The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"Like His Son"
We are all damaged goods as human beings, descended from fallen Adam with his sin ands it dire consequences.
"In Adam all die" (I Corinthians 15:22).
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God"(Romans 3:10-11).
Just as sadly, apart from God's illumination, we have no idea how serious is our plight. We base evaluation of ourselves in comparison to other people just as damaged as ourselves. Our Lord does not view us according to such a low standard, however. He rather gauges us according to His perfect ideal and prototype of humanity, in accordance with His righteousness and purpose.
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).
"Walk even as He (Christ) walked" (I John 2:6).
Human beings exist to be like the Lord Jesus Christ in character, nature, and way. He is humanity as God defines humanity. Upon first consideration, a dire situation seems to become desperate and disastrous. To be like the Lord Jesus? To somehow arise from our damage to His design? If we bear any semblance of honesty and self awareness in our hearts, our first response must be bewildered despair. "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:1;5).
Thankfully, the same Christ who brings woe when first we see Him and recognize how far short we have fallen from His standard also serves as the freely given hope for redemption and its ultimate grace: "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). Forgiveness for our failure first flows from God's mercy received in Christ, along with the establishment of relationship and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. He then changes us our innermost depths through imparting the indwelling Holy Spirit to establish our hearts as His spiritual dwelling place (I Corinthians 3:16; Galatians 4:6). Thereafter, every moment of our existence becomes the scene of progressive rescue from our damage to His design. One of the most beloved and most memorized of all Biblical passages bears witness to such wonder, although Romans 8:28 cannot be understood or considered complete apart from Romans 8:29:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:28-29; emphasis added).
Through Christ, God made us for the "good" of being like Christ. Damaged as we are in our present existence, our Lord dwells within our spirits to progressively enable the entirety of our humanity to absorb and reflect the light of of His character, nature, and way. The work will not be finished in our present lifetime. It must, however, be ongoing as God perfectly fulfills His role, and as we seek by His grace to faithfully respond in trust, submission, and the expectation that Christ's indwelling presence will guide and enable us. "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).
If ever we wonder what God is doing by His determinations and allowances in our lives, no Biblical truth more clearly answers the question. He ever works to make us like His Son. He acts to rescue us from the damage of not being like the Lord Jesus to the design and paradigm for which we exist. He could do no better or more loving thing for us, a blessedness only eternity will begin to fully reveal. As the saying goes, "From dust to glory, what a story!" What a story indeed. What a reality, that when all is said and done, "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Presently, may we join our Heavenly Father, being confident that progress will proceed in this day as we "behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord" and are thereby "changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!"
(Psalm 90:17)
"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
(Colossians 1:27)
Weekly Memory Verse
He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
(Matthew 13:58)
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