The Carpenter’s Toolbox
for Repairing the Broken-Man
by
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Our lives are so imperfect that the idea of a perfect man is so remote it borders on the edge of the impossible. Many of the people thought to be perfect sooner or later had their faults publicly outed, and faced embarrassing accusations railed against them. Compared to that Jesus is an incredible human being by every standard. To accept that He lived a perfect life free of sin may seem incomprehensible to some. As for us, we cannot open our eyes without an evil, sinful thought flashing by. They flash by just as often when our eyes are closed, too. The concept of a perfect man is hard to comprehend. Let me frame it in the proper light. We cannot seek to understand Christ’s perfection according to our knowledge of man’s ways. We must seek to understand perfection as God defines it, which is to be free of sin, to be totally obedient to God, and to choose to do His will at all times, including the sublimation of one’s urges, passions and fears and always taking God at His Word. For us humans the road to perfection requires that we start by admitting our imperfections. To each of us it seems that there is no other person as perfect as me. Our judgment is that they have it all wrong if their views and opinions don’t line up with mine. You are basing your position on perfection by the knowledge you’ve acquired throughout your lifetime, which is at best limited, and most likely skewed from reality and truth. Since we do not fully comprehend how it could be possible for there to be a perfect man, the plausible explanation is to consider the thought that only a super human could live a full life into adulthood and be free of ever committing a single sin. This line of thinking encourages the faulty human mind to think that Jesus had a super power that enabled Him to live sin free. And if He had a super power then we explain Him away by saying that He was deified, (after all He is the Son of God), because that would make the explanation acceptable to our human mind. Or else we are led to conclude that it is impossible for a human being to live sin free, and dismiss Jesus as a fable, or default to thinking that His story left out dark secrets and wasn’t reported in full. Those inclined to think this way conclude that He was a great man, a prophet who did great miracles and who is worthy of special recognition, while others conclude that He didn’t exist, at all. However, none of these conclusions coincide with the explanation found in the Bible. In order for man to be redeemed another human, who in the likeness of Adam’s disobedience, would make a free will choice to obey God to the uttermost. Mankind needed another human who would make an equally free will choice to unconditionally obey God, regardless the cost. Adam made a free will choice in the Garden of Eden to betray God, and Jesus made a free will choice on the cross to obey God. Else, there would have been no need for Jesus to suffer to the point where His “sweat became like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44), for Him to plead with His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, that if it was at all possible, to spare Him the torturous phase that was about to unfold on His life. As a deity Jesus would not need to have suffered and endure the pain which Satan, through men, poured out on Him for three days in the form of torture that concluded in Jesus laying down His own life on the cross, by His free will, and of His own accord. In Mark 14:34 He says, ”My soul is deeply grieved”, in anticipation of the pain and anguish lying in wait for Him, Jesus the man, the son of man. As a deity, the twelve legions of Angels at His disposal (Matthew 26:53) would have been deployed and they would have quickly dispensed with all His persecutors. In order for the redemption of man to have been accomplished by legal means, the salvation of man could come only through a perfect sacrifice; the sacrifice of a perfect man, the Lamb of God (Revelation 5:6). The Lamb had to die for the sacrifice to be complete. Jesus was that perfect man who having committed His spirit to God, gave up the ghost on the cross (Luke 23:46) to accomplish the will of His Father and achieve redemption for all mankind. It was at Jesus’ own choosing when He saw the vision of what God laid out before Him of what was to come, “God, All In All” (1Corinthians 15:28); that’s when He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (Matthew 27:46) as He cried out to His Father, “My God, My God, for this cause I have been preserved by You”. If Jesus had not been that perfect man, absolutely perfect, the lamb without spot or blemish, as God required for the acceptable sacrifice, then the sacrifice would have been faulty and unacceptable to God, and not different from the sacrifices of animals to bring only temporary cleansing for men. For mankind’s redemption to have been legal, the purchase price needed to be equal to the cost of man when he was lost. Life was given to the fallen Adam (930 years), and life was taken from the crucified Christ. The result is, (1 Corinthians 15:22), “For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will live”. God is perfect in all His ways, and so this equation is also perfect for the just redemption of man. Since the ascension, ten days before the day of Pentecost, Jesus ascended to the heavens and sat, where He still sits at the right hand of God, enthroned next to His Father who has placed all things under His feet, and has given Jesus authority over all. This Jesus, begotten of God through resurrection, deserves all the honor that men can offer. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to comfort, guide and to teach us the things of God, and Jesus makes intercession with God in behalf of all men. He pleads our case individually, daily before God to rebuke the Devil from our lives so we may have a fighting chance to pursue the example of perfection which we learn from Jesus during the time that He was in the flesh here on earth. It is utterly important for us to know and acknowledge that we were redeemed and are saved through that slain Jesus (the Lamb of God) who suffered as a lamb led to slaughter, in order to take away the sins of all mankind. It is the blood that Jesus shed at the cross that washes and cleanses us (Revelation 1:5), that makes us pure and white as snow so that we can enter into God’s presence; the blood that washes the robes of the multitudes from the great tribulation that cannot be numbered, to present them in white robes before God (Revelation 7:9-14). Jesus is the great enabler for those who would accept Him as their Lord and savior. If you proclaim that Jesus is your Lord, you will realize the promise of salvation. It is necessary that you accept Jesus as Lord over all in your life, and especially as Lord over everything that pertains to you. Then you must become obedient to all of His commandments and to the Gospel which came by Him, and is available today for you to study and learn from regarding all things pertaining to life, how to live it, pertaining to death and the hear after, and pertaining to godliness. All that you need to know is neatly laid out for you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
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About the Book
You will gain knowledge and understanding of how God’s great mission to redeem mankind was accomplished through His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord, Jesus Christ was God’s gift to the world as the Messiah, the sent one from God, to restore the relationship between man and God by repairing the schism created by Adam’s betrayal of God and his fall in the Garden of Eden. Jesus came as a humble servant of God, equipped by God with all of the tools needed to accomplish the work. In this book, Rev. Garcia examines the spiritual tools included in the toolbox of the Master Carpenter, Jesus, as He goes about His Father’s business to fulfill the work of reconciliation. Your appreciation for all that Christ accomplished to enable reestablishing a personal one-on-one relationship between each human and our Father will expand significantly as you dig deeper into the book. In Christ, you will see the blueprint for the new man which He uses to restore the fallen man and repair the broken ones to be as He is, and lead them back to God. You will learn how the ultimate goal of building the family of God is being accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ in His own body, one soul at a time.
About the Author
Rev. Gaspar Garcia, the pastor of the Church of Divine Grace in Davie, Florida, has been in church leadership and Christian ministry for the past thirty-five years. He graduated from Queens College–CUNY with a BA in Economics, and from Fairleigh Dickinson University with an Executive MBA in Finance. Rev. Garcia and his wife Terry have raised five children and are grandparents of nine grandchildren. They have lived in the Bronx, New York, Mount Vernon, New York and for the past twenty-six years in Davie, Florida. Rev. Garcia has provided Bible based counseling for families, premarital and marriage counseling, and spiritual development for individual growth. He has conducted seminars for Christian men’s groups, and marriage and relationship building seminars. He is the author of Building Blocks for Relationships, currently in its second edition. Rev. Garcia writes and publishes the Good News Letter, a monthly publication for the Church of Divine Grace.