Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Jesus: God's Elect (Part 1)

"Behold, My Servant, Whom I uphold, Mine Elect in Whom My soul delighteth" (Isa 42:1)

BEHOLD. HIM.
God has, in many places, declared WHAT He would do and THAT He would do it. Isaiah 42 is a declaration concerning WHO would accomplish it and HOW He would accomplish it. Before the foundations of the world were laid God, the Father had determined to glorify Himself by saving man. Then, in time and history, He stretched forth His arm in the person; the Man, Christ Jesus and performed His will. Jesus is the means through which God would accomplish the work of salvation. Furthermore, He is the "Worker" who would accomplish it. 
God’s Choice. The world needs saving. The world needs a Savior: One who will do what is necessary. God determined that all of His good pleasure would be accomplished by His Elect. His Choice for saving man would not be a location, not a commandment, not a system, not even an angel. His Elect would be His own Son; a man. 
When the Lord looked upon the face of the earth He saw that there was no man (born of the flesh) that could accomplish His eternal purpose; for it was purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. No tryouts would be possible, no application process necessary, no voting of men would be appropriate for there was none that qualified, none good, no, not one. 
How then could salvation be accomplished? With men this proved to be an impossibility but not with God. For God had already made a choice. The election of Jesus was not a reaction to the absence of an able man in the earth. Rather, the absence of an able man in the earth was evidence of the need for a Divine man to be sent to the earth. And so, Jesus' "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting"(Mic 5:2) so that He could save men from their sin, satisfy the righteous requirement of the Law, and please the Father once for all.
God’s Covenant. In view of unveiling this great salvation to the minds of men, the Lord promised a  covenant that He would make with the people of Israel and the people of Judah that would not be like the one He made with them when He took them by the hand out of the land of Egypt. This covenant would be more “living” than that one. It would not be contained in laws and ordinances, it would be contained in a person. It would not rest on their ability to fulfill demands but on God’s ability to accomplish what He had promised. So, finding fault with the flesh’s ability to measure up, God sent His Servant in the fulness of time to be "a covenant of the people" (Isa 42:6) and His "salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isa 49:6). This Jesus is not only be a messenger of the covenant (Mal 3:1) and a mediator of the covenant (Heb 8:6; 12:24), He IS the covenant. He is the arrangement, agreement, provision and promise that God has purposed to save men and justify all judgment. He is God's Choice.

Consider Jesus, of Nazareth: God’s Elect. Behold HIM!

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