FROM PASSION TO FASHION

Do you know why the Passion (an old English word meaning 'suffering') of the Christ was allowed to happen? Jesus' appearance was marred more than any man. His bones were put out of joint. He was ridiculed and despised. Why was such an horrendous event allowed? Well, here is a big claim: The Passion dictates that God must fashion all to be like Christ. It therefore dictates Universal Salvation.

How can we make such a claim?

It is necessary to start with something that is absolutely certain. Otherwise, there will always be room for doubt. God said in Isaiah 14:24 "…Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand". Verse 27 continues: "For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it?…".

That is a good starting point: it is absolutely certain that God will bring about what He purposes. Whatever happens, nothing can get in the way of that. But what does God purpose?

2 Peter 3:9 tells us: "The Lord is...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

The Greek word for "willing" in this scripture is from boulomai, which can mean to will or to have a purpose. Furthermore, the word "any" here is the Greek word tinas, from tis. It is an indefinite pronoun, and therefore does not determine any one class of people. It can not be limited to just the Church. Therefore God's purpose must be that none should perish.

So, we now have the certainty that we need on which to build our understanding of the Passion of the Christ. We know that, whatever its significance, it must have been part of God's Plan, because nothing can stand in the way of His purpose.

To help our understanding of the Crucifixion, let us look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Many people will already know the story. Put simply, God commanded that they should not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. The serpent tempted Eve, and they ate of the fruit of the tree. Why is it so important?

Well, let us look at a piece of Old Covenant Law: Exodus 21:28,29 (NASB) says: "28 if an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. 29 If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death."

If the owner of an ox knew that it had injured or killed before, yet he did not confine it, he bore responsibility if it injured or killed again. The principles behind this law concerned responsibility and taking control. If the owner did not take control of, and confine, something which he knew to be a threat to life, he bore responsibility.

Did you notice the similarity to the Garden of Eden? Satan, the serpent, had a nature for murder and deception: as John 8:44 tells us, he was the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. Genesis calls him "…more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made…" (Genesis 3:1). Just as the ox had the nature to gore, Satan had the nature to lie and murder.

Here is the important issue. God "…knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm 44:21). God knew the secrets of Satan's heart. He knew that Satan had the nature to murder. And He knew that Satan had the nature to lie. Therefore He knew that Satan was a threat to life. What is more, God was well aware that Adam and Eve could not withstand temptation. Therefore the issue is, why did He not confine Satan?

Unless the fall of Adam and Eve was part of a plan whereby they would receive eternal life, God could not justify not confining Satan. He was not slack; Satan was not getting in the way of God's Plan. Nothing can stand in the way of God's Purpose. It was a necessary step. Evil could not be confined from mankind: it was essential to set the scene for the Crucifixion. And the Passion would dictate that God must fashion all to be like Christ. It would dictate Universal Salvation. That is why Satan was not confined.

What happened in the Gardens of Eden and Gethsemane is very important, because it shows us the difference that training makes. Adam was not trained up in the way that Christ was. Sin came easily to Adam. But let us see how Jesus behaved.

It was in Gethsemane that Jesus, for the final time, allowed the Crucifixion to take place. Stopping it would have been simple for Him: as Matthew 26:53 tells us, He had access to more than twelve legions of angels. Yet He said to His Father "…not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). He chose to do His Father's will.

His intentions were tested. You see, being crucified is one thing, but actually allowing others to crucify you, knowing every detail of what it will involve, is another. It is proof that His intentions were based purely on love.

Agape love can indicate "striving after something". It can carry the "idea of preference [meaning] to put one value or aim above another"*. In Gethsemane, Jesus was striving after eternal life for all, and He preferred His Father's will. God was not willing that any should perish. Jesus put this above His own aversion to the terrible pain and suffering that were just hours away. That is love.

Can you see the difference that the training made between Adam's and Christ's intentions? Jesus could not be faulted, and the Passion would dictate that God must fashion all to be like Christ. It would dictate Universal Salvation. That is why it was allowed. It was not standing in the way of God's purpose; it was part of His purpose.

John 19:32,33 tell us about an incident that happened after the Crucifixion: "32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." The soldiers intended to break Christ's legs to hasten His death, but did not since He had already offered up His spirit.

Verse 36 goes on to say: "For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, 'Not one of His bones shall be broken' ". This is a reference to Psalm 34:20, which says: "He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken".

The Hebrew word for 'bones' in Psalm 34:20 is etsem. It has a range of meanings, including bone, essence, self, substance, and strength. According to The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, when etsem is plural, as it is in Psalm 34:20, it can refer to the individual - morally as well as physically. Jesus could not be broken morally; He could not be made to sin: even under the horrendous suffering involved in the Passion of the Christ, and even though His appearance was marred more than any man. God had trained Him up in the way He should go, and He did not depart from it.

"But you have still not explained how the Passion dictates that God must fashion all to be like Christ. How does it dictate Universal Salvation?"

Well, Jesus was incorruptible because He had been created and trained by God. He was fashioned to be like His Father. As Luke 6:40 says: "…everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher." God was incorruptible, therefore Jesus was incorruptible. He provided Jesus with the training necessary to be like Him. If you saw Jesus, you saw the Father. And the Crucifixion proved that Christ was incorruptible. By comparison, Adam, without the training, quickly sinned.

Now, let us look at another piece of Old Covenant Law. Leviticus 24:22 (NASB) says: "There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God".

That is how God deals with people; He has one standard for both His people and those who are strangers to Him. What He has done for Jesus, He has to do for all. Everything that Christ was trained with, which made Him incorruptible, must be given to everyone. And nothing can get in the way of His purpose to do this.

That is how the Passion, which proved that the Father could make someone incorruptible, dictates that God must fashion all to be like Christ. And that is how it dictates Universal Salvation. As Romans 5:18 (NASB) tells us: "…through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men". And that is why it was allowed to happen.

God has proved that to constantly have the right intentions, make the right decisions, and never under any circumstances to commit a sin, requires His nature. Therefore, He can not justify making salvation dependent on works. To do so would be to require us to do something that He has proved impossible. It has to be a free gift.

One of the next things that God needed was proof that He could take someone to incorruptibility instantly, not only with step by step training. In 1 Corinthians 15:52 it says "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed". That is instant incorruptibility, and it implies sinlessness.

The people spoken of in this scripture are made incorruptible in the twinkling of an eye. Whatever Jesus was trained with, is given to these, as instant education. Same knowledge, shorter process.