Bible Discussion Thread

Phillipians 2:5-8 is helpful. God emptied Himself; came in the form of a servant. For Him to do anything in His own strength during His public ministry would put Him in a position to do something that we couldn't do. Ultimately; it was a full trust in the Holy Spirit and God that allowed Him to be in the same position as man; or like Adam but without sin. It pleased God to crush Him according to Isaiah. He had to be a complete substitute for us and a complete atonement. To take on our sin; He had to be God for even the Pharisees recognized His claims that He was the "I am" was putting Himself in place of God; hence they attempted 10 times to kill Him before the time. Also Satan offered Him all the Kingdoms of the world to worship Him. Satan will at some point in the future have ALL whose names are not written in the Book of Life worship Him.

Since you aren't doctrinally errant in your view of Christ overall; I won't quibble if there is some difference in viewpoint here. My point is that Christ willingly became our sacrifice; but obviously being fully man it was unbearable; since He had God's face turned away as well as the angels and it would seem the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind immediately before the event in Gethsemane when He sweat blood. He had to be strengthened to make it to the cross and not die prematurely. There could be no help as it was He alone to be the propitiation for our sins.

The Godhead; nonetheless is quite mysterious; as is how Christ Himself was to "learn obedience." ( Heb. 5:8-9). This would be the only time in all eternity when He would be limited as a man. He had to start off as we all do and be obedient to His family on earth as any other Jew would to fulfill the role as well of Jewish Messiah. Jesus did show His own personality as it were after the Resurrection with the meal on the beach. He didn't do signs and wonders without reason; and it was to emphasize repentance and to fulfill the larger purposes.