CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

Was blind, but now I see.

4 : 10 October 2005

http://www.christianliteratureandliving.com
http://www.christliving.com

HOME PAGE


AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

PAYPAL

We invite you to support this ministry. Contributions in support of this Ministry can now be easily sent through PAYPAL. Please click on the PAYPAL LOGO, which will take you to PAYPAL website. Send your contributions to thirumalai@mn.rr.com. Also, please buy your books using the AMAZON link given in every page. Even the smallest contribution will help in running this journal.


In Association with Amazon.com


BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ
AND DOWNLOAD


BACK ISSUES


SEND YOUR ARTICLES FOR PUBLICATION IN Christian Literature and Living.
  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports to thirumalai@mn.rr.com.
  • Your articles and booklength reports should be written, preferably, following the MLA Stylesheet.
  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics, and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright for the journal © 2005
M. S. Thirumalai

JESUS' VIEWPOINT CAN BE OURS
Harold Brokke


HE CALLED GOD HIS FATHER

He as a man was aware that God was His Father and that everything His Father had was at His disposal so that He could finish His work upon the earth.

Each day Jesus lived He knew in His spirit that His fellowship with His Father could always be the same. He spoke of God as "Holy Father." "O Father. Lord of heaven and earth." and "My Father."

We are apt to say, "Of course He called God His Father. If He was the Son of God, was it so unusual for Him to call God His Father?" This response may be correct but it bypasses some issues we all need to know.

THE ONLY THING HE DIDN'T HAVE WAS SIN

Jesus was the Son of God, but He was also the Son of man. He walked on highways and the city streets of Palestine as a man; He had flesh, bones, and blood, eyes, feet, fingers, breath, heart beat, sex, family, feelings, and a body that could get tired, could bleed, could die. He was a real man.

The only thing He didn't have was sin. He felt sin's power but He never yielded to its lust. He never left the will of His Father in heaven.

WHAT WAS MOST ON THE MIND OF JESUS?

Satan's deceit, the earth's curse, his family's feelings or His disciples' weaknesses did not dominate the mind of Jesus. What was most on the mind of Jesus? He as a man was aware that God was His Father and that everything His Father had was at His disposal so that He could finish His work upon the earth.

CALL MY FATHER YOUR FATHER!

Jesus wanted His disciples to have the same kind of fellowship that He had with God. When Jesus taught His twelve disciples the Lord's Prayer, He gave them a new viewpoint. In a sense, that prayer was meant to work a major change in their minds and in their attitudes. He was saying,

Call My Father your Father. I give you that right. I offer you that power.

HIS PLACE IS ALSO OUR PLACE BEFORE GOD

If we begin to see that His place as a Son to the Father is also our place before God, we will know that such a relationship cannot come to us through a Sunday school or a Bible school, nor can it come to us because we are preachers or teachers or because we know a lot of Scriptures. Jesus Christ can use teachers and classes to bring the viewpoint to us. But the viewpoint that we are God's sons must come to us as we are contrite and believing people.

THE THREE GIFTS

This revelation can come to each of us because of three gifts that God has given us through Jesus Christ. The first is the gift of redemption in the Cross; the second, the victory of the resurrection; and the third, the promise of the Holy Spirit.

First, the Cross of Redemption. Because of the fact of human sin we have all lost our contact with God. We are cut off from the life of God. The bondage to sin, death, the world and the devil has made us the children of wrath" and the "children of disobedience." We are condemned by God's law. We are guilty and await the sentence of damnation.

Though this is true, yet God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the Law, that He might redeem us that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons and "because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, `Abba, Father' "(Gal. 4:4-6).

This great truth in Galatians shows us that redemption makes us aware that we are adopted as sons and we can call God our Father. The Cross of Christ is the way God frees us from the slavery of sin and the cold condemning finger of God's law. If the one man Adam could let sin, weakness, death and legal bondage into the world, how much more can the one man, Jesus Christ, let in righteousness, power, life and gracious liberty to the believer. We glory in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, the Victory of the Resurrection. After Calvary the day came when Jesus rose from the dead. As Charles Wesley wrote,

Death could not keep its prey,
Jesus my Saviour.
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He arose
with a mighty triumph o'er His foes.
He arose the victor from the dark domain
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose, He arose,
Hallelujah, Christ arose!

Christ put away sin by His death for us on Calvary and He overcame death when He rose up from the grave. As the new head of the race He tore down all the walls that would not let us enjoy God as our Father.

On the day He arose, He said to Mary, "Go to my brethren and say unto them, `I ascend unto my Father and your Father!' " Jesus at that time shared His right as God's son with His disciples. Now He wants to share it with all believers.

Finally, the Promise of the Father. After forty days Jesus went back to heaven and then ten days later on the day of Pentecost Jesus gave the disciples His Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that when He went back to heaven He would send them "another Comforter to be with them forever." This promise meant that they would get the best God could offer. He called the gift of the Holy Spirit the "promise of my Father." (See Luke 24:49; John 14:16; Acts 1:4; Acts 2:28.)

THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME TO DO MANY THINGS

The Holy Spirit came to do many things in their lives. He came to give them the power of divine love, spiritual gifts for their ministry, power to witness and to glorify Jesus Christ throughout the world. All these gifts were needed. However, Jesus' greatest joy was to let His disciples know in their hearts the same fellowship that He had with His Father in heaven. The baptism with the Holy Spirit came to bring to them this awareness of the Father and Son relationship.

The Spirit also came to make known the inheritance that we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus told them about the purpose of the day of Pentecost when He said, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me and I in you" (John 14:20). When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we get the right to become the son of God (John 1:12); then when we as God's children receive the Holy Spirit, we get to know the great reality of sonship.

THE TRUTH OF SONSHIP

This truth of sonship in Christ carries us one step further, for when Christ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, we begin to know how to use our inheritance as the sons of God. We begin to know that God's love from His Son is for us. Also what Jesus Christ saw in the Father we can begin to see. Christ's words become the words of life to us. His cross becomes our cross. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. His authority at the right hand of the Father is our authority. In fact, Jesus once said, "He that overcometh shall sit together with me on my throne even as I sat together with the Father on his throne." His glory will be our glory. Pray that God will give you a revelation of this great truth. May we know the power of God in our lives in order that we might be witnesses of the love and holiness of Christ and bring this message to all nations.

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION


JESUS' VIEWPOINT CAN BE OURS | EARLY ARGUMENTS AGAINST IDOLATRY PRIOR TO THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA IN A.D. 325 | RAISING A DISCIPLE | HOW CAN CHRIST COME INTO OUR HEARTS? | TRIALS AND PERSEVERANCE | ON DIVINATION | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR


Harold Brokke
harold.brokke@bethanyinternational.org

Google

Sharing Your Faith with a Buddhist, a book on evangelism by M. S. Thirumalai


Solitary Poet, Poems of Reflection by Stan Schmidt.


Sharing Your Faith with Hindus by M. S. Thirumalai.


Send your articles
as an attachment
to your e-mail to
thirumalai@mn.rr.com. You must give your e-mail address in the body of your article, and also a declaration that the article is not published earlier. We do not accept the previously published articles for publication in CHRISTIAN LITERATURE AND LIVING, except under special circumstances and contexts.