The common phrase, "We need to get to the bottom of things" has some serious merit in spiritual terms concerning how we will live out our Christianity - even endure to His end victoriously against all odds in this life. When it comes to the standard and staying power of our walk with the Lord, we need to have a firm and proven understanding of our full foundation in Jesus Christ. "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" and "He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (1 Cor.3:11; 1 Pet.1:20).
Now, before we run off in our thinking, assuming our foundation is firm or solidly founded upon Jesus, let’s consider the one who first had the revelation of Jesus being the Christ, Peter. Peter had some 3+ years of walking intimately with the Lord and experiencing more of the heavenly than any of us will in a lifetime. And yet, we see that he denied that he ever knew the Lord when under the pressure of identifying with the way of the cross that Jesus took in obedience to the Father.
We must ask ourselves, what was this amazing footer or foundation that saw Jesus through the most heinous and painful death of its time, the cross, and that with joy? This foundation of Christ is not completely known by what He did for us, but what He lived for us.
"...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross" (Heb.12:2).
Many would say from the above scripture that Jesus saw the salvation that we would receive from this redemptive work. I would have to agree, at least in part, with reading Isa.53:11 - "He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied [with joy]. By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many for He shall bear their iniquities." However, I believe this scripture had far more meaning than us thinking His joy was simply based on our sharing heaven with Him one day. The far more would be that while in this life full of difficulties, ills, corruption, etc., we, too, would come into an abiding rest concerning a foreordained, predestined purpose, a heavenly calling, that is meant to be believed and found out through living under the government of the eternal Spirit’s leading. There is an order in the face of what we would naturally think to be chaos or random.
We must realize that the enemy is not out to win merely a battle, but he is aimed at undermining the foundation of our future – God's predetermined plan for our life – to remove the thought that there ever was a plan. With a sense of order being lost, we are left in a state of wandering.
God's eternal plan defies all odds and affirms indeed that "all things are working together for good." That same plan believed will also manifest the truth that God is always good. Without faith in partaking of Christ according to a predestined plan, the natural odds of this world can cause us to stumble, betray Him, deny Him, or even scatter from Him. The eternal life we have been given is not a life to come only, but a life that has come that is without physical boundaries or limits. It is not swayed by change, obstacles, or held to time. This is our true freedom and where the Lord Jesus lived in the will and nature of the eternal. He was purposed from the foundation of the world and His predetermined course was orchestrated by the revelation of the Father’s will. Having a heart to do the Father’s will, will continually manifest the eternal life and plan that overcomes the world – no matter how things appear to unfold.
Jesus' John 17 prayer carries the basis for the strength of His walk, His constitution, and His full intention in redemption for us. "And now Father glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." (v.5); "...that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves" (v.13). His joy now set before us! This is an unfailing plan from an unfailing God. It was a plan for Jesus and there is a specific plan with an outcome that overcomes for us. In any plan there is purpose and purpose sustains order. Because those in the wilderness did not see or heed His word as being in the context of a predetermined plan, they "wandered" and perished.
With having obtained so great a salvation in receiving God's Eternal Spirit, let's not fail in answering Peter's reminder "to make your call and election sure" so that we "will never stumble" but have the Lord's abundant supply to enter the everlasting kingdom in the end (2Pet.10-15). Peter writes this out of his own failure "to heed as a light" (v.19) the predestination Jesus continually told the disciples about. Now, after his denial of Jesus and conversion, in full view of the Lord's intention for each life, even his own, Peter strives in calling us to this foundation that was in Christ Jesus, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1Pet.1:2). Herein is our joy with abiding Him, that He gives us His word(s), ultimately revealing His plan in the midst of our wilderness or bewildered-ness. It will bring us forth in the greatness of His life to inherit what is ours from Him...
..."just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us... having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself... In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will... For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph.1:4-5a, 9, 11; 2:10).
- DSC
| Contact Us | < To Next Entry |
