Part two of lesson two: Last meeting we were talking about the Ark of the Covenant and we discussed the construction of it, especially the materials that went into it’s making…the acacia wood and the gold.
The acacia wood, the incorruptible wood, represents His humanity, the gold; His deity. And so we see Jesus coming to man as the Ark of the Covenant. It provides a picture of our Lord in His blameless walk with His heavenly Father, a picture of meekness and obedience. A picture of perfection.
And yet even though He was a man and even though He is God. He did not operate in those powers that make God God. In another way of saying it, He laid aside His position as God and as the Son became obedient and subservient to His heavenly Father. He as God became man and lived a sinless life using only the same power that is available to you and I. Let us read from chapter 2 of Philippians beginning with verse 5 and reading through verse 8. You will see what I mean;


5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Reading it from the Amplified version
Philippians 2:5-8 (Amplified Bible)

5Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] 6Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God] possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained,
7But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.
8And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!
You cannot put God to death and yet He was and is God, therefore in order for Him to die and shed His blood for the remission of sins, He had to become man and in order to prove Himself a man He voluntarily stripped Himself of all position and powers as God and used the same power as we have available to us and that was the power of the Holy Spirit that was in Him. He faced death as a man; He faced the cross as a man. He did not use His eternal power and Godhead to live the life that He lived even though He was and is that eternal power and Godhead. We cannot proceed further into our study until we establish what the Bible declares about Jesus and the position He took as man. And I am not going to go into any doctrines regarding the Godhead as my position may not agree totally with yours, so I shall avoid as much as possible doing so.
I have already told Pastor Knowles that I would leave that up to him. It is not my place to teach a doctrine class. Although that is what doctrine is; teaching. However I will endeavor to avoid anything that may be controversial as much as possible.
We know without question that Christ was essentially one with the Father, ONE WITH God and we can see that in the type of the ark. The wood and the gold. However, He laid aside His equality when He stepped through the portals of glory to come to this earth, He stripped Himself of all the privileges that make God Who He is and became a man. He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Hebrews tells us that He faced the same trials and temptations struggles, tests that you and I have to face and he overcame them all with no other power than that power that is available to us. Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” If God had said “now Son I’m sending You down there as a Man to be a true example of the perfect man; You will have to suffer and die on the cross but I will make it so that You can be that perfect example by keeping Your powers and You won’t have to lay them aside unless You really want to and that will ensure that when You face temptation You won’t fail…would that have made Him a true example? If He was omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent?
The first Adam yielded to temptation, did he not? Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” If Christ Jesus had not laid aside His attributes (for want of a better word), then how could He expect you and I TONIGHT WHO ARE JUST FLESH AND WHO ARE JUST SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE ….how could He expect us to be overcomers as well?
Turning to the Gospel of John, the 5th chapter and verses 19&20, NRSV...”Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on His own, but what He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” Vs. 20 “ The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing; and He will show Him greater works than these so that you will be astonished.” “So that you will be astonished”. Remember Jesus was and still is God…He never stopped being God; but He made Himself of no reputation…it was His decision…He stripped Himself of His privileges. He said He had power to lay down His life and power to take it up again. and that’s because He was God. God in the flesh and as man He had to be baptized in the Holy Ghost just the same as we do today.
The Holy Ghost was His source of power; power to live the life, power to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. He overcame and because of that we too can be overcomers. Yes we can!