 1:13

The prophet says this about YHVH God and the Babylonians. He says God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil, yet he also says that YHVH God looks upon the Babylonians, idolators, who are more evil than the wicked in Judah in order to bring about judgment upon Judah (Hab 1:5-11). Too many times we are hearing it preached that the Father could not look at Jesus when He suffered on the croos because Jesus bore our sin. That is false and just plain ridiculous. First, we already have the proof from Habakkuk 1:5-13 that this cannot be truly applied as a literal thing concerning YHVH God. Second, Satan entered the very presence of God twice since the fall, recorded in the book of Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). I think we can all agree that as far as evil is concerned, Satan is the worst of the worst, yet he conversed with YHVH God, and moreover, conversed with the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Thirdly, to suggest that the Father could not look at Jesus on the cross based upon Habakkuk 1:13 would threaten our theology, implying that Jesus did not pay the penalty for sins He did not commit, but actually became sin itself; and that would in turn imply that this act was not the delight and satisfaction of God. If Jesus was at any time unpleasing to the Father (Matt 3:17; John 8:29), even on the cross, His substitution means nothing (1 Pet 3:18), and you and I have no hope of salvation at all. Finally, this would devilishly assault the nature and character of the Father because to suggest such a ridiculous thing would cause the Father to tell us to do something He couldn’t do Himself—that is, to look upon Jesus who is the only Hope of salvation. This is what the Father told us to do through the prophet—to look upon Jesus to be saved:

Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22, KJV

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

• Am I being nitpicky? Yes, I am.

• Does it mean that those who preach such a thing are not saved? No, it doesn’t.

• But shouldn’t we be zealous for the truth of Christ’s cross, the character of the Father, and the blessed truth of Scripture that expresses Christ’s gospel? Yes, we should.

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