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The Doctrine of Jesus Christ
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- Written by: Glen Lee Edwards
- Category: Why Are We Here?
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The Doctrine of Jesus Christ
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are told that Lucifer was created with great beauty, and walked in the very presence of God, guarding the holy mountain of God. Pride overwhelmed him. His beauty and the abundance of his trade convinced him that there was none like him, that he should be ruler over all. In his rebellion and quest to rule all of creation, he swept away ⅓ of the angels in heaven. And then he swept away Adam and Eve through deceit, causing them to discount God as unreliable and untrustworthy.
Then came Jesus:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” ¹
Scripture tells us that God comprises three distinct and unique individuals; the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit, all of whom have existed without beginning and end. After the fall of Lucifer and the rebellion of ⅓ of the angels in heaven, the Father devised a plan to demonstrate to all creation that no one except God is qualified and capable of ruling all of creation. The plan included creating the world that we live in, giving Adam and Eve free will, and allowing them to reject God’s words and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
A key part of the plan was a body of the flesh with a brain, a biological computer predisposed toward certain behavioral tendencies that it fed endlessly to an eternal spirit that God placed inside it. The test was if the eternal spirit, a newly created being that would live forever, could ignore the brain and its endless demands, and instead act with the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of God, Himself while overruling the brain and controlling the body as God Himself would do.
Since Adam and Eve, not a person has been able, from conception, to act independently of the demands of the human brain and, at the same time, make the correct decisions of how to live just as God would do. In fact, the thought of ignoring my brain sounds stupid, preposterous, something only the mentally ill would do.
Then God in the form of The Son came to earth to prove that He could do what no one from Adam until then, a period of about 4,000 years, had been able to do; overcome the body of the flesh, bow down to no man, remain unconditionally faithful to the Father, and fulfill all the requirements of the Law of Moses. To prove that He could succeed where we had failed, The Son had to live under the same temptations and trials as we while fulfilling the plan that the Father had set forth for Him.
Some highlights and comments on the life of Jesus Christ, all of which occurred while His Spirit was living in a body of flesh:
- He came to us as a child, born to the virgin Mary in a manger in Bethlehem. It was necessary that He come in the form of a newborn baby so He could, from His earliest moments on earth, live under the same conditions as the rest of us, where our newly formed and innocent spirit is unendingly pressured by its human brain, the Mind of the Flesh, to unconditionally do its bidding. It was necessary that He never succumb to a single one of its endless demands even while in the womb.
- At the age of 12 when Jesus remained in Jerusalem after the feast of Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, Luke records that He was “both listening to them [the learned teachers of the law] and asking them questions. All who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.” Jesus demonstrated a maturity and understanding well beyond normal.
- At His baptism, all three members of the Deity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; were present, as scripture says, “At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”²
- The Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness where He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. While still suffering from hunger when the flesh was at its weakest point, Lucifer came and tempted Him using the cravings of the flesh, human pride, and greed to tempt Jesus to bow down and worship him. Jesus saw through every one of Lucifer’s temptations and responded with overruling spiritual truths. After the temptation, Jesus began His earthly ministry.
- At the Transfiguration when Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him to pray, He was transfigured before them. Elijah and Moses appeared with Him, speaking with Jesus. Then the voice of the Father came from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”
- Jesus performed many miracles during His life, including raising Lazarus from the dead.
- At Gethsemane, immediately before His arrest, Jesus stated, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Jesus' reference to His "soul" being sorrowful to the point of death is important. There is a distinction between 'soul' and 'spirit' which is often overlooked by translators. They use the terms interchangeably. However, 'soul' as used here refers to Jesus' Mind of the Flesh. Jesus is stating that His human mind which is connected to His eternal Spirit but is a separate and distinct entity, is so overwhelmed that it's at the point of death from the stress. This is further illustrated in the Apostle John's account where he states of Jesus, "His sweat became like drops of blood."
This provides evidence that Jesus' flesh was fully operational and that God didn't "cheat the test" by giving Jesus a body that provided no resistance to His will and desires. Instead, Jesus' human brain was screaming at Him to find another way. While Jesus didn't succumb to His flesh, He did petition the Father, asking if there was any other way than dying on the cross. When the answer came back that the cross was the only way, Jesus willingly submitted to the Father's plan. - When Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, He was found guilty of claiming to be the Son of God. Under Old Testament Law, this was considered blasphemy, a crime punishable by death. However, since He was the Son of God, from a legal perspective, He was innocent of all charges and accusations made against Him.
- Jesus was too physically weak to carry the cross on which they crucified Him, so they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, to carry it.
- On the cross, Jesus refused to drink from the sponge filled with sour wine. The wine was used to help deaden the pain of hanging on the cross. Jesus refused to drink from it, choosing instead to feel the full effects of the cross with the nails driven through His hands and feet.
- After He died, to fulfill scripture, "They will look on Him whom they pierced," and, "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins," a soldier pierced His side with a spear. Blood and water came out, indicating that Jesus had died. The test for death at the time was to pierce the body of one believed dead and to examine the blood that flowed out. If it separated into blood and water, this was the indication used to confirm death had occurred. If there was no separation, then the heart was still pumping, the individual was still alive.
It is important to understand that there was nothing magical about the blood of Jesus. There is no magic in blood from any source; animal, virgin, etc. Jesus' blood was no different from yours or mine. It couldn't be different or it would nullify the test as to whether the Son of God could live in the flesh as we do yet never succumb to it. The 'magic' is that Jesus remained unconditionally loyal to God The Father, submitting to no one nor anything else, including His own Mind of the Flesh, unto death on the cross. The prophetic requirement that Jesus' side be pierced was to forever prove to all creation that He had willingly died so He could remain unconditionally loyal to God the Father. - Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Because He had demonstrated miraculous powers that only a god, or in this case, God Himself, could have, it was demanded by all those around Him that He submit to them and do their bidding. All wanted to use Jesus as a tool to control their own destiny, their own daily lives. Whether it was the Sanhedrin, civil government as in Pilate and Herod, or the general public, they wanted Jesus to submit to them. Because He refused, instead remaining unconditionally loyal to God The Father, they killed Him on a cross in an absolute statement of rejection. But the Father responded to the public execution of His Son, Jesus Christ, with a statement of His own:
- The Father, in a demonstration of who really has the power, brought Jesus back from the grave, giving Him back His life. He also gave Jesus a new body that no longer has a Mind of the Flesh that endlessly tries to control Him. Those of us who walk in faith with Jesus will also be given new bodies that don't try to dictate our every move, our every thought, our every interaction with those around us. Praise God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Redemption is now ours because the Son of God has come to show us the path to the Father.
- The Father also made a statement to all the Heavens, especially to Lucifer who attempted to overthrow the Father to set himself up as the god of all creation: Jesus' demonstration of total, complete, and unconditional loyalty to The Father even when man executed Him on a cross on Golgotha's hill, is proof once and for all that there is only One God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation. There is no other way, no other religion that man follows, no other prophet nor saint nor teaching that can lead us to eternal life. Jesus Christ is the only way because He is the only one who has and can demonstrate that the only approval the Father accepts is total, complete, and unconditional loyalty as lived and demonstrated by His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Blessings,
Glen
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- Psalm 139: 13-16. New International Version. (2011). BibleGateway.com. http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/
New-International-Version-NIV-Bible/#booklist
- Mathew 3:16-17. New International Version. (2011). BibleGateway.com. http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/
New-International-Version-NIV-Bible/#booklist