The promise of the Seed of the woman was made by God in the Garden of Eden as a gracious redemptive offer to the posterity of fallen Adam and Eve. God’s main concern in the dispensations and eras that followed was to find an acceptable line of descent for His Son to come into the world to carry out His mandate. Patriarchs and prophets like Enoch and Moses spoke about the coming Messiah but it was Isaiah who made a clear statement on His mandate.
Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified” (Isa 61:1-3).
Jesus Is God In Human Flesh
Jesus is the promised Seed of the woman. The Lord Jesus Christ is God the Father in human flesh, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. He has all the attributes of God the Father in addition to attributes that are peculiar to Him as Son of man. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God has several names that refer to His divinity and human nature. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is eternal and unchangeable, who before incarnation was in the form of God becoming Emmanuel, which means God with us in human flesh after His incarnation. In Jesus Christ “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”(Col 2:9). Jesus Christ is both God and Man.
Adam is from beneath the earth, Jesus is from heaven. “Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (Jn 8:22). Adam was a molded mud upgraded to the level of a “god “by the implantation of a Hypostatic Chip an excision from the heart of the Father. Jesus is the Father Himself who transited into a prepared earthen vessel in order to become man and taste death for the remission of the sins of the world. “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb 10:5). Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin.
God designed the First Adam to right the wrongs brought about by the angelic rebellion. The First Adam committed treason and lost the ability to do so. God in Christ Jesus became the Last Adam being obliged to do what the First Adam could not do. Thus, Jesus Christ is called the Son of God not by natural descent, but by a deliberate decision to assume a human form in order to qualify to taste death for mankind. “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb 2:9). Consequently, God the Father “hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11).
Jesus is God’s gift of Himself to the world. He had all the attributes of man except the depraved sinful nature in addition to His divine attributes. While on earth and before His resurrection from the dead, He functioned fully as a man and did not resort to His divine powers in carrying out the first leg of His assignment on earth.
Apart from the attributes shared with the other members of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ has distinctive attributes:
Jesus Christ is the custodian and giver of Hypostatic Chips that bestow eternal life to the recipients. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (Jn 10:28). Also “as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him” (Jn 17:2).
God created all things visible and invisible by the hand of Jesus Christ. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Col 1:16).
Jesus Christ preserves all creation by the word of His power. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Heb 1:1-4).
Jesus Christ has the power on earth to forgive sins.
Jesus has the power to raise the dead having risen from the grave Himself. Men can pray to God to raise the dead to life and receive answers but only Jesus Christ has the power in Himself to give life even to the dead.
Since flesh and blood by reason of the indwelling sin nature cannot inherit the kingdom of God, only Jesus Christ has the power to fashion glorified bodies for the eternal habitation of saints in heaven. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”(Phil 3:20-21).
Jesus Christ shall judge the dead and those alive when He returns to the earth a second time to conclude the assignment given to Him by the Father. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (Jn 5:22-23).
His Earthly Ministry
When He came into the world Jesus set out the manifesto of the first phase of His assignment. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).
Good news to the poor.
To heal the broken-hearted.
To preach deliverance (release of sinners from the guilt and bondage of sin through Christ’s earthly ministry).
To set at liberty them that are bruised (I*sa 58). Setting captives free.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance.
Jesus’ earthly ministry is split in two: first coming as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and second coming as judge of the living and the dead.
