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Did Jesus See Beyond the Grave?

Did Jesus know He was going to come back to life?  If He did, would that still be considered such a great sacrifice?

Since we don’t have clear answers for this question from the Bible, we can turn to the Spirit of Prophecy with confidence that God has revealed divine wisdom through His prophet Ellen White.

If you read Desire of Ages on the chapter titled, Calvary, you can see that Jesus could not see beyond the tomb.

“Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God. {DA 753.2}”

My take on Calvary and the tomb is that the heart of Jesus was on us, not Himself. Jesus was not concerned with His own life, but Jesus was totally committed to the mission and purpose of the Father. We all know that the plan of salvation was prepared before the foundation of the world was set.  So the mission and plan of salvation was pre-ordained by the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

And that plan and mission, carried out by the Son, was to restore humanity back to divinity. How? Through the cross. In my humble opinion, that was the sole thought and effort of Jesus Christ leading to the cross.


Comments

Pastor Yim,
What you say would be a perfectly acceptable way to view Christ as focused on us as His mission was to save mankind.
However, I have a different take on things. The Roman Catholic Church believes there is a Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit-co-eternal and it is a mystery. The Lord has shown me in just four verses of the Revelation the same Trinity witnessed by four heavenly and one earthly witness..John. It matches exactly to the RCC Trinity. (If you would like to see those verses, I would be willing to send it to you via email.)
But for now I have something else to share. I am not comfortable sharing the same belief of the Godhead with RCC, and a few more verses in the Revelation indicate the RCC has taken away from our Saviors sacrifice and our view of God.
Look at Rev. 1 vs 17,18 read…
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the FIRST and the LAST:I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”  AND
Rev 2 vs 8 and 11
8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the FIRST and the LAST, which was dead, and is alive;
11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the SECOND DEATH.
The Greek for ‘first’ is Protos..first in time or space and the Greek for last is ‘Eschatos’...last in time or space.
I believe Jesus actually went through the second death experience as it would be for those resurrected after the millennium. To simply say there is a co-eternal Godhead takes away from the immense sacrifice our God made for us. To simply say there is a co-eternal Godhead takes away from portraying the incomprehensible love of a God for His Creation…and yes it is a mystery.
This is the quick and easy version. I believe Ellen White actually saw this correctly.
God bless your ministry, Randall Smith

Randall Smith (#1) – January 25, 2018

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