Friday, October 11, 2013

Lesson 6 Knowing The Father

     When Jesus said in John 10:30 (Amplified), "I and the Father are one," He identified the very nature and will of God for the New Testament people.  As the old covenant was about to be fulfilled and the new covenant was about to be revealed, there would be a new realtionship with God now.
     Never before did people have a relationship with God like this since the Garden of Eden.  They didn't know at that time the things that you and I now know.  They couldn't imagine that Jesus would be the Lamb who would cleanse them all of sin and iniquity.  Being made righteous (or in right standing) with God was a notion so foreign to them that they couldn't understand what Jesus meant.
     Jesus was speaking to old covenant men about the new covenant things.  When Jesus said that He and God were one and the same, it was considered blasphemy to them.  To say Jesus was the Son of God was blasphemy and was punishable by death according to John 19:7 (Amplified).
     The Jewish people had never had a relationship with God that would allow them to ever make such a statement.  The only way they could related to Him was by the Law and sacrifice.  He had been a Holy God and a just God.  His dealings with this people (since Mt. Sinai) had been based on blood, sacrifice, obedience to the Law and being too holy to approach.
     Sometimes, we as New Testament people, seem to want this kind of relationship.  We seem almost to see God as He dealt with old covenant people rather than how He deals with us now.  We seem to have a problem seeing with a clear eye what our relationship is.
     Seeing God the way He dealt with the old covenant people has changed the way we will allow Him to deal in our lives.  God doesn't need me to clear His reputation, but it hurts my heart to hear His children speak about their Father in fear, distance and ignorance.
     We misjudge God when we view Him more from the old covenant than as our Father in the new covenant.  Jesus said in John 14:7 (Amplified) that "When you see Me, you have seen the Father."  We now have a clear view of the will, the heart and the love of God by seeing Jesus. 
     Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified) makes a statement that should give us a clear picture of God that His will should be obvious to us today.  Verse 3 says, "[Jesus] is the sole expression of the glory of God (the light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the Divine) and He is the perfect imprint and very image of (God's) nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty Word of power.  When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty on High."
     They only way to see God is to see Jesus.  If Jesus and the Father are One (and we know they are), then the way  to know how our Father deals with us it to watch Jesus.  It will dispel all of the foolish things and old wives tales we've been taught throughout the years.  If it's not grace and mercy and truth, then it isn't our Father.  We've been taught for years that you can never know God's will.  But, if Jesus and the Father are one, then we can know God's will by watching Jesus.
     If you truly believe that God's will is to chastise you, hold you accountable for some sins, not hear your prayers or hold back His righteousness on your behalf, then you don't know Him.  If you believe that God placed Jesus on that cross as our substitute, then you cannot believe that He is still holding anything against you.
     Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, according to Luke 22:42 (Amplified)," that if there was another way, then let the cup be removed from Him, but if not, then let God's will be done."  It was God's will to put Jesus in our place and to put us in His place.  Jesus became what I was so that I could be what He is.  Now, because of Jesus, when my Father looks at me, all He sees is Jesus.  When He sees me, He now sees me as righteous with Jesus' righteousness according to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (Amplified).  God now deals with me as if I actually Jesus.
     We've become the Body of Christ.  If God treated us as if Jesus had never died, then the sacrifice wasn't pure and holy and didn't cover us like it was supposed to.  Now, you know that isn't true!  John 17:22 (Amplified) says that "I have given them the glory and honor which you have given me that they may be one (even) as we are one."

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