10/15/2021
It is our great desire to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, but to what end are we following Him? Should our goal be to reach Heaven, to obtain eternal life, or to be taught how to live a better life? No, although these are all excellent and expected goals, and we are meant to reach them, the answer is no, our ultimate aspiration should be to become Christ, to join with all the other parts that are His body, His being, and to become who He is. Do we feel like we are advancing towards that ultimate moment when we will see our reflection, and it will be indistinguishable from our Lord Jesus Christ? Will we have been made perfect… perfect in love, perfect in obedience, and perfect in every way as He is?
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV
It is common for people to use the omnipotence of God, and the sonship of Jesus, as an excuse for why we can’t possibly achieve the perfection of God, or to be Jesus Christ, but is that truth, or just another lame excuse provided to us by Satan to draw us comfortably away from who God desires us to be? Is the dark one justifying our failure just as he justified disobedience to Eve in the Garden? Does Satan take the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, and convince us that we are not, and thus will never do the things that He is able to do? Well, who do we choose to believe, Satan, or Jesus? Listen to these words that Jesus spoke to us…
““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
John 14:12 ESV
Satan is a liar, the great deceiver, the father of lies, and he uses every lie he can concoct in an attempt to convince us that God, and Jesus, are the ones who are actually lying to us. If we believe his lies then we become his children…
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
John 8:44 ESV
Satan tells Eve that she will not die if she eats the forbidden fruit, and he tells us that we will never be perfect in the eyes of God, because we are incapable, and thus we will not receive the things He has promised us. He tells us that only he, Satan, has authority over us, and is worthy. Listen as he speaks to Jesus during the temptation of Christ…
“and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.””
Luke 4:6-7 ESV
Does this sound familiar? So, we are to cast aside the lies of Satan, and hold firm to the truth, and the truth is that every Word of God is true, and likewise, the words of Jesus are truth. We are told outright in Psalm 119 that the Word of God is truth, and in John 14 Jesus tells us that He too is truth; listen…
“Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
Psalm 119:159-160 ESV
And…
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 ESV
We are to believe the Word when it tells us that we can grow up into becoming Christ, and that we can be made perfect in God’s love. Our problem is, as it has always been, in our envisioning how these things could possibly happen to such fallen beings as ourselves. Well we are to mature in our faith as it is strengthened, and thus become a part of the body of Christ, and, we are to be made perfect like Jesus, the founder of our salvation, by enduring suffering as He did. Each of these things being achieved by, and through, the grace of God.
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
Hebrews 2:10 ESV
We suffer, and our faith strengthens, we mature in our faith and we put away the lies, and sins of our old selves. In this way we proceed day by day, and moment by moment towards perfection in God’s love… towards our salvation, and becoming Christ.
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
1 Peter 2:1-3 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your perfecting grace that flows into us through your Son Jesus Christ, and grow us up into Him so that one day we will witness our reflection, and it will be His face we see. Thank you for each time, and way, we suffer in life because it teaches us, strengthens us, and leads us closer to becoming your children, Christ. You perfected Jesus through His suffering, so if it be your will then perfect us in similar fashion. Help us to be faithful, and help us in our moments of faltering belief so that we emerge from them stronger for having borne them. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who perfects us in your love, and makes us to become Jesus. Praised be your name Lord for every trial, and every temptation, that leads us to lean on your Word for our deliverance. Let our suffering bring you glory as we take shelter in our faith, and take refuge in the strong tower of Christ Jesus. Wash us in the blood of Jesus, and take away all sin so that we can be redeemed, found worthy, and called your children. Tell us you are pleased with us Father, and seat us at your table where we can dine on your Word, drink the fruit of the cup, and worship you forevermore.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”
1 John 4:16-17 ESV
Rich Forbes