Some things in the Bible almost seem like they contradict each other, but they don’t. We cannot isolate Scriptures when interpreting them. Also, sometimes a word will have more than one meaning.

For example,  Adam and Eve were told in the garden of Eden, ‘on the day you eat of it, you will surely die’. One might say, ‘See there! they did not die that day…..but, we realize this was speaking of spiritual death/separation from God.

Some examples:

A Servant / A King

Must lose your life to find it:

If you cling to your life, you will lose it;but if you give it up for Me, you will find it.    (Matthew 10:39) NLT

Become a slave (to Jesus) to become free.

Jesus – fully God /  fully man

One God / 3 Persons

My yoke is easy and My burden is light. / Pick up your cross and follow Me.

The Beginning / The End (God)

You must die (to self) to really live.

The first will be last, and the last will be first..

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

True freedom comes through obedience/submission.

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” (Matthew 22:45) NIV

Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.   (John 6:47) NIV

Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” (John 8:51) NIV

We are still mortal and still die (physically).

I chose you. / You choose.

We are justified, righteous in His sight. / We are still sinners.

This Jesus, you crucified. / God planned it beforehand.

God is sovereign. / Man has free will.

The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”                   (John 10:17,18) BSB

God raised Him up on the third day and caused Him to be seen— (Acts 10:40) BSB

JESUS: GOD’S PLAN & MAN’S DOING –

22“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  (Acts 2:22,23) NIV

Look! The hand of My betrayer is with Mine on the table. 22Indeed, the Son of Man will go as it has been determined, but woe to that man who betrays Him.” 23Then they began to question among themselves which of them was going to do this.   (Luke 22:21-23) BSB

27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.                                                                                        (Acts 4:27,28) NIV

10Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.  (Isaiah 53:10) BSB

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt! 5And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.  (Genesis 45:4,5) BSB

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.  (Philippians 2:12,13) NIV

 

A ‘Play on words’?

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
(John 2:19) NIV

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John 2:20,21) NIV

And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.  (Genesis 2:16,17) HCSB

(Adam and Eve did not physically die on that day, but they did die spiritually.)

firstborn (doesn’t necessarily refer to the eldest, but to the ‘preeminent’ one).

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.  (Colossians 1:17,18) BSB

 

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.   (John 10:10)

⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.    (2 Corinthians 4:8-12)