Jesus Died To Establish A New Human Template
Jesus is unique. There has been no one like Him since Adam infected humankind with selfishness and death. No other man has had a sinful mother and a sinless Father. This is the perfect combination to cure our sinful condition: able to sin like us, but also able to love like God. In the mind of Jesus, the principle of agape love and the principle of selfishness battled it out. All of the spectators in this drama knew that if love could win in the mind of Christ, then it could win in the lives of men in the same way. By showing that it is possible for fallen humans to live within the framework of love through a relationship with God, Jesus opened up the possibility for men to do likewise, indeed, He earned the right before the unfallen universe to gift them the new human template He developed.
God couldn’t just magically give men a sinless character, but He could give them a template so that, by following Christ’s example, they could use it to hammer out their own flawless character, just as He did. Thus God has secured a new human identity for all men in the perfect character of Jesus. His perfect character stands in for the part of the covenant of trust that all men have failed to keep. In Christ, God has consummated everything necessary for healing from sin. Like the snake-bitten Hebrews in the wilderness, all we need do is listen, look, and live.
Tim Jennings Explains This New Human Condition
“Adam infected humanity with selfishness and humanity could not live unless the law of life was restored. Christ’s selfless life, lived in tempted human flesh, did just that. The only way to destroy selfishness was for God to experience the temptation to act selfishly in a human brain and choosing to love perfectly instead. This established a new perfect human condition. Thus Christ destroyed selfishness (the basis of death) and perfectly restored love (the basis of life) back into humanity. The resurrection was the inevitable outcome of this law of love being restored, as predicted in scripture: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.’ Psalm 19:7
“Christ procured the remedy. ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…’ Hebrews 5:8-10 But wasn’t He always perfect? No. He was always sinless, but character cannot be created. It must be developed by the exercise of the freewill choices of the intelligent being. Once he developed a perfect human character He became the source of salvation and healing…”
Not Just a Pipe Dream
Those who trust Jesus, humbly cooperating with the Spirit in grasping this grace-sent opportunity, will experience what Jesus experienced as they integrate the magic of a new love-wrought identity. It is through appropriating Christ’s new hard-won human template, infused into our lives through a faith-based relationship with Him, that we are transformed.
Christ’s perfect life is no pipe dream or castle in the air. He is actually offering us His perfect life with which to identify—a holy framework in the messy matrix of our weak humanity on which to build—so we can actually replicate His life. How does this work practically? Even though our fallen condition is really messed up, our identity is perfect in Christ. The only reason our condition is not aligning with our true identity is because our hearts do not yet fully believe and embrace it. The more we embrace the truth and move into harmony with the Spirit’s loving magic, the more our condition comes to align with the creature that God had in mind when He first set out to make us (our true perfect self). As we more fully believe what He says about who we are and quit believing the lies about ourselves that are based on our messed up condition, we will more fully experience the strategic advantage Jesus offers as the Spirit integrates Christ’s perfect template into our lives and our condition more and more aligns with our true identity.
“The law requires righteousness—a righteous life, a perfect character—and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men.” Ellen White, The Desire of Ages 762
God is a physician, a healer. The new human template He offers men is one of the crucial ways the life and death of Christ heals men. The Spirit has always been waiting and ready to deliver Christ’s new identity, yes, even to those throughout history who have only known His voice in their thoughts. From Adam and Eve to you and I, Jesus has waited through millenniums of darkness and lies—at the door of every heart—to save any who will but listen, look, and believe.
