Hi all,
Have you ever wondered how Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb? Was there a legal necessity to accomplishing the conception of Jesus in that way? (Yes)
Isaiah 9: 6 begins: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given…”
The son was given through the child being born. Given from heaven so that He might be born into earth as a man.
This understanding that Christ existed with the Father before He became the man Jesus is carried through the New Testament by the use of either “Christ” which signifies His deity and prexistence, or “Jesus” which signifies His humanity. We remember the ‘Son of Man’ in the fiery furnace in Daniel, but maybe haven’t thought it through. (Get my series: I AM; Who Jesus is; Where He came from, for more about His appearances in the OT)
Technically speaking “Jesus” doesn’t live in our hearts. Jesus is a specific individual in a glorified human body located somewhere, in one place right now as you read this. When He visits people as He did with Paul and Ananias in Acts, it really is Him – not a hologram, not a projection. He, the man Jesus, is in one place at one time.
“Christ” signifies He is also God, and by the Spirit of the Father knows all things and sees all things. This is how He supernaturally governs His body as the Head. A very rough example is how you can be sitting right now in your chair at home, but in your mind you are with with your child at school, or figuring what they are doing at work in your absence. Except Jesus actually knows it by the Spirit and can be there instantly if He wants to be.
I’m getting to it, I’m getting to it
This is why we pray in the name of Jesus, not the name of Christ. It was the person of Jesus whose body was sacrificed for our sins.
This is why Colossians 1: 26 says we have Christ in us, not Jesus in us. This is why we have the mind of Christ as per I Corinthians 2: 16, and can do all things through Christ who strengthens us in Philippians 4: 13. It’s not through the strength of Jesus, a man, but through the strength of Christ Jesus, God in the flesh, that we can do all things and be independent of circumstances as Paul said there.
If you look at a passage you can see when both terms are used, if the emphasis is on His humanity or deity by which comes first. The order of use also reveals the direction the action is coming from.
For instance in Philippians 4: 19 it says in response to them giving into his ministry: “And my God shall provide all your need according to His riches in glory, through Christ Jesus.”
Notice the provision starts in heaven, flow through Christ Jesus to us. The emphasis is divine provision starting in heaven, flowing through Christ Jesus. When we pray the flow is through Jesus Christ. We pray in the name of the Man Jesus, who is Christ, our requests flowing to the Father. We don’t pray in Christ’s name, we pray in the name of Jesus, the man who won our salvation.
Similarly, Romans 6:3 says we are ‘baptized into Jesus Christ’, showing the emphasis on the earth-act of water baptism and the human part of Jesus who was also baptized. Do a study of Jesus and Christ, or Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, and you’ll be amazed at the revelation you receive. You’ll be amazed how your spirit jumps with life when you contemplate these things.
The door to the sheepfold
The blood of all mankind is tainted by our father Adam. That means in heaven’s court man has to pay for the sin. The whole universe, even the natural world is governed by for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Man sinned so man must pay for the sin.
In John 10: 1-16 Jesus spoke 3 parables. If read in a straight line the reader can be confused because He switched symbols for each parable. But in the first parable of verses 1-5, contrasting the difference between the devil and Himself, Jesus said in John 10: 1-2:
“Truly, truly I say to you, he that enters NOT by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, that one is a thief and robber. He who enters into the sheepfold by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”
Understand the parable. The devil is the robber, the Lord is the Shepherd. The sheepfold is the earth. That is Sunday school lesson from 4th grade. The question is, what is the door to get into the earth where the sheep are kept?
The answer: Human birth.
He that enters the sheepfold by the door is the shepherd. The one who climbed in another way is Satan: Not legally, by birth, but by deception. (The ‘porter’, the gate keeper, is the Holy Spirit, who opens the door for the sheep to be led by the shepherd, and the shepherd leads them out of the sheepfold to heaven).
If you consider the ramifications of just this parable you’ll no longer be concerned about the devil: He has no legal right to be in your life. Jesus does have legal right. Christ is in you. That’s why Jesus said we don’t pray about demons, we command them out of our lives or of the lives of others. Once a person asks for help, we have the legal right to cast out the one who came here illegally.
For Christ the son to be given, it had to be done legally, thus He had to be born into this earth. But how? That is for next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
