THE DEATH OF John 1:29:
OUR OLD SELF “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
Slawomir Gromadzki - gromaki@btinternet.com
To be able to understand properly the truth about our Saviour,
first we have to deal with the sin problem.
You see, whenever we talk about sin we usually think about our
performance, our bad deeds. But we always have to remember
that sin is also a force or a law which dwells in us.
It is invented by Lucifer principle of self love we are born with.
I am sure you have noticed that although we don’t train our
children to be selfish, though we teach them to be unselfish,
they are often selfish, because they are born like this. And it is
so because Adam and Eve allowed Satan to infect them with the
virus of self love.
Therefore, please remember that when Bible says about this sin,
the sin of self love, it is always singular, or Bible calls it a
“law”.
Let me give you two examples:
world.”
Because the word “sin” here is singular we can assume it is used
with reference to the law of sin that dwells in us.
Romans 7: 20, 23:
20. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do
it, but sin that dwells in me.
23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members.
Do you know why Paul used the word “law” here describing the
sin which dwells in us?
Let me explain it for you in a very practical way.
Would you be so kind please to stretch your both hands
forward like this and keep them stretched until I finish the
sermon?
Would you be able to keep your hands stretched like this for a
long time?
It is so because there is a law - the law of gravity that is much
stronger then your muscles, because it never changes and never
gets weak.
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Unfortunately, the strength of your muscles is not constant. So
after certain time you have to give up.
So, now we know that Paul describing the sin of selfish love
that is in us uses the word “law”, because he wants us to be
aware that like the law of gravity this law of sin is a constant
force and it never changes.
Well, if this is true, can we overcome the constant law of sin
with only our will power? Is our will power a law? No.
So it means that like our muscles our will power may get weak
and eventually often overcome by the law of sin.
What than do we need, to be able to compete successfully with
the law of sin?
We need another constant law. Is there any law available for us
with which we may overcome the law of sin?
Thank God, there is one; it is the Law of the Spirit that exists
together with the law of sin in every converted Christian. You
can read about it at home in Romans 8.
So now we know that we are sinners not only because we have
broken the Law of God and committed thousands of sins, but we
are sinners especially because we have the factory of sin which
is in us.
Now, tell me please, what is worse: the factory of sins in us, or
its products - our sins?
Let's say that the president of United States wants to deal with
the drug problem in his country. So he gives orders to destroy all
drugs in United States. But, would he be successful if he does
that? No. What he would have to do to solve the problem. He
would have to destroy all the factories and all the production of
drugs in USA and abroad especially in Mexico.
If a tree gives bad fruits what is the reason of it? Should we
blame the fruits or the tree? The tree of course.
I know certain man who had an orange tree which gave bad,
very bitter fruits. Therefore, he wanted to cut the tree off and
plant another one instead. But his small son got an excellent
idea. He suggested his father to feed the bad tree with big
amounts of sugar. So because the father thought that it wasn’t
bad idea, they together put a lot of sugar into the soil. But, do
you think that after that treatment the tree started to produce
sweet fruits? No! To have good fruits they had to cut the bad
tree off and plant a new one.
So, what is the main cause of our sinfulness? Not our sins,
because they are only the bitter fruits of the bad tree which is sin
in us.
It means that to be able to legally save us, God first had to cut
off this bad tree. And as a matter of fact, God did it. He did it in
Christ.
Therefore, let me tell you now, how God condemned and
destroyed our factory of sin in Christ.
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According to the 1 Corinthians 15: 45, Jesus came into this
world as the “Second Adam”. And because the word “Adam” in
Hebrew language means “Human Kind”, we can say that Christ
came as the second Human Kind, as us, as the Representative of
all sinners.
What gave Him the right to represent all of us? He was
qualified to be the representative of all sinners because “He
came in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
Hebrews 2: 16, 17 (The New International Version):
16. For surely it is not angels (or sinless Adam before the fall)
he helps, but Abraham’s descendants (sinners).
17. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers (who
inherit flesh) in every way...
If the Son of God was “made like His brothers, (or like us), “in
every way”, so He also had to assume the same nature,
including the law of sin, because only in this way He could
carry it to the cross.
Unfortunately, there are some Christians and even theologians
who would say: “But, if Christ took our sinful nature including
the law of sin, He himself would become a sinner like us, and it
would disqualify Him to be our Savior!”
Let me tell you something very important and please try to
remember it:
Did God allow any sinful human being to touch lepers?
No.
Why?
Because we would become unclean?
But, did Christ touch lepers?
Yes!
Mark 1: 40 - 41 (New King James Version):
40. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down
to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make
me clean."
41. Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His
hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be
cleansed."
If we touched a leper we would become unclean, however Jesus
not only didn’t become unclean after He touched the leper but
He even cleansed him?
It was so because He had something we don’t have by nature.
There was certain holy ingredient in Jesus that prevented Him
from becoming unclean. The Son of God was the participant of
not only our unclean nature but also holy, divine nature!
When the leprosy of sin touches us we become unclean and
sinful, but when Christ was touched by our leprosy of sin He
didn’t become sinful, because He took our sinful nature on His
divine nature and because as a matter of fact the “sin” He took
wasn’t His but ours.
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To help you to understand it better, let me use two numbers:
zero and seven. Zero will represent here our carnal nature and
number seven will stand for holy divine nature.
We come into this world as darkness, as a zero, deprived of
God’s Agape love and Holy Spirit.
But did Christ come as darkness? No! We don’t have to guess
because the Bible says He came as “light”. However, He didn’t
come as light only, but as light in the darkness.
He came as the combination of the light of unselfish God’s
agape love and the darkness of human self love.
But, did the darkness of the law of sin overcome the light of the
divine love in Christ?
No, because in John 1:5 (TNIV) we read that:
„The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.”
We all are bourn into this world only as zero, but Jesus
appeared in our world as seven in zero!
Did zero manage to destroy Christ’s holiness and make Him
worthless sinner like us? No! Why not? The answer is very
simple. Zero couldn’t harm Jesus because He had seven as well.
And zero plus seven equals how much? Equals, not 1, not 3 or
6, but seven!
So the combination of sinful human nature with divine nature
couldn’t rob the Son of God of His holiness even in the least
extent.
But, please remember that although it is true that as we read in
the Book of Colossians 2: 9, “in Jesus dwelled all the fullness
of the Godhead”, He never used His divine power to overcome
the law of sin. He was fighting with the terrible matrix of sin
only as a Human Being. And in the battle He used only the same
power which is available to us through prayer.
When I read about AIDS I noticed that there are some people
who got infected with the HIV virus, but somehow they don’t
get sick with AIDS. It is so, because through the very healthy
lifestyle and some natural remedies their immune system, and
especially T-cells, are so strong that the HIV virus, which is
very clever and crafty, is afraid to take a risk, to try to get into
the T-cell to multiply. So the virus all the time hides itself in the
organism of the infected person waiting until T-cells of the
immune system will get weak. So, although those people are
infected with the HIV virus, but because they don’t get sick with
AIDS, they are called the “HIV carriers”.
Therefore, using this very accurate and excellent example, we
may say that the Son of God came into this sick world and was
welling to get infected with the ego virus. However, in spite of
that, unlike all of us He was the only human being who never
got sick with selfishness. And for all His life He remained only
the ego virus carrier. And eventually He curried the ego virus
to the tree where it was cursed by God and annihilated.
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Jesus never got sick with selfishness because through the
extremely “spiritually healthy” lifestyle He managed to
maintain His “immune system” so strong that the virus couldn’t
conceive or multiply.
What was His “immune system”?
It was of course the power of Holy Spirit available also for us
through prayer.
To be honest, if Christ didn’t carry in His human nature the law
of sin, it would be impossible for us to understand why we read
in the Bible that He was “made to be sin” for us:
2 Corinthians 5: 21 (New American Standard Bible):
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
However, some theologians say that this scripture doesn’t mean
that Jesus took our sinful nature with the indwelling law of sin,
but the text only says that Christ became the sin offering.
To prove that they are wrong I will read for you an excellent
comment to the verse we have just read. It is the „Jamieson,
Faussett, Brown Commentary” to 2 Cor. 5: 21.
Please, listen to it very carefully because, as I told you before, it
is not “milk”:
“Christ was made to be Sin -- not a sin offering, because
otherwise it would destroy the antithesis (exact opposite) to
the word ‘righteousness,’ used in the same sentence.
Paul didn’t also mean that Christ was made to be a sinful
person, which would be untrue, and would require in the
antithesis ‘righteous men,’ not ‘righteousness’ in the same
verse.
Christ was made to be ‘sin’, that is, the representative Sin-
bearer of the aggregate (accumulated) sin of all men past,
present, and future.
The sin of the world is one, therefore the singular, not the
plural, is used."
This is quite difficult but excellent comment, and if you haven’t
grasped everything, please remember at least that according to
those theologians:
“Christ was made to be "sin", singular, that is, the
representative Sin-bearer of the accumulated sin of all men:
past, present, and future.”
So, Christ is our representative Sin-bearer, which means that
for all His life He had to struggle with the indwelling in His
human nature matrix of sin, (being in danger of losing His
eternal life), and eventually He had to kill this bug. And glory
be to God, He did it on the tree.
Here is the next evidence:
Rom 6: 6 (The New International Version):
6. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so
that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should
no longer be slaves to sin.
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Paul wrote “we know”. But do we really know and accept this
wonderful, unbelievable truth that our “self (our ego) was
crucified with Jesus”?
The New King James Version, instead of “old self” says: “our
old man was crucified with Christ.” But in the SDA Bible
Commentary we read that the expression:
“Our old man means our former self in the old corrupt and
sinful condition.” (Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist
Bible Commentary).
Now, let me ask you a question: How could our old self, our
representative law of sin or the principle of self love which is in
us the source of our sins, how could it be crucified with or in
Christ if He assumed only holy nature of Adam before the fall,
the nature free from the law of sin and self?
There are many Christian theologians who believe that it was
exactly what Paul meant here.
Let me read for you a very interesting quotation written by
famous Chinese preacher and martyr by the name Watchman
Nee, who was kept in prison by communists because of his faith
in Jesus, for 20 years, and finally in 1972 he was killed.
In the book “DYING WITH THE LORD” he wrote:
"Christ died in my stead, but He bore me with Him to the
Cross, so that when He died I died. Let me tell you, You have
died! You are done with! You are ruled out!
The self you loathe was on the Cross in Christ. And ‘he that
is dead is freed from sin’ (Romans 6: 7). This is the Gospel for
Christians.”
“The self you loathe was on the Cross in Christ!”
At the end of the World War Two, very popular all over the
world was expression “Hitler kaputt”.
And likewise today we can say “ego kaputt”!
My ego and your ego kaputt! It kaputt in our wonderful
Saviour, the greatest Hero in whole Universe!
So, if we know that “our old man died in Christ” than what
should be done next with this dead “old man”?
If in this world someone dies what do people do with the dead
body of the person?
They burry it.
Do you know that today we are going to participate in the
funeral service? Who is going to be buried this afternoon?
Kamila is going to be buried.
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Why?
Because she died, because her “old woman” died in Jesus two
thousand years ago!
However, the sad truth is, that unfortunately, millions of
Christians all over the world, including me (20 years ago), were
buried alive. They were baptised without any knowledge and
acceptance of their death in Christ.
But, Kamila is lucky and thank God, she won’t be buried alive
because I know she is acquainted with the truth about our death
in Christ and she enjoys it.
And here is the proof that baptism is the burial of “our old man”
that already died in Christ:
Romans 6: 3-4 (New King James Version):
3. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
SDA Bible Commentary, comment to 2Cor. 5. 14:
“In taking Adam’s place Christ became the head of the human
race, and died on the cross as its representative. Thus, in a
sense, when He died the entire race died with Him. As He
represented all men, so His death stood for the death of all. In
Him all men died. This does not, however, mean universal
salvation, for each individual sinner must accept the
atonement provided by the Saviour in order to make it
effective.” (Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible
Commentary)
Today, many scholars are recognizing this truth. Here is what
two leading protestant theologians say on the subject.
First of them is Anders Nygren who in his excellent
Commentary on Romans wrote:
“It was to be right in sin’s own realm that the Son was to bring
sin to judgment, overcome it, and take away its power. It is
therefore important that with Christ it is actually a matter of
‘sinful flesh.’ Christ’s carnal nature was no unreality, but
simple, tangible fact. He was under that same power of
destruction. Out of ‘the flesh’ arose for Him the same
temptations as for us. But in all this He was master of sin.”
(Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, pp. 314 – 315.)
Thomas F. Torrence:
“The most fundamental truth which we have to learn in the
Christian church, or rather relearn since we have suppressed
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it, is that the Incarnation is to be understood as the coming of
God to take upon Himself our fallen human nature, our
actual human existence laden with sin and guilt, our humanity
diseased in mind and soul.
This is a doctrine found everywhere in the early church in the
first five centuries, expressed again and again in terms that
what God has not taken up in Christ is not saved....
Thus, the Incarnation had to be understood as the sending of
the Son of God in the concrete form of our own sinful nature
and as a sacrifice for sin in which He judged sin within that
very nature in order to redeem man from his carnal, hostile
mind.” (Thomas F. Torrence, The Meditation of Christ, pp.
48 – 49.)
The most difficult battle we have to fight as Christians takes
place in us. It is the battle against our ego, against the principle
of self love or the law of sin.
And, if Jesus didn’t carry this cross, if He didn’t fight the same
battle, if He didn’t overcome the law of sin in the flesh, than his
own words written in Matthew 16: 24 would be a joke or a
fantasy.
Matthew 16: 24 (New International Version):
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after
me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me.”
Let’s say that holy Adam with his sinless nature, which he had
before the fall, the nature free from the law of selfishness,
comes to me and he says to me with solemn words:
“Slawek, follow my example and deny yourself (your ego) and
take up your cross (overcome your ego every day) and follow
me!”
Do you know what I would tel him:
“You gara be kidding man! You don’t know anything about
denying self because you simply don’t have one. So, how can I
follow your example?”
But Jesus was not like Adam before the fall because Bible says
that “He was made like his brethren in every way.”
But, how was Jesus made like us in every way?
How did He become our Brother?
A little bit over two thousand years ago in the centre of the
universe, when the appointed time came, Holy Spirit took the
Son of God and suddenly in a split of a second He transformed
Him into a tiny invisible single cell.
Then He curried the precious divine cell through the space to the
small sick planet earth and put the priceless cell of the Son of
God into the womb of sinful human being.
And then Holy Spirit took the dark sinful human cell of Mary
and united it with the divine cell of light He brought from the
throne of God.
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And there was the new Jesus. Now He wasn’t only the Son of
God but the Son of man and our Brother who will remain our
Brother for ever.
By the way, the Word of God doesn’t say anything about so
called immaculate conception of Mary, so because of this we
can be sure that the cell Holy Spirit took from Mary to create the
new Jesus had to be sinful cell.
Let me ask you a very simple question:
Could our Saviour order us to follow His example and deny
ourselves (our ego), if He first didn’t deny himself, if He didn’t
deny the principle of self love in His human nature?
Very good example of our Saviour denying himself is His prayer
in Gethsemane, when struggling with His human nature He
said: „Not my will Father, but Yours be done.”
Was the will of Jesus against the will of His Father?
In His mind not, but in His flesh, yes!
The will of His mind controlled by Holy Spirit was to sacrifice
His life to save others, but the will of His flesh was to save
Himself, not others.
So, carrying the law of sin and constant struggling with it was
the “cross” of Jesus.
When I was thinking about the cross, I realised that cross of
Jesus was the symbol of two types or two principles of love
that met in Christ: The unselfish love of God and human self
love. .
Cross consisted of two parts: The vertical one with its lower
end touched the earth and with the upper end it pointed to
heaven.
Because of this it could be the symbol of God’s love that
constrained Jesus to die for us and in Him connected earth
with heaven.
The second - horizontal part (or the crossbar) didn’t touch the
earth nor pointed to heaven but hung between heaven and earth
becoming the symbol of curse.
Only this part could represent our self love that was
condemned and annihilated in Jesus, because according to the
Bible everything that hangs between heaven and earth is cursed
by God (Gal. 3: 13).
Now, may I ask you which part of the cross did Jesus carry to
Golgotha, the vertical or horizontal?
Let me answer this question using a quotation written by Dr
David Terasaka who in his book “The Medical Aspects of the
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ” wrote:
"Christ was led through the crowded streets carrying across
His shoulders the crossbar of the cross (called a patibulum).
The crossbar probably weighed between 80 to 110 pounds (57
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kg). A fall with the heavy crossbar on His back may have led
His heart to rupture later on the cross."
Lord Jesus was carrying to Golgotha the crossbar of the cross,
because it was the symbol of our representative principle of self
love, which was carried by Him in His humanity and had to be
cursed by God and destroyed forever.
In the Old Testament we read that when Israelites sinned they
were bitten by snakes and because the venom got into their
bodies they began dying.
But then, Moses, instructed by God, made a snake on the tree
and shouted to the dying people: “Look to the snake on the tree
and you will be saved! If you don’t look to the snake you will
have to die!”
Numbers 21: 8 (New King James Version):
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set
it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when
he looks at it, shall live.”
Who was represented here by this snake on the tree?
Jesus, of course.
But, I am sure you agree that it was extremely strange symbol
of the Son of God?
Why it was so strange?
Because snake in the Bible is also the symbol of who Lucifer!
Now, we have to answer the next very important question: Why
our Saviour was represented here by the symbol of Lucifer?
If you were listening carefully what was already said here till
now you should know the answer:
Jesus was symbolised by the snake because we read in the Bible
that He “became sin for us”. He was represented by the snake
because in His human nature He carried to the tree the
conceived by the old snake, Lucifer, the venom of sin.
And like Israel, we also were bitten by the snake and poisoned
by the venom of sin. Therefore, we are dying because of this.
But the fantastic truth is that there is a wonderful antidote to the
old snake’s poison. And the antidote is just looking to Jesus
who is the venom Carrier hanging on the tree. If you look you
are saved, if you don’t want to look to such a picture of Saviour
you will have to die.
Unfortunately, there are still many Christian theologians today
who present to us Jesus who can’t be symbolised by snake. And
they say, “Look to our picture of Jesus and you will be saved!”
But, to be honest, you may look at their Jesus but you will
never be healed, because their Jesus can’t be represented by the
snake on the tree. And God says to us that only if we look at
Jesus represented by snake we can be healed.”
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The truth about the death of our old self in Christ is very
important, because:
1. If we accept this historic truth that our self died in Christ
than you know that you are already punished and saved
in Christ (and you stay saved as long as you truly believe
in Jesus). Because of this there is no room for the heresy
of salvation by works in your life. So, you only say:
“Thank you Lord! Nothing in my hands I bring,
simply to the cross I cling.”
2. If we accept the historic fact of the death of our old self
in Christ than there is no room for the cheap grace in our
life as well. Now, you can’t say: “Jesus did it all instead
of me so I can do whatever I wish.” No, but now,
because you identified yourself with the death of Christ,
you have to identyfy also with His holy life. And
because you were in Christ, now Christ is in you, not to
tolerate the law of sin in you but to repeat the victory
over it.
Jack Sequeira, “Beyond Belief”:
“Many Christians today have accepted what the great German
martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described as ‘cheap grace.’ They
believe that, because Christ did it all instead of us, without
identifying Himself with us, so now we Christians have the
liberty to live as our sinful nature likes.
But we have to remember that although our sinful acts may be
forgiven and blotted out through the blood of Christ, but
sinfulness cannot be forgiven, it must die. God, for example, is
able to forgive us our selfish acts; but He cannot forgive
selfishness, it must be crucified, and this is why God included
you and me in the cross of Christ. And just as we cannot
obtain forgiveness from our sins unless we see Christ bearing
all our sins on the cross, so likewise we cannot know
deliverance from the power of sin unless we see Christ bearing
us on the cross.
What, then, is the conclusion of the matter? When we combine
the blood of Christ, (His death for our sins) with the cross of
Christ (the death of our law of sin in Him), we have indeed
discovered the wonderful power of the cross, full and
complete, and we can rejoice with Paul and say, ‘God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Amen.
Slawomir Gromadzki - gromaki@btinternet.com
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