By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 10, mp3
Jesus became at one with us to cure our sinful condition. Jesus demonstrated the at-one-ment in the embodiment of his own sinful flesh because in him dwelt both the divine and human nature. This is also the ingredient of everyone who is re-born of the Spirit.
Ezekiel 33:10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins {be} upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
Is this our anguish like Israel of old – we will ever attain to holiness? If we really are in such a deplorable condition what hope do we have of becoming holy as God is holy? In our previous study we learned that the remedy to this problem was contained in the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we behold Christ and God, instead of him posing a threat to us, he comes to us in an endearing manner to our hearts so that we would stop fleeing from him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
What did God do to reach the hearts and minds of those who misunderstand Him? He placed the powerful activity of the atonement in front of them, the story of Jesus. But how did God reconcile himself to us? And what ministry did he give us?
2 Corinthians 5:18,19 All things are of God who has reconciled himself to us by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world.unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
God doesn’t stand there condemning us for the sin we are so prone to committing against him. Instead he brings Jesus Christ into our close proximity and reconciles us to Himself in that process. Furthermore he gives us a ministry, the ministry of reconciliation. Think about this reconciling aspect that God has proposed to you. We couldn’t propose anything. We were running away from God according to the picture of Adam and Eve. We were also incapable of generating anything that could cause us to go back to God. But He followed it up and actually followed us right into the very experience of being made sin for us in Jesus Christ. The ministry of reconciliation is something that transpires in Jesus Christ. Where in Jesus Christ does the atonement actually take place?
Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. 2 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
The second person of the Godhead has provided an area of reconciliation for us, an area of meditation in Jesus Christ for those who are alienated in their mind. Thatby beholding the body of His flesh and what he did when he died to present us a changed people, we would engage in the activity of reconciling ourselves back to God.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
In Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off and alienated are made nigh by the blood of Christ – this is the ministry of reconciliation.
Ephesians 2:26 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Here is presented the understanding that we must gain by exploring the ministry of reconciliation in his Son. God has committed to us the activity to ponder and to explore the scene of what happened in Jesus Christ. He broke down the middle wall of partition to those who are alienated from God in their mind. In the body of his flesh he made available to us the remedy to deal with sin.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, let any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
In the process of exploring Jesus in the body of His flesh and the death that He had to suffer on the cross, we find the method by which we may become reconciled back to God in our minds. This is the mind activity that causes us to become created in Jesus Christ unto good works. In Philippians we follow the process that the second person of the Godhead the Word undertook to become at one with humanity in the ministry of his flesh.
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Here was the Word of God. He was in the form of God, equal with God and yet he did not regard it robbery to be equal with God. In other words he did not regard it as something to struggle to gain, or rob for himself. What did he do instead?
Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
In this scripture we see how The Word, the second person of the Godhead became at one with humanity to reconcile us back to God. He let go of his lofty position in heaven next to God to become fashioned as a man. He humbled himself lower still in that He made himself of no reputation and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is the element of the process of reconciliation. When the Word became fashioned as a man, a human body was prepared for him?
Luke 1:30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Mary did not actually know a man that she should be pregnant. But the angel said to Mary the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee and therefore something is going to be born inside of you by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit was going to be the contributor of the male element. So a body was prepared for Jesus in a fashion that was most “constricting”. Christ at an infinite cost by a painful process mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding his divinity laying aside his glory he was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh he lived the law of God. Through the workings of the Holy Spirit, The Word through a painful process was constricted to a tiny seed and implanted into the womb of Mary. This tiny seed (the divine) combined with Mary’s ovum (sinful flesh) to form a human embryo. Jesus in his experience found that as he was born, as he grew up, as his consciousness came to him He was fashioned as a man.
Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
That was what Mary contributed to the birth of Jesus according to the flesh the seed of David — the ovum.
Romans 1:4 And declared {to be} the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
The ingredient of the human seed was the seed of David through the ovum of Mary. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and contributed the second person of the Godhead. In this painful process the Word of God became constricted to a tiny cell. What was the result?
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh.
How meaningful this becomes as you ponder upon how Jesus found Himself in fashion as a man. The word was made flesh by the process of the birth in the woman’s womb.
John 1:14 And dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word, the second person of the Godhead was made flesh according to the seed of David. The seed of David was the flesh, and the ingredient of the Holy Spirit was the Word, the divine. The flesh of Jesus was contributed by the ovum in the womb of Mary.
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, (we are all children partaking of flesh and blood.) He also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
According to the above scripture we are all partakers of flesh and blood. Every human being on earth is a partaker of the seed of David and Jesus Himself took part of the same. The flesh condemns us to the death because the wages of sin is death and we are all under sin. Jesus therefore partook of a flesh that naturally dies and He died because of the flesh he partook of which was sinful flesh.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
As a sacrifice for sin Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. He partook with us of our flesh through the seed of David through the natural process of birth. The seed of David was combined with the Holy Spirit and that flesh was the same that we have that would have to die. It is only sinful flesh that can die and Romans 8:3 declares that Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh so that he could die or submit himself to die otherwise he couldn’t. We read in Ephesians that Jesus was a combination of the two made one, God and man at one. Galatians also describes the characteristics of Christ’s flesh that it was in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
The terminology of being under the law means being condemned by the law. That’s what the apostle Paul was talking about in the scenario of the Galatians that we are all under the condemnation of the law and Christ also was made under the law.
Galatians 3:1 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Every human being that is on earth is cursed because they are all under the curse of the law but Christ did something to redeem us from this curse;
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:
The flesh that was provided for him through Mary was Abraham’s seed and David’s seed. It was under the law, it was under the curse and it was sinful flesh through which Jesus could be made.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Jesus was made to be sinful flesh so that He could destroy sin in the flesh. He had to have a flesh that was the same as ours and partake of our experiences.
Ezekiel 33:10 If our transgressions and our sins [be] upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
Jeremiah 17:1 says that our sins are very much a part of us for they are written with a pen of iron upon the very fabric of our flesh.
Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
To reconcile us in our minds that are so estranged from him, he was made in all points like we are. There was not a point where he was not equally made in the flesh. He found himself in fashion as a man and continued in the fashion until the point where he obediently submitted to the natural consequences of that flesh. He was made through birth so that he would ultimately be obedient even unto the death of the cross which was the result of the sinful flesh. By His death He was made to be sin for us and that is why the scripture says He was obedient even to the death of the cross. He submitted Himself to be made sin for us and die. There is the atonement principle which if received fully in heart and mind will truly win us back to God in love. We will love him for such a wonderful story that has just been played before us. In Bible Commentary it’s abundantly clear what we have just been reading in the Bible.
When Adam was assailed by the tempter in Eden he was without the taint of sin. He stood in the strength of his perfection before God. All the organs and faculties of his being were equally developed and harmoniously balanced. [5BC 1081.5]
Adam had no sinful flesh before the fall.
Christ, in the wilderness of temptation, stood in Adam’s place to bear the test he failed to endure. Here Christ overcame in the sinner’s behalf, four thousand years after Adam turned his back upon the light of his home. Separated from the presence of God, the human family had been departing every successive generation, farther from the original purity, wisdom, and knowledge which Adam possessed in Eden. Christ bore the sins and infirmities of the race as they existed when He came to the earth to help man. In behalf of the race, with the weaknesses of fallen man upon him, He was to stand the temptations of Satan upon all points wherewith man would be assailed. 5BC 1081.6
Praise God for this wonderful intelligent understanding of how the atonement remedy of Jesus Christ may be practically administered to our lives. Christ conquered sin in the flesh in his life and in his death. He was not only our sin bearer but also a living example of a man fashioned with sinful human flesh with the Godhead dwelling inside of Him who conquered sin in the flesh. When we have the divine ingredient of the Holy Spirit working in us we too may overcome sin in the flesh just as Jesus did. May we take hold of this beautiful story of Jesus and continually play it before our mind’s eye as the cure for our sin sick condition.
Amen.
