It came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac (Gen 25:11). God kneeled to Isaac. Isaac was the seed of Abraham to whom God also kneeled. [i] God had knelt to Adam and Eve, [ii] Noah and his sons, [iii] Ishmael, [iv] and promised to bless (kneel) to all the nations of the entire earth. [v]
God did that! “Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9). A “certain woman” blessed the mother of Jesus, but Jesus said unto her, “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
Blessed are those that (1) come in the Name of the Lord, and (2) those that keep the Word of God. (I capitalized both “Name” and “Lord” for a reason.) The Name of the LORD is Jesus [vi]and the Word of God is Jesus as well. [vii] God kneels to them that come to Jesus and keeps what He says as true.
Thus, coming to Jesus and keeping Him is two different things and it takes both things to be regenerated. Coming to Jesus is “born again”. That is the “Jesus moment” of the believer. It is the “believing” part of becoming a new person. It is spiritual birth.
On the other hand, keeping the Word of Jesus is the growing part of the new person. Why be born again if the rebirth is aborted? “Spiritual abortion” is apostasy.
For some reasons, possibly since the King James translators were mostly Calvinists, the word, “apostasy” was left out of the translation. It is in the textus receptus (the original Greek): “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thes 2:3). The phrase “falling away” is apostasia in the Greek. That word means “defection from truth” and “forsake” (Strong’s Dictionary).
Scripture says, “I (God) will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” [viii] God will never remove His blessing from anyone. God will never unkneel (sic) but some Christians will cease to bow down before Him.
Philosophers ask, “Why me?” Another good question is, “Why Satan?” Satan is to test us! How does the testing go? To whom do you kneel; and who do you bless? Each time anyone sins, they kneel to Satan. Doing his will is blessing the Devil.
Lucifer (Satan) does not want to be sent to heaven or hell. His desire is this: “I will be like the most High.” [ix] His desire is “to be”.
Etymologically, the word “sin” comes from 14th century Danish (es) which mans “to be” in English. In other words, Lucifer is sin since he desires to be God. “For he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus is the great I AM, but when He became sin, He was TO BE us when He took on all the sins of mankind from the original sin and thereafter. In essence, for one day, Jesus bowed to Lucifer on our behalf! Satan, you wanted man to sin, so here it is. Deal with it!
How did Satan deal with sin? Just as Isaiah predicted: Short range — “How art thou cut down to the ground” [x] and long term — “Thou shalt be brought down to hell.” [xi] God cut down Satan when Jesus died. Satan in Judas, “Departed, and went and hanged himself” [xii] then the body of Satan was buried in the Potter’s field — Gehenna or Hell. In the end, Satan knelt to God, and before the end, all sinners must kneel to, or bless, God.
God is not blessed by believing. That is coming to Him. After coming, we must kneel to God, not at the altar alone but always. It matters not how righteous anyone has been because the wage is paid at the end of the day!
Jesus Christ confirmed the faith of the thief beside Him on another Cross. He, as best he could, knelt to Jesus earnestly. Dismus (his name) said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). That was Dismus “coming to Jesus moment”. But he did not ask to be freed? That was his staying with Jesus until the end! He trusted Jesus for eternal life. Then Jesus confirmed to him that, that day he would be with Him in Paradise.
On the other hand, what was happening beneath the crosses? The soldiers, “Bowed the knee before Him, and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’” (Mat 27:29). They had their “Jesus moment” then they, unlike the thief, mocked Jesus by cursing Him. You see, “blessings” and “curses” are from the same Hebrew word. Which is which is dependent upon from whose mouth it is spoken.
When the soldiers “hailed” Jesus, that was a mockery of a blessing. “Chairo” (Hail) means “to be well” (Ibid). They wished Jesus well in mockery. Rather than bless Jesus in their hearts they were bearing Him ill-will. Then they would do that mockery by bearing Him on the Cross.
Coming to Jesus is easy. All need be is to see Jesus. That is what they Greeks requested of Philip when they asked, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” [xiii] That was their “coming to Jesus moment.” But what would they need to do? Bow to Jesus in earnest! They would kneel, or bless, the Lord God. In other words, more than coming to Jesus, they would need to serve Him. They had been slaves to Satan all those years, but now their servitude would not be a requirement or a demand, but a privilege to serve the Lord God.
Isaac was blessed. God came to him and bowed to him as well. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31) has great significance. God blessed Isaac with the expectation that Isaac would kneel to Him. For God to kneel in blessing, required that He have a bodily shape. That “shape” was the Holy Ghost of Jesus! [xiv]
Blessings have results; to wit:
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, “And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:25-26)
Those verses are Luke’s conformation of the Covenant with Abraham. To children of the prophets (Isaac and Christians), God kneels to! Jesus would bless, or kneel, to Isaac and Christians by dying on behalf of them. That is the “blessing” that Isaac received and the same for his seed.
Now, how was Isaac and Christians to bless Jesus? “In turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” God expected Isaac to do that, and that He also expects of those who come to him. Following Jesus is turning away from iniquities. Iniquities are much more than one transgression, but “poneria” — from depravity (ibid).
Get that? Every one of you “turning away” from depravity. Calvinism would have that you cannot do that because you are in “total depravity”. That would mean that there is not one ounce of “Good” in your two-hundred pound bodily shape that was made in the image of God.
Of course, unless you come to Jesus, then you remain as well as totally depraved. Once you see Jesus, then He Comforts. [xv] With the aid and abetting of the Comforter, any disciple of Christ can turn away from iniquity.
If indeed totally depraved, how can the person cast out that depravity? The Spirit is willing to do that but the flesh is weak! [xvi] The Ghost of Jesus helps with that task — to strengthen the flesh against its weakness. In other words, to have the flesh back in the image that God generated it. That process is called “regeneration” and requires that Christians do certain things; they turn away from their depravities. That is how the blessed would bless their Savior.
(picture credit: Alamy; "Mocked Christ")
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