Saturday, October 14, 2017

The Day God Put His Existence On The Line!


Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 NIV

I never know what will get me thinking but on Wednesday night, I was asked if I wanted to comment on this passage and having decided many years ago now that I would take advantage of every opportunity, whether right, wrong, or totally ignorant on the topic and state my current belief, I gave a short and incomplete answer. On Thursday and Friday the topic kept going through my mind and I discovered a thought in the back of my I have never expressed or even considered. The thought, resulting in the title of these comments came when I began, once again, considering what I believed about Jesus.

I believe the day in question, is the day Jesus was born. I know that I am way out on a limb, but I believe God sent his Son, the second part of the Trinity, to become flesh. I have known people who believe Jesus came to earth 100% God, 50% man and God, 100% man until a specific point in His ministry, but I’m not sure I’ve ever met a person who believes this second part of the Trinity became 100% man, from birth to death on the cross. This is exactly where I come down in my belief, at least until I discover something convincing me of something else.

Two beliefs coming from scripture currently weigh most convincingly on me as the foundation for this belief. First, is the statement of the Word becoming flesh and even though I have no knowledge of translation details, this strongly encourages me to see a change that has taken place for the individual we call Son or Jesus. In my mind, it is a change of existence. I believe all of the characteristics we recognize about God have now changed and become completely man with all of the characteristics common to man. I believe all qualities of eternal, omnipotent, omniscience, etc. were left behind and Jesus in now subject to all of the same conditions as man. The statement of God not being able to be tempted comes into play next as a foundation for this belief. We are told how Jesus was tempted in every way as man and in my mind, I have to believe Jesus cheated when tempted if He was God, simply represented as man in the flesh.

I believe most of the challenge coming to this belief comes from the “power” Jesus had to heal, control, the elements of nature and know things only someone with the characteristics of God could possess. All of these things can be argued, but I will simply admit to the wonder of miracles coming forth from Jesus during His time on earth as a man. My solution is the power of God coming from the Father. At the time of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus says, “I know you hear me but I’m saying this so everyone else knows.” We also know how God has given various characters the same power to work miracles from the beginning of time and so for Him to give Jesus miraculous powers does not surprise me in the least.  In Luke 2:52, we are told Jesus grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man. Am I the only one who objects to the concept of God being able to grow in wisdom, stature and favor of God? It seems ridiculous to me to claim God improves in relation to God. This would be true for any part of the Trinity.

The story jumps forward in the life of Jesus and we come to Matthew 3:17 NIV. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” During my lifetime, I have often struggled with the need for Jesus to be baptized and John seems to have the same struggle because he like myself had associated baptism with only the forgiveness of sin and Jesus had no sin to forgive! The more I’ve studied, the more baptism has come to represent the visual statement of who I am and the choice I’ve made to accept the plan of God given to mankind through the Messiah Jesus! Our Messiah says He is in need of baptism to fulfill all righteousness, the very righteousness of God. I have come to believe Jesus was baptized for exactly the same reason we are to submit to baptism. We are visually placing our faith in the plan of God through Jesus and totally buying into the plan God has for the salvation of all mankind. Jesus has grown in wisdom, stature and favor with God and at this very moment, He has decided to show He is completely buying into the plan set forth and to His Father, has now committed Himself 100% to the fulfillment of all He knows will come to pass, even His death on the Cross! How can our Father in Heaven not burst forth with joy, making the heavens open up, the dove descend and then make His proclamation of extreme encouragement to His SON? I know it is an extreme thought, but I believe this to be the sign God and all of creation was awaiting to insure the very existence of creation and the Creator!

When I use the word existence, it definitely shows a change in belief from what I was raised with and believed well into my adult life. For most of my life, I held strongly to the belief of man possessing an eternal soul which would go to heaven to be with God for evermore if baptized and found “faithful.” If I was not “found faithful,” I would be cast into hell on the final day to be tortured for all eternity as the penalty for my sin. My study of what I originally thought was “limited” information in scripture on the topic has since led me to see how much this is an extreme blasphemy on the character of God as our traditional belief actually turns our Father into some cruel beast making the loud proclamation of God actually being less loving and compassionate than 99.99% of all mankind! How can this be and how can we even suggest this application to our Creator? In our society, a great deal of society calls the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment. If I were to suggest a better penalty using the example of what God has planned for the sinner being to torture them to the point just prior to death and never allowing death to take place, I would likely be locked up as the most wicked of all men and a danger to society.

Consumed with the topic for the past ten years or so, I have come to believe God’s plan for the wicked is total destruction on that last day. I have come to believe we do not possess a soul, but rather according to the scripture, we became a living soul. The living soul, the very essence of who we are will either be destroyed or given eternal life on that last day. This brings me back to Jesus and the next belief came to me when attending the Rethinking Hell Conference in Houston a few years ago and listening to a professor who believed in the universal salvation of all people and none getting punished on the last day. He had several things that a person believing in what I have just expressed would have to believe if they were to be consistent in their belief and it had to do with the price Christ paid for our sin. I realized during the lecture how I had to accept the existence of Christ actually ceased with His death on the cross. Yes, the second part of the Trinity was no more! I know this to be an extreme thought but in comparison to believing Jesus adequately paid the price for all sin by being tortured for three days hardly equals the penalty even one of us would pay for if destined to a torturing hell for all of eternity. It is not hard to see our price for sin would be much more severe than the price Jesus paid for all sins everywhere throughout time.

Yes, I believe Jesus experienced death in exactly the same way all of us will experience death when we come to the end of our life. I believe as fully man He ceased to exist with the last breath of his body and the last beat of His heart and we, mortal man, will cease to exist in the same way. The BIG difference is found in Jesus going to the first death free of sin and not accountable to the second death on the great day yet to come. He was raised, the “first fruit” from the grave, having EARNED the reward of eternal life, not only for Himself but for all of those who become heirs through the plan of God in Jesus.

If there is any merit in my last statement, then there is also an unstated possibility. If Jesus earned the right to eternal life in facing the first death sinless, then His very existence on earth declares a willingness to who He was, GOD on the line for us. I almost come to tears even now when I think of God loving us so much He gave us His only son. If what I currently believe is accurate, the level of God’s love for us has just shot up exponentially as the possibility exists for failure. Yes, I believe failure would have ended up with God facing the second death on the final day, and yes, the result being found in the loss of existence.

We all know how the story came out and the joy we look forward to on the last day because of what Jesus accomplished when He went to the first death without sin and so now, I can finish my comment on 1 Corinthians 15:24-28, which was challenged based on the “timeline.” I also have the benefit of what I believe is the importance of expressing a belief so you can further your learning when challenged.

Jesus, with His success, is now at the right hand of God reigning supreme. In Revelation 20:14-15 we are told, Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.Our next view in Revelation is of the “new” Jerusalem coming down to be with God forever more. The last enemy, death, has been destroyed along with the wicked who are not found in the Lamb’s book of life. Here is where my mind goes wandering off into what I see as never being stated and yet has become a current belief held based on the challenge received on Wednesday night. I don’t believe Jesus ever assumed His eternal existence and completeness of being God as part of the Trinity, but rather had all power and authority given to Him from the Father. Yes, the first one in line on that last day to receive eternal life will be Jesus! Through Him and under His authority, His book has been delivered up with our names and so we will join Him, heirs with Him for all eternity. I believe, He will be Jesus, exactly in the resurrected form as we will be given when raised and given eternal life. When this happens, He will return all power and authority to the Father where there will no longer be the existence of the Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in apposition to the rest of us, but as the passage ends, Jesus will take His place with us, having given up His position in the Trinity to become man, and God will be all in all!

As the Trinity was one in the beginning, I believe we all will exist as one with God when time ceases to exist.


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