Jesus

Sunday, February 03, 2013, 8:18 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with a hymn about Jesus, but I’m not sure which one it was, and then the floodgates of heaven broke open and I kept hearing one song about Jesus after another after another, such as “He Keeps Me Singing,” “God So Loved the World,” “Oh, How I love Jesus,” “Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know,” and “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken,” etc. Immediately this brought to recall that when my mom was in her final days on this earth, in the year 2000, while in a hospice center, she kept wanting to sings songs about Jesus, so we sang all the songs either of us could think of, including the song “Jesus Loves Me.” This memory brought tears to my eyes.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 42 (quoting vv. 1-9 NIV 1984):

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him

    and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out,

    or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

    he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on earth.

    In his law the islands will put their hope.”

This is what God the Lord says—

he who created the heavens and stretched them out,

    who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,

who gives breath to its people,

    and life to those who walk on it:

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;

    I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

    to be a covenant for the people

    and a light for the Gentiles,

to open eyes that are blind,

    to free captives from prison

    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

“I am the Lord; that is my name!

    I will not give my glory to another

    or my praise to idols.

See, the former things have taken place,

    and new things I declare;

before they spring into being

    I announce them to you.”

The Servant

Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the people, is the servant being spoken about here, yet, as we will learn, there is also a certain element to which this applies to the whole body of Christ, Jesus’ followers, who are his trusted envoys and confidential representatives to the people of this world. Matthew quoted vv. 1-4, as recorded in Matthew 12:18-21, concerning Christ being the fulfillment of these words of Isaiah about the servant.

The Spirit of God came upon Jesus in the form of a dove when he was baptized by John, and from there Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and nights, to be tempted by Satan, and during which time he indeed was tempted of the devil. Then he began his 3-yearlong ministry on the earth. His first message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The Servant, Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Lord, is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father chose Jesus to be the Savior of the world, he sent him to earth to be born as a baby, to take on human flesh, to go through the same kinds of things we go through every day, to suffer, and to be tempted in like manner as we are tempted, yet without sin, and then to be crucified on a cross for our sins.

Justice

The Lord Jesus brought justice (righteousness, honesty, integrity, and uprightness) to the earth and he will yet bring justice to the earth in many ways.

First of all, he was sinless when he walked the face of this earth, his heart motivation was always right, he loved and cared for people’s needs – spiritual, physical, mental and emotional – he always told the truth, and he treated people with kindness, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. Yet, he confronted sin in sinful man (humans), he told it like it was, he called people to repent of (turn from) their sins, and he told them if they wanted to follow him they had to die first to their old way of living for self and sin. For this, he was often hated. The religious leaders were jealous of him and were threatened by his popularity among the people, and eventually they put him to death, because they refused to believe he was their God and promised Messiah.

When Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins, he also brought justice to the earth, because through his death and resurrection mankind can now be made right with God via faith in Jesus Christ. When he died, our sins died with him, and when he was resurrected from the grave, he conquered death, hell, Satan and sin so that we could go free – free from the penalty of sin (eternal damnation), free from slavery (bondage) to sin day-to-day, and free to walk humbly in obedience to our Lord on a daily basis.

We come to faith in Jesus Christ via repentance (turning away from sin and turning toward walking in obedience to Christ), which is a complete change of mind and heart, and is the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as we cooperate fully with that work. Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny (disallow) himself, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him (see Luke 9:23-25). The scriptures also teach that the way we come to know Christ is by forsaking (dying to; putting off) our former lives of sin, by being transformed in heart and mind (the working of the Spirit), and by putting on our new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24). Thus, we are justified (freed from sin) by God’s grace, through faith.

Jesus Christ will also bring justice to the earth when he comes back again to judge the earth and to rule the earth in righteousness as King of kings and as Lord of lords.

A Covenant for the People

Jesus Christ, the Servant, became the covenant for the people when he shed his blood on the cross for our sins. A covenant is “a solemn agreement that is binding on all parties” (Encarta). This covenant is not all one-sided. It is by grace we are saved through faith. God’s part involved Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins so we could go free. Our part (faith) involves appropriating what he did, in dying for us so we could go free, to our daily lives. In other words, our part is to turn from our sin and to turn to walk with God/Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives, in the strength and power of the Spirit of God within us. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we don’t merely take the name of Christ, or get our free ticket to heaven, but we choose to be his followers, his disciples and his bondservants, laying our lives down for him. We are no longer our own. We were bought with a price. Therefore we should honor God with our lives.

A Light

God is light (truth; revelation; salvation) and in him is no darkness (sin; evil) at all. Jesus Christ (God) is light, and the gospel of Christ is light. Jesus Christ became a light to the Gentiles, “to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” Jesus gave a similar commission to the Apostle Paul, who was then Saul, when he met him on the road to Damascus, where Saul (now Paul) was headed to persecute even more followers of Jesus Christ. He told him (Acts 26:16-18):

‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

The Light that Jesus Christ became for us was not only the light of the gospel, but the way of salvation from our sins. We were once in spiritual darkness when we were still dead in our sins, but he made us alive in Christ. By grace we have been saved. So, he opened eyes that had formerly not been able to see the truth of the gospel or to receive salvation, so that they could be saved. He turned us from darkness (sin) to light (salvation; truth; understanding), which is what it means when we repent of our sins. He turned us from the power of Satan to God, too, because he delivered us from the power of sin over our lives both now and for eternity, and he set us free to walk in obedience to our Lord. And, he freed us from our captivity to sin and set us free to walk in the Spirit of God. All this was so we could receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified (made holy) by faith in Christ Jesus.

Jesus told his followers that they are the light of the world; a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This is not speaking of a physical city, but a spiritual one. And, the light here is the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is speaking of the true church, the body of Christ, his temple. We, as the light of the gospel are not supposed to hide the gospel or our testimony for Christ or the reality of the difference Christ makes in our lives from the world. The world around us should hear us sharing the truth of the gospel, giving testimony to God’s saving grace in our own lives, and they should see the gospel lived out in our lives in how we obey our Lord, in how we conduct our lives, and in how we love others with Christ’s love.

God promised Jesus and us, who are his servants, that he will uphold us, that he will give us his support, aid and strength, that he will guide us by the hand, and that he will supply us with all we need to live holy lives, to share his gospel, and to lead others away from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ’s salvation and his love and forgiveness. Jesus is our all sufficiency for everything God has called us to be and to do. Amen! Praise the Lord!

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer / Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! Lord, I am coming

Now to receive anointing divine;

All that I am and have I am bringing,

Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.