The Extent of Yeshua’s Sacrifice

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PSALM 51 – Part III SinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace.
May 18th, 2025

We left off last week saying, herein lies a subtle nod to the fact that Yeshua was “God with us” because ONLY the Mark, in its perfection, in spirit and truth, as literally, “the way, the truth and the life,” could EVER make an actual viable payment for our “missing the Mark” BECAUSE – “He was the Mark in SPIRIT and became the Mark in Flesh and blood.” For us. Our of love. And this is especially true when we consider the breadth, depth, height, and width of His sacrifice.

If or since God the Mark became flesh, meaning a living human being, His blood was incomprehensibly effective in paying not just for Adam’s transgression, not just for the spiritually illiterate pagans from Cain to Moses, not just the Nations’ sin according to the Law, and not just for those who believe on Him’s in the Bride, but the sin of our once dark heavens, and chaotic earth as the Light that shined upon it and the Word that commanded it to reorder itself, redeeming the kosmos, but for the whole world and everything above it in heaven, on earth and below the earth, as Paul states in 2nd Corinthians 5:19, saying

Reconciliation through Christ

“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

We make a grave error in our understanding of His sacrifice when we assign its application to certain periods of time alone as some suggest that it was for “Israel Only,” or “for Adam’s transgression” alone,” or for those who have “right faith,” meaning the right idea of Yeshua. Then there are ideas that His atonement for sin was universal – which is true – and as evidenced by John the Baptist witnessing

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Or Paul saying in 2nd Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; Or John the Beloved saying in 1st John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Or again two chapters later, saying

The Propitiation for Our Sins

1Jo 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And of course, 1st Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.

Herein lies the problem with reading a text that describes what He has done in an age AFTER He has done it – We read the text as if we are in the age it was written, and are flummoxed by the fact it speaks of “believing to be saved from our sin” which was only to them/then and applicable to the former covenant conditions which included from sin, satan, hell, grave AND the great and dreadful day heading their way instead of reading that we are recipients of having been saved from all such things BUT still being called by the Spirit of the Son to receive all that He has done for us by faith on Him who is in us!

Context of Sin and Payment

The scripture is plain with regard to sin and His payment and must be seen in context of the ages and economies in which we have lived. Speaking of the sin of Adam and His age, Paul wrote

Romans 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man’s offence deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Then speaking to the Nation, the Jews, and their sin under the Law, we read, Hebrew 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of

The Role of Jesus in Sacrifice and Redemption

Offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Entering into the Holiest

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The Covenant and Faith in Christ

Then looking to the Bride of that day, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, the writer of Hebrews concludes (specifically to Jews) Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Yeshua the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And how Paul also wrote to the Church at Colosse saying, Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

But, again, here is where things get difficult because the Bible, especially the Apostolic Record, literally and actually ties “the forgiveness of sin to them having faith in Christ.” We cannot get around this fact. But at the same time, it also (ALSO!) describes the fact that Christ paid not only for Adam’s transgression, not only for those who lived between…

Faith and Salvation

Adam and Moses, not only for those who believed on God through the Law or those who believe on Him as members of the Bride, but also for the world. When we allow the context of this to slip, and assign sin and the forgiveness of it to our having faith, we misappropriate the ancient text to ourselves, making salvation conditional on our efforts and our works and our faith instead of seeing the text as being conditioned on the age in which we live AND the fact that we are saved TO the Kingdom NOT universally but by our faith, trust and hope in HIS FAITH and not our own.

The scripture is plain folks with what appear to be contradictory messages –

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ONE, to the people of that day – the Bride – that Christ their promised Messiah came and did what YAHAVAH promised them before the wrath of God fell on those people then and their need to receive Him by faith in order to escape from sin, death, Satan, hell and the approaching dreaded day,

But also

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TWO, in and through God performing this work as promised and offering it to the BRIDE, the world was unconditionally saved from sin, death, hell, and Satan and that forgiveness was made possible by the purity of His shed blood and forfeited life and that we now place our faith on His faith, and our salvation is not merited by our faithfulness . . . but His.

Paul’s Insight on Righteousness

Paul gives us insight into this subtle but essential understanding in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote in chapter 3, after calling all his former works dung under the law he adds his desire to be Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

There is a whole theological debate that exists on whether the meaning here is faith OF Christ or faith in Christ. May the Spirit guide – but in my estimation, the former is far more logical, contextual and in the end meaningful in soteriological positions than the traditional view which I suggest was the product of later Christian dogmas established after the Bride was saved.

Think about it – if it is our faith in Christ, then it is on us to save ourselves, it is on us to be both justified and sanctified, our choice which in the end equates to our strength, meaning our greatness – and that produces pride and judgment no different than the Jews under the Law.

But the context of Paul’s comments here in Philippians 3 suggest a keen insight into the reality which I propose today – and that is this: We make a shift, forevermore, from the idea that we must have faith in Him as Lord, Savior and King but instead have faith on His faith in accomplishing all that He did on our behalf.

The Shift in Faith Perspective

Why make this a thing? Because it shifts from our doing and having to His having done more effectively. Because it moves us more to a place of resignation and acceptance of Him as the author and finisher of our faith RATHER than putting the onus on us to save ourselves through our faith . . . And because it is far more reasonable to see the incarnation as absolutely necessary, that there is no other way to the Father except by and through Him and His Life, Faith, Death and Resurrection and that the inevitable response is to merely humbly receive Him and His work rather than have to create the gumption within ourselves to have faith IN it all . . . rather than to accept and receive and live BY it all.

The final reason I propose this shift is because of the context of what Paul adds to his Philippians 3 wording. So let’s read it again, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Got all that? Now listen to what he adds as His reason for this, saying 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; And then he adds, 11 “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” The context of these additional lines lend great support to the idea that

Faith in Christ

We, like Paul, seek to have faith in His faith, not faith in His life and works, as a means to partake in His person, perfections, and very resurrection, through knowing Him and the power of His personal resurrection, and what Paul calls, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death… All as a means, or as Paul says, “IF by any means he might “attain” unto “the resurrection of the dead.” Which we will wrap up with before ending today. All of these phrases Paul uses skip application to his having faith on Christ, but directly suggest him participating, relating to, landing on the faith OF Christ, as a means to, again, know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and to experience the “fellowship of His sufferings, through being made “comformable to HIS death… again and with Paul’s personal stated ambition “IF by any means he might “attain” unto “the resurrection of the dead.”

Understanding Sin

Now, in an effort to try and bring this all together, I want to try and expand on the whole concept of Sin in a way to illustrate why we, like Paul, look to the faith of CHRIST, the faith that He possessed and not our own as a means to actually hit the Mark rather than to allow ourselves to think we have hit it through our own faith in Him rather than through accepting and relying on His faith alone. Remember back when I described the bulls-eye given to the Nation of Israel? I likened it to a dark board hanging in an Irish pub. Let’s take a look at some imagery of this item:

GRAPHIC #1

Barroom Dartboard TRUE BULLSEYE FOR NATION OF ISRAEL

GRAPHIC #2

REALITY OF ISRAEL’S BULLSEYE

CHRIST’S BULLSEYE – Complete from every direction.

Christ’s Perfect Execution

In other words, the incomprehensible finished work of Christ is akin to a giant jaw breaker with the center while ball representing the Mark and all the surrounding layers, built out and around that inner core representing missing the Mark of the perfection of God and the only human to ever strike true to that core was Him. If this was the case, we could not possibly be saved by our faith but only, solely, completely by His along with His perfect execution of such. The former way, the traditional view is a miss because we cannot conceive of the faith required to justify and sanctify us before God, only His Son could, and therefore we place our faith ON HIS FAITH having done the inconceivable for us, and in just simply looking to Him alone we are able to do what Paul described as the result –

Knowing Him.
Experiencing the Power of His Resurrection.
Experiencing the actual fellowship of His sufferings, and
Being made conformable to His death

All as a means to concur with Paul’s stated desires “IF by any means we might “attain” unto “the resurrection of the dead.” You want to understand the whole playbook of God it’s here, I HUMBLY suggest, that once we humbly reject all the ideals surrounding religious approaches to so-called sin, and allow ourselves to actually “see” and understand the contextual settings for it and God’s approach to addressing it Himself through His only human Son, and once we realize that it is NOT our precious faith but the FAITH OF CHRIST that we look to, then we will begin to experience what Paul says in Ephesians 3 starting at verse 14. (LISTEN as he writes to the Bride in that day)

14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That

Understanding the Fulness of God

Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. That fullness, accessible ONLY in and through the faith of Christ embraced in our lives is understood by a number of references in the scripture, especially by Paul, like when he wrote in Colossians, Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. And Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The Meaning of Resurrection

Back to Paul’s desire to “if by ANY means he might “attain” “unto the resurrection of the dead,” we have to ask, what does this mean? The resurrection of the dead was promised unconditionally to all, both the just and the unjust by Christ wasn’t it? It was. So what the heck is Paul talking about when he says he wants to attain it? This was a humble aspiration of Paul’s, and the word he uses, which is not found anywhere else in the Apostolic Record, is he aspired to receive an ex-anastasin (which is translated, resurrection of the dead) but the word for resurrection everywhere else in the scripture is “anastasis” which literally means “to stand up again” or the general resurrection of shame or glory given to all.

What does Paul’s adding the prefix, “ex” to “anastasin” mean? Ex means “out” in Greek, and so Paul seems to mean that he was striving for a resurrection that was OUT of the norm – seriously – and isn’t that wild. Well, I want the same thing – I humbly strive for a resurrection, given to all souls by God, that is out of the ordinary and since it is out of the ordinary and since it comes forth Christ alone, I have long wondered what is part of such a qualification, process or walk?

The Process of Attaining Fulness

And after all of this talk through scripture, and after all of the seeking to understand, I submit to you the following as a feasible response which is the ONLY way possible to receive what Paul desired for himself IS by and through – ready? FIRST, by Knowing Him. Which means, (GRAPHIC) to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by (His) faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to “comprehend” (know, understand) with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.

(Dimensions that are only possible by Him being in us and suggest that we personally experience the fulness of His maturity, wisdom and victory from every angle) and (GRAPHIC) to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, Which is so contradictory – to KNOW the love of Christ which PASSES knowledge?? Also possible only through Him being in us and teaches us the incomprehensible immensity of His LOVE. GRAPHIC that we might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Which I maintain is possible only through Him and not through anything of us – anything).

We will wrap today up, and this series, with this. But first, Paul says it also includes our Experiencing the Power of His Resurrection. How is this possible except by Him indwelling each of us and teaching us how to live and walk by and through this power instead of by the power of our fleshly ways? It’s not. And so again, we look to and rely on Him in us, the Resurrected Him in us, leading us to live in the POWER of His resurrection WHILE walking in these bodies of flesh.

The Fellowship of His Sufferings

I want to witness to you here and now that what is being described here is possible – attainable, as Paul wrote – but only through our allowing, letting and receiving all He is into our souls. Paul adds the third and fourth part, saying, Experiencing the actual fellowship of His sufferings, And being made conformable to His death!

This is an important “literary reversal” of what Christ experienced Himself when incarnate as Paul first mentions experiencing “the power of His resurrection” then experiencing His sufferings, then being conformable to His death, but Christ first suffered, then died, and was then resurrected. Why does Paul do this? I suggest that in all of my past teachings on this I have been wrong, and that Paul knew better as an apostle of the Living Christ which is evident.

Paul’s Teaching on the Order of Experiencing Christ

By His reordering and applying Christ’s life for us in a way that is different. See, I used to teach that the order was directly tied to the same order of Christ. So first, that we had to be born from above like Christ taught Nicodemus. But because of fulfillment, and Christ having had the victory over all things, what we are actually doing is first recognizing Him in us (which was from birth) and our learning to choose to accept and receiving His victorious presence as a matter-of-fact reality. This fact is obvious from the reality that many souls seek for God without ever having to be born-from above first. What we all have in us, what we typically ignore, is the Resurrected victorious power of Christ’s presence and this is one reason Paul reorders things.

The Order of Christ’s Life

My former teaching were that a person must be born again like Yeshua said to Nicodemus, and only then can you suffer as He did, then you suffer death to your flesh, then you can walk in the power of His resurrection. But Paul makes it clear through His ordering of these events of Christ life that in the face of victory, our first reliance and reality is to recognize the presence of the risen resurrected victorious Christ in us, a free gift to all, which is to EXPERIENCE the power of His Resurrection BECAUSE IT IS ONLY by and through the POWER of HIS RESURRECTION that we will be able to “experience the fellowship of His sufferings,” and then finally, to have the strength and ability through Him to be made “conformable to HIS death.” Take a look at this little graphic which may help –

CHRIST’S MORTAL LIFE
EPHESIANS 3 ORDER FROM PAUL
Born of a Woman
Born Spiritually by Accepting Christ in us.
Suffered
Experiencing the Power of His Resurrection
Died and Buried
Experiencing the “fellowship of His suffering”
Resurrected
Being made conformable to His death.

Looking back personally over my life this revision is far more in harmony with my own humble experience than what I had taught before which seems to have served to be a step in the right direction but not the direction itself. Finally, to wrap this series up to the final element to attaining what Paul sought – which AGAIN is all in and through Him, His power, His faith, and His indwelling person, which might be summarized by what Paul wrote in Ephesians where he wished that the saints of that day

Understanding the Dimensions

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“may be able to “comprehend” (know/ understand) with “all saints” what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” “Breadth, length, depth and height “AND “to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge,” and equates to the possibility of our being, “filled with all the fulness of God.” So what is this idea of our actually understanding, “the breadth, length, depth and height of a matter?” Through this model of space modern physics explains three elements – and I want to use it to describe what Paul may have meant relative to our belief on Christ.

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The first dimension is “length” like a line.

You can’t build on it alone so,

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The second dimension is length and width, like a square or rectangle.

And on this we can at least illustrate a plane or completely flat surface. So, we might look at our understanding Christ in a remedial flat way, like this,

Graphic
The third dimension is length, width, and height, like a cube or box

Graphic
We might see the first three dimensions collectively as those who have Christ in them in a very rudimentary manner, infantile, babe-like – and maybe not at all. We can’t really understand Him, know Him, truly experience Him as a three dimensional being. That said, I am unsure if we can experience exanastasis at this stage – certainly we can experience being saved to the Kingdom, but like Paul, I want a resurrection that is outside of the norm.

The Fourth Dimension

This introduces the fourth dimension to the model. Note that Paul supplies us with four dimensions when he says, “the breadth, length, depth and height” of what I believe is Him. I assign the first three to the line, width and depth of Christ but add in the fourth dimension of height to our model, which comes through time – the fourth dimension, and it might look like our experiencing the Height of Christ like this:

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Because time cannot factor into our ability, the notion of

Main Topic: Understanding Salvation and Spiritual Growth

To our life span so maturity over time must be limited to the heart of each individual and not the amount of time they had to allow Christ to grow in them. I hope all of this has helped you all comprehend sin, His salvation for the world, and then what God seems to make available to all souls through the finished work and spirit of Christ in totality.

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