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STAND& COMFORT Newsletter PART 3: THE FATHER'S PRE-CREATION DESIRE FOR MAN Now we come to another question: "What did God intend for us?" Paul made it perfectly clear when he wrote: Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: What do these verses tell us? God chose us Where? In Him, the Lamb. When? Before the creation of the world. Why? To be holy and blameless in His sight. When we came to believe in Christ, what did God predestine us for? To be His adopted sons. Through whom? Through Christ Jesus. According to what did He do this? According to His will, good pleasure and grace. That's what God ultimately intended for man, and after Adam fell, God provided justification and sanctification and the other parts of the plan so that we could still be all that God intended: His holy sons made holy for Him in love. In 2 Timothy 1:9 10, Paul explicitly builds on Ephesians 1:4 and tells us more about why God saved us. We'll use the Amplified Bible here because its more explicit than the KJV: "(For it is He] Who delivered and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness, that is, to a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness; [He did it] not because of anything of merit we have done, but because of and to further His own purpose and grace (unmerited favor) which was in Christ Jesus before the world began - eternal ages ago." So we were (1) delivered, saved and called to a life of holiness; (2) BECAUSE OF God's plan and purpose; and (3) TO FURTHER His purpose. This verse puts the facets of the whole work of God into proper perspective. It points the Church back to His eternal things and places redemption in its proper light. God's desire that we be holy and blameless before Him is central to Christ's coming to earth and God's ultimate purpose: Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. PAUL'S WORK WAS FOUNDED ON THE FATHER'S PRE-CREATION DESIRE Holiness was the reason Christ died for us, because holiness was the Father's eternal desire for man. God's greatest expectation when all things are fulfilled is to see before Him a corporate body of sons created after the image of the first-born. That does not mean they become gods as some philosophies propose. What it does mean is that they will be holy and reflect the image of He whom God wanted exalted from before the creation of the world. Paul knew that and worked hard to make the Church holy. In 2 Corinthians 11:2, he wrote, 2 Cor 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Because Christ gave Himself to make the Church holy, Paul worked to nring men to Christ and then to keep them walking in holiness. He knew that no one who is unholy will see the Lord. He told the Church Phil 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Paul expected the blameless and pure Church to "hold forth the word of life" (v. 16) to a perverse generation. He lived to make that a reality. He even went so far as to say that if the Church didn't come to this, all his effort, all his labor would have been for absolutely nothing, a waste of time (v. 16). HOPE: THE INCENTIVE TO BE HOLY We can trace God's call to holiness all the way from before creation to Christ's second coming. Paul exhorted the Church to be "sincere and without offence till the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:10) for "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). John the Revelator described those in the tribulation as being undefiled, pure and blameless (Revelation 14:1-5), following the holy Lamb wherever he went. Again, it is a holy Church wearing "fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14) that returns with Christ and enters New Jerusalem where "there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27). Look at the terminology used towards God's expectation of us: holy, blameless, without blame, pure. Is this not the image of the Lamb? Are we not expected to be reflect His image and likeness? How else could this verse be said of the Christian?: Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. THE SPIRIT WORKS ACCORDING THE FATHER'S WILL AND PURPOSE When we come to Christ, God sees us as holy before Him, not our old sinful self. He sees what we will be when He finishes His work in us. Therefore, Paul wrote, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). Walking in holiness is a work of God with which we must cooperate out of the love relationship into which He has brought us. Jesus said we love Him if we keep His commands. If we keep His commands, we walk in holiness. Paul describes how the Holy Spirit does this work, and names the standard God uses for us, our Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb, slain and risen: Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Notice first that the Spirit prays in us and for us according to the Father's pre-creation will and purpose. Then notice what that will and purpose is: that because we have believed, God has predestined for us "to be conformed to the image of his Son," God's standard of holiness. This being conformed to the image of the Lamb is the "good" mentioned in verse 26 that God works all things to. We can't ruin this for God. It's His work, and He relies on His disciplining us to perform that work. Obedience puts away discipline. I heard one preacher say, When we get stubborn, God knows how to break your leg. He knows how to discipline us against our war against the world, the flesh and the devil. Because of our not fully realizing God's purpose, we sometimes worry, "Is this what God wants me to do? Am I doing it right? What if I do it wrong? And if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to, what will it do to His plans for my life?" But have peace; we can't ruin things concerning ultimate God's plan for us. Why? Because we cannot find ourselves in ANY situation, good or bad, that God can't use in working out His purpose OF conforming us to Christ, His very plan for your life and mine. We can't be ignorant enough or be out of His will enough to cause God to stop working toward His purpose for the life He has given us. How is that? Because when we are ignorant, He teaches. When we are out of His will, He disciplines. He uses every situation. In the same way, there isn't any service or lack of service that He won't use to bring about Christ's image in us, because the Holy Spirit knows what the Father wants and prays for us accordingly. In all our activity, we must constantly remind ourselves that "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). His good pleasure, which He determined before creation, is to see His glorious Son shining forth from our new life in Him. God's good pleasure is His holy Son. God's good pleasure regarding us in God's Son formed in us. His goal is first and always holiness, the center of a maturity that reflects His image. All other things will follow as this purpose is worked out in us. Our Father wants our attitude and character to be the reflection of Christ the Lamb. He wants us to be like lambs being led to the slaughter, just as Jesus was: Acts 8:32 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: We need to face the reality of this. But most of all, we need to know that it's all part of God's plan. How can we know this? For one thing, the word of God says it. A second reason is because of the times we live in. Increasingly, we're understanding that the world sees us as lambs for slaughter. And finally, Scripture tell us that the full image of the Lamb is central to God's eternal purpose for us: Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Peter said, 1 Pet 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: He was manifested as the Lamb in these last days not only to redeem us, but to conform us to His holy image and likeness. Do you see the Lamb being chosen before the creation of the world and all who would one day believe being chosen in the Lamb? If the Lamb is holy and we were chosen in Him, how can God's desire for us be any different? It is Christ's holiness that will gives us entrance into God's immediate presence when Christ returns. Only those belonging to the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) can enter New Jerusalem where Rev 21:27 . . . there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. In Ephesians 5, Christ the Lamb is waiting for the day when He can "present . . . to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (v. 27). GETTING READY Revelation tells us that there is a "getting ready" for the return of the Lamb slain and risen: Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. What is the "getting ready" of which Revelation 19 speaks? It is working out our salvation in fear and trembling, getting rid of the leaven in our lives that hinder the image of Christ God desires to work into us through the word. It is pursuing the fruit of the Spirit and obedience to God's word. It is living a life of reliance on the power of His shed blood that when we fall, we get up again, confessing our sin and being cleansed by that blood and walking on. It is holding to our faith in the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in us to conform us to the Lamb's image and likeness. The Scriptures picture an personal relationship between the Lamb and God's adopted sons. Paul states that God adopted us "according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1:5). And in 2 Timothy 1:9, he just as clearly states that God 9 . . . called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Do you see the central purpose of the Spirit s work in our lives? He wants to make us holy because (1) the Lamb is holy; (2) we were chosen in Him who is holy; (3) since we are His offspring by faith, we must be conformed to be like Him. These are the offspring God desires and purposed for Himself in Christ and God expects holiness to give weight to these verses: Heb 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, As Isaiah 53 states, 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. ============== This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times. To sign up for this newsletter, email Ed at edju@velocity.net
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