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Chapter 7 - Good Shepherd
John 10:17-18
17 Therefore [touto] [dia] doth [agapao] my Father [pater] love [agapao] me [me] , because [hoti] I [ego] lay down [tithemi] my [mou] life [psuche] , that [hina] I might take [lambano] it [autos] again [palin] .
18 No man [oudeis] taketh [airo] it [autos] from [apo] me [emou] , but [alla] I [ego] lay [tithemi] it [autos] down [tithemi] of [apo] myself [emautou] . I have [echo] power [exousia] to lay [tithemi] it [autos] down [tithemi] , and [kai] I have [echo] power [exousia] to take [lambano] it [autos] again [palin] . This [taute] commandment [entole] have I received [lambano] of [para] my [mou] Father [pater] . KJV-Interlinear
17 'For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 'No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.' NASB
There is only one God (the Father), not many gods. There is only one means of access to God (through the Son), not many paths to God. There is only one destiny (Lake of Fire) if God is not approached in the prescribed manner which only God defines (in the divine decrees).
Here Jesus Christ speaks in the past tense. The plan of God is set and is certain to be completed as defined in the decrees. Jesus has the power to lay His own life down (His freedom to choose), and the power to take it up again (He is omnipotent, He has eternal life, and not subject to death).
No one else can take His life. No one else can alter His choices.
There is always the debate as to who killed Jesus, and that debate is here answered. We are all (human race) guilty of sin and death thus giving rise to the need for someone else to pay the price of our freedom, but no man, no angel, no one killed Jesus. No one had that power.
Yes Jesus was brutalized terribly in His six trials and on the Cross, but no one had the right nor the power to kill Him. Even if they tried and the leadership of Judea tried certainly, but they did not and could not kill Him. That may have been among the reasons many among the Roman soldiers were brought to salvation after witnessing the unbelievable beating that Jesus received, and yet He still was walking to the Cross.
God has a plan, and no man can alter it. Jesus Christ went to the Cross of His own free will. Initially it is to demonstrate mans total evil nature (of those who wanted to kill Jesus), and to demonstrate mans total inability to come to His aid (those watching who wished they could help). But that was not for man to do. The Cross was executed in the afternoon of Passover, between the hours of noon and three o'clock (a date defined by Moses nearly 1500 years earlier), when the skies were darkened with a supernatural darkness, and behind that curtain, Jesus received the punishment for mans sins.
When the work of the Cross was finished, Jesus was still alive. He did not bleed to death to die for our sins. Then and only then, after the work of the Cross was completely finished, then Jesus gave up His spirit and His body fell lifeless.
This event was certain to occur. Jesus speaks as though it had already occurred. And in the Divine Decrees written in eternity past, it had.
The Father authored the divine plan. The Son executed the divine plan (the command from the Father). The relationship between the Son and the Father is said to be 'agapao' love, for the principle of love. They both completed all aspects of the plan in accordance with the plan.
There is not more than one plan. There is not more than one agenda for the Godhead. The Son is not competing with the Father. The Son does not wish to replace the Father as is often pictured in the stories of the Greek gods. The Son does not have desires separate from or in addition to, the divine decrees.
There is only one God, one plan, one salvation. Anything else is a totally false concept and a lie.
Man is born into this world and thereby given the chance of eternal life with God. Man is taken out of this world at the convenience of God. No circumstance, no war, no medical condition, no accident, nothing which can be considered the cause of ones death can be looked at as Gods inability to deal with the problems of man. If God intends for you to live a thousand years, then nothing can prevent it. If God intends to take you at a young or old age, then nothing can alter that plan for your life.
In eternity past God saw your entire life, and made complete provisions for you and for those who are near and dear to you. God makes no mistakes. God overlooks nothing. What burden is placed upon you, is the responsibility to make the right decisions for God, in this life in order to prepare yourself for eternity.
Good decisions made in life give rise to greater opportunities and greater blessings. Bad decisions limit ones opportunities and reduce ones blessings.
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