Being Put to Death in the Flesh, but Made Alive in the Spirit

Being Put to Death in the Flesh, but Made Alive in the Spirit

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” 1 Pet. 3:18.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 6:37-38.

Many people from all walks of life came to Jesus. Luke 5:29-32; 15:1-2. We can see that those who came to Him were not only nice and pleasant people, but mostly they were sinners who were cast out by the Pharisees and the scribes who were offended because Jesus associated with them.

Jesus had the same flesh with the same possibility of seeking sympathy and harboring antipathy. The reason He did not cast the people out, like the Pharisees did, was that He had not come to do His own will; Jesus also had a completely different mission than the Pharisees. He came to do God’s will and not His own, and He was to lead those who were likable as well as those who were not likable to God. In order to fulfill this mission He had to suffer death in the flesh, thereby being made alive in the spirit.

When we read, “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return,” etc., that in itself would not have been an example for us if He had not been tempted as we are. 1 Pet. 2:21-24. Here we can see what had to transpire in Him so He could do the Father’s will and lead people to God.

Jesus has consecrated a new and living way for us into the sanctuary through the veil, that is, His flesh. Heb. 10:19-20. On this way, by means of all these various people, He met all the likes and dislikes that cause so much corruption in the world, and He put them to death. That is why He could do God’s will and lead all those whom the Father had given to Him, to salvation. Consequently, He was also made alive in the spirit, with the result that He attained to “all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. 2:2-3.

Because Jesus was of the seed of David according to the flesh, these treasures have also become accessible to us; that is, to those who run after Him who is our forerunner. Heb. 6:20. We are comforted, and our hearts are knit together in these riches of full assurance and understanding.

Jesus went through the veil. David saw corruption, but God raised up Jesus so He did not see corruption because He went through the veil. All the sin that was in the flesh of David was put to death. Therefore death had no power over Jesus. Acts 13:36-39. In other words, He is the anchor of our soul, we who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. Tit. 1:2-3; Heb. 6:18-19; 7:22.