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Jesus Was The Final Sacrifice Made For All Of Our Sins EXCHANGED LIFE by Jeff Pohlman © 2005
FIRST STATE OF AFFAIRS The initial understanding which most people don't gather is the purpose of our creation; why we were created in the first place, if you will. Some poor souls live very vexed lives in search of this truth, going from one counterfeit to another, in search of the real - the answer. Quite simply, the Creator of the Universe is a relational being, and He wanted more beings to relate with, to fellowship with. He wants created beings who relate in great fellowship with Him because they want to, not because they are coerced, and not in order to supplant or rise above Him (a silly thing to imagine, since it's not possible - but as created beings, we sometimes think it is possible, and Lucifer sure thought it was possible, which turned him into satan-damned for all eternity). He is already The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit all wrapped up into one being, yet separate also. That is a formal way of stating His triune being, with the word "The" preceding each of their names, as a title. They are also people-beings, distinct yet one, and when talking to them as people you don't have to use the word "The" all of the time. As an example, if your name were Ralph, you'd get rather upset at me if I always called you The Ralph, even to your face, and never let our relationship become warm enough to call you just "Ralph," or "you," all of which would be insinuating that we are closest of friends in time. Likewise with our Creator, He WANTS to be personal - on a first-name-basis. If you are lacking in respect and you treat Him trivially, then you will probably go through a session of calling Him and talking to Him by name, with "The" in front of all of His names. But eventually, the warmth will come WITH the respect, and you'll probably drop the "The." (I know some people who never shake from the practice of calling someone Sir or Mister - outside of the military - and this concept of warmth is somewhat unnerving to them). So, once we move in to deep relationship with The One who desires it most, we find ourselves talking with Him on His terms, and speaking to Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. After a while, it happens that to hold Him at a formality-distance is to hold the relationship at an equal distance, and you find that you're not deep enough, AND very frustrated. So you were created with this in mind. Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit created you in all manner of looking forward to the most intimate relationships. See - The Beginning & Creation (6,000+ years ago) - on our website, for how this is played out in Genesis, walking in the cool-ruwak-spirit of the day.
A SIN-CLOUDED STATE OF AFFAIRS Next we come to a question, which many folks who are seeking The Lord will ask, "If sin had NOT come into the world, would Jesus have ever shown Himself." The answer is - most certainly, and we'll see why in our review of John 17 in a moment. Suffice it to say, Jesus being the bodily manifestation of The Creator of the Universe, it is very likely that He is what was seen by Adam and Eve in the Garden, but at this point (on the other side of sin-having-happened) we have no way of knowing exactly, and it isn't really that clear in what is written, so we have a guess that it may have been so. When the sin-event happened, relationship with Father ceased being possible. He CANNOT relate with sin. In fact He is jealous over this fact, and is absolutely guarded against sin. For some reason, rather than obliterating the whole of the creation of the earth, and mankind, as it was up until that point, He decided to make a way for us to get back to that relationship: via blood sacrifice. He was-and-is about the business of creating humans who will desire to fellowship with Him. He creates them, each with a peculiar DNA structure; loves them profusely - FIRST; includes a spirit (unlike any animals or plants in His creation); and then He risks it all, to see whether the humans will of their own, choose to love and fellowship back with Him.
CAPTIVES HELD RANSOM Now, after the sin-event, the only way back to Him is through faith in the shed blood of Jesus. We are being held captive, destined for hell - death being eternal separation from Him and His love, due to our sin. In order to get back to Him, a ransom note must be paid, to buy us back into His fellowship and relationship. Life has to be exchanged for life. That is the design. That is the law. Clearly, the only way He can even see us, much less fellowship with us, is through life having been sacrificed of its blood in our behalf, to wipe away our sins. It's a poor metaphor, but think of it as a pair of seeing-glasses. The only way He can see us is through blood glasses. To accomplish this, we now have two explanations in history which show us this way back. He HAS set up methods for exchanging life blood, so we CAN be restored to that wonderful fellowship with Him.
THE FIRST RANSOM NOTE PAID The first provision is now referred to as the "Old Testament." A testament is the same as a will or a trust, they are legal instruments if you will, which someone sets up in order to exact their desires. It usually has to do with the dispensation and distribution of articles or commodities of value. This desire or will can be accomplished while the givers are still alive, or it can be executed upon their death. In the case of what we are talking about - being our eternal vibrant relationship with Father - His will/ testament regarding that was established in the old testament, and was to be executed in the continual here-and-now, since He isn't going anywhere (He's definitely NOT dying). That first or old will and testament law required that the exchanged life be that of blood of animals. Bulls and goats, of the most perfect breeding and raising possible, gave their lives and their blood, poured out upon temple altars, so that humans in that era could have SOME access to fellowship with Him.
THE FINAL RANSOM NOTE PAID That first and old testament was not perfect (once and for all) and it was tedious. Father endured it. It could be said that He was temporarily placated (satisfied). But the truth is-and-was, that the animal sacrifice was exactly that, temporary. The animals possess no spirit, thus they are a secondary substitute. Tertiary substitutes of plants and seeds are even less effective in wiping out our sin-record before Him - because they have no blood. No no - what is needed is a human-spirit-and-blood sacrifice, from a PERFECT human. A perfect human had to be blood-sacrificed, in order to exchange His life for ours. His perfect sinless spirit-in-blood is paid in ransom for our lives. Life for life. Fulfilling and setting aside the first will and testament requirements. We are fortunate where somehow He allows that it only had to happen once, and that He doesn't need to be re-sacrificed every time for each and every one of us. This falls in line with the fact that Adam sinned once for all of us. Somehow, in the spirit realm, these two acts (Adam surrendering our spirit-life to sin, and Jesus paying the ransom note to buy back our spirit-life) have a sort of domino-effect, where when it is done by the one, it covers all of the rest of humanity. We don't have the exact reason "why" on that one, but we can certainly be thankful that Father decided and designed it that way, and that Jesus certainly did the deed, paid for our exchange, which is the absolute essence of Father-Son-&-Holy Spirit's New or Last and Forever Will and Testament. So in finality, you have to ask yourself what the depth of this exchange really is. Once you confess your sins and apply Jesus' shed blood to your life, by faith, what is the next venue? By applying that blood, did you just step up to the spirit-bus-platform and get your bus ticket to heaven, all the while you'll just wait here at the platform for the bus to take you home? Do you think that eternity will start some time out there, or did it just switch to a new dimension for you - now - since your old sinful life was exchanged for a new sinless Jesus-life? Are you already living eternally, now? So, the bus station vanished? You're there? In eternity? All of that mumbo-jumbo-speak about heaven being in the great by and by is really a figment of someone's imagination or song, and you're really alive eternally right now and forever? You've got it!!! Some of it is difficult to grasp right away, because you are still cloaked with a sin-body for a little while longer. The New Heaven and New Earth haven't happened as yet. BUT, the moment-by-moment provision HAS been made, and you are moving from glory to glory in eternity - soon to be on the other side, but enjoying Him on this side already.
COMPLETE RANSOM PAID The last subtlety for you to grasp deeply is this... Ephesians 4 : 4- There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6- one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)
Those three verses preach all by themselves. How wonderful! How deep! Over all. Through all. In all. Hmmmm. In the greatest sense, this is another way of saying what is expressed elsewhere in the Bible, that God is omnipresent - He's everywhere. He permeates everything. But there is a subtlety that could be missed or overlooked, and which lends a most exciting bit of good news for us, when considering this bit of exchanged life and salvation itself. If you are considering eternal salvation just as a bus ticket home, an insurance policy, you are looking at eternity with a very fatalistic set of reading glasses. Many people think this way - indeed they figure they can goof around and try to get away with as much as they possibly can, sinning all the way on purpose, and at the last minute , pull the plug and become a Christian on their dying bed (maybe even have a priest or relative pray them into heaven at the last minute, in case they were in a surprise accident and didn't have their senses at those last moments). There's some theological debate there that I won't go into, but this is not the design that Father has for you. Insurance policy bus tickets in the end will short you of some of the greatest blessing there is. Here's an example, poor as it may be, of why that last-minute-insurance-policy-salvation approach really stinks. Imagine if you will, two people who are going to be runners in a foot race, say a 440-meter race, like in the movie Chariots Of Fire, based upon a true story from 1924. One of them stays prepared, like the Eric Liddell character in that movie, who proclaims, "I find my pleasure in running, God made me fast, I feel His pleasure in me when I run." The real Eric Liddell indeed said that when he was alive. Then imagine there's another runner, maybe you. Knowing this race is coming, but instead of staying in training shape, you forgo the exercise all together and you just sit around feasting all day, watching videos of anything you want, occasionally about 440meter foot race competitions, but especially taking in several packs of Hostess Twinkies® at the end of EVERY meal, and even more as snacks between meals. When it comes time for you and Eric to run, how much of God's pleasure are you and your largeness going to sense by the time you are 440-meters down the track - if you make it that far? Shouldn't you have gone through the exercises and preparations so you could enjoy the same pleasure that Eric does when he runs? There is nowhere in scripture that says that your life between now and when He takes you home will not require work. Stated in the positive, your life will require work, effort, trial and error, trial and success, all the while knowing His pleasure flowing through you. God's design is for you to experience something right here and now, like practicing for that great 440 of eternity. That's a metaphor, and eternity will be far greater, I am just trying to push you to get a glimpse of something He has said to us in this passage quoted above from Ephesians. Ready for the zing? He is over all, through all and in all, He's everywhere. However, we humans have a peculiar mandate in all of this. He has not chosen to have deep spirit relationship with rocks. Buildings. Temples. Plants. Even animals. He HAS chosen to have deep spirit-relationships with humans. You will see this written in much of what is on this site, He is in you and through you as you. While He was on the earth it could be said that He wore a Jesus-suit. Again, that's an imperfect metaphor, but it gets the idea across to you, to think about. He will always have that capacity to show Himself in His own flesh body. He ALSO chooses to live though us, as us. Say that to yourself a few times, and let it sink in - "Jesus is living in me and through me - AS ME." He is choosing to see the universe through me, at the same time He is everywhere else. As the omnipotent one, He has the capacity to do this through each and every one of us. We are not claiming to be God (that would obviously be heresy), but we do have His manifold spirit-life coursing through each of us, as us.
PROOF TEXT As a great closing passage for us to look at (Jesus speaking here - so it's in red)...
John 17 : 20- I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21- that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in The, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. (New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)
Oh dear saints I hope you see it. There is a glorious exchanged life going on. A wonderful dynamic flowing of spirits. It says that Jesus is in His Father. He is in us. We are in them. There is surely more to come, but for now, we are touched to have Him/ Them in us and through us, as us. They're not just taking a back seat somewhere over there in the corner of our spirits, inside our flesh-suits, stuffed in a little box that's closed tight. They are effervescing through us. We have exchanged life. Our sin is wiped away. We have the King of the Universe coursing through us, as us. Talk about GOOD NEWS!!! Can you think of anything better? And if that is a little lacking in verse for you, then here's a bit more, just a few verses more.
John 17 : 22- And the glory which thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; 23- I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. (New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)
Are you sensing the thoroughness of the inclusive nature of what we have entered in to as Jesus perfect life HAS been exchanged in us for our ugly past sin-filled lives? The premise which we started with was that He created us for fellowship, out of pure love for us. He hasn't stopped loving us. He has made a way, a most painful way for Him, for us to still have access, and not be spun off for all eternity. And here's the kicker, in case you haven't gotten the gloriousness of the fact that we don't have to sit around this earth-bus-station in order to wait for more dispensation; He has made it available RIGHT NOW (notice that the tense of the words is not formulated or couched in terms of the future, but in the here-and-now)...
John 17 : 24- Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love me before the foundation of the world. (New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)
I submit to you dear brothers and sisters that He has not made a path leading to a bus station, with a gozillion pew seats in the waiting lounge, where we all sit in waiting, eternal lives on "Pause", twiddling our thumbs in anticipation. No, no, no. He has given us access NOW. Eternity NOW. Our old sinful life (actually it was a path to death and eternal torture in hell) has been exchanged for dynamic, powerful, alive and glorious living, eternity is happening right now, in and through us as us. The imperfect metaphor has been used where we are but worms on this side of eternity, waiting to go through the cocoon stages of death-to-this-current-physical-body we inhabit, only to become the eternal butterfly in our eternal bodies. It's a metaphor, and don't get too upset about how imperfect it is as a metaphor. Jesus already showed His transformed body to several of His followers, some 2,000 years ago. Ours awaits us, and will soon be upon us. For now, our spirits live a transformed and exchanged life, somehow with Him in us and through us as us. Let's live vibrantly with Him the best we can in the here and now, with full expectation of even greater to come.
© 2005 Permission to copy or reprint granted only if full version is quoted and proper notation of authorship recognition is given.
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