The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Model of Faith"
"Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2).
To whom did God promise eternal life "before the world began," and thus, before human beings existed?
Another passage of Scripture perhaps answers the question. "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" said the Lord Jesus Christ to His Father in a prayer offered just before He suffered and died on the cross (John 17:24). In the eternal counsels of God, mysterious as they may be, we may surmise that the determination to send the Son of God as the sacrificial Lamb of God also meant that the Father made promise to the Lord Jesus that He would raise Him from the dead. "The hope of eternal life" began in our Savior, who would also communicate to all who trust God that His resurrection would become our resurrection.
"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me, though He were dead, yet shall He live" (John 11:25).
God the Son, who for us became the son of man, provides our great model of faith. In the godhead of three coequal Persons regarding divine being and substance, the Son trusts and submits to the Father in the matter of rank and authority - "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). Thus, if we wonder how to trust God, we look first to Christ, "the Author and Finisher of our faith," who so perfectly lived by faith during His earth lifetime (Hebrews 12:2). Moreover, our consideration reveals that the Lord Jesus forever lives in dependence and deference to the Father, as does the Holy Spirit (another consideration, for another time). The Apostle Paul declares God the Father to presently be "the head of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:3). How then do we live by faith? We set our gaze on the Author and Finisher of faith as our model, and as the power whereby He enables us to trust God in both blessing and challenge. "Walk, even as He walked… I will dwell and walk in them" (I John 2:6; II Corinthians 6:16)
The Lord Jesus knows what it means to trust His Father in Heaven, and what it means to trust His Father in a fallen world. Regarding the latter, He literally dwells within the spirits of believers to empower our life of faith: "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). Our perfect model serves as our perfect means to instill and perpetuate confidence in God. He is well experienced for the service, having trusted the Father from everlasting, and joyfully devoted to doing so forevermore. Yes, "the promise of eternal life" was first made to the Lord Jesus in the solemn consideration before we existed that someone would be required to suffer and die for human beings, as a human being. The Father fulfilled His promise, and raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. Who then best knows what it means to trust God and find Him perfectly faithful? The Author and the Finisher, the Christ we trust, and the One who so well knows what it means that "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).
"Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."
(Colossians 2:12)
"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me."
(John 6:57)
Weekly Memory Verse
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
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