Message 8 of the Life Study talked about Jesus in Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Glorification, and Exaltation. Reading about the details of those processes, I was impressed that our salvation is much more than what we usually hear about how Jesus died for our sins on the cross that we may be saved from hell. Although that is correct, it is not complete. These are the points taken from the Life Study that I enjoyed for each of the process:
INCARNATION
- God came in the flesh not to command us to do something, but to be one with us. He did not come as God to rescue us, for that would have terrified us. He did not come as an angel to embrace us, for we could not have accepted that. He came in reality, just as we are. He partook of our nature, of our blood and flesh.
- God came as a man in order to establish His corporation of Christ and the church.
- The Lord was made like His brothers in all things that He might symphatize with them.
CRUCIFIXION
- Christ not only tasted death for man but also for all other things. This is the reason that we say that Christ's death was an all-inclusive death.
- The Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to reconcile us to God, by satisfying God's righteous demands on us. Thus, He has appeased God for us.
- Because of the all-inclusive crucifixion of Christ, there is no more death, no more sin, no more devil, no more fear of death, and no more slavery.
RESURRECTION
- The seed is sown into the soil, dies, and eventually the wheat comes forth. This is resurrection. Every day and everywhere you can see resurrection.
- In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that the seed which dies and grows again is a picture of resurrection
- Christ's death released the divine life within Him and His resurrection imparted the life of God into us in order that we might become the many sons of God and His many brothers.
- When the Lord declared the Father's name to His brothers, He praised the Father's name in the church. The brothers are the church. Individually speaking, they are His brothers and collectively speaking, they are the church brought forth in His resurrection.
GLORIFICATION
- As the Captain of our salvation, Christ, in His ascension, has entered into glory in which God is. yGod's desire is to bring His many sons into glory. Christ took the lead to enter into this glory
EXALTATION
- After Christ had been crowned with glory and honor in His ascension, God gave Him the dominion over all things in His exaltation. This is similar to what God did with Adam. Adam lost the dominion that God gave to him, but, according to the prophecy of Psalm 8, Christ has recovered what Adam lost.
- We were born in the first man and lost everything with him. But since we have been reborn in the second man, we have regained everything.
- In His exaltation, Christ was made Head over all things. God has subjected all things under His feet. Now He is only waiting for one thing-for the subtle Satan and all His enemies to be made His footstool.
We have such a profound salvation! Somebody shared that reading about these high truths may seem hard, but we just have to be thankful for everything that the Lord has done. I agree that I too had a hard time understanding everything, but when I read about the details of the processes Christ went through, I just had a feeling that wow, this is something worth sharing to people. Some people have a concept that God is so far away and abstract. Now we see that after going through those processes, He can now be near and reachable to us.
When you start to say "Thank you, Lord" you realize you have a lot of things to be thankful for :)
You can also find the Life Study online to read the whole messages. Check out the website: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm
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