Without Sin
Without
Blemish – Without Sin. In the Old Testament times the Jews were commanded to offer sacrifices.
The lamb to be sacrificed had to be free from imperfections. In order for Jesus
to atone for our sins he to had to be ‘without blemish’. But now we are not
looking for spots or wrinkles, or any other kind of physical imperfections.
No, this sacrifice had
to be without sin, spotless on the inside, with no tarnished past or unbridled
passions. This sacrifice had to be one who never allowed himself one bad
thought, one ill feeling, or one secret act of disobedience. Ever! Not even as
a child!
Not only did Jesus
have to live up to a perfect level of righteousness, which included abstaining
from evil, but it also included doing good always,
even in the onset of persecution, or the entire plan would fail!
These
strict requirements on this sacrifice bring up two questions that must find their answers; why
are the requirements so strict, and what manner of man could live up to such requirements?
What
manner of man could live up to such requirements?
Not one of us is without sin, but it appears harder for some of us than for
others to do good and to obey
the commandments of God. Some must work really hard on themselves in order to
be what they aught to be, while others are, as it were, almost born to be good.
It would be so utterly unfair if God made each of us that different, and then
rewarded us according to how we obeyed him. But it seems like God is not unfair
at all, since we all appear to have lived with God before we came to this
earth. There we developed our different personalities that came with us at birth.
In
the beginning Jesus lived with God the Father, as a spirit. Then he was known as Jehovah.
We were also there, and we knew each other, and him. Jehovah was our oldest
brother. Jehovah was not only our oldest brother; he was also second in command
to the Father. Jehovah was a perfect being in that sphere too, without sin, and
he was a God, no less.
When
Jesus was born into this world, even though he forgot his pre-earthly life,
just like we did, his very nature shone through.
An eternity of being good and obedient did not go away just because he was made
to forget. But as a baby, or a very small child, before he was able to reason,
or know anything, didn’t he ever loose his patience? Didn’t he ever get angry
when he was wet or hungry? This is a good question, and perhaps it should be
left open to the liking of the reader, perhaps not…
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)
This passage says that if someone doesn’t know the law, then he cannot
sin. In our question this would mean that
Jesus could not sin as a baby, since he had not knowledge to understand any
laws at all. Therefore, whatever thing he would have done as a baby or small
child would not be considered a sin, and therefore he would be without sin.
Perhaps this is to
make things a bit too easy. Perhaps little children are without sin since Jesus
took upon himself the sins of all those who sinned without having the law! If
that is the case, then Jesus could not have made anything even in his smaller
childhood, since he could not atone for his own sins.
How about during the
temple journey at the age of twelve? Was it not disobedience not to follow his
mother and step-father on their journey back? If we had more records we could
ask more questions like these. However, we can be sure that Jesus was without
sin in his childhood, youth and young adulthood, since at his baptism his
Father said:
…Thou art my beloved
Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:21-22)
Mary knew who Jesus was. We can be sure that his identity was a vital
part of the teaching of his upbringing. By
and by the veil of forgetfulness must have worn thinner as he communed with God
and angels. The more he knew about himself, the easier it must have become to
follow the laws that he once gave unto man. The more he read the scriptures,
the more he must have recognized that he held the copyrights to them. All this
must have strengthened his resolve to continue without sin.
Having said that Jesus
was more prepared to obey from before the foundation of the world than anyone
else, doesn’t suggest that it was easy to be Jesus when he was tempted. And just to make sure that no one ever gets the idea that the life of
Jesus was easier than others’, and that he couldn’t possibly understand what it
is like to be tempted, Jesus goes up into the mountains, where he abstains from
food for 40 days and 40 nights. When his body is at its weakest, the master
tempter himself appears…
1 THEN was Jesus led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the
tempter came to him, he said, If
thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered
and said, It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city,
and setteth him on a
pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the
Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels
charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at
any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto
him, It is written again,
Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding
high mountain, and sheweth
him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if
thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is
written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels
came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
He
withstood these temptations. Satan had to leave with weeping, wailing and
gnashing teeth. Some people say that Jesus sinned
when he made a whip and chased out those doing business in the house of God.
But remember whose house it was! If it is the house of
Jehovah, is he not the very man to knows exactly what
should go on there? Is he not the one who should know how to rid his own house
from sinners? Trust me, the traders were angry and ashamed, and Jesus was still
without sin. Others say
that he sinned when he ‘complained on the cross’:
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried
with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that
is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
But
Jesus was not complaining! He was teaching, and
was still without sin! He was teaching the church that
he was now cut off from the presence of the Father, which is the first step in
overcoming the spiritual death. What manner of man was he? He was a God! He was
filled with love without end. He was/is our brother. He is the Son of God, and
he inherited all the divine qualities of a perfect and loving God. Such
a being could live that perfect life without sin that was required in order to
be that Trojan horse in the dungeons of Death.
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