Salvation

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” – John 19:5

God’s Word is so fascinating and so cohesive. Cohesive? Yes, God’s Word “sticks to” all of the other parts of God’s Word. Each bit holds other bits together. 

In the 19th chapter of John, Pilate brought Jesus before the Jews as an accused criminal. Pilate declares, no doubt in a loud and authoritative voice, “Behold the man!” What Pilate didn’t understand nor did the Jews, was that the person that stood before them was the perfect Man. The Greek word for “man” used in John 19:5, means man, one of the human race, a human being. Jesus often referred to Himself as the Son of Man (Mark 14:21).

Adam from Adamah

Though all of us come from Adam, the Jews have a record of their lineage back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38). From the Ancient Hebrew Reference Center we learn:

The Hebrew word אדמה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning “ground” (see Genesis 2:7)…Each of these words has the common meaning of “red.” 
– Dam is the “red” blood
– adamah is the “red” ground
– edom is the color “red”
– adam is the “red” man

Genesis 2:7 states that “the adam” (man) was formed out of the adamah (ground)

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:20) 

As Christians, we can expect people (i.e., Adams) to condemn us. We live in challenging times, but then Christians have always lived in challenging times. It is imperative to remember that within the ranks of those that persecute us are people like Saul (i.e., the Apostle Paul) that will repent and be saved. We must live in ways that do not hide Jesus from those that persecute us.

[a] Humanity was “in” Adam. We can say this based on Hebrews 7:9-10 ESV: One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

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No matter what you’ve done you can be saved. No matter what you feel you can be saved. No matter where you are you can be saved. It doesn’t matter if people think you are saved, you can be saved.

You may ask, “Gary, how do I know that God exists? My friends and I make fun of Christians. We use Jesus as a swear word. We are confident that science has disproved all ‘God-based’ religions. So why should I believe you?

Why believe me? Don’t! Who am I that you should believe what I say? But there is another, and it is He that has led you here. It is He that speaks to your soul, that speaks to the very depths of who you are. Listen to Him. Listen to Jesus. What you’ve done, what you feel, what others think or where you are is not a limitation to Jesus. 

Here’s the truth. People need the Lord. The tugging at your heart, the tears at the corner of your eyes, the heaviness within you. The Master is calling. Give your heart to Jesus. Go here. I’ve explained how to be saved: Salvation.

For the rest of us that have been on this great adventure for a while, please take a few minutes and listen to this powerful song, “People Need the Lord.” We all need reminded of our soul purpose in life.

I never noticed this until today. In the account of the “rich young ruler,” Mark considered it important enough to include it in his narrative. The Scripture reads, “And as he (Jesus) was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?(Mark 10:17)”

Running to Jesus

The young man RAN to Jesus. This man had intent. He had determination. He had identified the source of what he had been seeking. We know this because he didn’t just run to Jesus but he caused Jesus to stop His journey. This is significant. Abraham did a similar thing, for we find in Genesis 18:2, “Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.” Many theologians consider this encounter to be a Christophany, a visible manifestation of the Son of God before He became flesh (John 1:14).

How similar these two accounts are. Both men spotted Jesus walking. Both men ran to meet Him. Both men stopped Jesus and entreated Him for His attention. Both men bowed or knelt before the Son of God. Both men made a request of Christ. But here the similarity stops.

God Called

God called Abram (Abraham) while he was still an idolator, living in the city of Ur. God called him to leave family, friends, and the familiar to go into the wilderness, to a land that God would show him. Abram took God up on His offer, the rich young ruler did not.

Jesus, in whom the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9), asked the young man to get rid of the things that tied him to his family, his world, his life, and to come and join Jesus has a disciple; what a privilege Jesus extended to the rich young ruler, but the young man declined.

It’s not enough to run to Jesus, to interrupt Christ’s journey, to fall on our knees before the King of kings and the Lord of lords, to seek the favor of Jesus. For the first thing Jesus requires of us is to surrender all, to let go of the dead corpse of the world which we continually drag around with us. There can be no life as long as we remain in death.

Christ calls us out, but the decision rests solely upon us. Just as Abram was renamed Abraham, Simon was renamed Peter, Saul was renamed Paul, James and John were renamed the sons of thunder, someday, when we arrive in heaven God will give us a new name, but not the rich young ruler; not on that day, for he cared too much for this world to let go. Like a monkey who’s hand is trapped in a jar, this young man grasped his riches so tightly that he could not escape.

A Trinket of Death

Abraham and the rich young ruler: Two men that our Lord offered unimaginable joy and a place in the foundation of God’s kingdom. One man chose correctly, and one did not. What will we do when Jesus asks us to let go of the thing that is most precious to us, for He knows us better than we ourselves. Will we, by God’s grace, place our faith in Jesus? Will we let go of death and be reborn into eternal life? Or, will we try to hold on to a trinket of death and bargain with Jesus so that we may possess both death and life, a bargain that cannot be made.

Choose life. Choose love. Choose Jesus.

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“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.” – Matthew 13:47-48

In Matthew 13:47-48, Jesus is speaking about the end-of-time judgment. Still, for every person, our last opportunity to be saved is in our moment of death. So, the first question that I see from what Jesus said is, “How do you and I know if we are ‘good fish’?” Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has provided us with ample promises in the Scriptures for us to know. For example, “The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” 1 John 3:24

A Wide Net

However, the Church casts a wide net and draws into itself both true believers and believers in name only. It is the responsibility of the ordained leadership to deal with false Christians within the Church. This is an aspect of church governance.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. – Acts 20:28

Great harm can be done to new, weak, or wayward Christians when the laity assumes the role of church governance by taking it upon themselves to confront a person they’ve discerned as a ‘bad fish’ within their fellowship. By this, I don’t mean to imply that the laity is to take a laissez-faire attitude, but we all should operate within our commissioning within our church. “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. (Romans 14:1)”

The Church has a long history of “killing” its wounded. It takes divine discernment for each of us to distinguish between a weak Christian and a person that is still of this world. Thankfully, when the Church functions as Jesus intends, then the whole Church is blessed.

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I rejoice and am thrilled every time I read about Jesus in John 1:1,14 (ESV), In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As we know, Jesus has two natures. He is fully man (Mt. 1:23) and fully God (Colossians 2:9). Christ’s human traits, including his natural desires, decend from his mother who is a descendent of Adam. This is revealed by Scripture in Hebrews 4:15 (ESV), “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.“

And as we just read in John, chapter one, Jesus is fully God. Perhaps rightly, we often focus more on the divinity of Jesus and minimize Jesus the man. Yet there would be no salvation without the man, Jesus. 

In the man Jesus, God provided, on behalf of us, the unblemished Lamb, to pay the penalty for our sins. As R.C. Sproul said, “He (Jesus) satisfied the ransom demand for our release from captivity to sin.”

This substitution by Jesus for us required that Christ Jesus be a descendent of Adam. That’s why it says in Hebrews 10:5 (ESV): Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;

It took a sinless descendant of Adam to qualify as the sacrificial lamb. John the Baptist confirmed that Jesus was this lamb: The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 ESV)

It’s the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth that understands me and mediates (i.e. arbitrates ) for me. It is the righteousness of the man Jesus that the Father sees when I come before Him. It is the blood of this man Jesus that the Father sees as the propitiation of my sin.

During this Christmas season, let’s take time to thank Jesus for His humanity and His deity.

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God doesn’t reach the same conclusions which we reach. An example is the arrival of Jesus. We, as Christians, will soon be celebrating the birth of “God with us”: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

Now, my guess is that neither you nor I would choose the middle of the history of Adam to introduce Christ Jesus, our Savior. Why did God not come in the flesh as soon as Adam sinned? Or, why did God not erase Adam and Eve and start over (my choice ;-)? Or, why did God not come in the flesh at the end of the age (Matthew 24:3)? Why would God come in the flesh in the middle of Adam’s history? We don’t know. But we do know that God is perfect (Matthew 5:48) and God is good (Mark 10:18), and Jesus, God with us, is essential.

No matter what time of day that you’ve read this, If you’ve accepted Jesus, then I pray that God’s hand will rest upon you, giving you direction, giving you strength, and provide you with courage. 

If you’ve not yet received Jesus as your Savior, I urge you to read: Salvation.

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