"And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Mark 4:41

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Mark 4

And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

Hearken; 

Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: 

That seeing they may see, and not perceive; 

and hearing they may hear, and not understand; 

lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.

If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

_______ 


"The seed is the Word of God, and the Sower the one who sows the seed. It is interesting to see that in the three Gospels in which we have this parable given, there is emphasized in each of them, each of the three things necessary for a harvest. In LUKE it is the Word of God. He says, The seed is the Word of God. In MARK it is the sower. He says, The sower sows the seed. In MATTHEW it is the soil. He says, When one hears the Word. You have the seed, the sower and the soil. I want specially to speak of the Sower and the seed. Indeed, I cannot separate the two. The Lord Himself is the One who has sown the seed, and that beautiful passage in Psalm 126 has reference to Him. It says, 

"He that goes forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with him." 

whom could that possibly refer but the Lord Himself? Was He not the One who came forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and is He not the One who will come again with rejoicing bringing His sheaves with Him! The seed that He sowed is the Word of God. He brought into this world the full revelation of God. He came to make known what God is. In the midst of the darkness He came with the light. He brought into a dead world the living Seed. He came bringing with Him the full knowledge of God's love — so the seed that He sowed was the full knowledge of God. My friends, it is most edifying, most blessed for us who are saved, and who preach the Word, to consider that blessed Sower. Consider Him coming into this world from Godhead's fullest glory. His life was one of suffering. He was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sacred cheeks were often wet with tears. He could not have sown the seed apart from sorrow, for He sowed it in the midst of men who did not want God. He sowed the seed in the midst of a devil-oppressed and sin-blighted world. We see sin, stark and naked and loathsome, and we shrink from it, but what must it have been to our Lord Jesus Christ? He was absolutely holy. He knew what sin was in all its hideousness in the sight of God, and all its dire consequences to men. One sin would be more terrible in His sight than ten thousand in ours. What must it have been to Him to have been in the midst of this world that reeks with moral putrefaction and heaves perpetually beneath its weight of sorrow? His eye saw every sin, and every sigh that rose from every broken heart entered His ear. No wonder that He was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet He fulfilled His mission, undeterred and undismayed, and by His words and ways amongst men He declared what God is, the only remedy for all the woe.

The people took notice of His works and words. They said, "He has done all things well," and, "No man spake like this Man." There was something wonderfully attractive about His words and works. But in them all He was sowing the seed, heavenly, divine seed, making known to men what God is, for His words were the Father's words and the works were the Father's works. See Him gather children into His arms, and by the way He did it make known the deep tenderness of the heart of God. Hear Him when, with heart moved with compassion, He says "weep not" to the broken-hearted mother, and in those words learn how compassionate God is. Stand by and behold Him make the five thousand sit down upon the green grass, and then take the bread and fishes and make them sufficient to satisfy the hunger of that multitude, and learn how God cares for His creatures here below. Hear Him, as the world's misery rolls in wave upon wave before Him, saying, 

"Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," 

and learn in those wonderful words God's desire to bring every creature into blessing. So through all His works and in all His words see Him bringing into manifestation what God is, He that has seen Him has seen the Father. But if He had only lived His life and returned to heaven we should not have benefited. We might have been filled with amazement, but we should not have been saved. It was necessary for this same blessed Person to go into death. He who wept must also bleed, and in nothing was the heart of God so fully declared as in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Christian, consider Him! See Him in John 19. It is recorded: "They led Him forth." In that their sin came to its climax. That is one side of the story. We also read, "Jesus bearing His cross went forth." In that His love rose higher than their sin. They led Him forth. That is their side. That was the revelation of their sin; but He went forth in all the holy dignity of absolute subjection to the will of God. That was God's side; and in that we see coming into full revelation the love of God. The sin of men and the love of God met at the cross. His sacred brow was crowned with thorns, and from His spear-rent side there poured forth the precious blood. There He hung — the great evidence to the world of God's wondrous love. 

"For God commends His love to us, it that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." 

There we see the whole revelation of what God is, and this is the seed in all its blessedness — the full revelation of what God is — and the gospel preacher just passes it on — he tells again the story of God's great love to men. It is the truth of what God is that transforms the life, that takes root in the heart and brings forth a harvest for the glory of God, and by no other means can any harvest be secured. The seed of good in every man, only needing cultivation, is a figment of human pride; the gospel of the grace of God is an absolute necessity."

J T Mawson

Excerpt from The Sower, The Seed, and Harvest


"Sinless Humanity of Christ

This refers to the Lord Jesus Christ having a human nature that is incapable of sinning. It does not exactly touch on the question of whether He sinned in His life (which, of course, He didn’t), but whether He had a nature that was capable of sinning. While all Christians unanimously agree that Christ did not sin, many think that He could have sinned, if He chose to. But this false idea strikes at the impeccability of Christ’s Person and is a serious error touching the doctrine of Christ.

When Christ came into the world (His incarnation), He took manhood (a human spirit, a human soul, and a human body) into union with His Person. This union of the divine and human natures is inscrutable (Matt. 11:27). In doing so, He did not take the innocent human nature that Adam had before he fell. That nature was without sin, but it didn't have the knowledge of good and evil, and it was capable of sinning—which Adam sadly demonstrated (Rom. 5:12). Christ couldn't have taken that nature because it no longer existed in its innocent state at the time of His coming into the world. It had been corrupted by Adam's disobedience and was fallen. Nor could Christ have taken into union with Himself that nature in its fallen state, for in doing so, He would have taken sin into His Person, and thus He would cease to be holy. Had He done that, He would have ceased to be God, because holiness (the absence of evil) is one of the essential attributes of deity! (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8) The Bible indicates that God prepared for Him a "holy" humanity—spirit, soul, and body (Luke 1:35; Heb. 7:26; 10:5). Being holy, the Lord Jesus had a human nature that could not sin.

Now, since Adam's fall, when we speak of a person sinning—regardless of who it might be—it immediately brings into the discussion the person having the sin-nature that would produce those sins. Sins, as we know, are the product of sin (the nature). Hence, to say that the Lord Jesus could sin (though He didn't) implies that He had the fallen sin-nature! This is a terribly mistaken assumption which the Word of God most surely does not support.

The following references show that Christ did not partake in fallen humanity, though He most surely became a Man:

1 John 3:5 says, 

"In Him is no sin." 

This single statement from the Word of God settles the question as to whether Christ could sin. It tells us that He didn't have the sin-nature in Him, and therefore, He couldn't possibly commit sins.

In Luke 1:35, in connection with the Lord's incarnation, the angel that came to Mary said, 

"That holy thing which shall be born unto thee shall be called the Son of God." 

This tells us that the essence of His nature as a Man is "holy." This could not be said of any other man. We were not born holy (Psa. 51:5).

In Luke 3:23, when tracing the Lord's lineage down from Adam, Scripture says, 

"Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph." 

The phrase "as was supposed" is inserted in the text by the Holy Spirit to show that the Lord was not the natural son of Joseph; He was only his legal son. He was "conceived" by the Holy Spirit, and not through Joseph (Matt. 1:20). The fact that Scripture notes that Joseph had nothing to do (biologically) with the Lord's conception, shows the care that God takes in guarding against any thought that Christ inherited the fallen sin-nature by having it passed down to Him through the descendants of Adam.

Romans 8:3 says, 

"God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." 

Here again we see that Scripture is careful in guarding Christ's humanity, stating that His coming into Manhood was "in the likeness of sinful flesh." Thus, He did not have "sinful flesh," but was only in the "likeness" of it. That is, from all outward appearances, He looked like any other man (Heb. 10:20), but inwardly, He did not have the sin-nature.

Hebrews 2:6 says, 

“What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” 

This is a quote from Psalm 8. The Psalmist wonders at the grace of God that would take up with men. The word here for “man” in the Hebrew is “Enosh.” It denotes man’s weak, frail state—implying a fallen and degenerated condition. The psalm goes on to say, 

“ ... Or the son of man that Thou visitest him.” 

This refers to God's visit to the human race in the Person of His Son (Luke 1:78). Note: on this occasion, the Psalmist uses a different word for “man” in the Hebrew from what he had previously used. Here it is “Adam,” which does not carry the connotations of “Enosh.” This means that when Christ would visit mankind, in becoming a Man, it would not be in the degenerated “Enosh” state.

Hebrews 2:14 says, 

"Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, He also, in like manner, took part in the same." 

Here again, Scripture carefully guards the sinlessness of Christ's humanity. Again, it uses two different words in the Greek to distinguish between fallen men taking part in humanity and Christ taking part in humanity. The first word (koinoneo), translated "partake," refers to a full, common sharing in something. It is used in this verse to denote the kind of sharing in manhood that all in Adam's race have. Since it is a full sharing, it would necessarily include partaking in the fallen sin-nature. The other word (metecho) is translated "took part," which means to take part in something without specifying how far the partaking went, is used to denote the sharing that Christ had in humanity. He took part in humanity, but not to the point of partaking in the fallen sin-nature, which all other men have. (See the footnote in J. N. Darby's translation on this verse.)

In Hebrews 4:15, regarding the Lord's testing and temptations in His earthly pathway, the writer says, 

"We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tested like as we are, yet without sin [sin apart]." 

Unfortunately, reading this verse as it is in the KJV (and in many modern translations), it looks as though it is saying that the Lord didn't commit any sins in His life. But this is not the point in the verse. The phrase "yet without sin," should be translated "sin apart." Sin apart means that His temptations were not in the classification of temptations having to do with the sin-nature. There are two classes of temptations to which men are subjected: there are outward temptations and testings (holy trials) whereby one's faith and patience are tested, and there are inward temptations that result from having a sin-nature (unholy trials). (See James 1:2-12 and James 1:13-16.) The writer of Hebrews is simply stating that the Lord was tested in every way that a righteous man could be tested but not in the class of temptations that are connected with the indwelling sin-nature. The reason for this is obvious—He didn't have a sin-nature. J. N. Darby said, 

"There are two kinds of temptations: one is from without, all the difficulties of Christian life; Christ went through them and He has gone through more than any of us; but the other kind of temptation is when a man is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Christ, of course, never had that" (Notes and Jottings, p. 6).

In John 8:46 the Lord said to His detractors, 

"Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" 

No one could prove that He had that fallen nature, because no one could point to a single sin that He had committed.

In John 14:30, the Lord announced to His disciples, 

"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." 

He was referring to Satan's coming to harass and terrify Him, but He assured them that there was nothing "in" Him (i.e. the sin-nature) that would respond to his attacks.

James 1:13 says that 

"God cannot be tempted with evil." 

Thus, holiness is an intrinsic attribute of God (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8). If, when God in the Person of His Son became a Man (1 Tim. 3:16), He thereby became capable of being tempted to do evil, then He relinquished one of His essential attributes in deity. Hence, if the doctrine that Christ could have sinned is true, then Christ ceased to be all that He was as God in becoming a Man! This is blasphemy!

1 John 3:9 says, 

"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 

This verse is speaking about the believer having a new nature (resulting from new birth) which cannot sin. John explains that this is so because, being begotten of God, we have "His seed" in us. It confirms what every Christian knows already—that God's "seed" (or life) cannot sin. Building on this fact, since Christ is 

"God manifest in flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16)

, then it naturally follows that He could not sin—because God cannot sin! What could be more clear than this?"

Excerpt from Sinless Humanity of Christ, from From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions


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Matthew 18  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two han...
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"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13

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Proverbs 28 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food. They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but th...
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I'm a Christian saved by God, by His Sovereign grace. I want to encourage all to read, to hear, to believe, and to feed upon the only Words in all the world that are truly spirit and life, living and active; to know the One True God: God the Father, His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; Who has graciously given us the Holy Scriptures
“All Scripture is God-breathed..."
2 Timothy 3:16–17; cf., John 3:31-36; John 6:63; John 14:26; John 17:3, 17; Romans 1:1-6, 16-17; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2 Peter 1:20–21; Hebrews 4:12-13. As for the commentaries I post and refer to; with much gratitude, as they have done for me, it is my hope and prayer that they serve to edify all who read them.

Shalom, beccaj
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