Page 204 - Bible Writers Theology Original

188 ♦ Bible Wdti^rs' Theology Chapter Seven
might be rich (II Corinthians 8:9; I Peter 4:1; 2:21; I Corinthians 1:18-25;
Isaiah 7:9-14).
As the sins of the Old Testament people were laid upon the sacrifice, and upon the head of the scapegoat, our sins were laid upon the Christ of God. God laid the iniquity of all mankind on Christ, for only in Christ is there suf ficiency of merit for the salvation of all. Christ was oppressed, afflicted, smitten, wounded, despised, and rejected for our afflictions, transgressions, cind the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Christ surely bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. People, without knowing the purpose and mission of His cross, esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Isciiah 53 is the sure witness of Christ's purpose for suffering such agony.
People are neglecting the heavenly Christ by misinterpreting the work of God that was accomplished through the flesh and blood of Emmanuel (I Peter 2:6-10, 21-25). Isaiah accused such theologians saying "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteeme him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53: 3-4).Did God die? No! But God really was reconciling the world through the agony of His flesh unto Himself.(John 6:57; I Peter 3:18-19; Col. 1:19-22; Matthew 10:22; Psalms 139:7-8).
^^T^eologians need to believe the Father incarnate is not merely in Chnst. The sympathizing of Christ with our weakness is not outside of the Father. As Paul states it, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of recon- cmation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him-
In f ? imputing their trespasses unto them..." (II Corinthians 5:18-19). All of the supplications, the cries, the tears, the thirst, the hunger, the weak
ness, the birth and the death of Jesus were from God's Son to the God incar nate, and are all from God to God as we see it in verse 19. God did not receive reconciliation being outside of Christ. All the feelings of the flesh were the feelings of the Father incarnate because God was the Spirit of the
flesh and blood.
^Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man, by becoming himself God-Man (Immanuel) to give His life a ransom for all (I Timothy 2:5,6; I Timothy 1:15-17; 3:16; I John 1:1-4; Matthew 1:20-23; Isaiah 7:13-14; Isaiah 8:8; Isaian 9:6; Micah 5:2-4). Both His humanity and His deity are essential to His mediatorial work. As a true spiritual man. He represents
the human race to His deity, and as the one God in flesh He reveals the eter nal, invisible God to man. As it is recorded in Romans 5:12, just as by one man (the earthy Adam) sin and death entered the human race, so by one heavenly man, Christ Jesus, righteousness and everlasting life reigns for
all mankind.
When we speak of Jesus as mediator between God and humanity, we must not think of Him as a second God or a second divine person. The Bible