John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."







Sunday, June 28, 2015

14th lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being


The Perfect Man in Jesus Christ.



“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” – Col. 1:28-29.
 
Eph. 4:13 “... until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”.

Paul makes it very clear the objectives that he as an apostle has. We proclaim Jesus, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom. To become perfect in Christ Jesus, we need to be admonished and taught. He goes further and says: To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. So, it is the power of Jesus that works in us, when we admonish and teach with all wisdom. And to the Ephesians Paul writes: until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Jesus served as a model in His life and conduct as a Perfect Man. According to the Bible what is the profile of a perfect man? Paul gives thanks to God for Jesus Christ by the fact that it is Jesus Christ who enables us to walk according to what God tells us. We ought to serve with our understanding the law of God. According to our knowledge we should act as we know what God's law says, this is our obligation. But we have the knowledge like Paul that our flesh wants to obey the law of the flesh. God made us this way and He knows that we struggle with the desires of the flesh. God is aware of the fact that we go through this struggle, but he enables each of us to subdue this to Christ. Glory to God, the Almighty!!

With my understanding I serve the law of God, says Paul, this is how we must learn to think once we are living as Christians, if we decided to give our lives to God. With the understanding, the best I know, I serve my God. AMEN!

Every human being can submit his nature to the dominion of Jesus Christ, to be subjugated to Him in everything. When we make consciously this decision that we will not subdue ourselves to sin and yes, to the Lordship of Jesus, this submission is voluntary on our part. "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”  Ro. 6:16.

The apostle Paul was teaching the people in Rome, to these new Christians who had not yet the knowledge of the fact that to whom you present yourselves as servants, him you obey. In this case, if this is so it becomes obvious we are capable of choosing whom we want to serve and we have the conditions and ability to proceed as we choose. A person can decide to obey the sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness. One day God confronted Esau and told him: "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" - Gn. 4:7. If I or you decide we want to go after the seduction of sin, in this case, this seduction will have dominion over us. We are slaves of sin only if we submit ourselves to it. We have an option; the right and the ability to choose whom we want to submit ourselves to. J I want to submit myself entirely to Jesus Christ. Paul decided that he would do this. He concludes in chapter eight, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul learned that God offers us a better way.

 Life In The Spirit.



"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires" - Rom. 8:1-5.

That which is impossible for the law, is possible for our God. He guides us in love and leads us on our journey in such a way that we can get to the stature of a perfect man. Paul expresses himself by saying: For what the law could not do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did it by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. Jesus paid the price that was set against us. He starts the whole subject referring to the fact that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the fleshy desire. Every human being needs to make a decision whether he wants to walk in the desires of flesh or not. Once this decision has been made and declared, we can say as Paul did here.

And then he leads us to have the consciousness saying: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."

That which was impossible for the law to do in our hearts, this Jesus did when He died for us; as He enters into our lives he transforms our hearts, and we begin to walk and live in the Spirit and according to the Spirit. It is a radical change in life, oh glory! Can you actually grasp the blessing withheld in this message?  “And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit”. 

Have you ever tried to visualize yourself as a person that has met the righteous requirements of the law?  Well, in Christ Jesus you and I have met it!!! Once we live in Christ, we live in the Spirit, this is the purpose to be lived in the Spirit to meet the righteous requirements of the law. Verses 6-8 of the same chapter we read: "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." 

When we follow our own mindset, our thought line is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. This means according to the laws that rule our spiritual life, we are dead if we follow our own fleshly mindset. Once we submit our thoughts and desires to Christ in spirit, the Holy Spirit will lead us to life and peace: for the Spirit is life and peace. We all have to learn to subdue the flesh unto the Holy Spirit, who leads us in obedience to Christ. We receive a new spiritual life when we invite Jesus into our heart as Lord and Savior. All the apostles started like you and me, learning, slowly growing in their walk with Christ. In every phase of their life with Christ they learned to grow in the stature of a perfect man; no one can reach this stature over night, it is a process.

As we read carefully the Word of our God, it tells us that Jesus lived without sin, he had the nature of God, but as a human being he also had to learn. "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" - Heb. 5:8. If Jesus that was God, while he was in human form learned obedience how much more you and I must learn it. And to the Philippians’ Paul writes: "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" - Phil. 2:4-8.

Let us analyze this text a little bit. The apostle admonishes us to be like Jesus Christ. He explains to us here that we should not be attentive to what is properly ours and yes, which is of the other, of our neighbor. We should have the same feeling that Jesus had. Our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus had: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” I understand this passage as, Jesus could have come here on earth as God, and show off; but, he did not do this. He, did not make a point of showing how much he could be a hero and so on. He came to show love. He was brought by love, and came to love, and die because he loves us.

In other words, many times instead of repairing errors on others, we will only understand them if we walk in their shoes. If we would go through all they went through, we would think different probably. Jesus put himself in our situation when he took upon himself the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. There was not a single time in the life of Jesus here on earth, where he decided to take care of his own interests first. He always did what the Father said and then and once everyone had been served, then he rested. We can never feel with someone’s situation unless we try to familiarize ourselves with it. We can never understand the pain of our neighbors unless we bear his burden with him. None of us can be perfect as Jesus was, but we can learn to walk with our fellowman and reach the stature of a perfect man; as Jesus teaches us to do so.

Meaning of Perfect =  adj. What unites all the qualities, which has no defects; ideal, flawless, excellent. / Complete, absolute, total. The word perfect according to the dictionary is an adjective that describes, classifies and characterizes the being or object designated by the noun. Collins Dictionary says: “Something that is perfect is as good as it could possibly be”.

Combining these two concepts: A perfect man according to the dictionary would be described as "a man who has all the qualities, someone who is as good as it could possibly be, a perfect man, flawless."  I believe Jesus was even more than that, Jesus was better than any human can possibly be, because we in our sinful nature cannot be perfect.

 
                                                                                                                                In the Lord's Service 
I greet you in His Love
Antonina Penner.
Missionary
Masters inTheology..
 
ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4
Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher

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Rev. Billy Graham