The "Arm of the LORD" in Early Christian Literature

            Due to the New Testament association of the Arm of the LORD with Christ (e.g., John 12:38), as well as the rich Jewish legacy which early Christians inherited, the view that God’s Arm is the Messiah was widespread among Christian writers. Unlike early Jewish sources, which often implicitly linked the Arm of the LORD to the Messiah, Christian interpreters tended to explicitly make the connection. Testimony from numerous centuries exists.

1 Clement

            The Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians (1 Clement) is hailed as “one of the earliest–if not the earliest–extant Christian documents outside of the New Testament.” Composed shortly after John penned the Book of Revelation, the letter affirms that believers are "delivered us from every sin by the Arm [of God]". Since the author previously had named Jesus as the Savior as well as the messianic Servant, he therefore recognized the Son of God as the Arm of the LORD.

Justin Martyr

            Justin Martyr, the celebrated apologist of the second century, expressed that Jesus deserved His designation as the messianic Arm of the LORD. In the course of an exposition which affirmed that Christ possessed no sin nature in His Incarnation, Justin said regarding the Son of God:

"And the first Power after God the Father and Master of all is the  Word, who is also Son; and of Him, in what follows, we will tell how He took flesh and became man. For as man did not make the blood of the grape, but God, so it was intimated that [His] blood should not be from human seed, but of divine power, as we have said above. And Isaiah, another prophet, prophesying the same things in other words, said thus: “A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a flower shall spring from the root of Jesse; and upon His arm will the nations hope.”

Justin’s contribution to the subject is of great importance because he lived only decades after the era of the New Testament Apostles.

Melito

            Melito the Philosopher, also of the A.D. second century, subscribed to the position that the Arm of the LORD typifies Christ. In a text which cited Isaiah 53:1, he asserted that “the Arm of the Lord [is] His Son, by whom He hath wrought all His works. In the
prophet Isaiah: ‘And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?’” Melito, therefore, plainly called Jesus–who he acknowledged as the Messiah–the Arm of the LORD.

Paulinus of Nola

            Paulinus of Nola (A.D. 354-431) likewise held that the Arm of the LORD is a messianic title that belongs to Christ. According to him, God entrusted the messianic Arm of the LORD with a twofold mission:

"That wisdom is God in Christ, the Virtue of virtues and the Mind of minds, the Lord of majesty, the raised Arm which, as Scripture says, has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart, has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. By this Arm, which is Christ, the hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent empty away."

Paulinus, therefore, understood the ministry of Christ to have both a positive and negative tenor, for the Arm of the LORD judged the boastful, while at the same time showing mercy to the meek.

Cyril of Alexandria

            Cyril, bishop of Alexandria from A.D. 412-444, was certain that the Arm of the LORD was a messianic appellation. This conviction is evident in John A. McGuckin’s quotation of Cyril’s letter to the monks of Egypt:

"Lift up your voice and do not be afraid. Say to all the cities of Judah: Behold your God, behold the Lord is coming with strength and his right arm has dominion. Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him. As a shepherd he pastures his flock and he shall gather his lambs in his strong right arm” (Isa. 40:9-11). Indeed Our Lord Jesus has appeared to us having a godly strength and in his right arm was dominion, that is authority and sovereignty."

Cyril drew his conclusions about the kingly role of the Messiah from the untypical phraseology of Isaiah 40:10, which prophesies that the Arm of the LORD would reign on behalf of the LORD.

Cassiodorus

            Cassiodorus, whose life extended from A.D. 485-580, bluntly agreed that Jesus “is called the right hand, the arm, the salvation, the justice of the Father.” In his writings, he counted all of the psalms which allude to the Arm of the LORD as messianic revelations. For this reason, Cassiodorus almost certainly saw other Old Testament "Arm" passages in much the same light.

The LORD's Messianic Arm

 In the Ancient Near East, the term "arm" came to be a powerful symbol that represented the idea of "might" and "power." During the period in which the sons of Israel were slaves in Egypt, the Egyptians were extremely fond of the imagery, using it to represent a number of important religious and political concepts. The most significant examples of "arm" imagery include: 1) An epitaph for deity, 2) A cultic symbol that signified the restoration of a mummy's vitality, 3) A symbol of Pharaoh's might; 4) A way to depict Pharaoh as an extension of the gods; and 5) A military slogan that represented victory and the subjugation of opponents.

The first instance of biblical arm imagery occurs in Exodus 6:6. In Exodus 6:1-8, God declared to Moses that He would liberate the sons of Israel from Egypt by means of His "outstretched arm." Both Pharaoh and the Israelite slaves immediately would have grasped the implications of this statement. Essentially, the LORD claimed that He was more powerful that Pharaoh and all of the Egyptian gods. Because of the LORD's decisive victory against Egypt, the phrase Zeroa' YHWH (i.e. "the Arm of the LORD") became a popular expression after the Exodus.

Later Old Testament authors described the "Arm of the LORD" as: 1) Creator (Jer. 32:17); 2) Deliverer (Isa. 52:10; 53:1); 3) Divine Warrior (Isa. 51:9-11); 4) King (Isa. 40:10-11); and 5) Judge (Isa. 51:5). Because many of these passages appear in the context of messianic passages, and John explained that Jesus fulfilled an "Arm of the LORD" passage (John 12:38), it is no surprise that the "Arm of the LORD" is a title for the Messiah.

Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

Since my teenage years, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit has been one of my favorite books.  I am currently rereading it for what perhaps is the fifth time. Tolkien’s tale concerns a timid hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who loves food and hates adventures. Through the trickery of the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo finds himself on a journey with a band of dwarves who desire to retrieve their stolen gold from a fire-breathing dragon named Smaug. Frequently, the hobbit wishes for nothing more than to be back in the comfort of his home, enjoying the contents of his larder.

Chapter 6 is entitled “Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire.” By this time, Bilbo, the dwarves, and the wizard already had encountered cannibal trolls, vicious goblins, the treacherous Gollum, and sinister wolves known as wargs. They were forced to climb trees to escape a joint goblin and warg attack, and the goblins set fire to the trees in order to smoke them out. Just at the fir trees began to topple, large, friendly eagles retrieved the heroes and flew them to their mountain-top nests. As Bilbo settled into a peaceful sleep that night, chapter 6 records his dream: “all night he dreamed of his own house and wandered in his sleep into all his different rooms looking for something that he could not find nor remember what it looked like.” 

Tolkien’s intention is to show that Bilbo greatly and permanently had changed during his journey. The hobbit had been comfortable with his old life until he became exposed to a new, better way of life. This transformation is reminiscent of what occurs when a person trusts in Jesus as Lord. 

Although we were comfortable with a sinful, destructive path, our walk with Christ shows us the fallacy of that destructive path, the reality of a joyous, present relationship with Him, and a future in His kingdom!

2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  

2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.           

 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.                       

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,                 

 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),                      
 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,   

2:7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7)

Understanding the Symbolism of Daniel 7:2-13: A Chart

Elements of Daniel's Dream	Significance	Notes
The sea (7:2-3)	Symbol for wickedness	cf. Rev. 13
A lion with the wings of an eagle; its wings were plucked off, it stood on two feet, and was given a human mind (7:3-4)	Babylon	The wings that are torn off represents Nebuchadnezzar's insanity, while the lion being given a human mind represents his restoration.
A bear with three ribs in its mouth (7:5).	Medo-Persia	The ribs may depict military triumphs or an insatiable appetite for war.
A leopard-like creature with four wings, four heads, that boasted dominion (7:6)	Greece	The four heads represent the  four kingdoms that were led by Alexander's four generals when he died in 323 B.C.
A powerful beast with iron teeth and ten horns (7:7-8)	Rome	The ten horns represent kingdoms that would arise out of the Old Roman Empire.
A little horn with human eyes and a blasphemous mouth that will pluck out three horns from the fourth beast (7:8)	The antichrist	The antichrist will defeat three of the ten kingdoms, then dominate all of them.
The Ancient of Days  (7:9-10, 13-14)	God the Father	God the Father will give dominion to the Son of Man.
The Son of Man (7:13)	Jesus the Messiah	The Messiah will receive dominion over the entire world and defeat the antichrist.

Understanding the Symbolism Daniel 2:32-45: A Chart

Elements of the Dream	Significance	Notes
Head of gold (2:32)	Babylon (2:36-38)	The God of Heaven had allowed Nebuchadnezzar  to rule over all. The empire dominated from 605-539 B.C.
Chest and arms of silver (2:32)	Medo-Persia (2:39)	The two arms represent the Medes and the Persians. The empire dominated the world from 539-331 B.C.
Belly and thighs of bronze (2:32)	Greece (2:39)	Alexander the Great conquered the Medo-Persians in 332 B.C. The empire dominated the world from 331-146 B.C.
Legs of iron (2:33)	Rome (2:40)	Rome defeated Carthage in 146 B.C., and dominated the world until A.D. 395 (a period of over 500 years), when the nation broke into an Eastern and a Western Empire.
Feet of iron and clay (2:33)	Kingdom of the antichrist (2:41-43)	This represents a mixture of groups that will form one kingdom, but they will not stay united. The ten toes of the feet appear to represent the ten kingdoms of Revelation 13:1; 17:12.
Stone that strikes the statue, destroys it, and becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth (2:34-35)	Eternal Kingdom of God (2:44-45)	This refers to the earthly reign of the Messiah, who will overthrow all of the kingdoms of the earth, and rule without end.

Romans 12:2: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (Part 5)

            Because Christ sacrificed His live for us, our duty is to sacrifice our lives to accomplish His purpose in this world. When we do so, we will find that in truth we have lost nothing, but we have gained a peace and joy that only come from walking with Christ. As we continue to walk with Jesus and become more like Him, the relationship becomes sweeter and sweeter, and our testimony will encourage friends and family to follow Christ as well. May we live out the Christian life in an authentic way so as to lead others to His throne where they too may taste of His goodness and mercy. Merry Christmas Eve!

Romans 12:2: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (Part 4)

            The reason for the believer’s sanctification is in order to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.  In other words, “the renewed mind can discover and put into action—thereby proving or demonstrating—the will of God . . . . in doing his will, the believer demonstrates sacrificial living.”^[1] This transformation into Christ-likeness is the gift that keeps on giving, because others will observe the believer’s sacrificial living and become interested in the things of Christ.

            As many know, Missouri is called the “Show Me State” because its residents have an “I’ve got to see it to believe it attitude.” Unbelievers hold to the same philosophy when it comes to Christianity. It is one thing to hear the message of the Gospel, but quite another to see the Gospel lived out in a believer’s life. The result of faith put into practice is that many will become followers of Christ because of the believer’s testimony.

            Tomorrow, we will apply the message of Romans 12:2 to our lives.

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^[1] Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Romans, vol. 6 in the Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 366.

Romans 12:2: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (Part 3)

            The means by which a believer’s transformation comes about is the renewal of the mind. Paul’s word for renewal exists nowhere outside of the New Testament prior to the writing of the Book of Romans, which means that he probably coined the term. Indeed, renewal only elsewhere appears in Titus 3:5, in which Paul explains that salvation is possible by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Hence, the continual process of sanctification is impossible apart from the inner work of God’s Spirit.

            Mind often refers to one’s way of thinking. A natural outgrowth of spiritual transformation is a new outlook on life. Believers no longer look at things the way that they did before their conversion, but to see them from God’s eternal perspective: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). This way of thinking prompts the believer to reject a self-serving desire for that which is fleeting in order to selflessly pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33).

            Tomorrow, we will discuss the purpose of the believer's transformation and renewal.

Romans 12:2: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (Part 2)

            The Greek term transformed is the basis for the English word metamorphosis. This concept refers to a complete and unequivocal change, and perhaps the best example is the transformation of the lowly caterpillar into the majestic butterfly. Interestingly, Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2 employ the same Greek expression to describe Jesus’ glorious transfiguration before Peter, James, and John.

            Unlike Jesus’ visible manifestation of His deity, however, the believer’s present transformation is not external in nature. Jesus’ followers will not receive sinless, glorified bodies until His future return in the clouds (1 Cor. 15:50-53). Rather, to be transformed involves “a radical reorientation that begins deep within the human heart.”^[1]

            This development is not something that a believer can accomplish independently. Paul did not command Christians to “transform yourselves,” but to “be transformed.” In other words, the apostle declared that a believer cannot experience spiritual growth independently of Christ: apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5b). Furthermore, the force of the admonition is such that the believer’s transformation should not be an occasional endeavor, but steady and continuous.

            Tomorrow, we will examine the significance of the phrase, 

"Renewal of the Mind."

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^[1] Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27 in The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2001), 233.

Romans 12:2: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (Part 1)

            When I placed my faith in Christ at the age of twelve, I experienced a peace that truly passes all understanding. I rightfully realized that true joy was mine to cherish because of my new relationship with the Lord, but I misunderstood the nature of the Christian life. I reasoned that because now I was a follower of Christ that I would no longer need to worry about problems or temptations. How mistaken I was!

            Jesus described salvation as a new birth (John 3:7). This imagery indicates that the believer is not fully developed at the moment of regeneration, but must grow and mature spiritually. The New Testament refers to this development as sanctification, a process by which followers of Jesus progressively become more like Him as they continue to walk with Him. Paul addressed the passage at hand to his spiritual brothers (Rom. 12:1), so Romans 12:2b explains what must occur for a Christian to continue in his or her sanctification. Tomorrow, we will looking at the meaning of the word "transformed" in Romans 12:2.