JOHN 6:57-58
57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.
Because the Father has the quality of life that only GOD can have – that being eternal life –the Son, Who is just like His Father (JN 14:9), likewise has this quality of life. This isn’t in the sense that the Son derives His life from the Father, for that would make the Father the exclusive source of eternal life, when it’s inherent in all three Members of the Godhead:
1 JOHN 5:11
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (See also JOHN 14:6).
ROMANS 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Father sent His Son so that whoever partakes of (“feeds on”) Him, Who by faith receive Him (JN 1:12-13) will be born of the Spirit, by the will of GOD and become a partaker of this eternal life (ROM 6:23b).
Had not the Father sent His Son, the human race would’ve perished; there would be no saving us. We would’ve been well beyond the reach of the slightest hope. Satan would have won the war for souls!
Yet in the coming of GOD’s Son, He carried the greatest price, the quintessential of all sacrifices, the highest beyond compare. The LORD Jesus Christ was – and is – our last and final hope for restoration and reconcilement to GOD (2 COR 5:20-21).
We sometimes use the expression, “heaven sent” and it means, “For someone or something to arrive unexpectedly at a time when most needed”. Nothing can more aptly describe the Nativity of Christ, itself an event that proclaims the Crusade of the Christmas Coming.
Between the Old Testament canon, ending with Malachi, and the first words penned by the Gospel writers, there was about 400 years of silence.
There was no prophecy from any prophet, no inspired word given. After the symphony of Old Testament Scriptures, the orchestra fell silent in dramatic pause – until the crescendo of Christ’s arrival and declaration, as well as the very words of GOD made flesh, issuing out and revealing the plan of GOD ordained since before the foundation of the world.
HEBREWS 1:1-3
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
As miraculous as the manna of the desert was, we find the supreme miracle of all time, in all of history. Something we refer to as the hypostatic union: the absolute, perfect, one hundred percent blending of all that is GOD and all that is man! This is one of the fundamentals of the faith – core doctrines that are non-negotiable and without which, one’s claim to being a disciple of Christ is questionable at best.
The LORD Jesus made the comparison between the manna of the desert during the wilderness wanderings led by the prophet and Law giver, Moses with that of His incarnation and stated that those who ate of that manna are dead; but those who will feed on the spiritual manna that is Christ shall live forever! That quality of life that GOD possesses shall be the very same substance that all saints enjoy and will enjoy throughout eternity!
Recent developments in the biological sciences have mapped out the Human genome. The significance of this can’t possibly be overstated. Knowing not just the ‘genetic blocks’ used in the making of a Human being, but how and why – even where they work in conjunction with other blocks means that for the first time Science can manipulate humanity on a genetic level like never before!
This is where Transhumanism can become the next level of Culture Shock. For example, when such things as genetically enhanced soldiers with grafted animal DNA can ‘improve’ their performance: giving them the strength of a mountain gorilla, the speed of a cheetah, the eye sight of an eagle, the stamina of a horse, etc.
Even extending the lifespan of human beings; claims are made that we could bring our biological clock to a near standstill, and thereby giving us a lifespan of hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years.
What isn’t taken into consideration is the fact that there is still far more that we don’t know than what we do, and that tampering with such things could result in unforeseen consequences that would undo any supposed advancements and advantages.
How much simpler to leave our lives in the nail-scarred hands of our Creator and trust Him with our eternity, where glorified bodies infinitely superior to anything mankind could possibly engineer (1 COR 15:43), will last forever, and remain just as pristinely new ‘a billion millennia (not that there will be any measure of time as we know it) into eternity as the very first day that we inherit them!
The quality of our life in Christ is of equal value to that eternal domain and He Who rules there, Who came down to offer that life to those who will humble themselves, repent of their sin, and receive salvation in JESUS!
Next time, we’ll examine JOHN 6:59-64 with the title, Spiritual Matters!
57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.
Because the Father has the quality of life that only GOD can have – that being eternal life –the Son, Who is just like His Father (JN 14:9), likewise has this quality of life. This isn’t in the sense that the Son derives His life from the Father, for that would make the Father the exclusive source of eternal life, when it’s inherent in all three Members of the Godhead:
1 JOHN 5:11
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (See also JOHN 14:6).
ROMANS 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Father sent His Son so that whoever partakes of (“feeds on”) Him, Who by faith receive Him (JN 1:12-13) will be born of the Spirit, by the will of GOD and become a partaker of this eternal life (ROM 6:23b).
Had not the Father sent His Son, the human race would’ve perished; there would be no saving us. We would’ve been well beyond the reach of the slightest hope. Satan would have won the war for souls!
Yet in the coming of GOD’s Son, He carried the greatest price, the quintessential of all sacrifices, the highest beyond compare. The LORD Jesus Christ was – and is – our last and final hope for restoration and reconcilement to GOD (2 COR 5:20-21).
We sometimes use the expression, “heaven sent” and it means, “For someone or something to arrive unexpectedly at a time when most needed”. Nothing can more aptly describe the Nativity of Christ, itself an event that proclaims the Crusade of the Christmas Coming.
Between the Old Testament canon, ending with Malachi, and the first words penned by the Gospel writers, there was about 400 years of silence.
There was no prophecy from any prophet, no inspired word given. After the symphony of Old Testament Scriptures, the orchestra fell silent in dramatic pause – until the crescendo of Christ’s arrival and declaration, as well as the very words of GOD made flesh, issuing out and revealing the plan of GOD ordained since before the foundation of the world.
HEBREWS 1:1-3
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
As miraculous as the manna of the desert was, we find the supreme miracle of all time, in all of history. Something we refer to as the hypostatic union: the absolute, perfect, one hundred percent blending of all that is GOD and all that is man! This is one of the fundamentals of the faith – core doctrines that are non-negotiable and without which, one’s claim to being a disciple of Christ is questionable at best.
The LORD Jesus made the comparison between the manna of the desert during the wilderness wanderings led by the prophet and Law giver, Moses with that of His incarnation and stated that those who ate of that manna are dead; but those who will feed on the spiritual manna that is Christ shall live forever! That quality of life that GOD possesses shall be the very same substance that all saints enjoy and will enjoy throughout eternity!
Recent developments in the biological sciences have mapped out the Human genome. The significance of this can’t possibly be overstated. Knowing not just the ‘genetic blocks’ used in the making of a Human being, but how and why – even where they work in conjunction with other blocks means that for the first time Science can manipulate humanity on a genetic level like never before!
This is where Transhumanism can become the next level of Culture Shock. For example, when such things as genetically enhanced soldiers with grafted animal DNA can ‘improve’ their performance: giving them the strength of a mountain gorilla, the speed of a cheetah, the eye sight of an eagle, the stamina of a horse, etc.
Even extending the lifespan of human beings; claims are made that we could bring our biological clock to a near standstill, and thereby giving us a lifespan of hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years.
What isn’t taken into consideration is the fact that there is still far more that we don’t know than what we do, and that tampering with such things could result in unforeseen consequences that would undo any supposed advancements and advantages.
How much simpler to leave our lives in the nail-scarred hands of our Creator and trust Him with our eternity, where glorified bodies infinitely superior to anything mankind could possibly engineer (1 COR 15:43), will last forever, and remain just as pristinely new ‘a billion millennia (not that there will be any measure of time as we know it) into eternity as the very first day that we inherit them!
The quality of our life in Christ is of equal value to that eternal domain and He Who rules there, Who came down to offer that life to those who will humble themselves, repent of their sin, and receive salvation in JESUS!
Next time, we’ll examine JOHN 6:59-64 with the title, Spiritual Matters!
No comments:
Post a Comment