Jesus Has Feelings Too!

I laid awake much of the night. While I was at it, I thought about the things of God. When I'm silent and listen to the night closely, the light shining through the darkness speaks silently to me. "Larry, you've sinned. You need to change!" Then, with further thought, that voice tells me why! My sins grieve Jesus!

Before I get into the point of this commentary, and since many fail to understand the nature of God, we'll first look at God's three personalities. Bear with me as I digress for a moment.

It's important to believe in God. It's important to believe in Jesus. It's important to believe in the Holy Ghost! Christians do not worship three Gods. He is the One True God. As such he manifests himself differently on different occasions. For example, The Creator God is  "the Father". The voice of God is "The Word" and appeared to mankind in the flesh as Jesus, and the spirit of God is "the Holy Ghost"  who is the presence of God in the world. Jesus is called the "Son of God" because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, the spirit of God

Matthew 1:18  "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."

Jesus is called "Emmanuel", "God with us" because he was just that! "Jesus" is rendered by many linguists as "salvation". Therefore, all the time throughout time and in the future; God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are always with us because they are one and the same! The following is a validation by Jesus himself concerning God (I don't like the impersonal term "Godhead" so the mere use of "God" is offered instead):

John 13:20  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send (the Holy Ghost) receiveth me (Jesus); and he that receiveth me (Jesus) receiveth him that sent me (the Father)."

This passage explains the nature of God! The unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is what theologians in times past termed "The Holy Trinity".

Now that you (hopefully) agree that God is not limited to one era; and because "The Word" was with God in the beginning (John 1) and that the Holy Spirit was with David and others in patriarchal times, and that Jesus is God, then you are on the right track. There was not a sequence of appearances: first God, secondly Jesus, then lastly the Holy Spirit. All three personalities of God were there all the time from day one until now. Those aspects of God didn't come and go; it was the purpose of the times which dictated which personality was the most pronounced!

God came in the flesh to feel what men feel and be tempted as men are tempted. His purpose was to feel our suffer temptation as we do, die for our sins instead of us and provide the hope of salvation for all who trust in him. After Jesus left in the flesh, he remained with us in spirit:

John 14:26 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

The Holy Spirit is "the ghost of Jesus". Since Jesus is God and the Holy Ghost is of God, then the Holy Spirit is not only God's spirit, but the ghost of Jesus. Let me discern the difference between "spirit" and "ghost". "Spirit" is "a supernatural being or essence" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) not necessarily a characteristic of what we know as a "person". No, God is not a "person". He is God and is supra-personhood.  A "ghost" is "the soul of a dead person thought of as living in an unseen world or as appearing to living people" (ibid). I believe the best reference would be "Holy Spirit" in the Old Testament (OT) and Holy Ghost in the New (NT) because it's Jesus' "ghost" which lives in us (aka God's Holy Spirit).

There is scripture in the OT where all three personalities occur together (my blog; Joint Appearance). Likewise, all three in the NT (The conception of Jesus). After the ascension of Jesus, he appeared many times as "the Angel of the Lord".  As such, it is essential to believe that if you have been "born-again" it's God who resides in his temple, the Spirit of God is there and Jesus himself resides in you!

1 Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

That Spirit of God in his temple is the Ghost of Jesus, thus the Holy Ghost! It's important to understand that it's the divine man Jesus who felt death for you. It's not his Spirit who died for you, but his flesh!  Therefore, in grieving the Spirit, we are in essence hurting Jesus, the Man who died for us!

Isaiah 53:3 "He (Jesus) is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

Jesus has feelings! As a man he had not only the known senses, but he had emotions as well. He felt pain at his death. He screamed out in agony. Jesus empathized with us! In fact that's one of the very purposes for which he came!

The simplest and shortest verse in the Bible is this:

John 11:35 "Jesus wept."

Jesus cried because he was a man. Jesus cried because he felt our loss. Jesus cried because he loves us! Jesus cries for us when we sin. Jesus felt sorrow when he died for us (you and me)!

Mark 15:34 "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Theologians believed that at the moment of death, God's Holy Spirit left Jesus because he does not face sin and Jesus bore all our sins! Mine, yours and all those before and after us. As such, Jesus cried because for at  that instant, he was all alone! Even his Father left him during that time! I don't know about that, but I do know one thing: Jesus cried as he was dying! It was a "lack of love" (abandonment) for which he cried, not for his own pain! That's why forgiveness and love are linked and are so important.

His cry was actually a recollection of Psalm 22. It goes into his death and despair. Here are a few verses from that psalm and the reader should study it all:

Psalm 22:1 "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent."

Now for my point: Jesus felt our pain and cried for us because he loves us! Because he felt our pain and died in our place we are commanded to love and obey him!

 John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

His commandments are to love him and others. We do that by keeping the Ten Commandments!  As such they are the metric we use ourselves as a measure of our love. When we break a commandment, we grieve the Holy Spirit:

Ephesians 4:30 "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

I'm not saying that obedience makes or breaks the hope of salvation. I'm saying that that new creation which we claim to be, disappoints God! He grieves because he feels unloved!

That Holy Spirit we grieve is Jesus who feels disappointed. He died for us and cried for us, but now some forget him for a spell and do what they want to do! If it is righteousness which we want to do, Jesus would be pleased! However, if we stand under the tree if disobedience, he's jealous. He has hurt feelings. Because he died for us, all he wants is for us to love him! We must remember and understand: we Christians are temples in which Jesus lives! No, we're not gods (that's blasphemy), but you and I are where Jesus hangs out awaiting our trip to heaven!

When we sin, we grieve Jesus. It hurts his feelings and he cries. If we totally forget him he is crucified again so to speak:

Hebrews 6:6 "If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

If we life a life of sin because our faith is gone (free will), then we for whom Jesus died, cease to love him.  Jesus grieves at our lack of love. He feels abandoned all over again, because we have forsaken him, just as he felt when he was crucified. It's just as if we are crucifying him all over again because of the loneliness he feels. Jesus weeps!

You must understand! When you and I sin, we grieve Jesus. If we love him, we don't want to do that! He knows that our flesh is weak and he has mercy! Of course we must endeavor to live a righteous life, but when we fail, forgiveness is just one prayer away! However, to get forgiveness we must be contrite! That's how the Spirit of Jesus works in his temple. He makes us feel guilty for what we do! If we sin without a feeling of guilt, it would seem that the temples are empty! That empty temple is the "unpardonable sin". Those who live with an empty temple are reprobate. That's not a good place to be!

Romans 1:28a "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind..."

We are damned because we return to the worship of the self's, abandoning God in the process. He is still a jealous God; Jesus weeps for those!