The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(Another "Doctrine 101" consideration)
"For Christ's Sake"
"I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake" (Genesis 30:27).
Laban's acknowledgement to Jacob foreshadowed Another who would serve as the basis for the blessing not merely of one, but for multitudes.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:30).
From the beginning of our salvation through the Lord Jesus, God's blessing flows to us through the Person, merits, and work of our Savior. Right relationship with Him, received by grace through faith, means that God works in our hearts and lives primarily through who Christ is, and what He has done for us. This does not mean that what we do does not matter. Certainly, it does. We are to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work" (Colossians 1:10). We must respond to God in faith and submission to Him as His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. However, like our new birth, provided through who Christ is and what He has done, our walk with God must be lived with the attitude directed toward our Savior that Laban expressed to Jacob: I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for Thy sake.
Our Heavenly Father views believers as spiritually united to His Son, or "in Christ Jesus" (I Corinthians 6:17; 1:30). This constitutes His primary perception and affirmation of who and what we are. Again, this does not mean He ignores or overlooks what we think, believe, speak, and do. Such things matter much to Him. They are not, however, His first gaze upon us. We are His sons and daughters first, based on the sacrifice His eternal Son made for us. God sees us through the lens of the cross, the resurrection, and the Christ who sits at His right hand, and "ever liveth to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25). "God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you" wrote the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:32). All other blessings flow to us upon the same current of who Christ is to God, and for the sake of who He is to us. "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
The believer's "first gaze" upon ourselves must correlate with the view of our Heavenly Father. We must see ourselves as "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). While determining to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called," we nevertheless affirm the Person and work of the Lord Jesus as the foundation for everything God does in our lives (Ephesians 4:1). Any other view denies the Scriptural declaration of Christ's centrality in God's purposes, and inevitably results in futility, failure, discouragement, and a walk that does not correlate with our Savior's redeeming work on our behalf. Yes, to whatever degree we have "learned by experience" that God has blessed us "for Christ's sake," let us learn it more. A life of far greater faith and faithfulness awaits those who join Laban in the realization that God's blessing of ourselves originates and forever proceeds through the auspices of Another.
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
(Romans 8:32)
Weekly Memory Verse
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
(II Corinthians 4:5)
6323
Weekly Memory Verse
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
(II Corinthians 4:5)
6321
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