For all humanity

As Jesus made his way into Jerusalem for his final Passover with his disciples, the crowds shouted: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” (John 12:13).

Shortly thereafter, he proclaimed his impending death to those who went up to the Temple to worship. Jesus called to the Father: “Father, glorify your name!” A voice then thundered to the crowd: “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (verse 29).

Jesus told them the voice was for their benefit and that God’s judgment on evil had come so that the prince of this world would be driven out (verses 30-31). He also said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (verse 32). Jesus conquered evil in order to attract all people to himself. The apostles believed that Jesus died to redeem us all:

2 Corinthians 5:14: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.”

Colossians 1:19-20: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”

1 Timothy 4:9-10: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance… we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”
Hebrews 2:9: “We do see Jesus, who…suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

1 John 2:2: “[Jesus is] the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

These passages show that Jesus died for all humanity, that is, in their place and on their behalf. Jesus did for us, as one of us, what we could never do for ourselves. This is what is meant by the vicarious humanity of Jesus (the word vicarious refers to a representative substitute).

Jesus, the second Adam

In Romans 5, Paul addresses believers, but he also explains what Christ

accomplished on behalf of all humanity even before anyone came to faith in God through Christ. Jesus Christ died for people who were still:

• “powerless” and “ungodly” (verse 6).
• “sinners” (verse 8).
• “God’s enemies” (verse 10).

God accomplished his great work for us out of his “love for us” even while “we were still sinners” (verse 8). The result was that even “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (verse 10).

Paul goes on to explain that what Jesus Christ accomplished as the second Adam counteracts what the first Adam did. Through Christ, as the new head of all humanity, “God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for the many” (verse 15). Paul continues:

• The gift “brought justification” rather than condemnation (verse 16).
• “Those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (verse 17).
• “One righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people” (verse 18).
• “Through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (verse 19).
• “Grace increased all the more” so that “grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verses 20-21).

God did all this for us before we were even born. The benefit of what Jesus did so long ago extends to the past, to the present and into the future. Paul says, “how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (verse 10). This shows that salvation is not a one-time event, but an enduring relationship that God has with all humanity—a relationship formed within the person of Jesus Christ, who has brought God and humanity together in peace.

Jesus has not simply done something for us, he has done something with us by including us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Paul explains this in Ephesians 2:4-6:

• When Jesus died, we, in our sinful human nature, died with him.
• When Jesus rose, we, in our reconciled human nature, rose with him.
• When Jesus ascended, we, in our redeemed human nature, ascended and became seated with him at the Father’s side.

Everything God has done in Christ shows us the mind, heart and character of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is on the side of his people and all his creation. God is for us, even before we respond to him (verse 5). He has provided reconciliation and eternal life in communion with himself for every human being.

Mistaken Identity

Recently I heard a T.V. minister refer to some people who are teaching that we were never sinners and (he added) how foolish that idea is. However the Scripture declares in Colossians 1:21 that we were alienated (had a sense of separation) and were enemies (sinners) IN OUR MIND.

Now of course WE believed we were sinners, and as a result we lived out of a sense of adamic life. The Scripture says that we were dead in SIN (singular), which means, mistaken identity; therefore we lived our lives in ungodly 'sinful' behavior.

What we must understand is that Jesus was sent by the Father to REVEAL the very opposite of what 'religion' has reinforced within us.

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:14 that 'whatever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be taken from it or added unto it'. God created man in His image and after His likeness. What happened is that mankind FORGOT when he came to earth.

Jesus was sent from God to REVEAL what man had forgotten. You could say that when we were physically born we were born with amnesia.

Amnesia means that we have lost the memory of our identity. A person that is afflicted with amnesia due to an injury to the brain does NOT have an identity change, he has merely  forgotten who he is.

To be 'born again' in aramaic means to 'remember our beginning'.

Paul the Apostle said in Ephesians 1:4 that 'He (the Father) has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be HOLY and WITHOUT BLAME before Him in love'. I Peter 1:3 records that at the resurrection we were begotten or born again.

Objectively and historically that took place before any of us were even physically born. Therefore the born again experience is a spiritual awakening where we remember what was always true of us.

Proverbs 23:7 tells us that 'as a man thinks in his heart, so is he', or so is his experience. The reason mankind acted as a 'sinner' is because that is what he was told from the day of his natural birth, and then 'religion' reinforced that false concept in his mind.

The word 'sin' simply means, mistaken identity and to miss the mark. The mark is Christ, and we totally missed (or forgot) that identity of ourselves. Then the word 'sins' (plural) infers the behavior which came out of that mistaken identity.

So were we 'sinners' in the Mind of our Father? Absolutely not! We were only sinners, enemies and separate from our Father IN OUR MIND according to Colossians 1:21. (by Kay Fairchild)