The life of Jesus was the crowning work of Gods great plan. Since before the devil began his rebellion in heaven, thousands of years ago, God already had his designs in place for how everything would come together. All of the details would work themselves out because that is how he had planned things. That is one thing that is so great about God. He has more patience than anyone. You can look out into the depths of space and see the workings of his creation going on all the time. What we might see as slow moving chaos and randomness is, in reality, God's way of doing things. He has so much material to work with in this universe of his that he will never run out of things to do. That is why there is eternity, because it will take all of eternity to do what he would like to do. Personally, I believe that he has already created many worlds with intelligent life on them. I am sure he is going to continue creating throughout eternity. Right now though, I believe all things are kind of on hold until he finishes up with the problem we have on this Earth.
God has his ways. The absolute bottom line in God's universe is, you do things his way or you don't do them at all. End of story. It is all his, and he can do with it as he wants. I'm not going to argue with him.
I mentioned at the beginning of this book how I believe Satan wanted to enter into the "councils" of God. He wanted to have an active part in the act of creation just as Christ had. He envied Christ's position and wanted a spot on the board just as Christ. Lucifer did not have the patience that it takes to be on the planning committee. He proved that by making his move before he even knew what the consequences of his actions would be. He way, way, underestimated God. He felt, with a little group pressure, that God would eventually give in to his demands. After God explained to Lucifer the course he was taking, after making sure that Lucifer understood the direction he was heading and after Lucifer and his followers had decided to openly rebel, God then surprised his number one angel by telling him and his group of malcontents to get out of the house and not come back.
It is because of God's actions against him that Lucifer grew to really hate God. When God began creating a new world called Earth he was right there to do whatever he could to disrupt the harmony in God's little world and he succeeded…or so he thought. Just when he thought he had pulled off a major victory, he heard the announcement from God that there was going to be a child born into this world who would grow to be the Savior of mankind and it must have really bugged him, because he probably did not understand what God meant. At first, Satan must not have understood that Christ himself was going to take humanity's place in death and give humanity his life in exchange. Christ was the Creator of this world and it was his desire to give up his life, to die in our place, so we could have eternal life.
When the devil finally understood what was really going to happen, that Christ was going to become a human, born into this world, he must have really been excited about his good fortune. Now, after all those thousands of years of superiority, Christ was going to place himself at the mercy of his fallen, created angel and I am sure that Lucifer could hardly wait for the opportunity to really make life miserable for Christ. He hated Christ with a passion that completely destroyed his reason.
When Christ was born into this world Satan tried his best to destroy him in his infancy by inspiring Herod to destroy all of the children under two years old in and around Bethlehem. God was way ahead of the game though and while the devil was inspiring a massacre of innocents Jesus/Christ and his parents were well on their way to Egypt.
Although we are not told very much about the early years of Jesus' life we can speculate and I am sure, if we considered him the ultimately perfect son, we would be right on the mark. Jesus/Christ was born with a perfect human nature. The kind of nature he had was exactly as we would have had if our first parents had not rebelled against their creator in the Garden. We do not have that perfect nature though, not naturally within ourselves. However, we can have it as a free gift from God...if we choose it. Jesus naturally had it within himself, but that did not mean life was a picnic for him.
I mentioned earlier that there never has been and there never will be a person on this Earth who will ever have to face the kind of trials that Jesus had to endure. Since infancy, he was harassed and viciously tempted by the devil to do things against the ways of the God of Heaven. If you could think of something even slightly evil I can pretty much guarantee that Jesus was hit with it. In all things though Jesus remained true to his Father in Heaven.
God was Jesus' teacher and Jesus was a very willing student. Even if he stood out from the crowd by not doing some of the things the other kids did he did not mind, because the God of Heaven was working with him. He wanted to be just like his Father in Heaven so he made the right choices in life.
Jesus/Christ was just as fully human as we are and the Spirit of God kept him alert and always aware of the consequences of his actions. Again, that same Spirit of God can work in our lives in exactly the same way...if we choose.
I believe Jesus became aware of his destiny in life when he attended his first Passover in Jerusalem at the age of twelve. It was there that he said that he had to be about his Father's business. He became aware, in a very personal way, that his life was to ultimately end as a sacrificial death. He realized that he was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
When Jesus began his ministry at the age of thirty-one he knew, by reading the same prophecies of Daniel we have already gone through, that he would never live to see his thirty-fifth birthday. The vicious storm of all hell was raging all around him but he was calm and peaceful in his Father's presence at all times.
Until his crucifixion, there had never been a time when Jesus had been out of the presence of his Father in Heaven. Jesus wanted it no other way and his Father in Heaven was very pleased with his company. It was just like old times in Heaven; the Father and the Son working together to create harmony out of chaos. Jesus went about doing good, healing the sick and teaching the people about the true nature of their Father in Heaven by giving them a living example in his own life as he was living it in connection with his Father in Heaven. Jesus' ways were like medicine to those around him who felt like they were living hopeless lives. He was always a strength and a help to everyone he met...even to those who selfishly used his kindness.
The last three and a half years of Jesus' life are very well catalogued. Satan knew that if he had any chance at all to trip up the Son of God that it was going to have to be then. Jesus was continuously in the public eye during that time so he was very open to scrutiny from all sides. The way he was treated by the religious leaders and by those he had grown up with was way beyond reason. He was constantly living his life in the face of lies and accusations. As the final days of his life unfolded the hounds of hell were relentless to the point where they finally had their way with Jesus/Christ, the Son of the living God.
In order for the original plan that the Father and Christ had put together to work Jesus/Christ was going to have to die. He had to live a perfect human life, in harmony with the laws of Gods government and then die. The life he gave up would then be given to, or credited to, each person who wished to live in God's Kingdom. God would accept his Son's death as individual payment for our rebellion. If you willingly separate yourself from the only source of life there is, then the tragic result is going to be your own death. God never forces you to go his way. If you want to go the other way then death is going to be the ultimate end. That law is just as natural as the law of gravity.
Just think what the devil could have done to all of the prophecies concerning the life, ministry, suffering and death of Christ if he would have had just enough self-control to prevent himself from stirring up the people against Jesus. None of the prophecies would have been fulfilled if Jesus had died a perfectly normal death because all of the Old Testament scriptures said that the Messiah would die a violent death at the hands of violent people. Everyone would then have been able to accuse God of being false and the devil would have gained a major victory in his battle with the sovereign of the universe.
As it turned out, Satan could not control his anger and God knew that well in advance. That is why he inspired his prophets to write those prophecies concerning his son...long before they happened. Satan ended up having the innocent Son of God beaten to a bloody pulp, nailed to a tree and in the end, had the people ridicule him and his beliefs and calling him names, just as God had said he would. Jesus/Christ finally died and Satan just knew that was the end of his oldest friend and most hated and despised enemy.