'Appreciating God's Love'
A) For All Have Sinned
Exo 34:6-7 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."
According to the Mosaic law, God claimed that the sins of the father (but not the sins of the mother) are handed down to his descendants right down to the third and fourth generation.
This means that everyone is born a sinner since there is no possibility of any one whose paternal ancestry who for four generations were all found to be sinless or righteous.
Note - sins of the mother are not handed down to her descendants.
Jesus Sinless at His Birth
Mat 1:20-21 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
Since Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit who is sinless, then He too will be sinless at birth. God also prepared a godly and righteous virgin to be His mother.
So at birth our Lord Jesus was sinless, whereby every human is born a sinner because of the sins of the forefathers.
B) Circumcision of Jesus
Luke 2:21 And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
Jesus' Jewish parents decided that Jesus should grow up as a Jew, so on the eighth day by faith Jesus was circumcised (just as by faith we have our children baptized into the body of Christ).
Jesus had to live the rest of His life keeping the law and the Prophet in order to stay sinless, so that He would be worthy to be the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God for the remission of the sins of men.
Imparting Truth in the Temple
Luke 2:41-42 His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.
At twelve, Jesus was taken to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. During His stay there, He spent His time with the religious teachers, doing God's work by learning and imparting His truth.
Brethren, are you learning and imparting His truth from His words?
Luke 2:46-47 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers... And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
C) Fulfilled Law and the Prophets
Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
In order for a Jew to be sinless, he must keep or fulfill the law and the Prophets, which our Lord Jesus did.
Righteousness of God
2 Cor 5:18, 21 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation...For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
To stay sinless, on top of fulfilling the law and the Prophets, our Lord must also overcome the weaknesses of the flesh and the devil's wicked schemes.
Before His crucifixion, our Lord Jesus was victorious over all human weaknesses and also overcame all the deceptions and temptations of the devil to stay sinless, so that He can extent this help of victory to every Christian who is humble enough to come before His throne of grace.
Heb 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
