THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF TRUTH

" . . . If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . . . If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:31-36)

Devotion 14 of 20

ILLUSTRATED IN CHRIST

Jesus was not sent into the world to resolve human difficulties. His aim was not the correction of social inequities, or the stabilization of political structures. Domestic life is important, but did not require "God manifest in the flesh" to correct. There was a higher objective that dictated Christ's descent to earth. It was God's "eternal purpose." Christ's identity with that purpose gives Him the power to save--not His identification with your objectives. We must forever put away from us the notion that Jesus was sent to empower us to fulfill earthly ambitions.

Born under the Law

Why was Jesus born "under the law." He came into the world as a subject of the very law that condemned humanity, stopping its mouth before the presence of the Lord. There was a reason for His subjection to Law, and it was a high and noble one. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal 4:4-5). The fulfillment of God's "eternal purpose" necessitated our liberation from the tyranny of Law. Jesus subjected Himself to that Law in order to accomplish this liberation.

Doing good

Did Jesus "do good" simply to leave us an "example" of how it was to be done? Indeed not! His example, we are told, was in the area of suffering (1 Pet 2:21). When He "did good," He rose to an even higher plateau. "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). Christ's "good" doing qualified Him to be a vicarious sacrifice for us. However, if He had not brought us to God, His good doing and deliverance of those oppressed by the devil would have amounted to nothing!

Crucified through weakness

Christ's crucifixion occurred at His lowest point, when He was severed from Divine communion. He went into the cursed region, and returned, that we might be delivered from it "into the glorious liberty of the children of God." "For though He was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God" (2 Cor 13:4). You may rest assured, Jesus would never have become "weak" were it not for the purpose of God. That is what compelled Him to submit to the Father's temporary abandonment! It was His unquestionable unity with the purpose of God that made Christ's accomplishments effective.

PRAYER POINT: Father, thank You for the perfect obedience, willing sacrifice, and glorious resurrection of Your Son.

-- TOMORROW: RAISED BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER