Because both “the undeserved kindness or grace and truth” were to come to be through Jesus Christ, He had to get out among the people and let them hear Him and see His work and qualities. Thus they might recognize Him as the Messiah and put faith in His sacrifice when He died for them as “the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:17,29)
He personally visited Palestine’s many regions, covering hundreds of miles on foot. He talked to people on lakeshores and hillsides, as well as in cities and villages, synagogues and temples, market places, streets, and houses, addressing large crowds and individuals, men and women, old and young, rich and poor.
Jesus set an example for His disciples by being hard working, rising early, and serving on into the night. More than once He spent the night in prayer as He did the night before giving the Sermon on the Mount. Another time, after serving during the night He rose early while it was still dark and headed for a lonely place to pray. His privacy, often interrupted by crowds He, nevertheless, “received them kindly and began to speak to them about the Kingdom of God. (Lk 9:10,11;Mk 4:2-4; 7:24,25).
He was not, however an ascetic, practicing self-denial to an extreme degree without regard for the circumstances at hand. (Lk 7:33,34) He accepted many invitations to meals and even banquets, visiting homes of persons of some wealth. (Lk 5:29; 7:36; 14:1;19:16) He appreciated good things done or him. Nevertheless, Jesus always gave spiritual things first place and was never overly concerned about material things as He counseled others. (Mt 6:24-34; 8:20;Lk 10:38-42;Phil 4:10-12)
Great courage, manliness and strength are evident throughout His ministry. Like Joshua, King David, and others, Jesus was a fighter for God’s cause and on the behalf of lovers of righteousness. As the “Promised Seed”, He had to face the enmity of the “seed of the serpent”, doing battle with them. (En 3:15;22:17). He waged offensive warfare against the demons and their influence on people’s minds and hearts. Hypocritical religious leaders showed that they were actually in opposition to God’s sovereignty and will. Jesus thoroughly defeated them in a series of verbal encounters. He wielded “the sword of the Spirit”, God’s Word, with strength, perfect control, strategy, cutting through the subtle arguments and trap-like questioning that His opposers advanced, putting them in corner or “on the horns of a dilemma”. (Mt 21:23-27; 22:15-46) He fearlessly exposed them for what they were: teachers of human traditions and formalism blind leaders of a generation of vipers, and children of Satan.
In all this, Jesus was never foolhardy; He sought no trouble, and avoided unnecessary danger. He did not lose control of Himself but remained calm when vilified and mistreated, “committing Himself to the One who judgeth righteously”. (1 Pet 2:23)
By His courageous fight for the truth and by being light to the people concerning God’s purpose, Jesus, as one greater than Moses, fulfilled the prophetic role of the Deliverer. He proclaimed freedom to the captives and though many held back for selfish reasons and out of fear of the element in power, others gained courage to break free of their chains of ignorance and slavish subservience to false leaders and false hopes. As faithful Judean kings had waged campaigns to eliminate false worship from the realm, so, too, the ministry of Jesus, God’s Messianic King, had a devastating effect on false religion.
But Jesus was a man of great feeling. His perfection did not make Him hypocritical or arrogant and overbearing toward the imperfect, sin-laden persons among whom He lived and worked. He proved Himself a real friend and companion to His followers, “loving them to the end.”(Jn 13:1; 15:11-15). He did not use His authority to be demanding or to add to the people’s burden but rather said, “Come to me all who are heavy laden…I will refresh you.”
The last word of the Old Testament is “curse”, (Mal 4:16), while the opening phrase of the New Testament is, “The generation of Jesus Christ” which is as it should be, “From Curse to Christ”.
“Curse” summarizes the effect of man’s disobedience of God’s Law in the Old Testament scriptures; “Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that were written in the Book of the Law to do them.” (Gal. 13:10)
As promised, Christ came to nullify that curse and deliver man from it. (Gen 3:15,17;Dt 21:3) By His death and resurrection, Christ provided redemption from such a curse. (Gen 3:13).
Although Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, He was distinct from it, for He came miraculously. Agnostics and relationalists have tried to explain the miracle of the New Testament as natural phenomena. What cannot be denied, however, is the fact that the supernatural pervades the Gospels. Modernists reject this miraculous element on the grounds that no account embracing supernatural events can be accepted as historical.
There are universal laws to which all phenomena, natural and historical, are subject, therefore any interference Th these laws is ruled out.
Jesus is represented as having supernatural birth, character, deeds, claims, and resurrection. Naturalists allow that this remarkable man had the gift of healing, but all of His cures were faith-cures and not in any way supernatural. The acts of giving sight to the blind and raising of the dead belie this belief because of the implied creative power by One who transcends the ordinary power of nature.
Jesus came into the world not only as God’s personal representative on earth but as God, Himself manifested n the flesh and therefore, appeared as a miracle n human form. To accept Th Marcela s to accept all of the miracles He performed. His miraculous labors are bound up inseperately with His life; and His labors and life harmonize completely.
As truth, (Jn 14:6), He proclaimed the truth. His moral perfection and spiritual greatness make Him pre-eminent among the holiest of men. He was a sinless personality, a fact, which in itself, is a miracle, and was only credible by the creative miracle of His origin.
Because Jesus was athoritive as a teacher, (Mt 7:28,29), and sinless as a man, His miracles not only formed an internal part of His teaching but were also proofs of His authority as God’s sent One and His spinelessness. Because of who He was He could not but perform miracles.
The Standard Bible Encyclopedia says, “Christ’s life and doctrine form one series of pillars, His miracles another, upon which the dome of the Christian church is lifted towards heaven.” Jesus’ miracles implied as an exercise of creative power as God and were His Father’s was of authenticating the divinity of His Son’s mission.
Another aspect of the miracles is that they mirrored His own character and naturally expressed His love and sympathy for suffering mankind.
He never allowed His supernatural acts of love for man interfere with His practice of private devotion, (Mt 1:34,35), and they were accompanied with prayer and the giving of thanks. (Jn 6:21; 11:41) In His humanity, Jesus depended not on His own power, but upon His Almighty Father in heaven.
Other aspects include: His power of miracles is foretold. (Isa 35:5,6; 42:7); the object was not only merely to amaze those who saw the miracles, (Lk 11:16); He never worked a miracle on His own behalf; no miracles were performed lentil after He was baptised and tested; He never paraded His supreme power and never for display or even to prove His claims; He showed economy of divine strength in that He did not cure everyone in the world, (healing was not always in the divine will); He was guided by the all-constraining motive of glorifying God and “Himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses” (Mt 8:7); He was moved with compassion, (Mt 9:36); all miracles were beneficial in character, harmonizing with His life and teaching; and healing was dependent upon the faith of those seeking aid or of the faith of those closely connected to those suffering. This faith was always rewarded. (Mk 5:25-34; 7:24-30; 18:46-52; Mt 8:5-13)
The only thing that would inhibit healing was Unbelief! (Mt 13:58; Mk6: 5,6) His methods were varied according to the individual needs of the afflicted. He used His hands, with or without contact; His word only; by the touching of His garments and He used saliva and/or clay. He always guided His healing power by a regard for the glory of God. The relief of the sufferers was secondary. (Jn 11:4)
The value of His healing was a revelation of the power and glory of God, to reveal man’s appalling need and it represented the ruin caused by sin and God’s power and will to repair such ruin.
The unparalleled wisdom found in the teachings of Jesus, who “was more the Solomon”,(Mt12:42), is one of the most powerful evidences that He was indeed the Son of God and that the Gospel accounts could not be the mere product of imperfect men’s minds or imagination. Jesus proved Himself to be the promised Counselor, (Isa 9:6) , by His ability to get to the heart of questions and issues, and by showing the solution to the problems of daily living.
His manner of teaching was remarkably affective. (Jn 7:45,46) He presented matters of great with and depth with simplicity, brevity, and clarity.
Though considerate of the limited understanding of His audience, and even His own disciples,(Mt 4:33), and through using discernment in how much information to give them, (Jn 16:4,12), He never watered down God’s message in an effort to gain popularity or to curry favor. His speech was straightforward, even blunt at times. The theme of His message was, “Repent…for the Kingdom of God is at hand”. (Mt 4:17)
In the union of the two characters of Jesus Christ, the orthodox theory that holds that the two natures of Jesus were both complete in themselves, yet so organically and indissoluibly united that no third nature is formed. Being truly divine, He is a true representative of God, and by being truly human, He is a true representative of man.
Jesus constantly spoke of Himself as a single person and not two persons in one. It is important that He limited Himself as a man to set the right example for man so that man can be inspired to live like God on earth by the same means that Jesus had used. It was not only important that He have two natures, human and divine, for the sake of man, but also for the sake of God; to be a true mediator between God and man. His two-fold nature gives Him fellowship with both parties and capability of representing both to reconcile both. As God, He can uphold the dignity of the Deity, and as man; He can truly be sympathetic and meet the needs of man. Because He is God, His atonement has infinite value and effect.
Jesus fulfilled the requirements of a prophet like, but greater than, Moses. He foretold of Hs own sufferings and manner of death, the scattering of His disciples, the siege of Jerusalem, and the utter destruction of that city and it’s temple. In connection with these latter events, He included prophecies to be fulfilled at the tie of His presence, when His Kingdom would be in active operation.
The quality that predominates through all of these aspects of Jesus’ personality is love; Jesus’ love for His Father above all and for His fellow creatures. (Mt 22:37-39) Love was therefore the distinguishing mark identifying His disciples. This love was not sentimental and, though He expressed strong feeling, Jesus was always guided by principle: His Father’s will was His supreme concern. He proved His love for His Father by following His Father’s will and by seeking to glorify His Father at all times. On His first night with His disciples, He spoke of the acts of love and loving nearly thirty times, repeating the command that they “love one another”. In proof for His love for His Father and mankind, He let Himself be “brought like a lamb to the slaughter” submitting to trials, being slapped, hit with fists, spit on, and finally, nailed to the cross between two criminals. By Hs sacrificial death, He exemplified and expressed God’s love towards people. (Rm 5:8-10; Eph 2:4,5), and enabled man to have absolute belief in His own unbreakable love for Hs faithful disciples.
Since the portrait of God’s Son, obtainable through written record is admittedly brief, (Jn 21:25), it is grand, and since it is grand, the reality must have been far grander! His heartwarming example of humility and kindness, coupled with strength for righteousness and justice, gives assurance that His Kingdom government will be all that people of faith through the ages have longed for.
