Jesus Christ in Relation to Humanity and the Individual

By Glen R. Jackman, November 24, 2012

Christ is the Agent of Creation

Why, throughout the history of man, have countless millions of intelligent, honest people worshiped the person of Jesus Christ as Lord? The New Testament plainly states Christ’s creative involvement in the creation of this world, mankind, and the universe as God: “God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.” (1 John 1:3 NLT) Everything encompasses all creation. 

Because Christ was the one by whom all life was created, it is he, and he alone, who came to restore men and women to a relationship with Himself, to acknowledge that we are wonderfully created in the image of God as His children. Essentially, God in Christ came to man, incarnated as a man, to meet us face to face in flesh and blood, to redeem men and women from our waywardness. Mankind has historically been presented with God as reaching out, as a father would, to his unreconciled son or daughter. This is beautifully depicted in Christ’s parable of the lost prodigal son who finally comes home to his loving father.

Christ, as Creator-God, has the right to achieve his purposes by whatever wake-up mechanism or story he knows will achieve the required results. Why would Christ come incarnate as a man to this world? The story of the Cross is the story of Christ living out the process of our reconciliation back to God. The tragic act of the story depicted the representative leadership of civil and spiritual men rejecting our Creator-God. This was to make us all aware that mankind is collectively wayward, to the degree that they would kill their own Creator, evidenced by History.

Life is dependent upon Jesus Christ

If our very life depends upon Jesus Christ as our Creator, the incarnation of Christ came to validate our value as his own creation. “And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life”. (1 Corinthians 8:6 NLT)

Another New Testament scripture states: “For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see…Everything was created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16 NLT)

The waywardness of mankind is evident today as the world seeks to push Jesus Christ out of the mind of society entirely. The world’s collective viewpoint remains as it was when he walked on this earth: “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him”. (John 1:11 NLT)

The Gospel (Good News) presents mankind with a contract

The cross of Christ is central to a legal contract offered to all of mankind, who have collectively disengaged their minds from honouring God as Creator and sustainer of their lives, effectively denouncing that they are, in fact, His own children (Christ speaks of us as His children in the New Testament). This contract being offered involves two parties: Jesus Christ and you. In a nutshell: Simply by believing in Jesus Christ as the active agent of creation and our reconciling Creator-God, you will have the promise of eternal life.

First, without arguing with God’s view just presented here, we must see that mankind is separated from God: “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one…Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness…they don’t know where to find peace. They have no fear of God at all.” (Romans 3:10-18 NLT)

Mankind is now legally made right with God only through Jesus Christ: “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:22-23 NLT) There is only one deal: “no matter who you are,” or how righteous we believe that we are or if our spiritual or religious viewpoint denies the Gospel of Christ.

The scripture states that we all have sinned. Sin simply means that we have missed God’s mark or the standard of His two laws stated by Jesus: 1st, loving God with our entire mind, and 2nd, loving our neighbour as ourselves. This standard is for everyone, including the author of this paper. I might have done some good here and there in life, but overall I can be selfish. So I cannot establish myself as right with God except by the transaction of faith in Christ. 

God made it simple. If He didn’t make the Gospel simple, we’d try pretty hard to declare ourselves perfectly righteous before God, with absolutely no need of the intervention of the incarnate and crucified Christ. The Bible makes it clear: “Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law [doing good]. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law [doing good]”. (Romans 3:27 NLT, italics mine)

This is the Gospel: “we are made right with God through faith” in Christ. Further, once we accept Christ, we are encouraged as reconciled men and women: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Romans 8:1 NLT)

You may say “I don’t need salvation, nor do I comprehend the concept”. Generally, this is a view that mankind takes collectively, because he has shifted his dependence on God as life-giver and Creator to an erroneous concept of independence without the need of God. This is self-sufficiency, where a man’s own concept of God denies the need for the intervention of our Creator-God, Jesus Christ. The problem here is that these views entirely ignore the offer of Jesus Christ and His Gospel and can keep one stuck in stubborn, self-sufficient separation from God. By staying in unbelief, you decide to keep your distance from Him and forfeit reconciliation to God by rejecting His offer. This keeps you separated from and uncommitted to God in mind. This choice dangerously assumes a confrontational, non-allegiant resistance to Him. God calls this rebellion.

Some may feel that they are good to people, so they do not need to reconcile with God. The problem here is that being good to people alone (helping them, etc.) side-steps the first law of God that Jesus taught. We can love others such as our children, but avoid lovingly recognizing God as Creator and as the God-reconciler to his people through Christ. Alternatively, by accepting reconciliation through Christ, we engage in obedience to the first law: to love God. “We love because he first loved us”. (1 John 4:19 KJV) The Gospel invitation is all based on love. We evidence our love to Him once we are reconciled to Him and thus declare our allegiance to Him. 

Where self-independence persists apart from God, He views it as idolatry of the self. Man can conjure up many imagined conceptual views that keep him outside of reconciliation with the Creator and keep him from worshipping and praising God. It is like tearing up God’s “Manifesto of Love” towards you. When Jesus was crucified, men spat in His face and similarly reviled His many stated offers of eternal life.

Salvation means reconciliation to God, which is completed in the person of Christ

When we retain a contrary view of Creation in self-sufficiency, we actually take an unfriendly stance against the revelation of God in Christ, as enemies to God. The cross of Christ is no minor intervention of God to reconcile men and women. The cross of Christ is designed to restore the lost unity of his own people. Actually, God makes it clear that we are messing with his method of wooing and caring for His own family, destroying the potential of his own children. By denying Him, we declare Him a liar as we contest against His revealed witness as our Creator in the Word of God (the Bible). Conversely, He intends the Gospel to be revealed openly as God reaching out to unite mankind back to Himself. The repercussions of such denial affect those around us and may deafen the message to others, such as our spouse, our children, or our neighbours — society in general. Jesus noted this: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” [dismisses my reconciliation to others]. (Luke 11:23 NIV italics mine)

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son”. (Romans 5:10 NLT) Further, the message of this reconciliation has reached the entire world, as commanded by Christ: “on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”. (2 Corinthians 5:20 NLT) 

The entire New Testament focuses on reconciliation: “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you … free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22 NLT) 

Note how the New Testament makes it known that when we accept the Gospel, we are immediately reconciled back to Him, as his own children: “And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”” (Galatians 4:6 NLT) Christ as God was also referred to as “Father, Prince of Peace.” He also noted that He is One with the Father in mind and Spirit, saying, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14: 9 NLT)

By coming into relationship with Christ, you simply believe that he died for you and, in so doing, revealed his love to you; in contrast with the rejection of mankind, which has denied and rejected God as their Creator (including breaking his laws based on love). You enter into “salvation” by faith. This means that you are “saved” from the accusation of being separated from God. You are reunited with His family.

Contrast this to the result of unbelief: Separation from the God of Creation and His Spirit of restorative life eventually results in eternal death. Because there is no reward of eternal life, the opposite is eternal death.

Christ’s own life and words engage the call to reconciliation by restoring our relationship to Him

We must be very careful not to try to understand everything before we act to believe. Either we can trust Jesus Christ when we see his life lived out in the Bible (read the Gospel of John), when he restored physical health to the infirm and blind, or when he raised the dead back to life; or we conversely outright deny the Gospel as a farce and call Christ a liar. There is danger here. Jesus Christ is the Creator-God of the universe. When we deny Him, we deny Him directly, as He is omnipotent, yet merciful. Be cautious not to resist God.

Recall that he was resurrected to life from his own death by the Holy Spirit and spent many more days teaching His disciples that the same resurrection to life awaits all who die, once dedicated to Him. Then He ascended to Heaven again. Despite His rejection by mankind, He continues His work via the Holy Spirit from Heaven. This is referred to as Grace.

From His own lips, Jesus, as our Creator-Reconciler, pointed out this message to both the rejecters and those who accept him: “All who see His Son and believe in him will have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40 NLT)

We continue to see or perceive Jesus by reading the Bible, which is God’s revelation to man and points us to God’s revelation of Jesus Christ. 

In the above passage, Jesus refers to the final resurrection of the dead in Christ, who will be raised to eternal life on the last day, which means judgment day at His second coming with power and glory. This is the result of perceiving and accepting the call of Christ to reconcile to God, and of believing in His Gospel (which means Good News): “All who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40 NLT)

In Jesus’ own words, he draws a division line, based on belief or non-belief in Him: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” (1 John 5:12 NLT)

By taking the positive side of faith, we have this assurance, confirmed over and over again in the New Testament: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13 NLT)

Bob Dylan, upon perceiving Christ as His Saviour, wrote in his Gospel album “Slow Train Coming”: 

“Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down

Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground
The enemy is subtle; how be it we are so deceived,
When the truth’s in our hearts, and we still don’t believe?

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see”

The ability to perceive the offer of reconciliation in Christ is enabled by His Spirit

Jesus told a leader in Jerusalem that he must allow the assistance of the Holy Spirit of God, referred to as the Spirit of Christ, to open his eyes to perceive that He was God. The prophets of all ages were “inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:11 ESV)

When the spiritual leader Nicodemus was inquiring about the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3: 6b-7 NLT) Otherwise, if you are not assisted by the Holy Spirit, He said: “How can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

This is confirmed in many places in the New Testament that the intervention of Christ via His incarnation is a supernatural event in history, and man alone cannot understand it on his own. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ must open a man’s mind and cognitive faculties to see this truth: “Therefore, anyone who refuses…is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you”. (1 Thessalonians 4:8 NLT) Just as the Gospel is a gift to us, so is the Holy Spirit gifted to us so that we may believe. If you are sensing conviction, this occurs when God speaks directly to you.

If you are having difficulty seeing the Good News in Christ as He seeks to reconcile you to Himself, ask God to allow you to open up your heart to hear the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “…when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true”. (1 Thessalonians 1:5 NLT) 

Jesus has ascended to the Father to intercede for us and continue the reconciliation of those who will believe through His Holy Spirit. Speaking from Heaven through the Apostle John, Jesus said: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says…” (Revelation 2:29 NLT).

Jesus stated that He was and is the active agent of both the Creation and reconciliation of mankind: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life… those who listen will live…the Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son”. (John 5: 24-25 NLT)

Every man and woman presented with the Gospel is called by Jesus Christ to make a decision for or against Christ without excuse. What will your recorded decision be? God knows our thoughts even before we speak. We cannot hide from the Lord of Life. The decision to accept Christ has a life-or-death consequence.

Hear Him speak to you: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends”. (Revelation 3:20 NLT) Christ still speaks from Heaven, asking you and I to open the closed doors of our hearts and invite Him into our lives. What a beautiful picture of trusting friendship with Him.