Jesus the perfect human being
Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
I often wondered about this scripture. Did He do this often? And how often did He go to the Garden of Gethsemane alone to pray?
These questions brought me to a point of considering the entire life of Jesus. He was sent by God, His Father, and He agreed to come to earth to do several things which were necessary to bring mankind back into fellowship with Almighty God, His Father and ours. Let us look at what He agreed to do.
- He had to be born of a woman to have the authority of being a human, which authority was granted to humanity by God.
- The seed of God was what impregnated Mary His mother, therefore His spirit was identical to the spirit given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “In the likeness and image of God”.
- His humanity had to live in perfect accord with the commandments given to Moses so He could be the “spotless” lamb of God who would qualify as the ultimate sacrifice which would take away the sins of the world, not just cover them as the animal sacrifices did.
- He would have to live as a man until He reached the age of 30, because the law required that for him to be allowed to teach in the Synagogue.
- That meant He had to live each day, month, and year, one minute at a time doing all the things all humans have to do, yet knowing He was not doing it for Himself but for the Father, to the end that He and the Father could, and would spend all Eternity with their most prized creation!
- Only then, at the age of 30, could He, under the law, begin His ministry, the end of which would be to lay down His human life as the sacrificial lamb.
- Then His spirit would have to descend into the Devil’s domain, Hell, and would have to suffer as all who go to Hell will, knowing that without His Fathers intervention, He could never leave. He had spoken the words of limitation of His time in Hell as 3 days and 3 nights, just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3 days and 3 nights.
- Before He agreed to this, He knew that His very existence was in the hands of His Father, and He trusted Him! Oh, that we would trust our Heavenly Father like He did!
- He was given free will, as all humans have, so He could refuse to do what the law required when the time of decision arrived, and knowing what the end would be, He prayed 3 times, an hour each time, pleading with the Father to find a different way to satisfy justice, yet in the end He said, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done!”
- Jesus did all this for you and for me! Let us trust Him completely!
Have you ever thought of Jesus in this light? I know I had not, until now!
When I arrived at Church this morning, and talked to my friend Ginny, I handed her an extra copy of “The Voice of the Martyrs,” and I said, “We in America have no idea what Christians in other countries are going through, just because they confess Jesus as Lord!” What she said in response was very revealing. “Yes, John, we just go about doing what we want, thinking nothing about what the persecuted Christians suffer!” That got me to thinking about what we should be spending our time and money on.
I have been so moved by what our fellow believers are going through in other countries, that I have become a supporter of The Voice of the Martyrs, both financially and in my prayers. But reading the stories makes me want to do more.
That brought my mind back to Jesus and what He did to secure our salvation. As I already mentioned, He had to live out each and every day just like we do, except He knew what it was like to live in Heaven, in the presence of His and our Heavenly Father, and He knew that He would be back there again, but not until His time and purpose was fulfilled. The same is true for us! Our Abba, (daddy), Father set the time for us to enter this world and a day for us to go home to be with Him, from the foundation of the world, so we are told in His word! But we are always asking, why must we go through all the trials and tribulations of living in this fallen world? The answer is really very simple! God does not want robots! He desires His creation to love Him with the free will He gave as a gift of love. Free will allowed Lucifer, the most beautiful and most talented angel, (messenger), to use his gifts to glorify his creator, or the other option, to glorify himself. We all know how that decision turned out! The fall of Lucifer and a third of the Angels happened because of Pride! You see, pride can be a good thing or a bad thing. God our creator took pride in the things and beings He created. That is good. Lucifer took the glory that belongs to God and attempted to take God’s authority and power!
The prophet of God, Ezekiel was given this message about, yes, the king of Tyrus, but as you read it you will see it also is bout Lucifer.
Ezekiel 28:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ezekiel 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Ezekiel 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Ezekiel 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Ezekiel 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Ezekiel 28:16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Ezekiel 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Ezekiel 28:19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
In the first chapter of my book “The Human Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane” I write about the spirit of Pride and how he operates. You may think I took a lot of literary licenses in writing this, and I admit, I did, but when we look at the results, it may very well have occurred just as I wrote it. What is so reveling is that as you read the scripture and see the steps taken by the anointed cherub, it sounds like the prophet is describing someone we know, or maybe even us!
None of us were ever in the position of prominence Lucifer was in before he rebelled, yet I see the same effects of bowing our knees to Pride in people I know as well as some I hear from in the news today, and sometimes in the way I react to other people and circumstances that are not in my game plan. I do it without checking things out with my Father, God! And therein lies the problem.
In Dakes Annotated Bible, he makes this comment before this scripture.
“Scoffers are ignorant of the pre-Adamic world. See Genesis 1:1-2; Isaiah 14:12-14; Jeremiah 4:23-26; Ezekiel 28: 11-17; Matthew 13:35.
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2 Peter 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2 Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2 Peter 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Let us use the Scriptures to lay out a timeline if you will.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
From what we have seen in Scripture and will see, this was the original creation. Lucifer was given the duty of overseeing the world and all that God had created, and that included people, as we see verified above.
2 Peter 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
Because of rebellion, God destroyed the earth and the living creatures in or on it. Therefore–
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
In the scientific or natural world, this resulted in the “Ice Age”. Do you think this is just plain unbelievable? Too strange? Are you aware that archeologists have discovered evidence of not one, but two worldwide floods?
I highly recommend you take the time to research, as I have, the evidence. Here is where you can find the truth. “evidence of 2 world wide floods.”
After you have read and received the truth, then look up, your redemption drawth near.
Now we understand the past and the reasons for the destruction that has covered the earth, twice, let us look to the future.
From the foundation of the earth, God knew what would happen, and made provisions for it. Jesus, from the beginning agreed to pay the price for mankind to eventually be where God the Father wants him, with Him and loving Him because mankind will want to! God does not want robots or slaves, rather loving children who have seen the horror of rebellion and desire to live forever in the house of God in love.
So, what is required on our part?
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
We must accept Jesus as our Savior, and Lord, invite Him into your heart, worship and obey His word. When you do that, He takes that old lying dead spirit out of you and replaces it with a new spirit created in His image and likeness, in true righteousness, and will live in and through you, until Jesus comes to take you home to be with Him forever! Wow!
When you do this, tell me about your choice at john@rejoicetoday.com.
See you in Heaven, one day soon!