At
this point in our study on the
Trinity, we need to synthesize what
the Bible teaches about Jesus.
For example, the Bible teaches that
Jesus and the Father are separate,
distinct, coeternal members of the
Godhead. Jesus is not a created
being. Like the Father, Jesus
is a God who is “from
everlasting to everlasting.” (Nehemiah 9:5,John 1:1)
Jesus and the Father have independent
wills. (John 6:38,Luke 22:42)
The Father spoke through Jesus to
ensure the Jews understood that Jesus
and the Father are compeers (equal in
standing, ability, or accomplishment)
even though they assume different
roles. (John 5:18,Matthew 26:63-66)
The Father not only gave Jesus the
words to speak, but also told Jesus
how and when to say them. (John 12:49,14:24)
The Father declared to the Jews that
Jesus was a God just like Himself,
but the Jews rejected theFather’s
testimony and crucified
Jesus for blasphemy. (Matthew 26:65,66)
InRevelation 19:13,
Jesus’ name is the “Word of
God” because the Father speaks
through Him to the universe.
According to Jesus, no one has ever
seen the Father (John 1:18,6:46) for He
lives in a glorious, unapproachable
light. (John 6:46,1:18,1 Timothy 6:15,16)
Therefore, when the Father wishes to
say something, He usually speaks
through Jesus. (John 17:8)
The Bible teaches that Jesus created
everything, including the universe,
for the Father. (Hebrews 1:2,Genesis 1:1,John 1:3,Colossians 1:16)
When
the nameGod is
used in the Old Testament, the Bible
is actually referring to Jesus!
In fact, 97% of the Old Testament
references concerning God pertain to
Jesus. Jesus created Adam and
Eve and drove them out of the garden,
sent the flood in Noah’s day,
spoke to Moses from the burning bush,
passed over Egypt, killed
Egypt’s firstborn and delivered
Israel from slavery, spoke the Ten
Commandments from Mt. Sinai, and
spoke to the Old Testament
prophets. If we understand
Jesus,John 1:11 makes total
sense,“He came to
that which was His own, but His own
did not receive Him.”
Jesus
could not and did not die in our
place. Yes, you read the
statement correctly. Instead,
Jesus died so the Father couldtransfer our
guilt to Heaven’s temple through
Jesus’ blood. This is
necessary because a substitutionary
death cannot produce salvation.
When a person sins, he is not only
condemned to death for his sin, but,
he is also transformed by the law of
sin—He becomes a slave to
sin. (John 8:34)
Since a substitutionary death has no
effect on a sinner’s slavery to
sin, a substitutionary death is
inadequate for salvation. Because
sin has transforming power, the plan
of salvation includes thetransferof
Christ’s transforming power. We
need His propensity for righteousness
to replace our natural propensity for
sin. (Romans 1:16)
The
Father Asked Jesus to Give Everything
When
we understand who Jesus is, the
process required and ransom he paid
to save sinners is mind
boggling. No one will ever be
able tointelligently question the
legitimacy of the Father’s plan
to save sinners. When we study
the plan of salvation, we must
approach the topic with a set of
presuppositions. These include the
following facts: The Father is
righteous and true; He lives and acts
within boundaries set by laws of
love; everything He does is to
benefit His children; the Father has
infinite wisdom, so He is deliberate
and purposeful in everything He
does. As we investigate the
plan of salvation, we will not be
disappointed because the facts prove
that the Father chose thevery
best way to save sinners.
The Fathercould not use
a magic wand to erase sin and save
sinners, because the Earthly temple
service teaches that God does not
forgive sin. Each sin is a
recorded fact. Therefore, the
Father designed a plan to
legitimately save sinners whereby a
sinner can be separated from his
guilt. However, to transfer
guilt, a member of deity needed to
die. The Father determined the
best way to transform “slaves of
sin” into people who love and
cherish righteousness was totransfer the
power of righteousness from Jesus to
sinners. Of course, thistransfer could
only be possible if Jesus came to
Earth, produced the needed
righteousness (overcame every
temptation), gave up His propensity
for righteousness, and ceased to
exist.
When
Jesus was on Earth, He said that the
Father gave Him authority to forgive
sins. (Luke 5:24)
Jesus did not imply that He could
forgive sins with a simple
command. If this were possible,
it would not have been necessary for
Jesus to die! When Jesus agreed
to come to Earth to save sinners, the
Father made him the judge of mankind.
(John 5:22,23)
Jesus will save everyone who has
obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit
because He hastransferred their
guilt to the temple. The
Transfer Doctrine (see Part 4) and
Jesus’ words are not in
conflict. This doctrine
explains how Jesus separates guilt
from the sinner and forgives them.
The
Father has given each sinner the
power of choice, but He has offered
salvation to sinners with one
condition.Sinners must
choose to obey the Holy Spirit’s
voice if they want to be saved.
The Holy Spirit constantly confronts
us because each of us has
intelligence, reason, and the power
of choice. We have freedom to
choose if we want to live by
faith. As Meshach, Shadrach,
and Abednego demonstrated, living by
faith is to obey the Holy
Spirit’s voice, do what the
Spirit says, and leave the
consequences with God. (Daniel 3:18)
The Father requires faith as a
condition of salvation for everyone
who wants to live with the Trinity
throughoutthe endless ages
to come! (SeeMatthew 12:31,32.)
I
am sure that Jesus was shocked when
He heard the details of the
Father’s plan to save Adam and
Eve, and their offspring; Jesus would
have to pay the ultimate price to
save sinners. The Father
offered Jesus a rewardif He
was willing to go forward with the
plan. The Father promised Jesusif He
successfully carried out the plan,
the Father would resurrect Jesus andrestore everything
that He gave up. Additionally,
the Father promised Jesus that He
would ultimately be exalted forever
as equal to the Father; this is why
the last book in the Bible is called
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As a bonus, the Father would give all
the redeemed to Jesus as personal
property. (Notice this transfer inJohn 17:6.)
The faith one God put into another
God’s promises illustrates the
faith required to be part of
God’s family.
The
Title “Son of God”
Instead
of killing Adam and Eve on the day
they sinned (which the law demanded),
the Father legitimatelystayed their
execution because Jesus submitted to
the Father’s plan of
salvation. On that day, Jesus
became man’s intercessor (high
priest). (Hebrews 5) The Father
and Jesus entered into a covenant and
this promise is recorded in Psalm 2:
“I
will proclaim the decree of the Lord[the
Father]: He said to me[Jesus],
‘You are mySon;today
I have become your Father.
Ask of me, and I will make the
nations your inheritance, the ends of
the Earth your possession. You
will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will dash them to pieces like
pottery. Therefore, you kings,
be wise; be warned, you rulers of the
Earth. Serve the Lord[Jesus]with
fear and rejoice with
trembling. Kiss the Son[obey
Him, submit to His authority],
lest He be angry and you be destroyed
in your way, for His wrath can flare
up in a moment. Blessed are all who
take refuge in Him.’ ” (Psalm 2:7-12,
insertions and underlining mine)
The
Hebrew word for son isbenand
it means “a subject, a slave,
one under authority.” Ever
since the day Adam and Eve sinned,
Jesus has been called “theben,”
the son, the slave of the
Father. We see this submission
stated inJohn 8:42,“I
have not come on my own; butHe
sent me.” John 6:38 says,“For
I have come down from Heaven not to
do my will but to do the will of Himwho
sent me.” Jesus
told the Jews that it was not His
idea to appear on Earth.
Instead, the Father sent Him.
He came as a subject under authority
because the Father required Him to do
this to save sinners.
Clearly,
two wills and two separate persons
are involved: One God “The
Sender,” the other “The
Sent.” Now that you know
these things, look at this verse
through informed eyes:“For
God so loved the world, thatHe
gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have
everlasting life.” (John 3:16 KJV)
Even
though Jesus is an eternal God, this
verse calls Him the Father’s
“only begotten Son” for
several reasons.
There are two stories in the
Bible about parents slaying
an only child as a burnt
offering to God. The first is
Abraham offering Isaac
(Genesis 22) and the second
is Jephthah offering his
daughter. (Judges
11:3-40) Even
though Abraham was willing to
kill Isaac and Isaac was
willing to die, both were
spared. However, in
Jephthah’s case, I
believe he killed his willing
daughter. These two
examples are parallels of the
Father’s incredible
anguish in giving us
Jesus. The Father loves
Jesus more than any parent
can lovean only
child and had it
been possible, the Father
Himself would have come and
died for us. Even
though it was the intent of
wicked men to kill deity
while He hung on the cross,
the Father took Jesus’
life.
The love between members
of the Trinity is the
greatest force known in the
universe. The
Father could not give more or
pay a higher price than to
give us Jesus! Jesus
had to die the death that
sinners will die so that
everything belonging to Jesus
could betransferred to
those who obey the voice of
the Holy Spirit. From a
standpoint of sin’s
penalty (which is sudden
death), the Father will not
impose greater suffering on
any sinner than what Jesus
suffered. From the
standpoint of restitution,
the Father will impose
suffering on sinners in Hell
in proportion with the
suffering they imposed on
others. For sinners who
are unable to make
restitution for the suffering
they caused (like the thief
on the cross), Jesus has paid
the price. This is why
He was scourged and beaten
beyond human endurance before
going to the cross.
Finally, how does a
changeless God legitimately
satisfy the law that says,“The
soul who sins is the soul
that will die?” The
answer is found on the
cross. The Father made
an innocent Jesus suffer the
second death (2
Corinthians 5:21) so that
He could legitimatelytransfer everything
that belonged to Jesus to
repentant sinners. (Romans
5:17-19)
Jesus
is Eternal God
“In
the sixth month[of
Elizabeth’s pregnancy],
God sent the angel Gabriel to
Nazareth, a town in Galilee. . . He
said to Mary: ‘You will be with
child and give birth to a son, and
you are to give him the name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called
the Son of the Most High. The Lord
God[the Father]will
give Him the throne of His father
David, and He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever; His kingdom
will never end.’ ‘How will
this be,’ Mary asked the angel,
‘since I am a virgin?’ The
angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit
will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you. Sothe
Holy One[of
Israel]to be born will
be called theSon
of God.’
” (Luke 1:26-35,
insertions and emphasis mine)
Jesus
is called “the Holy One” in
the Old Testament about fifty
times! Gabriel gave a statement
to Mary that confirmed the baby
forming within her was the God of the
Old Testament. Jesus becamean
obedient slave of the Father
because of Jesus’ infinite love
for his Father and sinners.
Jesus humbled Himself to live in
poverty. He came as a homely
looking man, a man of sorrows who
would suffer more than any sinner
would have to suffer. God sent
Jesus and He obediently came to give
us all that belonged to Him.
Jesus is not a superman, He is much
more than that: He is an eternal God
who took on the lowly form of a man
to share His riches.
