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NASB | Romans 5:6 ¶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 5:6 ¶ While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly. |
Subject: Not my will? |
Bible Note: Someone asked earlier where in the Scriptures it says we are given/have free will. That is part of my answer to you. Gen 1:26-27 "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule..." We were created like Him. To rule. To rule you make decisions, choices. And He gave it to us to do. God knowing everything, Adam didn't surprise Him. He didn't sit there and say, "Man! All my work and now Adam has messed it all up! I need a plan." He had a plan. Jesus, as part of the Us, knew that plan. God sent Him, but He came of His own free will. Once here though, He was a Man. That was what made the sacrifice--- legitimate. He knew our authority and our weakness as His own. He walked the walk, and showed us how it was to have been done and how to do it. We aren't going to ever walk the perfect walk the way He did, but He showed us how. If He had no right given to Him by His Father to make decisions, what was the temptation? When the devil tempted Him, He was showing us that we should use our free will to choose to be obedient also. He showed us how. He used what He tells us to use: the Word. Temptation/the devil can't stand before the Word. In the garden, He prayed 3 times to have this lifted. He was sore tempted. He didn't want it. He didn't just walk joyfully to it. And you know He had the Holy Spirit there comforting Him. It was even worse for Him than any of us. From the Beginning, before the Beginning, He was God, the Son of the Holy Trinity of Father-Son-and-Holy Ghost; the triune God. Even as a Man, He was fruit of woman; not the seed of man (who just open-eyed walked into disobedience out of choice). So as such as He was, He was NEVER seperated from God, as we are, by sin. And He was God; part of the Trinity. Yet He was about to take on sin. Our sin, but still, sin. And when you are covered in sin, you are severed from God. What Jesus did is the equivalent of God cutting out His own heart! The devil thought when he got Adam to eat that he "would surely die", and really be DEAD DEAD, as in cease to exist. At all. He is a spirit creature. You severe his spirit and he is DEAD DEAD. But Man is spirit and flesh; when we fell, our spirit was severed from the Holy Spirit; again, part of that triune God. But when we were created that Holy Spirit was breathed into us, and that gave our flesh life; and became part of what we are. Spirit and flesh. So when we were severed from God, the Holy Spirit, we had this back up battery called a soul that was inside of us. Part of the spirit. Maintained by our flesh now. But if our flesh dies without that soul having been restored to the Holy Spirit, then our spirit truly dies and Satan gets that death he was after in the first place. Now we know Abraham was credited with righteousness because he believed God, but Jesus came along so that all people would know how it worked. Believe God, your spirit is restored, you don't die when your flesh dies. Jesus didn't just choose to die in the flesh, as the sacrifice for our sins, He chose to die in the spirit. He had to; He died covered in sin. For three days, He was dead. Dead Dead. And you think He wasn't scared? He sweated blood over this. He knew this was the only way, but He was still begging God to check just one more time, three more times, to see if there wasn't another way! So yes, I am saying Jesus had a choice. But I'm also saying that God knows everything. We don't know what choices we'll make, but He does. Just as He gives us the choice, He gave Jesus the choice. And He was in it. Not above it, not beyond it; in it. He knew what choice He wanted to make. He wanted to be obedient to God. He was determined to be obedient to God. But He had a choice. Read your Scriptures. Didn't He straight up ask Peter, don't you think I could call the angels? I could, means He chose not to use power and authority He knew He had. He could...but He chose not to. We can ignore the Holy Spirit when it is speaking to us. It is a Helper, as defined by Jesus Himself, but we're the boss. That's why we die. Unless we give ourselves to Jesus, making Him the boss. You call it "direction" implanted within us, the Bible says it is knowledge planted on/in our hearts. That's why if we choose not to believe, not to be obedient, it's on our own heads. The knowledge of the way back is there. Read your last sentence. The Holy Spirit/God influences us. If it was just about making us do what He wants us to do, He could have stopped this whole mess with Adam. He influences, persuades, convinces, convicts--but He doesn't force. That's what makes Him so particularly awesome, beautiful and wonderful. He is all powerful, but He gave us free will, and He sticks by that; He doesn't take it back. Which must break His heart since it means He's going to lose some of us when He loves all of us. |