THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST

                                                          THE SUPERIORITY OF JESUS

                Our lesson this week focuses on the superiority of Jesus and the first question we must ask ourselves is what Jesus is superior to? On this account, both the book of Hebrews and the book of John set out in chapter one to establish a positive ID of Jesus and to declare His superiority and authority over all THINGS BOTH IN THE HEAVENLY REALM AND ON THE EARTHLY REALM.

                Hebrews begins by telling us that Jesus brings a superior covenant by saying: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom He also made the worlds…” Heb. 1:1, 2.

                In other words, the writer of Hebrews establishes that Jesus has come to bring us a superior covenant… a covenant to which the Old Covenant could only point. And the writer bases this superiority upon Jesus’ credentials. Through Jesus, God created the worlds. (The universe) Jesus has the power and authority to save us based upon the right of creation.

                John establishes this same thing by saying: “”All things came into being through Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has not come into being.” John 1:3

                Now the writer of Hebrews establishes the next point, because in contradistinction to the Old system of types and shadows and laws, Jesus is declared to be “… the radiance of His (The father’s) glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. Jesus is declared by John to be the Word… the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, is the same Word that upholds all things by the word of His power.

                Jesus came here to be our perfect picture of God and He holds within Himself the power to back it up. He is not only like God… He is God… the Son of God through whom all things were created that was created.

                So Jesus created the physical universe with the idea from the outset that He would also become a part of His Creation in order to reconcile the physical universe with the spiritual universe thus making the two realms into one.

                But God’s kingdom has in it what we might call a flaw. That “Flaw” is that true love can only flow from a choice to love or not to love. But by giving His created beings free will He has taken an inherent risk. That is if you can choose to love and obey, then you can also choose not to love and obey. But the problem is that God is also the source of life. AS John 1:4 says: “In Him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.

                So, to choose not to love and serve the Creator is to choose darkness and death. This is a very sticky problem and one that must be worked out before God fills the whole universe with His creation. So in a very real sense, earth becomes a theater of the universe… a stage on which is acted out a very real drama between good and evil, between Christ and Satan and between those who choose to follow   Christ and those who choose to follow Satan.

                Here on this planet earth, the ultimate love of God must be demonstrated and the ultimate failure of any kingdom apart from God must be played out. Here on earth we are given to understand that Satan will be given approximately 6000 years to state his case and to demonstrate his kingdom principles and their results. Likewise Jesus will demonstrate the power and love of God, saying: “And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32

                Satan operates by force, as we have seen it in every country where he has taken complete control. But Jesus operates by self-sacrificing love, even death on a cross at our hands. So which power will win in the end? That is the big question to be answered.

                In the same way as Hebrews described it, John also describes the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old covenant, by saying: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

                So the Law was a necessary step in the legal process of saving us, but it has no power to deliver us from Satan’s kingdom or even from our own flesh, so Jesus brought something to us that was packed with the very creation power of God. He brought us a New Covenant based upon the Melchizedek Priesthood and new laws as well… and it is powered by His Holy Spirit.

                So right here on this point we need to understand that when Jesus said:  ”If you love me you will keep My commandments, He is not here referring to the Law of Moses. If He was, then we can safely throw out the writings of the Apostle Paul. But instead what Jesus is telling His disciples here is that if we love Him we will keep His commandments… that is the many instructions that He gave to His disciples in the New Covenant which He was introducing to them and to us. He came to bring us a New Covenant and a new Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek which came 430 years before the Law was given. It is a covenant in which the very Spirit of Christ is given to us so that we can follow in His footsteps and in the process become like Him.

                In John 13:34 Jesus tells us what His new commandments are based upon something altogether different by saying: “ A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.”

                This God kind of love is also described for us in Gal. 5:22 in its various aspects as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control . This godly love is also expanded upon in 1 Cor. chapter 13 and in many other places.

                But since our own righteousness is as filthy rags it stands to reason that in order to love with the kind of love that God requires, we must also be filled with His Spirit, for that which is of the flesh is flesh, but that which is of the spirit is spirit.

                So we are born citizens of a physical creation, but through Christ the physical and spiritual realms are united in each one of us as first fruits of that greater reconciliation when the entire physical universe and the entire spiritual universes will be reconciled into a bond of unity and oneness that will never again be broken.

                The point of this lesson is to let us know that only One person in all of the universe either the physical or the spiritual universe can pull off this reconciliation by anyone less than the very One who created it all in the first place. So people ignorantly talk about there being many ways to heaven, but the Christian life is not a mere philosophy, nor is it a set of laws or doctrines. It happens by being united with Jesus Christ in His death in order that we can be raised up with Him in the likeness and power of His resurrection so that we can become like Him, by His power and not by our own.

                Some people get confused on this issue thinking that we can somehow add some kind of perfection to our lives by returning to the Law, but to these people Paul shouts: “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you; did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Gal. 3:1-3

                No, Jesus came to bring us something altogether different, for as it says in Jeremiah 31:31, the New Covenant will not be like the Old Covenant given on Mt. Sinai. This one is administered by the indestructible power of our Melchizedek High Priest Jesus Christ, who has from His resurrection on been ministering His blood upon the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place. He has become our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek and we would do well to delve into this priesthood and to understand it and its implications very well.

                When we don’t understand these things then heresy begins to filter back into the church and people, having slipped out of the Spirit tend to try to make up for it by going back to Law.

                I believe that one of the great deceptions we see taking place in the world today as the antichrist system is being built. It includes this subtle return to Old Covenant Law, even to the point of sacrificing animals again. This is the ultimate blasphemy against Christ for it seeks to demonstrate the insufficiency of His eternal sacrifice upon the cross.

                This is why the falling away part of Christianity is slowly abandoning the foundations of the Gospel like repentance, the cross, of Christ and the blood of Christ and even the Spirit of Christ in favor of a system that cannot save us.

                It is time to separate ourselves from all that is not of faith (Gal. 3:12) and to come fully into Christ as our only means and source of salvation. Most denominations existing today are divided simply because they have either added something to the word, or subtracted something from the Word. In many cases they think it necessary to have their own prophet or their own authority system in addition to the Word or even to the Person of Jesus Christ in some cases.

                We need to get back to the foundations that we used to sing about in the Majestic Hymns. “On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”