Reason and will would ascend and seek above, but if you would have joy, bend yourself down to this place. There you will find that boy given for you who is your Creator lying in a manger. I will stay with that boy as He sucks, is washed, and dies . . . There is no joy but in this boy. Take Him away and you face the Majesty which terrifies . . . I know of no God but this one in the manger.
-- Martin Luther, Christmas Sermon 1527.
Try that one with you average, tolerant, politically correct citizen of the world.
:)
“I know of no God but this one in the manger”, a.k.a., Jesus Christ's humanity, tends to lose sight of being also "the first and the last"- born in his death on the cross, a.k.a., his Divinity, which defining our salvation, is exceedingly more important! (John 6: 62-64)
Don't you agree?
He was both.
Fully man...and fully God.
The whole package came to earth in that little child.
check this out:
http://theoldadam.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/a-christmas-tree-message/
It's a Christmas tree message about Jesus.
JESUS said, "What gives life is God's Spirit; man's power is of no use at all." PAUL repeated, "Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so." (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 5:16)
Of course, Jesus was both divine and human for a brief season including a 40-day of rehabilitation for unbelieving disciples.(Acts 1: 1-5)
It is now the season for seeing visions of the living Christ in his death on the cross, viz.: the powerful point of change for him and for our being "born spiritually of the Spirit". (Joel 2: 28-32 powerfully applied in Acts 2; John 3: 6-15)
Jesus was not divine and human for just a brief time. He is fully divine and fully human now and forever. The ascension is all about the fact that the fully and permanently human Jesus takes us and represents us at His Father's side. If He is no longer human then we are no longer saved, because we would not have a high priest.
Yes, the glory of the Cross and Resurrection must not be eclipsed by the glory of the Incarnation, but the permanent character of the incarnation is the very foundation of the Cross and Resurrection.
Glory to the God in the manger!
woldeyesus,
You are seriously mistaken about Jesus, and therefore about God. The eternal Word of the Father became flesh forevermore (John 1:14). He is seated at the right hand of the Most High as Man for us. Only *this* Jesus saves. Only the Jesus who is God's Son presenting humanity to the Father in His own Person.
I fear you have a false Jesus and therefore a false God. Please re-read John 1:1-18 and receive from *this* Jesus the right to be a child of God.
in Christ,
Glen
Exactly like "old Adam" (the pun is highly fitting), you guys are really making a fatal choice. Conclusive knowledge of God defined as "complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place", a.k.a., "I Am Who I Am", is now indefinitely accessible (although abandoned again) only by means of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross which is the "tree of life".
(John 8: 21-32; 12: 32-33, 35-36; 14: 6, 18-21; 16: 25-26; 19: 30-37)
As it is written, "He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain--that is, through his own body". The extinct role of the Incarnation is also noted.
(Heb. 10: 19-25).
That is why there are three reminders in the Scriptures: "People will look at him whom they pierced."
(Zech. 12:10; John 19:37; Rev. 1:7)
Even if the old Adam still lives, there is no other Good News from the glorious and blessed God, a.k.a., the exclusive source of "sound doctrine". AMEN! By the grace of God, it is working for me. PTL.
woldeyesus - where in Hebrews 10:19-25 does it say that the Incarnation is extinct. In fact the verse you quoted has Jesus' human body as being the "living way" into the Most Holy Place
How do we get into the "Most Holy Place" if the Word has discarded his body, given that is the way? You talk about this freedom being abandoned, but by whom - no doubt you meant by orthodox Christians, but you seem to be arguing that Jesus has abandoned his body, this way into the "Most Holy Place".
How are we saved if Jesus has thrown away the "living way" in to the "Most Holy Place"?
The resurrected, restored *body* of Jesus is the very source of our hope. Throw the body of Jesus away and you are to be pitied above all men. You have no head, you have no body, you have no church, you have no hope.
Hi, Si Hollett:
Many thanks for the questions.
At the moment "Jesus breathed his last, the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn into two from top to bottom" with awesome results defining "the resurrection and the life" just as documented. (Matt. 27: 50-56)
The "opening of a new way, a living way through the (torn) curtain", or through Jesus' extinct body, is the fulfillment of the promised vision of Christ's self-revelation now viewable as Almighty God, the Father or "I Am Who I Am" with absolute authority over death and life, a.k.a., eternal life, which the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is reviewing. (Heb. 10: 19-25)
We get into the “Most Holy Place” through the kind of death Christ suffered, viz.: diacritical death or Transfiguration Proper as predicted, testified by Moses and Elijah, and "finished". (Matt. 16:18; 17: 1-13; John 19:30)
The freedom of worshipping God completely free of time, place and religion, i.e., in the Spirit only, has been abandoned primarily by Christianity which has corrupted the sacred faith into institutional religion. (John 4: 21-26; Heb. 10: 19-25)
Therefore, salvation or "eternal life is knowing Jesus Christ" in his typical self-revelation at his death on the cross. (John 17:3) It is working for me. PTL.