“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” – John 20:17
CONTRARY TO WHAT MANY A preacher has supposed, the oft-cited declaration, “It is finished” which Christ uttered before he gave up the ghost, does not refer to his work of redemption itself, but merely to the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies concerning him. How could salvation be finished, when Immanuel was yet to die, much less rise from the dead, much less enter the heavenly holy of holies and offers his blood once for all for the sins of the world? As the Old Testament high priest’s work was not finished simply by slaying the lamb without blemish, the Savior’s work was not finished when he gave himself for our sins in his own body on the tree. Had his blood soaked into the ground at Calvary, as false teachers like John MacArthur insist, there would be no redemption available to mankind. For it is not the death of Christ which saves, nor even the blood shed, but the blood sprinkled, or applied, to the heavenly mercy seat which appeases the wrath of God, satisfies his justice, and completes our redemption.
I have written in these pages the importance of Christ’s precious blood, and reiterated it in the above paragraph, because it is a subject which cannot be overemphasized. Without that cleansing stream, there can be no salvation, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Yet, it is not my primary purpose now to solely elaborate upon the blood’s necessity. Afore, I have rebuked MacArthur and fellow false prophets “who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and done despite unto the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29). Now, I aim, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to briefly reprove the vile modern Bible perversions which deny the saving power of the blood, and provide heretical “proofs” for blood-deniers as MacArthur to cite in bolstering their pernicious lies.
To begin, I will repeat my text verse, then provide the prototypical perverted translation of this precious scripture, by citing the abominable New International Version’s corrupted text:
John 20:17 (King James Bible): “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
John 20:17 (New Internal Version): “Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’.”
I encounter several issues with the NIV’s rendering of this precious text. To begin with, the stately stanzas and poetic profoundness which the King James Bible employs to convey this crucial moment upon Christ’s resurrection are stupefied by the limitations of modern English. The King James text which flows so smoothly and elegantly as it limns the first words of the risen Christ is rendered a commonplace, unspectacular scene by the “easier to read” modern perversions. But, I realize many care not how beautifully information is expressed. To that end, I will draw your attention to the idiotic implication that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, by whom the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised up, the poor had the gospel preached unto them, after rising from the dead, was somehow incapable of ascending to heaven because Mary Magdalene was holding on to him. Evidently, with God all things are possible, except ascending to heaven while a mortal holds his garments! As an aside, this preposterous imbecility is yet another example of the moronic modern perversions contradicting themselves.
But the most important issue is that if Mary truly did touch Jesus, his blood sacrifice would have been contaminated, and we who have trusted that blood to save us are of all men most miserable. In the Old Testament, the high priest, who was a foreshadower of our high priest, Jesus Christ, was not to be touched as he took the lamb’s shed blood and entered the holy of holies to sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, because touching him would defile the sacrifice. How could it be any different with the Lamb of God, as he ascended to heaven to enter in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us? This, then, is the reason why Jesus commanded Mary to “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” He had not yet ascended to sprinkle his shed blood on the heavenly mercy seat, and if she had touched him then, the sacrifice would have been corrupted, just as John 20:17 (and many, many other scriptures, for that matter) are corrupted by the modern “Bible” translations.
Of course, after Jesus had sprinkled his blood, his work was truly finished, and he could be touched without issue. Nay, he even invited others to touch him, telling Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). Once more, the King James Bible makes perfect sense, while the NIV (and its modern perversion cohorts) is both heretical and pathetic. Ironically, the NIV’s sanctimonious preface boasts of the translator’s supposed lack of “bias” in completing their unfruitful work of darkness, while their bias against the blood of Christ is evident. Perhaps they do not go so far as other modern perversions do, in (falsely) claiming Christ’s death alone is sufficient to save a man, but the wretched perversion here enacted is singular in its depravity. Pitiful thing, then, if this so-called “scholarship” were to be our only hope for knowing what the scriptures say. Wonderful thing, then, that we have the flawless, inspired, preserved King James Bible, which exposes the cunning craftiness of ungodly men who corrupt the word of God, and upholds the glorious truth that ye were redeemed “by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.”