Chp.90-91 ~ Types And Signs Are Just Mysterious Metaphors Without The Person Of Christ

“Bring us on, then,” said [Trypho], “by the Scriptures, that we may also be persuaded by you; for we know that He should suffer and be led as a sheep. But prove to us whether He must be crucified and die so disgracefully and so dishonourably by the death cursed in the law.5 For we cannot bring ourselves even to think of this.” 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. 244). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. The cross is offensive to a Jew only if one doesn't understand all the images of the sacrificial code, and the doctrines which they were to illustrate, when the Messiah would come and literally be the demonstration of those images (doctrinal pictures) of the sacrificial animals. We find that Trypho is able to see the promised Christ only as a sheep that was led to suffer as a sacrifice, but not as a criminal to suffer the curse in accordance to the law.

The law contained within it, not only the form of religious offerings that were to be a formal ritual unto the LORD, but also the national disciplines that would be administrated if the law would be violated. The cross is representative of what the Jews understood to be a just curse upon a man of criminal behavior. Therefore it's senseless that the Christ would suffer such a curse, but to suffer for righteousness makes sense to the mind of this Jew. Deuteronomy 21:18–23 (NKJV) 18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. 22 “If a man [like this] has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. From this perspective, the Jews observe Jesus of Nazareth as a rebellion of the Mosaic Law, and therefore cannot perceive him to be the Christ that was also promised. The Jewish Pharisees of his day deemed him "a glutton and a winebibber" (Matt.11:19), but notice that this wasn't enough to justify them in his crucifixion; for his crime had to be worthy of death, so they crucified him for blasphemy--claiming to be the Son of God (Jn.10:33). On this charge they could be successful in their public justification of his death. So why should Trypho perceive this man as the Christ who would suffer for his sins, if he suffered as a criminal, which signified the curse of God, having been strung up to hang on a tree? How can a man suffer the curse of God and still be the Christ who would suffer for Israel's righteousness?

The answer is found in the full counsel of God, which was not fully being taught among the Jews, in the days leading up to the arrival of Christ. The Jews would have understood expiation and imputation with the images of the scape goat and the sacrificial lamb, but the curse of God upon His own Son!? Utter nonsense to the mind of the untrained Jew! Isaiah 53:11–12 (NKJV) 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Slave shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered[imputed] with the transgressors[criminals] , And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Galatians 3:10–14 (NKJV) 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. We find here, that Israel was already under a curse simply because she did not continue "in all things" which are written in the law, to perform them. If Israel was able to do this, faith in the promised Christ would have justified them as a nation. But because they (the priests) failed not only to teach all the pictures and images of the sacrificial code, but also, in which, (the tribes) failed to perform in those sacrifices, the people were not justified in their faith towards God. The offerings that were brought before the LORD were an abomination to Him, because they were not according to the knowledge of the Son, but according external code of the law. They knew not the Triune persons of the divine attributes displayed in the law's nature; and therefore were as lost as the Gentiles who were without the Law. If obedience to the Law would have been unto the LORD, their faith would have been acceptable, but because their obedience was unto the counsels of men, their faith was useless to God. And so, Christ dying as a criminal, having been judged by the Law as a criminal, was not reasonable to the mind of this generation of Jews. But this is because the fullness of Isaiah 53:12 wasn't taught, where in which Christ is observed to be "numbered" among the criminals. The word "numbered" in the Hebrew is nimnah, which can also mean to impute. In context, it conveys the idea that this man will receive the inheritance of a criminal, which is the curse of God, signified by a public death upon a tree, as observed in Deut.21:23. Though this man literally dies a criminals death, the curse is only an imputation of the curse of God. It's not an actual curse, for we also know that he shall be raised to make intercession for "of such" transgressors. Something (intercession) of which the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to do for criminals who were on the path of such a death and curse of God. And so, the Pharisees refused to observe themselves also cursed with this original sin (Jn.9:34). They perceived themselves alone to be the eyes and ears of God; and were the only ones justified in discerning between the children of God and the children of the devil; and the only ones justified to interpret the Law and the Covenant. “You know,” said I, “that what the prophets said and did they veiled by parables and types, as you admitted to us; so that it was not easy for all to understand the most [of what they said], since they concealed the truth by these means, that those who are eager to find out and learn it might do so with much labour.” 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. 244). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

The sad thing here is that while Justin says this of the prophets, he himself does the same in continuing to describe the literal scene of Christ's death in types and signs for Trypho. It seems that this is the only language that a Jew can understand. They refuse straight forward speech and must veil the face of God with a mystery (2Cor.3:13-16;4:3). “Listen, therefore,” say I, “to what follows; for Moses first exhibited this seeming curse of Christ’s by the signs which he made.” “Of what [signs] do you speak?” said he. “When the people,” replied I, “waged war with Amalek, and the son of Nave (Nun) by name Jesus (Joshua), led the fight, Moses himself prayed to God, stretching out both hands, and Hur with Aaron supported them during the whole day, so that they might not hang down when he got wearied. For if he gave up any part of this sign, which was an imitation of the cross, the people were beaten, as is recorded in the writings of Moses; but if he remained in this form, Amalek was proportionally defeated, and he who prevailed prevailed by the cross. For it was not because Moses so prayed that the people were stronger, but because, while one who bore the name of Jesus (Joshua) was in the forefront of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you knows not that the prayer of one who accompanies it with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate, or with bended knees, propitiates God most of all? But in such a manner neither he nor any other one, while sitting on a stone, prayed. Nor even the stone symbolized Christ, as I have shown. 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. 244). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Justin is to be commended for bringing out this imitation of the cross, but two men are required here to perform what the one man did in the cross of Christ. In the general reading of this account, Christ would not be at the forefront; but since we are looking back at this from the cross, it can be clearly observed (2Tim.3:16). However, we must not make this a hermeneutic for every single OT passage. Not everything that was done through the nation of Israel and the patriarchal families are to be a metaphor of the life of Christ. Certainly, there are types and imitations found that can be used to testify of the Lord's character and mission, but they are not to replace the original purpose and interpretation of the text. We shall see this in the next example that Justin gives for the cross, but here, Moses and Joshua form an accurate image of the depth of the cross. We see the appearance of a "defeat" in the death of Christ, as did Joshua when Moses would let down his outstretched arms; but when Moses' arms were upheld, Joshua found success in battle over Amalek--who represents sin. Apart from the cross being lifted up above the reasoning of justice through the sinful mind of men, there would be no one qualified to judge between good and evil. And therefore, when the true Savior came, true Justice could not be recognized (Isa.53:2,3) in the face of a man, as it was in the face of a nation such as Israel.

“And God by Moses shows in another way the force of the mystery of the cross, when He said in the blessing wherewith Joseph was blessed, . . . Let him be glorified among his brethren;2 his beauty is [like] the firstling of a bullock; his horns the horns of an unicorn: with these shall he push the nations from one end of the earth to another.’3 Now, no one could say or prove that the horns of an unicorn represent any other fact or figure than the type which portrays the cross. For the one beam is placed upright, from which the highest extremity is raised up into a horn, when the other beam is fitted on to it, and the ends appear on both sides as horns joined on to the one horn. And the part which is fixed in the centre, on which are suspended those who are crucified, also stands out like a horn; and it also looks like a horn conjoined and fixed with the other horns. And the expression, ‘With these shall he push as with horns the nations from one end of the earth to another,’ is indicative of what is now the fact among all the nations. 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. 244–245). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Some old translations use "unicorn," as this manuscript of Justin does here, most likely derived from the Latin--unicornis, but this can only be referring to a bicornis, which had two horns, (the horns of a rhinoceros) of which the author uses to illustrate Ephraim and Manasseh who are the singular glory of Joseph. The two horns have to do with the two tribes of Israel which were Joseph's two sons. But the "unicorn" has been taken captive to present doubt into the heart of the simple, to make people think "unicorns," the mystical horse, existed in the Bible, and therefore grants them permission to treat the Bible as a fairy tale.

This, the proposed two horns representing a cross, really has no bearing on, or relationship to, the cross of Christ which I am aware of in my studies. I don't think Justin did his homework on this analogy, as we were forced to because of the "unicorn" expression in our generation. We can see, in his explanation of it, that it bears no real weight and makes no solid point that parallels with the actual doctrine of the cross. The cross, however, is an offense, and "pushes" people away, but only those types of people who do not seek God as only He has revealed Himself. It pushes people away who have created an image of God to suit their own tastes and desires; and therefore the cross leaves a filthy taste in their mouth, but this is because of sin in them, not of the cross itself. Therefore, this certainly is not the point of Joseph's blessing which extends to his two sons. But the same figure is revealed for the destruction and condemnation of the unbelievers; even as Amalek was defeated and Israel victorious when the people came out of Egypt, by means of the type of the stretching out of Moses’ hands, and the name of Jesus (Joshua), by which the son of Nave (Nun) was called. And it seems that the type and sign, which was erected to counteract the serpents which bit Israel, was intended for the salvation of those who believe that death was declared to come thereafter on the serpent through Him that would be crucified, but salvation to those who had been bitten by him and had betaken themselves to Him that sent His Son into the world to be crucified.4 For the Spirit of prophecy by Moses did not teach us to believe in the serpent, since it shows us that he was cursed by God from the beginning; and in Isaiah tells us that he shall be put to death as an enemy by the mighty sword, which is Christ. 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. 245). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Nevertheless, Justin continues with the type and sign, in the image of the serpent, that was to be lifted up for the healing of those bitten by fiery serpents, as a judgment of their rebellion of Moses' leadership and example of faith (Num.21:5-9). In this "image" Christ, too, must be lifted up to draw all mankind unto himself, because they have been bitten by the curse of sin (1Cor.15:56). We must look upon our own sinful image, and see its curse, in judgment, to the full extent of the Law. This is what Christ became upon the cross, though being innocent of all of it, and so he willingly took the imputation of our reputation of sin and satisfied the justice of God. John 3:13–18 (NKJV) 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

We must not understand the love of God apart from the curse of God. It was not said that God so loved the world that He made man in the image of the first Adam. But it was said that God so loved the world that He made man in the image of His beloved Son; and in this He must be lifted up above the first man to be cursed, in order for the curse to be removed from the image of the first man, whom he hated with a curse.

The image of a snake is what must be observed and understood here. This is how God viewed the heart of man, regardless of man's relationship to the created animals, having been created above them in the dominion of the earth. This is the true image and heart of man in the mind of God--after Adam's fall into sin. This clearly testifies that Adam's offspring were not made in the same pattern and image toward God as he and his wife, Eve, had been created in the garden of God.

After being expelled from the tree of life, the two were made after the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, and their children bore its curse, not having known or seen God's image. All the children had was the testimony of the spoken Word, in their father and mother, and the creation itself. Therefore, the children began to seek God out of the understandings of their own heart, expressing the "work of the law" written upon their hearts, which was the negative effect of the curse of the law. For God could not be found apart from seeking Him with His own heart. Romans 2:11–16 (NKJV) 11 For there is no partiality with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Paul is making a clear case that the result of the "work of law," written on the heart of man "in the fall," that is those who sinned, whether without law or in the law, "are a law to themselves." In other words, the "work of the law" is not a conscience toward God, but a conscience between men. It is true that we can say that God made man "with knowledge" (conscience), but this knowledge is not in a pattern towards God, in His image if you will, with the exception of the first man and woman. It was their offspring who were made apart from the knowledge of God, and therefore must be taught the knowledge of God. This is why Paul reminds the Galatians that the curse extends to those who fail to do everything written in "the book of the law," which, in the days of Moses, was a progressive revelation of the Lord's will. But upon full revelation, the curse, which was the "work of the law" written upon all men, could be removed through faith in the accomplished work and "knowledge" of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul therefore wants us to be made in the pattern of "knowledge" that is the image of God in Christ, not in the image and pattern of sin of the first violation of the law of God in Adam--which is original sin. Therefore, this is the heart of Trypho's problem; and therefore it is the heart of our problems. It is utterly impossible for this man to rescue himself through the external picture of the law. Trypho needs the priests and teachers of the law to accurately image the intentions of the sacrificial code, and the heart of God to honestly meditate on those images, to conform those images into his understanding. Therefore, the world can't be saved apart from the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. Matthew 19:25–26 (NKJV) 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Romans 12:1–3 (NKJV) 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. The proper application here, then, is to present ourselves in the place where the image of God will be accurately taught, and where Christ's offering will be the intercession over our souls. And to persevere in our individual faith of His offering until we all come to the unity of the undivided faith which was objectively given to us in the written Word, because "the curse" still exists in the sons of disobedience. Jude 3–4 (NKJV) 3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.