Is it simply just the "good news" that Jesus died for us?
Now, that is very good news, but is that the complete gospel, or just simply part of it?
When I think about a verse that we were studying today in Prayer meeting that tells us to "walk even as He walked" is that good news? I mean, God wouldn't tell us to do something that we possibly couldn't do, would He? So if we are told to walk as Jesus did, then we must be able to. Yet how? Because Jesus, our true example, that walked as we have to walk, did it and at every single step was the true overcomer and victor over sin and the devil. Therefore, since He, our Saviour, walked and lived a victorious life, in the same flesh and blood as we have and with the same fallen nature as we have, we can too. What an amazing Savior and beautiful promise.
The Bible says many a time to "be perfect" yet is that possible? Many today believe that it is not. Yet, would our loving Lord that knows that "we are but dust" command us to be something we cannot be? Oh, of course we could never even think to hint that we in and of ourselves could do it on our own, yet as we walk as Jesus walked (constantly connected to His Father) we can be victors just as He was. 1 John 1:9 says that He will not just forgive us but cleanse us, to cleanse means to wash away the dirt, and in this case the sin in our lives. What a loving and merciful God that can take feeble mortal human beings and cleanse us from sin and then give us the power, through Him, to not concede to temptation.
We were doing a Bible study last week and some things really struck my heart. We were studying what Jesus gave up when He came to earth. I'm sure most of us have thought of these things and marveled at how loving our Lord is that He would suffer Himself to become a man. How many have read the verse where Jesus says that only the Father knows the day and hour of the coming of the Son of Man, and that not even He himself knew. How could this be, the Son of God, Jesus, our creator and making, not know when He himself was going to return? Or how could He not see through the portals of the tomb? We went over verses that showed how Jesus gave up not only His omnipresence yet also His memory and His foreknowledge. (If you would like the verses email me and I'll send them to you) Ok, ponder this with me…Jesus, the maker of heaven and earth, came to earth and at the moment that he entered Mary's womb, He gave up all His memory of not only what He had done, but also who He was. He had to believe from what He read in the scriptures that He was the creator of the worlds, that He gave the promises of the 10 commandments, that He delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, that He parted the Red Sea, etc. Our Savior…the God of heaven and Earth…He was our Savior…by faith. By faith in the same Word of God that we have today. By faith in the outworking of the Holy Spirit that we too can have. He went day by day living as our Savior by faith…and we, His people, are called to live by the same faith. Amazing isn't it?
Not only that…He gave up knowing the future, how it would end, knowing that God would accept His offering of His blood, knowing that He would raise from the grave. When going through the hardest time of His human life, Gethsemane, He had to cling to faith, just like we are called to do as well.
Oh, how I've been pondering what an incredible gift we were given 2,000 years ago. It was an incredible risk…yet was something all heaven risked so that we could have the choice to be saved. Knowing that Jesus, my loving Savior and redeemer, would have gone through all of that just for me, is simply incomprehensible. What a God we serve. And oh, how little we ponder and behold the one who has done so much for us. Yet as we do…we become changed into His very image, for how can we stand, or bowing before Him, behold Him and ponder all that He has done for us and the immense love He has poured out upon us, and not be changed.
The gospel: yes it is good news, the best news in the world…yet it's not just that Jesus died for us. It's also that He lived for us, He lived that perfectly surrendered life, so that we, when fully connected to Him, can also live that completely victorious life. For who…when we really know our Lord as He would have us know Him, could fathom of doing anything to hurt Him. And as we behold Him we will walk…just…as He walked…
For we are not just here to make it to heaven, yet to perfectly reflect our Savior, to vindicate His character to the world and to show the world and Satan that his accusations are completely and totally false. And when God's people have reached the point where we perfectly reflect His image, as the moon reflects the light of the Sun, and Jesus reflected His Father to the earth…then…Jesus can come. And because Jesus has done it…lived in our fallen flesh…and come out a victor…we…can too. And all of heaven will rejoice and satan trembles for he knows his time is short.
Just a few thoughts...
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