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April, 2025 (Vol.59-No.4) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on July 15, 1990 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and work- eth miracles among you, doeth he it by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham be- lieved God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Galatians 3:5-6 THE APOSTLE PAUL ASKED IN GALATIANS 3:1-2, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” The Galatian Christians had been brought into the kingdom by none other than Paul himself, and they had obviously received God’s Spirit. This passage should put an end to the doctrine “once-saved, always-saved,” because God puts His Spirit only in those whom He is saving. By Paul’s question, it is self-evident that these people had received the gift of the Spirit through the hearing of faith; they did not “earn” this gift through the works of the law. But someone had “bewitched” them or “put the evil eye” on them, which is why Paul asked the rhetorical question, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” In other words, “How did you start your Christian journey?” Then he asked, “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” What did Paul mean by “are ye now made perfect?” There are several different Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “perfect.” The word used here in Galatians 3:3 is a form of epiteleo, which means “to accomplish” or “to bring through to an end.” To be “made perfect” implies you are on a journey and moving toward a goal. It does not mean you are now sinless! The Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The Greek word translated “sin” is hamartia, which simply means “to fall short” of God’s righteousness. We are on a journey moving toward the completion of our purpose. The Galatians started walking by faith in God’s word, and they received the gift of His Spirit in response to their faith. That was how they began their journey toward securing eternal life. So Paul asked them, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now trying to complete the journey by the flesh?” In other words, having received God’s Spirit by faith, will you now try to push yourself the rest of the way by disciplined effort and willpower? In Colossians, Paul calls that “will-worship.” Paul went on to ask, “Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain.” This passage gives us the hope that if we stumble and succumb to the bewitchers, we can still start over again. Paul was not ready to accept that the Galatians’ present setback made all of their previous Christian experience in vain. That is why he wrote to them: he wanted them to recover from their current state. Then Paul pointed to his own ministry as an example. He asked the Galatians, “He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Paul was God’s gift to them, the one who brought them the Spirit by opening their eyes to the truth that for faith, not works, God would give them His life. Therefore, Paul could be “credited” with ministering the Spirit to them. So he asked them, in essence, “Are you following a preacher because he tries to make himself righteous by keeping the law, or because he walks by faith, following the same roadmap that you are supposed to follow?” It was another rhetorical question. These verses in Galatians challenge the tradition that Christianity draws people by the exemplary witness of a preacher’s lifestyle. In addition, these verses challenge the modern idea that all preachers must be morally perfect. Most Christians can accept the fact that we need grace because we are all sinners. We must also finally die to the terrible soul-killing traditions that make void the word of God. The traditionalists say, “Yes, Jesus saves by the grace through faith, but if you are really saved, you will prove it by your good works!” While very few churches ever graduate from that legalistic bondage, people still demand that, at the very least, a preacher must be an example of righteous living. In other words, people think, “If I am denied the benefit of my own self-righteousness, I should at least be allowed to be proud of my preacher’s righteousness.” Let me read you a shocking passage from Martin Luther’s “Table Talk.” Martin Luther was the great reformer. He had lived a monastic life among the Augustinian friars at the Black Cloister at Wittenberg. This monastery was closed after the Reformation began; however, Luther was later gifted the property and lived there with his wife and family, as well as with his students and other guests. Many of his guests would perform clerical work and other services in return for hearing his teaching. There was a constant parade of visitors, both well-known and unknown. At dinnertime, Luther would “let his hair down” and talk about whatever subjects came to mind or were raised at the table. His followers recorded those informal conversations, which resulted in the “Table Talk” that was ultimately compiled and published in many volumes. One of Luther’s guests, Master Forstemius, once said to him that “a certain brother named Lawrence, a Waldensian minister, had had himself castrated in his youth and confessed that in his old age he regretted it, for he burned more with desire then than before.” To this, Luther replied, “Yes, indeed, eunuchs are more ardent than anybody else, for the passion doesn’t disappear but only the power. For my part,” the great reformer said, “I’d rather have two pair added than one pair cut off!” The introduction to an American edition of Luther’s Works says, “Early editions of the works of Martin Luther did not include the Table Talk. It was with some misgivings that Johann Georg Walch finally decided to incorporate the Table Talk in his edition, which was published in twenty-four volumes in Halle between 1739 and 1753. Walch was aware that many Protestants were embarrassed by some things in the Table Talk – for instance, the earthy language which Luther occasionally employed…” It is difficult to remove years of accumulated theological scar tissue and persuade Christians to accept that we continue on our pathway to heaven the same way we started, namely by faith and not by works. As I said in the previous message, the three great epistles – Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews – all build on the phrase “The just shall live by faith,” which comes from Habakkuk 2. Each epistle approaches this phrase with a different emphasis. Galatians emphasizes the word “live,” Romans emphasizes the word “just” or “righteous,” and Hebrews emphasizes the word “faith.” In each case, this phrase is taken as the fulcrum of the Christian way. The law was a revelation of God’s righteousness, but Paul pointed out in Romans that another kind of righteousness is revealed by the way of faith. Paul said he was not ashamed of the gospel or “good news” of Christ because “it is the power of God unto salvation.” The Greek word translated “power” is dunamis, from which we get out English word “dynamite.” The good news of Christ carries within itself the effective power to save. The gospel accomplishes God’s purpose, whereas the law has never saved anyone. The law cannot stoop to our level and help us without compromising itself. Hebrews 3 teaches that we remain the habitation of God if we continue the same way we started. The path to glory begins, continues, and ends with “The just shall live by faith,” not by works. The Galatian Christians started on their Christian journey the right way, but then were deceived into thinking they must do certain works in order to keep them in the way. That is why Paul asked, “How did you get started?” There was only one possible answer: “By faith.” That is why he went on to ask, “So, are you now so foolish that you want to complete the journey by works?” Paul makes it clear that his ministry was not based on doing the works of the law. Indeed, in 1st Timothy 1:15, Paul referred to himself as the “chief” of sinners. Paul’s words create a “catch-22” for fundamentalists, because they cannot accept that Paul was anything less than perfect. Therefore, if he claimed he was not perfect, they must call him a liar. By their own standards, that would condemn him to hell. Otherwise, they must be bothered by the fact that two-thirds of the epistles, the “inerrant word of God,” were written by a man who referred to himself as the chief of sinners. Caught in that catch-22, they make excuses for Paul and say that he must have meant something other than “chief” and “sinners.” But again, if that were true, then Paul would be a deceiver. When Paul said he was the chief of sinners, he meant it. Here in Galatians, Paul was essentially saying, “I brought you the gospel; I ministered the Spirit to you and worked miracles among you. How did I do it? Was I ‘qualified’ to minister because I performed the works of the law? Must a minister of grace be perfect in order to dispense grace to you?” He was responding to the fact that most people assume that a preacher ought to be more like God and less like an ordinary Christian. That is what the church has done to preachers. Even worse, that is what preachers have done to themselves. They are so desirous of making themselves appear to be godlike that they elevate themselves and pull God down to their own puny level. They dispense God’s grace as though you need it and they don’t! And because that frame of reference also governs the world’s mindset, it seems like the whole church of Jesus Christ is going to crumble every time people discover that a preacher sins. God does not give preachers a ministry because of their perfection. He gives them a ministry as a gift because of their faith. Both the saints and the preachers must progress in their journey in the same way: by daily acts of faith and by constantly renewing their grip on God’s promises. The Judaizers had brought their bewitching message of legalism into the Galatian congregation. Paul called the Judaizers “perverts.” He knew that they looked up to Abraham, the father of faith and the father of the children of promise. So after speaking of the bewitchers, of the Galatian Christians, and of himself, Paul immediately leaped into a discussion of Abraham. Galatians 3:6 says, “Evan as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” I must point out a deficiency in our English translation. Notice it says, “Abraham believed God.” The word “believed” translates a form of the Greek word pisteuo. This word embraces more than mere belief; it is more than mere mental assent. Biblical faith always involves an action. I have defined faith as an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence in God’s promises. That is why, when you see the word “believed” in these verses, I ask you to substitute the word “faithed” to represent the sense of the original Greek word. So we can read this verse, “Even as Abraham faithed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” God credited Abraham with righteousness because of his faith, not his perfection. Paul taught on this same theme in more detail in Romans 4. He said, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?” Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old and childless, but God had promised them they would have a son. They grew impatient while waiting for God to fulfill His promise, so they decided to solve the problem themselves. Sarah gave Abraham her servant Hagar, and their union produced Ishmael. Abraham did not object; indeed, Sarah did not have to whip Abraham into taking Hagar into the tent. I am sure that the very thought of such an arrangement offends the sensibilities of many Christians, but that is only because they do not want to put flesh and blood on these biblical heroes. We do not like to think of them as being guilty of sins of the flesh. “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?” We know that he served his flesh a lot, and that he lacked the ability to be perfect. Even after receiving the greatest promise that God ever gave him, he sought to accomplish that promise with his own fleshly ability. It did not take a miracle to produce Ishmael. Abraham heard the objective of God’s promise that he would produce offspring, and he tried to figure out what he could do in the flesh to bring it about. The principle is this: when someone tries to obtain God’s promises through fleshly effort, the result is only a surface-level approximation of what was promised. That is what Abraham found pertaining to the flesh. So Paul went on to say, “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Again, I would say, “Abraham faithed God.” Abraham ultimately trusted in God’s promises and acted on his belief, and God counted his faith as righteousness. Imagine, if you will, that God kept a ledger for each of us, in which He recorded our righteousness. He could only record a series of negative entries that indicate we have fallen short. Despite our best efforts, none of us, including Paul and Abraham, could ever earn even one positive entry in our ledger. Because of church traditions, Christians have become preoccupied with defining and measuring people’s sins. Indeed, the church at large has become more concerned with unrighteousness or anti-righteousness than they are with righteousness. The tradition-bound churches essentially produce a checklist of unrighteous deeds. These are things you must never do and behaviors you must eliminate, by using your willpower, in order to get to heaven. Many Christians have become so preoccupied with their checklist of unrighteousness that they fail to understand they have not even entered the door of God’s righteousness. They do not understand the meaning of sin, as the Bible defines sin. Again, the Greek word translated “sin” means “to fall short.” Whether you have committed the worst sin in the world or you simply fall short in your efforts to do right, you still fall short of God’s righteousness. Paul said, “All have sinned.” God does not keep a ledger of your unrighteous deeds; neither does He give you credit for all the unrighteous behaviors you have eliminated. His “tally sheet” only records righteousness, therefore your ledger is a blank sheet. You do not have anything to your credit, because from God’s view, sin is falling short of righteousness. Sin is the absence of righteousness, not the presence of unrighteousness. All of our unrighteous deeds were laid upon Christ at Calvary. One of the things wrong with the traditional church is that it will not let the cross take its effect. Whether you “accept” Christ or not, He bore all our sins and paid the penalty for them. Yet the traditional church cannot seem to let go of our sins. The church has a perverted interest in the things we are not supposed to do, as though the stairway to righteousness were a step-by-step process of killing each anti-righteous act that was already killed in Christ at Calvary. God will credit you with righteousness as you go up the stairway of faith, continuing the same way you started. That is the kind of righteousness that was credited to Abraham. That is why it is written, “Abraham faithed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Christ’s finished work will credit us with righteousness for our faith. Abraham was not perfect; he had ups and downs and made many mistakes. Yet he kept acting in faith to the point where he proved he was willing to sacrifice his own son, although God would not let him go through with it. All of our acts of faith are counted as righteousness. No amount of willpower applied to produce an imitation of righteousness will give you any credit with God. God imputes righteousness to you. Imputation is a judicial act. God transfers your acts of faith into your account of righteousness. Let’s read again from Romans 4, beginning at verse 3: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham faithed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” You see, it does not matter how “good” you think you are. Imagine a man climbing up the pathway of righteousness. He looks back and says, “I’m pretty good! There are plenty of people who have not progressed as far as I have.” He thinks his reward will be reckoned of debt, so he tells God, “You owe me something for having come this far!” But God would say, “We have a contract under the Old Testament. Our contract states that if you live according to My law, you shall live eternally. But according to the contract’s terms, you are measured by your perfection. You are only looking at the distance you have come, whereas I am looking at the distance between where you are and My righteousness. Therefore, you still fall short. If you want to take your sins off the cross by your lack of faith and put them back onto yourself, then you are a dead man! I owe you nothing!” Again, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth” or faitheth “on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” The law became incarnate in Christ and died on Calvary. All of the sins of mankind were taken off mankind and put on Christ. The penalty has been fully paid and the law is now dead! If you want to resurrect the law and try to make it into heaven on the basis of your merits, you will be judged by the perfection of God’s standard. But the distance between where you are and where you should be dims the distance you have traveled with your fleshly will-worship. Your “good behavior” might earn man’s approval, but you no longer have God’s approval or the covering of His grace, and you are lost! No attempt to climb up the path of righteous works counts for anything before God. Only the path of faith gets God’s attention. Returning to Romans, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly…” Justifies whom? Paul’s words shock most traditionally-minded Christians. “After all,” they think, “doesn’t the church want God to justify the godly?” But the Bible says that God “justifieth the ungodly,” not those who think they are made godly by their works. God justifies sinning saints, a preacher like Paul, and the father of faith himself, Abraham, who directly conversed with God and was called “the friend of God.” God takes your maintained faith energy and starts crediting your ledger of righteousness. You are thus viewed as being “just like God” because He viewed Christ as just like you. Only the walk of faith takes us to our eternal home. I maintain that 99 percent of the church world has been bewitched. There are many Christians who would say in their heart of hearts that what I am teaching is true, especially if they have any knowledge of the Reformation and church history in its purest stream, from Augustine to Luther. The message of the Reformation set a continent free from centuries of darkness and bondage. It is the message God gave to Paul, without whom the church would have been aborted in the first century. Indeed, without Paul, the very reason Jesus came and the good news of the gospel itself would have been destroyed. But most Christians lack the courage to buck the traditions of men. They still believe that God must give them credit, or at least some acknowledgement, for eliminating their bad habits, sins, and unrighteous deeds, and for performing some good old-fashioned righteous deeds. As a pastor, I do not try to instill the performance of the law. But I do try to instill good faith habits. You know the difference between an act of faith based upon a promise of God and an act of conforming your behavior in response to coercion. Doing good deeds does not bring you any closer to God. Many churches are full of people who walk the pathway of righteous works. They have no faith at all, but they have their checklist. They think, “It’s a miserable existence, bult if I go to church on Sundays, at least I can earn some ‘brownie points’ with God. I want to live my self-centered life and serve only me. Besides, if God is real, He certainly hasn’t been paying much attention to me. But to make my conscience feel good, I will keep my checklist every Sunday.” I am by no means saying there is no value in being an ethical person, but I make a distinction between ethics and righteousness. Righteousness is the fruit of God’s Spirit in you. I cannot measure it, and only you and God have the ability to recognize it as His product. God’s word sets you free and gives you the knowledge of righteousness by faith, which is counted in His ledger as genuine righteousness. When I exhort people to be faithful and participate in God’s work, I have never suggested that such behavior somehow makes you more righteous. I appeal to your simple human decency, but I make no claim that God will reward you for it. But I also appeal to your calling, which goes beyond righteousness and does have to do with your entrance into heaven. One day, you will stand before the great Judge. You will not have to stand before the so-called White Throne Judgment, because Christ has already paid the price for our sins and taken the judgment on our behalf. But you will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, where He will bestow treasures forevermore because of your faithfulness. Again, all of your bad deeds, which the world and the traditional church are so concerned about, have been laid on Christ. But having been cleansed of your sins, you can mistakenly think you must now walk up the pathway of righteousness by eliminating bad deeds and doing good deeds. You will never make it up that path. The only way you make progress with God is by continuing the same way you started, by performing acts of faith and receiving His covering of grace. You must seize a promise of God daily and act on it in faith. God then transfers your faith to your ledger of righteousness. Satan’s name means “accuser.” Whenever Satan stands before God and says, “What about Gene Scott and his congregation with all of their faults, and shortcomings?” God’s answer is, “Christ met your challenge and He was without sin. And the sins of those whom you are now accusing have all been laid on Christ. Now, Satan, let’s talk about Gene Scott’s faith, and let’s talk about his congregation’s faith. Let’s talk about all the times they kept their grip on My promises, when their circumstances turned bad, and they said, ‘Damn you to hell, Satan, and all the circumstances you magnify! God made a promise, and that settles it. We are hanging on to God’s word!’” God can answer the accuser because He has the right to take Christ’s righteousness and put it on us. He credits us with righteousness because of our faith. Many preachers know that this is the true message of the gospel, but they compromise it. They throw a bone to the traditionalists and say, “Yes, Jesus saves, but you must still do good works!” I am presenting the gospel with no “buts” attached! So I ask you, “Why don’t you honor the proclamation of this message?” There is no “righteousness” per se in regularly attending church. I do not think that the man who picked up Jesus’ cross when he stumbled had more righteousness than the disciples who fled. We are not talking about righteousness in this context; we are talking about a quality that only God can measure when He rewards those who have already made it into His kingdom. Don’t you have enough gumption to want to take a stand against the world? Don’t you want to rebuke the traditionalists who have held you in bondage? I am not preaching a new doctrine. Yet traditions are so ingrained that, no matter how clear God’s word is, you might still allow your tradition-bound, self-righteous friends and relatives to lay a guilt trip on you, and you might start to wonder, “Am I only seeing one side?” You are only seeing one side: God’s side! Don’t you want to take a stand against the devil, who has compromised the gospel throughout history? Jesus went to the cross alone to purchase our redemption. Paul ended his ministry saying, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” and “Only Luke is with me.” All those in Asia had succumbed to the bewitchers. What about you? Wouldn’t you want to be the generation before Jesus comes that says, “We will take our stand for the gospel and against all those who have sought to kill this message?” For the most part, the bewitchers have succeeded in almost every generation of the church. There are certain things you ought to do for the sake of truth, not because you want credit. For example, I hope that any man would protect his wife’s honor. A man ought to do this simply because he is a man, and not because he wants credit for righteousness. I am asking you to protect the honor and integrity of the gospel! The Bible record shows that I might end my ministry the same way Paul did, with very few standing with me; but there is something in me that wants to believe that this church can be an exception before our Lord returns. This church is not like many traditional churches, where the message of God’s grace is abused by people who hold the obnoxious, self-righteous belief that their works make them more righteous before God. The New Testament teaches that righteousness is God’s gift, which comes from His inexhaustible grace at Calvary. The best in human nature, in response to God’s grace, produces the rare hero of faith who will stand up and be counted in these last days. May God let this message of grace have the allegiance of faithful people who will make this testimony and say, “Thank you, Lord, for the grace so amazing that it reached even to me!” Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott  The traditional Easter sunrise service has its origins in heathen sun worship. This practice is far removed from the Hebrew frame of reference into which the Son, as the revelation of God, came in a tent of human flesh called Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. According to the Hebrew calendar, the day begins at sundown, not at sunrise! Jesus rose from the dead on a Saturday evening, not at sunrise on a Sunday morning. The sunrise service is nothing more than a reenactment of an ancient heathen worship practice that traces back to Babylon. The truth has been painted over with a caricature of the facts surrounding the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I once visited a church in Turkey that had been turned into a mosque, in which someone had crudely painted over an iconic painting of Jesus. The garish paint had started to flake away and I could see little sections of Jesus peeking out from behind it. This is a good analogy to what happens when we study the history of Easter celebration: the true image of Christ emerges when we peel away the layers of traditions that make void the word of God. The traditional church mistakenly commemorates Christ’s crucifixion on “Good Friday.” The name “Friday” itself comes from either Frigga or Freya, which are Scandinavian names for Semiramis. Jesus did not die on a Friday, and He did not rise on a Sunday morning. The Bible says that when people asked Jesus to show them a sign, He said there would be no sign given other than the sign of Jonah. He then interpreted the book of Jonah, saying that as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights, He would likewise be in the tomb for three days and three nights. Therefore, Jesus had to die on a Wednesday and rise on a Saturday evening immediately after sundown. Jesus came to fulfill prophecy, and as Matthew’s Gospel points out, the fulfillment of this prophecy is one among many that prove His Sonship. God does things according to His set times, and He will not relinquish His control over history. Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son…” In the Old Testament, God said in Leviticus 23:4, “These are the feasts of the LORD…” The literal meaning is, “These are the set times of the LORD.” God then outlined these set times, starting with the Sabbath. In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews teaches that the Sabbath represents the life of faith and our continuing acts of faith. The other set times are Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. These are all “feast days” on the Hebrew Calendar. Jewish people still commemorate these feast days, in addition to other days that have been added in memory of specific events in their history. In Colossians 2:17, Paul calls the feast days “a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” An alternative translation is “the substance is of Christ.” If you follow a shadow, it leads you to the real substance that casts the shadow. The shadow is not the reality. Paul lays down the principle that each of these set times was a shadow that either was fulfilled or will be fulfilled in Christ. The first feast day Jesus had to fulfill was Passover. Jesus was destined to be offered as the Passover sacrifice. He could not die before this set time. In John 7, Jesus’ brethren pressed Him to go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. But Jesus replied, “I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” Jesus knew that the Pharisees resented Him, and if He went openly to Jerusalem, He might be arrested and killed before God’s set time. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 5:7, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us…” God established Passover on the night the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt’s bondage. The children of Israel were instructed to slay a lamb for each household and apply its blood to the doorposts and lintels of their houses. That night, the angel of death would “pass over” every house that had the blood applied. But if the blood were not applied, the angel of death would slay the firstborn in the house. The death of the firstborn typifies the condemnation we are all due because of our sins. This condemnation passed over us because Christ died in our place. So Passover was an educational instrument, prophetically pointing to the Substance to come. Christ had to die on Passover; he could not have died at any other time. At first glance, that might not seem too difficult a task for God to accomplish. All He would have to do is keep Jesus out of Jerusalem until the right day. But in reality, this was no small feat. God did not have the option of having Christ die on just any Passover. He had to die on a specific day in a specific year. Passover falls on the fourteenth day of a particular month based upon the Hebrew lunar calendar. Passover can occur on a different day of the week, depending on the year and the movement of the heavenly bodies. Christ’s death had to occur in a certain year and not any other year, because there were other set times that had to be fulfilled. He not only had to die on a specific Passover, He also had to fulfill the Feast of Unleavened Bread and come out of the tomb as the Firstfruits of the Resurrection exactly 72 hours after His death. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins at sundown at the end of Passover and lasts for seven days. The next set time, Firstfruits, is a feast that occurs within a feast: it occurs on the first day of the week within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. If the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on a Monday, the Feast of Firstfruits would occur on a Sunday six days later. If the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on a Tuesday, then the Feast of Firstfruits would still occur on the following Sunday, but only five days later. God’s Son gave His life as the supreme Passover sacrifice. It could only occur in a particular year in which Passover fell on a Wednesday, so the Feast of Unleavened Bread would start of Thursday, allowing exactly 72 hours before Firstfruits, which begins on Sunday. God’s plan had to take into account the lunar calendar, the solar calendar, and even the precession of the equinoxes in its nearly 26,000-year cycle. If the crucifixion had happened one year earlier or one year later, Passover would have fallen on a different day. Jesus could only be placed in the tomb at sundown on a Passover when it was possible for Him to come out of the tomb on Saturday at sundown, which was the beginning of the first day of the week on the Hebrew calendar. Many people have wondered how Christ could have remained in the tomb for three days and three nights if He was crucified on a Friday and rose from the dead on a Sunday. Even though that is not possible, many Christians have tried to explain it using faulty reasoning. They say that Jesus was crucified on Friday, which is one day. He was in the tomb on Saturday, which is two days. And He rose on Sunday morning, which makes three days. I wish our workweek could be calculated like that! This kind of silly reasoning has caused thinking people to turn off on Christianity. This reckoning cannot be true, because Jesus specified that He would be in the tomb for three days and three nights. That means He had to be crucified on Wednesday. He had to fulfill the Feast of Unleavened Bread by being placed in the tomb on Thursday, that is, after sundown on Wednesday. Remarkably, modern Jews unknowingly symbolize Christ’s burial and Resurrection in a ritual in which a piece of unleavened bread is hidden and brought out at the end of the Passover meal. Jesus rose on the first day of the week to fulfill the Feast of Firstfruits. To fulfill God’s set times, Jesus had to remain in the tomb for three days and three nights. From Wednesday sundown to Thursday sundown is one day and one night, or 24 hours. Then from Thursday sundown to Friday sundown makes two days and two nights, or 48 hours. Then from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown makes a total of three days and three nights, or 72 hours. Jesus came out of the tomb the moment the sun went down on Saturday night. Thus, He perfectly fulfilled everything that the shadows had pointed to. Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | April, 2025 Wingspread | March, 2025 Wingspread | February, 2025 Wingspread | January, 2025 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | Year 2024 Wingspreads | Year 2025 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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