Purposes of Christ's Death: Galatians 4:4-5

This is another reposting from a series of posts examining the statements of purpose that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ. You can find the other posts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

Galatians 4:4-5 is the text where we find this post’s explicit statement of a purpose for Christ’s death.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (NASB)

I had planned to include these verses together with the text from Hebrews 9:15, since the purpose statements are similar. That scripture had to do with Christ’s “redemption of the transgressions that were {committed} under the first covenant, [so that] those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Since inheritance and sonship are such related things, these statements are very much alike. The post on Hebrews 9:15 was long enough as it was, however, and in order to look just a little bit at some of the unique things in this passage, I’ve given it it’s own post.

The purpose statement in this text is “so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Once again you have Christ’s death redeeming people from something that comes along with being under the Law, or the Old Covenant. The phrase “when the fullness of time came” lets us know that in this text we are looking at things in a historical context. The verses before this one tells us that under the law, people were like minor children, and being a child was a kind of bondage because a child had to remain under supervision. But at the right historical time Christ came and bought people out from under the guardianship of the law, and gave them the position of fulfledged adopted adult sons with legal rights to an inheritance. It seems that when the word adoption is used here in this context, it refers to this legal right of sonship.

And if we read the verses following, we see that because we are sons, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into [our] hearts, crying, “Abba, Father’!” Because of the Spirit within us, we approach God as our own father. We are no longer like minor children or slaves, but adopted sons, “and if a son, then an heir.” Since in the historical cultural setting, inheritance came through sonship, then in Christ, we are all—both men and women—sons of God in that we are both heirs.

One of the purposes of Christ’s death is so that we would be adopted sons of God.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Hebrews 9:15

This is another reposting from a series of posts examining the statements of purpose that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ. You can find the other posts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

Next up in our list of purpose statements is the one in Hebrews 9:15:

For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were {committed} under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (NASB)

This verse is similar to the text we looked at in the post on Galatians 3:13-14, and I considered grouping the two texts together, but since I think there are a couple of new things added here, I decided this text is worthy of it’s own post.

So what is the purpose statement in this verse? When we see the phrase “For this reason,” we automatically think this must be pointing out a purpose statement. However, there is a real possibility that this phrase is looking backward rather than forward, showing the connection between this verse and the one before it. If so, then “for this reason” means “because of this” instead of “for this purpose,” and it is saying that because of the death of Christ mentioned in the previous verse, Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. The ESV translates to show the connection this way.

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

But even if we don’t take “for this reason” to be a purpose statement, there is still a purpose statement here: so that…those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Christ is the mediator of a new covenant through His death, so that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

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Purposes of Christ's Death: Ephesians 2:14-16

This is another reposting from a series of posts examining the statements of purpose that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ.  You can find the other posts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

The text examined in this post is Ephesians 2:14-16:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (NASB)

The purpose statement here is “so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” In Christ’s death, God  intended to bring two hostile groups together and to reconcile them to each other and to himself.

I suppose the first thing we need to do is determine who are the two groups referrenced.  The context tells us that these are the Jewish people and the Gentiles.

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” {which is} performed in the flesh by human hands— {remember} that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (vs. 11-13)

The terms Gentiles, Uncircumcision, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without God in the world, and formerly…far off all refer to those who were not part of the nation Israel—or the Jews, or the Circumcision.

The covenants (or the Law of commandments) served as a line of demarcation between the two groups, and was a source of enmity or hostility, because it excluded those who did not come under the umbrella of the nation Israel. Christ’s death, however, took away the hostility between the two groups by what the NASB calls “abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances”.  The dividing effects of the law —the enmity—is nullified in Christ’s death, because the new covenant established in Christ’s blood includes all those of faith, both Jew and Gentile. There is no longer a demarcation line based on national allegiance.

In the new order brought into being in by the death of Christ, there is not longer hostility between the Jews and all other people, but the two groups can be joined together to make “one new man”. This one new man is a new kind of corporate entity made up of all those–from the Jews and from the Gentiles—who are in Christ. Joining both Jews and Gentiles as one corporate group united in Christ establishes peace between the two formerly hostile groups.

Through the cross both groups are also reconciled “in one body” to God. The meaning of in one body is a bit unclear. It could mean the same thing that is meant when is says that the two groups are made into one new man, or it could mean that they are both united together with Christ’s one body in His death. The context could be used to support either one of these options. Either way, the point is that the groups are reconciled to each other and also reconciled to God through Christ’s death on the cross.

A little side note on the term barrier of the dividing wall in verse 14: Many commentators take this to be an allusion to the wall separating the Gentiles from the inner courts of the temple in Jerusalem. However, Leon Morris,  in The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance, says that “It would be too much to say that Paul is writing about this wall.” Whether this exclusionary wall is what Paul is referring to or not, that there was such a wall tells us something about the deep division between Jew and Gentile under the ordinances of the law.

One of the purposes of Christ’s death was to break down the division of hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles, to reconcile them to each other, gathering them into one unified entity, and to reconcile both Jew and Gentile together to God himself.