The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"The Loftiest Ideal"
The Bible is a book of the loftiest ideal:
"Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).
If the "He" were anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the paradigm would not be nearly as high and holy. The He is Him, however, a calling that both greatly honors and profoundly humbles us.
The honor lies in the truth that human beings can somehow live as did the Lord Jesus. Not perfectly in this lifetime, of course, and always in the need for greater consistency and growth. However, salvation in Christ makes possible moments wherein we act in a manner as did our Lord. The history of the church abounds with such feats of faith and obedience as trusting saints do the will of God amid the challenges of a fallen world. God has made possible the believer's capacity to obey, that is, to think, speak, act, and relate in our moments as did the Lord Jesus in His. He could bestow upon us no higher calling than to serve as living representations of the most glorious of all beings. Indeed, Scripture speaks of no other creature commanded to "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved" (Ephesians 5:2).
Of course, the calling also humbles us upon consideration of treading even one step as did our Lord. Our first response must involve the acknowledgement that no such thing seems even remotely possible. The more one reads in Scripture of Christ's character and way, the more we realize and confess our complete lack of capacity to independently take even a step like unto His. Impossible indeed - except for a promise of grace even more humbling: "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). God did not make us or redeem us to merely imitate the Lord Jesus. He would never have so burdened us with such futility. Instead, He gave the Christ who walked the paths of the earth to walk the path of righteousness He has paved in our hearts through His presence. Thereby, we can walk as He walked, again, not in perfection during our current lifetime. However, we can grow and become more consistent as we "look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).
Regardless of how many moments of faithfulness we have lived by God's grace received through faith in the Lord Jesus, far more opportunities await us. Our Father honors us to serve in His creation as the spiritual and moral reflections of Christ, a calling completely undeserved and seemingly far beyond our capacities. He humbles us by the same calling, bearing witness in His Word of our need for the Lord Jesus to walk in us, that we may "walk even as He walked." The loftiest of ideals indeed. And, the highest and most humbling of all measures of grace He could bestow upon us.
"And 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… In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."
(II Corinthians 9:8; I John 4:9)
Weekly Memory Verse
The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.
(Habakkuk 2:20)
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