Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cThe flesh profits nothing\u201d (John 6:63), explain the mess the world is in. Except for the human Jesus, we each are born \u201cof the will of the flesh\u201d (John 1:13). This is human nature left to its sinful condition. It gives to us only a life “under the law\u201d\u2014on the law\u2019s bad side, out of touch with God\u2019s love. From that inheritance we have nothing but \u201cguilt and the sentence of death\u201d (Ellen White, Letter 68, 1899, par. 15).<\/p>\n
But good does exist, and in the midst of the mess we find grace, even in those who don\u2019t officially know God. How can this be, except that God\u2019s Son was \u201cmade of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law\u201d (Galatians 4:4-5)? \u201cThe Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth\u201d (John 1:14). He was one of us, but He connected in Himself God and the sinful race (John 1:51). \u201cAnd the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus\u201d (1 Timothy 1:14). Indeed, \u201cthe grace and the truth through Jesus Christ did come\u201d (John 1:17, YLT). Thus we \u201care not under the law, but under grace.\u201d Do you realize everything good anyone has received comes through Jesus?<\/p>\n
But good does exist, and in the midst of the mess we find grace…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Recognizing that \u201cthe flesh\u201d is the source of all the problems should lead us to confess more and more deeply, \u201cI know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing\u201d (Romans 7:18). We should learn more and more not to trust the sinful nature, to \u201chave no confidence in the flesh\u201d (Philippians 3:3), but with Jesus say, \u201cI will put my trust in Him\u201d (Hebrews 2:13).<\/p>\n
Jesus became one of us, \u201cmade a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death\u201d to \u201ctaste death for every man\u201d and \u201cthrough death… destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil\u201d (Hebrews 2:9, 14).<\/p>\n
This is the foolishness of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:17-31)\u2014that One would leave the unselfish environment of heaven and come to where unselfish love was lacking, to love us to death, and thus restore love to us. Loving His enemies cost Him everything but His faith and love. \u201cHe abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself\u201d (2 Timothy 2:13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cThe flesh profits nothing\u201d (John 6:63), explain the mess the world is in. Except for the human Jesus, we each…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/The_Foolishness_of_the_Cross.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-3gr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12566,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12551\/revisions\/12566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}