The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A Clear Conscience"
Part 3 - Conformity
In the greatest challenge ever faced, the Lord Jesus Christ most fulfilled the truth of conformity to the will of God. In the garden of Gethsemane, just before He suffered, was forsaken, and died on the cross of Calvary, our Savior prayed…
"Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42).
On all other occasions in a lifetime of temptation, the Lord Jesus overcame every enticement to distrust and disobey His Father - "in all points, tempted as we are, and yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). The temptations were real because His humanity was necessarily real in order to identify with us to the degree He could die for us (Hebrews 2:14). All consideration of obedience to God begins here, in the Christ who serves as our perfect example. And far more…
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever" (Hebrews 13:20-21).
Only the Lord Jesus could have shed "the blood of the everlasting covenant" to make atonement for our sins. Only the Lord Jesus could have shed His life within us to make possible our overcoming temptation to sin through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Every act of conformity to our Father's will begins not in ourselves, but rather in the Christ through whom God "worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). We play a vital role in the matter, trusting and submitting to God in response to His moving within us. We do so, however, as those who bear the fruit of the Root who imparts His love for the Father's will, and His enabling to thereunto conform. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).
A clear conscience, best known through conformity to God's will, directs all glory and honor to the Lord Jesus who died for us, and now lives in us. Realizing this truth establishes and maintains the peace of the heart that results not only from obedience, but by affirming the source and power of all faithfulness to God. Our blessed Lord lived in perfect conformity, again, amid far more challenge than we will ever know. He overcame all, a wondrous truth for which we should often praise and thank Him. He leads and enables us as we look to Him, and as though Him we maintain a clear conscience by conformity to God's will.
"Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."
(Isaiah 26:3)
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therein do I delight."
(Psalm 119:35).
Tomorrow: Confession (of sin) and conscience
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