The wonderful exchange of life on the cross
“’ And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.” John 12:32, 33, NET. “Draw all people to myself” does not mean that each human being was bodily in Jesus Christ on the cross. As stated in the earlier blog, all humankind has the same spirit, one life, and, therefore, the same intelligence.
There are unique individualities or souls, but only one life – one spirit. The spirit, the life, of humankind sinned in the first man – Adam, soul, the biological nature of man, did not sin. In the garden of Eden, the spirit of humankind subjected the biological nature of humankind to sin. Therefore, all future individual souls, or the biological nature of the members of old humankind, were subjected to the consequences of sin. Even though we now have the perfect spirit, or life, of Jesus Christ, our biological nature is a sinner by nature. When Jesus returns, this condition will be removed from us. So, the spirit sinned in the garden of Eden, not the body and soul; therefore, the life, the spirit of humankind, had to die forever as “the wages for sin.” This is the irreversible requirement of God’s justice; there was no to avoid it.
At the incarnation, Jesus, the Second Adam, came with the same order of spirit that the first Adam received at the creation. Jesus, at the incarnation, had the same spirit Adam had before the fall in the garden of Eden. The spirit God put in Jesus at incarnation was the spirit of the new humankind God created in Jesus Christ. While tempted in the desert, Jesus, the representative of the new humankind, had to make an intelligent decision and choice in the same manner as the first Adam had to make in the garden of Eden. However, Jesus conquered the temptation, and thus the new spirit, the new life of humankind, became perfect. “For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Hebrews 2:10, NET.
Because Jesus conquered the temptation, he, in contrast to the first Adam, was granted to have life in himself. “For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” John 5:26, NET. Paul refers to the life of Jesus as the “indestructible life,” that is, the life that could not ever die. Hebrews 7:16, NIV.
So, which life died on the cross at Golgotha? Read the next blog.
