2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
There are some citations which will help us to understand why Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer. Yesterday I cited RO 1: 3, which I will repeat here along with the verses that come before and after it, so we can enjoy the full impact of what is revealed. RO 1: 2-4, “The Good News was promised long ago by God through His prophets as written in the Holy Scriptures. It is about His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to His humanity, He was born a Descendant of David; as to His divine holiness, He was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.” Never before or since has their been a Being like this One. He was placed on earth with all the capabilities to feel pain, be tempted, and know the needs of human beings [HE 4: 15]. But, He is set apart by His willingness not to ever sin, to suffer the greatest pain ever known on behalf of His fellow man [LK 22: 42], and to learn how to be our Advocate and Intercessor in heaven [HE 8: 1-2]. God is in Him, and He is in God, for they are two personalities of the same Deity [JN 14: 9, 11]. Because He was born of the Holy Spirit, He did not inherit the sin of Adam and thus, Satan has no power over Him. Christ is the embodiment of God’s goodness and love both in His words and His deeds. He is the fulfillment of the Law [RO 10: 4] and faith in Him causes us to die to the power that sin has over us [RO 6:11].
It is one thing to state that Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer, but God doesn’t leave it there. Here are some citations that help us to have a deeper understanding of the validity of this statement. HE 2: 5-9. “ God has not placed the angels as rulers over the new world to come-the world of which we speak. Instead, as it is said somewhere in the Scriptures [DT 32: 43, PS 8: 4-6, & PS 104: 4], ‘What is man, O God, that You should think of him; mere man, that You should care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor, and made him ruler over all things.’ It says that God made man ‘ruler over all things;’ this clearly includes everything. We do not, however, see man ruling over all things now. But we do see Jesus, Who for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that through God’s grace He should die for everyone. We see Him now crowned with glory and honor because of the death He suffered. It was only right that God, Who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many sons to share His glory. For Jesus is the One who leads them to salvation.” Earlier in HE 1: 5-8, the author of Hebrews had already revealed, “For God never said to any of His angels, ‘You are My Son; today, I have become Your Father.’ Nor did God say about any angels, ‘I will be His Father, and He will be My Son.’ All of God’s angels must worship Him.’ But when God was about to send His first-born Son into the world, He said, ‘All of God’s angels must worship Him.’ But about the angels God said, ‘God makes His angels winds, and His servants flames of fire.’ About the Son, however, God said: ‘Your Kingdom, O God, will last forever and ever! You rule over Your people with justice.’” If we look carefully at the wording of this last verse, we see the Father referring to Christ as “God.” In other words, the Father is recognizing Christ as his second personality, a part of Himself! We have been told over and over again that God’s Kingdom will be everlasting, and that Christ has been given the authority to rule it forever [DN 2: 34-35; DN 7: 13-14; JN 16: 33, RO 8: 17; COL 3: 3-4, for example]. What man can’t do, God, through Christ can.
By looking carefully at the Scriptures as we are doing this morning, we are able to see exactly what the Father’s attitude about Christ is and why we should share His esteem for His only begotten Son. That should help us to realize what a great privilege it is that when we repented and came to faith that we were adopted as God’s children [RO 8: 14-17]. EPH 2: 4-5, “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience, He brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.” There can be no equivocation about a loving Abba implementing His righteous plan when we read GA 4: 4-7, “But when the right time finally came, God sent His only Son. He came as the Son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God’s sons. To show that you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit Who cries out, ‘Abba, my Abba.’ So then, you are no longer a slave but a son. And since you are His son, God will give you all that He has for His sons.” Talk about being blessed; we are truly blessed!
PRAYER: O Lord, we are often asked to have faith in the things we cannot see by ordinary human perception through the five senses. However, there has never been a time when You didn’t give us sufficient explanation for doing this in the Scriptures. You have challenged us to stretch beyond that comfortable place toward Your view of things. We must remember that as our always righteous and always wise God, You never ask us to do what we weren’t first equipped to do. The difficulty that we have in sometimes seeing Your perspective on the matter of why we should believe Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer (or that He really does have power over Satan) is manufactured by ourselves giving into Satan’s messages. Satan would have us believe that we are helpless against his attacks and deceptions. We are not, and that is because You are a loving God Who gives believers the same power to fend off Satan that You used to raise Christ from death to life eternal [EPH 1: 18-20]. You prompt me to repeat this many times, because You know how important it is for us to understand that just as You gave Christ power over Satan, You are now giving it to all who believe in You and the Son. You do this through the gift of Your Spirit indwelt within us. We stand before You today to confess our sins, to present ourselves as willing to live lives of holiness, and to ask You to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Our motive in this request is to allow His leadership in our lives to guide us through the increasingly intense challenges Satan and his followers send to us. Our trust and faith is in You. We humbly pledge You our adoration, worship, loyalty, willingness to serve with diligence, honor, glory, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, we are Your sons and daughters. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will begin a section in the series of messages which deals with the qualifications for a kinsman-redeemer. By looking into this all-important subject, God leads us to a greater understanding of the blessing of Christ as the Lord of our lives and the magnificent accomplishment He brought about with Christ’s death on the cross. These are words from the Scriptures that are guaranteed to build and strengthen our faith-another gift to us out of God’s love for us. Peter and I also send our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn