The Accomplished Plan of Salvation (2)

The Accomplished Plan of Salvation (2)

September 8th, 2015, Kichijouji Bible Study

Gotthold Beck

John

1:1 In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1:2 He existed in the beginning with God.

1:3 Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.

1:4 In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.

1:5 And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

[International Standard Version]

1:14 The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father’s unique Son, who is full of grace and truth.

1:16 We have all received one gracious gift after another from his abundance.

To those who don't know the Bible, the first few verses we just read from the beginning of the first chapter of John, would not make any sense at all. What is it trying to tell us? Word. Word. God. God. What do they point to?

However, everything is clearly explained in the verse 14. It all points to Jesus. The Gospel according to John is the book which focuses on the divinity of Jesus. The hidden presence of Jesus can be seen, for instance, from 1:30.

John

1:30 This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks above me, because he existed before me.’

In here, John the Baptist referred to Jesus.

John

8:58 Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, before there was an Abraham, I AM!”

Those days, there seemed to be only a few Jews who accepted this fact willingly. They thought this man was insane and it was totally unacceptable. However, needless say, what Jesus said was absolutely true.

John

17:5 So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed.

17:24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

This way, Jesus explained the hidden presence and divinity of himself. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus also mentioned the authority he had.

John

5:27 and he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man.

It is only the Lord Jesus who was given the authority to judge. Furthermore, the Gospel according to John shows us the prevision of Jesus, his ability to know what would happen in the future beforehand.

John

6:64 But there are some among you who do not believe...”―because Jesus knew from the beginning those who weren’t believing, as well as the one who would betray him.

13:11 For he knew who was going to betray him. That’s why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

18:4 Then Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen, went forward and asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

19:28 After this, when Jesus realized that everything was now completed, he said (in order to fulfill the Scripture), “I’m thirsty.”

Then, needless to say, Jesus predicted the distress and affliction he would have to go through.

John

3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

To see something in the right way is after all to believe in it. Of course, Jesus knew that he had to be taken away and prophesied it to the people.

John

7:33 Then Jesus said, “I will be with you only a little while longer, and then I am going back to the one who sent me.”

14:28 You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away, but I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.

17:11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name, the name that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

These verses clearly reveal to us that Jesus is the Son of the true living God. It is a fact. Some people say it is impossible. Even so, a fact is a fact regardless of whether we believe it or not.

Regardless of whether we believe that Jesus was the Son of God or not, this fact will remain as a fact forever. If we do not believe in this fact, it simply does not affect our lives at all. It is how faith works. However, facts are not always the reality of our life of faith. Generally, a fact is a reality. But, in a life of faith, a fact is changed to reality through our experience. We just looked at two facts; Jesus was prophesied to become human, and Jesus revealed his divine nature.

Now, I would like to see briefly how Jesus exercised his humanity. Jesus became human.

Hebrews

2:14 Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (that is, the devil)

2:15 and might free those who were slaves all their lives because they were terrified by death.

2:16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels. No, he came to help Abraham’s descendants,

2:17 thereby becoming like his brothers in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and could atone for the people’s sins.

2:18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

As a human, the body of Jesus of course had to live on water and food. The obedience of Jesus, his humility, his reliance and dependence on God also prove that he totally lived as a human. The following few verses clearly show how sincerely Jesus was dependent on God.

John

6:38 I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.

7:16 Jesus replied to them, “My teaching is not mine but comes from the one who sent me.”

7:28 At this point Jesus, still teaching in the Temple, shouted, “So you know me and know where I have come from? I have not come on my own accord. But the one who sent me is true, and he is the one you do not know.

7:29 I know him because I have come from him and he sent me.”

There are many other verses in the Gospel according to John, which explain basically the same fact.

John

8:28 So Jesus told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own authority. Instead, I speak only what the Father has taught me.

8:29 Moreover, the one who sent me is with me. He has never left me alone because I always do what pleases him.”

5:30 I can do nothing on my own accord. I judge according to what I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

Throughout his life, this has been the desire of Jesus and his heartfelt scream. Jesus was a perfect man as he had spirit, soul and flesh. To begin with, Jesus had spirit.

Luke

23:46 Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” After he said this, he breathed his last.

However, Jesus had not only spirit, but a soul too.

John

12:27 Now my soul is in turmoil, and what should I say―‘Father, save me from this hour’? No! It was for this very reason that I came to this hour.

Furthermore, Jesus had, not only spirit, not only a soul, but also flesh.

Matthew

26:12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she was preparing me for burial.

Jesus had no sin at all. As a person, he was completely obedient and filled with triumph. It was for this reason that Jesus had the ability to carry out the salvation plan of the God of Trinity. The incarnation of Jesus, that is to say, the fact that Jesus became human, has been the most important part of the world throughout history. It has been the supreme of all love, the foundation of all salvation and the center of all worship.

This sacrificial death of Jesus is the center of the Bible. I would like to discuss briefly this sacrificial death. Jesus had to take the form of a human to carry out the plan of the God of Trinity. He could not die as long as he was God. Becoming a human was the only way for him to be able to die. Jesus became human in order to die.

Philippians

2:6 In God’s own form existed he, and shared with God equality, deemed nothing needed grasping.

2:7 Instead, poured out in emptiness, a servant’s form did he possess, a mortal man becoming. In human form he chose to be,

2:8 and lived in all humility, death on a cross obeying.

Paul too wrote of the importance of this great sacrificial death of Jesus to the brothers and sisters in Corinth.

1 Corinthians

15:45 This, indeed, is what is written: “The first man, Adam, became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

15:47 The first man came from the dust of the earth; the second man came from heaven.

However, the Son, the Lord Jesus, not only took a human form, but he sacrificed himself for all mankind, for the sake of each human being. Jesus was punished on their behalf and died. Peter too testified to this great truth.

1 Peter

2:24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live righteously. “By his wounds you have been healed.”

2:25 You were “like sheep that kept going astray,” but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Not only did Jesus bear our sins, he died for our sake, in substitution for us. All men are sinners. It is written in Ezekiel 18:4, “The soul that sins, it shall die.” It is also stated in Romans 6:23 that the wage of sin is death. We all have to die because we are sinners. However, the Bible tells us that Jesus died on behalf of us and was made to sin for us.

2 Corinthians

5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God’s righteousness would be produced in us.

The Son, Jesus had to be separated from the Sacred God when he bore our sins. It was because the sacredness of the Lord God and the sins of all mankind can never exist in the same fellowship.

Matthew

27:46 About three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, eli, lema sabachthani?”, which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Let us look at what Jesus said a few weeks before he was crucified.

John

11:41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me.

11:42 I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”

This was the true and sincere voice of Jesus, as a man who had absolutely no sin. However, when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” this voice was a scream, for all human beings who have been separated from God and have fallen to sin.

God made Jesus, who knew no sin, who had no possibility to commit sin, the embodiment of sin for each human being. It was in order for us to obtain the righteousness of God through him. When we think of the death of Jesus, I believe chapter 53 of the Book of Isaiah comes to our mind.

Isaiah

53:1 Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

53:2 For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.

53:3 He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces; and we despised him and did not value him.

53:4 Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted.

53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn’t open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

53:8 From detention and judgment he was taken away― and who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people.

53:9 Then they made his grave with the wicked, and with rich people in his death, although he had committed no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

The Son, Jesus, was made the embodiment of sin. Although the Son, Jesus, was totally divine and he had absolutely nothing to do with sin, he took all curses on himself on behalf of us. We cannot even imagine the pain Jesus endured.

Although the Son, Jesus, committed no sin at all, he bore not just the sin of some specific persons, but the sins of all mankind as described in the Bible. The Lord Jesus bore our selfish ego, our arrogance, the arrogance of all human races.

Jesus was crucified as the worst of all sinners, who was separated far from God. We would never be able to understand the agony of Jesus, the pain of Jesus, the sorrow of Jesus and the solitude of Jesus. Jesus suddenly cried out in a loud voice, “It is all over. It is completed. The work of salvation is accomplished.”

The plan of salvation had been carried out. The work of salvation was completed when he said in a gentle voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” Why did Jesus have to die?

The death of Jesus must have begun in the garden of Gethsemane. In his anguish, Jesus prayed more earnestly, and it is written that his sweat became like large drops of blood falling on the ground. This time, the heart of Jesus was totally faint.

Jesus was oppressed by the sins of all mankind. Then, angels came down from heaven and encouraged Jesus according to the Scripture. It was because Jesus was destined to die on the cross, not in Gethsemane.

Then, Jesus appeared peacefully to a multitude and stood in front of Pilate, the audience screaming to him, the priests and Pharisees in order to testify. After staying awake all night and going through unimaginable pain, Jesus walked more than 10 kilometers on the way that led to the Calvary.

Our sins and arrogance made the heart of Jesus faint. It was because of our arrogance that Jesus had to be crucified. The son, Jesus, through the curse of God suffered from so much pain. All his garments were taken away. I cannot even imagine his face and body covered with his own blood.

The prophesy in Isaiah 53:2 we read today was realized; “He had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.” Indeed, when Jesus was on the cross, he had no form, no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Jesus took the punishment in place of us. The Lord God made Jesus be sin to compensate for our sins. Have we ever appreciated this truth from the bottom of our hearts? If not, why don't we begin to thank him today?

When we think of the horrible pain Jesus endured, we come to be ashamed of our arrogance, don't we? The problem is absolutely clear. It is a matter between ourselves and Jesus. It is a matter of whether we are willing to accept Jesus as our savior or reject him. I desperately urge you to accept Jesus. Then, you will obtain the eternal life into your hand.

What a great gift is this eternal life! What a wonderful plan of salvation! If you decide to surrender your own life to this Lord, you have a true blessing.