Fix your eyes upon Jesus

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“Fix your eyes upon Jesus,” “fix your thoughts on Jesus.” Jesus is worthy of worship.

There was never a time when He was not the Son of God, and there has always been a Father/Son relationship within the Godhead. Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.”

 

Jesus owns it all.
Jesus made it all.
Jesus reflects the complete radiance of God’s glory.
Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being.
Jesus continues to sustain all things.
Jesus paid the price for our sin.
Jesus rules it all.

Nicene Creed (325 A.D.) “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”

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“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1)

“16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (Colossians 1)

And yet, “6 though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to hold unto, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…” (Philippians 2)

After entering the world He created, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;… he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;” (Isaiah 53)

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2)

The cross where “he was pierced for our transgressions; and was crushed for our iniquities; …and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7” (Isaiah 53)

“21 For our sake God made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5)

“19 For as by the one man [Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, so by [Jesus’] obedience the many will be made righteous… 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5)

“10 He who descended [into hell], is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4) For sin and death could not contain him. He arose victorious over the grave.

“9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2)

“Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals…5 And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’.

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain … And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb…9 And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God’…11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5)

The Lord doesn’t provide the gift of salvation without also giving us the assurance that it’s ours. That’s why He sent His Spirit to indwell and seal us as His children until the day of our redemption (Eph. 1:13-14). So stand strong in your faith—the Holy Spirit’s seal is the guarantee of our salvation

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13,14)

A number of scriptural passages identify Jesus Christ as God along with God the Father. Rather than excluding Jesus from being God, a careful reading of 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 should help us to see that He is included in the divine identity.   Now “all things”—the entire created realm, both physical and spiritual—is ultimately from God the Father, it was all actually made through Jesus Christ. And Jesus rules over it all as Lord under the Father. Designating Jesus as the “one Lord” stresses His role as the One who exercises God’s rule over creation—the point being that the Father does not do so directly but acts through Jesus Christ. . And it is through Jesus that we worship and serve God  the Father.

Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of God’s Son: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). When the angel spoke to Joseph and announced the impending birth of Jesus, he alluded to Isaiah’s prophecy: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:23). This did not mean they were to name the baby Immanuel; it meant that “God with us” was the baby’s identity. Jesus was God coming in the flesh to dwell with man. In John 14:9-10, Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” Colossians 2:9 says, “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”  Because Jesus did not have a human father, He did not inherit a sin nature. He possessed the divine nature from His Heavenly Father.

Jesus had to meet all the requirements of a holy God before He could be an acceptable sacrifice for our sin (John 8:29; Hebrews 9:14). He had to fulfill over three hundred prophecies about the Messiah that God, through the prophets, had foretold (Matthew 4:13-14; Luke 22:37; Isaiah 53; Micah 5:2).

Since the fall of man (Genesis 3:21-23), the only way to be made right with God has been the blood of an innocent sacrifice (Leviticus 9:2; Numbers 28:19; Deuteronomy 15:21; Hebrews 9:22). Jesus was the final, perfect sacrifice that satisfied forever God’s wrath against sin (Hebrews 10:14). His divine nature made Him fit for the work of Redeemer; His human body allowed Him to shed the blood necessary to redeem. No human being with a sin nature could pay such a debt. No one else could meet the requirements to become the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (Matthew 26:28; 1 John 2:2). If Jesus were merely a good man as some claim, then He had a sin nature and was not perfect. In that case, His death and resurrection would have no power to save anyone.

Because Jesus was God in the flesh, He alone could pay the debt we owed to God. His victory over death and the grave won the victory for everyone who puts their trust in Him (John 1:12; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 17).

Jesus –   God the Son, the Bible speaks of Jesus as having existed as God from all eternity.   For in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).  By becoming a man, Jesus did not cease being God. The incarnation of Christ did not involve the subtraction of deity, but the addition of humanity. Jesus clearly claimed to be God on many occasions (Matthew 16:16,17; John 8:58; 10:30). But in addition to being divine, He was also human (see Philippians 2:6-8). He had two natures (divine and human) conjoined in one person.   God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – one God, existing in perfect relationship within himself. This is how God can be both Father and Son. When we say ‘God’ we could almost mean three people – God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. These three are called ‘the trinity’ and each one is called a ‘person’ of the trinity.

There is only one God – so even as we talk about the three persons of the trinity we are talking about one God. All three persons of the trinity are God.  at Deuteronomy 6:4, Galatians 1:1, John 1:1-18, and Matthew 28:19. So the three persons of the trinity are the same God, but they are each distinct. They have different roles, but each action any member of the trinity might do is God’s action, regardless of who did it.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

Therefore He is the Son in the sense that He possesses the same nature as God or is of the same order as God.  The title “Son” does not, in any way, suggest the Son if inferior to the Father. So the Bible tells us that Jesus isn’t ‘God’s human son’, rather, that Jesus, who is co-eternal with God (that means that like God, he existed forever) became human. Jesus was like God – eternal and perfect – but he became human so that he could enter into our world and die for humans.

The phrase “Son of Man” also emphasizes who Jesus is in relation to His incarnation and His work of salvation. In the Old Testament (Leviticus 25:25-26, 48-49; Ruth 2:20), the next of kin (one related by blood) always functioned as the “kinsman-redeemer” of a family member who needed redemption from jail. Jesus became related to us “by blood” (that is, He became a man) so He could function as our Kinsman-Redeemer and rescue us from sin.

Some say  Let your normal, regular praying be prayer to the Father through the Spirit in the name of Jesus, but realize that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are persons and to speak to them as a saved sinner would, cannot be unnatural.  Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”12 Jesus here says that he would answer prayer when we asked him anything in his name. Because all three persons of the Trinity are God, you can pray and address God  in many ways. Christian praying is Trinitarian praying.

Christ’s words, “Our Father which art in Heaven” don’t keep us from praying to Jesus any more than his words “Give us our daily bread” keep us from praying for something to drink.  However, just because we are permitted to pray, and even commanded to pray to the Father, doesn’t mean that we are not permitted to pray to the Son.  If you say “Our Father” or “Jesus” or “Holy Spirit,” you are talking to God. But there are biblical precedents for praying to Jesus.   According to the apostle Paul, New Testament Christians were everywhere praying to Jesus. “Paul. . . to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on  the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours (1 Corinthians 1:1–2).  Paul also prayed to Jesus when he “besought the Lord” to remove his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Think also of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. In Acts 7, while being stoned to death, he sees the risen Christ standing at the right of the Father in the stance of an advocate (v. 55). Others-centered to the end, Stephen asks his Lord to forgive those killing him (v. 60): “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” The parallels between the way Stephen dies and Jesus himself are not be missed (e.g., compare Acts 7:60 and Luke 23:34). There is further evidence provided in 1 Corinthians, where Paul describes Christians as those who call on the Lord’s name: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2). Jesus is explicitly in view here. Indeed, the letter concludes with an appeal to Jesus: “Our Lord, come (maranatha)!” (1 Cor. 16:22) In fact, the biblical canon ends on the very same note: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)

The writer to the Hebrews adds to this picture in depicting Jesus as our great high priest who represents us to God and God to us. It is to Jesus in this office or role that we can go to find help, and prayer is the means by which we can so approach him: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Interestingly, though, there are no prayers addressed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible, which underlines his ministry of pointing away from himself to Christ (John 14-16).  Jesus is the one mediator between God and ourselves. He’s the go-between in God’s plan. Paul captures this idea well in his first letter to Timothy: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

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see also

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/the-grace-of-god/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/the-false-hatred-for-the-cross-of-jesus/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/basic-christianity/

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