Was Jesus Able to Accomplish His Mission as the True Son of God?
True Man and Sin
August 5, 1973
Seoul, Korea
Selected Speeches of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Volume 68
Jesus proclaimed that he was “the only begotten son of God.” However, God could not love him completely and unconditionally. Jesus went the path of death by the cross. Then why did God not pull him out and protect him from the cross, given the fact he was His true son? This is because Jesus was still in the realm of restoration through indemnity and was destined to redeem this world of sins; thus he was not able to stand as the true son of God free from all accusations. Therefore, God appeared to be a powerless God, and could not liberate Jesus from the way of the cross. This is the reason why God had to abandon Jesus on the cross at the moment of his death. You must understand this fact.
You must not have blind and unquestioning faith in God’s absolute power. Why in the world would God abandon his only true son in this world, when He knew he was facing certain death? Where can you find such parents? How can you be sure that you can go to Heaven believing in such a God? Where are the guarantees for you to go to heaven? God did not even help accomplish the desires of Jesus. He did not even listen to those earnest and desperate prayers from Jesus. Instead, God stood aloof and allowed His son to be sent to certain death. How can we say confidently, “we will go to heaven by just believing in God?”
The question is why He had to do these things. It is because there were so many internal processes going on, that we, humanity, could not even imagine or understand. A person, who wants to heal a sick person by performing surgery, must love him more than anyone else. Jesus came to save completely this world of evil and sin that had been corrupted from spiritual illness. He stood in the position where he was responsible for the entire sinful world. In other words, he had to carry all mankind’s burdens in order to save all humanity. Since he stood in this position, Jesus could not receive God’s love until he could fulfill his mission to save the whole world.
Because of this reason, Jesus walked his path without receiving God’s love. If he received God’s love, how could he have been chased away from all the villages that he visited? How could he have been chased and pushed from his family, his village, his nation and his house of worship. Was it God’s desire to do so? The true son of God should receive God’s love.
From this perspective, is there a true son of God in this world today? Is there someone who confidently says, “I am the only true son of God?” Unless complicated and tangled historical contents are untangled and corrected, there will be no true son. The restoration process is really complex.
God is almighty. He stands in the position to untangle all historical contents. However, God cannot resolve and correct these historical issues, alone. A person who represents humanity must resolve them. Unless human beings are able to correct the historical complications, God’s will cannot be fulfilled. Therefore, since God’s will is unaccomplished, God must offer the people whom He loves as sacrificial offerings in order to prolong the providence of restoration. This has been God’s strategy for prolongation of restoration history.
As you know, God wants to meet a true man. Then, has He ever met the perfected true man in the history of restoration? Never! God only met Jesus who died, agonizing over the fact that he could not be in the position to find his bride.
Jesus came as a true son who could receive God’s love, and as elder brother to replace Adam before the fall in the Garden of Eden -- brother to his younger sister who stood in the Eve’s position. Yet, he could not stand in the older brother’s position who could love sisters and brothers completely.
In the Bible, there is a story that Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, and his disciples reported to him, saying, “Teacher, your brothers and mother are here to see you.” What was his reply? Jesus said, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers? Those who follow the will of God are my mothers and my brothers.”
Brothers and sisters, you must not believe unquestioningly and unconditionally. Jesus had his desire to be the older brother and had love of the older brother; however, he could not love his brothers where God also rejoiced. Jesus must have had his younger sister. But, he could not love his younger brothers and sisters. Despite his desire to love them, he could not give his love. Moreover, they did not place themselves in the position to receive his love naturally.
Originally speaking, what should Adam have done after he loved his sister? His destined path would have been that of becoming a loving husband. It was God’s original plan that after Adam would have completely occupied God’s love, he would have become a husband and then loved only one beloved bride in both spirit and body. He would have become the head of his family, with an eternal love between himself and his wife. However, Jesus could not become such a head of his own family.