15th lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

Examples of Perfect Men in Christ.

 

Which is the example that you follow? We have many examples in the Bible. Some are excellent to be followed, and others are excellent examples that you should not follow. David made mistakes, David sinned, and David made several things that one should not do. But when God sent his Prophet to the house of David to confront him with his mistakes, what did David do? David humbled himself and corrected himself, David confessed his sin and recognized that he had acted completely wrong before God.

In 2 Samuel 12 the prophet Samuel comes to speak with David as God commended him. God sends Nathan to confront David for his sin in verse 13 of this chapter. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die". The Psalmist also expresses his confession in Psalm 32:5: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. "Selah". David took a position before his God, and recognized that he had sinned. He acknowledged the fact that he did wrong, and he did not cover up his iniquity. Nathan the prophet said God took away David´s sin; therefore he would not die.

The Bible teaches us that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just and cleanses us from all sin. (1 Jo.1-9) David confessed and God purified, but the Bible also says of David that he was a man after God's heart. After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.' At.13 : 22.

God testified concerning David saying: he is after my own heart. Although David sinned and made mistakes just like you and I, he was considered according to the heart of God. Why was that? It was because when God confronted David with his mistakes, David humbled himself and corrected himself with God. David gave all honor and glory of all his achievements to God.

But, we have the story of Saul, he responded differently than David. Throughout human history God always is present when his child calls. Many times people do not have the patience to wait for the answer and they do what King Saul did one day. Saul waits for 7 days as the deadline was set by the prophet and as he saw the prophet saw come; he goes and advances offering the holocaust without the prophet. "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command." - 1 Sam 13: 13-14.

Try to visualize this, let us pretend it is one of us that God is confronting through the prophet. And the prophet comes and says: you acted foolishly, you did not keep the command the Lord gave you. How would you feel with a confrontation like this? How would you react? Well, you know all of us fall short of that what God expects from us. And all of us need to give God an answer. Saul was disobedient and therefore he was not blessed by God. The Bible tells us that all of us will receive rewards according to what we do here on earth; good or bad. In Acts 6:4 the apostle says that they would “persevere in prayer”.

Saul did not want to wait and persevere until God send his servant to tell him that now he would offering the sacrifice and bless his work and give him victory. Saul had no patience to remain in obedience before God. This is one quality that he did not have, and the perfect man learns from Jesus to exercise patience. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:23 tells us about the fruits of the Holy Spirit if we are in Christ Jesus, our life will have fruits of the Spirit.

Summing up...

We have studied this far how God created us, and everything that God has done for us to be what the Bible says we are. God has a purpose to be lived through us. The Bible makes it quite clear what God will do through the Body of Christ, His Church here on earth. All of this is the highest purpose to be lived.

 

Meditate on this for a moment. "Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" - John. 14:23. The Father and the Son Jesus, came to dwell in the Body of Christ, which is the Church of Jesus here on earth. When we hear the same verse many times, it seems we are used to hear the message and we do not realize what we are talking about. If we analyze the fact that no scientist can in fact discern how everything was made, the cosmos, the universe, stars and so on, this goes beyond the human capacity. Now than Jesus says that the Almighty Father and He, who created all this, will come to live within us; and make us His dwelling place, if we love Him and His Word. When a president of a first world country travels he stays in the best hotel available.

God considered each one of us the best dwelling place available if we love Him and His Word. This is a very high privilege, far beyond human comprehension. This in fact is a purpose to be lived in “God is Love”.

 

God is perfect, and he chooses to come live within us. It is incomprehensible why God would submit to come and make his dwelling place in His creation, which fell from His Grace; and went after their own interests. Yet this Creator comes in form of a human being and saves us, redeems us, perfects us in Him in order to dwell within us. Would you be able to imagine a greater purpose to be lived than this one? I believe that there does not exist anything higher than the fact that the Creator Himself chose my life as a dwelling place. The human being is the only one that was created in the image and likeness of God. And the human being is the only one for whom God sent his Son to die for. Jesus was indeed without sin, he was the only human being who united all the qualities of someone who is ideal to be copied.

 I want to guide you in this meditation on some Biblical passages that show us these qualities of Jesus As A Perfect Man. To gather all the qualities would be in one person would sound like this: be good, dedicated, honest, compassionate, fair, correct, honorable, loyal, loving, faithful, true, effective, and powerful, Pastor, Savior, Lord and Master. By analyzing the life of Jesus we see that He has it all gathered within Himself. One could write here for several hours about all the qualities that describe JESUS as a perfect man.  But, above all, Jesus was without sin, and he came from God to save that what was lost, because he loves us. In another words we could say that Jesus came in behalf of God; because the Bible says that Jesus is God. “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”. 1 Jn.5:20.

According to the Dictionary: If you do something on someone's behalf, you do it for that person as their representative.  Jesus was representing His Father here on earth. The perfection of Jesus is actually in his person, he is God, but here on earth he lived as a perfect human being.

 

 

 

 

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”.

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