The Scourge Of Racism
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A man’s Man to be sure, but God’s Man all the more, Jesus, Son of Man displayed the masculine traits that have long been considered solidly male. Clearly, however, this was not the extent of His eternal masculinity and Manhood as He also displayed traits that have been wrongly associated uniquely with femininity and weakness. Such traits as grace, mercy, compassion, humility, gentleness, kindness, empathy, longsuffering, forgiveness and consoling were displayed in Jesus too (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-36, 11:25-30; Luke 6:1-11, 7:1-17, 9:37-42; John 8:1-12, 16:16-33). Thus, He fully exhibited man as the masculine being he is as I have been proclaiming in this blog!
Contrary to what sin has corruptly worked in fallen man as male and female by God’s perfect, purposeful design and division, they in their marital oneness were to operate cooperatively in a complementary relationship. Their intrinsic masculinity was “fleshed out” by God in their natural bodies in such a way as to foster understanding, appreciation and harmony for each other’s roles and responsibilities in the divine assignment to rule and fill the earth.4 As a result, males in general as His chosen heads and initiators of the family with the help of hormones have emphasized those parts of masculinity that are strongly linked to their tasks such as authority, ambition and strength.
Hormonally aided, females in general as helpers to their husbands in the management and expansion of the family through childbearing, display more of such masculine traits as compassion, gentleness and consoling suited for those responsibilities.5 Nevertheless, as demonstrated by Jesus, Son of Man, these masculine traits are not intended exclusively for feminine ends and in fact, now, His male and female followers are being restored inwardly to conform to His image and example of eternal masculinity in becoming like Him in every way, but without conflict with their respective temporary gender body designs, roles and responsibilities (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
As great as Jesus is, He still presented Himself a “bondservant,” (Mark 10:45; Philippians 2:7, NKJV). John the Baptist described Him as “the Lamb of God” which spoke to His mission to take “away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29, NKJV)! But calling Jesus, Son of Man “the Lamb of God” also speaks to His eternal attitude and posture of humility to please the Father in all submission that led to His offering Himself on the cross to take away sin and bring forth the restoration of willing mankind. Therefore, again, submission as taught and displayed eternally by Jesus is not something exclusive to femininity and negative, but well pleasing to God since it is directly tied to the proper loving response to greater authority as in the divine Father and Son relationship above all other examples!
The foregoing is certainly the reason Jesus does not attempt to fix God’s order of mankind as it concerns the headship of a man over his wife and family--there is nothing wrong with it, but mankind as sinners! Instead, as the consummate Man and our Head (1 Corinthians 11:3), Jesus teaches us men how to treat women (Luke 7:36-50) and His apostles our wives with love, dignity, compassion and true equality as fellow man (Genesis 2:23; Ephesians 5:28-29); leading, teaching, providing for and protecting them as God has done for man since Adam in the garden (Genesis 2:7-17). God’s restoration of man in Jesus makes better male and female relations in this age possible!
Man is a ruler by divine design and created to rule God’s creation under Him. As I wrote in another place, as fully restored in Jesus Christ we are eternally destined “a race of rulers.”6 God did not create man to rule in any way that he pleased, but to do so in the divine image and likeness. Jesus, Son of Man showed us what kind of a ruler man is to be in perfect masculinity, nature, tested character and balanced demeanor as a lion and a lamb as I describe in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Having ended the first part of His work to restore man crying out from the cross, “It is finished“ (John 19:30, NKJV), He rose from the dead and ascended to His Father who “exalted Him” “Lord” to which every created knee bows to God’s glory (Philippians 2:8-11, NKJV)!
In the meantime, He continues seeking willing men among Adam’s fallen sons to restore in salvation and spiritual regeneration so they may be deployed and labor too in His present Kingdom cause (Matthew 4:18-19, 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Titus 3:3-7). Truly, the second and consummating part of God’s restoration work draws near; Jesus, the Son of Man’s declared return to earth when He will immediately raise the dead and transform the bodies of those living that have waited for Him (Matthew 26:63-64; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)!7 He with His fellow glorious immortals as God’s eternal sons will reign over an eagerly waiting creation beginning then and forever (Romans 8:14-25)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
4 Read my May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design and others referenced in it under the category, God’s Creatures.
5 Read the June 19, 2016 post, Eternal Sons Of God to learn more about how eternal, spiritual masculinity transcends and informs that which is displayed in the human body by gender under the category, Instruction.
6 Read the September 19, 2014 post, A Race Of Rulers under the category, God’s Creatures. Also, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics referenced in this blog can be purchased in the Strong Man Store.
7 See the July 10-31, 2016 posts that discuss the immortal bodies of the eternal sons of God!
Mankind have been sinners so long, we cannot wrap our brains around a perfect, sinless man as Adam was before he sinned. This is why even with Jesus, Son of Man, many attribute His sinless life to His deity. This is the second of two common misconceptions of His Humanity mostly well meaning Bible teachers have and teach. However, to any way have used the powers of His divinity in the conduct of His mortal sojourn would belie the apostle Paul’s inspired declaration, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men,” (Philippians 2:6-7, NKJV).
Also, Scripture teaches that the Lord Jesus in the body of Mary, the virgin had a perfect, sinless body “prepared” for Him or else being holy God, He could not have entered it (Luke 1:31, 34-35; Hebrews 10:5, NKJV)! The net result of this mostly unintended second misconception of Jesus, Son of Man is the implication that He through His deity cheated somehow in keeping Himself in perfect obedience to and sinless before God. But, of course, this would be sin and scandalous! This is why once again my God demonstrates His infinite wisdom in what is recorded in three of the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus being put to the test before He began His ministry.
The Father having declared loving affection for and full pleasure in His Son at His baptism by John, the Holy Spirit who had descended upon Him is seen to even push Jesus into the wilderness to fast forty days and afterward become ravenously hungry; then, be tempted by the devil to act in this weakened state three ways. First, he tempted Him to use His own power as the Son of God to meet His physical needs. Second, Satan tempted Him to put the Father’s promise of protective care to the test. Lastly, the tempter offered Jesus a path to world rule through bowing to him. The Son of Man refused every temptation and prevailed (Matthew 3:13-4:11; Mark 1:9-13; Luke 3:21-22, 4:1-13)!
This was surely not the first attempt by Satan to seduce Jesus into sin from His age of accountability to that moment or after during His ministry years. But in the barren wilderness temptation of Jesus as with Adam in the paradise garden, God the Father sought to reveal His only begotten Son’s heart; His willingness to please the Father even over Himself and do His will as He avowed coming into the world (Hebrews 10:6-7). Adam failed in the garden, but Jesus marvelously succeeded in the wilderness and thereafter since it is written of Him that He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15, NKJV).
Jesus, the Son of Man maintained His perfection from a Boy the same way Adam could have out of faith in and love for His Father along with the pure, Selfless ambition to please Him and do His will (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:6, 17a; Luke 2:41-52, 8:19-21; John 14:31). The Gospels record that Jesus kept emphasizing repeatedly how He had come to do His Father’s will in all that He taught as His message and the deeds He carried out in the Father’s power by the Holy Spirit (John 8:25-29, 12:42-50, 14:7-11). Beyond ambition as a Man, He perfectly displayed authority, leadership, courage, zeal, physical and spiritual strength, toughness and forcefulness in His mission (Luke 4:31-44; John 2:13-22).
Along the way, He forthrightly spoke of greatness in the glory the Father had prepared for Him; the life cause and mission He was willing to suffer and endure death for in carrying out (Matthew 16:13-17:13). He took what most mortal men would certainly agree were risks in His ministry while traveling throughout Israel and decisive actions that relieved human suffering (Luke 4:16-30; 5:12-26). He followed His Father’s instructions and plans wholly to the death as an obedient Son; the distinctive Strong Man of God (Philippians 2:8)!2 Truly, He learned obedience (God does not learn, man does) in all that He suffered on the way to and on the cross (Isaiah 50:4-6; Matthew 26:36-46; Hebrews 5:5-8).
Even with the impending abandonment of His “band of brothers,” Jesus copiously “loved them to the end,” (John 13:1, NKJV).3 Before entering His final trials, He interceded for them and all of us that would be the beneficiaries by faith of His sacrifice (John 17); a sacrifice that made a way of eternal deliverance from sin and death for the first time since Adam’s fall (Isaiah 53; Romans 3:10-31; Ephesians 2:1-10). Again, Jesus, Son of Man did this to restore fallen man the creature in the divine purpose of creation-wide governance, bring many sons to eternal glory with Him, help the faithful in our earthly sojourn and remove the fear of judgment (Hebrews 2:5-18, 4:14-16, 5:9, 9:22-10:18). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
2 Obeying God to the death is one of four distinctive characteristics of Jesus as the Strong Man of God I am led by the Holy Spirit to write about in my book, The Strong
Man Of God: Back To Basics available in the Strong Man Store.
3 I gratefully acknowledge here David Murrow and his book, Why Men Hate Going To Church as a reference source for presenting part of Jesus’ masculine checklist
(i.e. aspiration for greatness, a cause to die for, risk taking, adventure, action taking and problem solving, following a leader and the love of a “band of brothers”). I
have shown Jesus as such a Man in this blog and will do so in upcoming blogs to relate this partial masculine display to His disciples and very importantly, as typical
of males presently and man the creature made in the image and likeness of God. Other characteristics of masculinity displayed by Jesus, Son of Man will also be
presented in upcoming blogs as they are by Murrow in his book and me in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.
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