John 1:1-14
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God, whose name [was] John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all
[men] through him might believe. He was
not that Light, but [was sent] to bear witness of that Light. [That] was the true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was
made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Isaiah 9:6
“For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Matthew 1:23
“Behold,
a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
The fact that Jesus
Christ is God is not a point of dispute between true believers, though there
are many sects including some who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ who do
dispute His deity.
He is perfect God and
yet He is also perfect man.
As perfect God He has
equality with the Father and in John 10:30 Jesus makes the statement "...I and my Father are one...”
As perfect man He has
equality with Adam (as Adam was prior to the fall). In 1Corinthians 15:45 it is written “...The first Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit...".
To be perfect man He
had to be born free from the Adamic or sin nature and born as Adam was created,
sinless and without physical blemish.
Therefore He was born of a virgin, born from that "Seed of the
Woman" referred to in Genesis 3:15.
He is not said to be born of Adam's seed but of the seed of the Woman,
which indicates that it is by the seed of man that the sin nature is transmitted
to all. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary,
and the child she conceived was the body prepared for the second person of the
triune God to inhabit and to fulfil the role of the Passover lamb “...who
taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
In Hebrews 10:5 the
words of the Messiah are recorded, "...Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me,” a body
of flesh, prepared in the womb of Mary for the earthly ministry of the eternal
Son.
He came as perfect
God and as perfect man; yet how can one be equal with Adam whilst
having all the attributes of Deity? How
can one have all the finite qualities of man and yet be infinite in His
abilities? How can He be our kinsman,
when He is Almighty God; only by the deliberate and constant use of His will.
Hebrews 10:7
“Then
said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy
will, O God.”
John 4:34
“Jesus
saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish
his work.”
John 6:38
“For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me.”
Luke 22:42
“Saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will,
but thine, be done.”
What was the will of
the Father for the Son? To reconcile man
to God, so that ultimately the name of God might be honoured and glorified in
His Creation. Honoured and glorified by
the worship and praise of His creatures in their acknowledgement of the
perfection of His justice and His love.
And how could a
fallen world have done this? How could
fallen and spiritually dead mankind see let alone acknowledge the infinite and
Almighty Spirit.
It was for
reconciliation that Christ came, to enable fallen man to fulfil the will of
God. It was to this end that Christ gave
Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and in that sacrifice display both the justice
and the love of God.
True justice demands
that the penalty of sin be met. If it is
not, justice has been circumvented; it remains unfulfilled and therefore
imperfect. With true justice sins must be judged.
And as there is no
greater example of love than "that a
man lay down his life for his friends", when Jesus gave his life in
payment for the sins of His enemies, divine justice and divine love met as one.
It is the child born,
the Son given, the Almighty God and Everlasting Father of Isaiah 9:6, "...Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross...".
He was willing to set
aside the power and omnipotence of His Deity so as to live in the weak and
vulnerable state of mankind. To suffer
every temptation known to man, yet able, by the indwelling power of God the
Holy Spirit, to live a sinless life.
He was sinless in His
cradle because of the virgin birth and He was sinless in His life by the power
of the indwelling Spirit of God. It was
not because of His Deity that He was sinless in His life, He took no advantage
over Adam in that respect but He was sinless in His life because of His
obedience to the Father's will. "...For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous...” (Romans 5:19).
Adam could have been
obedient and reliant on God if he chose, as we Christians (new creatures in
Christ) are able to be obedient and reliant if we will; but our will seems to
be to obey the lusts of our flesh and mind.
Not so Christ
Jesus. His will was to do the Father's
will and it was this obedience that set Him apart from the rest of
mankind. Not the fact that He was God in
the flesh; for all intents and purposes that had been set aside. He lived His life on this earth, not as the
God-man, but as our kinsman. Not using
the power of His divinity but utilizing the same power available to us as
Christians; the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.
If we look at
ourselves in the light of God's perfect Law, we see nothing but imperfection in
the weakness of our will, the frailty of our flesh and the constancy of our
sin. If we then look at the perfect
humanity of Jesus of Nazareth, we gain an understanding of God's character, and
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, in John 14:9 come alive with meaning,
"...Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou
then, Shew us the Father?”
These were the words
of our kinsman, Jesus of Nazareth, who through obedience to the will of the
Father achieved perfect manhood. Perfect
manhood...? A holiness even as the
Father is Holy within humanity, his perfect humanity.
Isn't this what is
commanded of us? "...Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect", and "...Be ye holy; for I am holy".
Our Lord Jesus Christ
had no sin nature it is true, but His temptations were greater and more intense
than any man before or since has had to face.
Examples of His temptations are the temptations of His wilderness
experience in Matt 4:1-11, and the temptation to bypass the Cross "...Father, if it be thy will let this
cup pass from me; nevertheless not mine but thy will be done...".
He was The Eternal
Word the God of Creation, yet whilst on this earth Jesus the man suffered the
privations of hunger and thirst. He had
set aside the power of Divinity to be our kinsman.
Before Abraham was He
existed eternally, yet it was Jesus the man the Jews were going to stone to
death.
He was the Righteous
and Holy God, yet it was Jesus the man who bore our sins in His body on the
Cross.
He was the source of
life itself, yet it was Jesus the man who died on the Cross.
He had set aside the
power and majesty of His Divinity to be our kinsman redeemer.
The perfection of the
body prepared for Him is within our
spiritual comprehension, for the seed that impregnated the womb of Mary was an
act of creation: it was God's doing. But
in view of the temptations He suffered (and in this we can have some
understanding due to our own experiences), the preservation of His perfect and
sinless life was very much a Divine achievement.
Though He is the
God-man, while He was on this earth He set aside the use of His power; He did
not divest Himself of that Divinity because He could not, but He set aside the
use of that power for the sake of being our kinsman.
“Wherefore
in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people ". "...Made like unto His brethren..."
He was as truly human
as you and I, yet while He was still in the cradle the omnipotence of His
Divinity continued to hold the universe together. His Divinity was not abated but He did not
use that power in His role as our kinsman.
As our kinsman He was as dependent on God's word and the filling of the
Spirit as we are.
As our kinsman He
came to fulfil the Law so that as perfect man he might give his perfect life as
the sacrifice for lawlessness; perfect humanity in substitution for sinful
humanity, or as 1 Peter 3:18 says...
"...For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit:.."
He came to be our
Saviour by redeeming us from sin; with the only acceptable means, the only
means of propitiating or fulfilling perfect justice; His sinless life.
Let us always praise
God for Him who is our Redeemer, our Saviour, our Lord and our God.
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