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STAND& COMFORT Newsletter PART 4: SHARING IN THE FATHER'S PURPOSE Long before the wood of Calvary's cross was planted in the earth, God chose the Lamb to be the manifestation of His life. This life is evident in the relationship between the Father and His Son, the Lamb. The Son
"did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. . . . he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). We know God wanted this same humble obedience for the Church, for immediately before this, Paul wrote,
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ" (v. 5). With this attitude, a son of God gives all to glorify the Father. A son is one who lives no longer for himself, but for another. In this world inhabited by lions lying in wait for the lambs, God doesn't bring forth lions of His own. Instead, the offspring of the Lamb is more lambs, who reflect His life for God's sake, for "he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). When the life of the Lamb is formed in us, we experience the will of God and we cannot help but live by and for what we see. In the Lamb slain, we come to realize the selfless life to which God calls us. The Lamb's outward cross was but a manifestation of His life, revealing a Son who lives not for Himself, but for the Father's good pleasure. Without this "inward cross" (who the Lamb is), there would not be an outward cross; there would be no other lambs and the purpose of God would not be brought to completion. Christ
"made himself nothing (becoming] obedient to death on a cross. . . . that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. . . . [that] the will [eternal purpose] of the Lord will prosper in his hand" (Philippians 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:13; Isaiah 53:10). Jesus walked selflessly according to the Father's intention, in the eternal things of God. The Father intends for us to live by this inward cross also, not living for self, but living for His intention even to the point of death. This is the life a son of God is called to, a life that realizes the deepest truths: "I am not my own, I was bought with a price, I belong to another." When we begin to walk in the life of a lamb, our very mindset is tested toward change. For example, all of us look forward to Christ's return to gather His Church, and we usually think of it in personal terms. Those who believe Jesus will come in secret to rapture them think, "WE'LL escape this world; we won't have to go through the Tribulation!" And those like ourselves, who believe we'll be present during the Tribulation, still tend to see His coming as something only for US: Christ returns to rescue His loved ones. This is the same self-emphasis we have given almost everything in the Church today. But God sees this event as the manifestation of lives laid down by those He chose in the Lamb before the foundation of the world. As described in Romans 8:18-25, at that time the Father will realize His ultimate purpose for the Lamb and His Body. From God's viewpoint, that revelation of His Son in His sons is the culmination of what He planned long ages ago. It is the Father putting the finishing touches on what He intended FOR HIMSELF. THE SATISFACTION OF THE TRIUNE GOD It is difficult to speak of the Trinity as One God sometimes, but it is true doctrine. The word "Trinity" may not be mentioned in Scripture, but the three members of the Godhead being one God certainly are. The second member of the Godhead is the Son, who came from heaven to become man, yet still being God. It is of Him that Scripture says,
Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. John said it is of this fullness that we, as believers, have all received:
John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. Jesus said,
John 14:23 . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. When we believed on Christ, the Holy Spirit came to abide in us. You can't separate God from God. When the Holy Spirit came, The Father and the Son came also. We received a share of the fullness of Christ, making us complete in Him. But God has established that it is the Holy Spirit who works with and in the believer through the word, relating to us the things of God and conforming us to the image and likeness of Christ:
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. I've said all of this in order to make the point that it pleased God to crush the Lamb in order to bring about the satisfaction of His good pleasure. I believe the following is what this means, at least in part. When Christ rose from the dead, three things came into existence that brought great satisfaction to each member of the Godhead. The following is part of what Scripture means by the power of His resurrection: 1. At the resurrection, THE FATHER received the Son into His presence as the first-born from the dead, who would be the Head of a corporate body of sons (by this, I DO NOT mean that Jesus was "born again"). By the Son, the Father would have many sons in His image and likeness:
Rom 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: In turn, many sons could now be brought forth through the salvation Christ established, and they would be conformed to the Lamb's image:
Heb 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, IN BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 2. Jesus, THE SON, the God-Man, would be the Head of His body, which could now be called through the gospel. The Son would have a body through which His glory would be manifested:
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 3. Christ would be the Cornerstone of the living temple that would now be built for the HOLY SPIRIT to indwell. The Spirit would receive a temple to indwell:
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. It is on this Cornerstone that the Holy Spirit would build His temple:
1 Cor 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? In each of these, Christ is exalted as pre-eminent. When He was raised from the dead, He was exalted to the satisfaction of the Triune God. The resurrection was powerful beyond our imagination: (1) Christ was the first-born Son from the dead, the pre-eminent Son of the Father's adopted sons (2) Christ became the Head of His many-membered Body, the Churchx (3) Christ was the Cornerstone of the Holy Spirit's Temple which would now be "built" Paul summed up the perfect way in which Jesus satisfied God's desire:
"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). And in the next verse he addresses to the Church:
"And ye are complete in him" (v. 10). In other words, we have a share in Christ's fullness. By the resurrection, God became our Father, Christ became our Head, the Holy Spirit could now indwell His new temple. By it we became the sons of God, members of His body, stones in His temple. This is the Triune God's plan for the life of every man who responds to the message of His purpose:
Which is his body, the fulness of him (the Godhead) that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:23). I've been describing how the Church is vitally connected to the Trinity in Christ. These truths of the Godhead in Christ indwelling the believer were related to us in John. chapter 14:
John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. . . . for he lives with you and will be in you. All of this is summed up by Paul's description of one new man:
Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; Notice the theme in these verses concerning this one new man: after the image of Him that created him, in holiness. Where did the members of this new man come from? Out of Him by the Spirit:
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. A CHURCH AFTER GOD'S PURPOSE Paul tells us that the people in whom God makes His home were
"delivered and saved and called . . because of and to further his own purpose and grace (unmerited favor) which was given us before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9, AMP). This is the Church that will further God's purposes in the earth, being the light to the world in the midst of an evil and perverse generation. This Church is always ready to tell why it has hope. It is spiritually minded and eternity minded. God sees the Church as living for His purpose, but too many times we substitute our own purpose, our own hope, and call it God's. We bury ourselves in doing things which rob of us of time to get to know Him. I'm not suggesting that we have nothing we are to be about. I'm saying He and what He originally intended have to come first:
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; . . . Then and only then can we talk about what we are to be about, because it is in knowing Him and His purposes that we'll find fulfillment in our service. When we finally know that God has accomplished His purpose in Christ, and that we are to take part in His purpose, then we have the foundation for ministry and service that furthers that purpose. God's intention was not that the body of Christ be "one against the world," but that the Church's members be so matured that they live for God in the fullness of Christ's image and likeness to be a witness in the world. Maturity grounded in holiness makes us useful to our Father, and He's placed us in the Church so that maturity can come about. Paul described it in Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16):
Eph 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. So the purpose of gifts and ministry is to build up the body to maturity in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of God's Son. To "live a worthy life" means we must be humble, patient, kind, and forebearinq in love while not denying the truth. In other words, a worthy life is a holy life. This kind of Church is God's light in the world; when the world runs to that light, the Church will have a sure hope to offer. Paul described such a holy Church in Philippians 2:14,16:
Phil 2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, Through the power of Jesus' death and resurrection, Paul poured out his life for God and his purpose, reflecting the life of the Lamb of Isaiah 53 as possible for a sinner saved by grace:
Isa 53:12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because HE POURED OUT HIS LIFE UNTO DEATH, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The results were those described in the first verse of Isaiah 54:
Isa 54:1 "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD. Paul lived in the image of the Lamb to God's satisfaction:
Isa 53:10 Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. The will of the Lord is still prospering in the hand of Christ as he works in and through those who believe in Him. ============== 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 |