The Perfection His Body
Remember: The Necessity
The Divine autopsy report Romans 3:1-18 (Ps 14:1-3, 52:1-3; Eccl 7:20)
Gen. 2:16 “Dying, you shall die” (margin)
Rom. 8:10a “...The body is dead because os sin.”
Rom. 7:18a “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh), dwells no good thing.
Rom. 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from THE BODY OF THIS DEATH?”
I. So what’s The Creator God to do?
A. Isaiah 59 The setting is the “supposed” people of God. God had given them everything needed to be His devoted people–externally that is. In an intriguing manner, in Vs 15a-17, God is portrayed as trying to find a just man, a righteous man or even an intercessor for this wicked people. “Then the LORD saw it and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no MAN, and He wondered that there was no INTERCESSOR. Therefore HIS OWN ARM BROUGHT SALVATION, AND HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS IT SUSTAINED HIM.”
1. Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the ARM OF THE LORD REVEALED? This arm of the LORD is His Might Right Hand. And yet the rest of the chapter is about this Mighty Arm being a man of sorrows, a wounded and beaten Bringer of Salvation. And of course, John 12:37-41 leaves no doubt that this Suffering Servant is the Lord Jesus Christ!
B. John 1:1-18; I John 1:1-4 God’s answer? The Word made flesh.
John 1:14 “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.”
I John 1:1-2 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning THE WORD OF LIFE—THE LIFE was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you THAT ETERNAL LIFE WHICH WAS WITH THE FATHER and was manifested to you!”
God becoming man/flesh, this is the end of God’s search for a MAN who is Just and Righteous. This Man is God’s arm of strength in a dead world. Notice John’s descriptive words for this MAN–“THE WORD OF LIFE”. He is the very Eternal Life that has been Eternally in Union with the Father. Now, this Eternal Life of the Father is clothed in human flesh! This is impossible–and only God can do the impossible. This is the second mysterious Union upon which our Eternal hope depends, God uniting Himself with man inseparably and eternally!
1. I Timothy 3:16 This is the glorious union described as the “MYSTERY OF GODLINESS”. I would that this “3:16" was at least as widely known and loved as John 3:16.
C. Hebrews–This book is the most complete portrait of this Mighty Arm of God. We will seek to do a “fly over” of the Revelation of the Perfections & Purpose of The God/Man revealed here.
1:1-4 A most Glorious summary of the God/Man. Here is revealed God’s Eternal Plan that His Son, the Creator, is the Heir of all things (Eph. 1:9-11), He is the perfect expressed Image of God, the Restorer of that Image that was lost in the fall. He alone purged our sins and now sits at the Right Hand of Power of the Majesty on High. The rest of the chapter shows that He is Fully God, higher than the angelic beings.
2:5-18 Vs 5–God hasn’t given up on His Creation. His Eternal Will is to be complete in “the world to come” of which the author must have spoken elsewhere. How I wish I could have been there.
2:6-8a Here is stated God’s creative purpose for man/humanity. “You crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your Hands, You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
2:8b This has to be one of the most sobering verses in all of scripture. “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But we do not yet see all things put under him.” The Divinely ordained potential for humanity lost at the fall!
2:9 “But we see Jesus, Who was made......for the suffering of death...that He might taste death for everyone.” Note the repeat of vs 7a, uniting Him with our humanity. HE IS THE MAN GOD COULD NOT FIND IN ISA 59!!!
2:10-18 This is the most detailed explanation of the necessity of the Incarnation in Scripture. Perhaps we could summarize it with Vs 14-15, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
6:13-20 introduces us to our Blessed Hope which enters into the very Presence of God for us through our Jesus becoming our High Priest, our Intercessor, according to the order of Melchizedek, that is, according to the Power of an Endless Life (7:16)
7:20-26 gives us the Eternal Glorious ministry of our Jesus in the Presence of the Father. This is our assurance!!! “Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God “THROUGH HIM” since He EVER LIVES to make intercession for them.”
8:1-2 Make no mistake, this is the main point the writer of Hebrews is making. Our salvation and the assurance of it depends upon this Eternal Intercession of the God/Man at the Father’s Right Hand!!! Our Jesus is the Intercessor that could not be found in Isa 59, the one that Job longed for in Job 9:32-33, the nail-scarred hands (John 20:24-29) that lay upon us both, The Righteous Holy God and wretched sinners worthy of eternal damnation!
10:1-18 Here the Perfect Body of the God/Man Intercessor is made plain. His perfection stands in bold relief compared to the OT high priests who kept dying. Their ministry couldn’t clear the OT worshipers conscience. Their ministry was a continual reminder of sin.
Contrast that with the Body of God’s Pleasure (Vs 5-10). The Words of the Father in Matthew 3:17 take on a new significance when viewed in the context of Hebrews, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I Am Well Pleased.” Christ Jesus had the Body prepared for Him by the Father, the only pleasing sacrifice! And His Pleasure in that Body was because “Behold, I have come to do Your Will.” Here is the only Body that could ever fulfill the Will of the Most High God, and that perfectly. This is why in John, Jesus is always stressing that He did not come to do His own will, but the Will of the Father Who sent Him. (John 5:30, Eph 1:9-11.
10:9-10 Notice that in that declaration, “Behold, I have come to do Your Will, O God” found first of all in Psalm 40, that old covenant that was weak because of defective bodies, our flesh, is done away and a New Covenant that depends solely upon this Perfect Body of Christ, the Father’s complete Pleasure is established. Think on this!! “By that Will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL.”
10:11-18 The resurrection and ascension of the Man Christ Jesus to the Right hand of God is the verification (vindication in I Tim 3:16) that He is the Father’s Pleasure. This is the finished work of which the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our hearts is the Seal!
10:19-25 So where are we living? Vs 22 “Let us draw near (to the Holiest) with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
12:1-2 “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” This is the Divine mandate of our Eternal existence. Not looking at or upon myself, but upon the Body that was prepared for Him on my behalf.
John 6:47-58 In describing the Perfect Body of Christ Jesus, we have seen the Body that is the Feast Jesus was talking about, eating His Perfect Flesh, drinking His Blood. In Luke 22:19-20, the first supper, Jesus said, “this is My Body which is given for you. Do this in REMEMBRANCE OF ME.” It is not our sins we are to remember, it is His Perfect Body that we are to remember!!!
Remember: The Necessity
The Divine autopsy report Romans 3:1-18 (Ps 14:1-3, 52:1-3; Eccl 7:20)
Gen. 2:16 “Dying, you shall die” (margin)
Rom. 8:10a “...The body is dead because os sin.”
Rom. 7:18a “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh), dwells no good thing.
Rom. 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from THE BODY OF THIS DEATH?”
I. So what’s The Creator God to do?
A. Isaiah 59 The setting is the “supposed” people of God. God had given them everything needed to be His devoted people–externally that is. In an intriguing manner, in Vs 15a-17, God is portrayed as trying to find a just man, a righteous man or even an intercessor for this wicked people. “Then the LORD saw it and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no MAN, and He wondered that there was no INTERCESSOR. Therefore HIS OWN ARM BROUGHT SALVATION, AND HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS IT SUSTAINED HIM.”
1. Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the ARM OF THE LORD REVEALED? This arm of the LORD is His Might Right Hand. And yet the rest of the chapter is about this Mighty Arm being a man of sorrows, a wounded and beaten Bringer of Salvation. And of course, John 12:37-41 leaves no doubt that this Suffering Servant is the Lord Jesus Christ!
B. John 1:1-18; I John 1:1-4 God’s answer? The Word made flesh.
John 1:14 “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.”
I John 1:1-2 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning THE WORD OF LIFE—THE LIFE was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you THAT ETERNAL LIFE WHICH WAS WITH THE FATHER and was manifested to you!”
God becoming man/flesh, this is the end of God’s search for a MAN who is Just and Righteous. This Man is God’s arm of strength in a dead world. Notice John’s descriptive words for this MAN–“THE WORD OF LIFE”. He is the very Eternal Life that has been Eternally in Union with the Father. Now, this Eternal Life of the Father is clothed in human flesh! This is impossible–and only God can do the impossible. This is the second mysterious Union upon which our Eternal hope depends, God uniting Himself with man inseparably and eternally!
1. I Timothy 3:16 This is the glorious union described as the “MYSTERY OF GODLINESS”. I would that this “3:16" was at least as widely known and loved as John 3:16.
C. Hebrews–This book is the most complete portrait of this Mighty Arm of God. We will seek to do a “fly over” of the Revelation of the Perfections & Purpose of The God/Man revealed here.
1:1-4 A most Glorious summary of the God/Man. Here is revealed God’s Eternal Plan that His Son, the Creator, is the Heir of all things (Eph. 1:9-11), He is the perfect expressed Image of God, the Restorer of that Image that was lost in the fall. He alone purged our sins and now sits at the Right Hand of Power of the Majesty on High. The rest of the chapter shows that He is Fully God, higher than the angelic beings.
2:5-18 Vs 5–God hasn’t given up on His Creation. His Eternal Will is to be complete in “the world to come” of which the author must have spoken elsewhere. How I wish I could have been there.
2:6-8a Here is stated God’s creative purpose for man/humanity. “You crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your Hands, You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
2:8b This has to be one of the most sobering verses in all of scripture. “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But we do not yet see all things put under him.” The Divinely ordained potential for humanity lost at the fall!
2:9 “But we see Jesus, Who was made......for the suffering of death...that He might taste death for everyone.” Note the repeat of vs 7a, uniting Him with our humanity. HE IS THE MAN GOD COULD NOT FIND IN ISA 59!!!
2:10-18 This is the most detailed explanation of the necessity of the Incarnation in Scripture. Perhaps we could summarize it with Vs 14-15, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
6:13-20 introduces us to our Blessed Hope which enters into the very Presence of God for us through our Jesus becoming our High Priest, our Intercessor, according to the order of Melchizedek, that is, according to the Power of an Endless Life (7:16)
7:20-26 gives us the Eternal Glorious ministry of our Jesus in the Presence of the Father. This is our assurance!!! “Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God “THROUGH HIM” since He EVER LIVES to make intercession for them.”
8:1-2 Make no mistake, this is the main point the writer of Hebrews is making. Our salvation and the assurance of it depends upon this Eternal Intercession of the God/Man at the Father’s Right Hand!!! Our Jesus is the Intercessor that could not be found in Isa 59, the one that Job longed for in Job 9:32-33, the nail-scarred hands (John 20:24-29) that lay upon us both, The Righteous Holy God and wretched sinners worthy of eternal damnation!
10:1-18 Here the Perfect Body of the God/Man Intercessor is made plain. His perfection stands in bold relief compared to the OT high priests who kept dying. Their ministry couldn’t clear the OT worshipers conscience. Their ministry was a continual reminder of sin.
Contrast that with the Body of God’s Pleasure (Vs 5-10). The Words of the Father in Matthew 3:17 take on a new significance when viewed in the context of Hebrews, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I Am Well Pleased.” Christ Jesus had the Body prepared for Him by the Father, the only pleasing sacrifice! And His Pleasure in that Body was because “Behold, I have come to do Your Will.” Here is the only Body that could ever fulfill the Will of the Most High God, and that perfectly. This is why in John, Jesus is always stressing that He did not come to do His own will, but the Will of the Father Who sent Him. (John 5:30, Eph 1:9-11.
10:9-10 Notice that in that declaration, “Behold, I have come to do Your Will, O God” found first of all in Psalm 40, that old covenant that was weak because of defective bodies, our flesh, is done away and a New Covenant that depends solely upon this Perfect Body of Christ, the Father’s complete Pleasure is established. Think on this!! “By that Will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL.”
10:11-18 The resurrection and ascension of the Man Christ Jesus to the Right hand of God is the verification (vindication in I Tim 3:16) that He is the Father’s Pleasure. This is the finished work of which the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our hearts is the Seal!
10:19-25 So where are we living? Vs 22 “Let us draw near (to the Holiest) with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
12:1-2 “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” This is the Divine mandate of our Eternal existence. Not looking at or upon myself, but upon the Body that was prepared for Him on my behalf.
John 6:47-58 In describing the Perfect Body of Christ Jesus, we have seen the Body that is the Feast Jesus was talking about, eating His Perfect Flesh, drinking His Blood. In Luke 22:19-20, the first supper, Jesus said, “this is My Body which is given for you. Do this in REMEMBRANCE OF ME.” It is not our sins we are to remember, it is His Perfect Body that we are to remember!!!