Making Christ Obvious

I was reading from an English translation of the Septuagint (LXX) for my Bible reading in Numbers 24 this morning and was struck by verse seven.

NKJV	LXX
He shall pour water from his buckets, And his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted.	A Man shall come forth from his seed, And He shall rule many nations; And His kingdom shall be more exalted than Gog, And His kingdom shall increase.

Do you notice the difference? The NKJV pronouns refer to Jacob/Israel and point to a generic man who will reign, but the LXX Christology is pronounced, pointing to a specific person with a specific mission. This lack of exclusivity is not isolated to NKJV. Check out NASB, NIV, NLT, The Message, etc.: they all follow the Masoretic Text (MT). True, a messianic promise is given in the MT, but the overt nature of LXX leaves one astounded. This and the fact that the early church used the LXX are why I now prefer its translation.

Worshiping the Lamb on Equal Terms with God

If we go through the entire book of Revelation and examine all of its doxological material, we find an almost complete overlap in the honorific language directed to God and that directed to the Lamb (see table).  The overlap is not artificially perfect—“wealth” is directed to the Lamb and not to God, “thanksgiving” to God and not to the Lamb—but these differences seem inconsequential in light of the big picture.  Matthias Hoffmann, in his dissertation on the Lamb in the book of Revelation, rightly concludes, “Most of the predicates within the doxologies do not seem to distinguish God and the Lamb from each other, but rather express an equal status of both of them in general.”

By constructing such doxologies to God and Christ together, or even to Christ alone, the New Testament writers were exalting Jesus Christ to the very level of God.

Robert Bowman; J. Ed Komoszewski,

Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ

DOXOLOGIES TO GOD AND THE LAMB IN REVELATION

	God/One on the Throne	The Lamb	1 Chr 29:11-12
Worthy (axios)	4:11	5:9, 12
Blessing/Praise (eulogia)	5:13; 7:12	5:12,13
Honor (timē)	4:9, 11; 5:13; 7:12	5:12, 13	1 Chr 29:12
Glory (doxa)	4:9, 11; 5:13; 7:12; 19:1b	1:6; 5:12, 13
Dominion (kratos)	5:13	1:6; 5:13
Power (dunamis)	4:11; 7:12; 19:1b	5:12	1 Chr 29:11
Might (ischus)	7:12	5:12	1 Chr 29:11-12
Wealth (ploutus)		5:12	1 Chr 29:12
Wisdom (sophia)	7:12	5:12
Thanksgiving (eucharista)	4:9; 7:12	5:12
Salvation (sōtēria)	7:10; 19:1b	7:10

Whose Robes Are They?

My morning Bible reading in Isaiah 59 was behind a previous post drawing attention to the armor of God in Ephesians 6 being the same that Jesus wears.  Continuing on through chapter 62 (or more precisely 63:6), I noted that the section details God’s eschatological plan and how it is based solely on His promises according to His character: the Lord acts because of who He is, not because of who we are.

In the middle of the exhortation, there is an apparent break in thought:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord Gᴏᴅ will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.  (Isa 61:10-11)

These verses describe a response to God’s grace—righteousness and salvation growing within and adorning, but after my current reading of these chapters, I asked the same question as the Ethiopian eunuch:

About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?  (Acts 8:34)

In like manner as the armor mentioned previously, is this actually God the Son speaking to the Father?  Except for a point of view in the text that turns from direct address to a response (and afterward returns to direct address), there are no clear markers.  Should we not rather consider this primarily to be a glimpse of the inner communication within the Godhead?  This approach would maintain the continuity of the passage as coming from God alone.  Tertullian takes up the same theme as he describes Christ as a bridegroom:

I hold also that it is my Christ who is meant by the bridegroom, of whom the psalm says: “He is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His return is back to the end of it again” [Psa 19:5-6].  By the mouth of Isaiah He also says exultingly of the Father: “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation and with the tunic of joy, as a bridegroom. He has put a miter round about my head, as a bride” [Isa 61:10].

Against Marcion, IV.11

Guercino - Return of the Prodigal

The passage can secondarily apply to us as those to whom benefits fall as sons and heirs.  Firstly, in the parable of the marriage feast (Matt 22:1-14), Jesus mentions the freely-provided wedding garments.  Those who accepted the garment were welcome to participate in the kingdom of heaven, while the one entering without the garment was cast out.  Secondly, we are given a picture of the Church as the Bride of the Lamb:

“Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
(Rev 19:7-8)

The Bride is clothed with the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith (Rom 3:21-22; Phil 3:9) and is of the same “stuff” as that borne by the Lord Jesus (2 Pet 1:1).  It is His righteousness that is displayed before the nations in worship, disciple-making, and occupying oneself in good works.  He who is our righteous (1 Cor 1:30) clothes us in a way that displays the glory of Almighty God inspiring praise worthy of the Lord of all.

Armor of God

Put on the whole armor of God….  Therefore take up the whole armor of God… (Eph 6:11-13)

Near the end of his epistle to Ephesus, Paul spends time admonishing the believers to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” and put on the armor of God.  I have enjoyed much good teaching on this section, but just recently a question popped into my head.  Why does Paul pull these together and refer to them as the armor of God?  Does he do so because they are derived or received from the Lord (and it is), or is something else also involved?  Take note of this table comparing the armor pieces with Old Testament passages:

Belt of truth	Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,     and faithfulness the belt of his loins.  (Is 11:5)
Breastplate of righteousness	He put on righteousness as a breastplate  (Is 59:17)
Feet shod with the preparation     of the gospel of peace	How beautiful upon the mountains     are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,     who publishes salvation,     who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  (Is 52:7)
Shield of faith	I will say to the Lᴏʀᴅ, “My refuge and my fortress,     my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler     and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions,     and under his wings you will find refuge;     his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.  (Ps 91:2-4)
Helmet of salvation	He put…a helmet of salvation on his head  (Is 59:17)
Sword of the Spirit	He made my mouth like a sharp sword  (Is 49:2)

Paul drew heavily from the prophet Isaiah to complete his list and for good reason: all these passages deal with the Servant of the Lord (i.e., Messiah).*  The place where this is most clearly portrayed is the description John gives of the One riding a white horse:

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!  The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.  He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev 19:11-16)

Jesus is described as great warrior-king dressed in battle regalia for a war which he himself will lead and win.  The final battle will completely conquer all who are opposed to God.

Christians are called to stand against spiritual foes.  The armor that we are to put on is same type which the Lord Jesus takes for Himself: no other will suffice.  Many teachers have attempted to convince the naïve that types of protection are needed through self-perseverance, but the above demonstrates that the believer puts on Christ in baptism (Gal 3:27) and subsequently continues to put on “the armor of light” and “the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:12, 14) as he or she would “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18).  It is this continual return to the place of cleansing by which we, though certainly washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, we go for the cleansing that occurs when we confess our sins (Jas 5:16; 1 Jo 1:9) and forgive one another (Col 3:12-13).

One article of clothing Jesus wears on the white horse is His alone—the robe.  Isaiah 59:17-18 reads:

He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
    and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
    and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
According to their deeds, so will he repay,
    wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
    to the coastlands he will render repayment.

The robe or cloak is not meant for the Christian to take for himself.  The Lord Jesus alone is the one who uniquely exercises both vengeance and zeal (John 2:17).  Christians are called to stand firm.  Jesus has won our salvation, and He clothes us for what lies ahead.  We are called to stand in Him dressed in what He has provided and  to “pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph 6:18).  There the daily skirmish is fought.  There we “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim 6:12).


*  Psalm 91 is widely regarded as Messianic because a portion was used by Satan in the wilderness as if it was directly applicable to Jesus (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13).  A reading of the complete psalm seems to support this.

Two Natures in Christ: Lectures by Rod Rosenbladt

This morning I finished listening to a set of MP3s featuring Dr. Rod Rosenbladt lecturing on Martin Chemnitz' book The Two Natures in Christ.  I read this book about five years ago^† and was both impressed and overwhelmed.  After listening to the lectures, rereading the book seems in order.

The audio sessions are available at Fighting for the Faith beginning here and presented intermittently over three months worth of shows.  If you wish video format, links can be found at the website for Faith Lutheran Church, Capistrano Beach, CA.

Incarnation Notes for Two Natures Lecture


^† The edition I read can be found here.  An updated edition is available from CPH.  It is thick (542 pages) and packed full of good stuff.