Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 12.

Title: Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 12.

 

One man proposes a bet to another man. He says, “I’m going to ask myself a question, and if I answer my own question, you have to buy me a coke.” The other man looks at him confused, “Wait, you’re going to ask a question to yourself, answer it, and then I have to buy you a soda? That makes no sense.” The proposer says, “I haven’t finished. Then you ask yourself a question, answer your own question, and then I will buy you a coke, and we’ll keep going until we can’t answer a question.” The other man is mildly intrigued, so he agrees and offers the proposer to go first. He says, “How is it that a rabbit can burrow a hole and not throw any dirt up on the surface? He digs way down and you don’t see any dirt of mud above the hole. I think the rabbit should start burrowing from inside the hole. “How in the world could he do that?” asked the other man. “That’s your question.”

 

Life is a series of questions. As soon as we learn to talk and can form together sentences, we start asking questions. And when we get answers, usually from our parents, we then ask why.

 

We hear so much truth when we are young that we simply do not understand because we hold onto our ignorance with pride. We cannot be “that” dumb, we kid ourselves. The sooner we realize we know nothing and that we should question everything, but respectively, the sooner we will be on the path to truth. Not everything that enters our ears penetrates our consciousness.

 

Young people in America and Western Europe claim that socialism is the future. On average it takes socialism about 70 years to suck a country dry of its wealth. Those who institute socialism in a nation and those who die from it never meet each other, the founders die of old age before the poor souls of the next generation languish in poverty.

 

In reality, socialism is materialistic. The government gives you a dollar and a loaf of bread and tells you to be content. What about meaning to life, invention, entrepreneurship, fulfillment of the pursuit of happiness? Your earnings, your inventions, your hard work, your ingenuity; none of it belongs to you; they belong to the state, and so you belong to the state, not to God. Your experiences will be supplied to you as the government sees fit. You will live on your allowance and not want more. To want more out of life than being alive is an attack against the state. God is removed as the giver of life and the plans of life. And so, in the end, socialism is essentially materialistic. Socialism is the result of a society that has lost faith in God and so lost faith in itself.

 

If a person cannot answer the questions about God truthfully, then he will be without truth and therefore without the power to live in the context of the truth.

 

Spiritual completeness or maturity is the love of the spiritual life above all other things. It is loving the Lord according to the Shama, DEU 6:5.

 

The believer has been redeemed by Christ. He is made perfect, holy, and righteous and set free from the slavery of sin and death. He is called to live in that perfection, which is holiness or sanctification. He knows that he cannot do so continuously and he knows that in heaven he will always live in perfection.

 

Resurrection and heaven are in the future, but we are called to live in both of them now. The NT clearly states that we are raised with Him, not that we will be raised.

 

We have seen in our study of the home that Christ has made for us that it is in heaven, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and that it is also a present reality for those who love Him and keep His commands, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him." (JOH 14:23)

 

The call of the OT saint to be complete and the higher call of the NT saint to be complete are like this. It will be a consistent reality in the future, but we love it so much now that we strive with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word to make it our present reality.

 

Many don’t like to leave it in this way because desire is not measurable. It’s not tangible. They would rather certain measurable works, prayers, giving, and even physical and material prosperity because they can all be seen and measured. But spiritual completeness is not measured by man. God looks upon the heart. The believer alone knows that he loves God and desires the Lord’s perfect way all the time.

 

And when the OT saint failed, for they would:

 

PSA 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

Thou God of my salvation;

Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness.

 

PSA 51:15 O Lord, open my lips,

That my mouth may declare Thy praise.

 

PSA 51:16 For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;

Thou art not pleased with burnt offering.

 

PSA 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.

 

PSA 51:18 By Thy favor do good to Zion;

Build the walls of Jerusalem.

 

In vs. 18 David is acknowledging that only God does good to His people. The people cannot do good for themselves. The walls speak of God’s protection. Only He can protect. The armies of the people are useless without Him. Each person is useless without His wall of fire.

 

The love of the Law, which is the love of goodness, caused humble responses in the heart and spirit of the lover of God when he broke the law. Then his sacrifices were acceptable to God.

 

PSA 51:19 Then Thou wilt delight in righteous sacrifices,

In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;

Then young bulls will be offered on Thine altar.

 

Hence, an OT saint could be blameless, tamim, before God and before the Law even though he was a sinner. He had faith in God as his Redeemer and loved God with all his heart. This is his maturity. It is a maturity that looks forward to completeness in another life. It is a maturity under the shadow of things to come, while he looks forward to the things to come, the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham.

 

He would desire to perform the Law flawlessly, and so in his heart he desired to be blameless before the Law, but also knowing that he was not so in practice. Such a person could not be impartial to his sin.

 

Neither the Law or the NT doctrine tells us how to feel or requires it of us as a condition for forgiveness or fellowship, but if a person is impartial towards it, how does he love the One who hates it?

 

Saul said to Samuel that he had done all the will of the Lord. Samuel said, “What is that bleating of sheep that I hear?” We only see desire for the command of God come across Saul’s countenance when Samuel tells him that the kingdom has been taken from him. What did Saul actually love?

 

David, the lover of God, did lose the kingdom in his lifetime to his son Absalom, but in exile wrote Psa 23. David was a flawed man, but he desired the way of God more than anything when he was thinking soberly. When he became blinded by power and comfort, he suffered greatly in his sin.  

 

Behold the difference between the one who loves the Lord and the one who loves self first and foremost. The command was to love the Lord with all your heart. There is no room for split devotion.

 

The call to love and devotion to the Lord and His law hasn’t changed, but the completeness of love and devotion has changed drastically due to the actual, perfect redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

The OT saint who loved the Lord would know clearly that his Redeemer was the Lord, yet he wouldn’t know near as much about Him as you and I do. He could not see Christ as you and I do.  

 

The OT saint put his faith in things not seen.

 

HEB 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

HEB 11:2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

 

The writer of Hebrews goes on to list a number of examples of OT heroes in faith. And then, at the end of that list, he turns to the NT saint.

 

The NT saint puts his faith in things that are seen.

 

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

 

HEB 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author [Prince Ruler] and perfecter [teleios] of faith, who for [instead of] the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

HEB 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

 

HEB 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

 

Running the race with endurance while we fix our eyes upon Him, not growing weary or losing heart in sight of the many tribulations we face, resisting sin to the point of exhaustion would all be descriptions of the one who is conducting himself as one who is spiritually mature or spiritually complete.

 

“Jesus, the Prince-Ruler and Completer of faith …” OT faith was in an incomplete while ours is in that which is made complete.

 

HEB 2:10 revealed to us that Jesus’ mission was made complete when He finished the work and Heb 12 shows us that all things are complete and so, what we put our faith in, what we look to and believe, is totally complete. He is the Author and Finisher and He has made us complete when we believed upon Him and He belongs to us as our High Priest forever. This is why you and I can live in completeness or maturity.

 

In Heb 7, the writer draws a comparison between Jesus and Melchizedek, then Melchizedek and the Order of Aaron, and then the Levitical priesthood to the priesthood of Jesus.

 

HEB 7:11 Now if perfection [teleios] was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?