JESUS WAS BORN TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE ULTIMATE TRUTH BECAUSE HE IS THE TRUTH

by Ozzie Grant

The cross of Calvary demonstrated to the entire universe the nature of God’s agape love. Up until the cross God’s agape love had been in question and not fully understood due to Satan’s accusations against God’s character. But as the events leading to the cross unfolded, the universe saw with their own eyes how God reacts to the worst possible evil done to someone that did not deserve any of it—they saw what agape love really is.

The cross unleashed upon the Person of Jesus Christ the most awful, heinous and cruel evil imaginable. No greater atrocity has ever been committed by human beings. The sheer evil that was heaped upon Jesus by a group of bloodthirsty people is beyond description—they committed the height of sin and were wicked to the core.

We are sometimes quick to say that if anyone were harming our family members we would not hesitate to do anything in our power to defend them; but really, how many of us would have stood by the cross and let it happen?

Jesus was absolutely innocent and not an iota of evil could be found in Him. Think of the brutality and shame of the cross: all this was done to God’s Son, a sinless being, perfect in agape love, who had never harmed anyone.

What we need to take away from all that happened to Christ is this: How did God react? How did He react to such unspeakable brutality committed against His Son? We need to ask this question because the answer reveals to us who this God is. Did He use violence to defend His Son? Did He pay back in kind to His Son’s abusers? No, absolutely not. No, the God of agape love did not resort to violence in order to defend His Son from being brutally murdered. But if God were in anyway violent He would have indeed reacted violently to those who committed such abject evil against His Son. He would have reacted to evil just as violently as is often reported that He did in the Old Testament.

Many in the Old Testament were brutally killed. The brutality and pain those poor people suffered, however, cannot be compared to what God’s Son went through. The crimes of the Old Testament pale in comparison to the crime done to Jesus. Yet, some claim that Jesus was predestined to be murdered.

Such an understanding will not hold, however, once God’s character of agape love is understood. By definition, agape love never resorts to any form of violence whatsoever. Those who believe that God resorts to violence when necessity demands believe in a god who is controlled by “situation ethics.” Those who believe thus have positively not understood what God’s agape love is.

Many do believe in a god who is governed by “situation ethics.” They believe that God can and will use violence whenever needed. But that is not the God Jesus Christ revealed while He was here on earth.

Humanity did not know that God is agape love until Jesus revealed the truth concerning His Father’s character. This is why the prevailing belief in the world about God’s character has been warped. Unbeknownst to us, we have been viewing a God who has the character traits of Satan—not a God of agape love. This is why Jesus had to come, to give us the truth, so that we could be healed from such a demonic delusion.

The Bible teaches us that God the Father was in Christ, and together, in agape love, they have been working to change our skewed belief regarding God.

God never needed to be reconciled to us because He always had agape love for us. We were the ones who had a demonic view of His character. Only Jesus gives us the truth about God, and when we believe the truth, then we can be reconciled to Him, because then we will no longer have such a demonic view of Him.

In the following verses from Second Corinthians chapter five, Paul explains how we used to know God, and how we should come to know Him now:

¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died [IN CHRIST]; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. ¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

When we used to know Christ according to the flesh, we also knew God in the flesh, that is, we attributed to Him the same fleshy character that we ourselves have. But now “we regard no one according to the flesh”—not each other, not Christ, and especially not God.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

What does this “new creation” look like? It looks like Adam and Eve looked like when they first knew God, before they obeyed the serpent. They themselves were then a brand “new creation” in Christ, and now we are to become like them, to go back to seeing God in the same way they saw Him before they were deceived by the serpent.

old things have passed away;

What are the “old things” that have “passed away?” This is the old way of knowing God’s character which we inherited from Adam and Eve once they obeyed the serpent.

behold all things have become new

Again, what has “become new” is our new understanding of God’s character through Jesus Christ, which was the first understanding which Adam and Eve had.

¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

There are always two sides to a relationship. God, from His side, is reconciled to us. We also need to be reconciled to God, but without Jesus Christ and His revelation of God’s character we cannot be reconciled to God because we will continue to view Him with fear. And if we are afraid of God, from our side, we will continue to stay away from Him. Fear prevents us from coming close to God and from being reconciled to Him.

¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

What is the truth about God? The truth about God is whatever Jesus revealed about Him, because God “was in Christ” revealing to us the truth about Himself. God was in full agreement with Christ as He was “reconciling the world to Himself.” This means that Christ has to be telling us the truth about God. And this is what Christ told us: that God does not impute our trespasses—the sins of the entire human race—unto us. Through Jesus, God “has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” What is this commission regarding “the word of reconciliation?” The commission is that we are to tell every human being that God does not impute our trespasses unto us. Once we do this, then “we are ambassadors for Christ,” and plead and implore with the human race to believe this truth and to “be reconciled to God:”

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:14-21, emphasis added). 

What does it mean that Jesus, “who knew no sin,” was made “sin for us,” so that we might become “the righteousness of God in Him?” This means that as we come to know God’s character of agape love through Jesus, we too will become filled with the same spirit of agape love in our lives. Then we become “the righteousness of God in Him.”

The question of whether God is or is not violent needs to be thought through quite thoroughly. For the sake of argument, let us say that God is indeed violent. If that were the case, then we could assume that God would not resort to violence unless a situation was so serious that it demanded drastic measures. God surely would use violence only on those who could be classed as the epitome of evil.

Then think of it: wasn’t the most depraved and diabolical act any human being could have ever committed perpetrated upon Jesus? And yet, in agape love, God bore it all without any retaliation. One would think that a violent God, like the one portrayed in the Old Testament, would react rather violently if anyone dared to murder His own beloved Son in the most sadistic way. A violent God should have reacted violently, like it appears He did in the Old Testament for much lesser evils. And yet, neither God nor Jesus reacted in violence.

Why, then, have we held God responsible for all the killing of the wicked in the Old Testament? Is it because the Old Testament has stated it, and we blindly believe it? How can we believe it, when even Jesus Himself, in so many different ways, taught and demonstrated otherwise?

None of the violent activities attributed to God in the Old Testament are in harmony with the truths Jesus taught and demonstrated. On the contrary, He showed that those acts were the workings of the devil and of his deceived emissaries.

JESUS AND THE TWO ROBBERS: “NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS”

The two robbers with whom Jesus was crucified were both violent criminals, and both knew a God of violence. These two criminals were robbers, and as such, they were deserving of death. Initially, they both joined the mob in reviling Jesus:

³⁸ Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. ⁴⁴ Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing (Matthew 27: 38, 44).

²⁷ With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. ²⁸ So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors (Mark 15: 27-28).

³⁹ Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If you are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’  ⁴⁰ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation (Luke 23: 39-40, emphasis added)?

There is an important difference between a thief and a robber. A thief steals without using violence. A robber, on the other hand is such because he is always involved in violence.

One of the two robbers that were crucified with Jesus experienced a radical change in his understanding about God simply by being there with Jesus and by observing Him. There are no words on record, no conversation between Jesus and this robber. But something in Jesus’ demeanor affected him to such a degree that he experienced a complete heart transformation. He began to see God in a totally different light than before, all due to Jesus’ behavior towards His own murderers.

Hence, when the other robber verbally abused Jesus, this one robber rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God?” Why did he say this? In his mind he was thinking, how can the other robber not see the way Jesus is reacting to what His murderers are doing to Him? How can he not be changed just by beholding Jesus?

This unnamed robber, by beholding the glory of Jesus as to how He was reacting to what was happening to Him, drastically changed his view of God, and by doing so he did not commit “the sin” of blasphemy. How do we know? Note his reaction in verse forty-two, after beholding Jesus:

“Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you today, [I HAVE MOVED THE COMMA FROM ‘YOU’ TO ‘TODAY’], you will be with Me in paradise (Luke 23: 42-43, emphasis added).” 

Paul also addressed this phenomenon of how we can be changed by beholding the face of Jesus, which is what happened to that one robber:

“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 (2Corinthians 3: 18).

“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 (2Corinthians 4: 6).

Those two violent transgressors, the two robbers, are types, representatives of the entire human race, according to the Bible. We know this because we read:

“And He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, [THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE], and made intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53: 12c, emphasis added).

Jesus “bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” This statement includes the two robbers as well as the entire human race.

But what exactly does it mean that Jesus “made intercession for the transgressors?” First and foremost, we must understand what it means that Jesus, (1), “was numbered with the transgressors,” (2), “and He bore the sin of many” as well as (3) He “made intercession for the transgressors.”

“The sin” is the common denominator here in all three. “The transgressors” committed “the sin.” Thus, it is imperative that we come to know what is “the sin” that all of humanity has committed.

THE SIN OF THE WORLD

“The sin of the world” originated with Adam and Eve when they obeyed the serpent and ate from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” By this evil act they lost the image of God that they were created with, which is “the sin” and ended-up in a lost condition. 

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1: 27, emphasis added).

Adam and Eve lost the image of God, which is His agape love, and took on the mind of the serpent. Now, with this iniquitous mind in them they no longer viewed God as agape love but as “good and evil.” This new mindset resulted in them being afraid of God. Adam confirms this, and he also spoke for Eve in the following dialogue with God:

⁹ Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ ¹⁰ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; [LOST THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD]; and I hid myself (Genesis 3: 9-10, emphasis added).

Compare what we just read above with the words which the apostle John wrote in the first epistle of John, chapter 4:

¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Adam and Eve no longer believed the love God had for them after they obeyed the devil. 

¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

Adam and Eve experienced judgment. They no longer knew God as agape love, which was the reason for their fear of Him.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love;

What was the reason Adam and Eve became afraid of God? John just told us that in agape love there is no fear. Adam and Eve no longer viewed God as agape love because they no longer had agape love in them. Without agape love they had fear.

but prefect love casts out fear,

As they started learning that God still had agape love for them, then that love casts out the fear they had of God, the fear that was in them.

because fear involves torment [PUNISHMENT]. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In agape love there is no such thing as being terrified of God because there is no reason for such a frightening fear. We have no such dread of God because we know that God is agape love.

‘But he who fears has not been made perfect in love’. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4: 16-19, emphasis added).

After eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” Adam and Eve could no longer believe that “God is love.” Until they understood that He still loved them, despite their disobeying Him and obeying the devil, they would be filled with abject fear and would continue to believe that God was out to get them.

This is “the sin” of the world. Like Adam and Eve, most people believe that God violently punishes evil and sinful people.

“The sin of the world,” is the sin of all human beings. It cannot be taken away by anyone else except by the person of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, the messenger of God who uniquely addressed this, told us so in the following words:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward Him and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29, emphasis added)!          

When we believe God is violent we are committing “the sin.” Then we also promote, sanction, and when needed, practice violence. “The sin” was also inherent in the two robbers, since initially both also viewed God as violent. Such was their original spiritual condition. Because this duo believed in a God of violence, they too were violent. The one who was changed by beholding Jesus, who no longer had “the sin” in him, said to the other that they justly deserved what they got, “but this Man has done nothing wrong.” 

⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong’ (Luke 23:41) 

How could the repentant robber have known such an important truth? He knew it by beholding Jesus. By beholding Jesus, he came to know His character. Thus, through Jesus, he also came to know the character of God the Father. In this repented robber was fulfilled what Jesus had said to Thomas and Philip:

⁶ Jesus said to him, [THOMAS], ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ⁷ If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.’ ⁸ Philip said to Him, ‘Lord show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ ⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves (John 14: 6-11, emphasis added).

The robber who experienced a radical change in His thinking during his encounter with Jesus on Mount Calvary has a profoundly important spiritual message for all of us. He epitomizes all of us, who were former believers in a God of violence and not the God of agape love. How? Earlier, he had blasphemed and reviled Jesus as the destroyer:

³⁸ Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and the other on the left. ³⁹ And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, ‘You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ ⁴¹ Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, ⁴² ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. ⁴³ He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ⁴⁴ Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing (Matthew 27: 38-44).

The repentant robber had reviled Jesus “with the same thing.” What was “the same thing?” It was what “those who passed by” and “the chief priests” had railed against Jesus in verses 39 to 43; he also did “the same thing.”

“Those who passed by blasphemed Him,” including the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. How did they blaspheme Him? First, they accused Him, by saying that He had claimed to be both the Destroyer and the Creator. They did this by saying that He was going to destroy the temple and build it in three days. In reality, Jesus had never claimed He was the Destroyer and the Creator. Rather, He was referring to “the temple of His body:” 

¹⁸ So the Jews answered and said to Him, ‘What sign do You show us, since You do these things?’ ¹⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ ²⁰ Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and You will raise it up in three days?’ ²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2: 18-21).

Since they believed in a violent God, they also expected a violent Messiah. Jesus did not fit their profile. If Jesus was that ingenious, then He should save Himself if He was “the Son of God,” and should “come down from the cross.”

It is obvious that, according to what they were insinuating, coming down from the cross would somehow be achieved by an act of violence on Jesus’ part.

The Jews were looking forward to a violent Messiah, one who would use military might to free them from their Roman oppressors. In their minds, if He were “the King of Israel” He would exert military might upon the Romans. If He freed Himself from the cross then they would believe Him.

They showed that they had this desire for a violent military King who would free them from Roman rule on the occasion when Jesus fed the five thousand with “five barley loaves and two small fish:”

¹⁴ Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ ¹⁵ Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone (John6: 14-15). 

The robber who experienced the change of mind by looking at Jesus and His agape love not only had a change of mind, but a radical change of mind. And an appropriate testimony ensued, as he testified of Jesus’ character with these words:

⁴² Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.’  ⁴³ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise (Luke 23: 39-43, emphasis added).

Both robbers were transgressors of God’s law of agape love. Both reviled Jesus, as any murderer would, who is about to die for his crimes. They also had both committed “the sin” as representatives of the entire human race—because of how they viewed Jesus’ character. Such is also the spiritual condition of humanity, as stated by the apostle Paul:

¹⁰ There is none righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.

This is the condition of humanity because of our belief in a God of violence and not the God of agape love. We all have committed “the sin.”

¹² They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.

We were all in Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and obeyed the serpent and turned aside from agape love to good and evil, and viewed God as a killer and committed “the sin.”

¹³ Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; ¹⁴ whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

All, with “the sin,” have in their mouths the message of death. Believing that God kills evil people, they themselves have practiced the death principle because of the deceptive belief that God is a killer. Such false information was given by the serpent, which is so poisonous that all it reveals is the death principle with nothing of agape love in it.

¹⁵ Their feet are swift to shed blood;

This is a reference to death principle that was learned from the serpent, not from God.

¹⁶ destruction and misery are in their ways; ¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.

Since we believe in a God of violence as taught by the serpent, as a consequence there is a natural swiftness to shed blood; there is nothing but destruction and misery in the lives of such that believe this lie.

¹⁸ There is no fear of God before their eyes.’

There is no awe and reverence for God because the way of agape love, which is “the way of peace, they have not known” (Romans 3: 10-18, emphasis added).

SOME WILL CLAIM THAT JESUS DID SANCTION VIOLENCE

₃₅ And He said to them, ‘When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?’ So they said, ‘Nothing.’ ³⁶ Then He said to them, ‘But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.

In Matthew 6: 25ff Jesus had stated:

“²⁵ Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ²⁸ So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you. O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, [AGAPE LOVE], and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6: 25-34, emphasis added).   

How our heavenly Father takes care of our needs agrees with what Jesus said in Luke 22: 35: “And He said to them, ‘When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?’ So they said, ‘Nothing.’”

Especially note that nothing is mentioned at all concerning selling one’s garment and buying a sword, which confirms that violence has no part in God’s agape love.

“Then He said to them, ‘But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” ((Matthew 6:36, emphasis added).

On a surface reading it would appear, in verse thirty-six, that Jesus is contradicting Himself, and saying that human beings need to take care of their needs by using the devil’s method of “good and evil,” and not by living by God’s way of agape love. Indeed, verse thirty-six is fulfilled in the lives of those who are transgressors of God’s agape love. But in verse thirty-seven, Jesus explains why He said what He did in verse thirty-six:

“For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished [FULFILLED] in Me (Luke 22:37).

‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.”

The two robbers and all of their activities find its fulfillment also in verses 36 and 37.  What Jesus stated in verses 36 and 37 was in fulfillment of “that this which is written” as well as “the Scripture was fulfilled”:

“²⁷ With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. ²⁸ So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors (Mark 15: 27-28, emphasis added).

What we just read in Mark 15: 27-28 and what is stated in Luke 22: 36 and 37, all happened in fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus and God the Father were to be numbered with the transgressors even though neither were never transgressors.

Some may claim that this prophecy does not apply to God the Father at all, but only to Jesus. But Jesus said, “I and the Father are one (John 10: 30). And since many do believe that God did kill the wicked in the Old Testament, that belief itself also numbers Him with the transgressors, and the transgressors are all destructive, as by Biblical definition:

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “the poison of asps is under their lips”; “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:9-18)

When will the lies concerning Jesus and God the Father’s character—lies that teach us that they are violent—come to an end? The lies will come to an end when we no longer number them with the violent transgressors of God’s law of agape love, in which there is absolutely no violence at all.

When we, through Jesus, believe that neither God the Father nor Jesus ever killed anyone, then they are no longer numbered by us with the violent transgressors of God’s law of agape love.   

By believing God to be violent we commit “the sin,” and become transgressors of God’s law of agape love, which is His character.   

    So, then we look at a seeming contradiction, in which it appears that Jesus did promote violence, when He said, “he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.” We will believe Jesus is promoting violence here, unless we correctly understand what He is communicating.

The amount of money spent on armament in the world today is outrageously disgraceful and immoral. Were such funds used to improve human lives instead, wouldn’t that be exceedingly good for all?

If not correctly understood, what Jesus said concerning selling a garment and buying a sword would be the equivalent to the military spending done today on a global scale. It would be the equivalent of taking money away from food, shelter, and clothing, and giving it to the armed forces. 

³⁷ For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me; ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors. For the things concerning Me have an end’ (Luke 22:37).

Jesus was not a transgressor in any way—not even concerning violence.  But, “He was numbered with the transgressors” who are violent. Because we, humanity, believes God to be violent, Jesus allowed Himself to be portrayed as One who is violent. Therefore, He told them to buy a sword—a literal sword. After all, what good would two swords do, among the twelve, against an angry mob? The mere futility of that command proves that Jesus had motives that were different than what appears on the surface. What’s more, when Peter did use the sword, Jesus rebuked Him, saying:

Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52).

³⁸ So they said, ‘Lord, look, here are two swords.’ And He said to them, ‘It is enough [WHAT HE MEANT IS, THAT TWO SWORDS ARE ENOUGH FOR HIM TO BE NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS] (Luke 22: 35-38, emphasis added).

⁸ …For the transgression of My people [HUMAN RACE] He was stricken.” … (Isaiah 53: 8c).

        It should be obvious and clear that Jesus does not promote violence. How do we know? Take the followings verses:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10: 10).

Jesus answered [PILATE], ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, [WITH THE SWORD], so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My Kingdom is not from here (John 18: 36, emphasis added).

¹² And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged-sword: ¹³ I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ¹⁶ Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth (Revelation 2: 12-13, 16, emphasis added).

And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, [DESTRUCTION], but in Greek he has the name Apollyon [DESTROYER] (Revelation 9: 11, emphasis added).

Now out of His mouth goes a sharp [TWO-EDGED] sword, [OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT] that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Revelation 19: 15, emphasis added).

For the word of God is living and powerful and shaper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrew 4: 12).

⁵¹ And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the High Priest, and cut off his ear. ⁵² But Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³ Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26: 51-53, emphasis added).