A Perfect Man

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13 NKJV)

What is the man God intended man to be? What did God have in mind when he made man? The scripture says that He made man in His image and His likeness in the beginning. God knew all even before the creation of the universe, the fall, the healing, the restoration of mankind through the Christ of God. As a matter of fact, there are two man in history—Adam and Jesus Christ. Adam fell down and brought all humanity into the realm of death. Jesus Christ came down to the earth in the likeness of man and died in the place of mankind for the fall and sin of the world.

Adam displayed the man God intended man to be before the fall. He was a selfless person who had the intimate relationship with God. God and Adam were in complete and perfect openness and transparency in all the areas of relationship. But Adam lost all the rich and profound resources of God because the sin separated him from the Creator. The scripture describes the state of fall as dead in spirit (Ephesians 2:1). The body and soul are still working and functioning in Adam but the spirit of man isn’t. Man lost his beauty and glory, the likeness of God, but still has the image of God.

Christ Jesus the last Adam demonstrated the life of the fully restored man on the earth whom God intended man to be. The secret of that life is “He in the Father and the Father in him.” Jesus was always in the Father in heaven and the Father, in the Son. That’s the total communion of the two Persons. Jesus says that He did everything in the complete obedience to the Father. “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19 NKJV)

Christ was never out of that line in His earthly life. His eyes of mind and heart were fixed on the Father in heaven and presented His body every time and place on which the heavenly Father put. The perfect life of man is found in Jesus Christ. Christ was a perfect man, often wary and tired. He came down to the earth and demonstrated a mature manhood whose spirit was fully functioning and working as God intended man to function and work. “…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…” (Ephesians 4:4 NKJV)

What God had in mind for the fallen race is to restore to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That’s now available for all who comes to the Father in Christ. Rebirth in Christ and growth to the fullness of Christ are what God had in mind even before the time began. How does God fulfill the work of growth to a perfect man? Through His words of truth!

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV)

 

Do You Want to Get Well?

“When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6 NKJV)

What is the most important question of God to humans? Here is one given in the Gospel of John Chapter 5 to a man who had an infirmity thirty-eight years, “Do you want to get well?” This is a profound probing question for the fallen race? It is exactly the same question to Adam spoken by God, “Where are you?” It seems a very easy question to answer but it is not. It seems too obvious for everyone to be made well. In a sense, yes all wants to get well. 

However, it is not so easy to answer the searching question. We want to get well and at the same time we don’t want to be made well. It sounds difficult to understand. See the problem of man is much deeper than the shallow feeling of being made well on the surface. Since the fall of Adam all man is born under the serious condition of bondage and slavery in darkness and blindness. That’s the truth. That’s the reality. Human beings are lost and fallen much deeper down than we think.

The law of sin and death works from birth in every man if not delivered by the redeemer who is Christ Jesus. Until Christ comes in man’s life as Lord, he is constantly in want. The seriousness of man’s problem is the ignorance and obliviousness of the seriousness of human sickness. There is no way out unless the stronger comes and delivers out of the bondage of the devil. Though people desperately want to get out of the sickness of futility and be made well, they cannot by themselves.

There is one more problem. Sinning is pleasurable. Is it not? Many a people do not want to be made well because they are afraid of losing the pleasures of sin. The pool of Bethesda is the exact miniature of the world where people are suffering and wondering around by sickness like blindness, cripple, or paralysis. The wiles of the devil deceive the people that they can take care themselves. Thus, they refuse to come to God who offers a break through, saying “Do you want get well?”

This is really a serious question we shall answer right away. “Do you truly want to be made well?” Our God is the power to heal the deadly sickness, even the sin of lawlessness. If so, we shall respond to His call by faith, saying “Lord, heal us from all evils—hatred, guilt, despair, bitterness, anger, revenge, orgies, pornography, fornication, lies.”

Jesus says to the man, “Get up, take up your mat, and walk!” When he heard the voice of the Son of God, he obeyed Him and so he was able to get up, take up his mat and walk. Jesus made him whole, healing both physically and spiritually. Jesus released the man from the bondage and iron-grip of the devil immediately when he exercised the faith in Him. God searches the people who really want to be made well through Christ the Redeemer. 

 

Greatest Born of Women vs. Least in Heaven

“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11 NKJV)

What does it mean that the greatest man like John the Baptizer is less than least in heaven? John was the preparer and forerunner for the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was commissioned long time before even he was born by Prophet Isaiah.  He stood at the climax of the Law and the Prophets. “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.” (Luke 16:16 NKJV)

He also witnessed the heaven opened and the Spirit descended on Jesus Christ. Although John’s life was rough and short and no attractions in the human point of view, he was called the greatest among those born of women. It means that he was the greatest among the natural born, not the spiritually born. He did not witness the death and resurrection of Christ though he believed it as he cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

As Jesus asserted, he was the greatest man in time and space. That’s how God sees man not by status and wealth but by calling. However, he was less than the least in the heavenly places. It means that there is no way to compare the glories between in time and in eternity. Man can enter into eternity through one way, the way of the cross of Christ in Calvary. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV) Apostle Paul confirms this truth, saying “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18 NKJV)

What is heaven? Heaven is not somewhere in a far remote place in the universe. The heavenly places are right here in our midst. It exists in a completely different dimension where God reigns and rules. We believe in God who is the invisible heavenly places through the gift of faith in Christ. There are many examples which God pulled down the curtain and opened the eyes of mortal men to see the heaven like in the transfiguration mountain. 

We are wearing the earthly tents on the earth, but we shall be wearing the heavenly tents which God made. So, we do not lose heart no matter what circumstances they may be. The hope of being clothed with the resurrection body is infallible and unfailing. 

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.” (2 Corinthians 5:1-3 NKJV)

 

Present Your Bodies A Living Sacrifice

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2 NKJV)

What is our reasonable service in Christ since we have been justified, sanctified, and shall be glorified? This beseech is exhorted to the regenerated Christians who by faith have been born again in Christ. Christians understand what the righteousness of God is and how they have been clothed with His righteousness. It means that man has nothing to boast of earning the righteousness of God. Natural born man is lost and fallen from heaven and thus enslaved in darkness and confusion under the power of sin and death. 

Christ’s death on the cross paid the ransom in full for those who believe in Him. The death of Jesus is the substitutionary death for all the elect before the creation of the world. Receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are liberated from the bondage and slavery of the principalities and dominion of the darkness and evil. Sin has no longer dominion over us for we are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14). The old man in us died to sin because he (old man) cannot keep the Law of God. 

The redemption plan for humanity was designed through the Christ of God even before the foundation of the universe. God sanctified and justified the elect in the name of the Lord Jesus to fulfill the scriptures. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11 NKJV) 

Therefore, our reasonable service is present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God. It’s because we have been made alive by the mercies of God. God claimed us as His own property with the price of Christ’s death. We are not our own, but we were bought at the price. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV)

As Christ presented His body as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to the Father on the cross, so do we. It means that we continue to cling unto the cross, denying ourselves and following the founder and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2, Luke 9:23). It means that we obey Him who draws us to present our body to fulfill His works like helping the needy, speaking kind and encouraging words to the saddened, explaining the truth, or witnessing the faith to the strangers and neighbors.

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13 NKJV)

The next step, as given in the following verse, is not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing our mind. Thus, we may prove what good and acceptable and perfect will of God is (Romans 12:2). It’s because this world is contaminated and polluted by the deadly falsity and deception of the devil. Rather, we keep on being renewed our mind by the truth as presented all throughout the scriptures, especially the early part of Romans Chapter 1 through 11. Then, we are not left in darkness and confusion at all but shall be told what the perfect will of God is because the Inner Teacher who is the Spirit helps us out. 

 

Rich Robes

“Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” (Zechariah 3:3-4 NKJV)

How does man look like in heaven? Joshua was a man of God, born in a salve nation and later called to be the leader of Israel and led the people into the land of Canaan. He was the commander of many wars, conquering the land. He was faithful and consistent in seeking and observing the commandments of God throughout his lifetime. He was one of the most honored and respected persons in the history of Israel. He was a faithful servant of God. 

However, in heaven he was clothed with filthy garments before the Angel of the Lord who is Christ. Satan was opposing Joshua the high priest. Notice that Satan has access to the presence of God. He is not yet removed from heaven. But he will be hurled down to the earth in due time. See that Joshua didn’t defend himself against the accusations of Satan. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord rebuke you!” 

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:1-2 NKJV)

The Lord commanded to those who stood before Him to take away the filthy garments from him and said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” This is the reason we can stand before the throne of grace. We cannot contribute anything at all to earn the righteousness of God by any means, status, success, devotion, or whatever. It’s by God’s grace and mercy. When we stop defending ourselves and believe that God exists and He rewards to those who diligently seek Him, we can please Him and He will clothe us with rich robes, the robes of righteousness (Hebrews 11:6).