THE SUPREME SACRIFICE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JULY 13, 2021.

SUBJECT: THE SUPREME SACRIFICE!

Memory verse:  "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes, He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.” (Second Corinthians 8:9.) 

READ: Philippians 2 vs 6 - 8:

2:6: Who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 

2:7: But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

2:8: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross.

INTIMATION:

In the beginning God created us in His image and after His likeness. He created us out of love, modeled us to be like Him, and to live the best of life without lack or want. But our first parents were grossly influenced that they doubted His integrity, and disobeyed Him. It was for the reason of our haven done things wrong—disobeyed God’s laws—that we were separated from God our Creator. Separation from God is death; but, by ourselves, we can do nothing to become reunited with God.

His sincere, and genuine love, and concern for us occasioned His sending His only begotten Son to the world for our liberation. His Son, Jesus, was God’s unique Son, Who never disobeyed God and never sinned. Consequently, only Him can bridge the gap between the sinless God and sinful people. Jesus’ incarnation was the act of the preexistent Son of God voluntarily assuming a human body and human nature. Without ceasing to be God, He became a human being, the man called Jesus. He didn’t give up His deity to become human, but He set aside the right to His glory and power. 

Jesus came as a propitiation for us, freely offered His life for us; He knew no sin, but was made sin for our sakes, taking all our wrongdoing upon Himself, dying a shameful death on the cross in our place, and saving us from the consequences of sin—including God’s judgement and death. He gave His life so that we can have life, not only having life, but having it more abundantly.

Before the incarnation and the manifestation of God through Jesus, Jesus was originally in the totality of God in being, essence and experience: He was in the “form” of God—Spirit (John 4 vs 24), and “equal with God” in essence, being, eternity, and work. Since He was God, then He would not have existed in any other state of being than what God is. However, in order to accomplish the redemption of mankind, He did not consider His being as God something that could not be forsaken for the benefit of His creation. 

Jesus was willing to lay aside or empty Himself of His being and essence as God in order to incarnate in the flesh of man. Therefore, He did not have on earth the totality of that which He had before the incarnation. In some way, He made a supreme sacrifice in incarnation in order to accomplish the plan of redemption for the salvation of man: In contrast to lordship, He took on slavehood. In contrast to existence in spirit, He took on the physical. In order to become the slave of humanity, He has to take on the form of humanity. In order to make the divine sacrifice for the sins of humanity, He had to incarnate into the form of those for whom He would die. 

The magnitude of His transition from God to man (Deity to flesh) was awesome and incomprehensible. In the lowered state of incarnation, Jesus was not only in the form of man, but also in a different relationship with the Godhead than what He had before incarnation. In the form of man, He maintained an obedient relationship to God, the Father. He voluntarily died on the cross because it was the will of God. 

Jesus, as a Deity, was rich in all things; haven all things created by Him and for Him. But He became poor by giving up His rights as God and becoming human. In His incarnation, God voluntarily became man—the person Jesus of Nazareth. As a man, Jesus was subject to place, time, and other human limitations. He did not give up His eternal power when He became human, but He did set aside His glory and His rights. In response to the Father’s Will, He limited His power and knowledge. Christ became poor when He became human because He set aside so much. Yet by doing so, He made us rich because we received salvation and eternal life. What a “SUPREME SACRIFICE!”

Jesus took our past, present, and future sins upon Himself so that we could have new life. Because all our wrongdoing is forgiven, we are reconciled to God. Furthermore, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the proof that His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross was acceptable to God, and His resurrection has become the source of new life for those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. All who believe in Him may have this new life and live it in union with Him. This great and supreme sacrifice, has never been done before, and would  ever be done by any again.

Prayer: Abba Father, there is nothing I can do to adequately compensate for what You did for me in redemption. Virtually nothing! Give me the grace, O Lord, to obey You in all things all the days of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!