Chp.33 - Justin Continues To Show Diverse Advents

Justin in continued use of Psalm 110 shows that it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently, Trypho, and this generation of the Circumcision, believed this Psalm to speak in reference of king Hezekiah, but I am unaware of this Jewish teaching. This leaves me in confusion as to how the Circumcision would apply this to Hezekiah, but nevertheless Justin brings out a clear and unmistakable rebuke to those who make salvation exclusive to the national covenant and standard of Israel. Justin uses this verse to also bring out the fact that Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High in the pattern and order of the uncircumcised. "But your ears are shut up, and your hearts are made dull.1 For by this statement, ‘The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek,’ with an oath God has shown Him (on account of your unbelief) to be the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek; i.e., as Melchizedek was described by Moses as the priest of the Most High, and he was a priest of those who were in uncircumcision, and blessed the circumcised Abraham who brought him tithes, so God has shown that His everlasting Priest, called also by the Holy Spirit Lord, would be Priest of those in uncircumcision." Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 211). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Galatians 5:1–12 (NKJV) 1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. 7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

Justin closes this chapter with the intent to lift up the heads of Trypho and his circumcised friends. His desire for them is to walk in the same liberty of which Christ has also set the uncircumcised free. This liberty is in the new covenant and doctrine of Christ. Paul spoke of this liberty when the heresy of the circumcision was creeping into the Galatian church. The point of circumcision and/or uncircumcision is faith working through love to persuade the unregenerate culture to turn from what does not avail for justification to the faith that does justify. Paul's point was, that though he gives freedom to the uncircumcised, he doesn't set aside the preaching of circumcision. He still preached circumcision to show that it was God's purpose to tie the hands of this unregenerate faith from doing any good and to show that their unleavened bread has no life in it to profit anyone. Galatians 5:2 (NKJV) 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. In other words, the point of circumcision was to separate Israel for death and leave her empty in the lifeless covenant to be made teachable unto the doctrine of Christ. Christ is the leaven that will cause this new lump to rise and feed many. To return to the old leaven and doctrine of the circumcision would be to estrange themselves from Christ (Gal.5:4). This is to say that they make Christ ineffectual by their doctrine and practice. They love not God nor the people he has died for, but their own self gratifying religion. It is self worship; and until the true circumcision has its effect, they are not truly unleavened nor can be made into a new lump. 1 Corinthians 5:4–8 (NKJV) 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Their worship is vain and is not offered in sincerity according to the truth. The Father seeks worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth. Paul is not only applying this to the sexually immoral man who was noted to be sleeping with his mother but also to those idolators and swindlers bound in covetousness and greed. 1 Corinthians 5:9–13 (NKJV) 9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” Church discipline is always for those name the name of Christ and make their identity in Christ, yet remain in sin. These are hypocrites and bring shame to his name and body. They reopen the Lord's wounds and exploit him in his nakedness for money. Therefore to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is to be given the leaven to rise out of the exclusivity of the national covenant of Israel (1Cor.5:7) and into the inheritance of the everlasting life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this baptism is also of an exclusive nature according to the personal work of Lord Jesus Christ. No Sabbath feast nor circumcision has the power to make a new lump and leaven it with the nature of Christ who fulfills the demands of the law (Gal.5:3).

Mark 2:21–28 (NKJV)

21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” 23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” 27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

The true circumcision are those who have the circumcision of the heart and are made teachable by the full counsel of God. The circumcised heart is separated unto death, but is baptized by the Spirit to be reborn into the image and life of the Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor.1:9). Christ is made effectual not through the law but through the power of the gospel. He who is blessed and undefiled by this nature will prosper in what he does to the glory of the Lord and the Father of the elect. Therefore, there is a new institution because the old has be fulfilled; but the new does not replace the old, it upholds it in one new man, not in the old form and ministry of death but in the progression and sanctification of new life lived out by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:16–4:6 (NKJV) 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Chp.34 - Solomon Not The Christ

“Further, to persuade you that you have not understood anything of the Scriptures, I will remind you of another psalm, dictated to David by the Holy Spirit, which you say refers to Solomon, who was also your king. But it refers also to our Christ. But you deceive yourselves by the ambiguous forms of speech. For where it is said, ‘The law of the Lord is perfect,’ you do not understand it of the law which was to be after Moses, but of the law which was given by Moses, although God declared that He would establish a new law and a new covenant. And where it has been said, ‘O God, give Thy judgment to the king,’ since Solomon was king, you say that the Psalm refers to him, although the words of the Psalm expressly proclaim that reference is made to the everlasting King, i.e., to Christ. For Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures. . . . Solomon was a renowned and great king, by whom the temple called that at Jerusalem was built, I know; but that none of those things mentioned in the Psalm happened to him, is evident. For neither did all kings worship him; nor did he reign to the ends of the earth; nor did his enemies, falling before him, lick the dust. Nay, also, I venture to repeat what is written in the book of Kings as committed by him, how through a woman’s influence he worshipped the idols of Sidon, which those of the Gentiles who know God, the Maker of all things through Jesus the crucified, do not venture to do, but abide every torture and vengeance even to the extremity of death, rather than worship idols, or eat meat offered to idols.” Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, pp. 211–212). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Justin also calls Trypho's attention to his misapplication of Psalm 72 which speaks of the everlasting king whom all the nations bow down to worship. Solomon was not worshiped in this manner, but sinned and worshiped the idols of the foreign nations; and brought judgment upon Israel, dividing her in two. This Psalm speaks of the eternal king who will prosper all nations and will deliver the poor from oppression and violence. Their sufferings are precious in his sight and he will return to avenge their blood and show their salvation in glory. David rejoices and is glad in the righteous judgments of the Lord and prays continually for this kingdom to come. Psalm 72:4–9 (NKJV) 4 He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the children of the needy, And will break in pieces the oppressor. 5 They shall fear You As long as the sun and moon endure, Throughout all generations. 6 He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, Like showers that water the earth. 7 In His days the righteous shall flourish, And abundance of peace, Until the moon is no more. 8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. 9 Those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before Him, And His enemies will lick the dust.