Implications of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, LIFE DEATH AND RESURRECTION
The incarnation as the context in which Christ Jesus lived, died and rose again
Jesus, the Word made flesh, is God entering our domain disguised as sinful flesh. FULLY entering into the human condition, he was subjected to every single weakness man was. I never really thought about how ordinary Jesus lived most of his life until recently. From what I know, the life of being a carpenter can be a pretty mundane one, nails, hammers, wood, and not always a sure source of income. So since we know that he did not arrive on plane earth omniscient, but rather being born of a woman, just like us, he ‘grew in wisdom and knowledge’, this must mean that his thoughts and even emotions must have been subjected to the same kinds of struggles and uncertainties we experience in daily life.
Love this idea from Andre regarding Jesus walking along a path and thinking about a job he had to do, or if he would even have a job to do. Would he have the supplies or the means to get to the job? And then he could just hear the Father whisper to him…”look at those birds over there…” HAHA!
We also know he had moments of sadness, as it says in Isaiah 53 “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief”. (i.e. at Lazarus tomb, he weeps) I believe he even suffered depression from rejection (like so many people today for various reasons) It must have been so painful as he experienced the very people he came to show love to and to save, repeatedly despise him so coldly. Yes I would say Jesus had some pretty intense emotions.. just ook how deep he goes into his passion for us in the garden of Gethsemane! It says in Luke 22:44 his agony was so intense that his “sweat became like blood drops”. ~DEEP~
I think he must have had fun too, since we definitely have a ‘happy side’ & most folks LOVE FUN! This brings to mind a scene from the movie “The Passion of the Christ”, when Jesus is doing carpentry work and playfully responds to his mother Mary by splashing water in her face, LOL! Love that this shows such an alternative view of how I thought of Jesus as being God would always look like (SERIOUS LOOKING RABBONI) I believe Jesus was a lot of fun to hang out with…well after all, I find him pretty cool to ‘hang out’ with now, so I can imagine maybe even more so while he was physically walking the earth. (btw, maybe this explains my rather quirky sense of humor, since he came to show me ‘me’)
I don’t think that there was any part of being human he missed out on since he was tempted in every way, but sinned not.
I see his life summed up beautifully in these verses from Hebrews 4:13-14 in the Mirror Bible:
“The whole person is thoroughly exposed to his scrutinizing gaze. Every creature’s original form is on record in the Word. (Representing God’s desire to display his image and likeness in man) In the message of the incarnation we have Jesus the Son of God representing humanity in the highest place of spiritual authority. That which God has spoken to us in him is his final word. It is echoed now in the declaration of our confession.”
In the incarnation……SIN LOSES IT’S EXCUSE TO OPERATE IN THE HUMAN FORM….MY HUMAN FORM!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!! OH YEAH!!!!!!!
~*~*~*~*~ happy dance ~*~*~*~*~
Well now that I know that Jesus did not die to satisfy God’s wrath, but rather man’s…..what shall I say to this? WOW THAT IS LOVE!! God never required sacrifice, but man in his fallen mindset, and satanic, false ideas about the nature of God, had vain imaginations that God was angry and therefore responsible for all the chaos in the world and that he must be appeased by the shedding of blood. But this does not agree with God being love AT ALL. So Christ sacrificing his life would bring an end to man’s insanity with this whole idea of justifying violence and murder. God was RELENTLESS in his pursuit to bring man back to the knowledge of the Truth of his original design, his good intentions, and opinion of his image and design in his precious offspring.
As fully man, Jesus assumes man’s fallen mindset & crying out on man’s behalf…
“my God my God why have you forsaken me?”
As fully God he answers man’s desperate cry…
“For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from him
But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” (from Psalms 22)
FALLEN MINDSET (SIN) FOREVER DEALT WITH & DEMOLISHED IN THE DEATH OF THE PERSON OF JESUS……AND ALL OF HUMANITY WAS INCLUDED IN HIS DEATH !!!
~*~*~*~*~ happy dance ~*~*~*~*~
Which of course leads me to the next exciting aspect of all this:
* [side bar] Oh! There is so much I would want to say here! The thing is, and don’t get me wrong, this is a most blessed GLORIOUS event, but I must say, that now I am so much more understanding of just how essential it is to put all aspects of the incarnation together, or it remains an unfinished puzzle, hence not a correct representation of the “finished” work of Jesus. (a piece of the truth is NO TRUTH and therefore not the FULL gospel) Sadly my experience with the evangelical circles I came up in pretty much just leave it at the death and resurrection, without exploring all the implications of Jesus being fully human, so I absolutely LOVE THIS COURSE!
Ok, back to thoughts on the resurrection. First I believe that it was proof positive of the innocence of Jesus and a testament that he was truly the Christ “anointed one”, that would stand as a representative of all of mankind’s “NOT GUILTY” verdict before God. I find this thought expressed so compelling: If God’s justice was about executing judgment by means of having man “pay for his sins” to satisfy himself, what better moment would there be to wipe man out then when man committed the most treacherous sin of all time- murdering his Creator? But God in his unchanging love, unending mercy & forgiveness, justifies us, and does completely away with the evidence against us by raising Jesus from the dead, RAISING ALL OF HUMANITY RIGHT ALONG WITH HIM !!! REVERSING THE CURSE BY BECOMING A CURSE FOR US, OVERCOMING DEATH BY DYING!! Turning the most horrendous act of evil & mankind into most glorious moment for mankind…. SALVATION!!
~*~*~*~*~ happy dance~*~*~*~*~
I believe that this may just be the tip of the most GLORIOUS ICEBERG, but one thing I know is that the incarnation has accomplished so much on our behalf it is a reality, beyond my greatest dreams and imaginations. Now we are free to live the life that Papa always intended because of what he has done through the ~WORD MADE FLESH~ Our lovely Jesus! So amazing that he finds us so amazing….sigh.. we are seated in heaven places in Christ Jesus, not just an heir of salvation, but JOINT/CO/EQUAL heirs with Jesus! We have been lavished with EVERY SINGLE BLESSING THE HEAVENS HAVE TO OFFER AND CROWNED WITH THE VERY SAME HONOR JESUS, CLOTHED WITH HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, WITH BOLDNESS IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, SEATED ON THE THRONE OF HIS HEART! Now please tell me, what did we do to get all of this??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!
TY JESUS!!!!!!!!
~*~*~*~*~ SUPER HAPPY DANCE~*~*~*~
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