Did Jesus Die
in Our Place? – Christians,
Three Gods, and the Trinity (Pt. 4)
WUAS Internet
Bible Studies
Published In: The WAKE UP
Report
Author: Marty Purvis
Publish Date: February, 2017
Last Updated: February 1, 2017
Offline Copy: Save or Print
PDF Version
A
thorough study of Jesus’ death
is extensive. His role in the
plan of salvation raises many
questions. For example, why does the
plan of salvation require that
someone die? If the Father
loves sinners enough to sacrifice
Jesus, why did the Father not give
Himself to die for sinners? What
prevented the Father from selecting
or creating an angel to die for
sinners? Is there something in
God’s law that requires an
innocent person to die so a guilty
person can go free? Why did the
Father wait 4,000 years before He
sent Jesus to Earth? What
happens to people who have died
without hearing about the ministry of
Jesus? Did Jesus die the first
or second death? Did Jesus die
in our place?
Most
Christians believe the Father sent
Jesus to die as a sinless substitute
for sinners. (Romans 3:23; 6:23) These two
verses declare that everyone
has sinned and the penalty
for sin is death, therefore God has
condemned all human beings to
death. Furthermore, since one
sinner cannot atone for the sins of
another sinner and since each sinner
has been condemned to death for his
own sins, the Father’s solution
for saving sinners was for a sinless
substitute to die. Christians
maintain that the Father sent Jesus
to Earth to die in our place.
Still the question remains how the
death of a sinless person can save a
guilty person. Is there
something in God’s law that
requires an innocent person to die so
that a condemned person can go
free? God said “The
soul who sins is the one who will
die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
Jesus’ role in the plan of
salvation is complicated.
However, most Christians agree that
salvation requires a sinless
substitute. This understanding leads
to an interesting dilemma if we
consider an endless number of people
and an endless amount of time.
Sin has
already occurred twice, once in
Heaven and once on Earth. If
sin does occur again, will God
provide another sinless
substitute? I know many
Christians believe sin will never
occur again (the Bible does not teach
this) and I cannot say that it
will. However, billions of
years from now, after God has created
billions of new planets with billions
of new beings living on them, the
possibility of sin exists because
what I call God’s “sudden
death law” never expires.
As long as finite beings live with an
infinite God who we cannot understand
and as long as finite beings have the
power of choice, the probability of
sin occurring is low but the possibility is
never eliminated. However, when
created beings have knowledge of good
and evil, if a person sins, God will
immediately execute him just as God
was to execute Adam and Eve on the
day they sinned. (Genesis 2:17)
Guilt
is Transferred to Heaven’s
Temple
The Bible does not teach that Jesus
died in our place; instead, Jesus
died for much higher reasons!
The Bible teaches that Jesus saves
sinners through a process I
call, “The Transfer
Doctrine.” God does not
forgive sin (all sins are recorded),
but God is willing to separate a
sinner from his guilt by transferring a
sinner’s guilt into
Heaven’s temple through the
sinless blood of Jesus. This
transfer is possible if the sinner
will in good faith confess and
forsake the sin, provide restitution,
and humbly obey the inner voice of
the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 8:5 says
the earthly temple (starting with the
tabernacle Moses built) and its
services were a shadow of
the real temple in Heaven.
sThis means the ceremonial law
in the Old Testament and its temple
services were a model that
generations of people could carefully
study and understand how Jesus
accomplishes the plan of salvation in
Heaven’s temple. During
Old Testament times, if a person
sinned and wanted to be free of
guilt, the first step was to show
sorrow for his sin by making
restitution to the person he
offended. Then the sinner
brought a flawless lamb to the
temple. When the sinner arrived
at the Altar of Burnt Offering, he
confessed his sin to God with his
hands resting on the lamb’s
head. The sinner then killed
the lamb and a priest captured some
blood in a cup. The priest
applied this blood to the four horns
of the altar, separating the sinner
and his guilt. The
sinner’s guilt was transferred to
the temple through the sinless blood
of the lamb and simultaneously, the
righteousness of the lamb (lambs are
sinless) was transferred to
the sinner.
The beautiful point is that when the
sinner left the temple, it was as
though, in God’s sight, he had
never sinned! So, God is
willing to separate the sinner from
his guilt by transferring it
to the temple. Simultaneously, God is
willing to justify a
sinner by transferring the
righteousness of the lamb to
him! The word justify in
this context means, from God’s
perspective, it is as though the
sinner never sinned. Remember
that earthly temple services were
a model, a shadow of
events occurring in Heaven’s
temple. The Bible says that
animal blood could not transfer
guilt. (Hebrews 10:4)
The Transfer Doctrine is wonderful
because it also makes salvation
possible for people who have never
heard of Jesus. After Adam and
Eve sinned, the Father planned to
send Jesus to Earth about 4,000 years
later. The Father foreknew that
billions of people would live on
Earth who would not have a chance to
hear about Jesus. So the
Father, with generosity and love,
designed the plan of salvation to
include all human
beings. Here is the process:
From the time Adam and Eve sinned,
salvation has been based on faith,
not knowledge. This occurs
whenever a person hears and obeys the
voice of the Holy Spirit. This
is why God gives the gift of the Holy
Spirit to every person (Romans 12:3) and our
response to His voice determines our
eternal destiny. (Matthew 12:31,32) God
will save everyone who faithfully
obeys the Holy Spirit (as the harlot
Rahab did – Hebrews 11:31).
Through faith, the Father can
legitimately transfer a
sinner’s guilt to Heaven’s
temple through the blood of Jesus and
simultaneously bestow the
righteousness of the Lamb of God on
him.
The Scapegoat is the Guilt Bearer
The Transfer Doctrine resolves an
interesting problem. If the
penalty for sin is death and Jesus
did not die in our place, who pays
the penalty for the sins of the
saints? First, all who refuse
to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit
will die for their own sins.
Their guilt will rest on their own
heads. Jesus said, “I
am He who searches hearts and minds,
and I will repay each of you
according to your deeds.” (Revelation 2:23)
Unfortunately, this will be a huge
number of people! (Revelation 20:8) On
the other hand, each person who
faith-fully obeys the voice of the
Holy Spirit will have his guilt transferred to
the temple through the blood of
Jesus; his guilt remaining there
until the temple is cleansed
and transferred to
the head of the guilt-bearer.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement,
the earthly temple was cleansed of
guilt. After the high priest
was found worthy to officiate for
Israel, two flawless goats were
brought into the temple courtyard and
the priest cast lots to see which
goat would die. The remaining
goat became the guilt-bearing goat
(scapegoat) and the guilt in the
temple was transferred to
its head.
Two goats, instead of two lambs, were
used on the Day of Atonement to show
that sin began in Heaven. The
two goats represented Michael and
Lucifer. (Jesus lived in the
form of Michael the archangel before
coming to Earth to live in the form
of a man. Although Jesus is a
member of the Godhead, He takes our
form and lives among created beings
as one of us.)
Before sin began, Michael and Lucifer
were “covering cherubs,”
the highest possible positions in
Heaven. Both of them were
sinless until Lucifer became jealous
of Michael, because Lucifer wanted to
be worshiped as Michael was
worshiped. When the Father told
Lucifer that was impossible because
Michael was a member of deity,
Lucifer became angry and
rebellious. The Father was
patient and He did everything
possible to keep Lucifer and his
followers from sinning.
Eventually, the Father cast the devil
and his angels out of Heaven when
they rebelled.
The casting of lots to see which goat
would become the guilt-bearer
indicates the Father’s
omniscience. The Father
foreknew the mind, heart, and ways of
Lucifer long before Lucifer was
created. Yet, the Father gave
him life and made him the highest and
most capable of all created
beings. The Father and Michael
loved Lucifer dearly, but Lucifer
became vain and hostile when fellow
angels could not worship him like
Michael. Lucifer’s
disaffection led him to seek
sympathetic followers, and one-third
of the angels followed Lucifer.
In the temple services after the lot
was cast, the priest killed the chosen (the
anointed) goat. He sprinkled
the blood of the sinless goat on the
Ark of the Covenant, the horns on the
Altar of Incense, and the horns on
the Altar of Burnt Offering.
After this, the priest placed his
hands on the head of the
guilt-bearing goat and announced that
the temple was clean. All of
the guilt that had been stored in the
temple during the year was transferred to
the scapegoat. A strong man
took the scapegoat far into the
desert so that the goat might die a
slow protracted death. The
scapegoat was not killed. In
this service, the scapegoat does not
pay the penalty for sin; instead, it
bears the consequences for sin.
This part of the model reveals there
is no substitutionary death in the
plan of salvation. Lucifer will
suffer for a period of time in hell
before he dies. First, he must
die because his own guilt is upon his
own head. Second, he must die a
protracted death because he received
the guilt, which the saints transferred to
the temple.
The cleansing of the earthly temple
model illustrates how judgment day
occurs in Heaven. After
breaking the third seal on the Book
of Life in 1844, Jesus began
reviewing the records of every dead
person. Jesus presents the life
of each person to watching
angels. He shows them
everything, most of all, that
person’s response to the Holy
Spirit. When Jesus completes
His presentation, as God He
pronounces a verdict: The
sinner’s guilt is assigned to
his own head or transferred to
Lucifer’s head. Either
way, that sinner’s guilt is no
longer in the temple. When Jesus
completes the judgment process, the
Heavenly temple will be clean,
totally free of guilt.
Jesus is the Perfect Sacrifice
The Father selected Jesus to die for
sinners because Jesus, as a member of
the Godhead, had elements within
Himself that could be transferred to
sinners. When Adam and Eve
sinned, they lost face-to-face
communion with God, their beautiful
garden home, access to the Tree of
Life, and the infinite joy and
excitement that comes with endless
life. They also lost
two elements that a created being (an
angel or a perfect man) could not
give a sinner – their ability to
live forever and propensity for
righteousness.
All created beings borrow life from
God. We live from one moment to
the next because God gives us the
breath of life. Sinless beings
have a propensity for righteousness
because the power from God never
ceases to flow. Therefore, the
Father needed a God, a member of the
Godhead, who was willing to bestow
these powers to sinners. If the
Father could provide such a donor, He
could legitimately transfer both
divine powers to sinners and
intelligent angels would unanimously
agree that the Father had infinitely
exceeded the demands of
justice. This is achieved by
transferring the guilt of sin to the
head of the father of sin and
transferring Christ’s propensity
for righteousness to every repentant
sinner. All of the redeemed
sinners, despite how evil they might
have been, would easily “fit
in” with the eternal happiness
and joy that fills Heaven.
When the Father informed Jesus that
He needed a “divine donor,”
Jesus volunteered. On the day
that Adam and Eve sinned, Jesus
became “The Son (the subject) of
God.” (Psalm 2:7-12) When
Jesus came to Earth, He came as the
“Lamb of God,” (John 1:29) and through
His infinite sacrifice, the Father
can restore Adam and Eve and their
offspring to Eden without breaking or
changing His laws of love! The
Father is a God of love. He and Jesus
have proved they love their neighbors
as themselves. No greater
demonstration of love is
possible! No price for the
salvation of sinners could be higher!
When we combine the Transfer Doctrine
with the conclusions presented in the
first three parts of this study, the
evidence is clear: Monotheism
and the idea that one God manifests
Himself as three different persons
are insufficient doctrines.
The truth is the Father and Jesus are
separate, distinct, coeternal members
of the Godhead, who love one another
with all their hearts and their
neighbors as themselves.
