The Crucified Messiah

The Son of God gives the Spirit to men and women, without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life . “ The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The declarations I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life. ” Christ’s statement echoes the biblical principle that life and the Spirit of God are inextricably linked – (John 6:63).

Redemption includes our resurrection and the new creation, and the Spirit is the guarantee of the future inheritance . Paul presents Abraham as the model of faith. God justified him apart from the works of the Mosaic Law because of his faith in the promises of God. Likewise, we are acquitted by God “ through the faith of Jesus Christ ,” his faithful obedience unto death, and through him, we become heirs of the covenant promises– (Romans 3:21-24, 4:10-13, Galatians 2:15-21, 3:5-9).

Salvation includes the bodily resurrection of the saints and life in the New Creation, which will occur when Jesus arrives . Central to the doctrine of salvation is the promise of  redemption . God will not abandon what He first created, and both the term and the concept mean the  recovery of what was lost . The universe is enslaved by sin and condemned to decay and death. In God’s redemptive plans, the end state of redeemed things and persons is vastly superior to their original state, and this principle is epitomized in the promises of bodily Resurrection and New Creation.

In his letter to the Laodiceans, the “ Son of Man ” is called the “ Beginning of the Creation of God ,” and the “ Amen, the faithful and true witness .” In his Death and Resurrection, the long-promised “ New Heavens and New Earth ” had commenced. Jesus is called the “ faithful witness ” in the Book’s opening paragraph, a reference to his faithfulness in death on the Roman cross.