Image via WikipediaJesus Christ.(Acts 4:11)Jesus is the one of whom the scripture says,"The stone that you the builders despised turned out to be the most important of all." What has built your assurance the most? What doubts still linger?
God's message to his children, his training plan has went through phases.
The first phase of the training plan was directed to providing us with the information that he is our God and Father; that we are his Children. As with any young children he needed to clarify the lines of authority (get our attention), and clearly state the rules the young child is to live and learn by. This phase was based on a reward and punishment basis.
As a young child grows into adolescent; he needs to be able to start to provide guidance to himself. At this time, with control being shared on his life. The child must have his mind and heart prepared. There must be more concentration on the mental and emotional aspects of his/her life. One of the important examples of moving on to maturity, is to learn patience.
Without the proper mental and emotional basis a child can not correctly share his control or properly participate in it.
We see this in Israel's experience; that even with the best external guidance alone, the earthly nature leads them astray.
Phase 2 - God's Son - is God's method to help his children straighten our twisted nature. By having his Son become man, this makes it possible for all of us to use his example and guidance. He established an additional set of rules; which would not be based as much on external actions, but on mental and emotional aspects. These rules provide a measuring tool to compare any emotional or mental guidance we may believe we have. If the guidance does not match these rules, you can be fairly certain that it is of earth and evil.
In the Old Testament, when one of God's creatures failed to fulfill the requirements imposed by the Old Covenant with Israel; he offered a sacrifice to God to signify his repentance. But since the items that were used were God's already and that this repentance would not necessarily come from the heart of the individual; these acts of repentance were not satisfactory to God. It was much like a child who gets caught performing a serious wrongful act. And all he does to correct it, is to indicate a "I'm sorry" in passing, with no actual repentance. This does not satisfy the person who was wronged by the act, and will not encourage correct action in the future.
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