| by Keith Slough (Kannapolis, North Carolina) |
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| The world does not understand. The billions of Earth’s population have not heard. Even many Americans simply don’t know the truth about who Jesus of Nazareth really was. Surprisingly, even some church goers do not know the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. While most professing Christians do understand that Jesus is the promised Messiah whom we read about in the Old Testament (such as Daniel 9), there are those who cannot identify who Jesus actually was! It’s time you knew. More than One Person in the Godhead We are told in the inspired scriptures of the New Testament that “He that built all things is God”! (Hebrews 3:4). But then we are also told in the Gospel account of John, written many years later that: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The “Word” here as all theologians agree, is Jesus Himself. He is the personal “Word” of God. Jesus was with God the Father from the very beginning (John 1:2). He was the one that God the Father addressed in Genesis 1:26 where God said, “let us make man….” and Jesus carried out those orders. He was the one who became Jesus of Nazareth whom Adam and Eve called “God” in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:8 says that Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the Lord God” who was walking in the garden. Why is that scripture important? Because Jesus said no one had ever heard the voice of God! (John 5:37). Obviously, He was talking about God the Father. So, who was “the Lord” of the Old Testament whose voice was heard by Adam and Eve and later by the prophets such as Noah and Moses? Remember all Israel heard the actual voice of God speaking to them from Mount Sinai (see Exodus 20:1 and Deuteronomy 4:12+15). Jesus said no one had heard God’s voice. So, whose voice did they hear? Moses said they heard God’s voice, yet it had to be the second member of the Godhead. Now do you, see? There is more than one person who makes up the Godhead. There is the Father who is God. But there is also Jesus who is God the Son. The Hebrew word is “Elohim” which means a God who is more than one. One God Family — but more than one in that God family — or “Godhead.” Yes, Paul writes in Hebrews that “He that made all things is God.” But it was God the Father creating all things “by Jesus Christ” (see Ephesians 3:9). We also read in John 1:3 about Jesus, that “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made”! All things were created by God — God the Son — and nothing was ever made that was not made (or created) by Him — JESUS CHRIST! Who was Jesus? GOD Came in the Flesh The apostle Paul was inspired to write that “GOD was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Timothy 3:16). There can be no doubt. The God of the Old Testament became human, and it was He who died for you as the Passover Lamb! Why? The Creator of the entire universe also took the time to make mankind on this Earth nearly 6,000 years ago. And He knew that man would eventually sin. From the very beginning this great God being — who became the one we know as Jesus Christ — took human flesh for the express purpose of dying. But why? He died for us. He came here to pay our penalty for sin. This is what the Passover is all about. Sure, the Jews who don’t understand who the Messiah is also observe this Passover festival, but they do not know its true significance, its true meaning. This Passover festival pictures the fact that the very God of Heaven, the one who made heaven and earth took on human flesh, became one of us, to speak to us face to face and then to pay our own penalty! Notice: “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). The reason God prepared Him a human mortal body was so He could die. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The “wages” are the rewards — what we have earned — for doing wrong. Which one of us can honestly say we have never ever done anything wrong? Never, even by mistake? Many times, we learn we can sin simply through ignorance. We just didn’t know what God’s Law was. Indeed, many today do not know the Biblical definition of sin. Sin is the transgression — the breaking and disobedience to — the Law of God (I John 3:4). ALL Have Transgressed God’s Law We also learn from Romans 3:23 that all of us, at some point in our lives, have sinned. We have all come short of the perfect glory of God. The wages or penalty for sin is death — and it is eternal death — the opposite of eternal life (Romans 3:26). The second member of the Godhead became a mortal human for the express purpose of dying in our place — taking our punishment for us so we do not have to. The true meaning of Passover is that Christ became the “Lamb of God” which we need to die in our place. Do you now understand why all Christians should celebrate Passover? The apostle Paul spent 18 months in Corinth — a decidedly Gentile city who knew little about God. So, the entire time Paul was there, he never got into anything minor but stayed with the Gospel message itself. Notice what Paul later wrote to them after leaving Corinth. Writing from Ephesus, he reminds them of what he preached to them the whole time he was among them: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Corinthians 2:2). The only thing Paul “knew” — at least among them when they heard him preach — was Christ and His vicarious death on the cross! Indeed, this is what God called him to preach! Christ Sent Paul to Preach the Gospel “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (I Corinthians 1:17). Christ and Him crucified — the basic Gospel — is the basis for the Passover. He continued about the message Christ called him to preach: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (verse 18). This is what God’s true ministers should be preaching today. For this is the Gospel Paul preached. To explain the meaning of this Feast of Passover, we must understand that Christ is OUR PASSOVER — meaning, our Passover lamb (I Corinthians 5:7). Paul added: “But we preach Christ crucified” (verse 23) — the death of the lamb — the message of the Passover. For this feast begins with the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. And approximately 14 centuries after this was instituted, God sent His Son to be His perfect Passover Lamb (John 1:36). Your God so loved you that He — the Creator of heaven and earth — came here in the flesh to DIE IN YOUR PLACE. This message must be preached in all the world before the End comes! We must tell people about how much God loves them. The Passover can be summed up as the Love of God. Imagine what the Father went through emotionally when His perfect Son asked to be relieved of having to die in this fashion, by way of the cross (Luke 22:42). Yet God asked Him to do it. And Jesus willingly did. Why did God ask Jesus to pay our penalty? It was Jesus who made mankind. He was willing to lay down His life for us all. But when He got right to the very end, He was human after all. So, in agony in His fervent prayers that night, “in strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7) He asked God to remove this horrible suffering from Him. But the Father answered no. God’s perfect will was that He pay your penalty for sins committed. Why? “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Our Sins Imputed to Christ God imputed all of our sins to Christ. He had to die for it. God then imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. We get to live in eternity because Christ earned our eternal life for us (II Corinthians 5:21). Do you see? Now do you understand what this Passover really signifies? And yet the whole church world has traded the lamb of God for an Easter bunny! How totally abominable — and all in the name of Christianity. And yes, Christ then rose from the dead three days and three nights later, approximately 72 hours after being entombed. God raised Him from the dead because He had earned the right. This April, determine you will honor your God who created you, who lives for you, and 1990 years ago, died for you. Your God died for you. Do you understand this? Not just academically. Can you grasp this wonderful truth in your heart? Do you really “get” it? So, who was Jesus Christ? He is the one who made you, gave His very life for you, even risked His own eternity for you. How can we possibly grasp just how much He loves us? |
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