Jesus Became, Continuation

Without any formalities, straightaway, we continue where we left off, with the prayer of Jesus to His Father in heaven, as we move on with more delving.

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. John 17: 1.

In His prayer, this personal, intimate, sweet communion with His Father, Jesus is not ashamed, nor is He afraid to claim His oneness with God. We hold dearly to us, by faith that even as Jesus prays to His Father in heaven, He makes profession of His oneness with God. As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You. There is no doubt or question about the relationship of Jesus and God. Jesus never became God, for He is God. The prayer states that fact, but He goes on in prayer, to ask that you and I may become one with them. If Jesus’ prayer is already answered prayer, then you became one with the Trinity through Him. That they may also be one in Us. Jesus, has asked for this. He has made this request, so that the world would believe that He, Jesus, was sent by the Father.

What has such depth of diving and plunging into truth yielded? One thing for sure that should be marked all over us, plastered on us and in us, is that as believers, through the Holy Spirit, we are one with the Father and the Son, who are One.

What is our Lord’s reason for such a prayer request? Check it well! Jesus, the Word made flesh, wants, that the world may believe that You sent Me. It is the prescribed and chosen way of Jesus, for the world to believe that God sent Him into the world. It is Jesus, God Incarnate, the Word that became flesh, who now lives in believers. Believers, you and I, are witnesses to the Living Word, so that the world will believe that God sent Jesus.

Where does this place us? How do we see us? What is the precious, undeniable, work of truth that has been wrought in us? Here it is! Jesus, the Word, became flesh and lived life in the flesh. In like manner, His witnesses became Spirit and lived life in the Spirit. In deepest surrender of all that we are and have, we throw ourselves as dead, dead to all self, on the altar of Truth, that we may become, through the unshaded and unhidden, awesome work of the Holy Spirit, the truth that is before us. I’ve made this deeply personal, with the word, you. 

Just as Jesus was not flesh, so we are not Spirit. Jesus became flesh. You became Spirit. This is all by and through the Spirit.

Just as Jesus freely denied Himself and became flesh, so too with you. You must freely deny yourself to become Spirit. This is all by and through the Spirit. 

Just as Jesus left His perfect, sin-free world and became flesh, in order to dwell in our perfect sin-fraught world, so too with you, believer. You must leave your perfect sin-fraught life and living, to become Spirit, in order to abide in His perfect sin-free world. Romans 6: 18 talks about all who are in Christ Jesus as having been set free from sin. If indeed we are free from sin, then we cannot live in sin, thus we live in a sinful world, but we are not of the sinful world.  This is all by and through the Spirit.

Now we plunge in fuller depth, into the next Bible text, which was previously quoted, concerning us, God’s human creation.    

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2: 7.  It was noted that when God formed man from the dust of the earth, man was a form, a dead, lifeless being, like a stationary, lifeless sculptor. Man was not a living being, but he was like the ingeniously crafted life-size and life-like figures of real men and women, which often mesmerize us. However, the reality is that regardless of how perfectly crafted they are, and how much they look like the person, they are dead objects, unable to breathe and live.

Have you ever given serious thought to this? Do you ever think about it? When God formed man out of the dust of the earth, man was nothing but a form, without life. Man was a dead being. It was after God put His own breath into His lifeless, dead creation, that man became a living being. This first act of God breathing into man, so that man became a living being, is also true of fallen man. Is this not true of you, me and every single human being? We who were once made to live, with the breath of God, died through one man’s sin. Adam sinned and we all died. We all became as dead people, dead to God. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5: 12

We human beings would have remained dead, in our sins, hopeless, separated from God, without hope, if Jesus did not come and save us. Through Him, and Him alone, we became one with God again, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Listen to this striking, jubilant, wonderful Good News! 2 Corinthians 5: 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We became new in Jesus. We became alive in Jesus. We became one in Jesus.  Hallelujah!