Jesus Christ in Relation to God the Father

               

                When I first came into my walk of faith I didn’t make a distinction between the Lord God and Jesus Christ. To me they had to be one in the same, because anyone could send their lackey to deliver a message and suffer the consequences of it. Then around the ninth time of reading the bible I caught something. Jesus Christ talks of God and to God, not to himself. Then in the book of Numbers God is having a conversation with Moses and he is so upset with the Jews, he is about to turn them into a pile of smoldering ashes. Only when Moses has the courage to point out that the Egyptians are watching and if God couldn’t deliver his people to the promise land and killed them and left them in the desert, no one would ever follow him again. That is when I realized the significance of Jesus Christ.

                  Over and over again God’s people take his gifts and blessings and the turn away from him or lose faith.  Even Elijah ran away in fear of Jezebel. God couldn’t depend upon anyone. I read a story once of a veteran who had his foot blown off by a land mine during WWII who interviewed for a job and he was given a task to retrieve a rare vase. He found it and sent for it but it was broken during shipping. He pawned his watch which was given him for retirement and flew to the Middle East to buy the only other vase to replace the one which had been destroyed. When he raced to deliver it on time the people at the company who tasked him were amazed to the lengths length which this guy went to accomplish the task. In return for his efforts they made him president of the company.

                God, put this child with Marry in the line of succession of his people who had the closest relationship with him from the beginning. He was given to Marry and Joseph to raise with the fear of God and a relationship with him so close that actually communicating with him was second nature. I think of Roy Jones Jr. who had his first fight at eight years old. His hands were trained before he knew how he learned to use them. Most of us when we read the 10 commandments see them as impossible to adhere to. We fail to realize, there is no mountain for a climber.

                God had been waiting on someone whom he could depend on, without exception, to the point of death. Just like the Veteran who retrieved the vase and was trusted to run the company. Jesus, because he resisted all temptation and trusted the Lord God to take care of hum even to the point of death. He was given all of the authority of God. “For what?” You might ask. Because he died on the cross, knowing that he was taking the punishment meant for us. From the beginning God had to be stern, uncompromising. If he said it, he had to honor it. When he promised to give blessings he had to give blessings and when he promised punishment he had to give punishment. Because Jesus Christ adhered to the law, down to the letter, he earned the right to be sacrificed.

                It is like making it through Navy SEAL Hell Week gives you the right to finish the remaining 22 weeks of BUD/s training and once you finish six more months of advanced tactical training you will be awarded your Trident insignia and can deploy with a platoon and be in the line of fire.                                                                
                So because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and took the punishment meant for us, God the Father agreed to honor Christ’s requests. So when we pray to Jesus our prayers had his endorsement on them. This is like the military chain of command. You might talk to the commanding officer about a request and he might even like your idea but you are going to have to put your request officially through your LPO, your Chief, your platoon officers, the operations Officer, the XO all before it gets to the Commanding Officer and if the commanding Officer doesn’t really want to approve your request but the rest of the chain of command approves it for you, it makes it hard for him to say “No”.

                Now when you have good leadership, they will either have you reword your request to make it easier for it to be approved or they will personally endorse your request. Praying to Jesus gives him the opportunity to either present your petition to the father or under circumstances where he is given the authority he can grant it himself. God the Father made it so Christ wasn’t offended by our human shortcomings. None of it was a surprise to him. He treats us like we are two year olds, who don’t understand between right and wrong and get really angry when they don’t get their way but their anger only lasts until something with enough appeal distracts them from their rage and then all is forgotten. That is his grace.  

                That is why we honor him and pray to him. He earned the right to be our advocate.