The Warrior Rises
October 14, 2012
Do you ever watch wrestling? Some people are afraid to admit they do. I’m not, actually, I used to watch it. I watched wrestling back in the day when it was not quite as popular. It was on TV every week.
I remember watching some of the meanest wrestlers imaginable. There was The Crusher, Baron von Raschke and my favorite was Dick the Bruiser. Although, the Baron was known for his deadly claw grip. They were some of the dirtiest wrestlers on television. It was great to watch and my high school even hosted an event with some of these wrestlers participating. It was amazing to see them close up.
Well, for thousands of years, the nation of Israel looked for guys like these. Guys who had a famous claw, or were called bruiser. But they weren’t looking for a wrestler; they were looking for a warrior. They expected him to be a bruiser because he was predicted to be one.
Last week, I spoke about when satan caused the world’s greatest tragedy by successfully tempting Adam and Even to sin. War broke out between good and evil, between God and satan. The only hope for this world was that a warrior come, fight this war, and defeat the enemy. He would do it by being a bruiser, as we read in Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15). Remember, this was God talking to satan.
From that single prophecy, the picture of a warrior began to form in the minds and hearts of rabbis and Old Testament scholars throughout the ages. They expected this warrior not only to defeat satan, but to take over this world and usher in a kingdom where Israel would be restored to its rightful place as the most dominant nation on earth. No one could touch Him. No one could pin His shoulders to the mat. No one could hurt Him. He was the Warrior, the bruiser, the one with the deadly claw grip which nobody could escape.
God did send this warrior. He didn’t just send a soldier. He sent His Son. He sent Him to fight a battle He didn’t ask for, to finish a war He didn’t start. But to Israel’s surprise, this warrior wouldn’t fight and win by killing. He would fight and win by dying. When you understand why Jesus died on the cross and what happened after His death, you understand why He’s the only one who could give us the ability to conquer the two greatest problems this world faces: sin and death. Jesus is the only warrior who could defeat sin and death.
It’s difficult to imagine the shock, the confusion and the despair people felt when Jesus was tortured and crucified. Many people believed He was the Warrior they longed for. But how could this be? How could this warrior die without firing a shot, without throwing a spear, without shooting an arrow, without wielding a sword. Only Jesus could be this warrior, and you won’t understand that until you understand why Jesus died.
One reason why many people don’t take Jesus seriously is they either don’t understand why He died, or they understand, but don’t believe. Most of us know where Jesus died, when he died, and how he died. But have you ever stopped to think about why he died?
The Old Testament gives us clues. Any Jewish rabbi will tell you the greatest night in the history of Israel was the first Passover. Israel lived in slavery under Egypt for 400 years. God promised to free them so they could begin their journey to the Promised Land. Moses repeatedly warned Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Moses warned Pharaoh what would happen if he didn’t.
On the night that God was going to free Israel, God sent an angel into every home in Egypt to kill every firstborn child. This would force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. At the same time, each Israelite household was instructed to kill a lamb and paint the blood over the doorpost. When the angel saw the blood, he would pass over the house, and everyone in the house would be safe. From that time until this very day, Jews have celebrated the Passover in remembrance of their exodus from Egypt.
After the Passover, God instituted a system of animal sacrifices to continue the principle of blood covering sin. People could bring a lamb to a priest and have the priest kill the lamb and take its blood as a symbolic covering for the their sins. For hundreds of years, people went to the tabernacle to make sacrifices.
However, this system was never meant to be a final remedy for sin. It was a temporary arrangement. Hebrews says,
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming — not the realities themselves.
For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
The author of Hebrews explains — animal sacrifices in the Old Testament basically put the debt of sin on credit. Lambs that were sacrificed acted like credit cards — the debit and the sin deficit kept piling up.
When we go out to eat and use a credit card to pay for our meal, we literally walk out without paying for our meal. Our credit card company gets billed and we then receive a bill, with the obligation to pay for that meal at a later date.
That’s how God forgave sin for thousands of years. In effect, God opened up a spiritual charge account. People in the Old Testament would charge their sins on spiritual credit cards through animal sacrifices. They would bring their spiritual credit cards to the temple in Jerusalem, where the priest would sacrifice these animals on the altar, and their sins would be credited on a future bill that eventually somebody had to permanently pay.
God set up this system so that people would know the severity of sin. Every time an animal was offered on the altar, people were reminded how serious their sins were.
Remember, we’re in a war. We fight against sin and death. Even though millions of animals were sacrificed over the centuries, not one drop of the millions of gallons of spilt blood was able to cleanse anyone of their sin. Hebrews 10:4 says, It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Over the centuries, the sin credit card bill continued to grow. Countless sins, transgressions and crimes were committed; and an infinite number of animals were sacrificed. The sin deficit was absolutely staggering.
Sin was an enemy too big for anybody to fight. This war was too great for anybody to win — until the Warrior came. This Warrior used the only weapon that could defeat sin and death and bruise the devil who caused it all. His weapon was not a sword, or spear or an arrow; it was a cross. The Warrior did the greatest thing any soldier can ever do in a war — He gave his life for the spiritual freedom of others.
The reason why Jesus was crucified, legally, is because another man’s life was spared. That man was Barabbas. Matthew wrote,
15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas.
17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:15-17)
If anyone ever truly understood why Jesus died and what the Cross really meant, it was Barabbas. If it had been any other day, or if there had been someone else to choose from other than Jesus, Barabbas would have been the one on that cross. He would have been the one to die. Interestingly, the name Barabbas means, son of the father.
Barabbas was supposed to die on the middle cross, between the two thieves. He was a murderer, a rebel, and a thief. He had been condemned to death, and he probably thought this would be his last day to live.
You may be thinking, So what does that have to do with me? The answer: You are Barabbas. I am Barabbas. We are all Barabbas. Jesus Christ was not only his substitute; He was our substitute. He not only died in Barabbas’s place; He died in our place.
Paul simply wrote, “He died for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). But why did He die for us? The answer is simple: He’s the only warrior who had the power to win the battle.
Jesus died for sin. That’s why the Warrior had to be a sacrifice. But Jesus died in place of sinners, and that’s why the Warrior had to be a substitute. Paul put it this way ~ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).
Do you hear what Jesus did for us. In essence, He became the sin for us. The punishment we should have received, Jesus received.
I want you to remember this: God allowed His own Son to be the Warrior, the one who would lay down His life for you, should tell us, we’re in a war we can’t win. We’re in a battle against sin, and we’ll lose. We face an enemy called death that will kill us for all eternity if we don’t put our faith and trust in the Warrior. But there is something else this Warrior did.
Listen to what Paul said in Romans 3:25 ~ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood.
This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past (NLT).
Paul was referring to the time when animals were sacrificed as a credit payment for sins. It wasn’t actual payment; it symbolized real payment was on the way. Then we read that Jesus was specifically crucified to demonstrate the justice of God.
Jesus was the atoning sacrifice. And when something is atoned for, it simply means that payment is made, a debt is cancelled. Something had to be satisfied. “What had to be satisfied?” The justice of God.
We all know debts have to be permanently paid off. There’s a due date on all debt, and the sin debt had finally come due. Final payment had to be made. The justice of God demanded that sin had to be fully and finally paid for. To make sure that no one would question His justice, God sent His Son to be the Warrior who would make the final and full payment for sin.
Concerning sin, the justice of God says someone has to pay. God can’t just let bygones be bygones. Before you and I were born — in fact, before this world was created — God the Son agreed to become the Warrior who would take the sin of the human race upon Himself. He agreed to take our punishment. He agreed to pay the bill. He agreed to fight the battle. He determined to win the war so that God could forgive us and so that God would be justified.
All of the wrath, punishment, and judgment that our sin deserves and demands, God put on the Warrior, who came not to kill, but to die. He didn’t come with a sword in one hand and a spear in the other; he came with love and grace.
Three words define the Warrior and His weapon, the Cross: mercy, justice, and grace.
God’s mercy deferred payment for our sin. God’s justice demanded payment for our sin. God’s grace delivered the payment for our sin.
How do we know Jesus was the Warrior promised in Genesis? How do we know Christ’s death was victorious? After all, everyone dies. But . . . the Warrior rises! And I know that because . . . the Bible tells me so!
Many warriors have fought, bled and died.
But this is the Warrior who rises.
All of this tells us why you cannot go to heaven simply by being a good person. The truth is, you will never be good enough. You can’t earn your way to heaven by being religious. You can’t pay your way to heaven; there’s not enough money in the world to pay the debt of sin. God doesn’t grade on a curve. He grades by the Cross. It is not just any cross. It is the Cross of the Warrior who rises . . . for you.
