JESUS CHRIST
THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE - RELATIONSHIPS RESTORED
Prophetic Moments and Events
The coming of Jesus did not take place unexpectedly or suddenly. There was careful preparation, a divine plan was operative immediately after the fall of man, showing the mercy of God already in action. In genesis 3:15 we read:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Here the offspring of the woman is a reference to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, who bruises the head of the snake, Satan. We also see a clear allusion to the sacrifice of Jesus, the only begotten Son, in the prophetic event of the sacrifice Abraham was prepared to make of his only son Isaac in Genesis 22:1-14. In place of Isaac a ram, a male sheep, was slain. The idea of sacrificing a sheep or lamb begins to take shape and reaches its fulfilment in the person of Christ, 'the lamb of God', as we read in John's gospel
The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
When God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites from oppression in the land of Egypt to lead them to the Promised Land, on the eve of the exodus, a lamb was sacrificed. This was the first Paschal sacrifice. The blood of the lamb was then smeared on the lintels and doorposts of the houses of the Israelites to distinguish them from those of the Egyptians and to protect them from the slaughter that was about to take place (see Exodus 12:1-14). The blood symbolised death for the Egyptians and life for the Jews. It symbolised the love and protection of God for his people. This was to lead to the birth of the Jewish nation. According to Jewish tradition the lintel and doorposts were a foreshadowing of the altar of the Tabernacle and later of the Temple.
This first Paschal sacrifice formed the foundation on which a whole sacrificial system was established, the aim of which, among other things, was to sacrifice an unblemished animal for the atonement of sins. The sacrificial ritual took place later in the Tabernacle and subsequently exclusively in the Temple. When offering an animal, the person would place his hands on the animal and confess his sins. The animal would bear the sins of the person who brought the offering. The slaughter of the animal was to remind the person bringing the offering that the fate of the animal should be his. "The wages of sin is death".
All of this is a foreshadowing of the Christian passover, the sacrifice of the 'Lamb of God', bringing salvation through the shedding of blood and leading to the birth of the church at Pentecost.
The sacrifice of Christ is the fulfilment of the Jewish sacrificial system, the definitive sacrifice bringing forgiveness of sins and freedom from the power of sin and separation from God.
Whereas in the Jewish Paschal meal the lamb was essential, it was absent in the passover meal of Jesus and his disciples. This for one obvious reason; the sacrificial animal was absent because Jesus himself was the Paschal lamb as the prophet Isaiah was to say:
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned —every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:5-7).
There is now no need for the sacrifice of animals, it is through the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, that we have forgiveness of sins and freedom from the destructive power of sin. All we need to do is to believe in Jesus, establish a relationship with him, accept his gift and follow him towards the Promised Land.
Jesus Came to Reveal the Father
Jesus came to reveal the Father. Jesus said to Philip
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 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 authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:8-10)
The union of the Father and the Son is so perfect that Jesus can say "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father", "I am in the Father and the Father is in me", "the Father who dwells in me does his works". What greater union could there possibly be?
In particular Jesus came to reveal the love of the Father. Love is not just one of many attributes it is of the very essence of God: "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). The following verses expresses the supreme manifestation of this love:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4:9-12).
And again
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Out of love and through Jesus Christ the Father is reaching out to each one of us personally so that we can exit this situation that condemns us to eternal separation and eternal death. Jesus Christ is the only way out of eternal death and into eternal life.
Jesus Lays Down His Life voluntarily
Although he was God, Jesus did not come to use his power to dominate or exploit men or to oblige men to recognise him and serve him. The God who created man came to serve him and set him free so that he could enjoy real life and not that life-in-death existence that many have. You ransom someone who is in captivity, someone who is not free. Jesus Christ came to die in order to give each person life and freedom, to ransom all from the power of sin that keeps us separated from God, the source of life.
He took our sin with him to the cross
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
Jesus knew he had to die to give new life to those who wanted it. Several times he predicted his death. For example in Mark 8: 31, 32:
Then he began to teach them that the Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. (See also Matthew 12: 38-40)
His death was a gift to humanity. He was not the victim of a random series of events and circumstances. He laid his life down voluntarily, although, of course, God works through events in the life of Jesus as he does in ours.
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
The new life that Christ brings belongs to a different order. It is his own divine life that he offers and no one is excluded from this life. All you need to do is allow yourself to be drawn to the only person able to give this: Jesus Christ himself.
Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me; I will certainly not reject anyone who comes to me, because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but that I should raise it up on the last day. It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise that person up on the last day. (John 6: 37-40).
The reason why Jesus came to earth was to die and to give to those who accept him and follow him a different quality of life, a life that can be enjoyed right now and that will never end; this is "eternal life", "this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). This is the only life that fully satisfies man. It is the life of God himself.
This is why the Father sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ - to restore a vital relationship by which all is held together. Man was created to be with God and, by being united to he who is eternal, that he might regain eternal life that he once had. Jesus is able to bridge that gap, overcome that separation, because in his own person, being true God and true man, we have the union of the life of the God with the life of man. In his own person God and man come together. That is why salvation can only come through Jesus Christ.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
Through Jesus Christ God is reaching out to man, he is reaching out to you who are reading this. In and with Christ, and him alone, through his death and resurrection, we have union with the Father, "your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). These words express the profound union that exists between man and God when we accept Jesus Christ. We have the restoration of a vital relationship.
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Next: Jesus Came to Restore Relationships Part 3
Introduction to the Christian Faith - Index
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