The rights of Man.

Man has the right to sin. It is implicit in the basic concept of free will. Although man has the right to do wrong, his obligation is to fulfill and obey the law. Previously I have stated that obedience is faith and vice versa. Therefore, following this reasoning, we find the scripture agreeing when it says that whatever is not of faith is sin.

This concept is tied into who Christ was. If he was truly the God-man, then he had the right to sin in that he had free will. Man has free will and God does what He wills. This is a double positive and cannot be dismissed.

God is the lawgiver and as such, Christ, who Himself was God in human form, gave the law to Moses from whom it was passed for Christ the man to follow. And so when Christ says that His purpose was not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, it is because of the understanding that He gave the law and to that time no man had been able to keep it. Because He kept the law, he was able to fulfill that list of requirements against us and clothe us in the righteousness of God through Himself.

The ultimate moment of clarity for the doctrine of the God-man is the crucifixion. Jesus on various occasions declared that God was His father and the Bible says that He did not consider it robbery to do so. He also asked the question to His disciples, “Who is it that you say I am?” Peter’s answer was that He was the Messiah and Jesus did not dissuade this thought, but affirmed it by declaring that the Holy Spirit revealed it to Peter.

With this in the background we find Jesus hanging on the cross. During this process He utters two phrases that clue us into what is happening. He says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is something that only God can do and as the Son of God he made intercession for his accusers even as he intercedes for us today.

Secondly he says, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?” This was Jesus speaking from His humanity. You see, God cannot separate from God. This is an impossible paradox that defies scriptural principle that declares that a house divided against itself cannot stand, therefore God cannot forsake God. It was at this moment that God left Christ’s humanity and He died. And so Christ’s spirit did not die, for we believe that the spirit is eternal. But He did shed mortality.

It is this same spirit that went into Abraham’s bosom and ascended into the heavens with the saints. It is the same spirit that was given to the prophets in the Old Testament and the same spirit that dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant. More so, this is the same spirit that dwells inside every believer.

There is no veil into the holy of holies, there is instead our hearts. For God declared that He would write on the hearts of his children instead of tablets of stone. And it is in our hearts and minds that God is interested in.

Be renewed by the washing of the word and the regeneration of the Holy Ghost. Today we come before our God and say thank you. Thank you for your amazing grace, tender mercy, your loving-kindness, and your chastisement.
Lord, let us live worthy to be called Christians. For it is in you that we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.