CHAPTER EIGHT
GOD AGAINST god
In order to understand the life and work of Jesus Christ, it is necessary to see clearly that Jesus Christ was involved in a battle, a battle that pitted the God Jesus Christ was sent to reveal against the god believed in and worshipped by the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Israel. Unless a study of the New Testament has led the student to grasp the fact that this battle is the context within which the words and actions of Jesus took place, the life and work of Jesus Christ will be viewed in a different context than that which the Bible has designed Jesus to be viewed and understood. Those who fail to see the battle Jesus was involved in simply will be unable to understand the God revealed in and by Jesus Christ.
A battle pitting God against god is a battle that takes place in the Heavenlies as well as on earth. Paul described the battle this way in Ephesians 6:16-17, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Who are the rulers, what are the powers, what are the spiritual forces of evil that Paul saw himself pitted against? What was it that Jesus waged war against? Who had the power to rule the people of Israel, that had the power to rule and have authority over all the people on this planet? You answer Satan? You are wrong! Satan has never had power over the people on this planet unless the people on this planet have decided to entertain the ideas of Satan. Adam and Eve were not subject to Satan until they decided to believe the message sent by the serpent. Adam and Eve had to surrender to the ideas of Satan before Satan had the power to rule Adam and Eve; it was that surrender that brought Adam and Eve into bondage to Satan. On this planet a battle against Satan has always been, is now, and always will be a battle against the ideas of Satan. Paul understood the ideas of Satan to be "fiery darts", "flaming arrows" that if resisted and turned away left Satan powerless to rule anyone on this planet.
Paul described the battle he was in in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretensions that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
"...we take captive every thought..." Ideas are nothing more or nothing less than thoughts. The context within which ideas exist is the consciousness of the individual. Arguments are composed of ideas designed to persuade people to open their consciousness and provide a dwelling place for the ideas contained in the arguments. Paul was trying to tell us that the battle we are involved in is a battle between the ideas presented by God and the ideas presented by Satan. Whether we serve God or whether we serve Satan is determined by whose ideas we allow to dwell within us.
Before Jesus began his ministry, he was confronted by Satan himself. We read about this event in Matthew 4:1, "Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil." Satan attempted to persuade Jesus to entertain Satan's suggestions, Satan's thoughts. Jesus won the battle by resisting Satan's thoughts using the words in Holy Scripture to beat back the ideas communicated by Satan. The battle concluded and Jesus was victorious over Satan. "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."
After the direct confrontation with the devil, Jesus began his public ministry. But Jesus' battle against Satan was not finished because many people had already decided to entertain Satan's ideas. Until those people were delivered from the power of Satan's ideas, Jesus' battle was not over.
In the world of ideas, there is a hierarchy of power. Certain ideas support other ideas. Ideas exist in the mind of the individual like a pyramid with the most powerful ideas at the base of the pyramid and less powerful ideas ascending upward until we find the least powerful ideas at the tip of the pyramid of ideas. The ideas at the base of the pyramid are the most powerful ideas because they are foundational ideas--the foundation upon which all other ideas rest. If those foundational ideas crack and crumble, all the ideas in the pyramid come tumbling down in disarray and the pyramid ceases to exist.
The foundational idea that supported all the ideas in the pyramid of ideas created by the people of Israel was the idea that it was possible for people to obey the instructions given by God in the Law of God. This idea was the foundation upon which the model of God created by the Pharisees, scribes and teachers of the law was erected. The model of God communicated by the Pharisees and teachers of the law was a model of a God who had given His words in the Law so that people who obeyed the instructions in the Law could be restored to a right relationship with the God revealed in the Law. This was the god taught by the opinion leaders of Israel.
Jesus attacked this foundational idea. He attacked the model of god communicated by the leaders of Israel by pointing out that those who claimed to obey the rules in God's law were liars and hypocrites who not only did not obey the Law but also did not understand the Law of God.
Jesus said this in Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
At this point, Jesus joined battle against the idea that supported the pyramid of ideas about god in the nation of Israel. In order to understand this battle, we must understand that the people of Israel had been taught by the teachers of God's Word that obedience to the law of God was not only possible, but absolutely mandatory, if one was to have a right relationship with the God revealed in Holy Scripture. The Pharisees considered themselves to have a right relationship with God, to be righteous, because they held onto the idea that they actually obeyed the rules and regulations set down by God in the Law. All the people of Israel had been taught to agree with this foundational idea. And the model of God taught in Israel had that particular idea as the foundation of their pyramid of ideas about God. All the people of Israel accepted this idea as the bedrock truth about God. The only difference between the Pharisees and the rest of the people of Israel was this: the Pharisees claimed to have obeyed the rules set down in the law of God, those who were not Pharisees could not make that claim.
Jesus entered into conflict with the nation of Israel because he asserted clearly that the people, Pharisees and non-Pharisees alike, had totally misinterpreted the message God had sent in the Bible. He entered into conflict when he uttered these words, "For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
The Pharisees understood themselves to be perfectly righteous! How could the Pharisee be perfectly righteous? Because the Pharisee understood himself to perfectly obey the rules and regulations communicated by God in Holy Scripture. In fact, one could not belong to the Pharisees unless the law was obeyed perfectly. According to their definition of righteousness, according to the idea that composed the foundation of their model of god, the Pharisees were perfectly righteous. Anyone who suggested it was possible to be more righteous than perfectly righteous would have been judged by the Pharisees to be either a fool or a liar. Is it any wonder that the Pharisees scoffed at the teachings of Jesus? Is it any wonder they plotted to silence Him?
But what of the common people of Israel? How would they have been expected to respond to this extremely enigmatic statement of Jesus? I suggest they would have been as baffled as the Pharisees. The common Jews of Israel accepted the Pharisee's definition of righteousness; they too assumed it was possible to obey the rules and regulations set down in Holy Scripture. Jesus would have befuddled them all by telling them it was possible to be more righteous than perfectly righteous. Jesus' words would have created an either/or response: Either this teaching of Jesus was utter nonsense, or the Pharisee's understanding of righteousness was in error.
In the same passage in Matthew, Jesus went on to explain exactly how the Pharisees and teachers of the law had misinterpreted God's Law, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, 'Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment'; But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca (an aramaic term of contempt), shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Jesus continues in the words that follow to offer a list of cases designed to show how the Pharisee's and teachers of the law have misinterpreted the meaning of the words in the Bible. Unless we see this point, we simply fail to hear the message Jesus was trying to communicate.
Everything Jesus was saying in the passage quoted by Matthew was said in a context where the words in the Bible had already been interpreted so that a person could believe they were actually keeping the commandments of God. For instance, the interpretation of 'thou shalt not kill' offered by the Pharisee was this: "If you do not shed the blood of an innocent person, you are not guilty of violating the Law that says 'Thou shalt not kill.' Jesus directly contradicted that interpretation when he told them that anyone who was angry with his brother without cause was in danger, and anyone who called another "Fool" was to face the punishment reserved for the murderer. Unless we grasp this context, we simply do not hear the message Jesus uttered as the people he spoke to would have heard it. The people of Israel would have heard the words of Jesus and they would have known that Jesus had directly attacked the model of God being taught in Israel.
Is this what the people of Israel understood to be happening? Did the Pharisees understand that Jesus was attacking them by attacking the model of god held in mind by the Pharisees? In order to answer that question adequately, literally every event and word uttered by Jesus would have to be reexamined because literally every action and word has meaning only in the context of Jesus' battle against the model of god taught by the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. For the purpose of this book, I will offer only these examples to demonstrate the point: Matthew 12: 1ff, "At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of grain, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, 'Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, 'Have ye not read what David did, when he was hungry, and they that were with him, How he entered in to the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for them who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." The story continues with Jesus going into a synagogue on that same sabbath day and there healing a man with a paralyzed hand. The story concludes with these words, "Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him."
Perhaps the most powerful example of Jesus' battle against the model of god held by the Pharisees is found in John 8. This is the setting in which the battle took place: "At dawn he (Jesus) appeared in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him."
The conflict shown by John in chapter eight continues until Jesus is led to summarize his attitude toward the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, v. 42-47, "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear me is that you do not belong to God."
Out of a myriad examples of Jesus' conflict with the model of God held by the Pharisees, this is perhaps the most precise example of the diametric opposition between the model of God held by Jesus and the model of god held by the Pharisees. The point is clear: the model of God held by the Pharisees was not the model of God held by Jesus of Nazareth.
I take the time to draw this point as clearly as I can because this point must be clearly understood before one can grasp the model of God explained to us by the Apostle Paul.
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