A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 11

Examining "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Day 11 

“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (Paul’s concern from 2 Corinthians 11:4) 

The False Filter	The Biblical Filter
The word OR the Word	The Word THROUGH the word

   I know BJ began this chapter by declaring his intention to prove that Jesus did not secure our salvation through a penal substitutionary atonement (PSA). My aim is not to test the wording of anyone’s version of the doctrine of PSA, but simply to test the scriptural understanding that Jesus was punished as a substitute for sinners for the securing of our atonement (complete cleansing from sin and full reconciliation with God) against the BJs’ claim that he did not. I can’t help it that my journey with God has included hearing, believing, and teaching these truths from scripture (not from a doctrinal statement or viewpoint). However, I have had times when I needed to change my mind about things I was taught when I discovered they were not what was staring me in the face from scripture, and I am quite willing to do so again if I find anything I have missed or misunderstood about God’s word.

   However, since we have already seen the author fail to make his case through his selective look at Isaiah 53, we must now test his success or failure with the next scripture he refers to, Psalm 22. This Psalm has been referred to as a messianic Psalm for as long as I have been aware of it, so I was quite curious how the author would “interpret” it after failing in his assessment of Isaiah 53 (and failing to prove his “word OR Word” theory when “the Word THROUGH the word” was so obvious). We’re still following up his “contemplative prayer” experience of hearing a voice claiming to be God the Father and telling him the exact opposite of Isaiah 53, and now Psalm 22 is supposed to provide the same clarification that God did not provide in Jesus the substitutionary atonement Isaiah prophesied. So, here we go!

   The author continues, “Then, in Psalm 22:1, I read the ‘cry of dereliction’: ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’ (NASB). Christ quoted this psalm while on the cross. That was when Jesus bore our sin and the Father turned his face from Christ, right?” (p. 46).

   It appears that the focus will revolve around “forsaken”. Does this mean that “the Father turned his face from Christ”? Or, does BJ have a better definition?[1]

   “But wait. Keep reading”, he encourages. And leads us “to verses 22–24, concluding with this:

24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. (Ps 22:24 NASB)” (p.46).

And then he makes this conclusion: “While Christ authentically co-suffered our affliction and bore our despair with us, not once did his Abba turn his face away…” (p. 46).

   Okay, so now BJ is sneaking in this whole other doctrinal claim, that “Christ authentically co-suffered our affliction and bore our despair with us”. Hmmm… what in the world does that mean, and where in the world (not the word) does he get that?! For the moment, I will leave the question open. I just wanted to point out that we have now moved from the author trying to prove that Jesus did not present himself in a penal, substitutionary, and atoning way (as in, Jesus dying in our place so that he was 100% the Savior and we contributed 0% of anything at all to our salvation), to now reading something assumed that hasn’t come up yet, that Jesus “co-suffered our affliction and bore our despair with us”. It would appear that the attempt to nullify Jesus’ atoning work as described by Isaiah is so that it becomes a co-thing, something Jesus did WITH us instead of a “Christ alone” thing that Jesus did FOR us. I will not wait with bated breath to see that one proved! For now, something stinks, and I’ll keep going to see why.

   As the unfinished sentence continues, BJ claims, “not once did his Abba turn his face away” (p. 46). Is that what the Scriptures say?

   Let’s clarify the wording to make sure we’re being true to what is written. Psalm 22 begins with,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
    and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2 ~ ESV)

Yes, I agree with the author that Jesus expressed that first line from the cross during his crucifixion. All we want to know is what “forsaken” means in both the Hebrew of the Psalm and the Greek of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. I will continue to provide the definitions from the Bible Sense Lexicon.

   In the Hebrew of Psalm 22:1, “forsaken” means, “to abandon v. — to forsake or leave behind.” Both David in his messianic prophecy, and Jesus in his messianic fulfilment, would have meant that the one expressing this phrase was abandoned, forsaken, and left behind. That would involve the person’s face turning away, so it is a fair picture. BJ is wrong.

   In Matthew 27:46, we first have the Aramaic word “sebachthani”, which means, “to reject (Aramaic) v. — to reject, conceived of as leaving (Aramaic); includes an Aramaic object marker, ’me’.” This is followed by the Greek translation of that word which means, “to reject ⇔ leave v. — to refuse to accept or acknowledge something, conceived of as leaving it behind or forsaking it.” This also would fit the picture of someone’s face turning away from another as they forsook them. Again, BJ is wrong.

   In Mark 15:34 we have the second account of this same event using the same words with the same meanings.

   And that means that God has given us three scriptural witnesses. First, the Hebrew of Psalm 22:1. Second, the Aramaic of Jesus’ statement from the cross. And, third, the Greek translation of Jesus’ words from the cross. These three witnesses indicate that Jesus was crying out his lament that God had forsaken him.

   At this point, simply taking the meaning of the word “forsaken”, it is already clear that it DOES mean to forsake, to turn the face away, to reject, everything someone would mean if someone turned away from them, rejected them, no longer was talking with them. It says that because that’s what was happening.

   However, as appears to be a pattern in BJ’s reasoning, the next part of the context was left out. This is huge because a big part of Hebrew poetry (as David was writing in his song) used parallel expressions that rhymed in thought the way us English-minded make rhymes with similar-sounding words.

   I might as well add a bit of my own journey to this just for fun. Back in my Bible college days (1977-1981), I was an average kind of student. I was never an academic, so learning Greek and Hebrew, and then learning about the Jewish mind from a German professor with an anger problem was a bit of a challenge! However, because I loved music and had delved into writing songs and poems for a few years, seeing that the Psalms were filled with thoughts that rhymed the way words rhymed in English began to fascinate me. There was no doubt that the biblical writers would emphasize their points in parallel thoughts. Sometimes the thoughts would be synonymous; other times they would be opposites. Over time, it began to sound in my head that these thoughts were rhyming, and I would often smile to myself simply to know that!

   All that to say that, if the first line of the Psalm is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” what thought comes next that rhymes with that?! Don’t you really want to know what a rhyming thought sounds like now?!

   Okay, what it says is, “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” This sounds exactly the way a forsaken person would feel, that the person they are calling out for is “far from saving” them, and “far… from the words” of their groaning. You know… FORSAKEN!

   But then the next verse adds two more parallel rhyming thoughts. The first is, “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer”. That sounds pretty clear. The second is, “and (I cry) by night, but I find no rest.” David crying “why have you forsaken me” means that the person was far from saving him, was far from his groaings, was not answering his cry, and was leaving him with no rest because he continued crying with no response. It was wearisome! And that’s what Jesus chose to express what was happening to him on the cross!

   So, what happens when we move ahead to the verses BJ jumps to? He replies:

If we’re going to reinterpret the cross, a proof text without context will not do. I continued down the page of my Bible to verses 22–24, concluding with this:

24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from him;
But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. (Ps 22:24 NASB) (p. 46).

The author claims that this is proof that the Father did not turn his face away in forsaking either David or Jesus. But is that what it says?

   What I mean is, can we take the beginning of a story, erase the story, jump to the conclusion, and say that a phrase telling the outcome nullifies an experience described early in the journey?

   For example, at the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph declares, “I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (vs 3). However, at the end of the Psalm, he writes this beautiful expression of worship to Yahweh, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (vs 25). How can he say he was envious of the wicked because they always seemed to prosper and also that he didn’t desire (envy) anything on earth because God was enough for him? Doesn’t one cancel out the other (in BJ’s thinking, I mean)?

   Well… no… because the beginning of the Psalm was Asaph talking about an experience he went through that got such a rotten hold of his heart that “my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped” (vs 2). He got so busy envying the ease and luxury of the wicked that he was verging on giving up his pursuit of righteousness.

   However, by the end of the Psalm, Asaph was describing what happened after he had grown weary of trying to understand this injustice. He said, “when I thought how to understand this (why the wicked prosper), it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (vss 16-17). This is HUGE! He was coveting the life of the wicked because they seemed to prosper and succeed without justice against their evil deeds, but when he “went into the sanctuary of God”, meaning, he got alone with God to focus on Yahweh and his word, he remembered what happens to the wicked in the end.

   Oh, oh! I accidentally brought up that notorious picture in God’s word of the “end” of “the wicked”. You know, where God will “make them fall to ruin” (vs 18), and “how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors” (vs 19). When Asaph “got” that (a pivotal point in changing the picture from start to finish in the psalm), that’s when he could express, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.” And, “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD (Lord Yahweh) my refuge, that I may tell of all your works” (vs 28). He had made such a journey from the deceptive power of coveting (there is a reason “you shall not covet” was one of the Ten Commandments!) to the glorious freedom of the sons of God that he could say virtually the exact opposite at the end from what he said at the beginning because of the journey he had taken, not because he was contradicting himself!

   Now, with that in mind, that a psalm may express such a journey that an expression at the end may sound like a contradiction to something at the beginning, let’s consider in context what BJ claims nullifies the “why have you forsaken me” that is our focus.

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
    in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
    All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
    and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
    the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
    but has heard, when he cried to him. (Psalm 22:22-24 ~ ESV)

   BJ uses verse 24 to make the conclusion that “not once did his Abba turn his face away…” (p. 46). So, is that what this says? Well, now we need to see what journey David makes in the Psalm that he would begin with such a clear statement that God had forsaken him, something Jesus declared in fulfilment of that prophecy, and conclude with a statement that God “has not hidden his face from him”. Does verse 24 nullify verse 1? Or is there a journey between them here just as there was for Asaph in Psalm 73?

   In note form, here’s what we have:

• David expressed that God had forsaken him, was distant from him, and not answering him (vss 1-2).
• He recalled how faithful God had been to his people in the past (vss 3-5).
• He then describes his situation where he was despised and mocked (vss 6-8).
• Next, he reminds Yahweh of how he has known his God from childhood (vss 9-10).
• And he petitions God to “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (vs 11).
• He describes the situation in metaphorical terms regarding animals trying to destroy him (vss 12-13).
• He then describes the effect of this on his body and soul (vss 14-15).
• He continues with a further description of these effects with specific prophetic words related to Jesus’ crucifixion (vss 16-18).
• And, with all that description of what he is facing, he then lays before God a specific petition for Yahweh to come near to deliver him and rescue him (vss 19-21).
• Now, I must emphasize that what comes next is AFTER David had felt and experienced what he described in the first 21 verses and prayed specifically for God’s intervention. What happens? David expresses his praise in the hearing of God’s people (just like Asaph) and announces what happened after all that anguished praying. God “has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (vss 22-24). This doesn’t nullify his starting place in verse 1 but magnifies God in how he responded to everything. It is also very prophetic of the church and the gospel that (as Isaiah wrote) “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). The “anguish of his soul” was real, and so was the “satisfied” part that came later.
• After that experience of God coming to his rescue, David praises God in expectation that many people will “turn to the LORD” who “rules over the nations” (vss 27-28).
• And he concludes with a picture of how the story will be told “to the coming generation” (vss 29-31), just as we have it recorded in Psalm 22.

   So, yes, Psalm 22 is like Psalm 73 (et al). It tells a story. From some of the most heartwrenching experiences of abandonment, loneliness, and hopelessness, and some of the most traumatic experiences of attack, scorn, and slander, there is a story of how God works in one life and situation after another to lead people to know him better than they had ever known him before.

   And this is what Jesus chose to quote from the cross, a Psalm that spoke of him a thousand years before his time and gave testimony that “For our sake he (Jesus’ Abba) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).

   Clearly, Jesus knew what he and David were talking about. Equally clearly, BJ did not.

 

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.) 

A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com 

Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition. 

Definitions from the Bible Sense Lexicon (BSL) in Logos Bible Systems  

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[1] Here is a look at Psalm 22 from the viewpoint of some Jewish people who are disciples of Jesus Christ our Lord. I include this simply to encourage everyone to see how easy it is to find resources that help us understand God’s word. https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/psalm-22-prophecy-crucified-messiah/