One of my great professors in college at Virginia Tech was Dr. J.W. Tubbs. He was such a unique and special professor that rumors were common about the gentleman. One rumor was that he had earned a perfect score on the LSAT. Another rumor was how he had been a rich tax attorney before becoming a professor. I never found out whether either rumor was true or false. Yet I did verify the big rumor from the man himself. Dr. Tubbs had indeed read every Supreme Court case opinion ever written. Dr. Tubbs had grown up on a dairy farm. Not wanting to pursue that as a career, he pursued education. Dr. Tubbs graduated from law school at the University of Indiana. I did not ask what he did straight out of law school. Whatever he did, he suffered from a muscle disease, so sometimes he would lose control of some muscles. There was one occasion in his life where the disease hit him hard, and he was confined to his bed for an entire year! Being bed ridden for that whole time, he did two things: he read Supreme Court opinions, majority and dissenting, and he watched “Western” movies.
Having him for two quarters for Constitutional Law was a privilege. The method he taught for studying the Constitution is a method I use all of these years later for studying the Bible! Yet as I reflect now on my study of many Supreme Court decisions, I consider how often various Supreme Court Justices disagreed with one another. On the “landmark cases,” there were usually Justices on both sides of the decision. In their “opinions,” they would adamantly argue for their decision, all using serious logic. Disagreement was standard by Supreme Court Justices of the United States in “landmark” decisions.
When we consider God as Judge, we should have reverent fear as we realize that on Judgment Day, He is not going to judge by human standards, rather He is going to judge by His Holy standards, and His judgment will be righteous
Years ago when I lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, I had recently resigned as the youth pastor at a church. A popular hard core Christian rock band, Plankeye, was performing in a theater in downtown G.J. one Saturday evening, so as someone with a youth ministry calling, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go an investigate this hard rock Christian scene which I was unfamiliar with. Fortunately I had earplugs, because it was far too loud for me. I went more for the opening band, Morella’s Forest, and I got to talk with the drummer of that band after the concert who was a nice and down to earth young guy.
At that time, a fad called moshing was at its’ peak. Young people would stand in the area between a stage and the first row of seats, and then during the music they would bash into each other. That area was known as the mosh pit. I have to say that personally I think moshing was a stupid hobby. Though not active at that moment as a youth pastor, I was still active at the church where I had served in G.J., and at the concert was a student from my church, who on a rare occasion had come to youth group. He was in the mosh pit, and he was harshly ramming into girls. It made me nervous, and distracted me from the concert. But I was in charge of nothing that evening, fortunately, so I simply prayed for those students who were trying to have a good time getting their young bodies smacked.
Now I have to add that besides the teenager from my church, the moshing was on the light side. I would have left had it been any worse. Before the concert started, the youth pastor of the church sponsoring the concert gave an introduction. The youth pastor told everyone that they were permitted to have a mosh pit, but that they needed to mosh gently. Then he said, “Mosh as Jesus would mosh.” Yet then he qualified himself, and said that they needed to mosh only as Jesus would normally mosh, not as Jesus would mosh in the temple when He was overturning tables.
I tell this story as an introduction to the common misperception regarding why Jesus unleashed anger when He was in the temple driving out animals and flipping over tables. Read John 2:12-16. A key is that in the temple courts, part of the temple grounds, people were making a profit selling animals to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins.
In verse 16, Jesus specifically drives out those people selling doves. Why? Leviticus chapter five has our answer. There are the regulations of sacrifice for certain sins. For example: “’If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible’” (Leviticus 5:1 NIV). Yet punishment could be avoided by bringing an animal to be sacrificed as a substitute. What animal would we have to bring? “’When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin’” (Leviticus 5:5-6 NIV). And there is even a provision if the individual is in a different income bracket. “’If he cannot afford a lamb, he is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the LORD as a penalty for his sin—one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering’” (Leviticus 5:7 NIV). I add that in Leviticus chapter four, there are some regulations calling for the sacrifice of a young bull without defect.
So, we have the insight here that doves could be the offering for a person who had sinned. And that is why Jesus was angry! The people selling doves and the other animals in the courts of the temple where not selling animals so that Israelites who had traveled from all over the place could go back to their tents and have a scrumptious lunch or dinner. They were selling animals to be used in sacrifice. They were making the atonement from God into a business! Evil.
Finally, after getting the background, we can understand what Peter is talking about here. Redemption from God cannot be bought. Redemption from God can only come from the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the Cross. Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the substitute, the perfect Lamb, who physically and spiritually died, offering Himself as the atonement for sins in the place of people. He was the substitute, dying for you and me. If you receive His atonement, which can be done by simply believing in Jesus, then you are forgiven of your sins, and you will have eternal life!
Disasters have come in Christian church history when leaders have wrong added something needed for salvation in addition to the free gift of mercy and grace which is available thanks to Jesus’s death on a cross. If you are saved by Jesus, you will want to do good works, and that will involve giving some money to your church or giving a gift of various sorts to individuals in the love of Christ. But there is no regulation within the New Covenant about animal sacrifices or giving money. (Churches which demand a tithe are following Old Testament requirements. This is not a stipulation of the New Covenant. I am not saying tithing is bad, rather I am saying it is not a requirement under the New Covenant, just like worshiping on the Sabbath, which is a Saturday, is not a requirement.)
It is an honor for me to boldly proclaim what Peter is saying here: Redemption is the free gift of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
Hunter Irvine
It is an honor for me to boldly proclaim what Peter is saying here: Redemption is the free gift of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
Hunter Irvine
