by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 2 Corinthians 5:16
Unto us a Savior was born… a Sympathetic Savior
Why is Jesus the remedy for our problem of lingering and deepening dissatisfaction? Besides being the plan of God, why is Jesus uniquely “qualified” as the acceptable sacrifice for our selfish sin? Why is Jesus our sole advocate before the Father? How can it be said that Jesus can honestly and completely sympathize with your plight and mine in this life?
You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NLT)
What does that mean “by his poverty”?
The Sympathetic Savior series will dig deep into the poverty of our Lord Jesus. To leave the deity that was His as fully God, Jesus humbled Himself to the point that the Apostle Paul wrote that He emptied Himself of His deity: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:6-7 (NIV) The New Living Translations says that… “he gave up his divine privileges.” Some of what is written here will challenge you doctrinally, or you may think it theologically flawed. All I ask is that you read it through and withhold judgement until getting through it.
The purpose here is to recognize and appreciate the immeasurable, unimaginable sacrifice of God in the fully human person of Jesus Christ; who left the divine union that is God for a period of some 33 years to fully experience life as a human being with real human experiences and issues. Apostle Paul wrote that Jesus surrendered completely His divine privileges so as to not use being God to His advantage, which would minimize His human experience, particularly when it came to authentic temptation, pain and suffering. It is necessary to comprehend that Jesus took on the full blow… all of the impact of suffering from birth to death to three days of condemnation in the belly of the earth… hell (Romans 8:3). This is prayerfully supported by Scripture sensitive to being contextually accurate in the interpretation of it.
“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” John 5:30 (NLT)
Paraphrasing in context to what Jesus was responding to, it might go something like this:
“As a man, I admit that I would not have the authority or the power to heal the man on the Sabbath unless that authority was empowered by God the Father. As I hear from Him and believe in Him, I act according to His authority, which means my actions are right and best. Since that is the case, why would I seek my own desires and intentions when they on their own are insufficient? It makes sense that, in dependence and submission to the will and plan of my Father, I commit to going where He tells me to go, and doing what He tells me to do.”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten (created, bred, made, produced) Son…” John 3:16
As you read through the Sympathetic Savior series be asking yourself this question: Why is it so hard to believe that the familial three-person union that is God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), could “create” the visible manifestation of Himself to be of a fully human nature, void of His divine nature, with a need to depend on the divine nature and authority of the other two persons of God? Is it because it would be too great a shock to our religious systems, traditions and customs of what we claim to be sound doctrine and theology? Some will not even ask the questions or have a discussion about it; feeling that such a discussion would lead to quarreling about doctrine. I am asking that you be open to asking the question guided by Scriptural truth, particularly that spoken of by Jesus himself about himself while flesh as a human being. The result might be a theological paradigm adjustment for evangelicals open to an honest discussion, not to be controversial but perhaps to know a bit better Jesus the man in the fellowship of his sufferings.
So then, since we have a great High Priest (advocate) who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)
(Note: Sympathetic Savior is a four part series. The following are links to the other parts:
Part 2: Christ’s Temptation, Part 3: Christ’s Relationships, Part 4: Christ’s Sacrifice)
In order to better understand and appreciate the sacrifice of the person of God who we call Jesus, we need to examine Him humbling Himself to the point that His initial sacrifice was laying down His function and authority as God; to become entirely man He can sympathize with your weakness and mine. To begin, let’s define the word ‘sympathy’.
Sympathy—from Latin sympathia, from Greek sympatheia, having common feelings, sympathetic, pathos feelings, emotion, experience—pathos means an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion
Sympathy—1 a: an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other b: mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it c: unity or harmony in action or effect 2 a: inclination to think or feel alike: emotional or intellectual accord b: feeling of loyalty: tendency to favor or support 3 a: the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another b: the feeling or mental state brought about by such sensitivity
Savior—1: one that saves from danger or destruction, 2: one who brings salvation
As defined by Merriam-Webster, Inc.
The objective here is to really get to know Jesus Christ as the person who knows you intimately, and has experienced personally—physically, emotionally and spiritually—all that you and I have experienced in our lifetime. He knows the emotional spectrum from human triumph and elation to deep sorrow, paranoia, fear and devastation until finally the experience of death.
The Humility of God
Somehow God, in the person of Jesus Christ, humbled himself to the point that he became human, born from a young virgin woman. I cannot explain this. Just like I cannot explain where God came from, except that he has always been. I can describe for you the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) but I cannot fully comprehend it or explain it in a way that makes much sense. Jesus was chosen as the one sacrifice for my sin and yours. I can explain, according to Scripture, why it was necessary for there to be a sacrifice for sin but I don’t fully comprehend how God became human for the specific purpose of dying for my sin for the possibility of forgiveness.
From the beginning Jesus was the sacrifice intended to restore mankind into relationship with God. Because we are not and never were God, we were by our nature prone to choose independently from the perfect will of God. God, knowing this, had already prepared a way for mercy for the imperfect choices and behavior of mankind.
The Bible says that God gave us His only begotten Son. But, the word ‘begotten’ used to describe how God gave us Jesus means, ‘brought forth’, ‘produced’, or ‘created’. Jesus has always been, from the beginning, God, as the Bible tells us he has. So perhaps He was identified by God as His Son for the first time when He was conceived inside the womb of his earthly mother Mary. 
While the person of Jesus always existed as God, His humanity was “created” or made for Jesus, becoming the begotten Son of God as conceived by a human being to be born human.
(Note: In attempting to describe the humanity of Jesus, John used the term “begotten” from the word ‘beget’ in John 3:16. It is said that ‘begotten’ translated in the original Greek means “to be uniquely God’s son fully divine.” But that would mean that Jesus would have complete divine authority, which Jesus disputed in John 5:30 when questioned about his authority. Jesus fully divine would mean that the obedience of Jesus is merely symbolic if Jesus is fully divine in the flesh. It would also seem to contradict Scripture in Philippians 2. Why can it not be possible that Jesus, fully God, humbled Himself to the point that His humanity in the flesh was ‘produced’ or ‘created’, beginning as a seed in his mother’s womb; then after resurrection and upon ascension He is exalted once again into full authority to His rightful place as God on the throne?)
What killed the body, mind, and human heart of our Lord Jesus was the sin of mankind that, not only killed Jesus on the cross, but also was responsible for Jesus being exhausted, hungry, thirsty; and able to experience pain, sickness, fear, discouragement, and even despair at Gethsemane.
This is important to better comprehend and appreciate the degree to which Jesus was actually human as He demonstrated His dependence on God the Father to live out His life of humanity—what the Bible refers to as “flesh”—without sin. Jesus modeled for us the perfect example of recovery from flesh as he would admit powerlessness, believe that His Father, God, would empower Him with authority over his mortal body and mind of flesh, and commit to depend on God the Father for everything. The approach of Jesus to His own recovery from the human plight was as though his life depended on it. Jesus understood that His very breath was dependent on God to survive His life as a human being.
We may not be able to understand how Jesus, as God, made himself to become this “creation” of human flesh by the reproductive processes created by God, but the Bible explains why Jesus became flesh.
That being said, God somehow caused a virgin to conceive and the human experience of Jesus began. The human life of Jesus began when the egg of the virgin Mary became fertile and formed into an embryo, which grew into a fetus with the exchange of human blood and DNA from his mother.
He had His Heavenly Father’s Spirit, but the Bible tells us He was fully human. Jesus had the full deity of who He was as God but somehow laid it down in order to fully experience humanity in order to better relate by identification with you and me.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NASB)
What does it really mean that “The Word became flesh”?
Does it merely mean that Jesus was God manifest in human form by means of flesh and bones, or was Jesus born of and in the flesh as it speaks to the whole person – body, heart, mind, and soul (the character, or spirit of a person)?
Was Jesus fully God and fully man? That is what most of us have been taught but is it an accurate interpretation of Scripture? Does it make sense even in a Biblical context?
God is never tempted to do wrong… Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. James 1:13-14 (NLT)
Start with these questions:
- Can God sin?
- Can God be tempted to sin?
- Can God die?
- Can God forsake (abandon) God?
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (NLT: “…abandoned me?”) Matthew 27:46
Could Jesus be tempted to sin in all aspects as we are if He was fully God in his “human” experience? It is important to understand the human condition of Jesus to appreciate the scope of His sacrifice in order for us to have a restored relationship with God. Jesus, was “made” to live the full human experience, the Bible says. I’ll ask it again, Can God die… really? He must have miraculously made Himself fully human, empty of His divine nature as God. I won’t speak for you, but I believe it is the only thing that makes real sense; magnifying all the more the sacrifice of the triune union that is God.
Being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV)
This is a revelation given to us by the Apostle Paul, to describe for us the nature of the man, Jesus. Observe the pattern of submission within this verse. While being in “very nature” God, meaning before becoming human, Jesus, fully God, decided within the the three-person union that is God to place Himself under the authority of God the Father. Jesus never ceased to be God. So, in being God, He would not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Paul wrote that Jesus, fully God, made Himself “nothing”. Nothing in relation to what? Who He was as God, that’s what. Somehow He made Himself fully human—not fully God anymore until He was resurrected and exalted to the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. I don’t have to understand it… because I don’t… but I do accept it.
The Bible in this passage tells us that in His humanity Jesus gave up the function of being God by the laying down of His deity and divine nature so as to have no advantage in His human experience. He humbled himself absolutely to be a man of no reputation to the point that, in his humanity, He was subject to the law of sin that leads to the decay and death of his human flesh—body, mind, heart and soul. He also did not consider Himself to be equal with God, in terms of function (power and authority) while in human flesh. This fact came from the lips of Jesus Himself, delineating between God’s perfect goodness and His own humanness.
Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.” Luke 18:18-19 (NKJV)
“Consider how our Lord regards His own Sonship, surrendering His will wholly to the paternal will and not even allowing Himself to be called ‘good’ because Good is the name of the Father. Love between father and son, in this symbol, means essentially authoritative love on the one side, and obedient love on the other. The father uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he, rightly, and in his superior wisdom, wants him to be.” —CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain
The relationship of God the Father and God the Son had been established. Exactly when this relationship between God the Father and Jesus, the Son of God, was established is hard to say. The prophets were given revelation of the father-son relationship between God and Jesus way back in the Old Testament (Psalm 2:16). The prophet Isaiah referred to Jesus as God’s beloved Servant (Isaiah 42:1, 53:10). Revelation tells us that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. As stated previously, I believe that Jesus became God’s begotten Son at the point He became flesh in Mary’s womb even though it was planned from the beginning (remember that ‘begotten’ means ‘made’ and ‘created’ while also being uniquely God’s son since as God He humbled Himself to be made human in the flesh).
What is remarkable, in close examination of this relationship, is that it appears that Jesus, as God, humbled Himself out of necessity to fulfill His purpose of becoming a submissive servant. While still being God, according to these verses in Philippians, Jesus chose to lay down His divine nature and authority. Then, after Jesus lowers himself, as if to initiate a divine hierarchy, He offers Himself in submission to God as His servant, as a son under the authority of His Father, and reduces Himself from who He is as God to the form of a human being. Paul writes in Philippians that Jesus emptied himself of being God for it to be even possible to become authentically human.
John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us… the only begotten of the Father.” What does scripture say about the flesh? The flesh is imperfect. It is by nature unclean because of sin, and it is decaying to death because of the law of sin. Remember that the law of sin dictates that what is made alive on this earth must die. The Bible tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, meaning He was subject to the law of sin. His body would eventually get worn out, grow old and die.
What is so interesting in determining to what extent that Jesus the Son became flesh is that the original Greek word for flesh in the Bible is the word ‘Sarx’.
The meaning for ‘Sarx’ is as follows:
- the soft substance of the living body covering the bones and permeated with blood
- the sensuous nature of man
- the physical man subject to suffering
- human nature apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin
A root word for ‘Sarx’ is ‘Sarkinos’, which means:
- consisting and composed of perishable flesh
- wholly given up to the flesh, or rooted in the flesh
God cannot be tempted to sin… Jesus was tempted
God is never tempted to do wrong. James 1:13 (NLT)
Another problem with Jesus being fully man and fully God simultaneously lies in the fact that God absolutely cannot sin. How could Jesus the man be tempted to sin if He was at the same time divine and not capable of sin? It does not make sense to me that God would become flesh in the form of man, but still be all God. It does not make sense to me that Jesus could be tempted to sin if it was impossible to sin if he was in fact divine as a human being.
Do me a favor. Go out and lift your automobile over your head with your own two hands. You can start by lifting up the front end so you can get under the vehicle until you are able to get enough leverage, and with a little more effort, lift with everything you’ve got to get your car over your head. Aren’t you going to step out and at least try to lift your vehicle over your head?
Someone might say that my challenge tempted you to lift your car over your head just because I said it to you. But, at any point were you actually tempted to lift your automobile over your head? Of course not, it’s ridiculous. It is impossible. You are not tempted to do something that is impossible. I can offer you the world and the moon and you still would not be tempted to lift your car over your head because it is impossible. Therefore, you will not even try. It should also be said that a person is not really tempted unless there is at least desire for the object of temptation. If Jesus was fully human then he would have desired what human beings desire.
If it was not possible for Jesus to commit sin, how and why would he be tempted to sin? Do the math. It doesn’t add up that Jesus could be tempted to sin if in His deity it was not possible for Him to do so. But, if Jesus laid down his deity, denying His divine power and authority, He could then give in to temptation, and yes, actually be tempted in weakness as a human being to sin. Central to His position as a spotless lamb to be sacrificed, Jesus did not yield to temptation. Jesus did not sin. While flawed by his flesh, He remained innocent of sin.
What makes this necessary for our discussion is that the original meaning of the word flesh in Scripture could mean flesh in appearance, or completely flesh all the way into the soul of a person. I contend that for Jesus to be tempted to sin (Hebrews 4:15) there needed to be human desire that is prone to independence by nature from God. I understand that it can sound heretical saying that out loud for all to hear. But I contend that for Jesus to genuinely sympathize with the human experience he needed to be genuinely and completely “given up to the flesh—rooted in the flesh”. Only then, in my opinion, could he be entirely subject to the lure and the laws of the flesh, that being lure and the law of sin. Without desire where is the attraction? Without attraction where is the desire? Without desire and attraction where is the temptation?
Was Jesus subject to the law of sin in his soul? I believe that we learn that Jesus, a man of flesh, was vulnerable, and even “obedient” to the reality of sin in the world as a person of human flesh. I will not pretend to comprehend this; however, this point needs to be made for Jesus to be authentically human, having the will of the flesh, meaning the full measure of human desire. It is important, then, that we accept that God the Son essentially emptied Himself of being God in order to become flesh.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:6-7 (NIV)
We observed in Genesis that our sin is predicated on our desire for control in order to minimize our discomfort. This would suggest that Jesus the man experienced human dissatisfaction. This is astounding to me; and here lies the irony. We strive to be more our own god in our pursuit for control, which we eventually learn by experience is impossible to attain (even though we may resist admitting that), and Jesus who is God, completely lets go of the control and authority that is His, to become flesh as Jesus the Son, and must totally trust in the control and power of God.
God the Son surrendered authority
For what the law could not do in what was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3 (NKJV)
Being made in the likeness of sinful flesh is not about flesh and bone but is about the flesh between the ears of a person; brain matter. The flesh then involves the mind, the body, the behavior that emanates from the heart, and most importantly, the soul of a person. Jesus would tell His disciples that His death would place His soul in the belly of the earth for three days and nights. Jesus took in His soul of flesh, the sin of your flesh and mine to experience condemnation for it for three days and nights. He suffered fully human before the cross, on the cross, and for three days and nights until the resurrection.
Jesus said, “For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Matthew 12:40
In my sin and yours, Jesus experienced the full impact of falling out of divine favor—even though he prayed three times in the garden for grace instead of the suffering… and three times was denied grace since He had to die… drinking from the cup of God’s wrath for man’s sin (according to most scholars)—and therefore by His sacrifice became grace for you and for me.
Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done… So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.” Matthew 26:42-44
How often do you hear about Christ’s human experience for the three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection? It’s rarely examined. It wasn’t some romantic dive into the pit of hell (or even Hades) to wrestle the devil and rescue lost souls. It was however, absolutely heroic what He did for us. Fully man, having emptied Himself of the advantage of being God, the suffering of our Lord was at the very least unimaginable. Here’s the thing: Jesus even sympathizes with the suffering of the human souls condemned to the worst places in hell—condemned only because they chose to remain in relationship with their selfish sin rather than surrender into relationship with their Sympathetic Savior. Please keep this in mind as this discussion continues.
In laying down His God nature, to by experience know the nature of man, Jesus became human. The nature of human flesh was created intentionally by God to be independent from His will. God already had the universe and everything in it as a means to express and receive glory. But nothing else in the universe was independent and able to choose on its own. God gave us free will—the independent spirit to make up our own mind. God desires that we choose to love Him, to worship Him, and to serve Him. We know by our experience that independence from God means that we are prone to make mistakes by choice since we are not God. Jesus left heaven and the glory that was His as God, and was made in our likeness with the independence from God to choose. As a human man of flesh, even Jesus was prone to make mistakes by choice. Therefore He had to choose daily, moment by moment, to turn away from what might appear to make sense according to human reasoning, capturing every independent thought and obediently depend on His Father God, according to what made sense in relationship with God (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV)
Please allow me to paraphrase so that Paul’s double negative in his original translation is in the singular positive translation: “Seeing then that we have an advocate in Jesus Christ in His heavenly position as God, let us be free to come to Him as we are with our confession. For in Christ we have an advocate who understands us; even sympathizes with our weakness since He was in His human experience vulnerable to weakness and susceptible to the draw of temptation in every way we are. The difference is that He did not sin. Now let us with full confidence come to His throne where grace abounds so that we may obtain mercy and experience His grace in our time of need.”
Central to Christ-centered recovery that works is centering on recovery the way Christ himself modeled recovery for us. Jesus surrendered his life into the care and plan of God. He depended on God absolutely every day of his life. If that was the recovery model for Jesus, who vacated his authority as God so that he could get to know us intimately (as a person of flesh), who are we to think we can realize authentic recovery into freedom any other way? Now fully God, Jesus Christ invites us into the fullness of our new life experience. We must, however, be willing to lay down the former life that is in one way or another killing us. In other words, we must be willing to die to the life that is death to us in the end. How much more sensible can it be?
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NLT)
Jesus Christ understands the human experience but make no mistake; He is no longer in human form. He is all God with full authority. He loves you like crazy. Jesus is your Sympathetic Savior.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every; tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT)
(Please watch this amazing video to “Revelation Song”. It’s absolutely worth the six minutes.)
“Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes, let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore You; hope of a life spent with You. King of all days, oh so highly exalted glorious in Heaven above. Humbly You came to the earth You created, all for love’s sake became poor. I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.” —Tim Hughes
When Jesus heard what had happened (to a blind man he had healed), he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.” “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!” “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus. John 9:35-38 (NLT)
“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” John 10:17-18 (NLT)
These two passages are from the same message from Jesus to the blind man, to the Pharisees, and to the worshipers. This is the key passage of Scripture speaking to the authority of God in the flesh. It’s not that there were those who believed and worshiped that speaks to His deity as a man. There have been icons throughout history who were treated like deity and worshiped. At issue are the words of Jesus as He speaks of authority regarding life itself. Please look at this very carefully. Notice that Jesus attributed His authority as coming from the Father through Him. He continued to be fully dependent on God the Father until He ascended to heaven and retained His place on the throne of God as fully God in position and function.
Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 5:39 (NLT)
Wow, it seems that I am working awfully hard to “discredit” Jesus in some way by setting out to prove that He was not fully God during His time as a human being in the flesh. Might I be wrong? Certainly. I admit that this is my opinion. Please understand that I love Jesus. Fully God He became poor as he lived in poverty in that He laid down His divine nature as God to be entirely human. Since ascending to the throne of grace, He is exalted to His rightful position as God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
What about scriptures that read, “I and the Father are one” and “When you have seen Me you have seen the Father”? It must be said that Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God. We today are to be filled with the Spirit of God and to be doing greater works than even Jesus, according to Jesus. Scripture says that you and I in relationship with Christ are clothed in righteousness and when God sees us He sees Jesus. We are not God, yet the Bible says that in Christ, God sees Himself in us. This is amazing truth!
I suppose the only discrepancy between what I have written in the Sympathetic Savior series and the teachings of popular doctrine is that I contend that Jesus was fully man while somehow making Himself less than God while in the flesh. I don’t comprehend how the Son becoming less than God is possible any more than I could comprehend that somehow God can be tempted to sin and that somehow God can die if the Son while fully human is also fully God. Both precepts seem just as ridiculous to my human finite mind but I guess something’s got to give here. Should I get that check in my spirit by His Spirit of conviction, however it comes, I will respond accordingly. For now, I believe from the bottom of my heart that this word is from God through me to you. I can live with that.
Knowing Jesus in the fellowship of His suffering
The purpose is to better understand His suffering while on earth to better know Him. I want to more fully appreciate His human experience. I believe Apostle Paul did as well when he spoke of wanting to share the fellowship of His suffering. Paul didn’t want to take on Christ’s suffering. That would demean His suffering since He suffered on our behalf so that we would never experience the consequence of eternal suffering for our sin. Paul did, though, want to fellowship with Jesus in the truth of His human suffering. He wanted to know that Jesus; the Jesus that I believe I am talking about here; the Jesus that paid an unbelievable price so that you and I can live forever, beginning today in recovery and throughout eternity.
Look again at the Magi in the image above staring into the face of baby Jesus; and then notice Mary Magdalene, John, and Mother Mary looking into the face of Jesus having died for their sin and ours.
Continue reading by clicking Sympathetic Savior – Christ’s Temptation.
From O’ Holy Night:
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need; our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born.
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