Jesus our Archegos

Posted on April 4, 2012 by John Samson

By Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

Sinclair Ferguson is a noted author, the Senior Minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and a Professor of Systematic Theology at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas

My last contact with the late Professor John Murray — to whose writings and influence I, like many others, owe a lasting debt — was particularly memorable for me, partly because I asked him a question to which he gave the answer: “That is a difficult question!” As a somewhat diffident young person it was something of a relief to know that my question wasn’t totally stupid. It is a question on which I have continued to reflect.

So, what was the question? It may seem a rather recondite one. My question was about the translation and the theological significance of the word used both by Peter (Acts 5:31) and the author of Hebrews to describe our Lord Jesus: archegos. Jesus is the author of our salvation who was made perfect through suffering and as such brings many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). Now the same term reappears towards the end of the letter, in Hebrews 12:2, where our Lord is now described as “the author of our faith who brings it to perfection.”

This explains why, while we are encouraged to read about earlier heroes of the faith (Heb. 11), it is only on Jesus Himself that we are to fix our gaze. If our eyes should stop on anyone who came before Him we will have missed the whole point of the chapter. The Old Testament heroes of faith never received what was promised; they lived before the time of fulfillment. They exercised faith, but they were all trusting in the promise that would be fulfilled in Christ. By contrast, Jesus is the “author” of faith and He is also the one who experienced and expressed it to the full. It is wonderful to think about Jesus in this way. But how do we do so? What did this mean for Him?

Archegos describes an inaugurator, a trail-blazer, a pioneer — someone whose achievements make it possible for others to experience the benefits of what he has done. The school our two eldest sons attended held an annual “Founders’ Day” service at which the two brothers who had first begun the school centuries before were remembered and honored. They had begun something the benefits of which our children entered into and shared. They were archegoi.

But we might describe other religious leaders in these terms, as founders of great movements. Hebrews means more than that when it says Jesus is our archegos.

Think, if you will, of a lone reconnaissance officer who has moved ahead of his platoon, which is in great danger. He is looking for a way of escape. He cuts his way through a jungle, only to discover himself face to face with a gaping ravine. There seems no way forward, but unless he finds one all is lost. He throws a lasso-like rope to the other side of the ravine, and manages to catch it on a tree on the far side. He then risks all by clambering across to the other side, hand over hand, inch by nerve-racking inch. He secures the rope, and manages to create a rope bridge. Eventually he leads his whole platoon over the ravine on to the safety of the other side.

This is a better picture of Christ as our archegos! He is the divine Reconnaissance Officer who has crossed the deep and dangerous ravine between fallen man and holy God.
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Benediction

Posted on April 4, 2012 by John Samson

God is a God who dispenses blessing and cursing. Deuteronomy 28 is a chapter devoted to this theme, and it is one found throughout the pages of Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments. It makes no biblical sense whatsoever to say that one believes in one and not the other. Blessings are real and so are curses.

The most ultimate blessing comes in being near to God, with His favor upon us. In contrast, the ultimate curse is to be adandoned by Him, encountering His disfavor.

Blessings and curses are dispensed through words, usually words that are spoken.

Tim Challies writes the following (after taking notes on a sermon by R C Sproul):

One of the great privileges of pastoral ministry is pronouncing a benediction before the congregation. The benediction is not a mystical performance in which a pastor invokes his own authority or his own position to bless the people, but a time in which he stands before the congregation and brings them a blessing from the Lord. This is why benedictions tend to be drawn directly from Scripture. The pastor simply conveys God’s words of blessing.

But consider this. Where there are benedictions—good words from the Lord—there must also be maledictions—bad words. As God gives words of blessing to the people to whom he shows favor, he gives words of curse to those who remain in willful rebellion against him.

I once sat transfixed as R.C. Sproul preached on the curse motif in the Old Testament (this was at Together for the Gospel 2008). He spoke of the well-known benediction that we all love.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Num. 6:24-26)

He spoke of the hope this benediction offers, the hope and confidence of never-ending peace under the loving gaze of a good God.

Sproul spoke also of the supreme malediction, the ultimate curse from God, the very opposite of that great blessing. That terrible malediction might go something like this:

May the Lord curse you and abandon you. May the Lord keep you in darkness and give you only judgment without grace. May the Lord turn his back upon you and remove his peace from you forever.

This is the ultimate hopelessness, the ultimate withdrawal of God’s blessing. Here God turns away his face, he brings a curse instead of a blessing, he removes peace instead of extending it. This is a statement of judgment in place of grace. And this is exactly the kind of malediction God will pronounce upon those who continue to reject his grace. It is an eternal malediction that will extend forever.

What is so astounding to me is that this malediction is exactly what God pronounced upon Jesus Christ. In the hours that Christ was on the cross, God cursed and abandoned him, he kept him in the outer darkness and gave him judgment without grace. God turned his back upon him and removed his peace. The only word that did not apply to Jesus was forever. Christ and Christ alone could suffer in such a way that he emptied God’s wrath against sin. In those few hours on the cross, he faced an eternal punishment until God’s wrath was satisfied, empty, complete.

And because Christ endured the malediction, all who have put their faith in him can confidently enjoy the benediction, trusting in Christ’s work on our behalf, believing that through his finished work, we now have the favor of the Lord and will have it forever.