Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

Charlotte Christian Reformed Church Christmas Liturgy 2009

*–Congregation Stands

Prelude — Miss Sarah Bacon

*Call to Worship Psalm 92:1-4

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
3 On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
4 For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

Invocation

Creedal Affirmation — Belgic Confession Of Faith Article X

Christmas Worship

Brothers and Sisters our Psalter’s Church Order informs us that “Worship services shall be held in observance of Christmas” as well as other high days on the Church calendar. The conducting and attendance of such services provide one objective marker for us as well as those outside of the faith that we are a Christian people. By the conducting and attendance of such services we testify to all who have eyes to see that our understanding and celebrating of Christmas is distinct from the modern pagan who has reduced Christmas to crass materialism or a one size fits all “Happy Holidays.” By the marking of such days as Christmas for worship the ebb and flow of our whole lives, year in and year out, are Christ formed and Christ shaped by a calendar itself formed by Christ. Finally, our gathering gives us one more opportunity to publicly placard Christ as the only hope for the weary, the heavy laden, the alienated and the Christian.

On this Christmas Eve then, we gather together once more as Reformed Christians have done for centuries, and as the ever swelling numbers of newly converted will continue to do until our Lord Christ shall return. We do so to mark the birth of our Lord Christ and to together offer up praise that he made Himself of no reputation in order to glorify the Father, save His people from their sins, and to lead them from triumph unto triumph until the Kingdoms of this world increasingly become the Kingdoms our Lord. In keeping with the purpose of our gathering let us confess our undoubted Catholic Christian faith

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Prayer

Benevolent and Sovereign Father, we thank thee for thy eternal covenant that predestined the coming of your Messiah for the redemption of the world. We thank thee that thou promised the Messiah upon mankind’s rebellion to reverse the effects of our treason. We exalt thee that thou deigned to gain your victory by crushing the serpent’s head and by destroying his people. We are humbled Father by how you ordered redemptive history so that coming of Christ was articulated by the patriarchs and prophets who spoke of the coming of your Messiah. We thank thee for all in Holy Scripture that limned the coming of Christ and we thank you that after ordering history for the coming of thy eternal Son in the fullness of time our Lord Christ came as one born under the law.

Father, we come humbly before to thank you for your faithful Church — that ark of Christ — which was guided by your Holy Spirit to embrace the full divinity and humanity of Christ while affirming his singular person. We thank you for your faithful Church that continues to speak Christ to us today and we ask of you Father that you would continue to build up your faithful Church so that future generations will have the nativity of Christ set before them in all its saving splendor that thy name may be honored among men. In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, who taught us to pray, saying,

Our Father, who art in heaven: Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

*Hark The Herald Angels Sing Brown Hymnal 184

Old Testament Reading — Isaiah 9:1-6

Strings Trio Bacon Family

New Testament Reading — Luke 2:1-14

*Come Thou Long Expected Jesus Brown Hymnal 168

Epistle Reading — Titus 2:11-14

Joy To The World — Brown Hymnal 171

Offering General Fund

Offertory Mrs. Linda and Miss Rachel Bacon

Offertory Thanksgiving Adapted from the Book of Common Worship, 1906

O most merciful and gracious God, from whose open hand we all have received much: We ask you to accept this offering of your people. Remember in your love those who have brought it. Remember also those persons and purposes for which it is given. So follow this sacrifice with your blessing that it may promote peace and good will, and advance the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen!

Homily — Jesus, The Fulfillment Of God’s Promise

*Silent Night (Candle Light) 195 Brown Hymnal 316

*Benediction 2 Corinthians 13:14

A Messiah For The Nations

Five scenes that cover our glimpses into the early life of Jesus. Five statements that some aspect of the Old Testament was fulfilled in this early life of Christ. Five indication that Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is not just the end of the Old Testament story as His recording of the genealogy indicates but more importantly five literary hints that for Matthew Jesus is the Old Testament come to bloom. With his close attention to Jesus fulfilling of the OT Matthew is telling us that Jesus is not only the completion of the story but also that the OT declares the promise which Jesus fulfills.

Ill. — Plant that has not bloomed yet

i.) The assurance to Joseph concerning the child conceived in Mary (1:18-25 corresponds to Isaiah 7:14).

ii.) Jesus birth in Bethlehem (2:1-12 corresponds Micah 5:2)

iii.) Escape to Egypt and return (2:13-15 corresponds to Hosea 11:1 which is a reference to God having brought Israel, his son, out of Egypt at the Exodus).

iv.) The murder by Herod of the boys in Bethlehem (2:16-18 corresponds to Jeremiah 31:15 which is a lament for the Israelites who were going into exile.

v.) The settlement of Jesus family in in Nazareth (2:19-23 corresponds to no one OT text but rather a smattering of OT illusions.)

In the OT, as we have seen, God has declared His purpose to Redeem a people to be a light to the nations whom He intends to Redeem via His people’s witness. In the OT he has put this promise to Redeem a people on display in a plethora of different hints, metaphors, types, historical events and fore shadowings to and through Israel. For those w/ eyes to see the OT is a book that is like a great symphony where a theme has been developed and played over and over again in minor chords but now that theme is rising to its crescendo in the major chords so as to relieve the tension that has developed in the work.

I.) Matthew’s Concrete Intention In His Choice of OT Scriptures As Applied To The Messiah

Note that there is a geographical sense that comes out in Matthew’s Old Testament Scriptures. Matthew’s OT texts explains how it is that the Messiah who was born in Bethlehem ended up in Nazareth, after a stay in Egypt.

If you will remember there had been some debate between Christians and Jews whether or not a prophet could come from Nazareth (John 1:46, 7:41ff). What Matthew’s fulfillment passages do is they show that the Messiah was indeed born in Bethlehem as Scripture called for and that the Messiah ending up in Galilee after a stay in Egypt was what the OT Scripture taught should be expected. So, by doing this the “fulfillment” passages serves the same end as the genealogy passage and that is to portray Jesus as the completion of God’s story and the fulfilling reality of what God promised in the OT.

But we can press this geography motif a bit more. If we look at the geography as a whole that Matthew gives us in chapters 2-4 we see that either by His travels or by His reputation Jesus had an effective ministry which spanned the whole of the ancient boundaries of the Old Davidic Kingdom (note esp. Mt. 4:24-25). Matthew is telling us that the one who was the greater son of David who was the promised Messiah King of the Davidic line has a claim was wide as the ancient kingdom of David itself.

And the focal point of that ministry is the region of Galilee and that it should be expected to be so Matthew vindicates by quoting Is. 9:1-2 in Mt. 4:13-16.

“In the past God humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentile, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

So, by giving this geography lesson Matthew has corroborated the point of his genealogy lesson in Chapter 1. Both the history lesson by way of completion and the geography lesson by way of fulfillment give us “King David’s greater Kingly Son claiming his Kingdom.”

Now just as the genealogy is not only particular but also hints at the universal ramifications with its inclusion of the Gentiles with its listing of the Gentile mothers so there is a geographic counterpart. True Jesus is the Greater son of David but also true this greater son of David is visited by Kingly Gentile ambassadors from the East who pay homage to their greater King but also the Greater son of David, with His court, pays visit to to Egypt in the West. The stories, in their geography, thus embrace both extremes of the OT world — east and west. Even further both regions are included within various OT prophecies concerning the extent of God’s work of salvation.

for example Is. 19,

23(A) In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria,(B) and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria,(C) a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt(D) my people, and Assyria(E) the work of my hands, and(F) Israel my inheritance.”

Matthew is telling us here that God’s purpose for Israel, and for the Messiah who would embody Israel, was the blessing of all the nations.

And this takes us back to Jesus as the son of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Matthew, then, who writes the most Jewish of the Gospels wastes no time at all going all global on us. He wastes no time telling us that when the Messiah came He received Eastern visitors bearing Kingly gifts who paid Him homage, and was personally, if only temporarily, a resident in Egypt.

Beyond this the worship that the Magi bring is almost certainly an echo of Psalm 72:10

May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!

And this is reminiscent of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. In addition the gifts of Gold and Frankincense recall Is. 60:1-6 where they are brought by kingd, from Arabia, to greet the dawning of God’s new light in Zion.

1Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
5Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.

Through his use of geography Matthew clearly wants us to see the Messiah as not being a provincial Messiah but rather a Messiah for the nations. Matthew desires us to see that the salvation that God had promised was a Salvation while starting with Israel is not complete until it expands to cover the globe. The theme we find throughout the Scriptures that Israel is God’s people for the sake of the nations is re-articulated here by giving us a Messiah who is the faithful Israel and son of God who accomplishes what unfaithful Israel failed to accomplish as God’s son.

Now the point of application that we must not miss is that the Church is now the Israel of God and the Church is that institution that is saved for the sake of bringing the Gospel to and living out the Gospel before the nations. The Church is now a Kingdom of Priests and as we are now prophets, priests and kings under sovereign God our purpose is to apply what Christ has accomplished in the establishing of His Kingdom.

Christianity Is The Life Of The Mind

I had a discussion recently w/ some peers on the whole Head, Heart, Hands thing. There was a consensus reached among them that one could start w/ any of the three and end up arriving at all three. I disagreed and disagree. I kept insisting w/ my friends that this is a trichotomy that makes no sense for if we think God’s thoughts after Him (Head) the heart (emotions) & hands (service) will follow like heat and light follow fire. There is no need to pursue Christian emotion (heart) or Christian duty (hands), for when we are thinking God’s thoughts after them these will inescapably follow. If they don’t follow then we aren’t thinking God’s thoughts after Him.

A counter example was raised using the hypothetical person who has a great deal of “head knowledge” but does not serve his fellow man. The solution for this man, it was offered, was that he needed to jump in to some Christian duty. However, can it honestly be said that a person who has “head knowledge” and has either no passion for Christ or service unto Christ really has knowledge? I would contend that our hypothetical person has a desperate need to know Christ if his “knowing” Christ yields no passion or service. The problem of this hypothetical person isn’t that they have “head knowledge” it is that they don’t know Christ, and launching them into some kind of Christian service or urging them to have proper Christian emotions is not going to fix what is wrong with their Christianity.

Thinking Christianly always results in proper affections and rigorous duty. If it doesn’t then one isn’t thinking Christianly. The cure for the person who is stone cold emotionally is not to get them to gin up their emotions. The cure for moribund affections is to know the Christ of the Scriptures. How could anybody be without religious affections who genuinely conversant with their sin and misery and the deliverance they has been granted by Christ? How could anyone not have compassion on people who does not know how much compassion Christ daily has for them? A proper heart disposition is impossible apart from the mind being tutored by Christ, but if the mind is tutored by Christ the heart will always be right. It is not possible to seek Christian emotions apart from the mind for emotions are but the residue of a mind properly oriented. If one has the right mind one will have the right emotions. If one doesn’t think Christianly then it is a guarantee that they will feel pagan(ly).

Christian duty (hands) can not be Christian unless those hands are first instructed by a Christian mind. Lot’s of good works might be done but if those works don’t have the mind of Christ behind them they are just so much chaff. This needs to be articulated repeatedly given the great problem the Church currently has with the Social Gospel. Many people tend to think that if they do good deeds they are Christian. Now, doing good deeds is better than doing bad deeds but good deeds are only genuinely good when they are directed by the mind of Christ.

This idea of majoring on the feelings or the doing absent majoring on thinking rationally is what has led the church to to value the “experiential” and the “emotive” above all else. Currently Christianity is flooded and defined by Pentecostalism and Charismatic-ism. This is a consequence of people not valuing the life of the Christian mind and the result is that the church in the West is irrational, insipid, and irrelevant. Certainly the experiential and the emotive have a important and significant place in the Christian life but the genuine articles will never be reached apart from the a Christian mind that learns Christ by thinking God’s thoughts after Him.

I am reminded of this when I hear of Reformed Churches explicitly teach that the heart is more important than the head and where Pastor’s believe that much of Christian truth is paradox and should be considered “mystery.” I am reminded of this when I constantly hear that “what is important is a right heart and not right doctrine,” as if a heart could ever be right absent of right Christian doctrine. I am reminded of this when it seems that the people who have the most difficult time finding a Church home are people who are interested in prioritizing the life of the mind.

The church is in desperate need of being sanctified and set apart unto Christ. This will never happen if the Church doesn’t once again return to the life of the mind. Not the life of the mind that leaves people cold and sterile in their faith but the life of the mind that floods them with Christian affections and emotions and gives them a mad desire and zeal to do all that they do to the glory of God.

If we horizontalize this and put in terms of human relationships it certainly is the case that I don’t approach my wife the way a Scientist approaches the object under his microscope but neither do I expect to increasingly love my wife unless I increasingly know my wife. Fitting emotions for my wife and duty towards my wife are dependent upon me knowing her better and better.

In the end the head must be right for the head is the engine that pulls the cars of emotion and duty. Orthodoxy ALWAYS leads to orthopraxy. Where it doesn’t the problem is the absence of orthodoxy. One can only fix the absence of orthopraxy by the re-establishing of orthodoxy.

Scripture teaches that this is eternal life “to KNOW God, the only true God and Jesus Christ who thou has sent.”

Scripture teaches,

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,

Scripture admonishes us to have this mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. Scripture teaches that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Scripture admonishes us to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. Proverbs is a whole book dedicated to getting wisdom.

Now certainly, emotions and duty are absolutely necessary but they only come where the mind is been set ablaze by Christ.

Detroit News Takes Out After Homeschooling

Michigan home-schoolers were reminded recently how vigilant they must remain in order to defend their God given charge to educate their children. In a series of blistering articles attacking homeschooling by means of misdirection and innuendo Detroit News writer Ron French launched salvo after salvo at the homeschooling movement.

These articles can be accessed at,

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091217/METRO/912170337

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091217/METRO/912170390

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091217/METRO/912170386

The techniques that French used in order to besmirch Michigan Homeschoolers were as follows,

1.) Guilt by association — In his article French cited the Holland & Springer cases in Michigan. These were two cases where neglect and abuse in families eventuated in the wrongful deaths of two children. What French tries to imply is that there might be many other Holland and Springer cases in Michigan that the authorities don’t know about precisely because the State isn’t closely monitoring home schooling parents. In French’s article he connects the tragic deaths of Holland and Springer with homeschooling when in point of fact there is no connection with home-schooling in the slightest. The deaths of Holland and Springer have more of a connection with an inadequate Child Protective Services agency and no connection with home schooling laws that are sane. To enlist the deaths of Calista Springs and Ricky Holland into the attempt to ratchet up public outrage against homeschooling in order to once again place shackles upon Michigan citizens in their parental duty to educate their children is muck raking journalism that would make Wm. Randolph Hearst proud.

2.) Assuming what has not been proven — French, throughout his articles assumes that the State is responsible for Michigan’s children. This is an assumption on his part that is not granted. The people who are responsible for Michigan’s children are Michigan’s parents and it is not the job of the State to play the parent to the parents. It is obviously true that some parents are inferior parents when compared to other parents but do we really think a State that is so inadequate itself in the area of education is superior even to inferior parents. Certainly in some homeschooling homes there is less than a stellar job going on in educating students but does French really want to compare test scores of Michigan homeschoolers to children “educated” in government schools?

Secondly, on this score, what makes Mr. French think that children are safer in Michigan schools than they are in their homes? The list of links below reveal that Michigan schools are themselves places of abuse where female “cougar” teachers are out on the prowl for sexual minor school children partners.

http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/11-7-07/EE-BATKINS.asp

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140486,00.html (Witchcraft)

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090326/NEWS02/903260332/-1/NEWS02

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50447

Why should Michigan homeschoolers put their children in places where such abuse is so prone to happen? We might ask Mr. French, who desires the state to monitor home schooling children more closely, if he has some answers as to who is going to monitor the monitors?

We could go on here citing other Michigan sex cases involving teachers like Melissa Lavendar and Laura Lynn Findlay but clearly with the links above Michigan’s children are hardly safe from abuse even when they are at school. Now, should we desire to use Mr. French’s reasoning we would say that these cases suggest that Michigan Legislators have a problem with government schools that must be attended to immediately, and we might observe that it hardly seems wise to suggest the State can efficiently monitor homeschoolers when they can’t even monitor their own teachers successfully.

In summary on this point we would say it is not the State’s role to usurp the parents responsibility to monitor the education of their children and even if it was (and it isn’t) we could hardly be confident concerning any legislation that Michigan might pass to increase oversight on homeschoolers given Michigan’s track record of not being able to monitor their own teachers. Indeed, one might almost observe that if you want to keep your children safe you better make sure you don’t entrust them to Michigan schools.

Obviously Mr. French is seeking to stir up trouble for the Michigan homeschooling community. One would hope that he would take his poison pen and practice his yellow journalism on another topic.

The Old Casting Light On The New … The New Casting Light On the Old

We have been taking a look at this genealogy in Matthew and we have been trying to probe why it is that Matthew begins His Gospel with this genealogy.

Some of the answers we’ve given thus far are that,

1.) Matthew wants us to know that while Jesus is the climax of the story Matthew is now continuing to tell at the same time there is a good deal of context that must be understood in order for the climax to make sense. The genealogy is a shorthand way of establishing the context.

2.) In giving the genealogy Matthew at the same time reminds us of the unitary nature of the Scriptures. The New Testament cannot be understood apart from the Old Testament and the Old Testament can not be understood apart from the New Testament.

3.) In giving the genealogy Matthews has, in an abbreviated form, laid out the problem to which Jesus is the answer. Those that knew their Old Testament history would remember, through the citing of this genealogy, that God had not yet fulfilled His promise to send a deliverer to rescue not only Israel but also the world. Jesus is that deliverer.

4.) In giving the genealogy Matthew thwarts any attempt to wrest Jesus by those who want their own “personal Jesus,” or their own “Jesus for a cause.” Matthew’s genealogy forces us to deal with a very particular Jesus that can’t be understood apart from his lineage.

The telling of God’s story that has Jesus as the culminating and completing point of this genealogy is the story from which Jesus acquires His identity and mission and it is the story to which He gives significance and authority. Without this Jesus this genealogy is just one more list. Without this genealogy Jesus is just one more baby with an interesting birth narrative.

Metaphors

If the genealogy is the setting of a royal table with all of its finery and precision then Jesus is the meal for which the royal table has been prepared.

If the genealogy is all the music that leads to grand finale then Jesus is the grand finale.

If the genealogy is all the planning, preparations and decoration that goes into a wedding then Jesus is the wedding ceremony itself.

As we continue to consider the relationship of the prologue to God’s story (the promises of the Old Testament) with the climax of God’s Story (the fulfillment that is the New Testament) we must be careful that we don’t de-contextualize or deflate God’s story into a bunch of abstractions (Here is the promise [OT] — there is the fulfillment [NT]). We must take the story in its concrete reality reminding ourselves that in this story we have real history with real people with a real God who is unfolding salvation history.

When we read Scripture as one whole then … when we read the genealogy in the light of Christ several benefits in our understanding of Scripture are realized,

1.) Whatever significance a particular event had, in terms of Israel’s own experience of God is affirmed and validated. Those historical events aren’t spiritualized away. When we understand and affirm the import of the redemptive event for God’s old covenant people it will give us a more profound understanding of the import of the Cross for us. The Old will shed light on the new.

2.) Now that we have the end of the story in Christ shining back on the earlier part of the story we are able to find even more significance in the earlier story. The new will shed light on the old.

The new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed.

Example — The Exodus

New shedding light on the old — The Exodus teaches us what God calls deliverance. In the Exodus we see that God is characterized by care for His people who are oppressed and is motivated to action for justice on their behalf. This character of God and His redemption are so central in the Exodus story that they become definitive of the character of God and all that redemption and deliverance comes to mean.

Now w/ the coming of Christ what we learn of God and how He redeems and delivers His people does not go away. In deliverance and redemption God remains concerned for His people who are oppressed and God still desires justice. With the coming of Christ the redemption we expect in Christ must not be totally divorced from the kind of redemption that was defined in the Old Testament.

However when we read the Exodus event with the light of the fullness of the redemptive work of Christ shining upon it we see that the Exodus deliverance is not about political, social, or economic freedom before it is about the lifting of Spiritual oppression. Israel was in bondage in Exodus not primarily because they were suffering from economic disparity, or social inequity, or political tyranny. Israel’s bondage and oppression were what they were because they were in subjection to Egypt’s gods. The economic disparity, social inequity and political tyranny were the fruit of spiritual bondage. The Redemption that God conferred them rescued them economically, socially, and politically precisely because it delivered them from their spiritual chains.

Evidence God’s telling of Pharaoh “Let my people go THAT THEY MAY WORSHIP ME.” The explicit purpose of Israel’s Redemption and deliverance was that they would know YAHWEH in the grace of redemption and covenant relationship.

So, the Exodus, for all the comprehensiveness of what it achieved for Israel in terms of economic liberty, political freedom, and social release, points beyond those realities to a greater need for deliverance from spiritual bondage to covenant accord with God. Such a deliverance was accomplished by Jesus Christ (prefigured in the Passover Lamb) and can only be known by looking to Christ. This is so true that we can say apart from trusting in Christ of the Bible the pursuit of other freedoms amount to just so much windmill tilting.

Yet if at the same time we allow the old to shed light on the new we must insist that though redemption is first personal and individual it is not only personal and individual. God’s mighty act of the exodus was more than just a parable to illustrate personal and individual salvation. It is true that the redemption of the Cross breaks the bondage of my personal sin and releases me from the effects of sin but it is also true that Redemption, when it is widely unleashed, delivers God’s people from the cruelty, and oppression brought upon God’s people by those who are of the seed of the serpent and are alien to the covenant. Spiritual freedom when widely disbursed never fails to bring social, economic, and political freedom because spiritual freedom is the well out of which the water of social, economic, and political freedom flows. Forgiveness of sin delivers us from the Kingdom of darkness both in its spiritual dimension and in how that spiritual dimension manifests itself concretely in space and time.

The point here is that atonement and forgiveness of one’s individual sin is not the only word on what the Exodus redemption was about. It was also a deliverance from an external evil and the suffering and injustice it caused, by means of a shattering defeat of the evil power of the seed of the serpent that was holding Israel in bondage.

And here is the kicker …

If, then, God’s climatic work of redemption through the cross transcends, but also embodies and includes, the scope of all His redemptive activity as previously displayed in the Old testament our Gospel must anticipate the Exodus model of liberation once a tipping point of Spiritually delivered people trusting Christ is reached.

The light of the Old Testament upon the New teaches us the inadequacies of relegating the redemption God brings to some spiritual individual realm. The light of the Old Testament upon the New teaches us that the redemption God offers in Christ is a redemption that though it begins in individuals moves out from there to touch every area of life so that redeemed individuals being set free in themselves, by the power of the Holy Spirit, visit that freedom that Christ visited upon them to every area of life in which God has called them.

So then we can see that when we take OT history seriously in relation to its completion in Jesus Christ, a two-way process is at work, yielding a double benefit in our understanding of the whole Bible. On the one hand, we are able to see the full significance of the OT story in the light of where it leads — the climatic achievement of Christ; and on the other hand, we are able to appreciate the full dimensions of what God did through Christ in the light of His historical declarations and demonstrations of intent in the OT.

In the Exodus we have used just one example but the examples could be multiplied many times over.