2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
We are all a work in progress. The work to which I refer is the sanctification process in which God is bringing us with His direction toward perfection. All of us are in different places in this process, and it is God’s desire that we should eventually become one with Christ’s divine nature as a result of it. For some of us, and I’m surely one of these , that’s a tall order. But MK 10: 27 reminds us, “This is impossible for a man, but not for God; everything if possible for God.” We can find so much comfort that once we become participants in the Covenant of Grace, God forgets our sins of the past and forgives them. That means He sees us as He sees His own Son-with love, compassion, tenderness, and patience. The best way we can respond to His love is through trust and faithful obedience of Him. JN 14: 21 is Christ’s own words to us making the Father’s will for us clear. “Whoever accepts My commands and obey them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” We should delve more deeply into what is meant by becoming one with Christ’s divine nature for a better understanding of this aspect of the Covenant of Grace.
Paul sheds light on this subject in COL 3: 12-15, “You are the people of God; He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decision you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in one body. And be thankful.” I realize that it wasn’t long ago when I cited this verse, but there are some things that are important enough to really bear repetition. We can easily see from this and other citations in the NT that God wants us to heed His command to work toward edifying and unifying the Body of Christ (the church). This demand is for us put our human agendas aside and make God’s agenda our first priority. Because God is always righteous and never does evil, we can trust that doing this will never bring us harm. Putting the collective agenda before the human agenda under an evil system like Communism or Nazism is totally a different matter. The leaders demanding this had horrible human imperfections. So, when God asks us to become one with Christ’s divine nature, there can be no concern that something that will hurt us or others around us will come out of it.
It is helpful for us to understand becoming one with Christ’s divine nature to look at the paradigm that Jesus is for us from examining some Scriptures revealing His thoughts and actions. LK 10: 25-37 is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which I hope you will review. In this story that Jesus tells, a man on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho is beaten, robbed, and left to die on the side of the road. Separately, a priest and a Levite who came along ignored the wounded man and walked on the other side of the road. Then a Samaritan came along who also saw the wounded man. His heart was filled with pity. He tended to the man and then took him to an inn. The Samaritan left him there, instructing the innkeeper to care for him and that the Samaritan would come back to pay him for his expenses in doing so. What prompted Jesus to tell this story was a question to him coming from a teacher of the Law, whose real desire was to entrap Jesus. This man asked, “Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?” Christ asked him how he interprets the Scriptures, and the man cites, DT 6: 5 and LV 19: 18 by saying in LK 10: 27, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” After Christ told the story in this parable, he brought the teacher of the Law to an understanding that he should be kind. I love the wisdom and compassion that Christ used to convert the other man’s initial evil agenda into a real lesson for him. Christ is living His own advice from MT 5: 43-48 about loving one’s enemies.
The shortest citation in the Bible is JN 11: 35, “Jesus wept.” Those two words when placed in the context of the story of Lazarus are very revealing. He had come four days after receiving the request from Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, to come because their brother was very ill. At this point in the story, only Christ Himself knew why he waited until after Lazarus died. He knew that He was going to demonstrate the glory of God by bringing Lazarus back to life, but still wept in compassion when Mary’s grief brought her to tears. From my long years of studying the Bible, I have come to know and rely upon the consistency of all three persons of the Trinity. Therefore, I can testify that if Christ showed compassion toward Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, He will show the same compassion toward all who believe in Him. That has certainly been demonstrated in my own life time and time again. Today, we took up the issues of kindness and compassion. I will continue with more of Christ’s traits tomorrow that let us know exactly how to become one with His divine nature as a participant in the Covenant of Grace. We should meditate on the issues of kindness and compassion as they impact our own lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, when we repented and came to faith, You called us to a new and very different life than we had been living. This life of righteousness, made possible by the power of Your love in our lives, blesses us enormously when we obey Your commands. It is not always easy for us to trust You and to make the changes in our lives that You demand, but we are always blessed when we do. As a participant in the Covenant of Grace that we have with You, we are called upon to study the Scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit (Who gives us the hunger for them and the understanding of them). Therein, You give us many examples of Your Son’s interactions with people to teach us how to become one with His divine nature, as a model for how we should think, decide, and behave. You inspired Paul to reveal in his epistles the greater reason for Your command, the unification and edification of the Body of Christ. That was done to urge us to be motivated to follow Your commands. The reasons for what You demand of us and the demands themselves are always righteous. For that, we are eternally grateful. Today, we dedicate ourselves to being more like Christ in the conduct of our everyday lives. We thank You for making our salvation possible through His death on the cross and for giving us the Holy Spirit. Out of respect and reverence for You, we aim to cooperate in the process of sanctification, which is Your way of bringing us to perfection, in any way we can. Our adoration, worship, loyalty, glory, honor, and praise go to You in humility. In Christ’s name, amen.
As mentioned above, I am led to continue discussing citations which help us to see the Model that Christ is for us. This is how we can see how to become one with His divine nature, God’s hugely important goal for us. Only a Father with immeasurable love for His children would come up with a plan like our Abba has. Bask in the warmth of that love and take exquisite delight in following His commands. While difficult to do at times, this obedience will bring us all abundant blessings. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn