Understanding Why The Lord Did Not Save Himself

Luke 23:35-37 ‘And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself if He be Christ, the chosen of the Creator. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, and saying, If Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself.’

Personally, I find this to be one of the most heartbreaking scenes in Scripture, but also one of the most enlightening.

We live in a world of “do-for-yourself,” preachers. These preachers take the form of everyone from the person in the pulpit, to the teachers at schools, to the government official, to the boss at work, and even one’s own family and friends. When things get bad, people wants us to pull-up our boot straps and save ourselves.

The world will always put us in place to save ourselves because the only power it really has comes from destroying our faith.

James 1:19-21 ‘Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of the Creator. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.’

We are carnal people and almost everything we do and say is motivated by the success and failure of the body.

The band ‘Flogging Molly’ has a song called ‘Requiem For A Dying Song’ which says, “There’s a government whip cracked across your back. Where the order of the day is don’t listen, attack.”

Anger and vengeance are powerful motivators. Sometimes, many times, from our flawed perspective of fear and paranoia, it is easy to conclude that the only way to resolve a dangerous matter is to fight back and win; destroy your enemy before he destroys you.

Galatians 5:5 ‘For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness (justice) by faith.’

Waiting can be procrastinating, but on some occasions it can also be the wise and prudent course of action.

I believe there are some things we wait on the Lord for, and others we don’t. I also believe, we all make this decision on a daily basis, perhaps a dozen times each day.

Galatians 5:1 ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.’

As Christians, we have to make a decision about where this liberty is, and where the yoke of bondage is. What were we freed from and how to we avoid being roped in by it once again?

Galatians 5:13 ‘For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty:  only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.’

As Americans, as people of Western civilization, we use the word liberty in a host of almost totally contradictory terms.  Every time someone tells you how free you are in this nation, someone else comes along and tells you there are a bunch of rules preventing you from doing certain things and saying certain others things.  Liberty still only goes so far as lawmakers allow.

Galatians 5:2-3 ‘Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.’

When Yahshua died on the pole and rose again, He freed us from a yoke.  That yoke was the laws of His people, the laws of Yisrael, the laws of the Jews and the laws of the Pharisees and Saducees.

Romans 2:29 ‘But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of man, but of the Creator.’

If we look back at what we already read in James 1:21, it said, ‘. . .and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.’

Some may choose not to believe it, and that is fine, but the truth is, every word of the law, all the commandments and rules of the Old Covenant are grafted on your heart – on everyone’s heart.  The instruction manual for living the way the Creator wanted us to live was written inside all of us.  No matter how evil a person may appear to be, they know better.  This is why they do things deceptively, darkly, hidden and quiet.  This is why they need a posse, or entourage, or army to support them.  Temptation of the carnal man leads the carnal man to disobey the spirit man. 

James 1:14 ‘But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.’

As Christians, we have to start our walk in humility and stay in humility and guard humility.

James 1:9-10 ‘Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:  but the rich, in that he is made low:  because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.’

Remember your mortality.  Don’t ever forget it.  Sowing to this flesh man will cause spiritual breakdown and failure.

Galatians 6:8 ‘For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption:  But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.’

James 1:12 ‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.’

When we stand in jeopardy and our life and reputation are on the line, we want the law, and the men of the law to justify us.  But that is the carnal man speaking.  The carnal man knows how poorly he must appear to others when he is being victimized, and rebuked, and insulted and accused.  He looks bad and every fiber of his flesh wants to cry out for justice.  The only recourse the carnal man knows is man, other men.  The only way to earn the respect of other men and law is to fight back, show everyone that you care about your life and are willing to fight to save it.

This is why everyone mocked and gazed at Yahshua on that pole.

Luke 23:35 ‘And the people stood beholding.  And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of the Creator.’

They knew He had done many good works.  They knew He had saved others.  But His good works did not matter to them.  Have you ever felt like that, unappreciated?  Have you ever felt like no one takes into account all the good you did in the past?  It really is a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ world we live in.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 ‘Finally brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:  and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men:  for all men have not faith.’

I want you to recall the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane before Yahshua was taken.  What did He ask His disciples to do?

Matthew 26:40 ‘And He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?’

Matthew 26:43 ‘And He came and found them asleep again. . .’

Matthew 26:45 ‘Then cometh He to His disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.’

James 5:16 tells us that the ‘effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’  It is a truth, we all need to pray more.  As Christians, we need ‘energized’ and ‘constant’ prayer.  We simply don’t talk to the Creator enough.  And when we don’t take time to talk to Him, we get impatient.  We listen to our flesh, to our carnal man and all his pitiful, whiny arguments.  We are slow to hear, quick to speak and quick to act.  We become everything we are not supposed to be.

James 1:20 ‘For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of the Creator.’

Our wrath makes us take justice into our own hands.  Now do you see more clearly what was being worked out on the pole?

Romans 8:3 ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the Creator sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.’

James 5:5-6 ‘Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.  Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.’

Christian, do you realize who you are in this?  Are you supposed to be one of those who have lived in pleasure and condemned and killed the just, or are you suppose to be the just who do not resist?

Yahshua told His disciples what must be.  He told them how he would have to be taken and suffer, and die, and be raised again.  Peter rebuked Him for saying this.

Matthew 16:23 ‘But He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan:  thou art an offence unto Me:  for thou savourest not the things that be of the Creator, but those that be of man.’

Yahshua knew that the carnal could not understand losing flesh life to save spirit life.  This is why He knew they would be weak when the time came to pray and to testify and to stand firm.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, a man of the things of man, even tried to use a sword to defend Yahshua’s life, but Yahshua rebuked him for this.

John 18:10 ‘Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.  The servant’s name was Malchus.’

Matthew 26:52 ‘Then said Yahshua unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place:  for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’

It is all a question of justice.  The things that be of man, is to create a man’s form of justice.  When we try to do this we become an offence to the Creator.

Matthew 16:23 ‘But He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan:  thou art an offence unto Me:  for thou savourest not the things that be of the Creator, but those that be of man.  Then said Yahshua unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his pole, and follow Me.  For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake, shall find it.’

It is a hard lesson to learn because the flesh doesn’t want to hear it or accept it; and thanks to thousands of years of church-anity, it appears to be sacred and holy to fight in “God’s” name.

Yahshua did not save Himself because He had to show for once and for all, no matter how true the law is, mankind will use it, abuse it and corrupt it. The only way to truly fight evil is to allow evil to show itself – to bear its fruit.

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Yahshua tells us that an enemy came along and planted weeds in a field of wheat. This weed or tare is also known as ‘zewan,’ and it is nearly identical to wheat while it is growing. You can’t tell the wheat and the zewan apart. The servants of the master wanted to go out in the field and uproot the zewan.

Matthew 13:29-30 ‘But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.’

As Christians, we are harmless as doves. We grow together with the terrible weeds that often do terrible and awful things to us and those around us. And still we wait. And while we wait, others grow impatient and rebuke and cry out, ‘Save yourself!’ We cannot. The zewan must come to fruit as must we. Our fruit is the things of the Creator – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23). We have to endure this with hope.

The zewan turns black and is not good for fruit when it matures. It’s fruit is the fruit of the things of man – adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, and reveling (Galatians 5:19-21).

1 Timothy 1:15 ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Yahshua the Messiyah came into the world to save sinners. . .’

There will always be unreasonable and wicked people because not all people have faith. Our faith, or lack thereof, decides what fruit we bear. The world is full of war, theft, murder and strife because people lack true faith in eternal salvation and they believe they must defend their sense of good and save themselves now.

Fellow Christians, by faith, we have to believe in being justified in heaven – not on earth.  Yahshua proved that no matter how good you are - it is not good enough for this world.  He did not save Himself because He saw it was time to make a new one.  He had faith in what was too come after his death.  Do you?

Romans 12:21 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.'

Amen