Eternal Verities 12A

Continuing the study on Eternal Verities (Eternal Truths) -

I'm going to copy parts of a thought paper about the Godhead and eternal truths. I'll interject it with my own thoughts and probably end up breaking it up into digestable pieces, meaning give it bit by bit so it's not overwhelming and gives us time to think about what's being presented. If you're reading this you'll have access to the internet and as such it's easy to check various facts such as the meaning of Greek and Hebrew words. Don't hesitate to take time to check things for yourself. We are accountable for what we can do and that means seeking the knowledge where we can. In our time we live in something called the 'Information Age' and it is. Information is right at our fingertips and we have to avail ourselves of it.

May God bless us as we seek to understand more fully His will, His way, the truths that we need to know and believe as this world becomes more and more deceptive.

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Eternal Verities -- The Incarnation -- Part 2 -- In the Epistles is to be found a theology of the Incarnation, a theology sufficiently detailed so that it can be determined beyond question whether Christ-


-took upon Himself the nature of Adam prior to the Fall
-or the nature after the Fall
-or a selected human nature which resembled both the post-Fall and pre-Fall Adamic nature.


Paul, writing to the Church at Corinth, stated that God in "reconciling the world unto Himself," made Christ "to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be the righteousness of God in Him." (II Cor. 5:19,21)


2Co 5:19 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 reconciliatio


2Co 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.


While the emphasis by Paul in this section of his letter is on reconciliation and its ministry, it cannot be overlooked that basic to this reconciliation is Jesus "made sin." This could not be unless He incarnated in the fallen nature of man where sin held its dominion.


To break the power of "the strong man," Christ had to "first bind the strong man," then He could "spoil his house." ( Matt. 12:29)


Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.


We can but dimly comprehend the depths of the condescension to rescue man from the grasp of sin, except as we meditate on the "outer darkness" that enveloped the cross and hear the anguished cry that pierced the Heavens, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me"? The result - "we [can] be made the righteousness of God in Him."


As he continued his epistle, Paul noted another aspect of the Incarnation. He wrote - "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." (II Cor. 8:9) This was more than the mere fact that "the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." (Matt. 8:20) As Alford in his Greek Testament comments - "It was not merely by His renunciation of human riches during His life on earth, but by His exinanition [act of evacuating] of His glory." (Vol. II, p.681)

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My thoughts--


It is true we can scarcely begin to comprehend the depths that Christ went to in order to save us. The worth He places upon us is something we can't even begin to understand. Do you place any worth on another person? We usually do. We have parents we treasure, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, lovers, children that we value and yet to what depths would we go for them? Some people have given their lives for others and they do so knowingly and understandingly. They are willing to give up their very breath to save another and it's miraculous in its own right. Yet, we as sinners making a sacrifice give up our breath of life but no more than that. We have no power, no glory, no righteousness in us to sacrifice. Christ had to give up so much to save us, so much we just can't compare on any level to that sort of sacrifice. We are creatures that are born to die, that is our inevitable fate in this world. We know we will die, we know what death is, and we know that there is life in Christ after we die and He returns for us, but still, death is promised to us on birth. Christ before the incarnation didn't have that promise of death, Gods do not die they have eternity, they are everlasting from everlasting. To give us such existence and take on flesh to die... the sacrifice goes beyond all we can comprehend.


May God help us to live in Him. By His righteousness alone we will have life everlasting in Him, with Him. By His unfathomable love, by His amazing mercy, by His pure grace now and forever, His will, not ours be done.


Amen.