Perfection personified

Everything in life is geared to drive us to perform in accordance with merit determining the outcome of our efforts. Very little is based on the opposite of merit; we work hard under the guidelines of targeted incentives and if reached we receive a reward, a bonus or a holiday and the like. Very little in life teaches us to walk by faith, which is the exact opposite of merit. Faith implores us to believe God even when our backs are up against the walls, why? It gears us to believe in that which is unseen and when tested the results are mind blowing.

The Lord Jesus was obedient even to the point of death, He believed God even when it seemed as if God had deserted Him.

Here then is the lesson…

The triune God sometimes in the past would have deliberated His eternal plan with the rescue of mankind from their sinful state. Their rebellion against God was no match for this awesome God of love, even though Satan beguiled Eve in the Garden, God has always been one step ahead of those that strategize  against Him, praise His name! Because of one man’s sin, the whole world has now been trapped by the power of sin, hence the introduction of the one and only, the Lord Jesus Christ; “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned--“(Romans 5:12) – This highlights and proves the sin of Adam has effected everyone and not only some of us. Now with this curse upon mankind, the apostle Paul gives us this insight; “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:19-21)   

Although sin had enslaved everyone, God had a plan in motion and that was to send His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to live a life without ever breaking one of His commandments, therefore rendering himself righteous and a perfect sacrifice to break sin’s hold on the human race. For those who have found forgiveness from God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice, we are taught that our sin will no longer be charged against us. No matter how far we were taken by it, yes even the murderer can find forgiveness in Him. This was God’s plan breaking the power of sin and Satan’s stronghold on mankind in and through His only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In Fact not even the devil in all his cunning craftiness saw it coming, praise the forever exalted name of Jesus Christ the Lord, my Lord has overcome and it is up to us to also find victory in Him when times are tough. All who have been covered by God’s grace in and through the finished work of Calvary have received Jesus Christ the Lord. All who have been born of the Spirit are now classed amongst the saints. We are the children of God, with the second part of the triune God as our Redeemer and brother. A mind blowing thought! He has changed the way God will forever react towards His creation, without Him there would never have been the possibility of God having a Father-Son relationship with mankind.    

The brilliance of God in action! Nevertheless it came at a very high cost; God laid down His heavenly authority and took on the form of a man in the same way every person enters the world, he was born through the womb of a woman. He grew and no doubt went through puberty and was subject to his parent’s authority; God subjecting himself to the offspring of His formation for the purpose of the rescue of His creation. He had one purpose in mind and that was to do the will of His Father in Heaven. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:17-18) – The Apostles were those whom were called at first under the gospel message, and then thereafter all those who believed in the truth; "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Therefore God has ordered things in accordance with His good pleasure; “But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (1Corinthians 15:23)

This is what the man Jesus Christ needed to endure to arrive at freeing us from the traps of sin; throughout his life God his Father was a call away, he was able to continually draw sustenance from Him, until the actual penalty for sin needed to be paid in full. There came a time in his life where he felt desolate, all alone and deserted, even the calls to his Father fell on shielded ears. Jesus Christ had to pay the price for sin and when that happened God in His righteousness withdrew his hand from His son. Jesus Christ was tarred with the brush of sin and yet he had no sin, he had kept God’s laws through his lifetime. This is what He did for the rescue of mankind; here is the actual account, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” (Matthew 27:45-46)  - This was no small feat, do not be fooled into thinking that one will be accepted into heaven through any other god or any other sacrifice; Jesus and His finished work alone will give us the keys into heaven; neither his mother, his brother nor any other saint but Jesus Christ alone. If Jesus endured such hardship for the sake of sinner’s think of the pain God the Father would have suffered by turning His back on his only begotten Son. He did this as a lifeline for those trapped by sin. Will you accept this free gift from God, no differently to the parched ground drinking up the free gift of the rain?  

As for me and my household we will embellish the free gift of God’s grace and look to Jesus from here on in, praise His majestic name now and forever more, Amen and Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone