College Study #82: "To Walk as He Walked"

 

‘Behold, the Lamb of God’

ide o amnos tou theou

College Study

82^nd teaching

8.18.2014

 

“To Walk as He Walked”

 

 

          Review:

                    Last time we met, our subject was Christology from Below, an approach to Christology that emphasizes Jesus’ humanity. Last time, we took a broad look at the scope of Christ’s humanity. We had studied His deity and then moved into a study of His human-being-ness. As far as a review: What is one method cults use to attract new members? What is more important than beginning well? Why did Jesus need to become human? Is Christ’s humanity an essential Christian doctrine necessary for salvation? I John 4, you remember, actually says that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Next question: How human was He? What is the kenosis theory? Why is it false? What theology term expresses the union of two natures in one person? What are some analogies that try to express this union of two natures? What made Jesus the perfect human? And we finished off by discovering that the God-man was a perfect man, and by extension, the cure for our fallen humanity is to join it with divinity: God coming and living inside of us, making our bodies His temple.

          End of Review

 

          Let me begin tonight with what may seem like a shameless plug. I assure you it’s not. I’m just making a point. If you went to nortonliterature.blogspot.com, which you should if you need to find any information we’ve covered in the past, you could look up the notes from previous studies.

          Now looking back at the past few weeks, you can see that we’re in the subsection of Christology: “the Nature of Christ”, and we’ve had three studies on the Deity of Christ: “Christology from Above”, “Very God of Very God”, and “the Stars are Fire”.

          So to be fair, we’ve need three studies on the Humanity of Christ. It’s just neater that way. We’ve had “the Last Adam” and “Christology from Below”, a specific look on His Humanity from the angle of Jesus’ comparison with Adam, and then we had a broader study on His Humanity after that. But just as we finished off the Deity of Christ with a session that took this great doctrine, of God dwelling among us in the form of man, and put it into useful and practical terms for our daily lives, now we’ll do the same for His Humanity.

          The human-ness of Jesus of Nazareth is another essential doctrine in Christianity, and it is a mind-blowing one, considering there is no other being like Jesus, the God-man, fully divine and fully human, two natures in one person. But what do we do with the doctrine of His humanity? I mean, it’s great. It can fascinate and occupy our intellects, but what does it mean for us practically?

          Well, for one, we saw that it is immensely practical in that if Christ were not human than He could not die, for God the immortal and everlasting spirit cannot possibly die unless He takes on mortal and perishable flesh. So in that respect, Christ’s Humanity is hugely practical and meaningful, for without it there could be no crucifixion and no salvation for anyone.

          But there’s another angle to consider tonight. Turn to I John 2:1-11.

          v.1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

          The Bible is the most practical of books. God desires that we walk after Him and follow His commands, but at the same time He knows that we will stumble and fall into sin. We still have our flesh within us. John encapsulates it perfectly, writing God’s Word which will help to purify and sanctify us, to wash us, and keep us from sin. But… if we do sin, it’s not the end. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

          An Advocate is somebody who publicly supports and champions another person or a cause. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He took care of them and gives us life. He’s there to back us up when we sin. The devil comes in to accuse us before the throne of God above, but Jesus Christ the righteous points out that He has given us His righteousness, and He is our champion before any accusation, defending us and supporting us. That’s a beautiful glimpse into what Christ is doing today at the right hand of God in heaven, defending us from the accusations of the devil.

          v.2, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

          Remember that propitiation was a word used by the ancient world whenever they thought a god or goddess was mad at them. The propitiation would be a sacrifice given in order to satisfy a god or appease his anger. The Greeks used the word to describe the sacrifices they made to try to calm the anger of their god Zeus.

          But John describes Jesus Christ Himself as the propitiation for our sins. God is a God of love, yes, but also He is a God of wrath, and justly so. We could not call Him good at all if He didn’t care about whether anyone molested children, or committed murder or rape, or stole or lied or did any other immoral deed. If God just winked at sin, said He liked it, or just ignored it, how could we say that He’s good?

          The psalmist says in Psalm 7:11, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” Note carefully that it does not say “He hates the wicked” and I think there’s a tremendous difference between anger and hatred.

          But the amazing thing is that He sent His own Son to die and become the propitiation for our sins, satisfying the righteous wrath of God. God Himself removed all the walls between mankind and Himself, and now we may approach Him unafraid of His wrath because we know that His Son has become the propitiation of our sins. Propitiation is a glorious word.

          v.3, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”

          Question: Can you tell if you’re saved or not? Answer: According to I John 2, yes. We know that we know God if we keep His commandments, if there’s a change in our lifestyle. Yes, we still sin. Yes, even willfully sometimes. And yes, there is such a thing as backsliding. But do you think that God would die horribly on our behalf and then reject us and tell us we can’t come back to Him even after backsliding for years? Of course, God’s arms are always open to us, always welcoming.

          But the point is that Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is not just a worldview or a social club or a bit of knowledge for a select few to ponder. Christianity involves a changed lifestyle. What should this change look like?

          v.6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

          As Christians, we should be becoming more like Christ as time passes. Christ is to us what is known as the Moral Exemplar, meaning He provides us with a moral example to follow, His life is the life we should try to live, both in purposing in our hearts and in allowing the Spirit of God to shape us to be like Him.

          It’s more than just a system of morality that Christ provides. He is more than just a Moral Exemplar. We might call Him a Human Exemplar. As the only perfect Man to have ever lived, His ultimate humanity provides us the best possible example of our to be human ourselves.

          It reminds me of the work of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he described a goal for humanity: the Ubermensch. In English, we might translate Ubermensch as a kind of Super-man, the ultimate ideal of a human being, the best possible humanity, in his perception. Interestingly, he contrasts his concept of the ideal man with the “other-worldliness” of Christianity. Christians, he thinks, are dissatisfied with life and have created the idea another world beyond this one: heaven for the good, hell for the bad. Nietzsche’s Super-man is characterized as being this-worldly, not other-worldly. He is concerned with making the best of life now, not in some hope for another world. Nietzsche presents the Ubermensch as a goal humanity can set for itself.

          But Nietzsche began his idea of the Super-man from a false premise: that the world and humanity will last forever. They won’t. The Bible says the world is passing away. You can almost see it happening. Humanity, too, in its current form, won’t last forever. Nietzsche’s dream of humanity evolving into perfection is just a dream. The ultimate Man has already come to earth. Super-man has already come from a distant world, and He was crucified for our own filth. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is the ultimate ideal form of Humanity, a human being filled with the Spirit of God and living in perfect submission to the will of God.

          Jesus provides us with the best view of humanity perfected. Forget about super-soldier serums and evolution and the Ubermensch. No scientist or philosopher could ever dream of the perfect humanity Christ displayed on this earth. So then, He shows us an ideal to strive toward.

          Like the line in the quasi-messianic origins of Superman in the film Man of Steel, where Kal-El’s father says to him: “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun… In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.”

          Best. Line. Ever.

          That’s what Jesus Christ presents us with, the goal of ideal humanity. Oh to be like Him! So let’s consider several aspects of the human existence and see just how Christ has demonstrated those same aspects in His own human life, and how we can model those same things back in our lives.

1.   Human Body

          As human beings, we all have human bodies at different stages of deterioration. Part of the human experience is dealing with these bodies that get sick, broken, bruised, pains and sprains and backaches. John 1:14 says “the Word became flesh”. Christ took on a human body just like ours. Christ had kidneys and a liver and a heart, lungs, a brain, veins with real blood in them.

          Now what do we do with our bodies? Well, sometimes we let them rule over us. Your body might say “Hey, I’m hungry”, and you’re like: “but it’s 1 in the morning!” And it says “I don’t care, I’m hungry”.

          Or you’re out in public and you’re body’s like, “Hey, I’m feeling kinda amorous.” And you’re like: “Oh my goodness, not now”, and it’s like “hey, what do I care?”

          Or your body tells you “Hey, just relax. You’re too tired to deal with the ministry. You work too hard, don’t bother sharing Christ with that person, with that friend who needs your help. You’re too tired to go to church, to get involved in people’s lives. It’s too much of a bother, and I want you to pamper me.” And it’s terribly easy to let ourselves become slaves to our own fleshly desires and temptations and the wants of our bodies.

          Do you know what Christ did with the body He took on? He let it be tortured and brutally murdered by crucifixion. If Christ had real flesh, I’m sure He was tired. I’m sure He was weary and exhausted. His body might have wanted sleep rather than to go to that dark garden and pray on the night of His betrayal. “Pray? Why pray? You’re the Son of God! Just go back to the house and get some rest. You know what’s coming for you tomorrow!”

          But He didn’t. In fact, He submitted His body to God as a living sacrifice and became the propitiation for our sins. Imagine if He had let His own body rule over Him. We would be forever lost in our sins, leading miserable and hopeless lives that are mere interludes before the cold grave.

          The apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

          “My body, my choice”. Every heard that? Imagine if Jesus said that on the way to His own crucifixion.

          Truth is it’s not your body. God gave it to you to glorify Him with your life. That doesn’t just apply to hot topics like abortion, so don’t misunderstand this application by misplacing it upon somebody else with a cause you don’t personally believe in. The worst thing you could ever do with person application is put it on someone else and say “man, if only so-and-so were hearing this”. No, what is this saying to you?

          Jesus Christ gave us the example of presenting His body to God and submitting to the will of His Father, even when His normal human flesh was no doubt tired and weary, in pain, exhausted and wanting rest. Can we model the way we treat our bodies after the way He treated His?

2.   Human Mind

          When speaking of bodies, the next logical step is the mind. And just as we know that the body presents us with particular dangers and pitfalls, so too does the mind. Our minds can be battlefields, playgrounds, wastelands or psycho-wards and nobody would ever know. The human mind is a mysterious product of our brains.

          Jesus, born of a woman and taking on flesh, also took on a human brain, and thus a human mind. This is evidenced from the fact that He had human emotions, more on that later. But what did Jesus do with His human mind?

          Look at Luke 2:41-52.

          Jesus didn’t stop learning. You know what’s the biggest obstacle to wisdom? Someone who thinks there’s nothing left to learn. You ever talk to people who think they know everything? It’s awful.

          Jesus didn’t stroll up in the temple and declare He was the Son of God (He was), no, instead He was found among the teachers, listening and asking questions, two of the most important aspects of learning. We know that our human brains develop rapidly as children. As a child, Jesus learned. He let His mind be taught. He grew in wisdom and stature.

          Point is, Jesus used His brain. Whatever you might think about Jesus’ sermons and speeches and words throughout the gospels, you cannot call them unintelligent. In fact, one thing that lends to the depth of His sayings is that He seemed to be able to understand what someone was about to say before they said it, or what someone really meant underneath their external motives. Jesus was an intelligent man. I dare say that Jesus was a genius. You don’t often hear that, but I’ve no reason to doubt that He was.

          So let’s follow Jesus’ example. Am I saying you’ve got to be a genius? Well, no, not really. Am I saying you’ve got to learn and use the brain God gave you to glorify Him, just like we talked about using our bodies to glorify Him? Yes. I’m saying exactly that. God is glorified not only by the things we do and the places we go but also by our intellects, by the thoughts we think, by the things we learn and put to use.

          Guys, the human brain is one of the most complex machines in existence. Don’t waste it either by thinking you already know everything, or by not using it at all. Be like Jesus. Learn. Grow in wisdom. Be teachable and able to teach.

3.   Human Limitations

          “Know your limits… then crush them”. Thanks very much, motivational quote. Next thing you know you’re in the hospital because you injured yourself.

          Part of being human is realizing our limitations. Now I’m not saying don’t push yourself. Sure, do that. Reach for your goals. But even with the hardest you could ever try to reach, you’ll never fly, or breathe underwater, or survive for long with no food and water, or live in the vacuum of space. There are just real, physical and mental limitations applied to us as human beings both by our own bodies and minds, and by the kind of world that we live in.

          So what do we do with our limitations?

          Well, we know that Jesus, in taking on flesh, put limitations on Himself. In John 4, when He met the woman at the well, it says He was wearied from His journey. Before He chose His twelve disciples, it says in Luke 6:12, “that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night prayer to God.” Don’t you think He was tired?

          But even when Jesus reached His human limitations, He demonstrated the example that we need to seek God. When Jesus got tired, and He still had work to do, He prayed. The Lord exceeds all limitations, and the only way that we can ever get around our limitations is to rely upon His limitless power. When you feel like you just can’t go any further, whether you’re tired or just fed up with life, the solution is to turn to God and seek His power and the filling of His Spirit.

4.   Human Temptations

          Now this is where it gets a little tricky. We deal with temptations all the time. And we know that Jesus was also tempted when He walked the earth, in the wilderness shortly after His baptism.

          Check out Matthew 4:1-11.

          So Jesus was tempted. But we also know that Jesus also was morally perfect, sinless. He “knew no sin”. Hebrews 4:15 says “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Did Jesus struggle with drug abuse, internet pornography, cheating on His taxes, embezzling, or alcoholism? Maybe not, but the ancient world equivalents; He was tempted in all points as we are. But He never sinned.

          Therefore, we can conclude that while it is a sin to fall into temptation, it is not a sin to be tempted. Temptation is not the desire to sin, it is the lure that prompts one to sin, and there’s a difference as seen in the Bible. Jesus had His character tested by the temptations of the devil, and He came through the temptations without falling into sin.

          A bit of labyrinthine theology, there, but what’s most important is that Jesus’ temptations show us that temptation can be beaten. I Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

          So “I’m only human” is no excuse. Jesus was fully human, and as we talked about before, the solution for perfect humanity is to combine it with indwelling divinity, the Spirit of God, just as in the God-man, Jesus Christ.

          And His temptations show how to overcome and get through temptations ourselves. Note that when the devil tempted His hungry flesh, Jesus replied by quoting Scripture. When the devil tempted Him to put the words of His Father to the test, Jesus replied again by quoting Scripture. And finally when the devil took Him up the mountain and tempted Him with the authority of all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, again Jesus replied by quoting Scripture.

          See a pattern? Clearly, the way to battle temptation is to bring your mind and your heart back to the Word of God, to fight your flesh back with the sword of the Word. It’s been said: This Book will keep you from sin, but sin will keep you from this Book. It couldn’t be anymore black-and-white than that. Take it or leave it, but the next time temptation rolls around, it’s your choice, battle it or surrender to it. You’re going to get all the ammunition you need from studying this Book, from getting the Scripture in through your mind into your heart.

5.   Human Will

          One of the fascinating things about the incarnation is if you think about Jesus having a human will of His own. Before the incarnation, before time, the Son and the Father existed as one perfectly united essence in God in perfect harmony and fellowship and love. There was no interruption of that unity until the incarnation. Jesus took on a human body, a human mind, human emotions and a human will.

          The best demonstration is in Matthew 26. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane and suffered terrible anxiety knowing that His crucifixion was soon to come and His disciples would be scattered. And you see that He had His own human will right here, in v.39, “He… fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will’.”

          The will of the Son that had for everlasting history surrendered in perfect unity with the will of the Father had for the first time ever been broken. He had taken on humanity, with human will included. And He had to surrender His own will to the will of His Father, now as a man. That’s precisely what we’ve got to do with our own wills.

          Andrew Murray wrote in his excellent book Absolute Surrender: “God has a plan for His Church upon earth. But alas! we too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done. We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.”

          It’s so easy to make our plans and expect God to just go along with it. We expect God to bless our mess. That’s not surrender. That’s not taking our own wills and yielding to His. A good servant is one who anticipates the desires of their master before they even hear the command. They simply know what is in their master’s heart. They understand their master’s will.

          Do you know our Lord’s will? Do you know His heart, His desires?

          “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God”. That’s surrender, exemplified by the Son of God. Taking our “I don’t want to’s” and putting them under the Lord’s mastery over our lives.

6.   Human Language

          “The pen is mightier than the sword”. I don’t think we fully understand the power of words. Words are more powerful than an army. They can tear down resolve and destroy morale. During the second world war, propaganda was an effective device employed even by Disney: one of the most interesting Disney shorts ever was a Donald Duck anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon from 1943 called Der Fuehrer’s Face, originally title Donald Duck in Nutzi Land. The cartoon was written to depict Donald Duck having a nightmare in which he’s suffering a terrible life as a Nazi in Germany, “working 48 hours a day for the Fuehrer”, until he wakes up in his bed in the USA and embraces a model of the statue of liberty and says “Boy, am I glad I’m a citizen of the United States of America”. Look it up on youtube, it’s a unique cartoon experience. But everyone back then understood that words have power. Even Disney understood that.

          Words can either reinforce or demolish, encourage or discourage. The things that we say to others, and the things that are said to us, are things that define us socially. The words we say can even outlast us ourselves. Think of all the thousands of books written by now dead authors. We can still read their words and understand the minds and hearts of those who have passed away many, many years ago. But those words can also be things that will build us up or tear us down, excite and inspire us or discourage and depress.

          It’s interesting to me that words are intangible. Oh, you can see them on a page. But can you actually touch “words”? Is there a difference in feeling between different words? Are words of different languages made up of different materials? No, they aren’t made up of anything at all. Language, words, though intangible and immaterial are immensely powerful.

          Before His incarnation, Jesus is referred to as the Word, or Logos in Greek. He too, before taking on flesh, was immensely powerful, all-powerful, and also immaterial. God is Spirit. There’s then an analogy between the power and the intangibility of language and the essence of God Himself. Language is a powerful tool, but if misused it can have dramatic effects.

          Jesus understood this aspect of the power of words when He walked this earth. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Jesus Himself never built any lasting structures: cathedrals, churches, towers, hospitals or even schools? Wouldn’t it have been convenient for those of us desiring to show evidence about Him if He had left us more tangible, archaeological evidence in the form of buildings? But Jesus didn’t come to build things.

          Jesus came to speak. His ministry on earth was characterized by sermons and parables, the spoken word. Jesus Himself never even wrote down anything, not a single verse, with His own human hands, that survives into the Bible that we have today. We have the accurate copies and accounts of His own spoken words. So Jesus understood the power of words, not coming to build anything or even write anything down, He ministered to others around Him by speaking to them.

          “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” Luke 6:45. I’ll confess to you that this has always been one of my downfalls. Growing up, I knew there were many kids in school that I could never take down. I couldn’t beat up a whole lot of kids. In sports, I couldn’t outrun or outmaneuver or outplay too many other kids, except for the fat kids. Heh.

          But, I have used words to rip somebody a new one plenty of times.

          Guys, our words show who we are. And they have incredible power. They may just be the most powerful thing we have access to on a daily basis, besides prayer (which is also made up of words, too). Like Christ, we need to use our words to good effect, teaching others, helping, encouraging, building up, reinforcing.

7.    Human Death

          The education reformer Horace Mann once said: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

          The first time I encountered that quote, it struck me. It moved me. And it is a great quote, from a humanist point of view. If humanity is the best thing there is, so far as nature and evolution are concerned, if we’re it, then yeah, your life is a wasted one unless you’ve done something for humanity’s progress, education and destiny.

          But let’s rearrange this quote and approach it from a Christian perspective. “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for the glory of God”.

          Consider that Jesus’ life was so meaningful because of the death He died, and in fact, His death is the most meaningful and powerful of all deaths in human history. His “mortal” life was defined by His mortality. His death unlocked everlasting life, reconciled God and man, crushed the head of the serpent, set the captives free, satisfied the wrath of God, and finished the atonement for our sins.

          When you die, will your death be meaningful? Not on the scale of Christ’s, certainly. But will your life, when all is said and done, have meaning? Will you have played your part in the galactic puzzle that is human history? Will you have done what God put you here to do?

          Again, let’s not consider this from a humanist standpoint. Our greatest concern as a Christian is not so much what we leave behind as who we help get to heaven and be there with us when we go. Our greatest concern is not to revolutionize science or write fine works of literature or produce great art or change the way our world thinks, although these can certainly be involved in our own personal lives and God can get the glory if we do these things and become the scientists and artists and writers and philosophers and engineers of this world.

          But ultimately, this world is passing away. And when we too pass away from it, can we say at the end that we are not ashamed to die? Do you want to someday stand before God and hear the Almighty say to you “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”, or would you rather be afraid if He’ll ask you why you wasted the time He gave you, why you spent it pursuing things without eternal value, why your youth was consumed by chasing after your own pleasure, after relationships, after money, after security, after entertainment, or pushing the boundaries of God’s commands? Let us not be ashamed to die.

          “God has a wonderful plan for your life” already sounds a little trite, a little cliché, doesn’t it? But consider it from this angle: would you want to be ashamed in coming to the end of your life knowing that you did nothing to fulfill that plan? And it doesn’t have to be some great grand thing. Many, if not all of us, will never be famous. We don’t have to be.

          What does God want you to do with your time now. Don’t think of destiny as some huge quest of glory you’ll undertake sometime in the future, something that God is prepping you for now. You may have something massive awaiting you in your future. You don’t know. But for now, don’t despise the little things. Where are you serving God? How are you serving God? How can you minister to the people around you that are just naturally in your life, your friends and family and coworkers and classmates?

          We need to be seeking the Lord on these things. We need to think about these questions now, today. We can’t be like the stereotypical actor fresh out of acting school just waiting for their “big break”. What if we wait for a big break that’s never going to come unless we get up and get in the game now?  Do you understand what the will of the Lord is for you?

          When at last I lay down my head in my own deathbed, should the Lord delay His coming, I don’t want any shame. I don’t want to be an old man filled with regret, waiting to die alone. The Christian is one who should never be ashamed to die. And someday our lives will be just another one which has ended, and we shall be defined by what we’ve said, by what we’ve done, by how we lived and by how we died.

          Jesus gave us both the example to live by and the example also to die by. Let us live and die as He did. Let us walk as He walked.

          Ephesians 5:15-21, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as fools but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”