Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself…
Christ did not seek to please Himself. We must remember why God the Son, emptied Himself to become man. He came to die.1 He came to allow Himself to die and be separated from God the Father. He came to suffer the second death along with the first. This wasn't something easy for Him to do. He wasn't impervious to pain. His Godliness did not negate his feelings at all whatsoever, if anything, it deepened them.
Heartache is one of the worst of all feelings. Heartache was something He felt in a way we can't truly comprehend. He didn't have an advantage over us in how He felt. His pain wasn't mitigated by the Heavenly Father. He was a God who chose to take on human life and NOT use any of His Godly powers. Remember, He emptied Himself.
People think Jesus used His own power to work miracles. He didn't. 2 And it wasn't the Apostles using their own power to heal either. Not once did the power come from them. It was God the Father's power. Jesus did NOTHING of His own self. 3 The power that came out of Him when the woman touched the hem of his robe, was power He had from God the Father. 4 The Apostles were given the same power 5 - and it wasn't a power possessed by them, it always belonged to God who allowed them to use the power He gave to them.
The death of Jesus couldn't simply be the death of His body, He was still the God-man. The death of a God was something altogether different, it had to be. God the Father removed any power He'd given to Jesus. Jesus couldn't be given the power of the Father any longer. Jesus felt that separation acutely. He'd been one with Father and now… now He was called to separate Himself from Him. Remember, He wanted the cup He had to drink to be taken from Him. 6 He cried out in agony for the cup to be taken away. Agony! He wasn't agonizing over the physical death He was headed towards, not that it was something He wanted to experience. His heart was breaking knowing what was coming would separate Him from Father and the pair of them had NEVER been separated, never. They were in existence from the beginning with each other, from everlasting to everlasting. 7 There was never a time they weren't one in agreement with each other. God with God. Then before our world was created and Mankind brought into existence, they declared one of them to be the Father and the other the Son. 8
We cannot fully fathom their togetherness, it's impossible.
Jesus did not have one up on us in His life upon earth, He couldn’t have, or
else Satan would have used that to declare His sacrifice null and void. Satan
would have cried foul so loudly the heavens of heaven would have reverberated
with the sound. A God saving mankind by
using God powers of their own, that would have proved nothing whatsoever. There
would have been no real sacrifice at all on Jesus' part.
Jesus' life wasn't easy. Did He laugh? Yes. Did He have fun? Yes. But behind all of that, He knew what He was going to be sacrificing. How many times did He have to be alone to pray? His prayers, His communing with God- it wasn't any different than ours in action. God the Father didn't appear to Him and sit down to have a discussion with Him. Jesus had to speak to God as we speak to God, and listen to Him as we listen to Him. Remember, Jesus did NOT have one up on us.
You say He never sinned, that is true. But just as true is … He could have. There was NOTHING stopping Him from sinning except His desire to keep God the Father in His life.
He grew up learning of God the Father, and God the Father to Him was something wondrous. Do you remember in the Bible where Jesus says, "I and my Father are one." 9 Do you also remember this… "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" 10
We can be ONE with the Father and the Son! This is what Jesus wants! He wants us to be ONE with them! Jesus discovered the Oneness with His Father, very early on and it wasn't something Satan could point to and say, "Nope! That’s cheating!" Yet we sit here deluding ourselves by believing Jesus had it much different than us, and that is why He could be sinless and we can't.
Is it impossible for us to be sinless? Yes, on our own, most definitely. Was it impossible for Jesus to be sinless? Yes, on His own, most definitely. He didn't stray from God the Father, ever. You still say that it's impossible for us not to stray, so Jesus had to have one up on us. Wrong. That's the miracle, He proved it was possible for man to be one with God, knowing at any second He could sin. Seriously. If the deck of cards is stacked, it's cheating. Jesus did not stack the deck or else Satan would have called Him out and Jesus would have lost, and if Jesus lost, He could never have saved us.
We do not want to believe this truth. We want to believe a God-man came to earth as a babe and with His own God powers He remained sinless. We tell ourselves that's the only way possible, refusing to believe in the depths of the sacrifice and ALL that Jesus truly did to save us!
When He was twelve years old He went to the temple to do His Father's work. 11 Do you know at age twelve the Jewish boys who had access to being taught, knew vast portions of Scripture by that age? They did. Then the boys who showed promise in learning went beyond twelve years old for more extensive teaching.
Jesus
recognized Himself in the Scriptures that He'd learned. Did He have an
advantage in having that knowledge? No. Again, He couldn't have. He recognized
it, and in that recognition His oneness with God was a focus of His life. God
didn't given Him private tutoring lessons in order for Him to become the
Messiah. He was born the Messiah, and He recognized that truth. He received
power from God the Father, His faith in God was genuine. That power He received
from God is power available to all of us.
Do you remember Enoch from the Old Testament? He walked with God.
Do you remember Elijah from the Old Testament? He was a great prophet of God.
Do you remember Moses from the Old Testament? He was a deliverer of God's people.
These three men weren't perfect, but they became so close to God they were given very special outcomes, only Moses experienced death before his resurrection, the other two never died.
Jesus proved that man could live in connection with God and be sinless in doing so.
Those three men proved that sinners could be forgiven and live in connection with God.
Jesus was given parents who knew His purpose and they surrounded His life with all things Godly from the time He was a baby through his childhood years and on up. After His father died, His mother carried on giving Him an upbringing exposing Him to all things of God. You can be sure that from the moment Jesus had awareness of Himself intellectually as a child, He was drawn to God right from the start- and NOT because He was given a- Get to Adulthood Free of Sin- card.
If we believe that Jesus didn't prove mankind, people like you and I, can live a sinless life, then why did He do it? What good was proving a God-man could be sinless through His own God powers and privileges? It makes no sense at all. The wonder, the miracle, the incomprehensible to its fullest act, of Jesus from birth to death to life, is what He did for us. So much more than a God-man with God powers allowing Himself to die. What would that prove to Satan, or to all the worlds intelligences throughout all existence, witnesses to the world that succumb to sin? Nothing.
The world was created sinless and it became sinful through an act of disobedience. The world now can only be sinless again through perfect obedience, something this world will not have until Christ returns and the world is made new for all those who belong to God.
Love God, truly love God and love Him more than you love yourselves or any others. Then, love others as God loves you. We aren't told to love ourselves. Obedience to those commands of God is life eternal through Jesus Christ.
Jesus died the second death.
The first death is when our bodies become lifeless and we enter our long sleep.
The second death is for those who are not Christ's, it is permanent separation from God.
You say, wait, if it's permanent how did Christ rise from the second death, if indeed he died the second death? That's the miracle of Christ's death and resurrection.
Jesus died upon the cross, His body ceased to function entirely, He was lifeless beyond doubt. He wasn't just a man dying though, He was a God-man dying! His was no ordinary death, it couldn't be. Why did Jesus cry in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father take this cup from me." 12 Remember we discussed just how close to the Father God, Jesus was? Inseparable- and yet Jesus comprehended that separating the inseparable was in His future, and the mere thought of it happening was crushing.
Do you remember Jesus Christ's cry on the cross?
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 13
Remember His dying shortly after that? 14 He could not live separated from His Father.
The darkness, the pure blackness, the emptiness, the crushing agony, broke His heart. He wasn't dying and thinking of a future with His Father and a new life upon rising. He wasn't smiling knowingly as He slipped off to die with the hope that He would wake when His Father called Him from the grave. Why not? He did know He would be resurrected, He'd talked about it, 15 so why the awfulness when He knew His future, there has to be a reason, right?
Jesus' death unlike ours, was the sacrifice of a God, to seal the salvation of mankind.
Jesus's life proved mankind could live connected to God in full obedience without sinning. Then Jesus' death proved that the Eliohim's (the two Gods- Father and Son) were willing to sacrifice, and to be sacrificed, to save a creation of theirs.
In life- man.
In death- God.
God the Father's sacrifice was just as great as God the Son's.
Anyone who has ever loved someone and had to watch them suffer and die, understands on some level.
Imagine having the power to keep your loved one from suffering and dying, and having to restrain yourself from doing so for a greater cause- because the pair of you decided to do this- to save mankind should they fall. Every pain, every tear cried, every agony that Jesus suffered all the way to the cross was felt by the Father. He watched and restrained His ability to end Jesus's suffering and to keep His death from happening. God the Father had the power to NOT separate from the one He'd never been separated from before, and He suffered through it all not using that power. God's agony was just as great as the Son's.
For three days they were completely and utterly separated from each other! Imagine how awful that had to be for God the Father. Jesus was in the grave in death's sleep, having gone into that sleep of death completely hopeless of ever being resurrected. His father had forsaken Him, there was no reason for Him to live.
Yes, Jesus knew He was going to suffer and die, but you can know something and then when that something becomes reality it's a whole new experience, something you never imagined- it happens to us all the time. Jesus had the knowledge, but the reality of His being severed from His Father, their relationship no longer existing was horrific and wiped out any thought of comfort from that prior knowledge. The pain was just too severe.
As the God-man was separated from God the Father Jesus truly believed it was the end of all things for Him in that moment and there was no rallying before He died in order to recall the plan of salvation. The breaking of His heart crushed the life from Him, and in that moment as far as he knew, it was crushed forever.
Think about it, really think about it. God the Father and God the Son, NEVER EVER without each other! From everlasting it had been this way! We think in the context of our world being created by the Father God and the Son God, we forgot that they'd existed in a way we can't fathom, before our world was ever created. They had more experiences in more ways than we can begin to imagine. Their togetherness in full and total agreement, in a harmony we have never ever known, was beyond our comprehension, but we have to try to imagine the littlest bit because it reveals the depths of the SACRIFICE of separating themselves. And it reveals how something of that magnitude would rip the very heart from Jesus upon that cross, taking all His rational thoughts from Him plunging Him in to the belief the separation would not be temporary but rather forever, after being FORSAKEN.
God the Father lived those three days in agony. Yes, He knew He would resurrect His Son, but that pain of separation was just as severe for Him. He didn't wait around those three days all happy- He was living in a way that He'd never had to before. He suffered the sorrow of Jesus's death, and all He'd gone through, and the horror of Jesus in His last moments when He had no hope. That was the SECOND DEATH Jesus suffered, hopelessness. And before you bring up Jesus talking to the thief on the cross and recognizing his own future resurrection, that was before He'd been forsaken.
Forsaken.
We grasp only in part what it means to be forsaken, or some do. Having someone forsake you- to tell you that you are beyond forgiveness is a horrible, horrible thing. To have someone you thought would always be there for you no matter what, forsake you, is devastating. We truly cannot begin to fully understand the devastation God the Father and God the Son experienced. Truly the Second Death- life forever without God to Christ meant existing no longer. The second death is existing no longer. 16 Our Savior, the God-man forever, and our Almighty God declared Father, paid the ultimate price to redeem you and I. We were worth such a sacrifice. Us, sin-filthy creatures, worthy of being saved- the love our Gods have for us is incomprehensible.
God the Spirit- suffered as well, there was no way He couldn't have. He was a God that was a part of them, in full agreement with them. The suffering of the Father and the Son, was the suffering of the Holy Spirit.
Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself…
Is it any wonder we are not to please ourselves? That sacrifice and serving others, serving God should be our life's ambition. I read recently - 'Whatever you want in life make sure you want GOD more.' Nothing should be more important to us than God and that means serving God. Yet, how often is He really what we want most before all else? How often does His will collide with ours and we choose ours over His. Too often. Self-denial is something we know little about because we are taught to abhor self-denial. We are taught to think of ourselves and our own well-being first. We are taught that we are the center of the universe and we shouldn't have to suffer, so that when we do suffer we instantly martyr ourselves and bemoan our having to suffer.
Doing as we please, we call it self-preservation, we pride ourselves for taking care of ourselves because we believe it's the right thing to do, that God would want us to be happy. Lies! God wants us to be His, and being His often means a lot of suffering, read the Bible. Those who think suffering and denying themselves is not Godly, haven't read their Bibles. Jesus tells us to deny ourselves. Jesus tells us to die daily. He wants us to die to self daily. He who denied Himself to the point of dying for us, is our example always. Read the parables He gave.
Remember that Good Samaritan? 17 He denied himself, he sacrificed to help another.
So many supposed God followers turned and walked away from that injured man, unwilling to sacrifice even their time, let alone anything else.
Christ pleased not Himself, so why do we think we need to please ourselves, that only if we are okay first should we then help others.
Satan has deceived us. He's molded and made us into the very things we shout are wrong. We call ourselves Christ-like while living anything but truly Christ-like. We say we love God but refuse to live as God taught.
God help us to see through the Satan made blinders upon our hearts and eyes. Help us surrender ourselves to you in self-denial, self-sacrifice, and living to help others know Your amazing love. God help us not to seek to please ourselves, but to seek to please You.
Footnotes
1
Philippians 2:5-8 LITV
For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus, who subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross.
2
Jn 5:30 KJV
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
3
Jhn_8:28 KJV
Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM; and from Myself I do nothing; but as My Father taught Me, these things I speak.
4
Mar 5:30 LITV
And knowing instantly within Himself that power had gone forth out of Him, turning in the crowd, Jesus said, Who touched My garments?
5
Mat 10:1 KJV
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Mat 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
6
Mat 26:39 KJV
And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Mat 26:42
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.
Luk 22:44
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground
7
Psa 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. (We know Jesus was there when the worlds were formed)
8
Psa 2:7 KJV
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Heb 1:3-5 KJV
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
Jesus was UNIQUELY begotten, One of a kind begotten - a decree made Him the Son
Zec 6:12-13 KJV
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Heb 1:5 KJV
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
Act 13:30-33 KJV
But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee
Rom 1:3,4 KJV
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead
Isa 9:6 KJV
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
For in-depth study go here- https://www.adventistlaymen.com/Correspondence/UNIQUELY_BEGOTTEN_GOD.html
9
Joh 10:30 KJV
I and my Father are one.
10
Jhn_17:21 KJV
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
11
Luk 2:42-49 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
12
Mat 26:39 KJV
And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
13
Mat_27:46 KJV
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
14
Mat 27:46-50 KJV
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
15
Mat 12:40 KJV
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.
Mat 16:21 KJV
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
16
Rev_20:14 KJV
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev_21:8 KJV
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Mal_4:1 KJV
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
We know what happens to stubble upon the ground, it is burnt up, there is NOTHING left of it. That second death is permanent annihilation. Death and the grave are gone. Satan and all that are his, are gone forever burned to nothingness.
17
Luk 10:30-27 KJV
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
