Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - All Things Restored
Eye for an eye? From perfection to despair and ultimately, in Christ, all shall be fully restored.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02:This is the means of biblical justice, which is restitution. Okay, there's two types of justice technically in the Bible: retributive and restitutionary. Okay, retributive, this is the you know the passages that say eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. This is retributive justice. So for example, if I if I came up and knocked your eye out or knocked your tooth out, the idea in retribution is because I knocked your eye or tooth out, well, I have to lose my eye or tooth. Now, usually in Old Testament Israel, there was uh a means for monetary compensation for the eyes, so you didn't have everybody running around without eyes, things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Um at least I've got your attention.
SPEAKER_02:And but there wasn't a monetary compensation for life.
SPEAKER_01:That one was not permitted. So if someone murdered you, then the only thing that could pay for that was capital punishment.
SPEAKER_02:And that was, of course, to teach, and it was swift justice, by the way. That's another thing. They didn't have like long holding periods with courts going on for years and years and years and years where the taxpayers are just paying to support these people, three square meals a day, a gym, a library, you know, and all the fellowship they want to have with other criminals. So if they do get off, they can be better criminals. So nothing like that, okay, of swift justice, right? And this taught a lesson. Because the capital execution took place very close association to the murder itself, people didn't forget. And they realized, oh, maybe we shouldn't murder, see? So it was a deterrent. Okay, capital punishment is a deterrent when it is carried out correctly. If you wait like 30 years, you know, it's it's it becomes less of a deterrent. Um, but when you have swift justice, it's very penetrated. It gets into your whoa, we don't want to do that. I could be, if I if I murder somebody, I could be dead next week, you know. So that's not what I'm I'm wanting to happen. So uh capital crimes like life for life, there was no monetary payment. Why, why is that? Why? I mean, you could do a monetary payment for, you know, you pull someone's, you know, cut their ear off or something like that. But not life. And the reason is because man is made in the image of God. Genesis 9, 5, and 6.
SPEAKER_01:Man is made in the image of God, so that if you take a man's life, it is an attack on God Himself whose image the person bears.
SPEAKER_02:And so that was never permitted for any, you can't put a value, in other words, a monetary value on a person's life. I mean, how much? I mean, if I kill your wife, how much do you think she's worth? How about$25 million? Will that cut it? I hope you say no in every case.
SPEAKER_01:Um because there's no monetary value you can put on my wife. She's priceless. God said so. And um I want my value system to line up with his, right?
SPEAKER_02:And so that's the only true justice. So what's happening on the cross, see?
SPEAKER_01:I'm jumping ahead now, but what's happening on the cross? I mean, it did there's an execution. Did he commit a capital crime?
SPEAKER_02:No. So it's an act of injustice. Did God know that when he put capital punishment in the books and said life for life? Yeah, he knew that. He's omniscient. He knew that his own son would be capitally executed under a system that he put in order, but misallocation of justice, right? But through that, he would be a substitutionary blood atonement for the sins of the whole world. So that becomes a restitutionary type of judgment. So again, retributive, that's like eye for eye, okay. I mean, you, you know, but but then you've got restitution. You've got to have some kind of that's a the idea of restoration. Things have to be restored to a proper order. If you've noticed in the Bible, doesn't it move that way? You start with a perfect, it's perfect. God made everything very good. Then there's the fall, right? And then you've got all the rest of the Bible until the last two chapters, and then what is there?
SPEAKER_01:It's a restoration, see, of humans who are right with God through Christ and the whole universe.
SPEAKER_02:It's a whole new heaven and new earth, right? See, God is interested in that. And in fact, it takes it one step higher because in the final state, the new heaven and new earth, there's no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know, you're never gonna have a fall again, right? He set up a system where there's a fall in the first one, okay, because of man's negative choice to God. But then he raises it to a level where there's never going to be a fall again. But it's a restitution that's at the heart of all this that is transpiring in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.