The Wednesday Word - 27 July, 2022 A.D.
What the Father Sees in the Man Christ Jesus.
Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man. When we look at Him. we see the perfections of God, but when the Father looks at Jesus, He sees, among other things, the perfections of man.
It is no wonder then that Jesus is the only qualified mediator between God and man. (1 Timothy 2:5). As you remember, when God created man, He created Him in His image, but through unbelieving disobedience, man fell from his position of intimacy with the Lord. Adam failed … as has every man since then, save one. From the time of Adam to Christ, untold multitudes of people have come and gone, but all of them have been flawed and imperfect. They could not love God with all of their hearts. They were marked with the sweat stain of sin. But then, 2000 years ago a baby was born to a virgin, and in this child we witnessed the arrival of the last Adam, the second man (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). He was and is the representative man, man as God had intended man to be. This new man, though truly human, was holy, righteous and perfect in all that He did, thought and said. In man’s spiritual blindness, however, few noticed anything that should be desired in Him. (Isaiah 53:2). But no matter, in Christ, the Father saw His own thoughts and intentions realized in human form. In Christ, the Father saw a sinless, righteous life lived out before Him in perfection. No human eye saw what the Father saw in His Son. In Christ, man saw a carpenter, a travelling preacher and a miracle worker, but in Christ, the Father saw the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3). In Christ’s teachings, men heard wisdom, but in these same teachings, the Father heard His very own words. In the Son’s worship, men saw only that Christ withdrew to a quiet place, but in that quiet place the Father saw and received perfect worship. Men heard the Lord Jesus pray, but the Father heard perfect pleading and perfect petitioning according to His own will. Praying and worship like this has not been heard since, nor does it have to be, for it is already credited to the believer’s account. What a perfect substitute we have in the Lord Jesus. This is why He is the only one qualified to save us to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). By the way, is He your only confidence or is there something else you would like to add to Him? As we noted before, when it comes to Jesus, is it any wonder that when the Father speaks of Him, He speaks in superlatives? The Lord Jesus was the sheer delight of the Father for He loved the Father with His entire strength, soul and mind. In Christ, we see the unfolding of the Father’s glory. We sometimes forget that we have been saved for the glory of God (Ephesians 1:5-6). We often centre too much on ourselves as being the hub of attention in salvation. We, for example, consider Christ Jesus to be our Shepherd, and so He is, but He is also Yahweh’s shepherd (Zechariah 13:7); the chosen shepherd who would be smitten. We say that Jesus is our Lamb and yes He is, but He is also God’s Lamb (John 1:29). He is the Lamb whom the Father has lovingly provided, not only to save us, but also to ensure that His justice would be satisfied. How the Father delights in the Son! May we also learn to do the same. And that’s the Gospel Truth!
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