Daily With Jesus

It was necessary that man should have died after the fall otherwise, “it would have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn again to non-existence through corruption” (Athanasius, 1944, 19).  God would have been found unrighteous and unfaithful to His word. However, man’s death was not an acceptable sacrifice for the atonement of their sins. In their corrupted state, man was helpless and unable to become nor provide the required sacrifice. The satisfactory sacrifice had to transcend all earthly possibilities.

It was in the mortal body that death was accomplished through the law of sin and death. “…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, BSB). They disobeyed, ate the fruit in the body, sin entered the body, and the body was defiled necessitating due consequences in the body. A body must be prepared for sacrifice! Sin has gained access to the world through the disobedience of Adam. Man lost their absolute “…dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the.” (Genesis 1:26, KJV). Depravity was enthroned.  The land and everything thereof inherited the curse of sin. Creation became inoculated with moral degeneracy and all manner of rebellion, unrighteousness, and death ensued. It became exceedingly expedient that our Lord Jesus will suffer as He did so that humanity may be saved from death to life everlasting.

Since it has been established that it was in the mortal body that death was accomplished through the law of sin and death, we must also understand that it was necessary that through the same means, life be restored. Hebrews reminds us that when Jesus “…cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me” ((Hebrews 10:5, KJV). A body must be prepared for sacrifice! But, “…Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? … behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Rev. 5:2 & 5). Through no other could life be restored except by Him who made it from the beginning. “Through Him, all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:3-4, NIV). Jesus, the only perfect sacrifice took on a body without sin and became the propitiation for the sins of mankind.

Jesus surrendered the body so that in that body, He might destroy death and accomplish life everlasting. He took an uncorrupted body “…directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father …untainted by intercourse with man”, (Athanasius, 1944, 21). It is in this body that everything that should have been done to man including death will converge. As a sacrificial lamb “He was oppressed, …afflicted, …brought as a lamb to the slaughter…”, (Isaiah 53:7, KJV). He stood in place of man and received all the punishment man deserved for their transgression even unto death. He took our place, what we deserved He received. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree”, (Galatians 3:13, KJV).  

Once the sacrifice was completed on the cross, Jesus exclaimed, “…It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost”, (John 19:30). Is God dead? Oh no! Not at all! Immortal can never die. He took on a body as His temporary habitation for a specific purpose; the destruction of sin, death, and restoration of life. When the purpose of the body was accomplished, Jesus returned the mortal body to its abode. He delivered it to mortality. Immortality tasted not death nor corruption. Jesus tasted no death nor corruption. “For (God the Father) wilt not leave (His) soul in hell; neither wilt (He) suffer (His) Holy One to see corruption”, (Psalm 16:10, KJV). (Emphases added).

The death of Christ on the cross exhibited the righteousness of God who had the obligation to bring judgment upon sin. Man needed a savior. “The father and the Son (being) one in (the) project of redemption, …God is necessarily both the subject and the object of the propitiation. He provides the propitiating sacrifice (He is the subject) and He Himself is propitiated (He is the object)”, (Carson D., A., 72).  The Father sent His Son, the Son in obedience came in the flesh (Incarnated), suffered, died, and resurrected fulfilling the original plan of God which is to have moral order in creation, righteousness, restoration of fellowship between God and man, and to raise men from mortality to immortality. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16. KJV).

It is indeed a righteous thing that God should have given man free will for He, God, being omniscient, omnipotent, and compassionate prepared and slain a lamb, Jesus “… [in sacrifice] from the foundation of the world”, (Rev.13:8, Amp.). God is all righteous! He availed a solution suitable for man’s depravity. He was not taken by surprise when the first Adam sinned. He had prepared the second Adam, Jesus as part of His plan for creation. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we are no longer under the power and dominion of sin and death. The law of grace and life now rules. The dominion that satan, the most subtle creature on earth stole from man has been restored. God is wiser than his subtility. Salvation has been availed to them that will believe and confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. “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” (John 1:12-13, KJV). Salvation is available!

As you are reading this write-up, will you say yes to Jesus? Will you embrace life everlasting through Him? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:23-27, ESV). Please seize this opportunity today, right now, to say yes to Jesus and become a partaker of His unfailing love.

References

Athanasius of Alexandra, 1944, “On the Incarnation”, Pantianos Classics,

Carson D., A., 2000, “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God”, Crossway Books