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The Man Who Filled the Gap

 From the beginning, the heavenly host has looked,[1] upon the stage that is redemptive history, seeking to comprehend the fullness of God’s desire to create man in His image and likeness. We can imagine their awe at the Creator's words, expressed through the prophet Ezekiel, as they wondered if a man who could be found who would be the “ man who could fill the gap”[2] “and who could stand before me perfectly in the time of wrath.”[3]

The prophet Isaiah expressed the same concept when moved by the spirit to write the words, “and the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.”[4] Jeremiah, not to be outdone, warned his contemporaries, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth that I may pardon her.”[5]

The redemptive history stage was set when Adam was first placed within and then expelled from the garden bringing the relationship he enjoyed with God to an end. The search for the man who could fill the gap had begun. The hunt for the man was on, the search which set and the course of redemptive history became the “things into which angels long to look.”[6] It would appear to us, mortals that we are, that not even the heavenly host was privy to the mind of God, with their unanswered question, where would the man come from who could intercede on behalf of all other men?[7] As the angels looked on, this was the all-consuming question: Could a man be found who could stand perfect before the LORD, one who does justice and seeks truth?

In light of man’s iniquities, and the separation[8] that took place in God’s garden—a separation mankind has endured throughout the ages—how was God going to set things right[9] with His desire and decree to make man in His image and likeness? These are things which the angels contemplated.

 

Of the utmost importance in the search for the man who could fill the gap, was to discover the man through whom God could pardon other men. The justice of God is satisfied with the knowledge that there is a man in whom God is pleased.[10] The significance of all these things is made clear by seeing Jesus. The believer in God “sees Jesus” as the man “…who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”[11]

Jesus is the man God found;[12] he was the man the prophets spoke of, and the man who stands in the gap[13] for all others. Jesus is the man who has been made both the intercessor and High Priest between God and men.[14]

The believer in God sees Jesus[15] as the man who "loved righteousness and hated wickedness." The consequence of Jesus’ love for righteousness and hatred for wickedness is revealed in the proleptic language of the Psalmist, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."[16] As his companions, we see Jesus as the one anointed above all others,[17] the one who gave himself for the sin of the world.[18]

We see Jesus as the man whose "…one act of righteousness, resulted to justification of life to all men."[19] In effect, what Jesus has accomplished for us, his companions, is this: "God is justified in justifying the ungodly."[20] The Apostle Paul sums it up: "For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man (τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου) Jesus Christ abounded for many."[21]

The believer in God sees Jesus as the man appointed and anointed by God[22] and was tested (tempted) in all the things that a man could be.[23] In the end, the believer is called to behold the man who was found worthy, the man who was weighed in the balance of his willingness[24] to set aside his will in favor of the will of God.[25]

Jesus of Nazareth is the Lamb of God prepared, from the foundation of the world.[26] In announcing Jesus’ role as the Lamb, John the Baptist cried out, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."[27] Jesus is the man who acts as both God's High Priest,[28] performing the sacrifice, who also was himself the sacrifice. In the shadows of the Old Covenant, Jesus is both the scapegoat and the “the fit man”[29] who leads the sin-burdened goat into the wilderness.[30]

The believer in God sees Jesus as God's provided sacrifice, the Lamb of God,[31] who took upon himself the sin that separated Yahweh from His people.[32] Jesus is worthy because he is the one man——through his suffering of obedience[33] and through his willingness to lay down his life for God's chosen people,[34] satisfied God's justice upon sin.[35] The worthiness of Jesus of Nazareth has been meted out[36] and weighed, as the believer in God hears the proclamation of the heavenly host, “Worthy is the Lamb.”[37]

Jesus’ worthiness should be seen in the context of the first Adam, who through disobedience to God brought the curse of God upon mankind.[38] As the second Adam, it was Jesus who, through his act of obedience to God became cursed on our behalf.[39] What Jesus accomplished through that one act of righteousness was to redeem God's people from the curse.[40] That God’s people have been redeemed from the curse is the first step in God’s promise that man need not die the death[41] pronounced upon the first Adam.[42] Because of Jesus, the last Adam in God’s plan of redemption,[43]there is now the justification of life.[44]

 

Those given the gift of faith[45] believe that God's Christ[46] is the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. The promise of life goes out to those who by faith believe God[47] concerning the promise of the Christ,[48] and are placed into and found in Jesus.[49] The believer in God is thus called upon[50] to believe that Jesus is the Christ[51] and that he died for our sins, was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.[52] God did not die for our sins, and it was not God who lay dead and was buried for those three days in the sealed tomb. It was Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of by God.[53]

In essence, Jesus is the promise that God’s people will be saved from death.[54] Those who believe that Jesus died and God raised him up from the dead are promised to follow him into the resurrection upon the last day of this age.[55]

The resurrection upon the last day of this age is not merely the resurrection of the body. There is far more meaning in God's promise of the resurrection of His people from death and the grave.[56] For those of faith, the resurrection is the consummation of the promise to be one with God.[57] For the called of God,[58] the adopted children,[59] those for whom God has predestined as His people,[60] it is the promise “to awake in His likeness.”[61]

 

It is important to understand that the resurrection of Jesus was not merely an event that took place in history. The resurrection of Jesus marked the dawning of the new age, the new creation,[62] where the perfect or completed man[63] is realized. It is in this reality that the man of faith, the believer in God “waits eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”[64] It is that “anxious longing of the creation [that] waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”[65]

The inauguration of the new age began with the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The day God raised Jesus from the dead,[66] marked the commencement of the new creation, “behold, the new has come.”[67] We live in the dawning of the new age in which God is currently building the house[68] where the new man[69] has been realized, with Jesus as the head.[70] It is the new man who is the body[71] of that which God is creating as the spiritual house[72] where He has promised to dwell.[73]

The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is that ripple now heading toward the distant shores of the Promised Land, the age of promise, which cannot be stopped. When the ripple reaches the end of this age,[74] the redemption of the body[75] will follow the head, and the new man will be completed.[76]

“But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”[77] Upon that day, the last day,[78] in the revealed purpose of God, when redemptive history comes to a close, the redeemed[79] will be found in His likeness,[80] “that God will be all in all.”[81]

 

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[1] 1Peter 1:12 "…things the angels desire to look."

[2] *Ezekiel 22:30 "I sought for a man among them... to stand in the gap before me..." see also, Isaiah 59:16, 63:5 Jeremiah 5:1
      The man who is "the arm of the Lord..." Isaiah 52:10, 53:1 *John 12:38 Jesus is the mediator between God and man. 2 Timothy 2:5 See also Psalm 89:20

[3] Ezekiel 22:30 LXE (the Greek Septuagint)

[4] Isaiah 59:15b-6a

[5] Jeremiah 5:1

[6] 1Peter 1:12c

[7] The LORD is often heard asking questions concerning man. Isaiah 63:5, 59:16 Ezekiel 22: 20.
 Yahweh presents the questions, not that he is looking for an answer, but both for the benefit of those
 who occupy the heavenly places and for man's understanding.
 It is assumed that God already knows the answers, as He is by nature omniscient.

[8] Isaiah 59:2 Jeremiah 5:25 Fear had now entered the relationship between Adam and God, "I heard your voice and I was afraid" Genesis 3:10

[9] The apostle Peter preached, “the restitution of all things.” Acts 3:21

[10] Matthew 3:17, 17:5 Luke 3:22 2Peter 1:17

[11]Hebrews 2:9 KJV

[12] The LORD uses the word found - as a means to draw our attention, but he is also the man appointed and anointed by God,
 predestined as the Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world. Revelation 13:8

[13] The gap would be the broken relationship that occurred between the first Adam and is now filled by the second Adam. 1Corinthians 15:45

[14] 1Timothy 2:5 John 17:3 Hebrews 7:11-28, 8:1, 9:11

[15] Hebrews 2:9

[16] David's Psalms 45:7, cited in Hebrews 1:8-9

[17] God's people, His children, all have the anointing of the spirit- 1John 1:20, 27 2Corinthians 1:21

[18] John 1:29 Hebrews 9:26

[19] Romans 5:18 even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.

[20] Romans 4:5 see also Romans 3:22, 5:6

[21] "...the one man Christ Jesus” 1Timothy 2:5 see also Romans 5:15

[22] Isaiah 42:6, 49:1

[23] Hebrews 2:18, *4:15 Matthew 4:1 Luke 4:2

[24] i.e. His obedience. Philippians 2:8

[25] Luke 22:42 *Hebrews 5:7-8 See also Matthew 6:10, 20:22-23, 26:39

[26] Revelation 13:8

[27] John 1:29, 36

[28] Hebrews 3:1-2 5:10

[29] Leviticus 16:21 "…a fit man, a suitable man, a man in readiness..." as the different translations read.

[30] Mark 1:12 Matthew 4:1

[31] Isaiah 53 Genesis 22:8

[32] Leviticus 16 The entire chapter deals with the sin offering.

[33] Hebrews 5:8

[34] 1Peter 2:9 Isaiah 43:20-21 Deuteronomy 10:15 Revelation 1:5-6

[35] Revelation 5:9 Isaiah 53:11 Acts 13:39 Romans 5:1, 18-19

[36] The justice of God was satisfied with Jesus taking upon himself the judgment of our sins.

[37] Genesis 22:8 "...God will provide himself a Lamb..." * John 1:29 1Peter 1:19 Revelation 5:6-9

[38] Genesis 3:17-19

[39] Galatians 3:18, cited from Deuteronomy 21:23 *See also Acts 5:30

[40] Revelation 22:3

[41] John 11:26 John 6:47, 50-51, *8:51

[42] "In dying, you shall surely die" Genesis 2:17

[43] 1Corinthians 15:45 Romans 5:14

[44] Romans 5:18

[45] Ephesians 2:8,9 John 4:10

[46] Christ = anointed. 1John 2:22, 3:23-24,

[47] Romans 10:9, 3:21-22 Hebrews 11:6 John 14:1 1Peter 1:21

[48] 1John 5:1, 12

[49] To be found in Christ is the goal. Philippians 3:9

[50] John 14:1 1Peter 1:21

[51] John 20:31 1John 2:22, 5:21 see also John 4:42, 10:24 Luke 9:20

[52] 1Corinthians 15:1-3 Romans 10:9, 4:24 1Peter 1:21 Acts 2:24

[53] Acts 2:22

[54] The second death. Revelation 2:11, 20:6, 14, 21:8

[55] John11:24 Daniel 12:2 John 5:28 Acts 24:15

[56] Revelation 20:13

[57] "…that they may become perfectly one." John 17:19-23 See also Ephesians 3:19 Colossians 3:14-15 1John 2:5

[58] Romans 1:6, *8:28, 30

[59] Ephesians 1:5 1John 2:1, *3:1 *Romans 8:14-23 Matthew 5:45 John 1:12

[60] Ephesians 1:5, 11 Romans 8:29

[61] Psalms 17:15 1John 3:2 Philippians 3:21

[62] Isaiah 65:17 (and following) *Revelation 21:1

[63] Ephesians 2:15, *4:13

[64] Romans 8:23

[65] Romans 8:18-23 The earnest expectation of the creation.

[66] Acts 2:24, 32 3:15, 5:30, 10:40, 13:30, 37 Galatians 1:1 1Peter 1:21

[67] 2Corinthians 5:17 Galatians 6:15

[68] 1Corinthians 3:9 Ephesians 2:21

[69] Ephesians 2:15 Colossians 3:10, 11 Galatians 3:28

[70] 1Corinthians 11:3 Ephesians 5:23 *Colossians 1:18, 2:19

[71] 1Corinthians 10:16, see 1Corinthians Chapter 12 for the concept of the body. Colossians 1:18, 2:17

[72] 1Peter 2:5 1Corinthians 3:9 *Ephesians 2:19-22

[73] Exodus 29:45 Psalms 68:18 John 14:23 *Revelation 21:3

[74] The parable of the wheat & tares. Matthew 13:39-49 See also Matthew 28:20

[75] Romans 8:23c Ephesians 1:14, 4:30

[76] The new man, "which He worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead…" *Ephesians 1:20-23, 4:13 Hebrews 11:45

[77] 1Corinthians 15:23-26 EVS

[78] John 6:39, 11:24 Luke 14:14

[79] Deuteronomy 7:6 Isaiah 62:12 Galatians 3:13 1Peter 1:18 Revelation 5:9, 14:3-4

[80] Psalms 17:15 1John 3:2

[81] 1Corinthians 15:28