Isa. 7:14-16 π Lk. 2:41-51 π Lk. 2:52 π Jn. 1:12
Jesus said He fulfilled the Law. I hope you see in the following alternative to the belief that He was under obedience to it to the end of His life. (Know here that Paul’s saying Jesus obeyed God, even unto death, was a mistranslation of the word, “Obedient.” It originally meant He looked to someone greater than He for an example.) That said, once He had become love, He no longer needed the Law. He also said He was the Way, and wants us to follow that Way. Let’s go through His life and see if we can find what way He took, that we may do the same, becoming free from the Law. What you will read here will be hard to believe, unless you go to the given Scriptures to prove the points.
Let’s start by reading Isa. 7:14-16 (top) . These verses show that even Jesus had to come to know to refuse evil and choose good. He was not born with a halo demonstrating His holiness. He messed His diapers and cried for Hs milk, just like we did. God gave us all grace to do wrongs as children, and not have it called sin until we reached the age of accountability. This included Jesus. We are going to show Jesus doing wrong as a child, but it did not count as sin yet. Therefore we are not going against Scriptures that say Jesus was without sin. God is not embarrassed for us to see this.
Next, we need to go to Luke 2:41-51 (top) , where we find young Jesus has gone to the Temple for several days without the permission of His parents. There, the religious leaders were astonished at His knowledge for such a young age. (Note that wisdom is not mentioned there.) Then we see His mother scolding Him for causing them worry. Young Jesus had been inconsiderate of His parents by His actions. Then we see Him answering His mother in a rude way. He did not even apologize, but justified Himself by saying He must be about His Father’s business. The truth is, He did not honor His parents, breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Note that He did not stand further on His excuse, instead going home with His parents, which showed He truly was not yet ready to be about His Father’s business.
Next, we get some revealing information in Luke 2:52 (top) . There we see that even Jesus had to grow in wisdom and stature, to righteous authority. We can see that in those following hidden years, Jesus was coming into His age of accountability, and it was a process that was not finished until He really was ready to be about His Father’s business. Even though those years were hidden from us, we can glean more information about them from other Scriptures.
It was said that Jesus was a man of sorrows, and Ecclesiastes says that sorrow is better than happiness, for sorrow refines. From this, we can believe that sorrowful things happened in His hidden life, for indeed, He had been refined in those years. It is further said that Jesus suffered all that we suffer. So that must have taken place during those years.
So you may see that Jesus had been given grace in His childhood, until He became accountable. Likewise, we Christians go through grace in our childhood. And even the church has been given grace in its childhood. But grace should at some point no longer be needed, as maturity brings wisdom and righteousness. But the churches today continue to require grace for their grave errors and wrongdoings. The churches refuse to grow up.
We need to remember John 1:12; (top) , where we are told we are given power to become sons of God. This flies in the face of those who claim, “It is finished.” This merely gives a lame excuse to remain as they have been, and to not grow up. The purpose of grace is to see us through the growing process, while not being held accountable for our wrongs as we should be. Jesus’ sacrificed blood is our hedge of protection, which keeps us from reaping what evil we sow while we are learning Love. Grace.
Besides, when we say, “It is finished,” we forget that Jesus left the devil intact, rather than sending him to hell then and there. Yes, He finished His part, but now it is the Bride’s turn to do Her part, and defeat him too.
We know that once Jesus’ ministry began, He had the wisdom He had lacked earlier in His life. He no longer needed the Law to rule over Himself, for He had become Love, which fulfills the Law. This is the Way, the Hard Narrow Path that God wants each of us to take, as well. This Hard Path will accomplish two major changes in us. It will defeat the shame spirit of iniquity within that causes us to sin, and that being done, we will no longer need the Law to obey. We too will have become Love, and therefore the prepared Bride of Christ.
So then, let’s know what role the Law does play. In the O.T., it was meant to write the perfect Law on the hearts of all the Jews. This would then be passed down through the generations, even to other than the Jews, so no person would doubt what was right or wrong. All children go through discipline of what to do and what not to do, whether it is done as obedience to the Commandments or not.
But then notice that the religious leaders added many more laws to those God had commanded, and these were incorporated into required behavior. Some of those were proper, but many were unnecessary. But in time, they became law, along with the Law. They were precepts of men, and were put upon the people by their religious leaders. After making a new law official, they would then continue amending it to make life even more stifling for the people. This was an example of when people are put in charge of people, they tend to expand their control over them. Just as we showed Joseph doing earlier.
The Law is there to show us that if we come under enough stress or temptation, we cannot obey it. This needs to turn a light on in us, to find out why. This, rather than to give up and say we won’t become perfect until Jesus comes for us, which makes His words a lie.
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