Today’s lesson was about people having Godly vision which has to come with sanctification. With sanctification, after asking Jesus to be your single and final blood atonement for forgiveness, a person will find hope and rest (Matt. 11:28).
God says in Psalms 111:10:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever”.
Next, our lesson gave note that “our obedience is not shaped by a sense of obligation and condemnation, but grace and love”. That is true about the condemnation and also in the begining of a new life as far as obligation; but growing in maturity or growing in your sanctification you will find that Romans 12:1 is absolutely above an obligation state of mind: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Obligation means to have a mind of duty or commitment due to a morality or lawful recognition to something you personally recognize. It would be hard to just meet someone and have a sense of a mature sanctified duty. The more one grows in the ranks of a military chain they become more firm in their original commitment to serve. This analogy is only a simplified example because no President, or Commander in Chief is God; but, if God were seen as Commander in Chief at your lowest rank you will with growth become more firm and have even a stronger sense of obligation. I believe if you could get to the top as a 5 star General at some point spiritually with God, your maturity would go from a duty to a state of “why would you not” (which is what “reasonable service” means- I believe the best example would be Enoch in the bible- another example of this state of mind is scriture about Jesus telling us it is better not to marry unless you need to fulfil his commandment of producing more light for the future generations of the lost and can not control the desires of the flesh in us ). Romans 12:1:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your REASONABLE service.”
There may be a small recognition of reasonable obligation at the point of asking God for foregiveness and salvation; but with the next verse of study you see growth in sanctification, or spiritual maturity, comes from hard work and not but some sort of “imputed effort”. If God were to answer your prayer and give you a brand new Cadillac the understanding of enjoyment of such a gift does not come with him as a chauffer. Step that up a notch to a Datona 500 race car and then even to a F35 fighter jet. Those experiences demand traing, discipline, equipment education, flesh tolerance learning and safety procedure training. A joyful spiritual life can be as a spectator (like the thief on the cross) or a bicycle rider, a motor cycle rider, a race car driver, to a fighter pilot. The rewards of enjoyment are based upon us. You will need him for the instructional manuals and personal training (as there is no better experienced at what you could possibly go through).
Matt.11:29: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Now a Christian has to “learn” many things. As the meaning of all Godly things were once hidden now the library of God becomes accessible for learning. Reading, praying, searching for Godly wisdom through more mature Christians, finding warriors of God will require recognizing they have scars healed by God that will help in “learning” how to be a better warrior yourself. This word “learning” comes from a human ( known as Matthew) speaking to a human. To get a deeper meaning of the word “learning” you can combine what God the human (Jesus) described it as in Hebrews 5:8: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”
This verse expands the entire discussion to the flesh as well as the spiritual as before with just the verses in Matthew you did not get that understanding. So, how does the flesh come into play. One aspect you can see with the example of being given a car or jet. But this is even deeper and you need to understanding how Jesus is actually God. Most of the planet has always rejected Jesus as literally God (the Elohim at the begining of creation). When reading scripture you see Jesus doing things and saying things as a literally separate individual from the Elohim who is “out there in heaven”. But, he is not separate! He is!
Read it again: “Hebrews 5:8: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”
That literally sounds so humanistic like you and me! Jesus is “learning”? How can God the Father in the O.T. (El, Elohim) be “learning something like you and me? It frankly does not make sense with rational thinking in many ways.
Here is the explanation of why your mind will be blown away when you let this sink in!
It means God came as Jesus in flesh form (the absolute O.T. God). Here when he addresses humans he is speaking to us to teach us something “in a humanistic way” for OUR learning ability.
Secondly, he expresses this life as Jesus in human form from begining to end as a “humanistic BROTHER in Christ for DEMONSTRATIONAL” purposes (the events are still real, but he doesn’t need to learn carpentry, professional preaching skills, or how to do anything) .
If Jesus prays, isn’t he actually praying to himself?
What good is that?
It is only good “as a brother” to help his brother learn (you and me). And most of all it allows us to “relate to him in fleshly and brotherly way, that we can not do as us in human form and him in God form “holding his entire creation” ( all universes) in his right hand.
God put on a yoke (not sin) to become more relational and that required him doing it in “like flesh form”, as a human.
If you lined up on the race track to race God in your new Datona 500 Chevy, or Ford, would you think you had a chance at God losing against you when the car he is driving is remotely controlled because his invisible spirit sits in the drivers seat?
Now what if God said, “hold on,” and puff the spiritual smoke in the driver’s seat turned into a man and then his voice came out of his mouth instead of the clouds above the entire race track?
You would be looking at God in a “racer to racer” more conceivable thinking frame of mind.
God is omnipotent.
What can he learn if he was present outside of time creating the foundation of the universe?
What can he “learn” as Jesus?
A lot; if you look at him in the perspective he is demonstrating (like you are going to bet him around that race track- teach him something).
But Jesus can only give you a “fair chance” if he complete becomes submisiveness by literally “TAKING ON YOUR KIND OF WORLDY LIMITATIONS: which would be completely experiencing through the flesh what torture, hunger, flesh needs, cravings and lust is like, completely giving into dependence upon a creator instead of his fleshly abilities, compete submissiveness, completely experiencing a moment by moment “maturing” in knowledge, wisdom and spiritual sanctification (again I must reiterate his is “like manner” of ours). Now, stomp on the gas petal and race against God in the flesh, as Jesus “learns” what that gas petal feels like and the power of the centrifugal force pushing him back into the seat as it wants to throw him into the sidewall going around that turn! You now have God as a “literal brother” who can look you in the eye if he asks you from the clouds, “do you remember our race together?” You could answer and see clearly a God in TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS, YET AT THE SAME TIME KNOW HE EXPERIENCED WHAT YOU “AS A MAN” learned also in anything in your life.
Jesus was born like the first Adam; created sinless. Second, he is different in that he is the seed of God and of God, making him God. But, “the Son of Man” means when he got beaten he FELT every bit of it “like you” would if you were beat or crucified physically.
Therefore, Jesus “learned nothing; but if you see him as 100% flesh like you (not the sinner part) he demonstrates to you “how to learn”. For example, when he was tempted he told the devil that he did not need or live by bread alone but by the word of God. Jesus prayed to the first person of himself (God the Father) so you could relate (like David and even quote David as he did) as a human to God the father up in the heavens that you can not physically see but 100% be sure he is there in control and taking care of your enemies ( which are his enemies)!!!!!!
How could a omnipresent God in the Jesus form stand beside you and say, “do you comprehend how I am physically talking to you and every other human that has or ever will live all at the same time and actually be at the begining of time itself all literally right here and now”? Men did not believe his miracles for the most part because they said it was magic or the work of the devil. Being omnipotent and omnipresence is not easy to overcome when standing on the earth as a 5’10” man stacked to a cross,eating breakfast or dinner, building a chair or fishing, or kneeling and praying to God.
Taking his yoke is not easy as a human, but maturing from a baby Christian to a warrior of Christ you can only “learn” how Jesus has done all the hard stuff you only use to think was hard at the end.
