Text Copyright © 2022 Ronald Ray Lambert
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The key issue in the great controversy between God and Satan where we are concerned is what the real problem of sin actually is. If it is just the physical body, then all God has to do is transform our physical bodies. Logically then, we cannot overcome sin until this is done. Since God has not done this yet, it implies He is to blame for our continuing sinning. Some people like to think of this as an excuse for not submitting themselves to God.
The real issue is faith in the goodness of God. It is the Creator who is righteous, not the creature. Even the angels who have never sinned are assured of eternal security only as long as they have faith that God is the One who is righteous. His goodness is our ultimate Law.
But we have a problem in that even those of us who have consciously sided with God still have divided hearts, as admitted by King David in Psalms 86:11, 12: "...Unite my heart to fear thy name...I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart...." What Jesus is working to accomplish now in Heaven is to perfect our faith. Not our physical natures, but our faith. So that our hearts will no longer be divided. So we can be whole-hearted in our trust in God.
If God were to glorify our bodies now, so we had sinless human natures, that would not solve the real sin problem. Remember, Adam and Eve had sinless human natures when they first sinned. Lucifer was a sinless angel standing in the presence of God when he first chose to sin. I have always considered this statement by a modern inspired writer to be extremely profound: "Angelic perfection failed in heaven. Human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss. All who wish for security in earth or heaven must look to the Lamb of God." (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, Dec. 30, 1889.)
Lucifer was a perfect being when he invented sin. (See Ezekiel 28:15.) Adam and Eve were perfect in every way when they chose to sin. They were originally included in His summary review, directly after He created humanity: “It was very good.” (Genesis 1:31.)
The sin of Eve began when she doubted the goodness of God, and bought Satan's insinuation that God was keeping something good from her. That violation of faith is what motivated her to disobey God. Adam lacked faith that God would save Eve unless he joined her in transgression. So the real cure for sin, is faith in the goodness of God. That is what truly reverses sin.
Jesus is working now to give us whole-hearted faith. He told His disciples what He would be looking for when He returns. Not sinless bodily natures in His disciples, but "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
Hebrews 2:14-18 emphasizes that Jesus had to be made exactly with the same flesh we do in order to be our Savior. He had to be the new Head of our race, a new Adam, as well as an example for us to follow and be encouraged by His sharing in our feelings of infirmity. Therefore the Holy Spirit could not introduce any new genetic material when He prepared Jesus' body in the Incarnation.
So then how could Jesus be male, when Mary only had two X chromosomes? It has been suggested by some geneticists that the male Y chromosome is actually a female X chromosome with one leg truncated. This, it is assumed, would have the effect of producing a balance of male testosterone and female estrogen that favored the testosterone, to the extent of making His body male from the womb onward. In the male-dominated cultures in which Jesus lived and interacted, it was most practical for Him to be a male.
So it is feasible that the Holy Spirit could have performed this genetic surgery, turning one of Mary's X chromosomes into a Y chromosome, so that Jesus could be a male. This way, no new genetic material would have been introduced, and Jesus would still be 100% human. He would still have an X and a Y chromosome, like every other human male.
The Bible also teaches that Jesus is fully God, whose spiritual identity was placed into the embryo in Mary’s womb. “God is spirit” (John 4:24). Since divinity itself is not a physical animal quality, God is not a mammal, so really has no mammalian gender. We ascribe male pronouns to God because that is what we are familiar with. And God humors us.
Now let us consider further why was it so important for Jesus to be fully human. In what way was it a just and righteous thing for Jesus to take responsibility for all the sinful behavior of humanity, and for Him to establish in His own human life a new righteous heritage that entitles us to have renewed fellowship with God and the sinless creatures that are a part of the society of heaven? How could Jesus make it possible for us to have works worthy of being divinely rewarded, when in ourselves we fall far short of perfection, as stated in Isaiah 64:6: “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (KJV); “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (NASB). How justly can Jesus exchange His “robe of righteousness” to replace our “filthy garments”? What do we have to do to qualify for this stupendously unequal exchange?
When asked this same essential question, the Apostle Paul told the jailer in Acts 16:31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Jesus Himself said: “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25; NKJV.)
He also said to His apostles: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” (John 14:1.)
We must consider now what these seemingly simple words mean. When the Bible tells us that all that is required is that we believe in Jesus, does this mean that mere intellectual assent is all that is needed? Is just lip-service enough? What does it really mean to believe in Jesus?
If we say we believe in Jesus, but show by our acts and lifestyle that we do not believe He is the One who is truly Good, do we really believe? Or do we contradict our words by our deeds?
The jailer who asked Paul “what must I do to be saved?” was under conviction by the Holy Spirit. His subsequent action in not stopping Paul from escaping revealed what was really in His heart. And all those whom Jesus instructed to believe in Him, all faced challenges that would require of them acts of loyalty to God. Since at its base sin is doubting God, this means that faith is the true antidote for sin. And just as sin has inevitable consequences in our behavior, so does faith have inevitable consequences in our behavior. Consequences that may take a while to develop.
Where does faith come from? The Bible tells us: “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17; NIV.)
The Apostle Paul also declared: “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5; NASB.) Faith, similar to love, is a quality or spiritual principle that we may not possess naturally, but must be miraculously given to us through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. The only caveat is that at every step, we must choose to have faith, choose to have love. God does not force on us such a basic change to our mind and emotional nature. We must accept it, and act upon it. When Jesus told a paralyzed man “get up and walk” (Luke 5:23), the part the paralyzed man had to do, was to try to get up and walk. He could not of himself, before. But when he had faith enough to try, the miracle was given to him. So also as we seek to obey God, He gives us grace to comply.
Now, it is important to see clearly here the sequence in which these things occur. We are not healed because we obey; we are enabled to obey because we have faith. Our willpower does not heal us. God heals us (of sin, or of whatever we ask deliverance from). Sometimes we may be given a process of time, to make sure how deep our choice really goes. I know a lady who says she struggled for months with the compulsion to smoke cigarettes. She said it was not until she reached the point of making an utter, virtually suicidal commitment to cease smoking, that suddenly all desire for smoking was miraculously removed in an instant. She had to reach the point of being whole-hearted.
This is what Jesus seeks to encourage in each of us. If we learn to trust utterly in Him, in the way He wants us to trust Him, letting Him be completely in charge, then we move closer to the united mind He wants us to have. (See Psalms 86:11, 12, quoted earlier.) He does not propose to take our willpower from us; rather He seeks to restore the willpower and nobility of character that we have lost because of the degrading effects of sin.
H H
Similarly, it is important that we understand how salvation itself works for us. Consider the account of the woman taken in adultery, who was brought before Jesus for Him to judge (this was done by religious opponents who were trying to trap Jesus into defying the Law). We see that Jesus proceeded to write in the sand before each of the men the sins they themselves had committed, then He said that the one of them who was without sin should cast the first rock in the proscribed punishment of stoning her to death.
After they were driven away, by the Holy Spirit bringing them under conviction, Jesus then asked the woman if any of her accusers remained to condemn her. She answered that no one of her accusers remained. He then said: “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.” (John 8:11; NASB.)
It is important to note that the woman was not forgiven after she repented, as if repentance were the cause of her forgiveness. Clearly, she had not yet repented. It was the news that she was already forgiven—by the Savior who had taken responsibility for all the sins of the whole human race—that broke her proud heart and brought her to the point of repenting.
And this is really what the “good news” of the gospel of Christ is all about. God has forgiven us. Jesus has already taken responsibility for our sins—all the sins of humanity. He did this back in Eden, when Adam and Eve first sinned. Thus He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8.)
This was the only way God could save any of us. He had to save all of us, all at once, from the beginning of our experience in sin onward.
Isaiah 53:5, 6 (NASB) tells us:
“He was pierced for our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all
To fall on Him.”
In doing this, Jesus was revealing the true nature and character of God. Jesus declared: “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9.) And: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30; NASB.)
All that remains is for us to believe and accept the power given to us to repent. We are judged to see how sincerely we believe and accept the forgiveness that we already have. A spokesperson from God could go to the vilest, most wicked man on earth, and tell him that God has already forgiven him, and he may enjoy the grace of God if he does not reject the forgiveness that is already his. Continuing in sin, making no effort at all to change, to accept the Holy Spirit’s enabling power for him to repent, would be a denial that God is the One who is Good, and has the authority to forgive him, and has already done so.
The human race only exists now because of this forgiveness that God has already given us. We could not live for a second were it not true, since God is the Source of all life. As the Apostle Paul declared: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28.) Job said of God: “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”
Why then are those who refuse to repent, and reject every offer of God’s grace, still allowed to live? The Apostle Peter said: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9.)
But make no mistake, we are subject to judgment by God. There is a word in Old Testament Hebrew, Bachan.
Bachan means investigative judgment. According to Strong's Analytical Concordance, this is translated in Scripture as "try," "examine," "test." Psalms 11:4 (KJV) is typical: "The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try [bachan], the children of men." This shows that God always conducts an investigative judgment from Heaven based on testing events that transpire on earth before He takes any action against humanity. (This is not because God needs to discover anything; it is for the sake of the rest of the universe, to whom we are made a spectacle—see 1 Corinthians 4:9.) God wishes for everyone to be convinced by the evidence. According to Thayer's Bible Dictionary, the word bachan is used 29 times in the Old Testament.
The same idea of an investigative judgment is clearly implied in Rev. 3:10: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."
Daniel 7 is very explicit that there is a Judgment in which books are opened. See verses 9, 10, and 13, 14. Also note that verses 11, 12 make it clear that this judgment takes place prior to the Second Coming of Christ. It is because of the judgment that the beast that persecutes God’s people is slain. (Verse 11).
And here also are the words of the vision given to John in Revelation 14:6, 7: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
Notice that this first of the three heavenly messengers that give the final warning messages to earth, says the hour of God's judgment IS come. He did not say it is about to come. So the world has not ended yet when this judgment takes place.
And verse six states that what this angel proclaims is “the everlasting gospel.” The word “gospel” means “good news.” So the Judgment is GOOD NEWS! This is because Jesus does not merely stand by our side as an Advocate in the Judgment—He stands in our place in the Judgment! This is the key message of Revelation chapter five.
Jesus is more than the new Head of our race, a new Adam—Jesus is you and me in the Judgment. And we personally will receive the blessings and rewards that He merits. It has already been obtained for us. We will soon have it in actual possession—if we do not foolishly choose to reject it.
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