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When Jesus was taken to the cross; Satan (in His flesh) had to go with Him: Colossians 2:13-15 (The Message).
If for no other reason than this, Jesus had to have a flesh part of His makeup. This allows the sacrifice of Christ as Jesus to extend to us as the offer of a new life through our death to the old sin-slave-nature. If Jesus, with all the attributes (weaknesses and frailties) that we have, can over come the power of Satan and all that goes with it (written law, condemnation, guilt, etc.) then we have the hope that we can do likewise.
To turn this around, if we have all the attributes of Jesus, the life of God in our human spirit, then we are capable of living as Christ did as Jesus. We can have the confidence that we can live as Jesus lived by the same means, that is by surrendering to the operation of the life of God in our spirit as our only life. However, if Jesus was somehow different from us in His makeup then no such parallel can be drawn.
It is no big deal for God to live without sinning. The only way that Jesus could have significance in our lives is that He had to contain the same components as we do. The only difference in makeup between Jesus and us is that He was born originally (physically) in what we know as a born again state. The only functional difference between Jesus and us was that He always focused on the Father’s life leading in His human spirit and never allowed Himself to be led by the flesh. It is only in Jesus being fully human and fully God that He could serve His intended function in the Father’s plan. It is only in this way that Jesus’ life can be the model for what all of us might become.
It is becoming so much more real to/in me when I read stuff like this (Heb.4:15) and realize that what was available to my elder brother Jesus Christ is equally available to me!
Rich
If for no other reason than this, Jesus had to have a flesh part of His makeup. This allows the sacrifice of Christ as Jesus to extend to us as the offer of a new life through our death to the old sin-slave-nature. If Jesus, with all the attributes (weaknesses and frailties) that we have, can over come the power of Satan and all that goes with it (written law, condemnation, guilt, etc.) then we have the hope that we can do likewise.
To turn this around, if we have all the attributes of Jesus, the life of God in our human spirit, then we are capable of living as Christ did as Jesus. We can have the confidence that we can live as Jesus lived by the same means, that is by surrendering to the operation of the life of God in our spirit as our only life. However, if Jesus was somehow different from us in His makeup then no such parallel can be drawn.
It is no big deal for God to live without sinning. The only way that Jesus could have significance in our lives is that He had to contain the same components as we do. The only difference in makeup between Jesus and us is that He was born originally (physically) in what we know as a born again state. The only functional difference between Jesus and us was that He always focused on the Father’s life leading in His human spirit and never allowed Himself to be led by the flesh. It is only in Jesus being fully human and fully God that He could serve His intended function in the Father’s plan. It is only in this way that Jesus’ life can be the model for what all of us might become.
It is becoming so much more real to/in me when I read stuff like this (Heb.4:15) and realize that what was available to my elder brother Jesus Christ is equally available to me!
Rich
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