Pastor Mike
Advanced Member
Member # 2142
|
posted
In the string about the "New Age Messiah", I was involved for awhile and then have been praying and studying the Word in order to better inform myself of what I believe. This topic is to introduce thoughts that I have had in regard to these things.
I am going to start at the beginning, the Garden of Eden. God created Adam and Eve in His image. I personally believe this means in a triune nature as well. As God is Father, Son, and Spirit, man is soul, body, and spirit (the Greek words for these are psuche, soma, and pneuma). I Thessalonians 5:23 lists all these as being present in a person. In Genesis 2:17, God told Adam that when they ate of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" they would die. This happened spiritually right away for their faith in God was replace with fear. Their spirit died for fear of death and God and I don't mean the reverent awe of God that is usually referred to in Scripture.
Now Adam and Eve and we as people have two types of death in need of resurrection. What do I mean? Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13 for example refer to our being spiritually dead. Then there is the death of the body as well. The spiritual death is overcome by God giving us faith to believe in Jesus' death and resurrection for us. (I might add that I have a personal pet peeve in regard to this. I have heard too many people talk about "when I got saved." This gives all the glory to themselves for salvation even though they don't mean it that way. Rather let us acknowledge where salvation comes from by saying "when God saved me," thus giving glory to the One who deserves it.) I might add that when the Bible talks about being cast into hell in all the Scriptures that speak about this, only the body and soul are mentioned [e.g. Matthew 10:28] God has resurrected us from being spiritually dead by placing faith within our hearts. The second resurrection of our bodies comes when Jesus comes back for us, thus restoring us fully to the image in which God created us: soul, body, and spirit.
Now Jesus has had to do the things necessary to give us both of these. I don't believe that He gave up Himself to spiritual death for that would be denying the very faith that is necessary to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But that does not mean that He did not have to suffer torment to His soul in the process in order to overcome the torment of our soul. Peter in his first sermon in Acts 2:24 mentioned Jesus overcoming the agony (or pains) of death for us.
It must also be noted that the Bible also talks about the resurrection in two different senses. In one sense, it talks about God raising Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24,32 and I Corinthians 15:20). In the second sense, it talks about Jesus rising from the dead (Matthew 28:6, Luke 24:34). If there are two different things to be overcome, then it is entirely possible that the Father empowered Jesus spiritually to overcome the depths of hell and Jesus accomplished the physical body resurrection by the power and authority that God had given Him. (This last thought is speculation on my part.)
These are the things I see taking place here. I have not been able to agree that Jesus died spiritually, but I have seen that He had to overcome two different types of death for us to be able to join Him in the fullness of the image in which God created us for eternity. Thanks.
Posts: 55 | From: Staunton, IL | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
