Why would God step down from a place of Glory and become a man?
Because he loves us!
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Jesus called us Friends. God looks at us that way!
Proverbs 17:17
A friend always loves….
You see God gave us a choice and our ancestors messed it up.
They made the wrong choice, so sin entered the blood (genetics) of man. Passed down from generation to generation.
God knew that we would never be able to follow all the rules of the first covenant without help. So,
He came to be born of a virgin, accepted the polluted genetics of man into himself and died as a perfect sacrifice, God, and man.
You see it had to be Jesus, only He is perfect God and only He was perfect man.
The manuscripts say He was tempted in everything humans are tempted in and came out perfect. Only God + Man could do that. No man has ever been perfect.
Only that combination could be Messiah!
God is Holy, Holy, Holy
Only a perfect sacrifice would do! All the goats, doves and sheep that were sacrificed were just a way to show us that we needed help! We could not be holy without Him.
We were created for Him, to be loved by Him and love Him in return.
It is the reason for our existence, this bond, this Love, this place with Him.
He made the way of restoration himself.
John
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
But you say ok, “So He was God, I’m not!”
Yes, but you can take on all the attributes of Jesus by accepting His gift of freedom!
And it is freedom!
And it is free.
“He died for us so we could be free”
You do not have to do anything to yourself or change anything about yourself!
God always does all the work!
The only thing you must do is accept His gift.
Say yes Lord, I accept your free gift. Come into my heart and clean this sinner up.
He makes all things new.
He makes all people new.
He is the God of multiple chances.
He is the greatest forgiver.
He takes more abuse than we can imagine.
He still Loves Us!
You will never know another like Him, our Creator.
Blessings,
MR
Who is Jesus Of Nazareth?
As I set here considering where to start; my mind, as so many, automatically jumps to the baby in the manger. It is our first view of The Christ in the form of man.
We just left Christmas behind and our worldwide celebration of His birth. It has been celebrated for centuries so normally when you think of Jesus you think of a baby in a manger, angels, wisemen, shepherds and Mary and Joseph right?
But that is not where the story begins so I guess if you are going to tell a person’s story your start at the beginning. Right?
It began in darkness. A place where no light was shining, where there were no people on earth, no stars in the heaven and no angels singing.
The ancient text tells us it was void (nothingness). Except!
There was a light in the darkness! A Godhead! Elohim! A unity made of pure light that held the power of creation. A personhood acting, creating and being as one, a perfect God!
Our knowledge of Jesus begins here, a part of the holy trinity, God acting as three persons yet totally one in the creation of all that we know and see. He did not start life as a man, the text says He always was.
It is a hard thing for man to wrap his brain around a being that always was. That never had a starting point.
The apostle John who began as a disciple of Jesus explains Him in this way. He calls him the “Word”.
John said He was in the beginning with the Godhead and all things were made by Him and without him nothing was created.
Before the world was, Jesus was. Before the heavens were, Jesus was. Before there was time, Jesus was. God did not start when the world was formed, that is the beginning of man’s story, not Gods.
It all began with the Godhead or Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) of which Jesus is represented as the Son.
Jesus himself tells us who He is in Johns gospel: John 10:30. “I and my Father are one.”
Jesus gave seven more statements about who he was in this Gospel:
John 6:27 – I am the bread of life.
John 8:12 – I am the light of the world.
John 10:7 – I am the door.
John 10:11 – I am the good shepherd.
John 11: 25-26 - I am the resurrection and the life.
John 14:16 – I am the way, the truth, and the life.
John 15:6 – I am the vine.
After adding Christ’s own explanation of who He is I went searching on the internet and found this links:
Read each as they will give you a short commentary on each of His statements regarding who He says He is.
https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/the-seven-i-ams-of-jesus/. (Right click and open in another window)
So, was Jesus saying he was God? What did Jesus mean when He called Himself, I AM?
Another Good link.
https://www.gotquestions.org/I-AM.html
Out of the mouths of two or three witnesses let every word be established, 2 Corinthians 13:1.
I will stop here for now; we have explored the deity of Christ now we will explore the human element of His personhood in the next blog.
Blessings,
MR
May the Ancient of Days Bless Us in 2022!
My thought a few years ago was to be able to present the Gospel of the Christ in a nutshell!
After pondering this for several years and coming up with several scenarios I could present in a few minutes that are rather good, I decided to peruse the internet and see if someone else had any in a nutshell variation and what they used.
Uh, no! They are so widely varied and so long they forgot the nutshell!
So, I’m going to give you my version and we will flesh it out over time while we explore Jesus and why He came, His purpose and why we should care.
The Gospel in a nutshell! (By the way, the ancient text says it is so simple a child can understand it! 😊)
- The ancient powers that are, (Elohim) (God, the Godhead, 3 in One) wanted someone to love and love them back so they created the heavens, the earth, the angels (hosts of heavens) and man. God is one but plural, acts as one but is presented in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- One third of the angels lead by Lucifer rebelled against God and He kicked them out of heaven and evil was born out of Satan’s (Lucifer’s) arrogance and vanity.
- The evil one then tempts the first man and woman into rebellion and sin entered the bloodline of mankind.
- God introduces His law to man to show him his need for salvation. Without God no man can redeem himself as mankind was unable to keep God’s law by his own will.
- Knowing that the sacrifice of animals would never satisfy a pure and Holy God, He (God) decided that the situation in the heart of mankind required a perfect sacrifice.
- So, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God came to be the perfect sacrifice Himself!
- He chose to come down from His throne, take on the blood of mankind with its genetically carried sin and die as the once and for all sacrifice to redeem us back to His Father!
- He is the only one who could do it as God demanded a perfect sacrifice and only God himself fit that description. He became man because man carried the sin! Only God could do it because only God is perfect!
- God never asked anyone else to be the sacrifice for His creation, He did it Himself! It started with Love and Jesus the perfect sacrifice finished it with Love! No one sacrifices themselves unless they Love!
- After His sacrifice Jesus sat down on the throne at the right hand of the Father and rests until it is time to bring His family home to His Father.
- In order to become family, you must be saved.
- So, what must you do to be saved? Accept the freely given gift of Love!
- How do you do that?
- Hebrews 11:6 – Believe that He IS and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
- Luke 13 – Jesus said, “Except you repent, you will perish.”
- You first must take it on faith that Jesus IS and that He is God. Then you must repent of the sin in your life, ask Him to forgive you and begin a relationship with your creator.
Whew! Well, that is my nutshell. 😊
Did it raise more questions? LOL
It did! Good, then let us explore the answers going forward,
Blessings,
MR