Jesus… Nobody has made a bigger impact then Jesus – but it is essential for you and I to know what the real reason was that Jesus, the Son of God came.
Many of us have learned that it was to pay the price for the sin of all mankind and that is true…but have you ever considered why? Why would God go to such an extreme as to allow His Son to experience such a brutal punishment and death? What could have been so terrible that it would require God Himself to rescue us from the impending doom that was awaiting us?
I ask, because so often, when asked the question, “What would you say if God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’”, many people answer that they tried to live their life as best as they could.
Immediately we understand from their answer that they are trusting in themselves…that the good that they have done will outweigh the bad and hopefully…it will be enough?
Of course, if this really was sufficient for any of us to get into heaven, then sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to His death on our behalf was surely a GROSS mistake by Almighty God.
The truth is however, that if Jesus had not come to take my sin and yours…if He did not surrender to take the punishment required for our sin…each one of us would end up in the lake of fire…forever…That’s horrifying! (PLEASE READ Rev.20:11-15 – The Great White Throne Judgment.)
BUT…He did…and we get to choose whether we want to accept this gift or whether we will reject it. Then some will say to us, “But God is a God of love and He wouldn’t send us to hell.”
You are right…God is a God of love AND because we were on our way to hell (through our own choices which led us to sin) He sent Jesus to the cross on our behalf…Jesus is the way that the God of Love made so that you can escape ‘hell’ – the lake of fire.
You don’t have to go there BUT to escape you will have to believe in what He did for you and you will have to bow your knee and repent, thus accepting what He did for you.
We must know and understand that if we reject His offer…we are saying, “I don’t need what You did for me, because I think I am good enough.” You will find out to your great horror…that you were wrong.
If I was you, I would jump in with both feet and shout, “Yes Lord, here I am!”
This gift of salvation by itself is already more than enough reason to jump and shout, “Thank You Lord!”
Yet… what if God’s reason went even further, beyond rescuing us from certain destruction? Believe me, I am not making light of what Jesus did to deliver us from spending eternity in the lake of fire – that in itself is huge! I am so grateful that we have been delivered…but is it possible that there is more to it than that? Is the picture way bigger, than what we currently understand?
To find and fully understand the truth, we will have to journey back to the beginning and…The very reason that we were created.
Gen. 1:26 – Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over ever creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Think about that…not just another one of the creatures, not like the sea or the sun…something that automatically does what it has been programmed to do by the Eternal Creator…NO, a living being who has all the ability, the capacity to bear the image of God!
Let’s just take a moment to think about that. The word “image” means the following: Representation or likeness, optical counterpart, double or a copy.
If we stand in front of a mirror, we see an exact likeness of ourselves, our image, reflected in the mirror. Therefore, if we are created in His image, in His likeness, then we are a reflection of God. Not a physical likeness or outward appearance…because God is Spirit (John 4:24) but a representation of the identity of God. His nature, His character and a representative of His dominion on the earth.
This is our capacity. This is our purpose. When anybody or anything watches or considers us…they should see Him.
Yet…in the fall of man all was lost…
Contaminated by sin, the people created in His image were no longer able to bear His image as through choice – they closed the door on the Eternal Creator, the Lord God, by choosing to govern themselves and they slid into spiritual darkness and were no longer able to communicate with Him as they had before. Their purpose had effectively been nullified. They were now living on a different “broadcasting frequency” so to speak.
God had been their source of ‘life’ and whilst He could still hear and understand them, they could no longer understand or gain access to what God had wanted to ‘transmit’ to them.
We as mankind have been living in what is considered to be darkness compared to the light we should have been living in BUT because it is all we know, we just continue to live within the constructs that the devil has created for us, not realizing how far we are from what the Father had planned for us. We are trapped by everything we come into agreement with. The price tag to redeem us from spiritual death was so steep that it would cost God the life of His Son and it would mean tremendous suffering, pain and finally a gruesome death for Jesus to redeem mankind from this disaster.
Jesus…our Lord and Saviour. Through His death, burial and resurrection a way was opened for us to be reconciled to the Father, for the Spirit of God to be birthed in us once again…spiritually we could be “born again”!
John 3:3-6 – Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water AND of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Hallelujah! Our original purpose could once more become a reality. A people created in His image!
Then one day we heard the good news and as we bowed our knee to repent, we were forgiven and accepted in the Saviour.
At that point (Point 1) God the Father delivered us from the power of darkness, took us through the Cross and into the Kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13).
Here we were found in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the covenant partner of God. Points 2,3,4,5
We have become part of the body of Christ and beneficiaries of that covenant, which is awesome but that was not all.
When Jesus was about to leave this earth, He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to take His place and that the Holy Spirit would teach us, guide us, comfort us and never leave us…why?
2 Cor. 3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding (gaze upon) as in a mirror (what are we beholding?) the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, (how?) just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Being transformed into what? The same image that we are gazing upon…the glory of the Lord.
This is what God the Father was talking about in Gen. 1:26 Let Us make man in Our image and in Our likeness.
For those who have stepped through the cross and into the Kingdom of heaven… Gen. 1:26 can become a reality. It’s about transformation.
There is work to be done…The journey we are on…is the journey of preparation to become the bride of Christ. The amazing fact though, is that our groom will do whatever it takes to help us make it.
This next passage of scripture is instruction to husbands. Their example is Jesus Christ.
Eph. 5:25–32 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, (why?) that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water (how?) by the word, (why?) that He may present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Rev. 19:7-8 – Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Rev. 21:9 – Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
V10: And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
V11: having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Who is the bride? The Holy Jerusalem and she is filled with His glory. Do you remember what it said in 2 Cor. 3:18? The Holy Spirit is transforming us into the same image – the glory of the Lord. This is your purpose, this is your destiny, and this is your privilege.
Rev. 21:22 – “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
V23: The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
It is a journey of sanctification, of purification that transforms us into a people who are an epistle, a letter about Him. When people read our lives, they should see Him. It is transformation that can only be done by the Holy Spirit.
But how does that happen? Birthing Christ in us is the result of spending time in His Presence. Every moment you spend learning to know Him, His character and His nature…whether it be by reading the Bible, by studying the Bible, in prayer, listening to teachings, messages…these all help but none of these things must eclipse Him personally.
The first commandment is clear; Matt. 22:37 – Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
It’s about your first love…
In our last teaching we spoke about this incredibly important warning from Jesus to the Church in Rev.2:1-5: To the angel of the church in Ephesus write; These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labour, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience and have laboured for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; (Jesus calls having left your first love – as having fallen) repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
We discussed how important this first love is to Jesus and that He wasn’t interested in marrying you and I for our theological position – which is…we have been redeemed and reconciled to the Father – this is something Jesus paid the price for and is offering as a gift to the undeserving. Accepting what He has done for us – is about His goodness – and is no way to measure our love for Him. Gratefulness, thankfulness, awe as we consider what He went through to purchase us back from the brink of the lake of fire…yes, we experience all of that but love…that is something that will come as we seek to know Him.
Jesus longs to be married to someone who loves Him with all their heart and whom He can know intimately and who longs to know Him intimately.
Clearly, it is also the requirement for fulfilling the first commandment.
His bride longs for His Presence. He is her beloved. She seeks to draw close and therefore He has her attention. It is in that attentiveness…that she becomes aware of Him…not just His Presence but Him…His Person, who He is and she becomes aware of His voice, what He wants to share with her.
The prayer of our hearts must become, ‘Open the eyes of my heart, that I might see where I have given the attention that You deserve to lesser things that are inferior to You.’
I urge you to seek His face, to get to know Him intimately. Take time to be still in His presence. It’ll be awkward at first because we get uncomfortable with silence but press through. Put on some instrumental worship music, meditate on who He is. Remind yourself that He is right there…has always been there…waiting…and longing for you. Persist until theveils of the flesh fade away and you become aware of Him.
Saint Theresa of Avila had this to say, ‘The indwelling presence…is the focal point of prayer. We need no wings, only a silent place where we can centre our gaze upon Him.
To this…I say…Amen.