What if Jesus had been born today?

We need not speculate "What if Jesus had been born today?" Rather we need to let the available Spirit of that resurrected and living Lord Jesus be imparted into our beings. Then Christ IS born today. Christ is BORN today in you and me.

Here again the pioneer Paul teaches that God's will was to MANIFEST Christ in his [Paul's] body whether through life or through death.

"According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be manifested in my body, whether through life or through death." (Phil. 1:20)

Paul as one of our foremost pioneers in the experience of Christ, knew that he lived for this. God desired to manifest Jesus Christ in Paul. God deposited Christ as "a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45), into the innermost kernel of Paul's spiritual being.

This is not sentimental. This is actual. God has a way to dispense Jesus Christ Himself INTO man. And why? So that in age after age, until He comes again, Christ would be manifested in the lives and bodies of those who received Him.

So the next verse says the purpose for which Paul lived -

"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." (v.21)

For Paul to live was Christ.
For Paul to live and work among the churches, preaching the gospel, edifying the beleivers, was for Christ to live. Christ lived again on the earth IN Paul.

And Christ living again on the earth today IN those who believe into Him is the will of God.

I will comment on the Luke passage shortly.

Man exalts things which may mean nothing to God and nothing to eternity.
That which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)

Paui said God willed to manifest Christ in him.
Paul said God willed to REVEAL His Son in Paul.

The school kid, the house wife, the man at the office, the women in the office, the common boy or girl or man or woman, has in the New Testament the most honored purpose. That is that Christ would be MANIFESTED in them to those around them.

It is no insignificant thing. It is a very big thing to the Creator God of this universe that God be manifested in human beings. God's eternal purpose includes that He would be manifested in human beings in the humdrum, ordinary, day to day affairs.

Again Peter speaks of the believers showing "tell out" the virtues of the Christ living in them.

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession,

So that you may tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Peter. 2:9)

This is the power and glory of Christ's gospel. Men and women, boys and girls are saved by Christ that Christ may live again on the earth. This time He lives in them. This time He grows in them that they might "tell out the virtues of Him" . That is they might show forth in a spontaneous and unself conscious way the life of Jesus that is living in them.

God has a way to COMPOUND our lives with the life of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Then we can see HOW Jesus would live in the 21rst Century because He lives in us.

Here we see that even in Paul's intense suffering, he only expected Christ's life to be manifested in him and his body.

" But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

We are pressed on every side but not constricted, unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out;

Persecuted but not abandoned; cast down but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." (2 Cor. 4:7-10)

Paul considered his own being an "earthen vessel" and the life of the God-man, Jesus, living within him as the excellent and powerful resurrection life.

What if Jesus had been born today ? People will not know unless there are people who receive Jesus and live Jesus - live OUT Jesus and allow Jesus to live through them.

Jesus must live again on the earth in this and every century. This time He lives within us who receive Him as life giving Spirit that He became in resurrection.

" ... the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)

So in the passage that I shared where Paul said Christ would be manifested from within him, Paul says this is through "the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ".

He was in prison. He was chained to some Roman guards. To add to these woes, he could work to plant and build up church communities. To add even more misfortune to this, his enemies, rivals, naysayers were busy traveling around and undermining his work!

What a God-man Paul was. How he displayed to undefeatable and indistructible Christ living in him, even in a Roman jail.

" For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be manifested in my body, whether through life or through death.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Phil. 1:19-21)

Some of the guards saw the way Paul lived and believed in Christ.
Some of Caesar's household even believed in Jesus because of Paul.
Through the prayer of the churches and through the all-sufficient and life giving bountiful supply of the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Jesus Christ - Paul's living in that century was Christ living again.

Now I promised to comment on Luke 22 about the swords.

Luke 22:38

"And He said to them, When I sent you without purse and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you ? And they said, Nothing. "

Jesus was reminding them that God provided all and everything they needed for the work they were accompanying Him to do, preach the Good News of kingdom of God.

Now, people's attitude toward Him was to drastically change. For the hour of great spiritual darkness was approaching.

"And He said to them, But now, let him who has a purse take it, likewise also a bag, and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.

For ..."

The word For EXPLAINS why He is now instructing them differently from before when they traveled from town to town healing, preaching, and announcing the gospel of the kingdom.

For I tell you that this which is written must be accomplished in Me, And HE was "counted with the lawless."

For indeed that which concerns Me has its fulfillment.

Jesus is preparing them for the unthinkable which is about to happen. The attitude of the world toward Him and His message will utterly change. And the mob will arrest Him, condemn Him, and sentence Him to be crucified like a criminal.

To their amazement and unexpected dismay, their wonderful Master will be taken by an evil mob to be killed. There is nothing they will be able to do about it because the will of God must be fulfilled and the Scripture must come to pass as prophesied.

They might as well just live for this time as the custom of the time has it. To have cloak, traveling purse, and sword is how people lived. They are told to just do as would be typically be expected of them - for the Scripture WILL be fulfilled according to Divine Providence.

This may be considered a continuation of the thoughts immediately preceeding in verses 31-34. Peter swears that he will be faithful to follow Jesus even to death. Jesus forewarns him that he will be unable to do so - period. And in fact Peter will deny his beloved Master three times to save his own skin. It MUST come to pass.

The exhortation of the buying of typical customary items (bag, coat, sword) is along the same line.

Now next Jesus says "It is enough". And SOME readers think He must have meant the TWO SWORDS that were shown him would be ENOUGH.

"And they said, Lord, behold are two swords. And He said to them, It is enough." (v.38)

It is not that easy to see what "It is enough" meant in His mind. Could Jesus have meant only TWO SWORDS for self defense would be "enough" to stop the crowd ? Obviously, this cannot be the case.

Could He have meant TWO SWORDS would be enough to keep THEM, the 11, from being also captured and executed ? Maybe.

My opinion is that "It is enough" was probably said by Jesus in sorrow, recognizing that the disciples simply could not grasp the tragedy that was about to occur. He probably said "Its enough" realizing that they could not grasp the will of God that was about to happen.

It is as if their opinions kept coming and coming. And Jesus just said "It is enough" . No more could be said to prepare them for the momentous event of His capture, trial, and execution which HAD to happen according to the will of God.

Originally posted by Suzianne
What-ifs like this are useless to contemplate. Jesus was the Son of God. God picked his own time and place to serve his purpose. The time and place of Jesus' birth was perfect. I can only assume you, like the man who wrote this article, bring this up to criticize this current 'time and place'.

Well according to Christians themselves...................the cruel animal slaughtering and meat eating Saviour would be dining at MacDonald's every night and getting into a Big Mac.

This is the foolishness and ignorance of false religion with its cruel and false (meat eating) Saviour.

Can you imagine that..................A Loving and Kind Saviour who is cruel and slaughters animals.........including the little lambs.

Its absurd.

All the meat eating religions around the world, by dint of their involvement into animal cruelty and slaughter are all false.

Animal cruelty and slaughter is not Godly action..................but demonic action.

lol.

What a typical rhp spirituality thread ...

btw sonship, if you continue to make 4 threads in a row whenever jc is mentioned I will continue to skim past them

Originally posted by karoly aczel
lol.

What a typical rhp spirituality thread ...

btw sonship, if you continue to make 4 threads in a row whenever jc is mentioned I will continue to skim past them

Fine.

Skim away.

Originally posted by Dasa
Well according to Christians themselves...................the cruel animal slaughtering and meat eating Saviour would be dining at MacDonald's every night and getting into a Big Mac.

This is the foolishness and ignorance of false religion with its cruel and false (meat eating) Saviour.

Can you imagine that..................A Loving and Kind Saviour who is ...[text shortened]... false.

Animal cruelty and slaughter is not Godly action..................but demonic action.

How does eating meat (which God allowed Gen. 9:3-5 ) compare to burning brides alive by their own husbands and his family ?

Bride burning or bride-burning is a form of domestic violence practiced in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and other countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent (but not Sri Lanka). A category of dowry death, bride-burning occurs when a young woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family's refusal to pay additional dowry. The wife is typically doused with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and set alight, leading to death by fire.[1][2] Kerosene is most often used as the fuel.[3] It is most common in India and has been a major problem there since at least 1993.[4]

This crime has been treated as culpable homicide and, if proven, is usually accordingly punished by up to lifelong imprisonment or death.[1] Bride burning has been recognized as an important public health problem in India,[5] accounting for around 2,500 deaths per year in the country.[5] In 1995, Time Magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s.[6] A year later, CNN ran a story saying that every year police receive more than 2,500 reports of bride burning.[7] According to Indian National Crime Record Bureau, there were 1,948 convictions and 3,876

Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_burning

Dasa, are you there ?

I hope you will answer the above question before you get reincarnated to be someone or something else.

How does eating meat compare to husbands burning alive their brides in India ?

What if Jesus had been born today?

Presuming that everything is the same as it is now and Jesus were seeking to teach the same concepts:

Jesus would go on a diatribe beginning each point with "Woe to you, Christians, hypocrites...

Many Christians would be looking to "stone" Jesus.

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
[b]What if Jesus had been born today?

Presuming that everything is the same as it is now and Jesus were seeking to teach the same concepts:

Jesus would go on a diatribe beginning each point with "Woe to you, Christians, hypocrites...

Many Christians would be looking to "stone" Jesus.[/b]

While holding ThinkOfOne up as the shining example of all purity, truth, and goodness. 😵

Why do you hate Christians so much?

Originally posted by whodey
While holding ThinkOfOne up as the shining example of all purity, truth, and goodness. 😵

Why do you hate Christians so much?

I should have known that you would be unable to comprehend the point of my post and resort to an ad hominem attack in an attempt to make up for it.

I'll connect the dots for you.

One of the main themes of what Jesus taught while He walked the Earth was that the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes did not understand what is and is not righteous, i.e., the will of God, yet purported that they did which made them "hypocrites".

If Jesus were seeking to teach the same concepts as He did while He walked the Earth, He would see Christians as the modern day equivalent of Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes.

In turn, Christians would see Him as a heretic and seek to "stone" Him.

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
I should have known that you would be unable to comprehend the point of my post and resort to an ad hominem attack in an attempt to make up for it.

I'll connect the dots for you.

One of the main themes of what Jesus taught while He walked the Earth was that the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes did not understand what is and is not righteous, i.e., ...[text shortened]... dducees and scribes.

In turn, Christians would see Him as a heretic and seek to "stone" Him.

Right, everyone but you because you are not a Christian.