Could Christ Have Come Off the Cross?
All too often in our world today we hear a fact or a comment and assume it to be true irregardless of any research done to prove the statement's validity. I will not lie, so I confess I frequently find myself guilty of doing this very thing. The problem here is that some of the time those statements that appear to be true are in fact false, but because we assume them to be truth we end up spreading subtle lies.
This is not only a problem from a secular worldview in the fact that no one inherently wants to be told false information, but it is an enormous problem from my Christian worldview. You see, Satan works in many ways trying to get people to believe a false doctrine about God. Since Satan is the father of lies, we can safely assume that he will use any means possible to alter the truth of the Gospel. One of the ways he does this is by false teaching within the Church. Everywhere you look in the Bible you will see warnings to be aware of false teachers because they destroy the Body of Christ. Both 1 and 2 Timothy are examples. So, the question is how do we guard against false teaching. The answer is to verify every doctrine and word you are taught by "checking it out." We can not just assume everything taught to be truth, because that is exactly how Satan will subtly use his power to undermine the Church. We must be dilligent to seek out truth and not just another man's opinion.
This brings me now to my point. All too often in church I hear the statement, "Christ could have come off the cross. He chose to stay there because He loved us, but He could have called angels from Heaven to take Him off the cross." I believed this for a long time without verifying it , but after meditating on the Word and on this statement, I have come to disagree with it until someone can give me a Biblical explanation. Let me explain what I mean.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 states, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. THIS IS GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD OUR SAVIOR, WHO DESIRES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH," emphasis mine. Hebrews 13:8 states, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." What I want to point out here is that God the Father, and Jesus since He is God the Son, desires and longs for all men to be saved. That is part of God's nature. Not only does He want men to be saved, He is changeless meaning that He has always wanted men to be saved, He wants men to be saved today, and He will forever want man to be saved. This helps define God: one who always longs for man's salvation.
This also goes along well with 1 John 4:7-21, which tells of another part of God's changeless nature: namely, God's infinite love for man. In order for God to both love us and long for our salvation knowing that people are inherent sinners(Romans 3:23) that can not obtain salvation on our own, God had to act. The penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the only way for us to live or to be saved was by the pouring of sinless blood that would defer God's wrath(Heb. 9:22). The ONLY way for spotless, perfect, sinless blood to be shed was for God Himself to come to earth, in the form of a man, and die, because there is no sinless blood on earth due to the sin nature mentioned in Romans 3:23. This is exactly what happend when Jesus Christ, the very essence of God the Father, came to earth and was crucified. He was the spotless blood that was acceptable to God the Father that would be a propitiation for our sins so that man could be saved. That is the epitomy of love, that Jesus would die for us just to see our salvation. Christ verified His very nature of love and longing to see man's salvation by dying for us.
But, could Christ have come off the cross? The answer I have is no. If Christ comes off the cross then man would have no way of being saved since the spotless blood only found in God would not have been shed for us. We would still be unforgiven, and we would never be saved. If Christ came off the cross, He would have denied His very nature of love and of longing for man's salvation. This means He would have denied to be God. He would have denied His very being. Christ had to stay on the cross to be God and could never call angels to take Him off lest He do the impossible and cease to be God. Because Christ is God, because He longs for man's salvation, beccause He is love, and because He is changless, Jesus Christ was forced by His own will and nature as God to stay on the cross, and He could not have come off the cross by any method and still be God or Savior. Praise be to God.
1 Comments:
good post...i agree on every point
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