John 21:25 tells us that all the books in the world probably could not contain all that Christ accomplished during the time he spent on earth. The four gospels give us a very small sampling of what happened during his official “ministry.” Think about it–every person who interacted with Christ had a story to tell about the good that came into his or her life through that interaction. As tiny as the Bible’s sampling was, enough was written in the gospels to give us a good overview of Christ’s life as He expressed God’s absolute love to the world. For this post, we are going to, in essence, stand above the recorded action and analyze three of the overriding aspects of Christ’s walk as the Son of Man and the Son of God.

     First, most of us are familiar with the concept of Christ not ever sinning–II Corinthians 5:21 states specifically that he never knew sin. I’m sure we all understand that Christ never lied, never hurt anyone, never stole, etc., but the concept of being sin-free goes much deeper than how Christ acted. You see, the Bible tells us that sin is unbelief (John 16:9) or not holding onto God. Remember what Deuteronomy 30:20 said–cleave  to (or be one with) God for He is our life? And, remember, how Satan was able to pry Adam and Eve away from cleaving to God through a deliberate deception? When Adam and Eve let go of God (i.e. sinned), they let go of life. Now, while Christ was born with the inner man of righteousness and life, he still had to live and walk as a physical human being. Satan knew he had succeeded in causing Adam and Eve to sin, so he went after Christ big time because he was determined to keep the human race away from God. However, until the cross, no matter what Satan threw at him–from outright deceptions to personal attacks–Christ held on to God and did not ever let go! As Hebrews 4:15 says, Christ was tempted in all things, but he never sinned. So, the righteousness and life that was in Christ was greater than any temptation Satan could bring.

    Next, as Christ walked among his fellow human beings, he used the righteousness and life that was in him to overcome the loss, death, and destruction Satan was heaping on those people. What were called miracles were simply the power of righteousness and life over evil. As Christ cleaved to God, he had access to all the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that God had. Through his connection with his Father, Christ was able to effectively deal with Satan’s ploys to keep people away from God–he was able to open the door to the power of righteousness and life for those with whom he walked.

     Finally, Christ was the beginning of the transition between the Mosiac covenant and the new covenant. Remember, in Psalm 51, when David wrote of his new understanding that God did not delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings, but did delight in a broken and contrite heart? Well, when Jesus arrived on earth, the religious activities of the Hebrews were focused on those sacrifices and burnt offerings. The understanding that David received had escaped the rest of the Hebrews. Christ’s contemporaries were stuck with the concept of God as the Law-giver and Judge and with the understanding that they were responsible to keep the Law in their daily lives, even if it meant choosing against helping someone in need. 

     If we look closely at Christ’s teachings, we can see two patterns emerging. First, Christ was intent on correcting the Hebrew concept of God as the Law-giver and Judge. He repeated and repeated the reality that God is our Father and His  love for the human race is absolute. Christ turned their world upside down with his words–the religious men and women were comfortable with God as the Supreme Judge–how in the world were they suppose to relate to Him as their Father? Likewise, Christ also upset their peace with a second concept that the measure of a person’s faith was not in how he/she kept the minutest detail of the law, but the measure was to be found in how a person treated the people around him/her. Over and over, Christ hammered the point home that man was not made for the law, but the law for man. (Remember, the law was given to limit Satan’s ability to utterly destroy the human race.) To drive these concepts home, Christ even blatantly stated that what God wanted (commanded) the Hebrews and us to do is to first love Him with everything we have and then to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). The Law could never bring this to pass, but the righteousness and life inside Christ could.

     So, through the righteousness and life that was in him, Christ was able to cleave to God and to overcome all the temptations that Satan through against him. Not only that, but Christ also was able to effectively deal with the loss, death, and destruction Satan was heaping on the human race. All the while, he was diligently tackling the misconceptions the Hebrews had about God and the measure of a person’s faith. Yet, with all that going on, Christ’s most important mission was yet to come. In my next two posts, we are going to look at the underlying story behind Christ’s crucifixion and learn just what God’s absolute love brought into being.

 

     As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful!

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.