Tag Archives: sin

The Story of Sin: Part V Overview: Forgiveness’ Passion Revealed

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© 2014
Fellowship at Cross Creek
The Story of Sin… Part V:
An Overview of My Studies…
Forgiveness’ Passion Revealed…
By Joseph M. Cross

1/17/14

My Labors So Far…

Part I: My Story of Sin Begins with my Curiosity over a line in the traditional biblical Christmas Story…”You shall name him Jesus because he will save the people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21.

Parts II-IV: My curiosity with the meaning of “sin” next lead me to what others said about the term.

Part A…Looking Back at What Others Have Said about Sin…

Below are 12 key points concerning the development of the term sin within the Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Jewish traditions (Sin; NIDNTT)…

• 2 principles from the Greeks;
• 6 from the LXX or the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT;
• 3 from post-exilic Jewish times and
• 1 concerning Jesus’ initial actions…

This is about as simple as I can make it: Continue reading

The Story of Sin: Parts III-IV Oversin/Yah-Saves a Friend to Sinners

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© 2014
Fellowship at Cross Creek
The Story of Sin…
Parts III-IV
By Joseph M. Cross
1/15/14

Part III: Oversin: The Jewish Concept of Sin Takes an Odd, but Predictable Turn…

11) After Israel (or Judah’s) Babylonian exile (seventy years) for having miserably failed in her attempts to deal with her own sin, a Jewish remnant returns to a discarded, abandoned homeland in hopes of rebuilding their nation. And while Judah will begin to rebuild her temple and, a century later, her broken-down city walls, her struggle with sin, aided by rabbis, teachers or legal experts, takes on an interesting, and yet predictable twist. In order to keep Judah from becoming unfaithful to the Law again, and thereby, once again suffering the devastating consequences that she had already suffered at the hands of invading superpowers, the Law and compliance with the Law goes into a kind of super-legalistic hyper-drive. In addition, since no one but the religious lawyers or legal experts can keep up with all the laws, and the laws around the laws, religious hypocrisy also explodes. It’s not what’s real that counts, but only what appear to be real. Finally, Spirituality or religious purity is determined not by one’s righteous, moral actions or convictions, but by whom one associates with. Thus hanging with an unclean Gentile or a non-pious Jew, who hangs around with unclean Gentiles, makes one morally “unclean” and thus, a “sinner.”

12) Added to the ritualistic sacrifices in dealing with sin are now good works and suffering, including martyrdom.

13) In addition, the rabbis taught that the Messiah (the Anointed One), or King David’s promised and belated heir, would come and eradicate all sin.

Part IV: Yah-Saves Becomes a Friend to “Sinners.” Continue reading

The Story of Sin: Parts I-II The Start/Hebrew Concept of Sin

 

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© 2014
Fellowship at Cross Creek
The Story of Sin…
By Joseph M. Cross
1/14/14

Part I: It Started with a Christmas Curiosity…

It started with a Christmas curiosity of mine concerning the interpretation of a very familiar biblical passage—one that many of us have heard read or referenced many times in our lives, especially at Christmas time. The passage contained a dream to a very troubled man—Joseph, the fiancé of Mary. In the dream, the angel tells Joseph not to divorce Mary because she is now pregnant. She has done nothing wrong. The child is God’s, conceived by the Holy Spirit. When he is born, the boy is to be named Jesus (Greek or Yeshua in Hebrew, which means Yah or Yahweh [I AM] Saves), because he will save the people from their sins (Matt. 1:21).

At first glance, the meaning of this very familiar passage seems so obvious. Jesus died for our sins…if we believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life with him (John 3). And that’s what I assumed, or have always assumed. And I still believe that’s partly what this angelic message comes to mean. At the same time, I have now discovered that there are some incredibly, rich and meaningful layers to this understanding.

It all started when I decided to explore the biblical meaning of sin. I mean who doesn’t know what sin is. Every child who has spent some time in Sunday school can tell you what sin is. It’s when you do wrong. Bad things. When you disobey your parents or teachers. And yet I was still curious. If Jesus is supposed to save the people from these things called sins, then it might be important to go back and see just what the Scriptures meant by this thing that Jesus was supposed to save us from, as well as, the importance of his name in the first place.
Continue reading