HoHum:
How can you tell if a redneck wedding is formal? The shotgun is painted white.
WBTU:
Is Boaz willing to marry Ruth and redeem Naomi’s land? In chapter 3 we find that Boaz agrees to do this. In chapter 4 we find that he confronts this near of kin to see if he will redeem. We find that this other kinsman redeemer is not willing to redeem so now Boaz can redeem. Seems like a formality but even at this point Boaz could refuse. Read Ruth 4:9-10. Boaz was willing and eager to redeem and have Ruth as his wife.
Boaz could have handled this matter privately with Mr. So and so. Boaz did this publicly at the city gate witnessed by the town elders. To handle this situation privately would have left Boaz, Ruth and Naomi open to questions, gossip, and perhaps attacks on their integrity.
We find that this arrangement was not only approved by the people of Bethlehem but they blessed it. Ruth 4:11-12
A requirement of a kinsman redeemer is that had to be “kin.” Another requirement of kinsman redeemer is that had to be willing to redeem and marry, must be voluntary.
Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer met this condition. Jesus did not have to redeem us. He chose to do so out of His love for us. WE all deserve to go to hell, but only His love, His grace, provides the way.
Our kinsman redeemer was willing, willing to die, willing to give his life, that we might live. Have hymn # 236 sung before sermon. Refer to first verse.
Even though this is marvelous and beautiful, many misunderstand and level accusations against Jesus Christ and God the Father over this.
Thesis: Let’s discuss two common accusations in our day
For instances:
Jesus Christ committed suicide
Now Jesus Christ did not climb on the sacrificial altar and slit his own throat. He did it more like suicide by cop. Suicide by cop is where an individual intentionally provokes a lethal response from law enforcement to end their own life. Typical suicide involves the killing of oneself. However, in cases of suicide by cop, the individual is unwilling to take their own life, and thus, they must orchestrate a scenario in which someone else is coerced into using lethal force against them. Sad more than just one victim in such cases. Of course, there is the suicidal individual that is murdered, but there are also profound psychological effects on the law enforcement officers and others that are manipulated into killing this individual. Jesus antagonized Judas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, and finally the Romans into killing him. This is what Jesus wanted and it was suicide by cop.
We see from some of the events at his trials that he did not give a defense. Jesus was not trying to escape the penalty which His enemies sought to inflict upon him. From this people assume that Christ wanted to die and relished the idea of dying.
Jesus’s death was not a desire to stop living. He did not love death but dreaded it as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. ““Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” Mark 14:36, NIV. The cup talked about here was the price of redemption, death on the cross.
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2, NIV. Jesus endured his death, he did not enjoy it or look forward to it.
J. Vernon McGee- Many years ago down in Houston, Texas, when a boarding house caught on fire, a woman broke through the lines and went into that house. It collapsed, and she was burned to death. The headlines read: “Poor Wretch Dies: Suicide.” Later the newspaper printed an apology. Why? When workman were digging around in the rubble, they found in a back room, a little iron bed, and in that little iron bed was a baby, her baby. She entered that burning building to save her baby. She wasn’t a suicide. She loved that baby and wanted to save her child. In much the same way, the Lord loves us and he is a willing redeemer. He wants salvation for us and if that was the price to pay for our salvation, even though he scorned it, he willingly paid it.
God the Father commits cosmic/ divine child abuse
The idea here is that God the Father forced His only begotten Son into dying for the sins of humanity. Kind of a like a father going to one of his sons and saying that if anyone does anything wrong he is taking him out to the woodshed to whip him. Anything wrong in this house that son is going to the woodshed. If his brother does something deserving punishment, the brother does not get the whipping, this one son goes to the woodshed for everyone’s sins.
“Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” Isaiah 53:10, NIV. God the Father coerced Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, to go to this world and pay the price for the sins of others, all of humanity. Not paying for his sins but for the sins of others. God the Father puts Jesus Christ through hell for the sins of the world even though Jesus Christ was unwilling. Jesus had to do His Father’s will so Jesus did not have a choice. How do we answer this?
1. In our criminal justice system it is unethical and immoral for someone to suffer punishment for the crime of someone else. That is true, because no man owns himself. Therefore, we don't have the right to substitute our own lives in the place of another, enduring the justice that is their due. No man can justly offer Himself for another, because he is not his own. He was created by God and so he belongs to God. But Christ is His own. He is the owner of His own life. He is the Creator and He may choose to die for others if He so chooses, because it is His life. He is wholly unique as the Godman. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”” John 10:17, 18
2. Christ's substitution for us was anything but divine child abuse as is clear from the fact that the Son willingly suffered in our place. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” Mark 10:45, NIV. Jesus knows that He must die as a substitute for sinners and He willingly chooses this path. “And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”” Luke 9:22, NIV. “But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” Luke 17:25, NIV. “He will be turned over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”” Luke 18:32, 33, NIV. He willingly, humbly, and knowingly became a substitute for us.
3. From all of eternity, He established that He would do this very thing (“A wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” 1 Corinthians 2:7, NIV). Even before the world was created or the Fall occurred, God in eternity past had determined, that the second person of the Triune Godhead, the Son, would become flesh and willingly die to purchase a people for the glory of God (“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Ephesians 1:4, NIV). He predetermined and decreed that the Son would come into this world to bear the penalty of sin for sinners. He did not come to only uphold the Law, but to fulfill it. Christ's substitutionary death in our place was no plan B. This is the sovereign decree and plan of an omnipotent, omniscient, and merciful God. This is His world. This was His decree. It is His Law. And it is His right and generosity to provide for fallen sinners in such a merciful way.
4. This assumes that we have a better view of all things than God. It suggests that we can determine what is right, just, and righteous to a greater degree than God. How do we know that anything is right? How do we know if something is righteous or just? “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”” Romans 7:7, NIV. We know what sin is, what good is, what is right, what is wrong, what is just, and what injustice is, because of the Law of God. God, Himself, is the standard for holiness, righteousness, and justice. Furthermore, He has established what is righteous and what is just and what is right. Therefore, how silly it is for those who wouldn't know what is right apart from the Law to say that the Lawgiver Himself, who established, defines, and gives very meaning to that Law, is in contradiction with that same Law.
Conclusion and invitation:
Christ was willing and eager to die as a ransom for humanity. This is the scriptural explanation for the death of Christ, coming from His own lips. His passivity in the hands of his captors would be equal to suicide if it were not for the fact that He was dying for another. He is our Kinsman Redeemer, paying the price of redemption. Why? Because he loves us, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10, NIV.
Are we willing to accept Jesus Christ? Not everyone is going to heaven, must willingly accept this offer of redemption. We are creatures of free will. We can choose to accept or reject. In a wedding ceremony have the declaration of consent: Will you take this man to be your husband, Will you take this woman to be your wife? Plan of salvation
