We continue from Part 5 where we discussed:
Job 33:24 "Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom."
According to the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary 1828, ransom is the price paid for the redemption of a prisoner or slave, or for goods captured by an enemy; that which procures the release of a prisoner or captive, or of captured property, and restores the one to liberty and the other to the original owner. The grace of God came as a ransom to redeem sinful men so that they need not go down into the pit (hell), but have eternal life. In fact, we have a picture of this in:
Genesis 22:2 "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
This was God speaking to Abraham, telling him to take his only son Isaac, and offer him upon one of the mountains in the land of Moriah as burnt offering.
Hebrews 11:17-18 "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:"
God will try your faith. The words of the LORD will try a believer. Abraham believed God and it pleased him. Likewise, if you believe in the words of the LORD, you please God. We know that Isaac did not die that day.
Genesis 22:8 "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together."
Genesis 22 is a prototype of the gospel that has been delivered unto the saints, because God gave his only begotten Son Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God to die for the sins of the whole world, to be a burnt offering for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD (Numbers 28:6). The King James Bible says "offer him there for a burnt offering" in Genesis 22:2. The NIV, however, changed this verse to say "Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering..." That is NOT the gospel! God did not ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God only asked him to offer up Isaac for a burnt offering. Modern bible versions have made God a liar!!
These modern bible versions have further corrupted the gospel in Genesis 22:8 which says "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." Notice that in the King James Bible, it is "God will provide himself a lamb", that is, God will literally provide himself as the lamb for burnt offering, and he has done so when he came in the form of the Lamb of God. In modern bible versions, this verse has been corrupted to say:
NKJV: "God will provide for Himself the lamb"
NASB: "God will provide for Himself the lamb"
NIV: "God himself will provide the lamb"
ESV: "God will provide for himself the lamb"
This is just one of the many proofs that the gospel has been corrupted in modern bible versions. The next in sequence from Job 33:24, after the ransom has been paid and accepted, is:
Job 33:25 "His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:"
But before we go into more detail in this verse, I just want to make it clear that the ransom is not paid to the Devil, but to God the Father. The ransom is the sinless life of the Son of man, and the recipient of the ransom is God the Father. Previously, we read in:
Job 33:21 "His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out."
This verse is a picture of the soul that is perishing because of lying and corrupt words which consume away the flesh like cancer i.e. 2 Timothy 2:17 "And their word will eat as doth a canker..." The sinner cannot stop himself from doing the will of the Devil (his father). The lying and corrupt words are to him an "instruction". His soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. It was at this point, when God will send someone into the life of this person to give him gospel, to reconcile the sinner unto himself. That was when the repentant sinner who believed in the gospel will come before God, as a man bankrupt before him. God has opened his eyes so that the man now saw himself as a sinner in need of God’s grace. He has come to the realization of:
Matthew 16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
He has come to the realization that there is nothing that he, a sinner, can give in exchange for his own soul, not even if he has gained the whole world to himself. That is also to say that there is a price to be paid for all of the sins that a sinner has committed in his lifetime. It is a price so high that even if the sinner were to gain the whole world to himself, it is still not enough to pay the price of sin. He desperately needed a Redeemer. It was then, that God is gracious unto him and delivers his soul from going down into the pit (hell). That is also to say that God the Father has accepted the ransom paid on the behalf of the sinner by his Redeemer, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. In fact, we have a picture of this in:
Leviticus 1:1-4 "And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. 3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. 4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him."
The sinner’s faith in the word of God is his burnt offering before God the Father. First of all, notice that the burnt sacrifice is a male from the flock without blemish. This phrase "without blemish" is found exactly 46 times in the King James Bible, and 46 is the number of chromosomes in a man. That's why Jesus Christ came as the "Son of man", lived a sinless life, was offered as the Lamb of God without blemish, "and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3). His incarnation as the "Son of man" was necessary so that he can be offered up as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, that we receive remission of sins through faith in his blood (Romans 3:25).
Secondly, the word of God must be without blemish. The Holy Bible is the source of our faith, wherein is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ and the 66 books of the Holy Bible are one and the same, the written word being the physical form of the living Word. If Jesus Christ is without blemish, then the Holy Bible too, must be without blemish. This goes to show that if the bible you are using is not without errors, then it is not holy and true, and if it is not holy and true, then it can only be another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel.
2 Corinthians 11:4 "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
Paul lumped these three things into one verse because just like Jesus and the Holy Bible, they cannot be decoupled one from the other. Moreover, if there be any religious or philosophical system which demands that you read or interpret the Bible in a certain way they have prescribed for you, these too, are working to destroy your faith in the word of God. False religious systems and false bibles usually go hand in hand. Take for example in dispensationalism, they teach that the heir to Abraham's covenant is NOT spiritual Israel, but natural Israel. Using modern bible versions (NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, etc), they are quite able to justify their erroneous doctrine:
Genesis 12:7 NKJV “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
Genesis 13:15 NKJV “for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
However, this is NOT what it says in the King James Bible:
Genesis 12:7 "And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him."
Genesis 13:15 "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever."
The "seed" is Jesus Christ and the body of Christ! It is not the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moreover, Paul made it clear in:
Romans 4:13 "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."
The heir to Abraham’s covenant is not natural Israel (the "Israel" so called!)
Galatians 3:29 "And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Again, the heir to Abraham’s covenant is not natural Israel but spiritual Israel. When any man or woman is born again into the kingdom of God, he or she automatically becomes an heir to Abraham’s covenant according to the promise. The agenda behind CI Scofield’s heretical system is to promote a multi-gospel, pro-Jewish agenda that accommodates unbelieving Jews, excuses their rejection of the Messiah, and secures to them an earthly kingdom. In the process, Scofield attacked the mission, ministry and message of the Lord Jesus as being a distinct gospel from Paul’s, irrelevant to the Church and directed only to Israel and the Jews, as stated throughout his notes: “…the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found in the Epistles…” [Matthew 5:2]. Notice in all these how dispensationalism goes hand in hand with modern bible versions?
To continue in Part 7.
Amen
Amen