Living a Life of Faith (no. 2)

When we reflect on the title of this series, “Living a Life of Faith,” what do you think of when you read/hear the word “faith?” Recall that in our first installment of this series we were considering the words of the Apostle James in the 2nd chapter of his epistle dealing with his teaching on “faith and works (deeds, actions).”

As a transitional point, allow me to share with you that the Hebrew language is a very ‘economical’ one. That is to say, it has far fewer words than does the English language. I learned how very rich the English language is when I was teaching and preaching in Brazil and in Russia. When I would meet with my translators to help to prepare them for a lesson or a sermon that we were going to deliver, we often had to work quite hard for them to find the ‘right’ word to use as some points of the message, because English has a separate and distinct word for every nuance of any given word of emotion, intent, or theological point. Where the other language was lacking in these different shades of meaning, my translator and I would have to work to make the right choices as to when to pause at a given point of the lesson or sermon and take a moment to explain, in their language exactly what we wanted to convey to the class or the congregation.

We have the same situation when understanding the true intent of the biblical authors when a certain word is being translated into English. For example, one must determine from the context how אחט (transliterated chata) is to be understood as “sin” or “sin offering,” because this one Hebrew word is used for both English terms which, although related etymologically as words, have very different meanings, and the distinction is critically important for correctly understanding the theological concepts that have been derived from the use of these words. A classic example is the passage in 2 Corinthians 5:21 wherein Paul states, “He (God, the Father) made Him (Jesus), who knew no sin to be (not in the original) sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (Explanations added)

Jesus, in order to be the atoning sacrifice for the our redemption, the one who paid the penalty for our sins (which we know from Romans 6:23 is death), had to be our “Passover Lamb,” one that was spotless and without blemish, just as all Passover lambs through all of history were required to be. The writer of the epistle “Hebrews” declares confidently, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet (not in the original) without sin” (4:15, emphasis added).

Therefore, Paul (according to Philippians 3, remember, was “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (vv. 5-6). He understood both the proper uses of the term “chata” and Jesus’ sinless state when He was falsely accused by the Jews (the Jewish religious leaders) of blasphemy for declaring Himself to (be equal with) God.

Therefore, when Paul wrote his second letter to his disciples in the Church at Corinth, and declared that Jesus, who never knew (was never intimately acquainted) sin, became sin for us, do you think that, in the context of Jesus being our perfect “. . . Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29 – the testimony of John the Baptist), that Paul was identifying Jesus as “sin” (that is sinful, or as I have heard horribly taught and preached, “Sin Incarnate!”), or that Paul was identifying Jesus as our “sin offering” offered by the Father Himself on our behalf? Personally, I come down, and profoundly so, on the side of the latter interpretation. Why this is so profoundly important, we will deal with in our next installation of this series, and then we will get back to our consideration of living a Life of Faith!
(. . . to be Continued . . . .)