“These unfaithful prophets claim I give them their dreams, but it isn’t
true. I didn’t choose them to be My prophets, and yet they babble on
and on, speaking in My Name, while stealing words from each other. And when
My people hear these liars, they are led astray instead of being helped. So
I warn you that I am now the enemy of these prophets. I, the LORD, have spoken” (Jeremiah
23:30-32 CEV).
Kenneth,
I have written a long response to your writing. Why are we pursuing these
matters? Because we know the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has given us to do so.
He is not pleased with your works, and wants you to know it, for your sake.
You are in great error. Instead of bringing life, your teachings rob men of
it.
You are teaching from a carnal knowledge learned from others, such as George
Hawtin and A.P. Adams, and by your own understanding, which is not founded
on the Rock, the Immutable Truth. That will never do.
As it is written:
“First, you must understand this: No prophecy in Scripture is a matter
of one’s own interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20 GW).
There is a place of seeing, and we see you from it. We have the true understanding
from Him Who inspired the prophets. It is written:
1 Corinthians 2:11-16 WNT
(11) For, among human beings, who knows a man’s inner thoughts except
the man’s own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God’s
Spirit is acquainted with God’s inner thoughts.
(12) But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which
comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely
given to us by God.
(13) Of these we speak--not in language which man’s wisdom teaches us,
but in that which the Spirit teaches--adapting, as we do, spiritual words to
spiritual truths.
(14) The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot
attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged.
(15) But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is himself judged
by no one.
(16) For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will instruct Him? But
we have the mind of Christ.
The article to which I have responded is particularly blasphemous. You try
to explain the nature of Christ, mostly through others. You are entirely off
base in your presumptions and conclusions, because none of it comes from a
personal knowledge of Him, by having His mind. The Second Commandment of God
forbids using conjectures and opinions to form an image of God. Such is an
idol. Man cannot depict, convey, or accurately transmit the Nature of God by
something he has conceived in his own imagination. In doing this, you border
on blasphemy, if not blaspheme and cause others to blaspheme.
There are two major errors in your article:
One, you speak of the Lord as if He was, in the days of His flesh, no different
than anyone else. However, nothing could be further from the truth, according
to His essential nature and being:
“For such a high priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26
MKJV).
Two, you present the Lord as an example to be followed. For men born of flesh,
it is impossible to follow Jesus Christ. You must be born of the Spirit to
follow Him, which is not to imitate Him, but to go as He presently leads. In
this He causes those who are one with Him, as He was with the Father, to overcome
as He did.
This is a serious matter. You are breaking the Law of God because you have
made an image of the One Who sits on the throne of Heaven. You are defiling
that which is holy and incorruptible. God does not overlook this. You need
to consider the words of Moses as you read my answer to your writing, and know
that you are being held responsible:
“Make sure that there is no one here today who hears these solemn demands
and yet convinces himself that all will be well with him, even if he stubbornly
goes his own way. That would destroy all of you, good and evil alike. The LORD
will not forgive such a man. Instead, the LORD’s burning anger will flame
up against him, and all the disasters written in this book will fall on him
until the LORD has destroyed him completely” (Deuteronomy 29:19-20 GNB).
Response to the article “Behold the Man!” by
Kenneth Leckey:
“The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5 HNV).
Who is Jesus Christ?
In a writing entitled “Behold the Man!” Kenneth Leckey presents
A.P. Adams’ teaching and opinion that Jesus Christ shared a fallen nature
with all of humanity, and was under the curse of sin, just as weak as any other
man, in order to serve as a suitable role model. According to Leckey and Adams,
Jesus Christ was a son of God, though an inferior one in nature to Adam, and,
without a doubt, was not God Himself.
However, here is my reply: If you see a bird that walks like a duck, swims
like a duck, flies like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then you must conclude
that it is a duck. If you see a man that walks like God, talks like God, does
the works of God, and has every attribute of God, then you have seen God. That
is what Jesus Christ Himself said when approached by one of His disciples who
asked to see the Father:
“‘Master,’ said Philip, ‘cause us to see the Father:
that is all we need.’ ‘Have I been so long among you,’ Jesus
answered, ‘and yet you, Philip, do not know Me? He who has seen Me has
seen the Father. How can you ask Me, ‘Cause us to see the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? The
things that I tell you all I do not speak on My Own authority: but the Father
dwelling within Me carries on His own work. Believe Me, all of you, that I
am in the Father and that the Father is in Me; or at any rate, believe Me because
of what I do’” (John 14:8-11 WNT).
If you are looking at divinity, you are looking at God, even if you do not
recognize what you are seeing; God is a Spirit, not flesh, and the flesh does
not comprehend Him. You do not see divinity (God) with outward carnal eyes,
but by inward spiritual revelation. This is where much confusion arises in
religious circles, as typified by the error of Adams’ teaching. Men are
using their carnal senses to depict God, Whom they do not know. Jesus Christ,
the Nature of God fully expressed in human form, can only be seen by the opening
of the spiritual eyes by the Spirit of God. This is what Jesus declared when
Peter said that He was Son of the living God:
“Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal
it to you, but My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 16:17 LITV).
In this rebuttal to Leckey and Adams, I will clearly show by Scripture and
irrefutable logic that Jesus Christ is God Almighty, Who, though He appeared
in the flesh as a man, was no ordinary man as they allege.
Jesus Christ is not a second god, sub-god, semi-god, quasi-god, or part of
a trinity god, but is very God, Lord of lords, the Creator of all things. When
He came in the flesh, there had never before been any man like Him, and never
since. If any man is like Him now, it is because that person has been born
again, receiving His Spirit - just as Jesus, in His physical body, was conceived
by the Spirit of God.
I will answer the many objections that Adams, Leckey and company bring up
to oppose the fact that Jesus Christ is God (these objections being common
to many) and Lord of their lives, along with other errors, so that you might
know for certain that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord God Almighty, and that you
might find peace with God through Him.
Man’s Version - Fairy Tale Religion
Leckey begins his paper by quoting H.G. Wells:
“The story of the early beginnings of Christianity
is the struggle between the real teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the limitations,
amplifications
and misunderstandings of the very inferior men who had loved and followed Him
from Galilee...The early Nazarenes, as the followers of Jesus were called,
present from the first a spectacle of great confusion between these two strands,
His teaching, on the one hand, and the glosses and interpretations of the disciples
on the other. They continued for a time His disciplines of the complete subjugation
of self....”
To Wells, as with so many, Christ is merely a historical figure Who taught
men ways in which they were to follow God. According to Wells, after Jesus
ascended into Heaven the disciples were dependent upon their own limited resources
to apprehend and manifest His teachings. Being inferior, it did not take long
for them to mess things up. Wells calls this failure the “departure from
the faith.”
Is not such a faith doomed to failure? How can those of inferior nature become
superior? Can a man pull himself up by his own bootstraps? How can it be that
Christ, the One Who, because of His superiority, came to lay down His life
for the whole world, and is called the Savior of all men, could not help even
those closest to Him “get it right”? Did He not choose them? Did
He not say He would keep them? Wells is calling Christ a liar or impotent or
both. What wisdom is there in God sending His Son if men are powerless to follow
Him? But that is precisely why God did send Him! The Savior is the power of
God that transforms the faithless into the faithful and victorious children
of God.
The Scriptures tell this latter story, a very different one than Wells’ faithless
perception of what happened. The Book of Acts records how the followers of
Christ were filled with His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, thereafter empowered
to do His works and behaving as though Christ was not only present, but in
them, because He was!
Wells’ stance sums up the unbelief of man, which goes like this: Jesus
Christ passed into History, and, therefore, was and is no longer Personally
present to work in and through those who believe on Him by the power of His
indwelling Spirit. It is now every man for himself; whoever professes Christ
is on his own to do the best he or she can in imitating the Master. This is
contrary to what Jesus told His followers (“I will be with you always,
even unto the end of the world”), and to their testimonies:
“For truly, against Your Holy Child Jesus, Whom You have anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations, and the people of Israel, were
gathered together in order to do whatever Your hand and Your counsel determined
before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant to Your
servants that with all boldness they may speak Your Word, by stretching
forth of Your hand for healing, and miracles, and wonders
may be done by the Name of Your Holy Child Jesus” (Acts 4:27-30 MKJV).
Paul the apostle said it was not he that did the works, but it was Christ
Who lived in him (1 Corinthians 15:9). That is not imitation. Paul’s
faith was not in following precepts, in the manner that Wells characterizes
Christian faith, and, therefore, according to him, Paul missed the mark of
Christ because he was not up to the task, being a man of lesser ability. Following
precepts to be like God is what Paul was doing before he knew Christ, when
he persecuted the Church of God, the mystical Body of Christ. It was after
Paul was turned from dead religion and living by the letter of the Law, according
to his own power and interpretation, to living by the faith of the Son of God,
that he had the power of God to live the Jesus life. Then, he says, “For
me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).
To Leckey and Wells, two peas in a pod regarding ignorance of the existence
of authentic faith, it is a matter of imitation and getting it right because
having the model of Jesus before one to imitate. This model is supposed to
inspire mankind to express an innate godliness - should any be of inferior
quality in that department, tough luck.
The truth is that the life Jesus Christ lived is so far removed from anything
humanly possible, that to those who begin to perceive how He lived and what
He did, it is exactly the opposite of inspiring. Trying to achieve His state
of godliness by following His example is demoralizing in the extreme. You will
have no more success imitating Christ than you would cooking up gold if locked
in a room with a stove, a pot, and a handful of straw.
Can you live without sinning? Maybe you think you are not sinning. The rich
young ruler thought, as did Saul of Tarsus, that he kept all the Law. How about
this, then? Can you leave everything and everyone near to you behind, gather
up twelve disciples, have them leave everything and everyone behind to follow
you, take them on the road and freely preach in public places, answering and
healing anyone who comes to you, and providing for all those with you? Can
you command the wind to desist and walk on water? Can you be misunderstood
by all, even by your closest companions, and yet maintain your direction and
proceed with single-mindedness in the confidence of God? Can you prevail despite
deadly opposition by religious powers that do not believe your “self-appointed” preaching?
Can you purposefully walk into the hornet’s nest, knowing you will be
scourged and crucified, laying down your life for the very people who hate
you? Can you lay it down, and then raise your own body from the dead? Can it
be said of you that the greatest of prophets to ever live, whether John the
Baptist or Moses, is not worthy to untie your shoe? Can no person come unto
God except by you?
How are men such as Leckey and Adams so deceived about Christ that they would
presume to tell you that you can be the same as He just by imitating Him? What
reason could there be other than they do not know what they are talking about,
and do not care to know? They may profess to believe in Him, but they do not.
They believe in themselves. They know Christ on an intellectual, self-serving
basis, making Him in their own image and calling that “Jesus Christ.” What
they are actually saying is: “I am equivalent to Christ. I can do what
He did.” Because Christ did the works of God, they are also making themselves
equivalent to God. By telling everyone else that they can be as Christ (God),
they deny their hearers the salvation that comes by receiving the only begotten,
superior Son of God as their Savior, and rob Him of the honor and worship that
is His due. They lay an impossible burden on men to exalt themselves, yet cannot
(and would not) perform that which they suggest.
The whole spirit and attitude is anti-Christ, meaning, man taking the place
of Christ, Who is God.
Christ – The Power of God to All Who Believe
Wells brings up these central questions:
“Jesus called Himself the Son of God and also
the Son of Man; but he laid little stress on who He was or what He was, and
much upon the teachings
of the kingdom...Was Jesus God? Or had God created Him? Was he identical with
God or separate from God?...By the fourth century of the Christian era we find
all Christian communities so agitated and exasperated by torturous and elusive
arguments about the nature of God as to be largely negligent of the simpler
teachings of charity, service, and brotherhood that Jesus had inculcated.”
What Wells does not know or recognize is that the teachings of Christ are Who He is. You cannot separate Him from His teachings, and you cannot fulfill
His teachings without Him living inside you. Jesus said that He is the way,
the truth, and the life. He did not say that about His teachings. Therefore,
you cannot absorb and manifest His teachings unless you have absorbed Him.
That is why He said:
“I am the living bread come down out of Heaven. If a man eats this bread,
he shall live forever. Moreover the bread which I will give is My flesh given
for the life of the world...In most solemn truth I tell you...that unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John
6:51, 53 WNT).
The life is in Him, not in us, or in words on a page. Imitating Christ, the
point of His appearing and ministry according to those whose beliefs we are
examining, is really the way of false religion. It is false because it is dependent
on, and powered by, man’s efforts at understanding, love, worship, and
brotherhood, rather than the love and wisdom of God that comes from having
His life. If mankind was up to the job, and had it within himself to do these
things, why was a Savior sent to save him? Those attributing the power of godly
imitation to man, and exercising a presumed spiritual authority based on the
knowledge of that power, represent the very same self-righteous spirit that
crucified the Christ.
Man naturally rejects God, preferring to keep his own counsel, which is why
he needs the Savior in the first place. “Do-it-yourself” religion
rejects the Savior (despite what it says) and, according to God, is thereby
responsible for all the bloodshed on earth:
“And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all those
who had been slain on the earth” (Revelation 18:24 EMTV).
Unless you know Who Christ is by personal revelation, and He lives within
you by His Spirit, you cannot serve God or mankind profitably in the things
of God. Only by having His Nature and walking in His power, will one do the
works of God. Those will be authentic and not imitation works. Understand that
because we live in a world filled with fake faith does not mean there is not
the Real. All the more, therefore, does the Real shine forth when He appears.
True believers in God know Christ is God because He enables them to forsake
all that they must to walk with Him. That which was impossible for man is possible
with God through Christ. Through Christ you can be saved from your sins to
walk in the will of God. If you truly know anything about Him, and in earnest
try to imitate Him, you will soon come to see that you are helpless. Before
Christ is revealed, you think, as does Leckey, that you are as God to determine
right and wrong, and that you can choose the right in your own power. That
is how one can be deceived, though speaking ever so sincerely in his error
and wrongness.
When I say that you must know Christ is God Almighty, I am obviously not talking
about an intellectual, doctrinal knowing. I am talking about an experiential
knowing. This knowing comes by faith, which is a gift, and is not something
you can attain by emulation or any other means. If you have this faith and
believe – meaning you are fully dependent in all you are and do on God
through the Lord Jesus Christ - you will not perish in your sins. Christ will
save you. (Indeed, that you have faith is a token of His salvation already
in process.) You will learn the difference between spirit and flesh, life and
death, light and darkness, God’s righteousness and self-righteousness.
Until you are born again, you have only darkness within. When the true Light
has begun to shine {on your heart}, you will know by faith who and what you
are, because in the Light of Christ you will see. That is why we are sent to
preach Him, the Light of all men, and not the emulation of Him, or any other
thing, though we establish and uphold His Law as the reflection of His true
Essence and Nature.
The Law of God, which is the basis of the morals and teachings of Jesus to
which Wells refers, was manifest in Christ and revealed man’s sinfulness:
“And seeing, Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord” (Luke 5:8 LITV).
As Christ manifests the perfection of God’s Law, so the Law demonstrates
man’s need of Him, the Savior, to walk in it. He reveals both the problem
and the solution. It is God Who opens the eyes to see, and the ears to hear.
Only He can give men the senses to repent and learn to walk as they ought.
God Takes On Human Form
Leckey writes that Gethsemane (the garden where the Lord agonized over His
impending crucifixion) illustrates the humanity of Christ:
“He was not God pretending to be a man; but rather
a son of Abraham who was about to taste death for every man.”
Who says that God, because He took on flesh and blood when He sent the only
begotten Son into the world, was pretending to be a man? He was a man. But
was He only a son of Abraham? He was much more, as Jesus said to the descendants
of Abraham:
“Then He put a question to them: How is it that they say that the Messiah
is David’s son? In the Book of Psalms, David clearly says, ‘God
said to my Master, Sit here at My right hand until I put Your enemies under
Your feet.’ David here designates the Messiah as ‘my Master’--so
how can the Messiah also be his son?” (Luke 20:41-44 MSG)
The Messiah was not pretending to be a man. He bled real blood on the cross.
The fact that it was the Son of God Who shed His blood makes it all the more
powerful. Who will dispute that? The only pretending going on here is where
men presume they have the power of Christ to exercise godliness when they do
not.
God became a man, in all respects as we are, except without sin. That made
Him - Jesus Christ - unique, as there never was, or has been, such a man. Only
the One without sin was found worthy to open the Book of Life:
“And I wept very much, because no one was found worthy to open
and to read the book, nor to look at it. And one of the elders said to me, Do not
weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed
to open the book and to loose the seven seals of it” (Revelation 5:4-5
MKJV).
In the days of His flesh, it was said of Jesus:
“No human has ever spoken like this man” (John 7:46 GW).
Now we know that God is an omnipotent Spirit, and not a man. That does not,
however, preclude the Omnipotent Spirit, God, from becoming a man. Who can
deny that God has that power, and who can prove He would not and has not exercised
it? They would be calling the Bible untrue. Read the eighteenth chapter of
Genesis for starters.
Leckey recalls that it was prophesied of John the Baptist by his father that
John would be the prophet of the Highest, going before the Lord to prepare
the way for His coming. Why Leckey brings this to our attention is not known,
because he makes nothing of it, but does that mean we should overlook what
is plainly being said there? Just Who is it that John introduced to Israel?
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest, for you
shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge
of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God; by which the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give
light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79 MKJV).
Since when has any man been called the “Highest”? Who is the Highest
if not God Almighty? Who is more exalted than He? And Who but God can save
us from our sins? The Jews knew the answer, having been taught of God:
“The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to say to themselves, ‘Who
is this man who speaks such blasphemy! God is the only One Who can forgive
sins!’” (Luke 5:21 GNB)
Furthermore, Who is the Dayspring from on high that brings light to those
in darkness, if not God?
“This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto
you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5
KJV).
We know that no ordinary human being can be the Light that lightens every
person in the world:
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for witness,
to give witness about the Light, so that all men might have faith through Him.
He himself was not the Light: he was sent to give witness about the Light.
The true Light, which gives light to every man, was then coming into the world.
He was in the world, the world which came into being through Him, but the world
had no knowledge of Him” (John 1:6-10 BBE).
In other words, God, Who is light, became flesh, a human being called Jesus
Christ. John calls Christ the Light. He also says this about Him:
“But if we walk in the Light [Christ], as He [God] is in the Light [Christ],
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s]
Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 MKJV).
Jesus Christ is God’s Way to bring Light and Life to mankind, to make
man in His image. Like begets like. Only God can beget children of God. That
is why He became a man, to build a habitation for man in Himself, and Himself
in man. He identified with man and thereby provided the way for mankind to
be born from above and identify with Him.
Christ Exposes Man’s Polluted Doctrine
Leckey is right to say that Jesus is the Son of God but not God the Son. At
least He is not the latter as spoken of by trinitarians, who use that description
to designate Him as another being, separate from God. Jesus is the Son of God
because God conceived Himself in human form, His Essence localized in time
and space in a flesh and blood body, the same as any man, while He, the Father
of spirits, reigned over all realms, as always. Christ is not God the Son because
there is still only one God, though He directly and independently manifested
Himself as a human being in our dimension.
In the same manner there is the Spirit of God, Who is also called the Spirit
of Christ (1 Peter 1:11 and Romans 8:9), but there is no God the Spirit or
Christ the Spirit. If that were so, there would actually be four gods in one
instead of three in one, a “Quadrinity.” But the whole notion of
multiple gods is confusion and rubbish.
How can God be manifest in more than one realm? The same way He can make a
virgin give birth without the presence or help of a man – through the
power of His Spirit. His rulership and Presence pervades all realms, visible
and invisible. To deny this expression of His power is to deny that God is
actively engaged and is ruling over all things in our world.
Through a virgin giving birth, God entered our sphere of existence as one
of us. Though He was God (Spirit), He lived a life as the Son of Man (flesh
and blood) in submission to the will of the Father (Spirit). That is why Jesus
prayed and spoke to God, and spoke of Him as the Father. He was confined to
a body and the weaknesses to which all men are prone, being flesh and blood,
and was dependent on God to overcome them, just as we are. Being God in Spirit,
He was able to do what no man could ever do, which is to perfectly depend on
the Father in the weakness of His flesh.
For those who find the seeming contradiction of God being Father and Son,
in Heaven and on earth simultaneously, an insurmountable one, consider some
of the contradictions of your own position, which demonstrate the weakness
of your logical arguments against this truth. Earlier I quoted where Jesus
told Philip that those who have seen Him have seen the Father.
Question: If the Son is not the Father, how then can Jesus say they have seen
the Father by seeing the Son? What would be the point of seeing the Father
then? Or is it that none born of God will ever see their own Father?
Jesus says that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. He also says, “He
who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works
than these he shall do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12 MKJV).
Question: How can He go to His Father if, as He said, “Believe Me that
I am in the Father and the Father in Me”? Is He not already there?
Question: If, as proponents of the doctrine of the trinity claim, the Son
is co-equal with the Father, how is it Jesus says, “The Words that
I speak to you I do not speak of Myself, but the Father Who dwells in Me,
He does the works.” Or how is it He says, “My Father is greater
than I” (14:28)?
You may ask some of these questions of us because these statements seem to
indicate more than one Being, and therefore contradict what we say, but consider
that they also contradict what you say. So, then, how can you be so sure
of your position?
This we say, that we know the Father because we know the Son, and we know
the Son because we know the Father, and we know that He is One. “Hear,
O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.”
Is it important to us that you understand this truth? No. It is important
to us that the Lord is glorified in the Son, Whom we are.
Jesus, in the laying down of His will as a human being, paved the way for
us to do the same - to lay down our lives in Him, as is desirable and needful
for our salvation. We have not been able to do this on our own, hampered by
sin and prisoners of our own selfishness and carnality, until God (Christ)
came into our realm and we overcame through Him. In Christ the commandments
and promises of God meet together - we fulfill the Law of God, overcoming sin
and the flesh, and God fulfills His destiny in us through Christ. Glory Hallelujah!
His glorious destiny is:
“And the seventh angel trumpeted. And there were great voices in Heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of the world became our Lord’s, even of His Christ;
and He shall reign to the ages of the ages” (Revelation 11:15 LITV).
God will have all men to know and to serve Him, being freed from the corruption
of sin that brings death, in order to walk in His righteousness that is life. “He shall reign,” not “they,” because there are not two Lords,
but one Lord God, Whose Kingdom will fill the earth. Our Lord reigns because
His Christ overcame sin, not for Himself, but for us, and in us. When this
victory becomes ours by His faith and our obedience in that faith, then do
we experience the kingdoms of the world becoming God’s through His Christ.
Praise God! What He has done in one, He will do in all.
The Author’s Work Is His Life
A good point Leckey brings up is that Jesus is not mentioned in the list of
men and women of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Surely as our “perfect
model” He should top the list of inspirational testimonies. But He is
not there. Why? The answer is because Jesus is not our model of faith; He is
the Author and Perfecter of it. The One Who gives us faith and perfects us
in it is much more than an example or model. Leckey defers to Barnes’ Bible
commentary’s explanation of this verse, which is wrong:
“The meaning [Author and Perfecter of our faith] is,
he is the first and the last as an example of faith or of confidence in God
- occupying in
this, as in all other things, the pre-eminence, and being the most complete
model that can be placed before us.”
Multitudes of religious presenting Jesus Christ as a role model, or claiming
that they follow Him as such, are not living up to His example, are they? Quite
the opposite. Millions claim to be following His example, and where is it getting
them and this world? Strife, confusion, hypocrisy, disease, catastrophes, apathy,
rebellion, favor shown to destroyers, persecution of peacemakers, rampant greed
and lust concealed by false piety, the list goes on and on, and it can all
be laid at the feet of those who tell others they should be following the example
of Jesus. No, Jesus Christ did not come to give us the perfect example to follow,
and to lay this burden on others. He said, “Follow Me,” not, “Follow
My example.” He said to His apostles, “Feed My sheep,” not, “Tell
them to figure it out with the knowledge you give them, so that they can do
it themselves.” With what are His sheep fed? With Him.
To follow Christ is to have a relationship with the living God, led by His
Presence in which He conceives, by His Spirit, a new nature in a human being
that grows up into His likeness. Following a role model is man leading himself
in his conception of God, wherein every person does that which is right in
his or her own eyes. Such who do this are ever learning but never coming to
a knowledge of the Truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth.
Leckey calls his man-made model “Jesus Christ,” but it is not
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a dead man made in his own image. There comes
a time when all who follow this way will hear differently from the One they
presume to copy:
“You have done all this, and I have said nothing, so you thought that
I am like you. But now I reprimand you and make the matter plain to you” (Psalms
50:21 GNB).
The Author’s Work Is Our Life
Barnes continues:
“The phrase ‘the beginner of faith,’ or the leader on of
faith, would express the idea. He is at the head of all those who have furnished
an example of confidence in God, for he was himself the most illustrious instance
of it. The expression, then, does not mean properly that he produces faith
in us, or that we believe because he causes us to believe - whatever may be
the truth about that - but that he stands at the head as the most eminent example
that can be referred to on the subject of faith.”
If Barnes cannot state the truth about these things, why does he bother wasting
everyone’s time with his commentary? But we know the truth and speak
it without apology; nothing less will do. The “beginner of faith” is
not a matter of Christ being an eminent example, but of being preeminent as
the Initiator of faith, the One Who calls and chooses us, causing us to will
and to do of His good pleasure:
“You have not chosen Me, but I chose you out and planted you, that you
should go and should bear fruit, and your fruit remain, that whatever you should
ask the Father in My Name, He may give you” (John 15:16 LITV).
If you profess to believe but do not experience these things you have not
yet come into His faith.
Without Jesus Christ no one has the faith that results in the right doing
of God:
“But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being
witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of God through
the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe” (Romans
3:21-22 MKJV).
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16 KJV).
Barnes is wrong to say “the beginner of faith” does not mean that
Christ produces the faith of God in those who believe. That is precisely the
case:
“But the Scripture shut up all under sin, so that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22
MKJV).
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 EMTV).
“Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man comes unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6 KJV).
Barnes is another man in a multitude of self-made “Christians,” not
having received the gift of faith from God through Christ, but having manufactured
a religious one, where knowledge, philosophy, and human belief substitute for
the real thing. To him the cross of Christ is a historical event, a doctrine
enshrined in a tomb, and not a living reality for the believer who also partakes
in an ignominious and public death in this world by taking up his cross with
Christ. Proving my point, Barnes says:
“It is difficult for us now to realize the force
of the expression, ‘enduring
the shame of the cross,’ as it was understood in the time of the Saviour
and the apostles. The views of the world have changed....”
By denying the present applicability of the cross and reducing the understanding
of it to a carnal, historical knowledge, this teaching makes the living Lord
Jesus Christ inaccessible to those who would follow it. The Lord is nowhere
present or needed. His exhortation to take up the cross is irrelevant, according
to unbelieving “believers.” The truth is that if we do not presently
identify with Christ, forsaking this wicked world and enduring the shame of
the cross, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who lose their
lives will gain them. A crossless gospel, the one we are refuting here, is
unreal and fosters false hopes that ultimately lead to disillusionment, disenfranchisement,
disdain, cynicism and despair, with sins multiplied, and death and destruction
following in tow, just as the Lord promised.
Christ Identical to God
Next up, Kenneth Leckey calls on A.P. Adams, whom he says is “especially
helpful for all who seek an answer to our Lord’s searching question, ‘Who
do you say the Son of Man is?’” Adams does prove helpful in this
matter, not because he knows what he is talking about, but because his error
serves as a backdrop for the Light and Truth that will liberate humanity from
its denial of Jesus Christ as Lord and from the deceitful games played with
His Person. These games lead men to the impossible task of trying to manufacture
Him without His Presence.
He starts by throwing down the gauntlet and ridiculing the truth that Christ
is Almighty God:
“The orthodox doctrine, that Christ the Son is
absolutely God the Father;-- in the language of the creeds; “the very unoriginated God,” is
not only absurd, self-contradictory and unscriptural, but it is confusing,
misleading and discouraging to the soul seeking after God.”
If Christ the Son is not the Father, God Almighty, then the question becomes, “Just
Who is He, since there is only one God Who holds the same title as Christ as
the One and only Savior?”:
“Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a discussion together:
Who has given news of this in the past? Who made it clear in early times? Did
not I, the Lord? And there is no God but Me; a true God and a Savior;
there is no other. Let your hearts be turned to Me, so that you may have salvation,
all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself have
I taken an oath, a true word has gone from My mouth, and will not be changed,
that to Me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honor” (Isaiah
45:21-23 BBE).
There is only one God Who is our Savior and before Whom every knee shall bow
and every tongue will confess. Of Jesus Christ it is also written, using the
very same words, that He is the Lord and Savior, before Whose judgment seat
all will appear and give worship:
“That at the Name of Jesus every knee may bow, of those in Heaven, and
of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue may
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians
2:10-11 EMTV).
If one wants another witness that Christ is the Father, One and the Same,
then one need not travel far, or twist Scriptures as Leckey, Barnes, and Adams
do. We can simply take God at His Word:
“For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government
shall be on His shoulder; and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah
9:6 MKJV).
The Son is the Father, the mighty God. Only God is “unoriginated,” which
the Scriptures also say of Christ, Who, in His office as Priest after the order
of Melchisedec, is:
“...without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but having been made like the Son of God,
remains a priest continually” (Hebrews 7:3 EMTV).
Lord and Savior or Role Model? He Cannot Be Both
I continue with Adams’ remarks in red:
“If Christ was absolutely God then how is He my
pattern? how is his victory any encouragement to me?”
And:
“If Jesus Christ did not begin as low down as
I am, then the fact that he made his way out of this horrible pit of corruption
and death is no help
to me…”
Adams’ notion is so antithetical to the truth the apostle Paul declares:
“No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say to Him Who formed it, Why have you made me this way? Does not the
potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel to honor
and another to dishonor?” (Romans 9:20-21 MKJV)
When has a creature in any reality ever transformed itself into the exactness
of a pattern by its own will and power, particularly a pattern so much higher
than itself? Where in Scripture is there any suggestion the Pattern is to be
duplicated by the aspiring copy and not by the Pattern, Who is none other than
the Creator of all?
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10 MKJV).
I will ask you: How is Christ, God come in the flesh and winning the victory
for us, not an encouragement? Is it because you still think you can do it yourself?
For those looking for Him to come and help, it is the greatest of encouragements
that He would come to meet us at the place of our need:
“Lord, all my desire is before You; my sorrow is not kept secret from
You. My heart goes out in pain, my strength is wasting away; as for the light
of my eyes, it is gone from me...In you, O Lord, is my hope: You will give
me an answer, O Lord, my God...I will make clear my wrongdoing, with sorrow
in my heart for my sin... Do not give me up, O Lord; O my God, be near to me.
Come quickly to give me help, O Lord, my salvation” (Psalms 38:9,10,15,18,21,22
BBE).
“O God, You are my God; early will I make my search for You: my soul
is dry for need of You, my flesh is wasted with desire for You, as a dry and
burning land where no water is” (Psalms 63:1 BBE).
How could having a savior arrive not be an encouragement to one stranded on
a desert island? Should those in a concentration camp reject the victors that
liberate them? But many do not recognize their lack, or the Savior Who comes
to rectify it. Quite the opposite; they are full of themselves. It was these
who rejected the Savior, their God, Who said to them:
“If you were blind, answered Jesus, you would have no sin; but as a
matter of fact you boast that you see. So your sin remains!” (John 9:41
WNT)
It is never written or suggested in Scripture that Christ is our pattern Whom
we should (or could) copy to attain godliness. There is no such instruction
from the prophets and apostles or the Lord Himself. We are told to obey Him,
but not to try to copy Him. There is a world of difference between the two.
When you go to work you do not copy everything your boss does - you would get
fired if you tried - but you do what is required by your job description and
what your boss tells you to do. The same goes for being in an army, to which
being a believer in Christ is compared (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
Jesus Christ is Lord, which is much greater and different than a role model.
Those chosen by Him are led as sheep are led by a shepherd. In following Him,
He transforms us (those called by Him), not because we imitate Him, but because
He is Lord and knows what He is doing with us as He conforms us to His image
in circumstances specially tailored to our needs. Our fate is entirely in His
hands, not our own. Those following a role model are sitting in the driver’s
seat, directing themselves. They have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
You can be certain that unless you hear His voice and follow Him, you are not
one of His sheep.
Adams is saying that flesh and blood can inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact,
he is claiming to already be there, by virtue of the “fact” (it
is a lie) that he is on equal terms with Christ (in his mind, a mere man).
This is what these men wish to hear, that Jesus came to encourage them in their
works, God using Christ to demonstrate that unregenerate man is His equal,
and up to the task. This is absolutely untrue and anti-Christ. If man in the
flesh is equal to Christ then he is equal to God- a spirit and attitude that
has brought untold suffering to mankind. That is why it is so important for
you that you know it is a lie, and for you to know the truth, Jesus Christ,
Almighty God and your Savior.
God declares that He is the Potter, and man is the clay. Does clay make itself
into a replica of the one who forms it? Or does the One Who forms it make of
it what He wills? That is the difference between true religion and false religion,
real Christians and false ones. The real and true is made by God; the false
is made by man and is not real. The former hears and recognizes the Sovereign
Creator, and follows Him because he has been made His willing subject, while
the latter does not hear Him, but rejects Him in order to be and to make of
himself what he pleases, not knowing that God is making of him a vessel of
dishonor.
When the Scriptures speak of following the example of the Lord, they are addressing
those who have turned from their sins, who have the faith of Christ and hear
His voice. They do not exhort men who have not turned from their sins to be
like God by imitation. Only those turned to Him and baptized in His Spirit
can be like Him, because Christ lives within, and they have His power to choose
to walk by His Spirit and not after the flesh. That choice only exists for
those who have been born again, who have come alive in Christ.
For example, Peter said to those having Christ’s faith that when they
suffered persecution for walking in His righteousness, they should also follow
His example by taking it patiently. Both the cause of persecution and suffering
of it patiently are the work of the Spirit of Christ in a man, and are not
something the man can initiate or perform in his natural carnal state. Jesus
Christ is God working His salvation in man, making him in God’s image
(Christ). Imitation Christianity is man working in place of God to satisfy
the lusts of his flesh, whatever it is his heart is set on to have or to keep.
It can be very deceitful because it comes packaged in what may appear as a
beautiful and shiny veneer of man’s righteousness.
Paul told believers to follow him, even as he followed Christ. Here, too,
he was specifically speaking to those in Christ who have the Nature of God
as their inheritance and the obligation to walk in it. It was not a matter
of having a power independent of Christ to become like Him, but of having the
power and ability to follow Him because He was in them, and they were part
of His Body. Paul’s words are not meant for those who have not received
the Spirit of God, and who are not part of His Body.
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit
of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he
is not His” (Romans 8:9 EMTV).
We see people everywhere who have not received the Spirit of Christ, yet who
assume, and are taught to assume, that they have all one could hope for in
this life according to the Scriptures and the promises of God. Some, as Adams
and Leckey, speak of Jesus Christ as the role model, though very few of these
actually try to be like Him. Most speak of “accepting” Christ,
after which they are “saved,” although they profess they will not
have eternal life and be without sin until after they die. In this way they
excuse themselves from taking up the cross and dying. They reject living righteously
and without sin, here and now, in Christ. These are the present-day Pharisees
who resist the coming of the Lord in the flesh through those who believe. Their
understanding is in the natural realm, in which no person can know Christ or
have the things of God. The flesh is at enmity with God, always.
Jesus said that no man knows Who the Son is except those to whom God reveals
Him. Does that not tell you that Christ is not a natural man, but God Himself?
Otherwise, being men, we could know Him as another man:
“For who knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which
is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1
Corinthians 2:11 EMTV).
There are the things of man, and there are the things of God. Jesus Christ,
as God in the flesh, bridges the gap between man and God. Because of Christ,
there is no need to despair that there is not a way and present help for one
to live in true godliness, and there is no excuse for living otherwise for
those professing His Name. The Christ that many religious preach is a fictional
one, made in the image of man, existing in their own minds and spirits as rendered
in blasphemous pictures seen in churches and elsewhere. This “Christ” is
entirely impotent to deliver the goods, but brings the wrath of God on those
who worship it.
The Whole Have No Need of the Physician
Adams argues that if Jesus Christ was God Almighty:
“...it was impossible for him to sin and he knew
it, therefore his trial was no trial at all, and his triumph no encouragement
to fallen man, since
the circumstances of the two are in no way similar; man is the almost helpless
football of the evil forces around him...If Jesus Christ did not begin as low
down as I am, then the fact that he made his way out of this horrible pit of
corruption and death is no help to me....”
This is like arguing that a man on land, who has the equipment and know-how
to save you as you are drowning in the ocean, is at an unfair advantage, and
offers you no hope of saving yourself out of your deadly predicament. Though
he has been prepared, with special training and placement, and is able to save
you, you reject him because you will eventually save yourself. This is not
sound thinking; it is madness. Those who speak and act the way Adams does simply
do not see themselves in a deadly predicament and in need of God the Savior.
That is why they reject Him as such.
Men do need a Savior, and only the One Who is holy and separate from sinners
can do the job. Those in sin and death need the One Who is not - Who has the
keys of hell and death. Otherwise, how can He be called their Savior? And how
can the Savior be anything less than Omnipotent to save men from sin and death?
If men have the power to raise themselves from the dead by emulating Jesus
Christ, there is no need of a Savior and the Scriptures are in error in declaring
there is. Those who preach Christ as role model are confounded by what is written
in the Scriptures they claim to believe. The overall point made in the Bible
is that you are in need of salvation, and are unable to save yourself. There
is no such thing as pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.
Leckey is saying he does not need to be pulled up, thank you anyway. He is
already fine, equipped with his supremely inspiring role model, which happens
to be just like him, another man who played the hero; now Kenneth can be the
hero by bringing you the knowledge of the idol he has made, the knowledge of
which will “save” you. This is what the Bible calls the work of
men’s hands, which is condemned by God as something you must avoid altogether
if you would see life. These are the false Christs Jesus warned against.
Here is a puzzle: How can a man claim to be so weak and powerless yet think
to attain Heaven by his own efforts? God says to this man:
“For you said in your heart, I will go up to Heaven, I will make my
seat higher than the stars of God; I will take my place on the mountain of
the meeting-place of the gods, in the inmost parts of the north. I will go
higher than the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14
BBE).
If Leckey knew the grace of God and His power, he would not use being poor
and in such a miserable condition as an excuse for his sinfulness. He would
know that he could do all things by Christ Who strengthens those in whom He
resides. He would not be taking the Lord’s Name in vain, which is what
he does in his profession, but would have a positive confession with fruits
that glorify God. It is not Christ posing as a role model that strengthens
one, but His actual Presence. When He is with you, His blood cleanses you from
all sin and His Spirit is a very present Help in time of trouble. This reality
is but a fairy tale to the one who does the work himself.
The one following a role model is doing the work, with results commensurate
with his ability; whereas the one worshiping Christ, Who lives within, has
results commensurate with His power and ability. We (those in Christ) are not
helpless footballs amongst evil forces. Far from it:
“The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. Rather, they
are powerful weapons from God. With them we destroy people’s defenses,
that is, their arguments and all their intellectual arrogance that oppose the
knowledge of God. We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ” (2
Corinthians 10:4-5 GW).
I did not come to Jesus Christ because I could save myself, but because I
could not. Neither did I know this on my own, but God had to set me aside and
reveal my condition to me. Without revelation, none of us knows anything about
what we truly are. We are in the dark and see nothing. We all think we are
so strong and capable of choosing right and doing good, because we have not
been in the Light, where we could see our Lord and Standard, and, in comparison,
our utter corruption. When we see Him, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh,
we abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes. We will not dare to think
we could be like Him; indeed, we will fall down at His feet as dead men. (God
has said that no man can see Him and live, and His every word is true.) After
this great change come freedom, power and life – in Him - all in due
time.
Paul the apostle said that he was the chief of sinners, because he had persecuted
the Lord Jesus and killed His saints. Paul was turned when the Lord Jesus Christ
met him on the road to Damascus, and he was knocked off his donkey and blinded.
He called Jesus “Lord” at that same time, though he did not know
His Name. Paul did not see Christ by physical sight or by his natural senses,
and certainly did not view Him as his role model. The gift of faith did not
come by imitation, so Paul did not proceed in this manner. He did not say, “Lord,
I now see that you are a human being after which I can model myself, and this
inspires me so!” On the contrary, he taught men:
“Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we
have known Messiah after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more. Therefore
if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 HNV).
After Paul confessed Jesus as Lord, the Lord commanded a man named Ananias
to lay hands on him in order for his sight to be restored and to receive God’s
Spirit. Ananias did not talk about following Jesus as a role model. You can
make what you like of a role model, picking and choosing and doing as you will
with it, because you are in charge; with the saints, however, Christ is there
in Person, speaking and leading them as He wills! He was not remote or removed
from Paul and Ananias, an image they reconstructed or conjured up, but was
present, directing them and making happen what needed to happen. Only God can
command like that, otherwise His Name and Title are meaningless lies. Adams
and Leckey are preaching another Christ, not the One recorded in Scripture,
Who is shown to be God and is no liar. In that they say their Christ is not
the Almighty they speak truly. Their god is the lie, one of works (man’s
doing), and not of grace (God’s doing).
Adams says:
“...what I want to know most, as a member of the
fallen race is, not how near Christ comes to God, but how near he comes to
man. I want to know,
of course, if he can reach up to God, but I want to know still more if he can
reach down to me; in short, I want to know if he was man, “a brother
born for adversity,” a child born as well as a Son given....”
No one is arguing that Jesus Christ was not fully human. He was a flesh and
blood man, like every other person that has entered the world. How does the
fact that He is also God prevent Him from reaching you? Coming as a man is
precisely how He serves as the Mediator of all men, being resurrected from
the dead and positioned “at the right hand of God” to fulfill this
commission to intercede on our behalf. He is fully aware of our condition,
fully able to help us, and fully desirous to do so:
“Therefore having a great High Priest Who has passed through the Heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we do not have a
High Priest Who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but having been tempted
in all respects in quite the same way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore
let us come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16 EMTV).
Jesus Christ reaches down, not to those alive to themselves and sin, but to
those who have turned from their sins and have come by the cross to His throne
of grace. God saves us who believe through Jesus Christ, Who knows our weaknesses
but has overcome them and is seated on the throne of God. For now, those who
do not believe, but choose to identify with the fallen Adam rather the risen
One, must find out the hard way that there is no salvation to be found in the
earthly man. We refute this teaching because we know Christ, God our Savior,
Who has lifted us out of the realm of unbelief and sin to sit with Him on His
throne in Heaven.
We learned Who Christ is just as did the blind man to whom Jesus gave sight.
At first we did not know Who He was, but only that He opened our eyes to see
God, and we believed on Him by the miracle of faith He performed in us. He
told us the truth, and we believed and worshiped Him:
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and having found him, He said
to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of God?’ He answered and said, ‘And
who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You
have both seen Him and it is He Who is speaking with you.’ Then he said, ‘Lord,
I believe!’ And he worshipped Him” (John 9:35-38 EMTV).
Here is the testimony of another such witness who did not find Christ too
remote from his suffering, and near enough in adversity, though Christ was
God in the flesh:
“Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be executed with Him.
When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified Him. The criminals
were also crucified, one on His right and the other on His left.... One of
the criminals hanging there insulted Jesus by saying, ‘So you’re
really the Messiah, are you? Well, save yourself and us!’ But the other
criminal scolded him: “Don’t you fear God at all? Can’t you
see that you’re condemned in the same way that He is? Our punishment
is fair. We’re getting what we deserve. But this man hasn’t done
anything wrong.” Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You enter
Your Kingdom.’ Jesus said to him, ‘I can guarantee this truth:
Today you will be with Me in paradise’” (Luke 23:32-33, 39-43).
Leckey and Adams represent a third and the worst kind of thief. Rather than
outright rail on the Lord, they say, “Look, the Son of God is being crucified,
and so am I! Seeing He is sinful flesh, and I am the same, I can claim His
inheritance, and since all power is given to Him, I will have the same.”
By putting their carnal, sinful selves in Christ’s place, in Heaven,
they are essentially trying to bring Him down to their level, rather than dying
to themselves and being raised to life by and in Him. Adams does not really
want to know if Christ can reach down to him and save him; he only wants to
know if he can attain to Christ’s position without paying the price.
That is impossible:
“In the same way, none of you can be My disciples unless you give up
everything” (Luke 14:33 GW).
The Weakness of God Stronger than Men
A.P. Adams continues:
“Now in order to be like his brethren in all things
he began his earth-life lower down than Adam; the latter was created a son
of God, an adult human being,
with a sinless nature. Christ began his life a helpless babe, Son of fallen
man as well as Son of God, with a sinful nature.”
If Adam had a sinless nature, how did he sin?
“Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His
seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1
John 3:9 MKJV).
If Christ had a sinful nature, how did He not sin?
“For we do not have a High Priest Who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but having been tempted in all respects in quite the same way as we are, yet
without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 EMTV).
Leckey and Adams have things backwards. They worship the first Adam while
Christ, the Last Adam, is the One worthy of worship because He is God come
in the flesh. Christ did not sin because God does not have a sinful nature.
That is why those born of the Last Adam do not sin; they inherit His nature.
No human being has ever overcome the first Adam’s nature. Only Christ,
the sinless Son of God has, and does the same in those who believe. That is
why it is written that if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is alive because of righteousness (Romans 8:10). You cannot
overcome sin without God in you, which is Christ.
So, on the one hand, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, Who cannot sin because
He does not have a sinful nature; on the other hand, we have these two men,
along with so many others, who, living in the sinful nature of the first Adam,
think to have found a way to remain in it without having to take responsibility
for the consequences of doing so. They have taken on the favorable status of
Christ before God as if it is their natural inheritance, without paying the
price of admission – their lives. They come up another way. The consequences
of sin and living in the fallen man must and will continue to accrue to them,
until they are turned from being their own gods.
The Sinless Perfection of God in Christ Is Our Salvation
Adams continues:
“Some perhaps will demur to the statement that
Christ had a sinful nature; but such certainly is the positive teaching of
Scripture. He was “made
sin;” (2 Cor. V. 21) he was not a sinner, on the contrary he “knew
no sin,” he was holy, harmless, undefiled;” how then was he made
sin? By taking upon himself man’s fallen nature, in no other way could
he have been made sin; and this is still further confirmed by the fact that
he was “made of woman;” “who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? not one.” (Job XIV. 4).”
This is double talk and confusion. If Christ lived as a man without sin then
He did not have a fallen nature. You cannot have it both ways. A fallen nature
is what makes one a sinner - one who commits sin. The only conclusion possible
is that Christ being made sin does not mean He had a sinful nature. I can show
you how this is so, from Scripture.
The sacrifices of God commanded in the Law of Moses were required to be without
blemish. They were “without sin,” yet they were made sin by the
act of serving as sacrifices to atone for men’s sins. These sacrifices
foreshadowed the Perfect One to come, Who would be made sin (even those very
words “made sin” tell you He was not of sinful nature) and, by
His offering, would, once and for all, permanently remove our sin. Anything
less than perfect could not make atonement for us and bring us into perfection.
A sinful nature is not perfect.
Jesus Christ was made sin and cursed, not because He was flawed, but because
He was not, to suffer on behalf of those who are flawed, to take away our sin
and to bring us into the perfection of God that is in Him.
Was Jesus unclean, because He came from a woman, a fallen human being? No.
For Him, “being made of woman” does not mean the same thing it
meant when King David said:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived
me” (Psalms 51:5 HNV).
All mankind has received the nature of the fallen Adam by parentage. But Jesus
Christ was different. Though made of a woman, He was conceived by God, Who
is without sin. The greater in this case is not overtaken by the lesser, just
as darkness does not overcome Light. In Christ, the Light of all men overcame
the darkness, and still does. Jesus could be tempted because He was a man,
but He did not sin because He was God.
Adams: “Furthermore he was ‘in all points tempted like as we,’ how
could he have thus been tempted if he had not had a sinful nature?”
Being tempted does not automatically translate into committing sin or being
helpless against the power of sinful flesh. If it did, where would that leave
us, inhabiting these weak vessels of clay, except doomed to serve corruption?
What hope would there be for us? But Paul says he kept his body under. Is he
talking about human willpower? No; he is talking about God’s power. God
in Christ, and Christ in him. “I can do all things through Christ, Who
strengthens me,” he said.
Do not statements like the above reveal how empty these men are of any experience
of the grace of God? What they are really saying is that God was not in Christ,
and Christ is not in us who believe. They are denying His existence. “The
fool has said in his heart that there is no God.”
Are those in Christ tempted, and does God deliver us? We can enthusiastically
say, having personally experienced His Presence and faithfulness, “Absolutely,
positively, yes!”
“No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful,
Who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the
temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear
it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 MKJV).
“Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His
seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1
John 3:9 MKJV).
“For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have
set our trust in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially
of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10 HNV).
The difference between those born of woman and those born of God is that we
who are born again through Christ by His Spirit have the sinless Nature of
God within, which keeps us from sinning and enables us to learn obedience.
That is why He is called the Savior. He not only forgives us our sin, but He
saves us from within by delivering us from our sinful nature, until we grow
up unto the fulness of Him that is a perfect man. To what end would God have
us needing continual forgiveness forever? But Christ came to put away sin,
once and for all, and He has all the power of God to do so.
Adams: “He was obliged to be made like his brethren
in all things; surely he would not have been like his brethren at all if
he had a sinless nature.”
Christ was made exactly like us, except He was not infected with “fallen
man’s disease” - sin, and not only does He have the cure, He
is the cure. He manifested the Higher Nature of God in a body of flesh, a Nature
that is Sin Resistant, which is why we need Him. It is by this Nature, which
is Life itself, that Christ overcame death. Of Him it is written:
“But God raised Him up, loosing the throes of death, because
it was not possible for Him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24 LITV).
If it was not possible for death to hold Jesus, then not only can we say that
God raised Him up, but He raised up Himself, because Jesus Christ is
the life and power of God in man. Do the Scriptures say this? Yes, they do:
“Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple and in three days
I will raise it up” (John 2:19 MKJV).
“...about His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, Who was marked out the Son of God in
power, according
to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans
1:3-4 MKJV).
There is the vessel, the flesh, and there is the Son of God in power, the
Spirit. The first is perishable, a mere container; the second is imperishable,
the Essence of Life. The Spirit of holiness, Who came in the flesh as the man
Christ Jesus, is not a sin nature. To say such a thing is blasphemy.
Only Christ Does the Works of the Father
Speaking again of the One he does not know, Adams writes of Jesus:
“He was weak and feeble like every mortal. ’I can of mine own
self do nothing,’ says Christ; (see John V. 19, 30; VIII. 28) was ever
any one weaker than that?”
When saying He could not do anything of His “own self,” Jesus
was speaking of the flesh. But as I have shown, He was not in the flesh. He
was in the Spirit, and He always walked by the Spirit:
“And He Who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for
I always do those things which please Him” (John 8:29 MKJV).
That is how Jesus did so many great works, culminating in the laying down
of His life for the world, and taking it back up from the grave three days
later. Would you really call that “weak and feeble”?
Adams, however, argues against giving any credit to Christ:
“No, these were the works of God; not Christ’s works at all, but
the works of God, the Father. He empowered Christ; it was through God’s
power alone that Christ performed his mighty works. God could empower you or
I to do the same things, if he pleased, and some will have this power ultimately
even to do greater things than Christ did. (See John XIV. 12).”
Yes, they were the works of God, but through His Anointed Messenger, Jesus
Christ. You cannot separate the two. In the Old Testament, God is often seen
and heard from in what is called His Messenger, the Angel of the Lord. For
example:
“Then the Messenger of the LORD called to Abraham from Heaven a second
time and said, I am taking an oath on My Own Name, declares the LORD, that
because you have done this and have not refused to give Me your son, your only
son, I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the
stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will
take possession of their enemies’ cities. Through your descendant all
the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me” (Genesis
22:15-18 GW).
And after the Messenger of the Lord appeared to Manoah and his wife and told
them of the son He would give them (Samson), Manoah exclaimed to his wife:
“We’re as good as dead! We’ve looked on God!” (Judges
13:22 MSG).
The Messenger of God speaks as God, in His Own Name (which is one), because
He is God. It is God’s manner of speaking and manifesting Himself to
man.
The reason Jesus attributed all His works to God, the Father, was because
they were not done by the will of man, or from the flesh, His “own self,” which
is what men, looking only on the exterior, see and accredit. They do not recognize
Who it is that stands before them, doing the works - the Lord their God. God
was and is manifest through Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus also spoke of them
as His works:
“Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform
cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected” (Luke 13:32
EMTV).
“And Jesus said to them, Come after Me and I will make you fishers
of men” (Mark 1:17 MKJV).
“And a leper came to Him, begging Him and kneeling down to Him, and
saying to Him, If You will, You can make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion,
put out His hand and touched him, and said to him, I will; be clean! And He
having spoken, the leprosy instantly departed from him and he was cleansed” (Mark
1:40-42 MKJV).
The apostles report the same:
“Take note, all of you, and all the people of Israel, that in the Name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom you put to death on the cross, Whom God gave
back from the dead, even through Him is this man now before you completely
well” (Acts 4:10 BBE).
“And His Name, through faith in His Name, has made this man strong,
whom you see and have knowledge of: yes, the faith which is through Him has
made him well, before you all” (Acts 3:16 BBE).
“Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our
Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?” (1 Corinthians 9:1 MKJV)
God did not simply empower Christ; He is Christ, and Christ
is He. Jesus spoke
in terms of His Father because He, in His form as a man, was limited in space
and time just like everyone else. In this manner He represented the relationship
a man should have with God, and will, because He made the way for us to have
it. But it does not mean that God was constrained or confined in any way because
He walked the earth in Christ, His Messenger. Though He came as a man, in a
man, God was not limited to a man’s position. That is why Jesus said
to one that called Him “Good Master”:
“Why do you call Me good? None is good except One, God” (Luke
18:19).
That man was looking at the Lord as these religious philosophers do, after
the flesh, commending the flesh as though it is good, because they think they
are good. Did not the man who said those words think he was good, saying that
he kept all of God’s commandments? But Jesus was not in the flesh and
therefore did not accept men’s praise of His flesh.
In this He was infinitely more than the weak, helpless person Adams depicts.
He had emptied Himself and subjected Himself to weakness, taking on the form
of a servant (Philippians 2:7), but by doing so He demonstrated His great power
and majesty. There is not a more powerful Being than the One Who could give
up all power to be crucified through weakness, and then raise His own body
from the dead. That is the ultimate demonstration of power, to lay the life
down and take it up again. There is nothing more powerful anywhere, at any
time, ever.
The problem with sinners is not that they are weak, but that they are strong
in themselves. They do not need God because they have confidence in the flesh
that they themselves know the difference between good and evil. They have been
eating from the Tree of Knowledge. That is why Jesus said no man can come to
Him, The Tree of Life, unless drawn by God. Everyone already knows better than
He does, so they will not come to Him.
You cannot identify with Christ, and, in fact, you despise Him and hide your
face from Him (Isaiah 53), until you are made weak and no longer trust in yourself.
You must become as a little child, devoid of pride of knowledge. Not until
you are humbled will you stop living by your own thoughts and ways, and start
living by His. Then you will see and know Him, and will taste of His goodness
and power. That is what the cross is all about, and why there is such a critical
need for it. The cross is totally alien to Adams in all of his grandstanding,
philosophizing and speculation about Christ and God. Both Adams and Leckey
are full of themselves, glorying in their knowledge, at total enmity with God
and Christ, and, therefore, spiritual enemies of all men.
Knowing God comes by the taking up of the cross, going through the flaming
sword of death that leads to the Tree of Life, not by theology, the product
of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Theology He hates, because it is presumption,
the result of setting one’s heart on doing one’s own thing, to
be as God, even as Eve was tempted to do, and fell, her husband following her,
bringing death to all.
Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life, the Antidote to death. How can we know this?
He said to take of His body and eat, and that by doing so you would have eternal
life, and would be raised from the dead (John 6:54). He said:
“For My flesh truly is food, and My blood truly is drink. He who eats
My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. Just as the living
Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will
live because of Me” (John 6:55-57 EMTV).
You do not abide in a role model. A role model does not inhabit you and give
you life. Those who look for life and sustenance in another human being are
invariably devastated. Only God can fulfill such a mandate to be with you wherever
you are, sustaining you with His life. If you look to Jesus Christ and keep
His commandments, you will find life in Him, as He is alive, and comes to those
who expectantly look to Him. We testify that these words are true:
“He that believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly
will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 EMTV).
In His days as a man, Jesus Christ was completely identified with God, at
One with Him in submission of body and will, which is why He could say of Himself
and His works:
“If I am not doing the works of My Father, do not have belief in Me;
But if I am doing them, then have belief in the works even if you have no belief
in Me; so that you may see clearly and be certain that the Father is in Me
and I am in the Father” (John 10:37-38 BBE).
How could Christ be so intimately identified with the Father, as no other
man ever was, that He was able to publicly and boldly make these claims and
back them up as He did? Because Jesus and the Father are One. Not only was
the Father in Christ, but Christ was in the Father, even from before the world
began (John 17:5). Can Leckey or Adams say that of themselves? How then are
they the same as Christ, as they claim? Can any person make these claims? No;
but Jesus says it of Himself, and proved it, for He is the Lord our God. “Hear
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Only in Christ Are Men Born of God
Religious philosophers, because they are not in Christ and He is not in them,
do not do His works, and particularly the greater ones that Jesus told His
disciples they would do after He had gone to the Father. What are these greater
works? What can be greater than giving sight to the blind or raising the dead
back to life? There is only one thing that Jesus could not do in the days of
His flesh, and that was to bring His disciples into the new birth, the life
that He had from God. Only after He was glorified was God able to send His
Spirit to live inside those who believed on Him, giving them the life and power
of Christ. Before that, the disciples, though they believed, could not follow
the Lord where He was. They were not in the same place and lacked the power
to do as He did, which God could not give them until Christ had ascended.
While Christ said He was straitened (Luke 12:50), we see that it was God Himself
Who was constrained until He could pour out His Spirit from on High. A role
model or example was not enough. The disciples had the Living Example of God
right before them in the flesh. What better opportunity to follow Christ? Peter,
in great earnestness, said that, though all others would deny Him, he would
follow Christ all the way to death. Who can doubt his sincerity? But Jesus
told Peter, and all of His disciples, that they would be offended on His account.
Jesus knew the Scriptures foretold this, because He was the Word (God) made
flesh:
“Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be offended because of Me
this night. For it is written, ‘I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep
of the flock shall be scattered abroad’” (Matthew 26:31 MKJV).
Before Christ, no one had been born of the Spirit. John the Baptist, the greatest
of prophets, though filled with the Spirit of God from before his birth, declared
that he needed this baptism of Christ (Matthew 3:14). No prophet or man of
God, not even Moses and Elijah with all their great works of faith, had been
born from above. This was only possible after the resurrection and ascension
of Christ.
Why is the new birth, something not readily observed or understood by the
carnal man, so much greater than the parting of the Red Sea or the raising
of Lazarus from the dead - such tremendous and sensational events to our senses?
Because the new birth is God in man, while these miracles are something God
has done for man. As wonderful as the latter are, we do not receive the life
of God in them. That explains how the children of Israel, after witnessing
all the great miracles that God, by the hand of Moses, did in their sight,
did not believe and eventually went whoring after other gods. The miracles
they saw did not have the power to change them. The new birth has that power.
That was demonstrated by the change in Peter and the other disciples after
they received the Spirit of God at Pentecost.
As the spiritual greatly transcends the physical, so the new birth from above
is so much greater than any physical miracle done on earth. It is the means
by which men are transformed by the faith of Christ to be as God, partakers
of His Divine Nature in the Kingdom of Heaven.
This most miraculous of powers was given to the apostles, fulfilling the words
of Christ, as they laid hands on those who believed, causing them to receive
the Spirit of God.
Here is the difference between what God has done through His Body and what
men such as Adams and Leckey preach: Men cannot reproduce God. They can be
very religious and do many great works, but only God, by the Spirit of Christ
in those who receive Him, can reproduce Himself in mankind. That is why those
born of Him are called His body. They are the children of the living God, called
out from the world and its worldly, carnal religious works such as that which
we answer here, where the onus is placed on men to figure out God and to try
to make Him happen, as if He were not already Sovereign and doing it all Himself.
Jesus Christ the Power of God
Adams: “Christ in himself was a weak, feeble man;
what he did was by the power of God, just as God might empower any one to
do a mighty work; thus,
for instance, Paul speaks, “I labored more abundantly than they all,
yet not I but the grace of God that was with me,” (1 Cor. XV. 10); so
Christ, with equal truth, might have said the same....”
The difference between Paul and Christ is that Paul had to be turned from
his sin to God - the Lord Jesus Christ (“Who are You, Lord?”),
whereas Christ was God and had no sin. He was always with the Father, and the
Father was always with Him. In Christ, God took on human form, and, as a human
being, He learned what it meant to take on the yoke of obedience. Christ was
never disobedient (in sin), but He had to learn obedience for our sakes. He
yielded His body as an unblemished sacrifice to God (Hebrews 10:5-10) so that
we might be reconciled to God and do the same. He never had to repent, because
He had never sinned. He did not receive the grace of God so much as He was the grace of God, manifest in a human being and come to full fruition:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John
1:14 EMTV).
The idea that Adams and Leckey are trying to pawn off on people is that God
empowers those who profess Christ as if they are marionettes on strings, which
essentially absolves them of any responsibility for what they do. Not only
are they absolved, but, by this notion, they are also justified, since God
is in charge and, therefore, they must be doing whatever it is that He wants.
They are justified and glorified in their flesh. They are free to mimic Him
with impunity, not realizing they thus mock Him with punity. In seeking to
save their lives, they surely lose them according to the word of the Lord:
“For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses
his life for My sake shall save it” (Luke 9:24 EMTV).
The truth of the matter is that the power of God comes by the new nature in
Christ, which is exercised by the one in whom this Nature resides. “The
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32).
We are not marionettes. The man does it, but the power of God enables him and
he must avail himself of it, much as a caterpillar, by nature, spins its cocoon
to become a butterfly.
It is also not true that anybody can do the works of faith, because, as we
have shown, there must be the new creation by a new birth to manifest the works
of Christ. That is how Paul could say that it was the grace of God in him,
the new nature from above, that was responsible for his works (1 Corinthians
5:10), and not the flesh, to which these men give credit, glorifying and trusting
in their own righteousness. They fail miserably and, worse yet for them, do
not know it. Light must be shone for them and for all to see. We are that light
in Christ:
“For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor anything
hidden that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2 MKJV).
Adams continues:
“‘All things are of God’: this was as true in relation to
Jesus as to any other human being. Jesus was as truly ‘God’s workmanship’ (Eph.
II. 10), as any other human being...God was his Creator, God, and Father, just
as he is our Creator, God and Father.”
It is true that Jesus lived the life every believer is called to live, where
all things are of God. In this, His God is our God. It is, however, also true
that no man can live that life except by and through Christ, for there is no
other man who is, and has been called, the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
No other man was born of a virgin. No other man was known as the Messiah, the Anointed One. No other man was qualified to call himself the Light of the world,
the Living Water, or the Bread from Heaven. The Bible, in both Old and New
Testaments, testifies of no other man as the Central Figure of God. By no other
man were all things created (Colossians 1:16). No other man has been called
the Builder of the house of God (Hebrews 3:3). No other man has been called
the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). No other man has raised his own body from
the dead and ascended to Heaven. No other man has the keys to hell and death
(Revelation 1:18). So, our situations are quite different, because we are dependent
on God through Jesus Christ:
“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one
comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 LITV).
Whereas He had no need of a Mediator:
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 KJV).
Since Man Could Not Become God, God Became Man
Adams on Jesus: “He began on the same plane, and
passed through the same process; ‘made perfect through suffering,’-- that fallen man
must pass through in order to reach perfection. So thoroughly was he human
that he was under the curse (Gal. III. 13), and had to be redeemed like the
rest of mankind; see Heb. IX. 11, 12. ‘But Christ being come, . . . neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.’”
We have already addressed the differences between Christ and all other human
beings, but I will further expose the falsity of the claim that Jesus had to
be redeemed from sin (as though He were under the curse).
According to the Law of God, men under the curse needed the sacrifices of
goats and calves for atonement. Even the high priest could not enter the holy
place without the blood of such sacrifices, showing that the way to the holiest
was not open to any man. But Jesus Christ entered the true sanctuary in Heaven,
once and for all, without the assistance of these God-ordained things, or of
any other intercessor:
“He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore His Own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness, it upheld
Him” (Isaiah 59:16 HNV).
The only One Who can bypass God’s injunctions for man, and fulfill man’s
need, is God Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ entered the holy place, not for
Himself, but on our accounts, all those who needed an Intercessor for our salvation
and redemption:
“In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation” (Colossians
1:14-15 MKJV).
Jesus Christ did not shed His blood for Himself, for there was no need to.
He said the Father was always with Him, for He always did those things that
pleased God (John 8:29). The Father bore witness of Him as well (Matthew 3:17
and 17:5). If God is always pleased and always there, where is the sin? If
there is no sin, there is no need of sacrifice. The shedding of blood is for
sin, without the shedding of which, the Scriptures say, there is no putting
away of it. The blood of Christ was shed for you and for me, not for Himself:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John
3:16 EMTV).
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified”
(Hebrews 10:14 EMTV).
He did not need to sanctify Himself, yet He partook of humanity in order to
sanctify us:
“For it was fitting for Him, on account of Whom are all things and through
Whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Author
of their salvation through sufferings. For both He Who sanctifies and those
who are being sanctified are all of one; for which reason He is not ashamed
to call them brothers” (Hebrews 2:10-11 EMTV).
To put it in simple terms: We have all been dead broke, and deadbeats to boot.
Only Christ was in the position, and had the money, to pay the price for us
to be delivered from our debts. He alone also has the wherewith to make us
able to stay debt-free forever. The reason He could deliver the goods is because
He was free and clear; He owed nothing, and never had. The reason for that
is He is God; all power in Heaven and on earth is His. He proved this by laying
down His life and taking it up again. If you think to follow Christ as your
role model, then you are saying that you also have these attributes and can
do all these things yourself, or, like the fellows whose works we are refuting,
you really don’t care to try; you only want to be justified in doing
your own thing and not suffer for it later on, as you surely will:
“Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever
you plant is what you’ll harvest” (Galatians 6:7 GW).
What about Hebrews 5:7, which Adams brings up to support his opinion that
Christ needed to obtain redemption for Himself? Here is the verse:
“For Jesus during His earthly life offered up prayers and entreaties,
crying aloud and weeping as He pleaded with Him Who was able to bring Him in
safety out of death, and He was delivered from the terror from which He shrank” (Hebrews
5:7 WNT).
Who is saying that, because He was God, Jesus did not suffer as the Son of
Man? That is the marvelous thing, that God became as one of us, and was tempted
as we are, and even more. He was hated and rejected by His own people, with
even His close associates and friends not believing in Him as He faced an excruciating
execution, and these things were sore trials for Him. What else could He do
but commit Himself to the Father of Spirits (Psalm 22 recounts His prayers
and entreaties)? The Psalmist speaks of His innocence:
“They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD has been My high tower, My God,
the rock of My refuge” (Psalms 94:21-22 HNV).
The innocent do not need redemption. Because He suffered in the flesh does
not mean that Christ was guilty and needed redemption. It actually means the
opposite, inasmuch as He did it on our behalf, forgiving us for what we have
done to Him. He suffered the ultimate indignity on account of our depraved
sinfulness, the contradiction of sinners, to bring us complete forgiveness.
This goes to show that He was sinless and, through overcoming in His travails,
He bought redemption for all of us:
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when
You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He
shall see of the travail of His Soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge
of Himself shall My Righteous Servant justify many; and He shall bear their
iniquities” (Isaiah 53:10-11 HNV).
The fact that the only begotten Son of God suffered does not make God more
remote; it brings Him closer in the time of need for those who believe. He
did not spare His only Son in order to reconcile us when we were His enemies;
how much more will He keep us after we have been made His friends through Christ,
and He lives in us? Leckey and Adams have not come to this place, so they would
not know these things, the meaning of the Lord’s temptations and His
power to deliver.
Adams claims that the Lord Jesus Christ, if He is Deity, Divinity Incarnate,
is too remote for men, who cannot relate to Him or be touched by His example.
That is entirely untrue for those who know Him. Jesus Christ as Lord is very
near to those who believe, who put their trust in Him and not in themselves,
but is remote from those who do not believe, who trust in themselves and prefer
lies to the Truth. They seek and do not find, because they do not seek with
all their hearts, ever learning and never coming to knowledge of the Truth.
They serve other gods. They may call on God in their day of trouble, but He
does not answer because they hated true knowledge and the fear of Him, which
they mocked in all their ways (Proverbs 1:26).
Christ’s Transcendent Superiority
Adams asks:
“If Christ began even lower than Adam, and was
a poor, weak man with a fallen nature, how did he come off victorious in
his trial, when Adam, though
he seemed to have had a better opportunity, failed so utterly?”
Adams’ answer is that each of these outcomes was God’s plan. That
is a trite and unsatisfactory answer. One could say that for anything, and
no one would be any wiser. But Adam’s supposition is wrong anyway. He
once again has things backwards. The nature of Christ is vastly superior to
that of Adam, and I can prove it (and have proved it already). It is written:
“For the Scripture says, The first man, Adam, was created a living being;
but the last Adam is the Life-giving Spirit. It is not the spiritual that comes
first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first Adam, made of earth,
came from the earth; the second Adam came from Heaven” (1 Corinthians
15:45-47 GNB).
He came from Heaven. He did not just ascend there. Does that sound inferior
to anyone? He said to Nicodemus:
“And no one has ascended up to Heaven except He Who
came down from Heaven, the Son of Man Who is in Heaven” (John
3:13 MKJV).
Here are other witnesses that confirm Christ’s superiority:
“The angel said to them, Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring
you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born
to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, Who is Messiah the
Lord.
This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying
in a feeding trough [Comment: Not much to look at, is it?]. Suddenly, there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, On earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke
2:10-14 HNV).
“Simeon said, ‘Lord, now You will let Your servant depart in peace,
according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your Salvation which You have
prepared before the face of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the
nations, and the glory of Your people Israel’” (Luke 2:29-32 MKJV).
It was more than God’s plan at work; it was God Himself, the Life-giving
Spirit in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who was able not only to be victorious
in His trials, but also to redeem Adam, his children, and all of creation throughout
all the ages. It was not just a matter that Adam sinned and Christ did not,
but also that Christ pulled Adam and the rest of humanity out of death. The
ramifications of His victory point to not just Who He became, but Who He was
from the beginning that He had such power to accomplish what He did on our
behalf:
“But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One Who will
get us out of it. Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing
sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation
from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one Man, Jesus Christ,
will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this
generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence;
the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence...Here
it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this
trouble with sin and death, another Person did it right and got us out of it.
But more than just getting us out of trouble, He got us into life!” (Romans
5:14-18 MSG).
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1
Corinthians 15:22 LITV).
The One Who redeems us is none other than God our Savior:
“And all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer,
the mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 49:26 KJV).
But Adams uses the following words from Isaiah to reject Isaiah’s confession
that Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, is God Almighty:
“Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; My Elect, in Whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit on Him; He shall bring out judgment to the nations” (Isaiah
42:1 MKJV).
By these words Adams, speaking from his carnal mind, reasons that it was God
Who chose Christ as His Elect, and not Christ Who did everything. Christ is
of no account in comparison. But Isaiah, inspired by God, goes on to say:
“I am the LORD; that is My Name. I will not give My glory TO
ANYONE ELSE or the praise I deserve to idols” (Isaiah 42:8 GW).
How then can Christ not be God, the Father and the Son, for surely Christ’s
Name and Person is glorified? Here are but a few examples of this immutable
fact:
“He [the Spirit of Truth] will glorify Me, because He will take of what
is Mine and will make it known to you” (John 16:14 WNT).
“And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had
with You before the world was” (John 17:5 MKJV).
Christ, being glorified of God as the Savior of mankind, is therefore not “another.” There
is only one Savior and One God Who gets the glory. Since God does not give
His glory to another, Jesus Christ must be God.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in
Me” (John 14:1 EMTV).
Yes, there are two entities, but it is the One God Who is glorified and worshipped.
After Jesus sent Judas out to betray Him, He said:
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God
is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately
glorify Him” (John 13:31-32 MKJV).
Our Lord and God comes as promised: “And I am coming to get together
all nations and tongues: and they will come and will see My glory” (Isaiah
66:18 BBE).
God’s Coming in Christ Gives Us Hope
Adams: “Christ’s final sufferings and death were those of a human
being...the life Jesus laid down and took up again, according to John X. 17,
18, was not his natural, but his pre-existent, divine life.”
Since Christ’s suffering and death were those of a human being, how
is it that the life He took up was not the natural one? Did He not say to Thomas, “Put
out your finger, and see My hands; and put your hand here into My side: and
be no longer in doubt but have belief”? (John 20:27 BBE) It was the same
body He had before His death. He also said to His disciples:
“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see,
for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39
EMTV).
If Jesus Christ did not take up the natural life, there is no hope for any
of us, now, or in the next realm. What is God resurrecting, if not our natural
lives? I have spoken of the resurrection power of Christ, raising us up to
walk in the power of God in this life, but has He not also promised to reconstitute
all things (Acts 3:21)? Yes, the body is raised a spiritual body, but there
needs to be the physical seed first, which is the natural. If there is no resurrection
of the natural, then our faith is in vain. We know, however, that our faith
is not in vain, though Adams’ faith, being man-made and false, is. He
does not know or confess Jesus Christ (God) coming in the flesh (natural).
That is the spirit of antiChrist. How then can he know the resurrection to
life in Christ?
Once again: Though He was a human being in the natural world, Christ was no
ordinary one:
“Now when the centurion who stood across from Him saw that He cried
out like this and breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this Man was the
Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39 EMTV).
Jesus personally fulfilled, in essence and reality, His saying, reflecting
one of His creation’s parables:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the
ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit” (John
12:24 MKJV).
By His acceptance of the world’s judgment on Him (death), God, in Christ,
turned the tables on the world in order to judge and redeem it from death.
The Son of God brings God’s judgment to the world, because He is also
the Son of Man:
“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to
have life within Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also,
because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:26-27 MKJV).
All men have been sinners, and have needed to be judged (corrected). By becoming
a man in this realm of corruption, and living without sin, God, in the Person
of Jesus Christ, laid down His life that we unjustly took from Him, forgave
us, and earned the honor and right to judge us, not unto condemnation, but
unto salvation:
“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to
save” (Luke 9:56 LITV).
To say that Christ did not take up His natural life is to deny the resurrection
for all men, damning them to remain in their sins and death, without hope.
Adams: “Christ had no advantage over us; the same
God who alone delivered him, ‘making known to him the ways of life,’ ‘saving him
out of death,’ ‘holding his hand and keeping him,’ has promised
to deliver the whole creation from the bondage of corruption. (Rom. 8:21).”
If Christ had no advantage, then how did He become our Savior, and why do
we yet need Him? Why is the Bible about Him, culminating in His appearance,
if He is not God? It really comes down to this: If you think you are the same
as Jesus Christ, then you must be God. If you think He is the same as you,
then your god is corrupt, of a vastly inferior nature, and we are all without
hope.
Honor and Worship Belong to God Alone
Next up, Kenneth Leckey talks about the doctrine of the trinity, correctly
noting that the Bible says there is one God, not three. To be sure, the trinity
is an abominable doctrine, especially because presented as a noble and hallowed
portrait/concept of God. It is heathen gods dressed up to play the parts, a
confusing and disgusting mixture that robs God of His majesty and sanctity.
Men of God never taught this. Instead of bolstering Leckey’s argument,
however, correctly denouncing the trinity as false because the Scriptures declare
there is only one God, destroys the notion that Christ is not God. If there
is only one God, and there is, then Jesus Christ must be Him, because He has
the glory, honor, and worship of God:
“Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four
and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him [singular] that lives for ever
and ever” (Revelation 5:12-14 KJV).
Only One has all the power, honor, and glory of God, and that is God Himself,
as presented, singular. The testimony of the one true God through Moses to
the children of Israel was, “You shall have no other gods before
Me.” Did
you know that those words were spoken by Christ?
“Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers
were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from
that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4
EMTV).
According to Paul the apostle, Jesus Christ was the One Who sustained the
children of Israel in the wilderness. Furthermore, I can show more clearly
how Paul unequivocally equated Christ with God. He wrote:
“Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him and were
destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9 MKJV).
Paul knew full well that the Scripture to which he referred, written approximately
fifteen centuries before the time of Christ, states that the people tempted
God:
“And crying out against God and against Moses, they said, Why have you
taken us out of Egypt to come to our death in the waste land? For there is
no bread and no water, and this poor bread is disgusting to us. Then the Lord
sent poison-snakes among the people; and their bites were a cause of death
to numbers of the people of Israel” (Numbers 21:5-6 BBE).
Who did they tempt? Was it God or Jesus Christ? If there are two, why are
they not designated: “Here is God the Father doing this,” whereas, “Here
is God the Son doing the other”? The answer is that there are not two,
there is only one God, and it was against Him that they cried, tempting Him.
Paul was not a trinitarian, or even a dualitarian. He was a true Israelite
who knew there was only one God!
Of note is the fact that the people placed the blame on the one who stood
before them in God’s stead, the man Moses, saying “Why have you...?” The
Scriptures account that it was God they were blaming because He had sent Moses
on His orders, and they rebelled against what Moses did in His Name. Moses
and the prophets foreshadowed that God would eventually come through a Man,
His Son, even according to the parable Jesus spoke:
“A man planted a vineyard and set a fence around it, dug a wine vat
and built a tower. And he leased it to farmers, and went on a journey. And
at harvest-time he sent a servant to the farmers, in order that he might receive
his part from the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and
sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and that one
they wounded in the head with stones, and they sent him away shamefully treated.
And again he sent another, and that one they killed, and so with many others,
beating some and killing others. Therefore still having one son, his beloved,
he even sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But
those farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill
him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And taking him they killed him,
and cast him out of the vineyard” (Mark 12:1-8 EMTV).
So was God, in the Son of God - Christ, rejected. “He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). He warned His followers
to expect the same:
“It is enough for the disciple that he may be as his Master, and the
servant as his Lord. If they have given the name Beelzebub to the Master of
the house, how much more to those of His house!” (Matthew 10:25 BBE)
Jesus is Lord and Master. Of what house is He Master? “...the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of what
is true” (1 Timothy 3:15 BBE).
Is it not called a mystery that God would enter His-story as a man?
“And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and was received up in glory” (1
Timothy 3:16 EMTV).
Lip Service Is Deceitful
As if one Adams writing was not enough, Leckey now begins a second, oddly
entitled “The Divinity of Christ.” The reason I say “oddly” is
because it engages in a torturous and twisted reckoning of Scriptures that,
through carnal logic, tries to prove the very opposite of what it says. It
is as if someone wrote an article “The Felinity of My Cat” in which
he tried to prove his cat is really a mouse. That might be amusing in such
an inconsequential matter, but there is no matter of greater consequence than
Who Jesus Christ is, and Adams is certainly not trying to amuse us. He is dead
serious, and seriously dead. So are many because they do not know Who Christ
is and do not believe in the only Name under Heaven given among men whereby
we are saved.
Many walking in death do not profess to believe. They are often better off
than those who do profess, yet follow false Christs and gospels such as Adams
preaches, wherein Christ is divine but He is not God, and is, therefore, no
Savior. These make a mockery of God and true faith. According to Adams, God
just tacked some divinity on Jesus. His reasoning is that if Christ was no
different than us, and He could be given this godliness, then so can you, if
you just follow His example. However, if Christ was given divinity, then how
can anyone attain it? Is it not a gift, and, therefore, out of the hands of
man, the recipient? While it is an easy thing for Adams to tell you to follow
the example of Christ, is he doing that? Who can actually do that? Here is
what Jesus said of those that propose such self-help programs:
“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s
shoulders; but they do not desire to move them with their finger” (Matthew
23:4 EMTV).
Adams would have you assume that he has already made it, so you should listen
to him because he knows what he is talking about. False preachers lead men
to themselves and their knowledge, not to the Lord Jesus and submission to
Him. They come as angels of Light that acknowledge His Name, having some knowledge
about Him, but denying Him in truth and substance. They have rejected Him so
that they might exercise an authority in lieu of His in order to do as they
please. The idea of One Who commands them as their rightful Master is despised. “Lord” is
not in their vocabulary, except as lip service. They profess Him as a role
model because they have no use for Him as Lord. They submit to no one except
it benefits them. Truth does not reign, only expediency. They want the benefits
of Christ’s work but do not want to pay the price of admission for those
benefits. They avoid the cross, which represents death to their independent
sovereignty. They try to gain access to the King’s goods by coming up
another way. Their end is to be bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness.
They are liars and thieves, embraced and believed by the same.
This is all according to the will of God, Who sends strong delusion that those
who behave in such ways should believe lies. These are the compromisers and
the lukewarm, who talk but do not walk. God knows how to gather and keep them
for judgment. He is working all things together for good, which we know and
understand because He has turned us from doing our own thing to loving Him
and keeping His commandments. He keeps those that are His, and they will not
follow the voice of strangers that come in His N
