How Can a Man Atone for the Sins of the World By His Own Sacrifice? Only one way. Part 2. The Messianic Secret

Upon this very rock, επι ταυτη τη πετρα – this true confession of thine – that I am The Messiah, that am come to reveal and communicate The Living God, that the dead, lost world may be saved – upon this very rock, myself, thus confessed (alluding probably to Ps 118:22, The Stone which the builders rejected is become the Head-Stone of the Corner: and to Isa 28:16, Behold I lay a Stone in Zion for a Foundation) – will I build my Church, μου την εκκλησιαν , my assembly, or congregation, i.e. of persons who are made partakers of this precious faith. That Peter is not designed in our Lord’s words must be evident to all who are not blinded by prejudice.

This looks promising. Having identified the foundation stone as the confession of Messiah, the mountain, that the smaller rock, Peter, represented, Clarke continues in his commentary on verse 19:

The keys of the kingdom – By the kingdom of heaven, we may consider the true Church, that house of God, to be meant; and by the keys, the power of admitting into that house, or of preventing any improper person from coming in. In other words, the doctrine of salvation and the full declaration of the way in which God will save sinners; and who they are that shall be finally excluded from heaven; and on what account

Did you catch that? “Messiah” is equal to “the doctrine of salvation and the full declaration of the way God saves sinners.” But Psalms 118 is a messianic prophecy. Of such like are surely equal to “Messiah,” but Clarke implies that such revelation as Psalms 118 is not the way in which God saves sinners, but only by its distilled, doctrinal conclusion “you are the Christ,” or the person of “Messiah.”

You could go on and on and on. Messianic Secret? Its effect upon those outside Jesus’s inner circle is on full display here and it goes way beyond a few verses.

Of every conceivable opportunity to apply “Christ” to its most natural and unforced signification, messianic prophecy, they just can’t and won’t go there. This when they already know and believe John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The “doctrine of salvation” is “Christ,” the Personal idea? In other words, a religious proposition, something you can handle without any knowledge about it and still feel like your handing and loving something divine. None of these or any that you will find put “Christ” the equal of anything but another conceptual object to faith, whether the Person of Jesus, the Person of Peter, the idea of a theological conclusion or a “Christ” which simply means Jesus. Never to what the Bible repeatedly says is it’s only eternal, demonstrable, transcendent knowledge and the final revelation God gave to the world to forever stand in judgment over all those who would so vainly use the word “spiritual” or “faith” again.

The Messianic Secret is simply the intentional display by Christ of things which have a natural appearance and are switchable to stand either for another mundane thing or an eternal and holy thing. The unfaithful choose the mundane thing as conclusive evidence upon what value God places on eternal things. But basically Christ says “choose what is of the world and what is of heaven.” The only conclusive evidence of what is of heaven here is not “the doctrines of salvation” but God’s promises and supernatural fulfillments by Christ, and that kind of scripture is occupied by only one of its categories.

But Jesus won’t tell you this openly. It’s up to each person individually to set the ultimate value of what he sees spiritually. It’s not about what Adam Clarke, John Macarthur or anyone else thinks, its what you think. And trust me, what you think that is heavenly is not for this kind of faith again another person or object, whether form or abstract, which could allow you to take the thing as sufficient and miss its substance while still qualifying for Heaven. This is not anything about the pagan religion of things and ideas. This, for the first time, is about what knowledge, information, raw phenomenal appearances of the divine God solely ordained to demand representation by things and ideas in the world. Not “Jesus,” not “Christ,” not “the doctrines of salvation,” not a feeling, not tradition, not anything that can be taken as a self-contained revelation when it’s only a possible signing device for revelation.

The Messiah, that Person, and his confession, Him and the equal to him of his informational, prophetic entity, are set as the King, the ultimate leader over every notion of spirituality and its expressions by human beings from his point forward. Christ’s representative body on earth, the Church, was to be granted this key of understanding and by it exclusive heavenly access.

If no one answered Jesus’s messianic question, “what is the greatest truth and the greatest reason for faith in God possible” it’s still open for them. It’s not given to be a pandering religious conclusion and a doctrinal statement, but a spiritual question and then answer and above all. One which the world hates, and this rejection, since they have refused the ultimate, is the quintessential sin. There are other sins, but they are at best only symbols of this one.

That person who rejects or misdirects the Messianic Secret in their core doesn’t hate spirituality, “God,” purity and righteousness,  and “Truth” the ideas, when they have a choice over their meanings. What they really, really, really hate is Truth the certain Person bound inextricably to a single, certain Truth, of specialized and proprietary knowledge,  is going to be what will judge hearts. Judged for how it is known and regarded, and over which they have no further religious control.

Spiritual, unknown and viscerally reviled things hiding and lurking in the shadows that jump out and grab them and kill them is what they abhor. But they also want to be free to deliberately wander in places where these spiritual things hide and lurk in the shadows, just well protected from the things hiding there that jump out to grab them and kill them. They want to play around in the unknown and remain unscathed by its inevitable revelational threats. People want certainty and control over things not certain and out of their control, but also don’t want a certainty that makes them safe from its threat when what makes them safe involves them independently making the decision to search for it in places where the answers could be personally depreciating and uncomfortable, of foreign origin, unpredictable and not voted on.

This, of course, applies to spiritual truth, not usually physical truth, unless they are considered crazy. No one in their right mind would decide to deliberately put their bodies at risk and say for the sake of freedom “I will ignore that warning sign about the bridge being washed out and proceed at 70 miles an hour.” I’m talking about spiritual truth, where we really act crazy.

With spiritual truth, the threat is unseen and so are its laws. You can make them inside your head anything you want, but the cold, cruel reality is that the spirit is not an optional dimension that exists only in your imagination. It’s real, as real as the space in your head in which you are allowed to say “I am human,” and far more real and permanent than the physical space. Real self-preservation is not the protection of your physical body, it’s of your soul.

Is it any wonder then why Jesus rejected those who would not publically admit the one spiritual Truth that could save them spiritually but was also the most unmanipulable, obvious, demonstrated and axiomatic? That people with no self-preservation instinct for their spirits will not be saved when they demonstrated openly and willingly that they don’t really care about whether it lives or dies? That you keep driving at 70, because you hate confining, restrictive spiritual laws and conditions over you that can’t be changed but, still, somehow, in some way, of your own, believe that your obedience to spiritual law will allow you to live forever?

Well, you know, this is only the stuff of religious blather. What evidence do you have that there is such a spiritual sign “the bridge is out,” that there is such a threat, or even that there is a bridge or a car that you are spiritually driving toward or in?

Christ on the Cross is the greatest single event and image of human history after his vindication as Truth in the resurrection, Do you believe that? Yes? Then why? That is Jesus’s messianic question to you. Until you honestly answer that, and unless you show yourself for the real lover of truth you say you are, count yourself on the side of it as signifying just a man dying on a piece of wood, and on the side in which all men and pieces of wood fall after their self-satisfying function ends on earth.

Self-satisfaction does not get you satisfaction unless what satisfies is what ultimately preserves you.

Continued here: How Can a Man Atone for the Sins of the World Through His Own Sacrifice? Only one way. Part 3. Preparation for Sacrifice.

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