The entire Gospel of God is centred around the person of Jesus Christ. The “Good News” for men which is an exhibition of the depth of God’s LOVE towards the world (humans and everything present on earth and the heavens) is FULLY manifested in the person of Jesus who was an embodiment of the Word (God) revealed to all men. It then follows that an understanding of the very nature of the love of God can only be discovered in the manifestation of the love (Jesus).
It is common knowledge amongst believers and unbelievers that there has been something wrong with the human existence, from when a baby is born and bites as a sign of anger to when an adolescence lies without being taugh, to when people fall sick and it seems inexplicable that medical practice has no cure for such diseases and basically the fact that sin reigns on the face of the earth. Scripturally this can be traced back to Adam in Genesis where He ate of the “Fruit” and He “died”. The death not being physical but something more to it as we see that Adam and Eve were still physically present after partaking of the fruit. What then died? The answer: The LIFE of GOD in them. Genesis 2:7 makes it clear that God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a “breath of Life”- so the man became a living being. This means that man was a being before God breathed the breath of life into his nostril, that breath was the authority of God, the fullness of the Godhead into this being, THE LIFE, thus becoming a living being. This is what man lost when he died. He then became like every other being without life. This scripture reveals to us that Life is not in physical existence, but rather in the operation of receiving life from the author of life.
Regardless of the fact that Adam relinquished the life (authority) God had given unto Him, thus putting the whole of mankind in a deep abyss, God still desired to commend His love to these creatures that He took such delight in creating (mankind), that’s where our darling Jesus steps in.
John 3:16-19 makes it clear to us that “for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not condemned; but whoever does not believe remains in his condemned state, because he has not put his trust in the name of the one and only son. Now this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness instead of the light, because their deeds were evil.” This scripture reveals so many things, the first of which is that Jesus is the expression of God’s love and the only redemption plan, second is that by virtue of Adam’s sin all men were thrown into condemnation simply by being born and the sin nature reigned/s in their life, simply by coming from Adam, but as many that see receive God’s Life are redeemed from such condemnation (Romans 8:1 there is therefore no condemnation against those who are IN CHRIST JESUS who operate by the Spirit and not the flesh), the final revelation of this scripture is that nobody goes to hell because of sin, but rather because they chose not to receive Christ.
Now, we see that God commended His love to us in the person of Jesus and He(Christ) rescued us from pre-existent condemnation. A number of people ask why didn’t God just solve the problem from heaven, why did He have to go through all the stress of genealogy of Jesus and come as man. Romans 5:18-19 makes it clear that “through the transgression of one, condemnation came to all men likewise, through the righteousness of one came righteousness of life to all men. For just as through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man, many will be set right forever”. Sin was a creation of one man “Adam”, so it had to be taken away by a man “Jesus”, furthermore, a deeper implication of this scripture is that men who came after Adam till date are DEAD ON ARRIVAL simply by virtue of being born and sin reigns over them not because of what they did wrong but simply because of whom they came from ‘a DEAD man’, so the only way to correct this is to receive life from one who could provide it. Who else but the author of life himself could provide Life? That is God (the Word), who became flesh and dwelt amongst men in the person of Jesus, what He did was that He set down His LIFE and picked up our DEATH so that we may have His life and He put DEATH to DEATH by rising up on the third day. Isn’t that amazing? OUR DEATH HAS BEEN PUT TO DEATH. THERE IS NO LONGER DEATH FOR THE BELIEVER. HALLELUJAH.
Finally, we know that for the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to the WORDLY standards and values]. Though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer know Him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as saviour], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sin against them [but CANCELING THEM]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].
So I as an ambassador for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through me; I [as Christ’s representative] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. HE MADE CHRIST WHO KNEW NO SIN TO [JUDICIALLY] BE SIN ON OUR BEHALF, SO THAT IN HIM WE WOULD BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness] (2Corinthians 5:14-22) HALLELUJAH!!!
Grace and Peace Multiplied
Gbolagunte Oladotun
