(inspirational theme music)
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>>Welcome to "Sabbath School,"
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brought to you by It Is Written.
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We're delighted to
have you back again
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for lesson number six.
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We are taking a look
this week at "He Died for Us,"
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a very significant subject
as we continue our journey
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through the subject of "Death,
Dying and the Future Hope."
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Our guest with us
again this week is the author
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of the Sabbath school
lesson, Dr. Alberto Timm.
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He's an associate director
of the Ellen G. White Estate.
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Alberto, welcome back.
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>>It's a honor to be
with you during this series.
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>>So we are moving
our way through it,
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learning new things each
time that we come together.
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And I wanted to make reference
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as we begin this week to
something that you describe,
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a story that you
tell in the companion book
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to the Sabbath school lesson.
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You talk about a
lecture that a Swiss theologian
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by the name of
Oscar Cullmann presented
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at Harvard University.
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He was talking about
the immortality of the soul
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and the resurrection.
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Can you expound on this
story just a little bit?
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Because it's a
fascinating story.
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>>Actually, Oscar
Cullmann--and I have a copy
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of the book here,
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the book form; they published
it in the "Harvard Review"
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and also elsewhere. There
are several additions to it,
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but he starts his book in a--or
his lecture, at that time--
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and it's the
beginning of his book also--
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contrasting the death of Christ
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and Socrates.
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And here you'll find in his view
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probably the best way
to understand the contrast
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between Greek
philosophy and the anthropology
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of Greek philosophy, how
they understand a human being,
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and that is this
contrast between the two.
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When Socrates was to be,
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to drink the
poison that he did to die,
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he did in a very peaceful
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and serene way,
because, for him,
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that was actually a
friend to be welcomed
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and not a enemy
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because for the philosophers,
including Socrates,
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they thought that the body
was just the prison of the soul.
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And he, as a philosopher,
would really go to paradise
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or whatever, to a
upper stage of life.
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So he drunk it in
a very peaceful way
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because that
would liberate the soul,
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give the soul freedom to
go to that world of the ideas,
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away from the
prison of his body.
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But for Jesus, that was
not a friend to be welcomed,
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was actually a enemy, the
last enemy to be conquered.
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And Jesus,
really, in Gethsemane,
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He even said,
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"My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful,
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even to [the] death,"
because He was in agony.
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What a contrast
between the two models.
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But in reality,
Jesus conquered death,
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and this is the
good news that we have.
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But let me just add a point.
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Oscar Cullmann, in his
lecture, made it very clear
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that there is no way to
harmonize the philosophical,
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the Greek philosophical
concept of the immortal soul
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with the New Testament teaching
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of the resurrection of the body.
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Either the soul is immortal,
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and there is no resurrection,
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or there is a
bodily resurrection,
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and the soul is not immortal.
And from his perspective,
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the New Testament teaches,
really, the resurrection
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of the body as the
hope for the Christian,
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the Christian hope, and not
natural immortality of the soul
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as the Greek
philosophers taught.
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>>So, very, very
insightful story,
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and the conclusion
that he comes to, I think,
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is a very positive
one, a very biblical one.
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I wanna go back to build
on something that we looked at
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a few weeks ago, and we
looked at death occurring
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in the Old Testament
and the significance of it.
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What about some
of those sacrifices
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that took place
in the Old Testament?
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We looked back at
Genesis 3:15 a few weeks ago,
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how the the
serpent's head would be wounded
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and the Seed of the
woman's heel would be wounded,
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at that "protoevangelium,"
as it's sometimes called,
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that first glimpse
at Jesus the Messiah
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and the plan of salvation.
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How did sacrifices
in the Old Testament
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foreshadow
Christ's death on the cross?
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How are those
two linked together?
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>>Many people are
afraid or do not like very much
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the references to
the, in the Old Testament,
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to animal
sacrifices because they say,
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"Well, there is too much
blood in the Old Testament,
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"and I prefer the New
Testament, is more love
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and not so much justice
as in the Old Testament."
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But remember, each
one of the human beings
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since the fall of
Adam and Eve had really
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a death sentence on them,
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and in this
case, they should die,
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but God's mercy
allowed an animal to die
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in place of human beings.
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So, every single
sacrifice, bodily sacrifice,
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offered according to God's plan,
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because there were pagan
sacrifices also that did not
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count, but the ones that
follow the biblical pattern
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established by
God, they foreshadowed
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the Lamb of God that would
take away the sins of the world.
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But let me just
add another point.
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Some people say, as I told you,
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that the Old Testament
is just based on justice,
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and the New
Testament--or judgment--
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and the New
Testament in love and mercy.
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But the Apostle
Paul in Romans, chapter 3
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says exactly the opposite.
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In the Old Testament,
God was very merciful,
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but the fullness of
God's justice was revealed
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not through the
sacrifices of the Old Testament,
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as many as they were, but
in the cross where Jesus died
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as the Lamb of God,
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not for His own sake,
but for all human beings.
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So His sacrifice
is available to all,
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for those who will
accept it and be saved,
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but is available even to
those who will be punished
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and they will be that
who do not accept Christ
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as the Lamb of God.
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>>You make an
important point here
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that that salvation is
available to everybody,
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and those who receive it,
those who accept it by faith,
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are gonna be
ones who receive it.
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The memory text
for this week is,
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I think, a significant one.
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In John, chapter 3,
verses 14 and 15, it says,
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"And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness,
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"even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up,
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"that whoever believes
in Him should not perish
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but have [everlasting] life."
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And then, of course, the
following verse is John 3:16,
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probably the most frequently
quoted verse in the Bible.
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What about that serpent
that was lifted up by Moses
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in the wilderness? How did
that give us a picture of Jesus?
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And what significance,
what are the parallels there?
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>>Actually the serpent is a...
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is a symbol of sin, of evil.
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And that, you
remember that when there was
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that kind of plague
there in the wilderness,
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and many people were
dying with a serpent,
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God asked Moses to make
a serpent there of bronze,
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of metal there, and
looking to it, they would have--
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they would be healed.
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It's interesting
that this symbol is the,
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is a way of illustrating
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that Jesus would take our plan,
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our sins, not
that He became sinful,
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as such, but He
took over Him our sins.
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And that is a
remarkable illustration
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of what Christ did for us.
And there is another passage
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in John, chapter
12, where He says,
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"And when I will be
lifted up from the earth,
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I will draw all to me,"
or attract. And in the book
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"Steps to
Christ" by Ellen White,
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and I like very
much that statement
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where she expands a
little bit on this expression.
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She says...that to the sinner,
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all that it takes is
a glimpse of the cross,
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and he, "if he does not
resist he will be drawn...
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[in repentance at]
the foot of the cross."
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So, in other
words, is not I that go
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to the cross begging for
forgiveness and salvation,
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saying, "Lord, please, maybe
You can have, give me a chance,"
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something like that.
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No. He takes the
initiative, and the cross has
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that kind of
attraction drawing us, to us,
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and if we don't resist,
God's mercy will transform us.
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And this is the
beauty of this symbol.
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>>Thanks for clarifying that.
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It makes a whole lot more sense.
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I want to read another verse now
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and give you an
opportunity to respond to it.
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We've been talking about
sacrifices in the Old Testament,
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and yet in Hebrews,
chapter 10, verse number 4
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is a very fascinating statement.
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Hebrews 10:4 says,
"For it is not possible
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that the blood of bulls and
goats could take away sins."
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So if the blood
of bulls and goats,
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all the sacrifices,
doesn't take away the sin,
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then what's the point
of all the sacrifices?
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>>Yeah, and you could even
add to your question, Eric,
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the idea that even
Moses, Enoch, and Elijah
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were in heaven
already. And in this case, well,
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there are many ways of
understanding it, but I prefer
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the, to compare it
with a credit card.
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The credit card, you
make a actual payment with it.
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And so, the person, the store
or whoever or in the internet,
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they receive the
payment for it, but actually,
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the payment becomes
effective under the condition
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that later on that I
pay my credit card bill.
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If I don't pay,
then it's a disaster.
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In this case, people in the
Old Testament, including Moses
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and Enoch and Elijah,
they were actually saved,
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but salvation in
the Old Testament,
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although it was
complete and effective,
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so it was not
something that was, "Well,
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let's say we
pretend." No, it was effective,
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but it was
dependent on the payment
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of the price for God's justice
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offered that Friday
on the cross of Calvary.
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>>And by the grace of God,
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He made that payment, and
He made the payment in full.
00:12:15.10\00:12:18.43
And He continues to be
there to minister to us
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and to encourage us
in the life that we live.
00:12:21.84\00:12:24.64
And we look at the world
that we live in right now,
00:12:24.64\00:12:26.74
and it's got a lot of pain.
00:12:26.74\00:12:28.31
it's got a lot of
sorrow, and unfortunately,
00:12:28.31\00:12:30.45
it's got a lot of
death, dying, and sometimes
00:12:30.45\00:12:33.21
not a lot of future hope,
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or at least not
for a lot of people.
00:12:34.28\00:12:35.92
But this quarter
is all about that.
00:12:35.92\00:12:37.62
It's about the future
hope and understanding the hope
00:12:37.62\00:12:39.92
that we do have when it
involves death and dying.
00:12:39.92\00:12:44.19
If you've been
enjoying this quarter's lessons,
00:12:44.19\00:12:46.56
and we're making our
way through the quarter.
00:12:46.56\00:12:48.73
We're about halfway through,
00:12:48.73\00:12:50.23
maybe not quite
halfway through right now,
00:12:50.23\00:12:52.63
but if you want
to dig into it more
00:12:52.63\00:12:55.20
and get more out of it
and understand it better,
00:12:55.20\00:12:57.61
I wanna encourage you to
pick up the companion book
00:12:57.61\00:13:00.11
to this quarter's lesson.
00:13:00.11\00:13:01.51
It's called "On Death,
Dying, and the Future Hope"
00:13:01.51\00:13:04.28
by author Alberto Timm.
00:13:04.28\00:13:05.65
He, of course, is
our guest here each week
00:13:05.65\00:13:07.95
on "Sabbath School."
00:13:07.95\00:13:09.25
And he goes into more
detail, gives additional insight
00:13:09.25\00:13:12.82
into the subjects
that we are looking at
00:13:12.82\00:13:15.89
during the course of this
quarter during these 14 lessons.
00:13:15.89\00:13:19.43
So if you wanna
understand it better,
00:13:19.43\00:13:20.83
or if you know someone
else who has a misunderstanding,
00:13:20.83\00:13:24.33
of this subject and you want
to help them see more clearly
00:13:24.33\00:13:28.24
the hope that there is in Jesus,
00:13:28.24\00:13:30.31
I wanna encourage
you to pick that book up.
00:13:30.31\00:13:32.04
You'll find it
at itiswritten.shop.
00:13:32.04\00:13:35.21
Again, it's called "On Death,
Dying, and the Future Hope."
00:13:35.21\00:13:38.71
We'll be back in just a
moment as we continue our study.
00:13:38.71\00:13:41.85
See you in just a moment.
00:13:41.85\00:13:42.98
(inspirational theme music)
00:13:42.98\00:13:45.69
>>Join me on "It Is Written"
00:13:47.39\00:13:49.36
for one of the great
chapters of the Bible,
00:13:49.36\00:13:52.49
Isaiah, chapter 53.
00:13:52.49\00:13:55.13
Isaiah has been
called the gospel prophet
00:13:55.13\00:13:57.27
because how he
repeatedly brings Jesus to light
00:13:57.27\00:14:00.20
throughout the book of Isaiah.
00:14:00.20\00:14:02.27
And there's no
chapter in the book of Isaiah
00:14:02.27\00:14:04.17
where he does that more
than Isaiah, chapter 53.
00:14:04.17\00:14:07.91
Isaiah 53 has been quoted
00:14:07.91\00:14:09.81
in the New
Testament numerous times.
00:14:09.81\00:14:12.18
And you see why
when you study God's Word
00:14:12.18\00:14:15.05
and focus on Isaiah, chapter 53.
00:14:15.05\00:14:17.99
It's about Jesus
Christ, crucified,
00:14:17.99\00:14:21.32
the One who died for
the sins of the world,
00:14:21.32\00:14:23.46
the Jesus that you
and I know is coming back
00:14:23.46\00:14:26.59
to this world to take us home.
00:14:26.59\00:14:28.86
Don't miss
00:14:28.86\00:14:30.17
"Great Chapters of the
Bible: Isaiah [Chapter] 53."
00:14:30.17\00:14:34.44
You will be
moved, you'll be blessed,
00:14:34.44\00:14:36.97
and you will be
encouraged in faith in God.
00:14:36.97\00:14:41.04
"Great Chapters of
the Bible: Isaiah 53,"
00:14:41.04\00:14:44.18
watch now on It Is Written TV.
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(inspirational theme music)
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>>Welcome back
to "Sabbath School,"
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brought to you by It Is Written.
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We are taking a look at
Christ's death for us this week.
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And, Alberto, I wanna, I
wanna drill down on something
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or look into something.
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The Bible talks about
the cross as an altar.
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How is the cross an altar? What
is the significance of that,
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and what type of an
altar does it represent?
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>>Actually, this is a...
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a typological expression,
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or, in other words, you
have the types or symbols
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of the Old Testament.
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Sacrifices during Old
Testament times were offered
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on altars made of stones.
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And so the animal was put
over there as a sacrifice.
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And probably the
most meaningful sacrifice
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of the Old Testament was
the animal that was offered
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replacing Isaac
when Abraham went to the,
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to fulfill God's
requirements over there. So he,
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Isaac, should be
offered as a sacrifice,
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but then God Himself
provided a substitute,
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another animal, to
be offered over there.
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So this idea of
substitution is very meaningful
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in regard to the
sacrifices. And at the cross,
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Christ offered
Himself in our place.
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But some people
struggle about who offered Him.
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Were the Roman soldiers who
really nailed Him to the cross?
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Also, at the cross
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Christ was not only a
sacrifice; but He was a priest.
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He offered Himself for our sins.
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So, it's
interesting, this combination,
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because usually in the Old
Testament--usually, not always--
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in the Old Testament, the priest
offered another sacrifice,
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never himself or
herself, himself, better saying.
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But in this case,
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you will see immediately
that Jesus is both of them.
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And so, a Priest
offering Himself--
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and this is unique--in
fulfillment of all the
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sacrifices to the,
of the Old Testament,
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as a sacrifice of
love for all humanity.
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>>A beautiful picture
of Christ's love for us
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and His willingness
to sacrifice Himself.
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Now, on Tuesday's lesson, it's
a short title of the lesson.
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In fact, it's just three words,
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but there's a lot of
meaning in those three words.
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It's a quote
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from John, chapter
19, verse number 30,
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which says, "It is finished!"
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Okay, so the question is,
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when Jesus died on the
cross, what was finished?
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And I guess, as an extension
question, what wasn't finished?
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What was
accomplished on the cross,
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and what still, if
everything is finished--well,
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let me put it this way:
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If everything is
finished on the cross,
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why are we still here?
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Maybe that's another
way of asking the question.
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Explain "It is finished."
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>>Actually, this is a
very meaningful statement.
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You have heard about this
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that there are seven statements
Jesus made from the cross,
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but probably this
was the most meaningful,
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the most significant.
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I like the expression
that Ellen White uses, that
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the life of Jesus was a preface
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to His death on the cross.
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And there is a
old Bible commentator,
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Plumber, his name, that
says that what hold Jesus
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on the cross were not the nails,
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but His willingness to
save us, as His enemies, even.
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So He died for His enemies
because He want to save it.
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But when it came to the crucial
moment--"It is finished"--
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I think it had
a...it's a broad concept
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that meant that His struggles
with the powers of evil
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that He faced throughout
His life, came to a end,
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but, much more than
this, it really meant
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Christ's triumph
over the powers of evil,
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over Satan.
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So the plan of salvation
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was really in
place and triumphed.
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That's the word of victory,
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of Jesus over
the powers of evil.
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So that, as a
sacrifice, it was complete.
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"Where sin abounded"--using
the language of Paul--
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grace was much more
overflowed at the world
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with the grace of
Christ. But remember,
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it was finished as
the plan of salvation.
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And I like very much
what Paul says, for instance,
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in 2 Corinthians,
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chapter 5, verses 18 on.
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He says that God was
in Christ reconciling
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with Him the world.
But now comes our part,
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and Paul is begging, "Please,
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you should also
reconcile yourself with God."
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So that salvation is
available to everybody.
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But Jesus, His priesthood
in the heavenly sanctuary,
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according to the book of Hebrews
and other Bible passages,
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is the place where Jesus
offers salvation for us today.
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So, the payment for sin
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was complete for God's justice,
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but it needs to be
completed in my life also.
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And there is a
reason why Paul says
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in Hebrews 4,
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verses 14-16, that
if you are in need,
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you should go to
the throne of grace.
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Where grace i, is
yet a throne of mercy,
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where grace is
available to you. And...
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But, although the hosts of evil
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receive their
sentence at the cross,
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they still exist, and
evil is still in our world.
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They have no right to
exist, but they exist.
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And so, God is leading human
history to the final triumph.
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So that sentence to
the hosts of evil is there,
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but it will be executed
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at the end of the millennium,
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according to Gen--to
the book of Revelation,
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and you have there
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chapters 20 and then 21 as well.
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So we still need
to have the ceasing
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of evil and all the
wicked of this world.
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>>So the cross really is central
to the plan of salvation.
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The plan of salvation
doesn't happen without it.
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In Revelation,
there's this picture--
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and you mentioned
Revelation just a moment ago--
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there's this picture of
the heavenly host rejoicing
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in "the Lamb that was slain."
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It...doesn't sound
like anything to rejoice in,
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from a certain perspective,
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and yet from a
different perspective,
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there's a great
deal to rejoice in.
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>>Actually, the cross
is the greatest contrast
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of the universe,
in my understanding,
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because the infinite love of God
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and the selfishness of Satan
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is the first time
that they met face to face.
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There is no other
such a sharp contrast,
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such meaningful as the cross.
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And actually, the
question that you could ask is,
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was the cross an
act of God or of Satan?
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Well, before
answering a tricky question,
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you have first to
rephrase the question.
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Actually, it's not either-or.
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It was the act of God,
because the Bible is clear,
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saying that God
gave His Son for us.
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So, Christ's willingness,
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He offered Himself for
us. But at the same time,
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Satan observed Him
in pain and suffering.
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And by doing so, he actually,
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that was a decree of
his own death sentence.
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So the cross is a
action of both of them.
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That is the victory. There
was during Christ's ministry
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a struggle between
good and evil, the forces.
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Jesus,
actually, in His ministry,
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was a continuous struggle
against the powers of evil,
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either in a spiritual sense
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or even evil using,
Satan using human beings.
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And the most tragic thing
in my understanding is that
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he used even the
priesthood at that time.
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The high priest that
was supposed to minister
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as a representative,
as a type of Christ,
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he was the main
one used by Satan.
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And now, at this
point, Jesus really triumphed.
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And that was
really--the cross of Christ
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is what avoids rebellion to come
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into the universe
again, because sin
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is not worthy to be
followed or to fall into sin.
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And so it will
be like a "vaccine"
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against another
rebellion in the universe.
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And no wonder that
the whole hosts of heaven
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in the book of Revelation,
like, the angelical beings,
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the great multitudes,
the creatures, and so on,
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they are rejoicing on
the victory that the Lamb
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was able to get at the cross.
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Actually, at the
cross, the whole future
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of humanity and of
the universe was at stake.
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Had Jesus failed, that
was, that would be the disaster
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of humanity.
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But praise the Lord,
that was not the case.
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So we cannot speak,
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we should never speak
about if it would not take place
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because it actually took place,
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and that was a major victory.
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>>So, looking back, we
see that it did take place.
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We should be
grateful that it did.
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Conceptually, we've
got an understanding of
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what took place
and its ramifications,
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its meaning to what's
going on in the world.
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What about to us personally?
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What's the
significance of the cross to me,
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to you, personally?
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>>Only at the foot of the
cross we can get salvation.
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God has no
alternative plan of salvation.
00:26:17.67\00:26:21.48
Only by accepting Christ,
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the sacrifice for us
in our place, is that
00:26:23.35\00:26:28.22
we can really have
assurance of salvation.
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No wonder that even Paul
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in Galatians 6:14 says,
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"That I"--"God
forbid that I [would] boast
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[in anything else] except
[for] the cross of...Christ,"
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where Christ died for
me, and I died for Him,
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not in the thing of
paying anything but in the sense
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of dying for this
world and living in harmony
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with God's will. So,
this is our only assurance
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in this world, and our hope,
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assurance in the
present and hope for the future.
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>>Alberto, thank you
for helping to unpack
00:27:09.06\00:27:11.49
this particular week's
lesson, "He Died for Us,"
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a very significant subject
00:27:14.60\00:27:16.23
as we're going through
this study this quarter
00:27:16.23\00:27:19.93
on "Death, Dying,
and the Future Hope,"
00:27:19.93\00:27:22.10
because without the cross
there really is no future hope.
00:27:22.10\00:27:25.61
But with the cross,
there is hope for everybody.
00:27:25.61\00:27:29.84
The truth is Jesus died for you.
00:27:29.84\00:27:32.18
The question is, will
you receive His death on your
00:27:32.18\00:27:35.85
behalf? And I hope
that the answer is yes.
00:27:35.85\00:27:37.82
We're gonna be back
again next week as we continue
00:27:37.82\00:27:39.75
looking at this
fascinating subject,
00:27:39.75\00:27:41.36
delving into it more deeply,
00:27:41.36\00:27:43.53
answering common
questions, and getting
00:27:43.53\00:27:45.26
a clearer picture of Jesus
and His plan for your life.
00:27:45.26\00:27:48.36
We look forward to
seeing you again next week
00:27:48.36\00:27:50.30
on "Sabbath School,"
brought to you by It Is Written.
00:27:50.30\00:27:53.30
God bless you.
We'll see you then.
00:27:53.30\00:27:55.17
(inspirational theme music)
00:27:56.30\00:28:00.28
(music ends)
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