Perspective is always important. “The gods who did not make the heavens and
the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” That leaves
out all but one and puts things into proper perspective doesn’t it? The “gods” tended to be those who were
thought to control aspects of existence, not the creator. When I first came to western North Carolina I
knew several people in the church who were selling their homes and I had
someone give the advice to bury a statue of St Joseph in the yard. It seems that we haven’t progressed past the
worship of gods after all. There are
plenty of talismans, good luck charms, and other objects which are thought to
control certain aspects of life in our world today. Perspective is when we remember there is one
creator and all the rest is creation.
Then we can pray, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in
himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O
Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.” Now we are living in truth.
Jesus is attempting to give those who doubt the proper
perspective on Himself. He comes from
above, they are from the world. There
will come a time when you understand He say, “When you have lifted up the Son
of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own
authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” There was one at the cross who did see and
know, the centurion. The truth is the
Gospel, a righteous man, Jesus, who was and is of one being with the Father,
died on a cross as a sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of the whole
world and the Father accepted His sacrifice and therefore He was raised again
to life on the third day as testimony for all time.
The idea of original sin is repugnant to some. Through Adam, sin came into the world. Didn’t it come through Eve? Adam’s sin was greater because he had the law
directly regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Death came into the world through Adam’s sin
but, Paul argues, “death spread to all men because all sinned.” It is not for Adam’s sin that we are judged,
but the propensity for sin is inherited because the world itself is changed by
Adam’s sin. The ground refuses to yield
the increase for which it was created and that becomes, at some level, the sin
of Cain who gave God some portion of the harvest he worked hard to get. The gift of righteousness that comes in the
second Adam, Jesus, is a gift and the gift of life is greater than the curse of
death. The lifting up of the Son of Man
reveals righteousness and sin, our sin against righteousness brought about His
death, His righteousness overcame death brought about by sin. He is therefore, over all, greater than
everything.
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