Chapter
13
In All Points
How can God expect us to desire to follow
Him? Have you ever really thought about it? God comes down to this earth from
His Universal view of reality. He sees all; He knows the end from the beginning
because He is not trapped by this reality, or any realty for that matter. God
can look down on all of space and time and see every possibility there is to be
had. He knows what is going to be right for the world and for the individual
because He has foreknowledge. He tells us what is right and what is wrong, not
because He is arbitrary, or because there is a higher law above him, but
because He can see where each decision leads, and where each action will end.
“ But what about us here on earth God?” I am often
tempted to ask this question. What are we to do? We cannot see the end from the
beginning, we don’t know that a certain action will lead to ruin or success. We
do not have the gift of being able to see into the future. Does God really
expect us to just take His word for it and obey deontologicaly, just because He
claims to have teleological ability? It doesn’t seem fair for us to just trust
a God who cannot really relate to our view of life and the universe.
That is the problem God face when He created living
things. How does God relate to a created being? That is why God revealed
himself to the angels as Michael, to know how they felt, to take part in their
limitations, and win their trust and friendship as an equal sharer in their
existence. God was faced with an even bigger problem when man fell. How does
the God of the universe now relate to a fallen creature? How are we to trust
that He knows best, seeing that He has never experienced the fall. He does not
know what it feels like to sin, to experience decay, and ultimately, certain
death. Enter Jesus.
Jesus, is God. Created in the likeness of
humanity, Jesus came to this earth to mingle with us as one who desired our
good, to win our confidence, and to direct us to eternal life. That was the
purpose of coming to this earth. Jesus did not only come to this earth to show
the universe what true love was all about and what the end result of sin would
be, He also came to this earth to win our trust and show us the character of a
loving, forgiving God.
Jesus was a man. Fully human He experienced life
like any of us would. He grow up from a toddler. He learned, and obtained
wisdom like any human would. He learned obedience. He had to eat and drink to
stay alive. He worked in a trade, because without work, He would have no money
to buy food, just like any of us today. His occupation was a very human
characteristic. Think of it, the God of the universe working for his own
existence.
Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth. It was a
dirty town, with a population of around 100 people, maybe less. It was known as
a town of disrepute. So much so that when Nathanael was called to be a disciple
of Jesus he exclaimed, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”[1] Jesus grew up in a
backwards, run down town, full of corruption and sin.
Jesus so engrossed himself in humanity that the
people he grew up with saw nothing but His humanity. It would be like finding
out that neighbor kid you know so well, is actually God all mighty. This is why
the people from his own village of Nazareth rejected Him. Mark 6:3 says,
“Is
not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and
of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were
offended at him.”[2]
You see, the people knew who Jesus was. He was
not some stranger come out of nowhere. They knew him. He grew up with their
kids, or he was their friend from childhood. Jesus was human. They had seen him
bleed, they had seen him instructed, and they had watched him grow up. This is
also why you see all throughout the New Testament that people called him Jesus
of Nazareth, because He was from Nazareth, and everybody knew it.
Jesus felt human emotions. He felt sadness at
the loss of a dear friend. When His friend Lazarus died, he wept. It is the shortest
verse in the Bible, but shows so powerfully the humanity of our savior. The
verse states,
“When
Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled…Jesus wept. Then said the Jews,
Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which
opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have
died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave…”[3]
Jesus wept for His friend. He was
troubled deeply. Not only that, but Jesus felt the blame placed on Him as His
friends accusingly looked on Him, knowing that He could have saved Lazarus had
He come sooner. Jesus knew He had the power to raise Lazarus to life, but even
so, the human emotion of feeling loss was overpowering and Jesus wept. God
cried.
Jesus experienced anguish again when
standing in the court of the temple, that beautiful symbol of the people of God,
His people. For thousands of years God had watched over His chosen people,
protecting them, guiding them, seeking to lead them to a true understanding of
His character. Yet as Jesus stood taking one last glance at that beautiful
temple built to honor him, Jesus wept. It was the tears of rejection Jesus
cried. Tears as a mother or father would cry as their child disowns them and
rejects their love. His children had rejected Him, killed those who taught the
truth and reviled the love of God, and in a few days time would succeed in
killing God himself. Tears streaming down His face Jesus exclaimed,
“O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your
house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.”[4]
Jesus was overcome by human emotion, but
not just human emotion, it was mixed with the infinite emotion of a passionate
God. God was forced to allow his people to leave Him as they made their final
decision to reject the revelation of God to them. In this rejection God saw a
foretaste of things as humanity made their final decision in the end. Forced by
the free agent, God would have to allow humanity to turn their backs on eternal
life and allow them to pass out of existence forever. The free will of man
would limit the savior of the world.
Jesus Experienced fear. In the
garden of Gethsemane, facing His own death and the uncertainty of the future,
Jesus feared. Fear is another very human emotion. Imagine how crazy this is!
Jesus, the creator of the universe, God himself, the inventor of space and
time, and existence itself, the creator of emotions, Jesus was scared! Yet
again, not only did Jesus experience the very human fear of death, but the
supernatural fear of the weight of the world placed on one man. Jesus was to
feel accountable for every wrong ever committed. The guilt of every sin placed
on the lamb of God. Jesus bore our guilt, so that we don’t have to feel the
guilt of our wrong doing! As that weight was placed upon him, it sought to
crush out His life, and God Himself in Jesus Christ, feared! Sweating great
drops of blood, a condition found in extreme stress, only recorded a handful of
times in human history, Jesus exclaimed, “…O my Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me!”[5]
Jesus would experience the sentiment of
rejection again at the cross as the ones He came to save rejected and crucified
their creator and savior. Yet, not only would Jesus experience the rejection of
man, but He felt the withdrawal of himself from God, His father, His friend,
and a part of himself. Jesus experienced what it is to pass out of existence as
the walls of death began to close in around Him. His heart broke for mankind,
and for the utter rejection He felt from both God and man. God had not rejected
Him, yet in Order for Jesus to experience the utter darkness of those who
refuse life, Jesus withdrew from the presence of God. As the darkness, or the
absence of light, closed in around the creator, Jesus exclaimed, “My God, my
God! Why hast thou Forsaken me?”[6] as He not only quoted the
22 Psalm, but lived the entire thing! As the Bible says in one of my favorite
verses,
“He
is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him
not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”[7]
You see, Jesus was like you. Jesus experienced
things like you do. Jesus was human, and yet, He was God. This brings a whole
new meaning to the next verse from which the title of this chapter was taken,
“For
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”[8]
What is the first thing that comes
to mind when you hear this verse? I’ll tell you what first came to my mind, I
thought to myself, “That’s not true.” There is no way that Jesus experienced
everything like I have. Think of it, if it is true for me, then it must be true
for everyone else, and that is a lot of experiences to go through for one man.
I thought to myself, “Jesus must have experienced similar things of equal
temptation but there is no way that Jesus experienced my life, because I have
sinned, I bear the guilt of knowing I am a sinner, and I bear the weakness of
having fallen already. I go into temptation addicted to sin already, but Jesus
never sinned, so He physically could not experience the magnitude of my sins.
But he Bible goes on with even more
details on this subject,
“For
verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that
are tempted.”[9]
As the wealth of evidence began to
stack up it became increasingly hard to believe as I had previously believed. I
began to ask myself another question, “Is Paul just over generalizing here?
Maybe He doesn’t really mean what it sounds like He is meaning.” I was so set
in this belief that I wrote in another little book I was writing at the time, “Jesus
did not experience everything I have, He sympathizes with me, but He has not
experienced it like me.” Yet, Paul goes on in Hebrews to state
“The
high priest has his own weaknesses. So he is able to be gentle with those who
do wrong out of ignorance.”[10]
This verse shocked me! Surely Paul
is talking about the human high priest and not Jesus! Jesus could not have his
own temptations and weaknesses. Jesus never sinned! How could He offer Himself
as a perfect example of love to humanity if He himself was a sinner? Those are
pertinent questions to be sure. Yet Paul doesn’t stop there, he says something
even more astounding in verse 8.
“Jesus
was the Son of God, but he still suffered, and through his sufferings he
learned to obey whatever God says.”[11]
What!?
Jesus had to learn obedience? I used to just push these passages away out of my
mind and just continue believing what I have always believed that Jesus was
perfect, and that’s that. Here is the conclusion I have finally come to after
years of believing the wrong thing. Through a sermon by a dear friend of mine,
Pastor Dale Leamon, God revealed something to me that I had never comprehended
before.
Jesus was tempted supernaturally. When you or I
are tempted, we are tempted by things around us, the direct result of things we
have done or experienced in our lives. We are tempted to drink because we have sinned
before in that we became addicted to a substance. When we are tempted to lust,
we are because we have lusted in the past, or because we have our human nature
that is constantly at war with our frontal lobes. Rarely is our temptation
actually truly supernatural. Satan only has as much power over you as you give
him. Most of the time, we are tempted by our own lusts and desires, we don’t
even need satan in order to do wrong. This was not the case for Jesus.
“For
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.”[12]
Jesus became sin, not just that He
was tempted, but Jesus actually became sinful in order to experience the weight
of my guilt and temptation. Centuries before Christ, Isaiah the Prophet wrote
of the coming Messiah in one of the most moving passages of scripture. In this
chapter Isaiah states,
“Surely
he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”[13]
God laid on Jesus all our
iniquities, every last one! Even though Jesus lived a sinless life, He felt the
guilt of trillions of sins as though He had committed every sin that I have
ever done, not just my sins, but the sins of every person on this planet. Just
think of the guilt some people struggle with. Some drink themselves to death to
cover their shame and guilt. Jesus Felt that Guilt. He knows and understands
our life intimately, because He has felt it. Don’t you see, Jesus was not tempted
by man or by human nature so much as He was tempted by God in that Jesus faced every
temptation this world and Satan himself could muster with the knowledge that He
was already guilty for what He had not yet committed. Think of it, if you knew
that you were guilty for the sin you were being tempted to commit, how strong
would your resolve be to not do it?
When my nephew died, Jesus
experienced that loss, not because He literally lost a nephew, but because He
faced every temptation to doubt God with the pain of loss such as I have never
experienced. Jesus was in ALL points tempted like as we are. He was tempted as
though he had failed every time I have failed. When Jesus was tempted, He was
tempted as though He had never gained the victory! So all though Jesus lived a
perfect life openly, in His heart He felt the overwhelming feeling of guilt and
depression, that failure brings. What most men would drink themselves to death
for, Jesus endured knowing full well that not only did He have the guilt but
that He would have to pay for it without ever knowing if one such as Him could
be saved.
Jesus died the second death, the
death of someone who never accepts the life God offers. God died a sinner!
Jesus did not die with the knowledge he had concurred, Jesus died thinking He
had miserably failed! Why did He then not give up? He had failed, and was dying
for His own sin and for His guilt, yet He went to the cross anyway, and did not
give in to Satan. Divinity flashed through humanity at the cross as God
revealed to the watching universe the extent to which He would go to reveal His
character of love. Jesus suffered the agony of the wicked, so that He could
show that His dealings with the wicked are just, fair, and loving, and indeed
are not arbitrary but rather He obeys the free will of the sinner to choose
life or death.
God does not hate the wicked, He
understands them because He felt what they feel. He was tempted in every point
like they were, as though He was them. No God does not hate the wicked, but
just as Jesus’ human body could not survive the weight of sin, in the end, the
wicked will not be able to exist outside of the existence of God. Jesus did not
die of the great pain inflicted on Him at the cross, He died, because He chose
to be outside the presence of God. And outside of God, there is nothing. Jesus’
heart crushed. It literally ripped open spilling his blood into his chest
cavity. The agony of guilt, the crushing realization of love rejected but the
unwillingness to repent, these are what destroy the wicked, and these are what
destroyed Jesus as well as He took part in all of humanity so that character
could be revealed.
You and I can be saved! Not because we have any
ability to be perfect or overcome, but because Jesus overcame for us. He
trusted His father to the very end. He sweated blood and His heart literally
burst from the stress guilt brought to His body. His heart was torn in two and
his blood poured into the pericardium. No human has ever experienced enough
stress to raise their heart rate that high from pure stress. Jesus conquered.
He paid the price for you and me, His character was revealed, and God was shown
to be Love itself.
