In this article we will consider the question, “How does the Designer transfer His unlimited nature to man?”
This is where I left off from my last article entitled, “Is The Designer Trying to Find Man?”. We had been considering the Bible’s explanation as to the origins of man, his fallen condition and God’s plan to restore him.
We had seen that God needed to deal with the fallen nature of man. To do this, He created a NEW NATURE by coming to earth and living a sinless life through Jesus. A LIFE LIVED— A NEW NATURE CREATED. Now the question is, “How does He transfer this new nature to man?”
How the Designer Transfers His Unlimited Nature to Man
An example of this process can be seen in mother nature. Scientists tell us that plants produce new life through the DEATH of their seed. For example, if you take an apple seed and plant it in the ground, that seed will die in order to produce the sprout coming up from it. What we see in the death of Jesus is an amazing 2-step process of a similar kind. God takes the old fallen limited nature of man, kills it and then raises Jesus’ new unlimited nature for mankind to access.
Let’s take a look at each step so you can see how this is accomplished.
STEP ONE is the death of man’s limited nature. In order for God to release man from the control of his limited nature he had to remove the penalty of death from it. With death hanging over man’s head how could He give him new life? To give man new life, God took the penalty of every mistake, past, present and future for every man, woman and child that will ever exist and placed them on Jesus. Since God foreknows, He has the capacity to do this. Death is the natural penalty for mistakes and if God wants to take the penalty of every mistake and pay the price of it for you, He can— and that is what He did. He became you— He became your limited nature through Jesus.
This happened on the cross when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Having the sin of mankind placed on him, Jesus died spiritually as God separated His Spirit from him. He could no longer see or hear God through the eyes of his Spirit. Without the ability to see and hear God’s voice, he became 100 percent LIMITED in perspective. Then with Jesus’ physical death, God killed the SEED of man’s limited nature. Jesus paid the price for every mistake (sin) ever committed by dying with man’s limited nature attached. Man does not have to pay for the penalty of his mistakes anymore. They have already been paid.
In STEP TWO of the seed death/life process, new life arises. We see this in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. But the Jesus that went into death is NOT the same Jesus that came out of death. This is a new Jesus born out of hell itself. The Bible refers to Him as the FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD. He represents a NEW SPECIES, a new creation.
Whereas Adam before him populated the world with a limited nature, this Jesus populates the world with a newly created unlimited nature. The new nature he offers is the new life (sprout) created by the death of a seed. But how does he transfer His new nature to you?
Natures are populated by BIRTH. Just as you were born into Adam’s limited nature through the seed of your parents, you can also be born into Jesus’ unlimited nature by being born of His Seed. In the physical we see sperm penetrating an egg for conception. In the spiritual it’s God’s Holy Spirit that penetrates the egg of your heart. Our fallen spirits are regenerated by His Spirit. We become sons and daughters of God by birth.
This is the PROCESS God uses to transfer His new nature to us. The actual METHOD for doing so will be discussed in my next newsletter, “God’s Method for Giving Us a New Nature”.
But for now, I think it’s important to discuss the reliability of the Bible, since everything I’ve said up to this point depends on it.
Can We Trust the Bible?
Before we can accept the Bible’s explanation for why God is trying to find man, we have to verify it with objective fact.
One of the strongest OBJECTIVE evidences for the trustworthiness of the Bible is FULFILLED PROPHECY. Although other religious books make prophetic predictions, none of them are as SPECIFIC as the Bible. In most cases the prophecies in these non-Biblical books do not come true at all. In other cases, the prophesies are vague and fulfilled only in a general way. The Bible however, contains literally HUNDREDS of prophesies fulfilled in specific ways. These are prophecies about: the Jewish nation, other nations, world history and a future MESSIAH.
The Science of Probability has some interesting things to say about the Old Testament prophecies regarding a Messiah.
With the help of 600 college students, Peter Stoner, science professor and author of Science Speaks, analyzed hundreds of Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. The students carefully analyzed all the prophecies and considered factors that might indicate men had conspired to fix the prophecies.
Then professor Stoner invited other scientists to submit their own INDEPENDENT studies to determine if his student’s calculations were accurate. By the most conservative of estimates they concluded that 456 Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in one man, Jesus of Nazareth.
Then using just 8 of these prophecies, Professor Stoner calculated the probability of just one man fulfilling them. According to the Science of Probability, the chance of one man fulfilling just 8 prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power (1 in 10^17). How big a number is 10^17 power?
If you covered the entire state of Texas to a depth of 2 feet with silver dollars, then dropped in a single marked dollar and mixed them all up, your chance of finding that marked dollar on your first try, wearing a blindfold, would be 1 in 10^17 power.
The 8 prophecies Professor Stoner considered are:
- Born at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
- Preceded by a messenger (Isaiah 40:3)
- Entered Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)
- Betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9)
- Sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12)
- The silver subsequently thrown in God’s house and used to buy the potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13)
- He was silent before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7)
- His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:16)
The Bible is an amazing book consisting of 66 books and written by 40 authors. Its message concerning the fall of man and God’s loving response to rescue him is legitimized through fulfilled prophecy. In trying to decide if the Bible can be trusted, all we have to do is look to the objective Science of Probability. The odds say it’s true.
Next up? God’s METHOD for giving us a new nature.
