Jesus is called “the Christ,” yet you might not understand what “Christ” means and why it is significant. Some people might even think “Christ” must have been Jesus’ last name, but, simply, “Christ” means “anointed by God.” Jesus was anointed by God for a particular purpose.
The Gospel of Christ describes that purpose. The word “Gospel” literally means “good news.” We want to understand what is that good news and how does it apply to your life. The challenging aspect of hearing the good news, however, is that before you can hear it, you have to hear the “bad news” first.
Bad News
There is some bad news that you have to understand in order to properly appreciate the good. The bad news was discussed in our previous chapter and it is the reality of sin in our life. As Paul indicated, although we always want to do good, there is another law at work, from within, that entices us toward evil conduct.
God had selected Adam and Eve to establish the cornerstone of a happy world of love, peace and prosperity. God gave them the vision to be “fruitful, multiply and have dominion.” If they had keep faith in God’s word, the commandment, such a world would have, eventually, emerged. They would have established their integrity as a true man and a true woman, becoming a true husband and wife, then true parents. As true parents they would have passed on a lineage of life and love. Such an expanding line would ultimately manifest a world environment of one family under God.
Instead, Adam and Eve sinned and, as a result, passed on a lineage characterized by conflict, death and competing interests in a struggle between God and satan. That struggle manifests on each ensuing social level, from the individual, family, society, nation and world. Such a world is far from the hoped for ideal of one family under God.
Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” The “bad news” is within the first part: in Adam all die. That means that via our ancestral connection to that dead Adam, we were born into that legacy of sin and death. We did not choose the circumstances of that inheritance; it was establish by nature of our connection to the dead Adam. We did not commit the original sin, yet we did inherit its consequences: we are cut-off from the life, love and righteousness of God.
Good News
Obviously, the “good news” is in the second part of I Corinthians 15:22, “so in Christ all will be made alive.” The most important question then is: How?
So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
Paul indicates that Jesus and Adam are comparable in one sense and incomparable in another. The comparable aspect is that Adam and Jesus have a direct impact on their descendants. The incomparable aspect is the quality of that impact: for Adam, it was death, for Jesus, the last Adam, it was life.
Jesus had descendants? The Scriptures give no indication that Jesus ever married or had his own children. On the other hand, neither does the scripture state emphatically that Jesus was not meant for marriage and family. Who than are the descendants of Jesus?
You are, if you accept the invitation to enter into his family. When it was announced in John 3:16 that God “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,” it meant that all were candidates to receive that love and reconnect to God’s family line. By saying yes and receiving that love you are cut-off from the lineage of death that came to you via your own birth as a descendant of the Adam of death. By saying “yes” to that love, you are welcomed and embraced within a brand new lineage and a brand new birth as a descendant of the new Adam of life: Christ, Jesus. It is the ultimate change of paradigm.
Changing Our Lineage
Changing our lineage is the essence of God’s plan of salvation for you. It is the essential meaning of becoming “born again.” Our first birth was tainted with the historical bond of sin and death. Our “second birth” binds us to the righteousness and hope of a true Adam.
Just as our first birth required a father and a mother, likewise our second; Jesus as “the everlasting Father” and the Holy Spirit, the comforter and embracing Mother of rebirth:
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' John 3:5-7
When we embrace the spiritual True Parents, not only do we receive the immediate grace of entrance into the family of God and the gift of eternal life, but we also receive the promise of a hoped-for future glorification:
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:23
So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28
Christ returns to grant us the original mandate of God offered the first man and woman; to be fruitful, multiply and to have dominion. It is God’s eternal hope for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in spirit.
Discussion
1. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, the world would be “one family under God.” How do you imagine that world? How would our daily life be different?
2. How does “rebirth” bring us into God’s lineage?
3. If so many Christians have been “born again” why hasn’t the Kingdom of Heaven come? Why do Christians still sin?
4. The night before his cross, Jesus was “sorrowing unto death.” What do you suppose caused him sorrow and why do you think he prayed, “let this cup pass from me”?
5. Have you had the “rebirth” experience? In order to have that experience what needs to be clarified?
