5. The Man, Christ Jesus

[1] God is willing to graciously forgive the sins of mankind. Like that loving father, He is also eager to accept mankind back. Yet, it is not simple to accomplish it. Because, even though God is capable of doing anything He wants, He is bound by justice and truth. Justice is the foundation of His throne, declares the Bible (Read Psalms 89:14). Hence, He cannot turn aside the just judgment received by Adam for his sin. He cannot revoke it without proper reason. If He does so, then it will make His warning to Adam a lie, a bluff. It will make Him like us, humans, who change our minds without reason. God is perfect and He does not change His mind recklessly. In fact, if He were to change His mind like us, then there would be no point in trusting Him more than we trust other fellow humans. It would in fact be dangerous to have an all powerful, fickle-minded God. Thankfully, God is firm and steadfast and we can trust Him wholeheartedly. But this makes it impossible for God to annul the just and deserving judgment He handed out to Adam. He needs to have a just reason.

[2] How then can He forgive Adam and thereby mankind? He needs to redeem us. Buy us back! Firstly, we need to know what God’s Law demands as a redeeming price for Adam. According to God’s Law, to redeem something one has to give something that is equivalent. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth is the Law of God (Exodus 21:23-25). It is a simple, but effective and just Law to maintain order. So, how does it work in the case of Adam? A simple example would make it easier to understand. Let us assume that a person gets booked by a Police Officer for over speeding, and he has to pay a fine of $100. Correspondingly, the fine Adam has to pay for his sin is his life(Read Genesis 2:17). Just as it is required of the person booked by the Police to pay $100, Adam has to pay with his life, that is, he needs to die to pay the fine for his sin. That person loses $100 and Adam loses his life. Is there a way for that person not to lose his $100? Indeed! If someone else willingly pays that $100 in his stead, he will not lose his $100. Isn’t it? The Police Officer arbitrarily forgiving him will mean that the former is not upholding the Law of the Land, but if somebody else were to pay the fine for the transgressor, the Police Officer can let him go. Similarly, if Adam’s life needs to be saved, the only way would be to have somebody else pay his fine for him. This would mean that somebody else would need to willingly die instead of him. Then, God’s justice will be satisfied and God can forgive Adam and his offspring without transgressing his own Law. Hence, this is the only possible way for God to redeem Adam.

[3] So, if God’s intention is to redeem Adam, then He has to find a man who is willing to lay down his life in place of Adam. This again is not easy. Because, the redeeming price for Adam must be his exact equal. It shouldn’t be higher or lower. For instance, the faithful angels of God cannot redeem Adam, for they are higher beings than Adam (Read Psalms 8:4,5). The life of an angel is worth more than that of Adam.Only a man like Adam can redeem Adam. This is tricky because Adam was the first man to be created by God and all of mankind descended from him. None of his descendants can save Adam because they themselves have also lost their lives along with Adam as the sentence of death got passed onto them as well. They also owe $100! And alas, all have only one $100 bill because since the fine for Adam is life and everyone has only one life, having lost it along with Adam, none of his descendants has a spare life to redeem Adam or even themselves! What this means is that only a man who is not an offspring of Adam can redeem him.

[4] The Bible identifies the man, Christ Jesus as the one who paid the redeeming price for Adam by becoming a ransom sacrifice – ‘For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times’(1 Timothy 2:5,6, ASV). Who is this man called Jesus? He is the only begotten son of Yahweh God (Read Mark 1:1). It was through him that God created the heavens and the earth (Read Colossians 1:16). If that is the case, then isn’t he obviously a higher being than Adam? Indeed, Jesus was a higher being. But the Bible clarifies that in order to redeem mankind from sin and death; he took the lower form of humans and was born as a Jew to Mary, a human mother (Read Hebrews 2:9). Yet, some may wonder if he was born through a human mother, a descendant of Adam, then shouldn’t he also have been afflicted with the curse of death on Adam?The logic is valid. However, Jesus was not the biological son of Mary, he was conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit of God when Mary was still a virgin (Read Luke 1:34,35). Mary was only a carrier of God’s seed. Even today, some women rent their wombs to carry as surrogate mothers the fetuses of some others, and it has been established scientifically that the genetic print of such carriers do not in any way influence the seed.In the same way, Mary was only carrying God’s seed in her womb. The curse of Adam which she inherited in her genes thus did not pass on to the seed. And so, Jesus did not come as an offspring of Adam. At last, there was someone whose life was equal to that of Adam and who did not have any curse on his head already. This man, Christ Jesus thus had all the necessary attributes required to redeem Adam.

[5] When did Jesus give this ransom sacrifice? For centuries before his birth, the many prophets of God foretold the day, place and time of this most important event of history. The name of the town in which he would be born was prophesied, as were many important events of his life, including the manner of his death. These were detailed and precise prophesies that even the historians agree predate Christ. Many of their fulfillments are recorded by the Biblical writers of the biographies of Christ in what is called as the Gospels (Read Matthew 1:22, 2:4-6, 4:13-16). The reason for the elaborate recording of the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the famed redeemer on Jesus by the writers of his biographies was to authenticate him against the many impostors who came before the time of Jesus and also after him, claiming to be the God sent savior of mankind. Thus, in order to prevent any confusion and to firmly establish the identity of the one true savior of mankind as Jesus Christ, they have recorded the fulfillment of the prophecies of old on him.

[6] The fulfillment of one such prophecy is amazing and it foretold the exact year of the sacrifice of Jesus, centuries before his birth. The precision of this prophecy amazes even many secular historians. Prophet Daniel lived around 550 B.C. During his time, God had become angry with the sinful state of the nation of Judah and His judgment fell upon them. God brought the fierce nation of Babylon against Judah who ransacked Jerusalem, destroyed the Jewish temple and took the people as captives. It was the most humiliating and the most painful defeat the people of Judah had faced till then. Daniel prophesied from Babylon during those troubled times. In 538 B.C, he prophesied the exact year the savior would be sent by God as a sacrifice for mankind (See Daniel 9:24,25). When one compares his prophecy with secular history, it is apparent that the year in which the savior of mankind, sent from God was to give his life for Adam was 33 A.D. Amazingly, historical evidences also affirm that the year Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross was, precisely 33 A.D.

[7] In 33 A.D, Jesus was betrayed by Jewish leaders who were jealous of his growing stature among common people. They delivered him to their Roman governor, Pilate and compelled him to crucify Jesus. He reluctantly agreed to their demand. Jesus was tortured and crucified (Read Matthew 27:32-50). It is worth noting that this event can be verified with historical sources as well. Pontius Pilate was not a man of fiction or myth as his name appears in Roman records as well. Jesus was near about 33 years old when he died and he had lived a blameless, sinless life (Read Hebrews 4:15). That was important. Because, if Jesus had sinned, even once, then he would have lost his life himself and could not have redeemed Adam for he would have become like Adam. That is the reason Satan tested and tortured Jesus till his death. Jesus overcame him every time and executed the will of his father, Yahweh God, steadfastly. Thus by willingly giving up his pure and sinless life, Jesus redeemed Adam. God showed His appreciation for the loyal work of Jesus and resurrected him in spirit after three days and gave him a name above every other name (Read Philippians 2:5-11). In this way, the curse of death on Adam was lifted. But, if Adam alone was redeemed by Jesus, what about the rest of mankind? We saw earlier how the sin of one man called Adam affected all of mankind because of him being the father of our race. So, logic demands that the redemption of the same man Adam would also mean the redemption of all. Isn’t it? Just as the curse on Adam fell on everyone, the lifting of that curse on him due to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ should also relieve every one, Simple Math! It is so – ‘Consequently, just as one trespass (the sin of Adam)resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act (the sacrifice of Jesus)resulted in justification and life for all people’ (Romans 5:18).

[8] But, what does redemption mean? How can dead people be redeemed? – Through resurrection. Indeed, starting from Adam, all those who have ever lived and died will be resurrected – ‘For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:21,22). The word ‘all’ is crucial in the above verse for a fuller understanding. Not just Christians, not just Jews, ‘all’ are going to be resurrected. What happy news this is! Our world is going to be revived. When Jesus was born, the angels called it as glad tidings for all (Read Luke 2:10). Indeed, it is so for because of Jesus Christ, everyone is going to be brought back alive. It is apt for the Bible to call him as the savior of the world. The Bible proclaims him as the second Adam who redeemed what was lost by the first Adam (Read 1 Corinthians 15:45). Death is the biggest enemy of mankind. Nothing else even comes close to the suffering and pain that death unleashes. Because death is final, no one can fight it and conquer it. But the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ has broken the shackles of death and has released everyone who is being held captive by it. All will come back alive. How wonderful is God’s plan for mankind. God sent his only begotten son to die and save mankind who had originally disobeyed him. Truly the love God has for mankind is immeasurable (Read John 3:16). But if all come back alive, will there be place on earth to accommodate them? There will be. Calculations have revealed that all those who have ever lived on earth can be made to stand comfortably in a space as big as just France alone. Moreover, this resurrection is going to take place during the Kingdom of God when as we saw in the third chapter, even deserts and wilderness will become habitable (Read Isaiah 35:1). Today, vast searches of land remain empty due to lack of resources, but in God’s Kingdom all the places will be fertile, and hence there will be no problem regarding space or resources. Thus, all of mankind will resurrect and live in the golden age that we saw in the third chapter. Truly, a wonderful future awaits mankind.

[9] But, if everybody is going to resurrect in the Kingdom of God and live happily, regardless of their present faith, then what is the benefit for those who have diligently followed Christ and have martyred or suffered for his sake for the last 2000 years? If all are to resurrect, then there is no need to follow Christ now, is there? Why did we care to even print this book then? – One might ask. Also, what about those faithful people who served God through severe hardships before the period of Christ? – People like Noah and Abraham and all those who sought to adhere to the Law given by Moses. If all are entitled to a free salvation, then their sacrifices and sufferings would become needless and in vain. It doesn’t seem like a fair deal at all. We will discuss these aspects in the next chapter.

 

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