Jesus Christ
Everybody, at one time in
their life, has probably heard this name mentioned in one form or another.
Every branch of Christianity in existence today is based on him. He is
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are going to be looking at the role of
Jesus in God's plan and why he is such a crucial part of it. Some
religions and even branches of Christianity have some pretty wacky ideas about
who Jesus is and his purpose for coming to earth. Islam believes that
Jesus was just a prophet comparable to their Mohamed. Jehovah's Witnesses
believe that Jesus is a creation of God who was simply created to die on the
cross. Some do not even believe that Jesus existed. The truth is
that Jesus is God, he is a part of the trinity which contains God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I know that this is extremely
difficult to grasp, but try to think of it in terms of water. Water can be
solid ice (the Father), it can be a liquid (the Son), and it can be a vapor (the
Holy Spirit). All are different but yet they are all water; they are
different manifestations. God can be the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit all at the same time just like water can be a solid, a liquid, and a
vapor all at the same time. There are many who think that Jesus' only
reason for coming to earth was to die for the sins of the world. It is
certainly true that he did indeed die for the sins of the world however this was
not the only reason he came. In fact, up until a couple days before he
died, him and the Father were the only ones who knew that this was going to
happen. What Jesus preached on earth was that he was the Messiah sent to
fulfill God's promise to Abraham. Remember what God promised to Abraham
above? Jesus came to earth to fulfill that promise and to be a savior to
his people.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he
shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
Go not into the ways of the
Gentiles...(Matthew 10:5)
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 10:6)
Although Jesus came to earth
with that purpose, he had something else on his to do list that nobody else knew
about. He was going to die for the sins of the world. Now when I say
nobody knew about Christ dying I mean nobody, not even the Devil. Many
people are not aware of this but if the Devil had known about this he would not
have let it happen. Satan's livelihood is getting people to sin against
God and the absolute last thing that he would let people do is allow a savior to
die for them and wash their sins away.
Which none of the princes
of this world knew: for had they known [it], they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory.
(1 Corinthians 2:8)
The greatest act of love that
God has ever expressed towards man is by far the giving of his Son to die.
The actual significance of what Christ did for us on the cross has been watered
down and disregarded by this world so much that it is often used as material in
comedy clubs. We are going to take time right now to look at exactly what
happened on the cross and why it is certainly not something to be joked about or
as insignificant as the world makes it.
Up until this point in time, we discussed that animal sacrifices were necessary
for the remission of sins, we looked at why these animal sacrifices were able to
make atonement because of the shedding of blood, and we know that up until this
time there was a law that men had to live under given by God. Jesus' death
on the cross changes all of this, but we will not know why until later on.
I want you to right now think of every sin you have committed in the past
week. Don't even try to say that you haven't sinned, these sins could be as small as oversleeping or under sleeping,
or as much as getting drunk and fornicating. Your idea of what a sin is doesn't
matter, it's what God say a sin is that matters. Whatever they are I want you
to think of them right now. Now think of all the sins you have committed
in the past year. Think of all the sins you have committed in your
life. Now think of all the sins that everybody alive today have committed
in their lives. Murders, rapes, beatings, stealing, fornication,
drunkenness, drugs, incest and the list goes on. Now think of all the sins
that have been committed by every person that has ever lived. Now think of
all the sins that are going to be committed in the future by your children and
their children and all the future murders and rapists and thieves and lazy
people and every other sin you can imagine forever. Our God, Jesus Christ
came down to earth in a human body and became every one of those sins on the
cross. Our perfect God, the one who created the world and the stars and
the universe and all things came down and BECAME every single sin that man would
hurt him with from the beginning of time until the end. Do you like to
drink alcohol? Did you do it this week? Are you going to get drunk
anytime next week? Those are just three out of the innumerable amount of sins that
Jesus Christ became on the cross.
Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, (Galations
5:19)
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, (Galations 5:20)
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: (Galations 5:21)
Christ took every sin on to
himself and paid for them all so you wouldn't have to. Do you know that
the penalty for your sins is burning in Hell? Do you know that Jesus took
your sins and went to Hell with them on his soul for three days and burnt in excruciating
torment so you wouldn't have to?
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.
(2 Corinthians 5:11)
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.
(Matthew 12:40)
The changes in dispensation
that occur starting with Christ's life on earth are going to be somewhat confusing at first,
but I am going to try and lay it out as simply as I can.
When Christ was on earth he preached about a kingdom. He was talking about
the kingdom that was going to be set up on this earth and given to him by his
Father. This kingdom is not a spiritual or symbolic kingdom, it is as real
as the ground you walk on. The prophet Joel prophesied about events that
would come to pass before this kingdom would be set up.
And it shall come to pass in the last
days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams: (Acts 2:17)
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my
Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
(Acts 2:18)
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood,
and fire, and vapour of smoke:
(Acts 2:19)
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that
great and notable day of the Lord come:
(Acts 2:20)
Christ also spoke of a time of great trouble, one that the earth has never seen before. The scripture above talks about this time. It would be necessary to make it through this time of trouble while doing what Christ said to do, in order to enter the kingdom. We will discuss this time of great trouble in further detail later on, but keep in mind that this is what Christ preached while he was on earth and it was all anybody knew. All of the apostles and followers of Christ were preparing for this time so that they could make it through and enter the kingdom of God.
Ok, let's walk through this one step at a time. Christ originally came to
be a savior to his people, the Jews. The Bible makes a distinction between
two types of people, Jews and Gentiles. Basically if you are not a Jew,
you can consider yourself a Gentile. The Gentiles were originally outside
of the promises given to God's people and if they wanted any blessings they had
to go through the Jews to get them. I have no clue why God decided to
choose a people and only give the promise to them. Just like God's reasons
for doing anything he does, he purposes it within himself and he has his own
reasons for them. It is not our job to question it, it is only our job to
believe it.
¶ Wherefore remember, that
ye [being] in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by
that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; (Ephesians
2:11)
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without
God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)
We must also remember that at this time, animal sacrifices were still necessary. However, the significance of Jesus coming to earth is that he was going to be the greatest and last sacrifice that his people would ever have to make. Notice what John the Baptist calls Jesus:
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
He calls him the LAMB of God meaning that he was sent here to be sacrificed by the Jews and this sacrifice would forever wash away their sins. This unfortunately was not the case. In general, the Jews did not like that Jesus came and proclaimed that he was their king and their savior and that he was going to save them and fulfill the promise. They thought, who does this guy think he is coming in here and saying he is our king? So, instead of sacrificing their savior, they murdered Jesus as a criminal.
The God of Abraham,
and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son
Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he
was determined to let [him] go. (Acts 3:13)
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you; (Acts 3:14)
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we
are witnesses. (Acts 3:15)
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye. (Acts 7:51)
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them
which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the
betrayers and murderers: (Acts 7:52)
They rejected Jesus as their savior not just before he was crucified, but even after his death and resurrection they still rejected him; they refused to believe that Christ was their messiah. Now things are going to start getting tricky.
Up until this point, the plan was that Jesus was to come to earth to be a savior to his people as we discussed earlier. He was the Lamb that they were supposed to sacrifice once and for all to wash away their sins. It would have been at this point that the world would have to go through the time of great trouble, and make it through before they could enter into the kingdom that God set up. Everything that God preached to his followers concerning the kingdom and everything the prophets had written about in the Old Testament was now supposed to come to pass. This was everything that God had spoken to man about for all of time and this is the way things were supposed to be. As you can see, things didn't exactly go to plan. The Jews completely rejected Christ as their savior and they murdered him out of contempt rather than sacrificing him out of love. So, God brought out a part of his plan that only he had known about since the beginning of time, something that none of the prophets knew about, something that God again purposed within himself, it was a mystery. This mystery is the age that we live in today, the dispensation of the Body of Christ otherwise known as The Church Age.