![[The Good Seed]](../images/thegoodseed.gif)
The Man Christ Jesus
"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. 2:5
This man intrigues us! A sinless man, a good man, a compassionate man, a courageous man, a miracle-working man, a loving and forgiving man, yet rejected, persecuted, and then crucified! How could He live a sin-free life? What was the secret of His success? What was the source of His power? Did He have any power that is not available to us? Did He live His life just as we live ours? Was He God veiled in flesh as many claim? Was He fully God and fully man? If so, how could anyone be fully God and fully man? Why was He crucified? These and many other questions flood our thinking - questions that can only be answered by the teaching of the Holy Spirit as He leads us into all truth.
In its search for identity, humanity is very interested in its ancestral roots. Yet it only proves that perfection has been, and is, lacking in everyone. The scriptures give us the reason for our failures. They declare that we all come into this world dead in our transgressions and sins. We all have a sin nature and a mind that opposes the Spirit. There is no exception; we have all come short of the glory of God! We can only receive life by being resurrected out of our death in Adam. Since Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, we have to be born of the Spirit in order to receive life. His life resurrects us out of our death in Adam into the life in Christ. Resurrection is not a one-time event; it takes place continually as we grow in our spiritual awareness and become firmly rooted and built up in Christ. (Col. 2:7)
As we look at the life of Jesus we see that He entered this world as a baby, just like we do, for He also was born of a woman. Yet there was a difference - He did not have an earthly father! The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she became pregnant and gave birth to Jesus. The physical body He received from Mary traced His lineage back to Adam. His body, even as our body, was in need of food, rest and exercise. It must also have contained a mind and a will that was in opposition to the Spirit, for Jesus said that He did not do His own will. If His will would have been in agreement with God's will, He could have done His own will. This was revealed in the garden of Gethsemane where He prayed, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." (Luke 22:42)
Now let's look at His lineage through His Father God. He had His Father's DNA! He carried the life and nature of His Father. Since God is spirit, this part of His being was invisible to the people of that time. They only saw the man Jesus; their eyes were blinded to His true being because the heavens had not been opened to them, so they could not see spiritually. Only after the Holy Spirit had been poured out did the get to know Him as the man Christ Jesus.
This new man demonstrated a new humanity. Although He had a will that preferred bodily comfort and freedom from pain, He was not ruled by His own will, for He carried in His heart the attitude of complete submission and obedience to the Father's will. He always submitted His will to the Father's will. In His obedience to the Father, He gave up His form of God, emptied Himself, came down to this sin sick world, took on the form of a bondservant and, as a man, carried out the will of God. Then He humbled Himself even further by allowing Himself to be crucified by evil men. (Phil. 2:6-8) He realized and confessed that He could do nothing of Himself; He was completely dependent on the Father's empowerment to do the Father's will. We too are completely dependent on God's empowerment to do His will, but so often we don't walk in this realization, so we try to do things in our own strength and suffer the consequences. Our heart needs to be united in its attitude of submission and obedience. The Psalmist prayed, "Unite my heart to do Your will." This too is the work of God in us! "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13)
The scriptures tell us that Jesus "kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." (Luke 2:52) We also need to grow up after we are resurrected into life - but the favor with God and men is often lacking because we do our own will. Jesus kept the law perfectly and never did His own will, so He enjoyed the favor of God and men. He always did the right things. Can any of us truthfully say that we have never sinned - that we have never told a lie and never entertained a wrong thought throughout our growing up years, and even in later life? What enabled Jesus to live a perfect life at all times?
The answer lies in the fact that He had a different father. He did not have a physical father. He came into this world with a physical body like ours, but within that body He carried the life and nature of God. His mother connected Him to Adam, and His heavenly Father connected Him to God. He was not born into the death of Adam, so He did not come into this world dead in sins and transgressions. He came into this world in life, and with a mindset that was completely submitted to the Father! He came in a new humanity - a humanity of life, and this is the humanity He came to bring us!
Christ's identification was with the Father - not with Adam. After we have been born of the Spirit we are a new creation, and this new creation carries the life of God. A new creation is not a remodeled edition of the old self; it is an entirely new creation! For example, when we buy a new suit or dress, we are not remodeling something we previously owned. It is completely new! God is not remodeling the old Adam. So in our thinking we need to learn to identify with who we are in Christ.
As we have mentioned in previous writings, we see two different men in Genesis one and two. In Genesis one God created a man in His image. Since God is spirit, an image of Him would require a spirit image. Therefore this man that He created was a spiritual image of Himself. So man is a spiritual image of God. God is both male and female, and this spirit man was both male and female. A description of his body is not given, but we know that he needed food, for he had permission to eat of every fruit-yielding tree and herb. This spirit man was given authority to rule over all things, and was told to be fruitful and multiply. "God saw all that He had made, and behold, and it was very good." (Gen. 1:31) God proclaimed this man to be very good!
The man In Genesis two was not created; he was formed of existing material. He was a mixture of dust and the breath of God. This man was not told to be fruitful and multiply, he was not given authority to rule over all things, and he was not declared to be very good. He also had need of food, and he received permission to eat the fruit of every tree with the exception of one tree - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told him that disobedience would result in death (not hell). In spite of this warning, he disobeyed God. This proved that he was not ruled by the Spirit but by the mind that could rise up in disobedience to God's directives.
So we see that there are two humanities - a formed earthy humanity of death and a created spiritual humanity of life. Natural humanity comes into this world in the death of Adam. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful humanity, yet having the life of God within Him. He was ruled by the Spirit, for He only listened to the voice of God. It was the life of God within Him and the grace of God on Him that enabled Jesus to live a sinless life. Jesus overcame every obstacle and every wrong desire by being obedient to the Spirit! This is also the only way in which we can overcome every temptation to disobey God!
Although Jesus was born into this world in life, He was made like His brethren in all things. "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of His people." (Heb. 2:17) In order to be made like His brethren in all things, Jesus had to face and overcome every temptation we (His brethren) face in the same overcoming power that is available to us. If He had access to a greater power than we do, He would not have been made like His brethren in all things, and would not have the necessary qualifications to become a merciful high priest.
Since we have to encounter death, He too had to encounter death. Christ's first encounter with death occurred in His death to sin. (Rom. 6:10) He had to resist and overcome all the desires of the flesh, for they are always against the Father's will. His desire to do the Father's will overcame the attraction of ease and comfort that were tempting Him to sin. For example, after Jesus had fasted for forty days He was hungry, and it was a real temptation for Him to satisfy His physical craving by exercising His own power instead of waiting for the Father to supply His need. Have you noticed that in our temptations we are also tested in this area? It takes faith and trust to wait for God's supply, for He always seems to be too slow in answering! During all the bitter experiences and temptations that Christ endured, His obedience to the Father's will gave Him the power to overcome all wrong thinking and all wrong- doing.
The culmination of His death to sin took place on the cross. In the midst of all the physical and mental torture to which He was subjected, He remained obedient to the Father's will and revealed the Father's love and forgiveness. He did not step down from the cross because that suggestion had not come from the Father. He did not yield to anger and hostility because He knew it was His Father's will for Him to endure this ill treatment. He retained His love for all humanity and freely forgave all who participated in His gruesome death. His obedience during this ghastly experience climaxed His death to sin!
On the cross He actually participated in two deaths. The second death was His physical death. However, He did not experience death under the grip of its power over Him, but in submission to the will of God! He laid down His life in obedience to the Father's will. Since He was not in the grip of death's power, it could not keep Him in death; it could not reign over Him! The life in Jesus Christ overcame death's power, and He rose victoriously in life, thus conquering death for all time! This is the power of life! It overcomes death in whatever deceitful form it masquerades as truth.
Jesus Christ did not come in the humanity of Adam (the humanity of death), but in the new humanity of life! In Adam all die and in Christ all are made alive. "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:21-22) Adam is the corporate man of death, and Christ is the corporate man of life. He is a life-giving spirit! All who have faith in Him are resurrected out of their death in Adam into the life of Christ! He came into the place where we were, to take us into the place where He is. His life in us has the power to overcome all our carnality; it is able to overcome the thinking that is in the carnal mind and bring us into the life that is resident in the mind of Christ!
It's important for us to recognize that God does everything legally. Death came through man, so life also had to come through man. Sin had separated man from God. Before Adam sinned he had a good relationship with God, but after he sinned he falsely thought God had become his enemy. His idea of God had changed, and his belief system was no longer rooted in truth, but in the delusion formed by the lies of the serpent.
It is very sad that this wrong idea continues to be prevalent - even among many Christians! They think that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ placates the wrath of God, and that God can only love them when He sees them in Christ. The idea that God needs to be placated by sacrifice is illustrated in the pagan world, for it thinks its gods have to be given gifts and sacrifices to placate their wrath. Nowhere, in a correct translation of the scriptures, does it say that God needs to be reconciled to man. The word "reconciled" implies that there is enmity between two parties. Translators thought this was the case, so they used the word reconciled instead of conciliated - meaning that the enmity existed only in one party. The enmity was not on God's side, for in John 3:16 we read that God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus Christ, and Rom. 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! This shows us that the enmity exists on man's part alone, and that it is man who needs to be conciliated to God - not God to man.
The scriptures also teach us that we receive His life when we are born again. This is our resurrection out of our death in Adam. Jesus Christ is the resurrection, and His life brings us into immortality and incorruption! He is the pattern Son! Jesus had to grow in knowledge and wisdom, and we too have to grow in knowledge and wisdom after being born of the Spirit. He overcame all the difficulties and temptations common to man by being obedient to the Spirit, so we too can only overcome all temptations by being obedient to the Spirit. When Jesus was baptized He repented from having been under the government of the law. After His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and He received the government of the Spirit. We too have to experience the same repentance and receive the government of the Spirit! Jesus always depended on the Father's resources; He did nothing in His own power! This is a lesson we too have to learn! Drawing on our own resources or relying on certain techniques spells failure. Only by relying on, and obeying the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can we receive His enabling power and walk in victory.
Paul had learned this lesson, for he wrote, "For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." (Col. 1:29) How great is God's power? His power was great enough to keep Jesus from yielding to temptation, and it is great enough to keep us from yielding to temptation. His power was great enough to keep and strengthen Jesus for the work God had given Him to do. It was also great enough to keep and strengthen Paul for the work God had given him to do, and it is great enough to keep and strengthen us for everything God has called us to do!
Our human mind thinks that eternal life is simply like our physical life, the only difference being that it never dies. It does not realize there must be a difference in the quality of life that can sustain itself eternally. Anything that contains corruption or can be corrupted is not eternal. Since Jesus lived in the nature of God's life, He had victory in everything He was called upon to suffer!
The scribes and Pharisees were the learned men of that day, yet they always misunderstood Christ's teachings because they did not want to learn from Him; they were only looking for a reason to put Him to death. Jesus spoke words that needed to be understood spiritually, and the scribes and Pharisees could only understand them according to the legalism of their natural minds. When Jesus said that He and the Father are one, they interpreted this to mean that Jesus equated Himself as being equal with God. But Jesus did not say that; He said that He and the Father are one, meaning that they have the same nature, and are in perfect harmony and unity of purpose. Christ reveals the very nature of God to us, for it says that He is the very image of God. "He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." (Col. 1:15) Since God is spirit, we know that a perfect image of God has to be a spiritual image. The unseen spiritual nature of God is perfectly revealed to us in the Man Christ Jesus. The quality or nature of God's life radiated from Him. "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power." (Heb. 1:3)
This is beautifully revealed to us in Christ's prayer as recorded in John 17. In it Jesus prayed, "Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which you have given Me, that they may be one even as we are." (v. 11) The Father's name denotes His nature. God gave His own nature to Christ, and His nature is truth and life! Christ's life in us also brings us the Father's nature of life and truth. God's life was the foundation and essence for the unity that Christ enjoyed with the Father - and it is also the basis for our unity with Christ and the Father. Jesus could tell the disciples that if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father, because God's glory and nature radiated from Him. (John 14:9)
Although Christ's life in us is the basis and essence of our unity with Christ, the working of His nature into us experientially is a process. It requires ears to hear the Spirit and a willingness to obey the Spirit. In Jesus, the pattern Son, this willingness to hear and obey the Spirit regardless of the cost, is exemplified. He forgave all humanity's sins against Him! He did not allow humanity's ill treatment of Him to change His attitude toward God, nor did He allow it to rob Him of His love for humanity. He had not come to condemn the world, but to save it! He remained true to the purpose of His coming! Nothing could sidetrack Him from this purpose! He needed the temptations, rejection and persecution in order to learn obedience - and so do we! "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." (Heb. 5:8)
Not only did Jesus have life, but He also IS the Life! (Jn. 14:6) It is His life in us that brings us into unity with Him. In the presence of his disciples, Jesus prayed, "That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them and You in Me that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." (Jn.17:21-23)
Our unity with the Father brings us into agreement with His purpose for us and for the world. Knowing that the Father's purpose for us is perfect, we can, without fear and without restriction, submit our desires, thoughts, motives, and ambitions to Him, and radiate His love and forgiveness at all times. We see this exemplified in Christ! Christ prayed that this mindset of love and submission to the Father would be manifested in all believers!
The works and words of Jesus reveal His dependence on the Father as well as His unity with the Father. He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, `The Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner…I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.'" (Jn. 5:19,30) "I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me." (Jn. 8:28) "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works." (Jn. 14:10)
These verses help us to recognize that Christ's perfection was due to His complete reliance on the Father! His limitations were overcome in His submission to the Father's will. He did not think that He was smarter than His Father - like many of us do. He realized that He was completely dependent on His Father for giving Him the right words to speak and for showing Him what to do. This realization enabled Him to be obedient to the Father even when He was required to suffer. This is true humility! We too have to receive this realization! Without it we will walk in the pride of our own ability to make right choices, and Christ is no longer our Lord.
Some questions frequently asked are, "Is Jesus God? Was He God veiled in flesh? Did His pre-existence with God prove that He was God?" In John 1:1 we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." This verse ignites more questions. How can the Word be with God, and be God at the same time? How can the words that we speak be us? Our words have their source in us, and they bring others a revelation of who we are. In this revelation they are counted as being us. They cannot precede us for we have to exist before words can come out of our mouths. This helps us to understand that our Father God is the Creator and source of all creation. He spoke the word, and the word brought it into being.
We have often heard Christians say that God created the world out of nothing. This of course does not make sense, nor is it true. The scriptures tell us that God created the visible out of the invisible, and the invisible realm is not a nothing realm. Even before we had all this new technology, we knew the power of the invisible by the havoc a strong invisible wind produces. Since the visible has its source in the invisible, we know that the invisible is greater than the visible. In Col. 1:16 we read, "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him." Before the creation of all things there was only God, so He must have created everything out of His invisible being.
Here we see the beautiful truth that is foundational to understanding that there can only be ONE God! According to the revelation the scriptures give us of God, we learn that He is the source of all creation, both visible and invisible. Since He is the one source of all things, there cannot be two sources. There cannot be more than one God, for then God would no longer be the source of all creation! You may have noticed that the scriptures frequently speak of one God and the Lord Jesus Christ; one God and one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus; God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! God is the ONE AND ONLYsource of all things, and His words have their source in Him. So Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the man Christ Jesus has His source in the Father God!
Like the invisible wind, spoken words are also invisible yet they have tremendous power. Words spoken ignorantly or deceitfully bring fear and keep people in bondage. Truthful words bring encouragement, comfort and enlightenment. They also bring others a revelation of who we are. Even so, Christ, the Word made flesh, brings us a revelation of who God is. Since God is spirit and invisible to our physical eyes, we cannot know Him unless He reveals Himself to us in a tangible way. In God's omniscience He ordained a way of bringing us a revelation of His very essence by sending the man Christ Jesus into our world. He is the spiritual image of God.
Christ is the anointed Word of God made flesh, and He was always with God. Though He always was and is the anointed Word of God - the revelation of who God is - He is constantly being put to death by man's rejection of Him. Natural man cannot receive His spiritual rule. In the fullness of time Christ burst upon the scene to remove the delusion which had held man captive. He did this by revealing the essence of God's life to us. Since Jesus called God His Father, and God called Jesus His Son, we know that they are not one and the same being. Yet they are one in essence! The Word, the Son, is a revelation of God's love to us! How mysterious are His ways! .
Let's look at some scriptures that teach us that there is only one God. In 1 Cor. 8:6 it says, "Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." This is also emphasized in Eph. 4:6,1 Tim. 2:5, as well as in other scripture passages. "One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all… For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Jesus did not speak of Himself as being God. Christ Jesus is the mediator, and He mediates God's love and truth to us. He said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Knowing God (not merely knowing about Him) is eternal life. Notice that it says that there is one God, AND the man Christ Jesus.
Furthermore, in Numbers 23:19 we read that "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent." Since God is not a man, and the scriptures emphasize the fact that Christ Jesus is a man, and that He is the mediator between God and man, they cannot be the same being. It also says that Jesus is the man from heaven, as well as the Son of Man. This has to be understood spiritually; it remains a mystery to the natural mind. It is difficult for us to conceive that Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, could be a man because we think of man as a physical being instead of a spiritual image of God. Before Jesus Christ came down to earth, He existed as the anointed Word of God, and He remains the anointed Word of God - the revelation of God to us.
In 1 Corinthians 15:28 we read, "When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all." Christ Jesus, the Son of God, will bring all things into subjection to Himself, and after He has done that He will hand it all to the Father. This would not make sense if the Father and the Son would be one and the same being. In Exodus 20:3 we are commanded not to have any other gods before Him. People have coined the saying, "God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit." This gives us three Gods! They say that their oneness consists of the three Gods working together in unity. This reasoning however, still leaves us with three Gods. We must be careful that we do not add to the scriptures.
But, you may counter, does it not say that we are to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? It does not say in the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Does this not prove that they are one and the same being? At first glance one would certainly think so. But we need to remember that in biblical symbolism the word "name" denotes nature. In other words, believers are to be baptized into the nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therein lies their unity. Receiving the nature of Christ brings us into unity with Him and with the Father!
Furthermore, if Christ Jesus actually was God, then how could He be His Son? How could He be our pattern? How could He be a man and a mediator between God and man? It also says that Christ was made like His brethren in all things. So if Christ were God, then God would have many brothers instead of sons. How could His victory be an encouragement to us, if it was impossible for Him to sin, and He knew it? If Christ was God, He could have done His own will, and His trials would have been a mockery. For example, if we want to encourage a man who has no money to start up a business, and we use the example of a successful businessman who began with millions of dollars, it would not encourage him. If Jesus Christ did not face the same problems believers face, and had a greater power available to Him than believers have, His victory would not be an encouragement to believers. We need to know that the power of Christ's life in us is enough to overcome every difficulty and temptation we have to face.
Jesus usually referred to Himself as the Son of Man. In Matthew's gospel alone, He called Himself the Son of Man about 30 times. Only occasionally did He call Himself the Son of God. He called God His Father. He taught the disciples to pray, "Our Father." In other words, He was saying that we have the same Father He has. He did not say that He was God come down from heaven in human flesh: He said that He was a man from heaven - and God is not a man. He also said, "I and the Father are one," and then prayed that we would be one with Him just as He and the Father are one." (Jn. 17:22) How can we be one with the Father and with Christ? Can we become the same being that God and Christ are? That would be impossible! But we can become one with Christ and one with the Father in nature by receiving His life and being ruled by His life! Christ was one with the Father in His essence, for He was the image of God. At this present time we are being transformed into the image of Christ by receiving His thinking (for we have received His mind), and learning to live in His nature. The proof of our transformation is made visible when we maintain Christ's attitude of love and obedience during the times that we are rejected and called upon to suffer for His name's sake.
In Phil. 2:5-7 we read that Christ existed in the form of God. In coming to earth He emptied Himself. He emptied Himself of the form of God, and came down as a man from heaven who carries the life of God. Christ had a glory before the world was. He laid all this glory down and left it with the Father, when He came into this world. He came to glorify the Father, and the Father gave the glory back to Him! The religious systems think they can crown Him Lord, but we can only receive Him as Lord. They think they can impress God with their own works, but none of our own works measure up to God's standard.
How thankful we are for the great salvation that God has for us in Christ! The purpose of our thankfulness is not to ingratiate ourselves with Christ, but to express our appreciation for what He has done for us. Our thankfulness is counted as glorifying God! It is a recognition that our blessings are not due to our own efforts, but that they come to us through Christ.
In summarizing, let's notice the differences between God and the man Christ Jesus as recorded in the scriptures, as well as some of the differences between the humanity that is ours in Adam and the humanity that is ours in Christ..
| God is the Creator and source of all things. "…for `You created all things and because of Your will they existed and were created." Rev. 4:11 | Christ is the Word. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father." John 1:14 |
| God is one God - "For there is one God." 1 Tim. 2:5 | Christ is the image of God. " He is the radiance of His glory, and express representation of His nature." Heb. 1:3.. "He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." (Col. 1:15) |
| "God is not a man that He should lie." Numbers 23:19. So He has no humanity. | Christ is a man. "For there is one God, and one mediator… the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. 2:5 |
| God is our Father - "Our Father who Is in heaven." Matt. 6:12 | Christ is the Son of God - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." John 3:16 |
| God has sons. "You have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry, `Abba! Father!'" Romans 8:15 | Christ has brothers. "Christ is the firstborn of many brethren." Romans 8:29 |
| God is the author of the New Covenant. "`For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,' says the Lord: `I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'" Heb. 8:10 | Christ is our mediator and high priest of the New Covenant. "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises.'" Heb. 8:6 |
| God is spirit. "God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24 | Christ was filled with the Spirit. "And behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him." Matt. 3:16 |
| God cannot be tempted. "…for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. James 1:13 | Christ was tempted. "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." Matt. 4:1 |
We can only understand who the man Christ Jesus is, when the heavens are opened to us and we understand spiritually. He is no longer a physical man with physical limitations. How could He be in each of us if He were physical? The physical disappeared in His death and resurrection! In 2 Cor. 3:17 we read, "The Lord is the Spirit." Although He is not the source of everything, He is the very embodiment of God, and He mediates the Father's nature of love and truth to us. He is the spiritual image of God and we are members of His spiritual body! He is the truth, and His lordship in us unveils truth to us. His divine life in us brings us His divine nature! He is the second man, the corporate man of life.
Now let's notice some of the differences between the humanity that is ours in Adam and the humanity that is ours in Christ.
| In Adam all die. "For as in Adam all die…" 1 Cor. 15:22 | In Christ all are made alive. "…so in Christ all are made alive." 1 Cor. 15:22 |
| Born of flesh. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." John 3:6 | Born of the Spirit. "… that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:6 |
| Loves the world in disobedience. "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15 | Obedient to Christ. "…and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 10:5 |
| A mind that opposes God. "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Galatians 5:17 | A mind that delights in doing the will of God. "I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart. " Psalm 40: 8 |
| Listens to voices other than God's. In disobedience Eve " took from its fruit and ate …" Gen. 3:6 | Only listens to the shepherd "…the sheep follow him because they know his voice." John 10:4 |
| Chooses for himself "The sons of God saw… and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose." Gen. 6:2 | Lets God choose for him "…not as I will, but as You will ." Matt. 26:39 |
| Glorifies his own works Nebuchadnezzar glorified the image He had made. Dan. 3:1-3 | Glories in the Father's works "…and glorified God, who had given such authority to men." Matt. 9:8 |
| Lives in the futility of his mind "…that you walk no longer… in the futility of your mind." Eph. 4:17 | Lives by the Spirit "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." Gal. 5:25 |
| Lusts after power and worship "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Matt. 4:9 | Worships God. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only." Matt. 4:10 |
The more we meditate on the differences between the old humanity and the new humanity, the more we realize how great God's salvation is. Christ has resurrected us out of the humanity that we received in Adam - the humanity of death in which we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and indulged in the lusts of the flesh. Christ has brought us into His life! He has taken away our sin nature of disiobedience and given us His nature of obedience. He has given us His mind, and His mind only delights in doing the will of God!! Believers have been born of an incorruptible seed, so the life of that seed cannot be corrupted; it lives and abides forever! How we thank God that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son! We have received His spiritual humanity! As we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Gal 5:16)
We need to feed on truth in order to grow and develop spiritually, and the new humanity that is ours in Christ will radiate through us, and we will be lights in this world. We will glorify God by our obedience to the Holy Spirit, demonstrating His power to overcome all temptations.