But What Does It Mean?
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3 NASB
Died for our sins – The tiny preposition, hyper, is the critical element in Paul’s expression of the relationship between the Messiah’s death and our salvation. The problem is that this tiny word, hyper, has quite a few different meanings. It can be translated “on behalf of,” or “beyond,” or “in the place of,” or “over,” or “in defense of,” or “for.” As you might imagine, the sense of Paul’s statement will vary depending on the translation you choose. For example, with typical Reformation bias, the description in TDNT by Riesenfeld treats hyper as if it implies the elimination of the Law.
Christ’s death is for others in Rom. 5:8; 1 Th. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:18, etc. Paul develops the saving significance of Christ’s death with the help of typology in Gal. 3:13 and 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus in his death vicariously takes the curse for us, and thus secures our liberation from the law. [1]
But is this in alignment with Paul, a Torah-observant Jew? Would he intend to teach that the death of the Messiah liberates us from the Law? Hardly! The problem is reading hyper as if it meant “as a result of.” But what if we read it “in place of”? What if Paul said that the Messiah died, not because our sins made it necessary (penal atonement), but because his death acted as a ransom for us. In other words, God’s purpose was not to cast the curse of our sins upon His son in order to pay the penalty and balance the celestial accounting record, but rather the purpose of the Messiah was to voluntarily act as the means of restoration, bringing us back into fellowship by healing the breach caused by sin. God did not need to find someone or something to punish in our place. Rather, the Messiah reconnected the two parties by acting as the intercessor, by healing the wound.
Therefore, Paul can say, “In alignment with the idea of reconciliation according to the Tanakh, an intercessor died in the act of making peace between the parties.” The penal idea of atonement was the creation of certain Reformation thinkers like Luther and Calvin. But the Bible itself used many different models to describe atonement. Paying a penalty is only one of them. The predominant idea is ransom, the purchase of someone from the hands of another. In fact, Israel’s exodus is a sterling example of ransom. In parallel, what if the death of the Messiah was more like Israel’s ransom from Egypt than it was like correcting the ledger? How would that change your view of the Messiah’s purpose? Is it healing or payment? Deliverance or recompense?
Topical Index: for, hyper, atonement, sin, 1 Corinthians 15:3
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1228). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
Thank you for this TW, Skip. Can you elaborate on how Yeshua’s voluntary death healed the breach caused by sin? How could a (sinless) man’s death accomplish this?
Yes please do further explication. I am struggling with the difference between ransom and “dying in our place”. It seems so close to the same thing I am not understanding the what the difference is.
Thanks Skip
A brief comment as I am without good internet and flying tomorrow. Did you notice the fact that Hebrew doesn’t have a specific notion of sin. The range of meanings covers quite a bit of territory. Ransom then applies to the idea of buying back someone from prior ownership, and in Hebrew history, this is precisely what occurs in the Exodus. God ransoms His people from Pharaoh. He does not die for them. His purchase means that He becomes the suzerain lord in place of Pharaoh. The covenant is built around this idea. It is different than “sacrifice,” a term applied to other notions of God’s actions toward His people, but in no case does God die in sacrifice. Actually, the idea is a bit nonsensical. But sacrifice is important and it is part of the way God’s deals with His people AFTER they are no longer slaves to another (generally). You might look at Lehman’s book Yeshua Our Atonement for more. Now I have to run, but we’ll come back to this later.
In the Exodus, it’s the innocent lamb that dies, (foreshadowing the death of the innocent Lamb to come.) And, it’s the blood on the doorposts that allows the death angel to pass by (again foreshadowing the protecting blood of Yeshua.) In God’s economy, blood is the currency, whether we like it or not. It seems mysterious to us but we need to remember that God is NOT mysterious to Himself. He knows all the reasons for doing what He does, but that doesn’t mean we always do.
So, for reasons that only God fully understands, the blood of Yeshua is/was important, But, I also agree with Jerry’s post (below) that the obedient life of Yeshua was equally important. The Lamb had to be innocent and Yeshua accomplished that!! Hallelujah!!
Maybe I’ve missed something–which is not unusual What was it that G-d paid Pharaoh for their release. I don’t see much reward(payments) in plagues –that’s the only”payment” I see G-d giving Pharaoh.
Pharaoh wasn’t paid anything. He was told by God (through Moses) to let His people go free. When Pharaoh refused, the plagues were the consequence for his refusal.
The blood ransom was for God’s people (those who believed Him and obeyed Him.) Because of their obedience (and putting the blood on their doorposts) they were spared from the death brought on by the 10th plague.
Judi, I was just being picky with Skip. Above he wrote “G-d ransoms his people from Pharaoh” which to
this 94 year old mind is that he paid Him something. I am/was in agreement what you said to/for my correction.
Shalom, Sugar Ray
Well…I’m certainly impressed with your 94 year old clarity of thought and expression. Praises for that. May it continue. ?
It’s got to–with the Lord help — My goal is 110 healthy. Shalom, Sugar Ray
So we are ransomed from the power of sin? Satan? Or what?
He died FOR (hyper) our sins just like Shaul wrote in Eph. 3:20 that He “is able to do FAR BEYOND (hyper – SUPERABUNDANTLY, EXCEEDINGLY ABOVE, BEYOND ALL MEASURE MORE THAN) ALL that we ask or imagine, by means of His power that works in us.” [Eph 3:16-21]
Messiah didn’t just die an unjust death at the hands of sinners as a SACRIFICE required by YHVH as a PUNISHMENT for sin in our place. He went HYPER, far above, superabundantly, exceedingly above, beyond all measure more than just being a sacrifice and being punished in our place. He fully lived out a life of loving obedience to the Father in keeping with the law, as an OFFERING in our place, to fully satisfy the Father, and it led to His death on the cross at the hands of sinners,
At the start of Yeshua’s ministry when He was immersed by Yochanan into the priesthood, the Father said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased!”. In the middle of His ministry when He was on the “Mount of Transfiguraton”, the Father again said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased!” Was it merely His death on the cross that pleased the Father or was it laying down His life as an offering in full obedience that was pleasing to the Father?
I’d say it was the Father receiving the offer of the love of His Son, Yeshua the Messiah, through full and complete obedience to His law that pleased Him, far beyond, superabundantly, exceedingly above, beyond all measure more than all, m that pleased the Father.
This clarifies so much. We had a bible study on this topic last week in accordance to the weekly reading. One could say it’s one of those Paradigm shifts.
Life is in the blood. So it was Yeshua offering His life to the fullest extent possible, even the shedding of His blood. That’s the significance of the blood “sacrifice”, the full and complete offering of life through obedience, even obedience unto death, not just shedding blood and dying, the giving of life.
I just shared the following with an “athiest” friend. A man who was so dominated by his 7th day Adventist Religious family that he had to throw out God to find his true self. I belive God brought me into his conversation quite purposely. The following translation of John – 1:1-14 Renders the purpose and work of Messiah in a uniquely refreshing way. It is by Cive Scott a french professor of literature.
John 1. 1-14
.
It all arose out of a conversation,
conversation within God, in fact the
conversation was God. So, God started the
discussion, and everything came out of this,
and nothing happened without consultation.
This was the life, life that was the light of men,
shining in the darkness, a darkness which
neither understood nor quenched its creativity.
John, a man sent by God, came to remind
people about the nature of the light so that
they would observe. He was not the subject
under discussion, but the bearer of an
invitation to join in.
The subject of the conversation, the original
light, came into the world, the world that had
arisen out of his willingness to converse. He
fleshed out the words but the world did not
understand. He came to those who knew the
language, but they did not respond. Those
who did became a new creation (his children),
they read the signs and responded.
These children were born out of sharing in
the creative activity of God. They heard the
conversation still going on, here, now, and
took part, discovering a new way of being people.
To be invited to share in a conversation
about the nature of life, was for them, a glorious
opportunity not to be missed.
Clive Scott ©
Can I be honest here? There are not enough hours in the day to deconstruct the leviathan of Christian dogma in a lifetime. I’ve come to the conclusion that this process will take generations. [thanks to Skip’s latest recommendation of Leman’s book, which is a condensed summary of the conclusions from Campbell’s 1200 page book, The Deliverance of God. Before that it was Chandler’s, The God of Jesus. While I like the book, the footnotes and bibliography really discourage me. Just a mountain of more books to read. [I get really nervous when anyone summarizes history. We’ve been burned before by Christian revisionist polemicists. Chandler’s unnecessary persuasive/polemical adjectives are very distracting!]] So, that leaves me with limited options. However, whatever the “correct” answer is to theology’s most pressing question, I am responsible to “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” May this force me to walk in humility knowing that what I once understood as truth was really false. God, help us all!
This path requires patience, trust and extreme humility, brother. It’s a journey not a race. Don’t let the search for “right answers” suck the life out of you.
Hi Paul,
I hear you. Just sharing some encouragement from some of His words that came to me in response to what you shared:
“Be warned my son of anything in addition to them: There is no end to the making of many books, and excessive study wearies the flesh.” [Ecc 12:12]
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life!” [Joh_6:63]
“I call the heavens and the earth to witness about you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live, by loving Adonai your God, listening to His voice, and clinging to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days…”. [Deu 30:19-20]
Shalom blessings.
Just a question who is Paul referring to with OUR sins. Sounds like his own and a specific audience he was addressing.
If that be the case how should we relate this with our sins today.
I doubt if Yeshua was Paying it Forward?
I think Skip is onto something by referring to the death as in place of. Supplementing the death impact of sin through introduction of the cross… A means to redeem ourselves from our transgression. Nothing new as this is found in OT as seek forgiveness before approaching the altar. Then adapt Shama which is the only way to find favour in God’s eyes.
Or more specifically said Micah 6;8.
sorry everyone……..
Every day these topics are so heavy that I feel so overloaded and going nowhere. It is as if I read one page and then 40 more arrive to read every day and so on and so forth….. I am overwhelmed. I miss so much in every TW about nuances and feel very disconnected, unsure and very unqualified to respond with some wise way that won’t get thumbs down. The awareness that my inability to keep up makes me feel defeated before I even start. I honestly feel no sense of community anymore and wonder if anyone feels the same way?
Leslie, please feel free to shake off any obligation, expectation or fear of judgment. If this community is metaphorically a dinning table where we are feasting on the word not all dishes served up will be to ones liking. Sometimes like today I”ll just from off a dish I was enjoying myself because it seemed fresh and tasty and not to far off the theme. Being able to contribute is not always or necessarily important if your getting something satisfying. If your not don’t feel some how insufficient that is the last thing anyone here would want. This is not a competition or some sort of intelectual pageant show. We be just folks here….folks who want to know more about what’s really true not what has been made up and sold to us.
No , Leslie your not the only one, I am told Satan is just a figment of my imagination, Yahoshua really doesn’t have any divine qualities, than the American thinker website is not racist and finally sin is just a concept and finally we were more like kidnapped and and Yahoshua just was a ransom.Now if this is Hebrew thinking no wonder they were always in trouble and denied the messiah. I always use to learn so much but lately feel like I am taking a course in skeptic philosophy. Don’t be discourage by the thumbs up and thumbs down it’s more of an ego trip and does not help dialogue what so ever and it intimidates anyone from saying or commenting on anything.
I’m with you. Many TW’s and the discussions that follows are often way over my head. One or two TW’s a week are plenty for my digestion. My full life limits me from the time required to chew every TW. Thankfully Abba has placed me in a great face to face Torah pursuant community. Relying solely on this TW blog for community doesn’t fully fit my definition of community .
Yes Leslie, I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes I just take a break from all of this because I feel overwhelmed or feel I have received too much food that I need to digest before eating again. But I come back, sometimes I catch up, sometimes not. But I always get my appetite back and I keep getting pushed to do research and grow. I’m not sure anyone is ever “unqualified to respond” though. We’re all learning and the only way to do so is to ask questions – something some of us need to learn to. Having said that, I don’t think there is a lot of room to ask direct questions to Skip and having him answer them before moving on to another subject. (And I’m sure there are different reasons for that, so this is no criticism.) I understand that we chip in as a community, but sometimes the answers or responses you get are from people with a different view point than Skip’s, so you still don’t get the answer you’re after. The red thumbs down button is a bit threatening, but if I understand it right, only means someone disagrees. It’s not supposed to be a slap in the face. Did you see/read Michael C’s two comments yesterday? They might help and encourage you. I pray for Father’s peace to embrace you.
I can certainly relate to what you shared, Lesli. I’ve had a very similar struggle. For a while it was hard, difficult and not very encouraging. One question led to another and another and another . . . ! The quicksand always seemed to be swallowing me. Not anymore. I think that much of my unsure and unqualified thoughts stemmed from my ‘religious’ upbringing over several decades.
If I may offer some hopefully encouraging words. It’s OK to feel that way at times. I don’t think we must KNOW everything all the time. It is a journey as someone else mentioned. If you can bring you mind to accept that, I think some of the frustration will subside. However, on the other hand, stress in the search is a healthy thing. There have been many solutions, if you will, to my questions and struggles in life, as a direct result of calamities, struggles, hardships and frustrations. Somehow those difficult times are exactly what I needed to break through stalls in my life. What got me through is my daily (sometimes no so daily) searching bit by bit. I asked YHVH to connect me to people of like mindedness and like motivation in order to provide me with the needed learning environment that was safe but appropriately challenging. He provided that environment, over time, which helped me tremendously is wrestling through so many issues. I DID NOT happen overnight but over years of tenaciously treading through the jungle of issues.
The point being is that I never learned how to learn. As Skip pointed out, I was looking for answers in stead of looking for the right questions. Sometimes, and often, the ‘answer’ is paradoxically another question. Learning how to formulate and energize the right question has both informed me of so much and actually calmed me for life and the stress of new questions. It has become a love/hate relationship of learning. Ask a question and then search it out for ever how long it takes. Then, eventually, I came to love the realization that my searching has provided me with more questions. I rarely need a black and white answer any more. I’ve thrown out my box collection of dogmas and theology. Now I rest on the understandings YHVH has provided through Torah with the understanding and knowledge that there is much more depth and value. I just need to keep walking on the Path of Torah and do the absolute best I am able to prepare myself for the treasures YHVH has hidden, yes, hidden along the path. They are hidden, I think, in order to show us what is really our focus, what we really value. And I can share that finding a hidden treasure of truth, understanding and insight is unexplainably satisfying. So satisfying that is holds and carries me through the times of drought, anguish and defeat I experience simply from life. I KNOW there are chunks of life, FOR ME, to be sought and discovered. He promises to show them to us. I think he wants us to grow up, mature, learn how to ‘be what we will be’ as we walk out what being made in his image is all about.
Whew!
Hope that helps a tiny bit.
Tanya’s words are golden: “Thankfully Abba has placed me in a great face to face Torah pursuant community.” I am with you Lesli. Spent 3 years in seminary, 12 ministry, and feel like I’m drinking from a fire hydrant. It becomes very discouraging if your only source of community is this blog. However, keep seeking, praying, and walking humbly with your God. Shalom.
I concur, Paul. I would add that I don’t think Skip intends for this to be an only source. I think I would be in agreement with him on this. His whole flavor is to search things out. That implies looking at a myriad of sources. That would certainly be the fire hydrant you speak of. On the lighter and more humorous side of that expression, I have simply enjoyed the experience of playing in a fire hydrant turned on draining in the streets in the past during my childhood. I didn’t necessarily drink but certainly enjoyed the flow! 🙂
My own very personal understanding of this is simply that Yeshua died because of our sins. We treated him as we do all those who threaten our well being. He voluntarily refused to run or retaliate and that is the example to us of kingdom living. I am not a Hebrew scholar and am enjoying the lessons. In the meantime I have had to make my own peace with Christian theology and this is the understanding
I have been able to accept thus far.
Satisfaction or punishment?
Just a thought here. Yeshua was/is Jewish, Yes? If, Yeshua is Jewish, He would follow Torah, Yes? Paul, stated that he Paul was a Jews Jew. So that means he followed Torah, right? NO human sacrifice, NO drinking of blood, Everyone is responsible for their own sins, you can not, NO ONE can take your sins for you. I believe that these are stated in the Torah. Yeshua said, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets, I have come not to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a Yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah – not until everything that must happen has happened,” (Mattityahu 5:17-18 CJB). So did “Everything that must happen Happen? Did Paul lie about Yeshua? I don’t think so. I think that the Bible needs to be read as to who it was written for and to. Paul also told those to who he preached, not to boast about being grafted to the tree, as a natural branch had been cut off so too could that graft be cut off. Skip has taught us a LOT! He has made us think and question. YHVY made it easy for us to understand, to be humble, be justice and merciful , to Love and be obedient to our Loving G-d, but WE make it hard.
Shalom Aleichem Brothers and Sisters
This is what I consider the right direction. The Bible was not written for us, although we often treat it that way. It was written for an ancient, Jewish audience and we have to think like they would think in order to understand what its authors intended. That means putting aside the hundreds of years of theological bias that we have in the Western Church and asking what would it have meant to the people when it was written (by the way, WHEN it was written isn’t always the same time that the stories occurred). So a lot of things have to change. Of course, we can still find the Bible speaking to us, but that isn’t exegesis. That’s application, and it is usually accompanied by a lot of paradigm and cultural bias.
Considering that the “saving death of Christ” is the primary foundation stones of Christianity, it amazes me that I still don’t understand it as well as I should, and I neither am I satisfied with the traditional, or Skip’s explanation.
1. If mainstream tradition is correct, and the penalty for sin is everlasting punishment; and if Christ is paying that penalty for us on our behalf, then it follows that Christ must be suffering in hell for all time. But He is not.
2. Even if that punishment is “only” eternal death, then Christ should never have been resurrected. But His is risen.
3. As far as “satisfying” the Father, nor can I imagine any sort of parallel court case scenario where the Judge says to the guilty party, if we kill an innocent third party, justice will be done, past sins corrected, and we can all be happy and reconciled.
4. As per Skip, I must agree that Scripturally, a ransom is involved, but I am bewildered who gets the ransom. (Neither do I understand the parallel in, who paid what ransom and to whom, in letting Israel out of Egypt.)
But permit me to venture on some ideas. I can understand that we are being ransomed from death but not so much by a payment but by a process of the Father and Yeshua. I understand that God can bring us back to life without the death of His Son, but it seems only back to another mortal life, as per what happened several times in the Old and New Testaments. But in order for us to become immortal AND truly in His image, takes another process. As a descendant of a mortal Adam, our death is guaranteed. We need to become the descendant of a different and immortal One. We need to be “generated” through Him. (Born again or from above.) Not figuratively but somehow more literally. And for that to happen, He had to become human, DIE, and be resurrected to immortality. ONLY THEN can we have any hope of becoming a son THROUGH the Second Adam. He had to become one of us before we could become a son of Him. THAT is why Yeshua had to die. It was for our sake, (not so much “for our sins”.) It was to start the completion of the process. That is why Adam was created first. To start the initial process. In this way we will all literally be related, even to Christ Himself. Instead of God, by fiat, creating billions of unrelated and unconnected humans, in this way, “God may be all in all”.
(My rambling thoughts anyway.)
I love it!
Mainline Christianity has hell horribly wrong, so we can’t start from their position on it, but we are told that Yeshua was a one time payment for sins (1 Peter 3:18). He died and rose once as our Kinsman Redeemer ransom price. Halleluah!
As for ransom from Egypt, I presume we are referring to Is. 43:3 where we are told that EGYPT was the ransom for the freedom of Israel. Egypt was the one that paid; specifically, the bloodline of the Pharoah in the firstborn, thus making ALL the firstborn that were then in Egypt (because they all belonged to Pharoah at that time) – including the firstborn of Israel – ransom-property of YHVH. From then on, all firstborn were bought back from Him.
It also got heaven horribly wrong. From a human perspective there is no more heaven “out there” than there is “hell below”. There is only heaven where God “lives” and the hell of eternal damnation, annihilation. He who chooses all whom He creates with free choice also chooses whom to eliminate, those who make bad choices. In effect we make our own “heaven” or “hell”.
Roll on justice like a mighty river. Resurrection and eternal “life” for the righteous obedient. Sh’ma.
My meandering.
Skip, wow, Thank-you! May I share this on my FB page?
Sure