Jesus Did It!

God recorded for you and I a very critically important fact that most of humanity glosses over as though it has essentially no relevance to anything. But ohhhhhhhh does it ever have relevance!

Jesus made this startling statement in John 15:5:  " ... for without Me, you can do nothing.' 

Maybe you've never given much thought to this scripture verse lately, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, I pray that He'll enable us to have a greater appreciation of the critically important significance of what Jesus was communicating when He made this eye-opening declaration: 'You can do NOTHING without Me.'

Anything of any ETERNAL significance that means anything worthwhile to God will ONLY be accomplished through Jesus Christ the Co-Creator of all things...the life-giver...the life-sustainer...the "vine of all life."

Let's say that a little different way, because "eternal signficance" is vitally important to grasp in understanding John 15:5. If what we do in this life is not helping people come to know God and grow in a love relationship with Him in accordance with truth ... it will mean nothing to God in eternity that He'll reward a person for. If we show little concern for where a person will spend eternity - heaven or hell - what we have done in this life will all be worthless in light of eternity. Failing to grasp the importance of Matthew 6:33 will assure us that what we have done in this life with our time, our finances, our giftings ... will amount to a big fat NOTHING on the Judgment Day if it didn't somehow help build the Kingdom of God.  

Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are interested in building Their Kingdom. Not your kingdom; not my kingdom; not the angel's kingdom. THEY will rule Their Kingdom. What They decree WILL happen. There WILL be order and peace in that Kingdom. There will NOT be corruption in their Kingdom the way corruption proliferates in the kingdom's of mankind. There will NOT be hatred perpetuated in Their Kingdom like there is in Satan's kingdom. Rather - Their kingdom will be ruled with love, not force. Force rule won't be necessary ... because those in Their kingdom will have a clear sense of knowing what ruling by force does to people in a kingdom. Force breeds fear and hatred. Love breeds the willingness to serve and get along ... being more concerned about what pleases others than pleasing ourselves. 

Who is this Jesus, then, that we must please -- doing those things important to HIM? Jesus Christ is God. He always was one of the three persons of the eternal Godhead, as He always shall be. God the Father, God the Word (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit worked in full cooperation with each other to create, thus God creates life, God sustains life, God determines all eventual outcome of all that He has created, or ever will create. 

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing."  John 15:5

Fact: It was God Himself (in disguise) who died on the cross for our sins. It was God (in disguise) who shed His innocent blood at the cross as atonement for our sins. Of all facts, this is the ONE fact Satan has worked hard at to get people to disbelieve. He does not want us knowing, let alone believing, that God Himself died for the sins of humanity on the cross! Yes, God Himself.

Yet, though Jesus Christ is fully God, we need to remain balanced in how we understand Him while He was here on this planet for 33 years. Jesus was and is God, possessing both the essential and moral attributes of deity. He possessed the attributes of God because He was God. As the God-Man He could never cease to possess all the attributes of God.

Jesus was conscious of His deity as well as His humanity, yet He purposely set aside His deity while here on earth, though that didn't make Him any less God. (See: Philippians 2:5-8)

God the Father and God the Holy Spirit wants you and me to know and believe this about Jesus Christ - the Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4 NKJV)

And The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NKJV)

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (1 John 5:7-8 NKJV)

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (Revelation 19:11-13 NKJV)

Here are some other key scriptures that reveal that Jesus Christ was and is and always will be none other than God Himself, if you would like Bible proof: (Philippians 2:6; Revelation 19:13; Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8-10; 1 John 5:20; Titus 2:13; John 20:28; Colossians 2:9; 1:15-19; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 3:9; 1 Corinthians 8:6). 

Because Jesus is fully God, being one of the three persons of the eternal Godhead - the point I believe the Holy Spirit wants to make in this writing is that OF COURSE we can't do a thing on this planet without it going through none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. 

One wonders what Satan and the fallen demons think when they realize that they were created through Jesus Christ? All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made (See: John 1:3). Very possibly, they refuse to believe that Jesus Christ made them, so perhaps they just laugh at this scripture truth. Most people who live on this planet right now laugh or scoff at this truth ' that they were co-created by none other than Jesus Christ. [To remove the Father and the Holy Spirit from also being part of creating is not so; that's why I use the word "co-create."]

Can you imagine if you were God; you knew everyone who helped put you on the cross to die a cruel death, a moment in time will come in the future when these very same people will have the blinders removed from their knowing, and they most certainly will do exactly what scripture says:

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is God, as the Father is God. This fact was announced in Philippians 2:10-11. 

In their bowing and confessing to Him at that future time, many will be saying to themselves, Well isn't this something?! Jesus Christ was and IS fully God afterall, and by Him and through Him, I was created by Him? Oh ohhh, I'm in deep trouble!

Though it can hardly be compared, can you imagine putting your very own birth mother up on a cross and watching her dying painfully the way Jesus died, and you screaming up at her in her agony that she was NOT your birth mother, but an imposter mother? Her looking down at you when she birthed you in pain; fed you sustenance from her breasts; changed your diapers when they were smelly; rocked you through the night hours when you couldn't sleep ' only to now watch you be the very one to try to destroy her, not to mention calling her a liar for claiming she IS your real birth mother? Can you imagine the mental pain a mother would experience if that was to happen to her? 

Jesus felt pain like that, but on a much broader scale, as deceived folks hung Him on the cross. He had the knowing that He not only worked alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit in creating all things, He also knew which of us would love Him and strive to obey Him and who of us would not love Him and not obey Him, and actually hate Him, even before we came out of our mother's womb. He even knew that Satan and a third of the angels that He co-created would also one day betray Him.

He and the Father and the Holy Spirit knew that fact before They gave any angel life, or you and me life. 

For us to somehow assume that Jesus Christ can be bypassed when we are trying to be pleasing to God, that's like trying to say that we can live fine on this planet without oxygen. 

Trying to be pleasing to God and by-passing Jesus Christ will come to the sum total of a big fat ZERO -- nothing. Well, isn't "nothing" exactly what Jesus said would happen? 

" ... for without Me, you can do nothing." (John 15:5) 

As a closing note, you may be struggling with what I've said here about God Himself dying on the cross for your sins. If so, I can easily understand. I was spiritually born again for a couple of years before I was able to receive the truth that Jesus was not only just man, but fully God as well, before coming to Earth, and fully God when He went back to heaven after He resurrected. 

There are two truths that Satan fights so hard to keep people from receiving. These two truths are:

1) Accepted Bible translations such as the King James Bible, the New American Standard, the New King James Translation, the NIV, they are trustworthy, in that you can believe what is written in them. God wants you to trust what is written in them! (But wisely compare passages of scripture with the various translations, because not all wording is exactly the same ... and words MEAN things!)

2) Satan does not want you being able to receive the truth that Jesus Christ was and is one of the three persons of the eternal Godhead, and because that is fact, God paid full penalty for all your sins and my sins.

If you are struggling and not able to receive either or both of these truths, I encourage you to make it your frequent prayer to ask and trust God to reveal these two truths to you. Be patient. God has the proper timing. Once you are able to receive the fact that GOD died for your sins on the cross, you'll never view Christianity the same, I assure you.

PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU SHARE THE BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON BECAUSE...

JESUS DID IT! and...

YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-20 is our assurance)