The Activities of the Christ on Behalf of Mankind
In the person of Jesus, the Christ demonstrated how a son of man could reach the pinnacle of humanity and enter into the Kingdom of the Heavens, over which the Christ reigned, and become adopted and grafted into God’s spiritual family. Before Christ’s appearance on earth, man had only the hope of living a few years on a troubled planet under stressful conditions until he died and returned to dust. Some came to believe that if they had done enough good works in their life, God might remember them in a future resurrection to live again on the earth. They were a fleshly people who filtered life through the lens of the limited human experience.
When we read the historical account of the Hebrews and their concepts of God, we see that their understanding of Him was progressive. Their view gradually improved from viewing Him as a vengeful and jealous God to the loving God of all and the Father of a nation. It was at this point that the Father determined that man was ready for the “revealing of the sons of God” whereby the Christ would reveal God as their individual Father (not just the Father of a nation), and would demonstrate the ‘way’ to become ‘adopted as sons and children of God.’
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
– Romans 8:18-23
This revealing of the sons showed them that they no longer had to groan in pain under the cruel yoke of the fleshly, earthly life. But that they would be adopted in to the Kingdom of the Heavens and become spirit sons of the Father where they would be released from the fleshly bodies and given new, incorruptible ones. (1 Corinthians 15:52) In that state, they would enjoy untold realities and heretofore incomprehensible experiences:
“However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
– 1 Corinthians 2:9
This does not mean that the fulfillment of God’s promises would leave the earth uninhabited. No. We are told:
“For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited —he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
- Isaiah 45:18
“The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.”
– Psalms 37:29
The provision for man to be born and live on earth would continue. It is the means of creating potential human sons of God. While spirit personalities are directly created and eventuated in the heavens, only on earth are new human sons of God procreated and born.
“At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
– Matthew 22:30
We might liken our earthly existence to the embryotic stage, and the release from our bodies as our true birth. Or we might liken ourselves to caterpillars who must go through the cocooning struggle before we can be born as butterflies. The example of Jesus shows us the way to successfully ‘cocoon’ so that we will be able to fly!
So in Christ Jesus, we have two exemplars: the powerful, loving, Son of God – the now sovereign of our universe – and the humble, loving, exemplar of our faith, our older brother Jesus, the Son of Man, who showed us how to love one another.
The Father and the Christ did not leave us to our own devices to figure out how to achieve sonship. The Christ, manifest in Jesus, was born as a helpless babe who had to grow to manhood as any other mortal of the realm; lived as a perfected man and teacher of heavenly ideals; and died as a faithful man, invincible in the face of an ignominious death.
Jesus promised that after his resurrection, he would send the Spirit of Truth that would continue to teach us about all things:
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
– John 16:12-15
And in his last discourse to his apostles he gave them instructions to carry out until they receive their adoption in the heavens:
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
– Matthew 28:18-20
So we have now three ways in which the Father communes with us:
- Through His Son, the Christ, who was the exact representation of God’s very being:
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”
– Hebrews 1:1-4
2. Through the Son’s spirit of truth who will teach us about all things:
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
– John 16:12-15
3. And through the Father’s own divine fragment whereby the Father knows the very hairs of our head:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”
– 1 Corinthians 3:16
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own?”
– 1 Corinthians 6:19
