The
Infinite, Unfathomable Love of God
and
The Everlasting Covenant
Part 1
1Jo 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in wickedness.
Rom. 5:5 – The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of
God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jo 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1Jo 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the
world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1Jo 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth
not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one
toucheth him not.
1Jo 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and
hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are
in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and
eternal life.
This
subject matter is so sacred, let us pray for understanding: Our Father, which
art in heaven, hallowed it be thy name. Please send your Holy Spirit to each
person who reads this account of Your great love for man, and the unfathomable
price that has been paid that man might be redeemed from his breach of Your
Holy character, your law and testament. Amen.
The love
of God cannot be separated from His law and His Everlasting Covenant with man
because of the fact that His law is a transcript of His character of love. When
man violates God’s law, he violates the character of God, and causes a breach
between God and man. The breach is a separation of God from man, because God
cannot dwell in the presence of sin. When men reject God’s law, they reject
God, and thereby reject the only cure for sin which is the Incarnation
sacrifice made by the Son of God so that man could be empowered to stop sinning
and be restored to the image of God.
Understanding the Unfathomable Sacrifice of God and His
Son
It was
due to the great love of God the Father for fallen man, that He agreed to the
volunteer sacrifice of His Son. It was indeed a sacrifice on the part of the
Father also, in that He is omniscient and thereby knew/knows and felt/feels
everything His beloved Son endured to satisfy the
breach against God’s law (character), and thereby redeem man from the curse of
separation from God and eternal death.
Pledged
themselves: Father and Son -- "As the divine Sufferer hung upon the cross,
angels gathered about Him, and as they looked upon Him, and heard His cry, they
asked, with intense emotion, 'Will not the Lord Jehovah save Him?' ... Then
were the words spoken: 'The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent. FATHER AND
SON ARE PLEDGED TO FULFILL THE TERMS OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. God so loved
the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but
have everlasting life.' Christ was not alone in making His great sacrifice. It was the
fulfillment of the covenant made between Him and His Father before the
foundation of the world was laid. With clasped hands they had entered into the
solemn pledge that Christ would become the surety for the human race if they
were overcome by Satan's sophistry." E.G. White, The Faith I Live By,
p. 76.
That
unfathomable sacrifice of God’s Son as the Testator of the Everlasting
Covenant, involved an emptying or divestment from His former eternal existence
as being Divine only. What most Christians have failed to comprehend is that
this emptying or divestment, was
eternal in nature. Most of mainline Christianity and even many
professing Seventh-day Adventists believe that Christ reclaimed His former
pre-Incarnation state of being upon His resurrection and glorification, and
that is one of the greatest travesties in the Christian world.
The
voluntary emptying/divestment involved with the Incarnation of the Son of God,
was eternal, to constitute a forever sacrifice. Thus, the great sacrifice of
Christ did not end with the cross and His resurrection and ascension to heaven.
He continues as a man, forever divested from His former preincarnation state of
being divine only, to forever live (separately) in BOTH His divine nature and
His human nature. His divine nature He proffers to us. That is the life that
was His, which He now gives to us. That is how we will inherit eternal life.
Though
much involved with the Incarnation is now a mystery which we will be learning
about for eternity, we should be apprised of what we are given to know about
the greatest sacrifice possible for the redemption of sinful mankind.
“These
and many other great mysteries connected with the plan of salvation will be the
study of the redeemed throughout eternity.” SDA
Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, p. 919.
TOKENS OF
DIVINITY—TOWARD A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMPTYING AND DIVESTING AT THE
INCARNATION
"7. Made himself of no reputation. Literally,
'emptied Himself.' This emptying was voluntary (see on John 10:17,
18). It was not
possible for Christ to retain all the tokens of divinity and still accomplish
the Incarnation. The outworking
of this emptying is detailed in the remainder of Phil. 2:7 and in v. 8. See Vol. 5, p. 918." SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 155, col. 1.
Likewise, it is not possible
for Christ to forever retain humanity, and at the same time retain all the
tokens of divinity in the same body. Thus, He must exist in the persons of His
Divine Nature Holy Spirit, and His human body form.
Phl 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Phl 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
“5. The
Subordination of Christ. Voluntarily assuming the
limitations of human nature at the incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ
thereby subordinated Himself to the Father for the duration of His earthly ministry
(see ps. 40:8; Matt. 26:39; John 3:16 4:34; 5:19, 30; 12:49; 14:10; 17:4, 8; 2
Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:7, 8; Heb. 2:9; see on Luke 1:35; 2:49; John 3:16; 4:34; Phil
2:7, 8).
Note by Ron: The Lord has shown
me that the limitations of human nature at the Incarnation in regard to the
omni’s, continue forever for the following reasons:
· Ellen White and the Bible
teach that Christ retains His humanity forever, to wit:
1.
Hbr 7:24 But
this [man], because
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
2.
“Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with Him
into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages He will bear it,
as the One who has redeemed every human being in the city of God.”— E. G.
White, The Review and Herald, March 9, 1905. {7ABC 488.1}
3.
“In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character
the opposite of the character of Satan. . . . In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to
humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us.
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John
3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He
gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son
to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature.
This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. "Unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His
shoulder." God has
adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into
the highest heaven.”—Desire of Ages, p. 25. {7ABC 456.4}
4.
His “immutable counsel of peace,” is His Everlasting Covenant with man.
· If humanity cumbered the
omni’s at His Incarnation into humanity, they must forever cumber the omni’s in
His humanity, for He will remain human forever.
· If Christ returned to His
pre-incarnated state upon His ascension to heaven, then He, as the Testator,
would live again in His pre-Testator Divine only state of life, and according
to the Testator’s Testament (Covenant), the Testament would be of no strength
while the Testator liveth. He would not have “died” eternally in any way by
which to satisfy the wages of our sin, which is eternal death. By remaining
reduced to His human state forever, Christ thus “died” forever to being DIVINE
ONLY. This met the prescribed limit of the Incarnation as a sacrifice, being
the only prescribed limit of the Incarnation—death of the Testator. This form
of “death” also paid the price for the wages of our sin which is eternal death.
Christ forever died to being DIVINE HOLY SPIRIT NATURE ONLY, to become forever
human as well.
· If Christ regained the omni’s
after His return to heaven, He would not have had to ask the Father to send His
Holy Spirit Comforter to us.
· In John 14 (see especially the
verses quoted below), three persons of the Godhead are involved. Christ, while
on earth, is speaking to Thomas, Philip and Judas (Not Iscariot). Jesus says in
verse 16 that He will pray the Father and He (the Father) shall give you
another Comforter. Then Jesus says in verse 23 that (WE—THE FATHER AND JESUS)
will come unto you.) So, the Comforter is the Holy Spirit life of Jesus. His
humanity does not come to us.
· If Jesus returned to His
former DIVINE ONLY Holy Spirit life, He would not have to pray to the Father
that He send us the Comforter.
· We know it is not Jesus’
humanity that comes to us. It is His former life Holy Spirit that comes to us.
That is the Divine Nature He proffers us in 2 Peter 1:4.
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
· That is the life that WAS HIS,
that He gives to us, to wit: "He (Christ) suffered the death which was
ours, that we might receive the life which WAS His." Desire of Ages,
p. 25 1 Cor. 11:24-265, cf. John 6:53, 54, Titus 3:5, 6.
Jhn 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Jhn 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Jhn 14:23 Jesus answered and
said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love
him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
“Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become
one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth
from the grave,--not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but
because, through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His
true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is
through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received
into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.” Desire of Ages, p. 388.
“On the cross, He died the eternal death of the sinner,
from which there can be no hope of a resurrection; that we might receive the
eternal life-in-Himself, which had been His. This eternal life was the entity of the Holy
Ghost. A ghost is the image – the living spirit – of one who has died. At
death, it returned to God who gave it. Christ was the eternal Son of God by
virtue of the eternal Spirit of life which the Father had shared with His
Only-begotten Son from eternity past. [cf John 5:26].
But He volunteered to die the eternal death of the sinner.” J. Wilfred Johnson
Note: How did Christ die the eternal death of the sinner
on the cross, when Ellen White said that divinity did not die on the cross;
when Christ died only three days? Answer: Christ received His former Holy
Spirit when it descended upon Him at His baptism. He could have chosen to
retain that former life by refusing to die on the cross. But just before He
bowed His head and died on the cross, He commended His Holy Spirit life to God,
as a gift for us. After that point, He could never return to His former life
ONLY. He would forever after be two different distinct persons: His Holy Spirit
Person, and His human person, INDEPENDENT OF ONE ANOTHER, to wit:
"Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every
place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He
should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His
successor on earth. The
Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent
thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His
Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR
No.1084.
He FOREVER died to His past life of DIVINITY ONLY, and
bequeathed that past life of DIVINE NATURE to us for overcoming and regeneration
back into the image of God.
“And after presenting His disciples with His final
profound lesson at the last Passover supper, explaining how He must die the
eternal death of the sinner, and
relinquish His eternal body and blood for them to eat and drink to obtain the
eternal life which had been His, He went to Gethsamane
and surrendered His life into the custody of His Father; and thus could die the
eternal death of sinful humanity on the cross.” J. Wilfred Johnson, Panorama of Truth, Vol. 1, p. 210.
In not coming down from the
Cross, Christ sealed His fate forever. He eternally died to His former life of
pure Divinity ONLY. This
eternal death met the conditions of the Everlasting Covenant--death of the
Testator, who was pure Divinity when that Covenant was Testated. Divinity did not die on the cross, but Christ
died to His past pure divine ONLY state of being forever.
"The darkness rolled away
from the Saviour and from the Cross. Christ bowed His head and died. In His
Incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, but not as a
redeemer." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume Twelve, p. 409.
"The Incarnation of
Christ was an act of self-sacrifice; His life was one of continual self-denial.
The highest glory of the love of God to man was manifested in the sacrifice of
His only-begotten Son, who was the express image of His person. This is the
great mystery of godliness. It is the privilege and the duty of every professed
follower of Christ to have the mind of Christ. Without self-denial and cross
bearing we cannot be His disciples." E.G. White, Selected Messages,
Book 2, p. 185.
"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would
send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take
his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of
his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a
reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS
LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good
that heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and
without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....
It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through
the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has
given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated
tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church."
E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May
19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.
“Christ
had stooped to take upon Himself man’s nature; He was to bear an infinite
weight of woe as He should make His
soul an offering for sin; yet angels desire that even in His humiliation the Son of
the Highest might appear before men with a dignity and glory befitting His
character.” E.G. White, The Great
Controversy, pp. 313, 314.
The
soul of His life is His Holy Spirit. That is the life that He sacrificed
FOREVER, at His Incarnation, by remaining human forever. That is the life that
He gives to us.
"Thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin." Isaiah 53:10.
The
wages of sin is death. How could Christ make His soul, His Holy Spirit, the
soul of His life and the life of His soul, an offering for sin? The answer that
God showed me is that the Son died FOREVER to His Divine ONLY existence. This
met the prescribed limit of a sacrifice per the Testator’s Covenant (Testament
of the Testator).
"The darkness
rolled away from the Saviour and from the Cross. Christ bowed His head and
died. In His Incarnation
He had reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, but not as a
redeemer." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume Twelve, p. 409.
How did His Incarnation by and
of itself reach a prescribed limit as a sacrifice? What was/is the only
prescribed limit of a sacrifice involving only the Incarnation?
Again: What was the only
prescribed limit as the Incarnation was concerned? It was the (eternal) death of the Testator to
something, to wit:
Hbr 9:16 For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the
death of the testator.
Hbr 9:17 For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is
of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
"The Incarnation of Christ was an act of self-sacrifice; His life
was one of continual self-denial. The highest glory of the love of God to man
was manifested in the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son, who was the express
image of His person. This is the great mystery of godliness. It is the
privilege and the duty of every professed follower of Christ to have the mind
of Christ. Without self-denial and cross bearing we cannot be His
disciples." E.G. White, Selected
Messages, Book 2, p. 185.
The act of being Incarnated in and of itself was
the highest good, crowning sacrifice whereby the Son of God sacrificed living
in the person of His Holy Spirit, Divine Nature ONLY, to become forever after
combined with humanity. This is how the Son made His soul, His Holy Spirit, the
soul of His life, an offering for sin. This is the only cure for sin, for only
by the Divine Nature Holy Spirit soul of the life of Christ, can we be
empowered to overcome sin.
“Christ had stooped to take upon Himself man’s nature; He
was to bear an infinite weight of woe as He should make His soul an offering for sin; yet angels
desire that even in His humiliation the Son of the Highest might appear before
men with a dignity and glory befitting His character.” E.G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 313, 314.
‘Laying aside His royal robe
and kingly crown’ (DA 22, 23). “He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was His own act, and by His own consent.”
(EGW ST Jan 20, 1890; cf 5T 702). “He humbled Himself, and took mortality upon
Him.” (EGW RH Sept. 4, 1900).
“The Son of God was
surrendered to the Father’s will, and dependent upon His power. So
utterly was Christ
emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s
plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans” (DA 208; cf. 664. ‘While
bearing human nature, He was dependent upon the Omnipotent for His life. In His humanity, He laid hold of the divinity
of God’”{EGW, ST, June 17, 1897
par. 8}
“The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, powers infinite and omniscient, receive those who truly
enter into covenant relation with God.” E. G. White,
Manuscript 27a, 1900, published in SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, p.
1075.
Though
the Son of God emptied Himself of the omni’s when combined with humanity, He
has the ability to call upon the aid of His former Holy Spirit at any time.
Heb
2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil;
Heb
2:15 And deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb
2:16 For verily he took not on him the
nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb
2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people.
Heb
2:18 For in that he himself hath
suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Setting Aside the Law of God
Mainline
Christianity has laid aside God’s law by substituting cheap grace, which is the
rejection of grace as POWER for obedience (Romans 1:6), as well as PARDON for
sins past. In setting aside the Law of God, men are attempting to set aside the
character of God. They are refusing His character and are rejecting the means
by which we are to be restored to the image of God.
“In
setting aside the law of God, men know not what they are doing. God’s law is the transcript of His character. It embodies the
principles of His kingdom. He who refuses to accept these principles is placing
himself outside the channel where God’s blessings flow.
The glorious possibilities set
before Israel could be realized only through obedience to God’s commandments.
The same elevation of character, the same fulness of blessing—blessing on mind
and soul and body, blessing on house and field, blessing for this life and for
the life to come—is possible for us only through obedience. In the spiritual as
in the natural world, obedience to the laws of God is the condition of fruit
bearing. And when men teach the people to disregard God’s commandments, they
are preventing them from bearing fruit to His glory. They are guilty of
withholding from the Lord the fruits of His vineyard.
To us God’s messengers come at
the bidding of the Master. They come demanding, as did Christ, obedience to the
word of God. They present His claim to the fruits of the vineyard, the fruits
of love, and humility, and self-sacrificing service. Like the Jewish leaders,
are not many of the husbandmen of the vineyard stirred to anger? When the claim
of God’s law is set before the people, do not these teachers use their
influence in leading men to reject it? Such teachers God calls unfaithful
servants.
The words of God to ancient
Israel have a solemn warning to the church and its leaders today. Of Israel the
Lord said, “I have written to him the great things of My law; but they were
counted as a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12. And to the priests and teachers He
declared, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast
rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee; ... seeing thou hast forgotten the
law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6.
Shall the warnings from God be
passed by unheeded? Shall the opportunities for service be unimproved? Shall
the world’s scorn, the pride of reason, conformity to human customs and
traditions, hold the professed followers of Christ from service to Him? Will
they reject God’s word as the Jewish leaders rejected Christ? The result of
Israel’s sin is before us. Will the church of today take warning?
” {COL 305-306}
To be
Continued in Part II