Hebrews 2:9 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."
Contemplating the above, I`ve observed some teaching that Jesus took in our sins, but that was not the case. He took our sins upon himself not within himself. There is a great significance between taking upon and taking within. Jesus would have aborted his earthly assignment by allowing sin to enter him in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Doing so would have destroyed the purity of his humanness. He has a divine nature and received his human nature when as recorded above he, "...was made a little lower than the angels."
John 14:30 records when Satan was about to unleash his last and most vicious assault upon the Lord Jesus` humanness. In the text, Jesus, while referring to the devil as a prince said, " Hereafter, I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." Only Jesus alone can say that Satan "HATH NOTHING IN ME." This points to the Lord`s perpetual purity. Jesus is holy, holy, holy, and he had to remain holy in his humanness for us to receive Salvation. Calling the devil a prince clarifies how the evil one does have power and authority. Although he is the Prince of Darkness, Jesus is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! Amen.
Unlike Jesus, even though we may be saved, we can never say that Satan has nothing in us. Know this: you and I have a sinful nature that Satan always has access to and whereby he gravitates toward us. Moreover, this gravitational pull has a sin-based cohesiveness. Put another way, the old Vander, the old you, always agrees with the evil one. Oh yeah! they compliment each other, like peanut butter & jelly. This is why the bible tells us that it`s impossible to please God while we are operating in the flesh. We must kill the old us every time he/she rises up.
If Jesus would have allowed sin to enter him, we would be still on our way to hell. The Immaculate Conception points to this truth. Mary`y virgin birth to baby Jesus was needed to keep him from original sin, whereby Adam`s seed would have been passed on to baby Jesus. Original sin was was created by Adam`s failure in Eden. Hebrews 4:15 makes it vividly clear; "For we have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet WITHOUT SIN." Meaning that, even though the evil one had access, whereby tempting Jesus`s humanness, Jesus still achieved his earthly task by not yielding to temptation, thus, remaining sin-free. This is how he procured the title: Sinless High Priest. What a mighty God we serve!
Why was it imperative that he become human to achieve success? Jesus had to become human because he had to meet sin at sins strongest point. This means that, to defeat sin for humankind he had to meet sin on sins turf. This turf speaks of Jesus suiting-up in human form. Jesus knew that suiting up in human form would subject his humanness to extreme difficulties. Image what his mindset must have been, especially, when he foreknew what Luke 22:53 described as the hour and power of darkness which was inevitable. Consider how incredibly intense the mounting pressure of anticipation must have been. The sheer force of such expectation had to be immeasurable. By the time Jesus reached Gethsemane, the mounting pressure had become a hard shove into an agitated awareness.
You see, for Jesus to be fully aware in his mind , defines the certainty of knowing what he was about to go through. This was something he alone could experience. I refer to the degree of certainty. Our mental capacity to foresee is fuzzy at times, and even when we have developed spiritual discernment, as Apostle Paul said, 1 Corinth. 13:12 "we know only in part...". Whatever Jesus foresaw was 100% accurate. Furthermore, the effects of expectancy will also create very vivid mental images. Therefore, the power of expectancy in action produced mental pictures in Jesus`s mind. These mental images clearly defined everything he would endure. Let me put it this way. Jesus knew exactly how he would be betrayed. He not only knew this in advance, you see, he saw it take place in his mind, long before Judas kissed him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Envision the progression of such momentum.
Jesus not only knew how he would be stripped totally naked and brutally beaten beyond recognition, again, he saw it in advance, in his mind. He foreknew exactly how he would be nailed to the cross and suspended between heaven and earth. Jesus had seen himself dangling as a symbol of human failure, being made a shameful spectacle, representing the highest form of dishonor for all eyes to see. He knew it and saw it in the spirit before it occurred in the natural. In his mind, Jesus saw himself hanging on the cross long before he was actually crucified. In his mind, he could see the excruciating pain on his mother`s face, long before she stood at the foot of the cross.
The ever-increasing pressure of anticipation did not ease up. Since Jesus cried while looking down at Jerusalem, imagine how he felt about being made sin? 2 Corinth.5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 1 Peter 3:18 " For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." He not only knew he needed to allow the stench of sin to come upon him, he anticipated it . He recoiled in his mind as he saw it coming. His holy nature and the purity of his will wanted to destroy destroy it. Know this: sin is more than the transgression of the Law, it is an extremely powerful force. So powerful that it took God himself to enter humanity to break sin`s grip over humanity. This, again, was Jesus` task.
He fully understood his assignment, as stated above, Jesus had to meet sin at its` strongest point: in the flesh. Only After suiting up in human form, was when Jesus could distinguish (experientially) the difference between humanness and his divinity, which was why he could say to his disciples that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus paid the price for our sin, without personally sinning, he suffered the curse of death to free us from death`s eternal grip. Then he rose from the grave with all power! Then he was crowned with glory and honor upon returning to his heavenly throne. "But we see Jesus..." I pray we see him a little clearer. In all thy getting, let`s get a better understanding of who Jesus is Amen.
