BEING FULLY HUMAN

BEING FUILLY HUMAN

                “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.  I do not ask in behalf of those alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.” John 17:17-22.

                What does it mean to be fully human? Usually in connection with mistakes we have made we will use the excuse, “I am only human.” And yes, there is a sense of being human apart from God, but without God we are now fully human… and most of the mistakes we make, we make as we try to live out our humanity apart from God.

                What Jesus is talking about in His prayer to the Father in John 17 is one of the great mysteries of the incarnation… not only that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, but the He wants to be incarnated in us as well. In other words, Jesus wants to restore us to our full humanity.

                There are only two sons of God named in the Bible. Every person listed in the genealogy of the seed line of faith is listed as the son of an earthly father… that is until you go all the way back to Adam.   Luke 3:23-38. But Luke, then describes Adam as being the son of God.

                Now, notice that in the very next chapter in Luke it says: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days.” John 4:1, 2a.     

                So the devil then, taking advantage of Jesus’ weakness from fasting 40 days, tempted Jesus to miraculously feed Himself. And what did Satan preface his temptations with? “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” John 4:3.

                Satan had likely heard Gabriel’s announcement to Mary. “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High God will overshadow you. And for this reason, the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. “ Luke 1:35.

                Something totally new had happened. After more than 2000 years the promised Seed of the Woman, promised long ago in Genesis 3:15 had been born. He wasn’t like ordinary men. In fact, for only the second time in human history, one came upon the seen that was fully human. Not since Adam before the fall had anyone been fully human… and now here was a second Adam… and even though, on the outside he appeared to be in the form of fallen man, He was nevertheless indwelt by God and Satan intended to challenge that. Was this really the seed of the woman? Was this the Son of God?

                Was Jesus the Seed of promise… the Seed of the woman? Was this man, weak from 40 days of fasting, the same God who had fed the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years? “No, it couldn’t be. Why would God become one of them? Why disgrace Himself by becoming a part of His own creation? Why insert Himself into Satan’s turf as a helpless human child? It was insanity. So yes, if You be the Son of God… show me.”

                But if we read John chapter 17 we see that Jesus came into the world as the weakest of the weak in order to show us the way back to being fully human. Being fully human involves the Father in the Son and the Son in us so that we may all be one… and it is only in this oneness that we are fully human.

                Just as Satan was taunting and testing Jesus in the wilderness, so he taunts and tests any who would dare to become fully human today. The world literally scoffs at the idea of the new birth. There is nothing they despise more than “Born Again” Christians. The very idea that we could die to our fallen nature and receive the Spirit of Christ and to begin to live by that Spirit rather than by the clamoring of our fallen flesh is despicable. Satan can’t stand it and neither can his followers.

                Satan really has no power over a truly born again person because the same spirit that defeated him at the cross now resides in the born gain person. And when a born again person understands his authority against the demons, they scatter… they flee in abject terror. What can be done?

                Well, the only thing Satan can do is to begin to redefine the New Birth… to redefine grace… to redefine sin… to divert us from the fullness of the Gospel and to reduce it to sound bites that lose their meaning over time. Certainly he has to take our eyes and hearts away from God’s Word. After all, in John 17 Jesus had said, “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word…”

                So Satan says: “As far as the New Birth is concerned, let’s make it strictly intellectual…strip it of its supernatural elements and spiritual energies. Soften the whole idea that one must literally die to the Old (fallen) man and literally be born again by the same Spirit that inhabited Jesus. Make the whole thing more casual. Make it seem as though man can have his cake and eat it too. Make the idea that man becomes a new creature into more of a metaphor… not real… not really real.”

                We could go on and on, page after page describing what Satan can do to weaken Christianity, but in truth it is happening on a large scale right now. We see it in the here and now, but we see it’s progression throughout church history. Just like Israel of old, the church rarely remains in the hot throes of passion and love for very long. Hot waves of the Spirit are soon followed by a cooling and a falling away. Each wave produces a harvest as well as a falling away. Each wave produces both wheat and tares.

                If we are honest we can see what Satan is doing on a massive scale right now. He has no power over those who are “Armed against the demons” and so he seeks to water the message down, soften it and weaken it. As a merely intellectual book, the Bible has no power to destroy fortresses, or speculations, or lofty things that are raised up against the knowledge of God…and while the Word of God defeats Satan’s lies at every level whether intellectually or spiritually, many Christians no longer take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. 10:3-5) Many have moved from the Spirit infused, Spirit empowered life of the fully human only to maintain empty appearances in the flesh.

                We are now facing perhaps the greatest conflagration of all time. We see the perfect storm brewing and forming in every area of existence. We are about to enter into the “Clash of the Titans” as two opposing forces meet on the surface of the earth for mortal combat. Any illusion that we should not be clad in the full armor of God is certainly diabolical. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent are about engage in their final fight… winner takes all

                Unfortunately we are not benign bystanders in this final battle. We are not spectators. We too must be filled with the Spirit of God and clad in His battle gear. We certainly see the other side gearing up and our days of complacency will be no more.

                “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

                We need the truth. Yeshua is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We need righteousness. Yeshua is our righteousness. We need His Gospel of Peace. Yeshua is our Prince of Peace. We need the shield of faith. We have the faith of Yeshua. We need the helmet of salvation. Yeshua is our salvation. We need the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Yeshua is the Word of God. In other words, as Paul says elsewhere. “Put on Christ… and then be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

                This is what it means to be fully human. Only in Yeshua do we become that which we were originally designed and created to be.