“All honour and
glory to God forever and ever!
He is the eternal King, the unseen
one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen”
(1 Timothy
1:17, NLT)
It’s true that God is
immortal, which is simply a way of saying that he cannot die. Verses like 1
Timothy 1:17 say this plainly. It’s equally clear that Jesus really died. That
does not mean his existence ended. Rather it means his body and spirit were
separated, just as ours are upon our death.
On this point, Philippians
2:6 says that before Jesus entered human history as a man, Christ had equality
with God in every possible way. But he didn’t think that was something to hang
on to. Instead he emptied himself of that equality in humanity to come “in the likeness of men.” Hebrews 2:17
says the same thing: “He had to be
made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and
faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins
of the people.”
In conclusion, to identify with us and substitute
himself for us, Jesus Christ humbled himself by becoming a human being to die
like us so that we could have our sins forgiven. In this, Jesus remained God. Rather that refuting
Jesus’ divinity, his death reveals to us the love of God.
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
No comments:
Post a Comment