The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Lamb Has Come"
The cross of Calvary and the suffering death of the Lord Jesus Christ had to occur in physical space and time.
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).
In the eternal heart and mind of God, however, the Lord Jesus was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Were this not the case, instantaneous and final judgment would have fallen on Adam and Eve immediately after they committed the first sin. Instead, God acted in grace and mercy, based on the Lamb to come, just as for 2,000 years, He has acted in the glory that the Lamb has come.
The latter point most affects the hearts and lives of born again believers in the Lord Jesus. Our doings matter much as we trust and submit to God for His glory and the fulfillment of His will in our lives. However, our Heavenly Father's primary administrations and actions in our lives proceed from who Christ is and His doings on our behalf - "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).
"He hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).
"He ever liveth to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25).
"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
The better we know our Lord's redemptive doings on our behalf, the better our own doings will align with the glory and will of God. The Apostle Paul plainly stated this dynamic means of grace in his epistle to the Corinthians:
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Paul calls believers to see ourselves in the light of Christ, just as our Father sees us. "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus" constitutes His primary view as "the Lord looketh on the heart." Therein, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (I Samuel 16:7; Galatians 4:6). Our Father's first gaze upon every believer fixes upon His Son's abiding presence in our spirits. This does not discount the totality of our being, and the fact that we still live in earthly temples susceptible to temptation and sin. Nor does it guarantee a godly life in this present world. The New Testament epistles are replete with people clearly identified as genuine believers, but who were not living accordingly (see I Corinthians; Galatians; Colossians; Hebrews). However, it does mean that just as we became Christians by discovering and believing the work of Christ on our behalf for our new birth, we will more and more live as Christians as we discover His ongoing work regarding the life to which He calls us. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).
Ever and always regarding freely imputed righteousness through Christ and the fruits thereof, the Lord Jesus serves as the heart of the matter, and the matter of the heart. Who is He? What has He done? What is He doing? What will He do forevermore on our behalf? Growing awareness of so great a Savior results in growing capacity to see ourselves rightly in matters of both spirit and flesh, and to live accordingly. Indeed, our Heavenly Father directs His primary focus on us through the lens of Christ. The more we join Him in this wondrous view of grace, the more we will live in a manner that reflects the light in which God sees us, "the hope of glory" that the Lamb has come to the world - and to our hearts (Colossians 1:27).
"Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."
(Hebrews 12:3)
Memory Verse
Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."
(Psalm 100:3).
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