OUR LORD THE PERFECTION OF GOD AS MAN

The Lord Jesus was born as a child and grew up in every way that a man would, except that He was absolutely perfect.

Perfection in this sense means that He was completely righteous to the degree that He could not contravene any law in anyway and would have rather died than break even a single law of God.

At the end of His time on earth, Jesus faced that very conundrum where He could either avoid the horror of death on a cross or he could surrender Himself to be put to death so that He would not disobey His Father in heaven.

He, being flawless, set His face to flint and underwent the Roman execution of crucifixion and fulfilled what His father had asked of Him. He Himself had  no fault whatsoever but  suffered the death that a sinful man would have deserved.

In death, Jesus descended into the courts of the spirit where He was to undergo scrutiny so that his enemies could justify His death and admittance to hell. 

Psalm 7 verse 1 - 6 describes the defense Jesus mounted in that court. He spoke of the consequences that were hanging over Him if any fault was found in Him. He also said  that if He had done anything wrong, He would rightly be chased and torn apart and trampled to death by His enemies.

But Jesus, innocent, claimed exoneration and called on God the Father to rise in rage against His false accusers. The passage says this;

Lord my God, I take refuge in you;  save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands—if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe—then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.

Arise, Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies.

In Ezekiel chapter 18, the prophet, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, painstakingly outlined the legal position that Jesus was in at that  court session in the spirit.

The word of the Lord came to me:  “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

“‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.  For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die.

In the context of the passage, the question raised was whether a son could be culpable for his father's sins or if a father could be culpable for his son's sins. 

Here, the Lord God declares, "The one who sins is the one who will die" which unequivocally stipulates that if a person did not sin themselves, they will surely live. It is this fundamental law that underwrote Jesus' resurrection from the dead. As Ezekiel 18 verse 9 continues;

He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord.

But if Jesus, the eternal and sinless one suffered and died even though He was innocent, God made it possible for the suffering and death that Jesus endured to be transferred to our account so that we sinners who deserved  death, could have our sins paid for.

Because we believed in Jesus and asked Him, in His mercy, to save us, He undertook to redeem us and ransomed us from the kingdom of darkness and moved us into His kingdom of light.

Bless the Lord who underwent death that we could be made alive in Him.

Amen.