For further info. Or studies please phone: Cell: 082 765 9498 P. O. Box 447 white river 1240.

JESUS

HIS NATURE WHILE ON EARTH

When Jesus was here with us on this earth, did He walk in His Divine power? Was it by His own Divine power that He performed all the miracles? Is it because HE IS God that He did not sin? Why must we know the answers to these questions?

It is vital for us to know, because without these answers, we cannot understand the gospel. Remember Jesus praying just before He was crucified? In John 17:3 He says in His prayer “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” We must not only know about Him; we must KNOW Him.

Why? Because the claim is made that no mere mortal, no weak, sinful human being can ever hope to live according to God’s ten commandments. Only GOD could obey them. Tell me; Is it reasonable to believe that God would give us a set of rules to live by, knowing full well that we could never do so? Would He be fair to constantly expect this, saying “IF you love Me, keep my commandments”, when He knows that it is impossible for us to do so?

Friend, Satan challenged God’s law in heaven, and took with him a third of God’s angels, and he continues to challenge that law today. The majority believe that only Jesus was able to keep the commandments because he was God on earth; for us humans it is impossible. It is because the human race is labouring under this false impression that we suffer the dreadful consequences we are experiencing.

Where does this falsehood come from?

2 Corinthians 11:2-4.

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a CHASTE VIRGIN to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

As feared, Satan has corrupted our minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. Through ANOTHER spirit, with ANOTHER gospel, he has been preaching ANOTHER Jesus; verses 13-15 tells us he uses false ministers.

We must distinguish clearly between the Holy Spirit, and the spirit of the antichrist.

1 John 4:2,3.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. The Holy Spirit teaches that Jesus was man on earth, the son of man! The spirit of antichrist teaches that Jesus came in holy flesh; that he was God on earth, the son of God. It is for this reason that God sent Jesus to this world, to walk as a man, TO PROVE Satan a liar. It is one of the reasons.

Let us reverently liken the Divinity of Jesus to a light that is millions of times brighter than the sun. Let us also liken the humanity of man to the light of a candle. Now the truth is that Jesus, of his own free will, chose to extinguish the brightest of all lights, and although it was at all times available to him, he chose to walk by the light of a candle.

Philippians 2:5-7: - …Christ Jesus: 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.

Not at any time, from his birth till his death on the cross, did he use the divine powers available to him. In other words, he surrendered his will, AS A MAN, to the will of his Father in heaven throughout his entire life, and was at all times completely subject to his Father’s will and guidance, making himself exactly equal to all mankind.

God promised to send a prophet “from among the believers”, “like Moses”; LIKE MOSES meaning that as Moses was a man, he too, would be a man, “from among the brethren”. He too, would be dependent on God, even as Moses was dependent on God, and he too, would speak for God, and be obedient to God.

Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Do the scriptures bear out the fact that Jesus walked as a man and not as God? That he spoke as a man on behalf of God, and not AS God? That the miracles were done by his Father working through him?

John 8:26

I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

John 12:49

For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

John 14:10

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

John 14:24

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

John 17:8

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

Let us see if we have rightly divided the word of truth. Please read these scriptures from the bible because only the relevant points are quoted.

John 5:19 …, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: … Verse 30: I can of mine own self do nothing: … John 8:28 “…, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself”; … John 9:33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.

John 14:10 “…: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works”. Matt 19:17 And he said unto him, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter unto life, keep the commandments”. Jesus makes a distinction here between himself as man, and God. He is saying that man is only good when God is directing him.

We can see then, that Jesus was as dependent on his Father for the very air he breathed, as what we are. Had he acted as God, he could have proved nothing. But having lived entirely as a man, he showed us that we too, can overcome, and live triumphantly, having God’s law as our guide.

Jesus did not overcome sin: no man can overcome sin. Jesus overcame SELF, and by surrendering his own will, he allowed his Father to overcome sin for him.

In John 5:30 Jesus says: “…I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” In Matt. 26:39 Jesus prays: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt ”. Because his will, AS A MAN, differed from his Father’s he surrendered himself.

All through his life Jesus let his Father keep him from sinning, and he is telling us that if we overcome SELF, He will keep us from sinning. Notice!! Rev 3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, EVEN AS I also overcame,…”

Paul overcame self by dying daily; 1 COR. 15:31. Just as Jesus says that by permission the Father dwelling in him doeth the works, so Paul says in Gal. 2:20 that by permission, Christ dwelling in him “doeth the works”. John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He hat abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” 2 Pet. 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

Let us just here at this point, consider God’s definition of sin: In 1 John 3:4 We read - Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. Jesus did not commit a single sin. As a man, he was victorious in keeping the law by overcoming self, surrendering his will, and letting his Father do it for him, and in so doing he has proved Satan a liar forever.

Here is the good news of the gospel. No man needs to continue sinning. All he has to do is to surrender his likes and dislikes to Jesus, and Jesus will empower him to live out the law. Let all creation praise the Lord Jesus forever and ever. Amen.

For further info. or studies please phone: Cell: 082 765 9498 P.O. Box 447 WHITE RIVER 1240.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-23