This morning as I ponder which of two areas that I should look at first, should it be Divine Guidance or the Greatness of Christ. Think that I'll do the Greatness of Christ, because yesterday it was the Greatness of GOD. So it is fitting to follow suit with Christ my LORD. That settled lets look at Pastor Hoekstra and his teaching on Grace as seen in the light of Christ. And then with the Led of the LORD I will make use of the ESV translation to look at the Greatness of Christ. Also keep it in mind that when the LORD gives me more light that I will add it there and then without hesitation of forewarning, as is my usual practice.
"The Most Precious Promise of Shared Life"
"By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine (His) nature . . . Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law . . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (2Peter 1:4 and Galatians 3:13-14)
"Here, we get at the heart of GOD's "exceedingly great and precious promises." That are active within those who are part of His "so great a Salvation" program, while we remain here on earth as His students. By means of promise, the LORD has made it possible for us to share in His life: "that through these [God's promises] you may be partakers of the (His) Divine Nature."
What a remarkable prospect this is — that man could participate in [the] His divine nature. Yet, the promises of GOD make this available to all of man. Of course, this does not mean that man becomes divine (as many false religions and some aberrant theologies espouse). GOD alone is, and will ever be, Divine. "I am GOD, and there is no other; I am GOD, and there is none like Me" (Isaiah 46:9). Nonetheless, man can share in the Life of GOD, even though he will never become "a god" himself. This is accomplished by Jesus Christ coming to dwell within the lives of those who believe [in] en Him. The Lord Jesus died for us that He might give His divine life to us. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). This life that Jesus wants to share with us is His own life. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life' . . . Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' " (John 11:25 and 14:6).
The Apostle Paul taught this great truth extensively. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the Will (plan and purpose) of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (2Timothy 1:1). He understood that his apostolic ministry was not only anchored in GOD's will, but it also depended upon the life that GOD promised. Thus, he confessed Christ as his very own life: "Christ Who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Paul was not the source of the daily Christian life that he lived. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). The LORD Jesus was Paul's life source. As HE is my own life source and thou my flesh may sin there is no condemnation tied to it, as I renounce it immediately. As I stated else where that when people simply memorize scriptures, that they have only the words in memory, that they are not active within them. Whereas when we learn Christ through Christ the words become a living Life imparting source of Christ's character and nature within us by our own speaking them out. What do I mean? As the LORD by His Spirit shows us a passage and / or a picture of one, and we speak of it, it becomes a living reality within.
This is what the promise of the Spirit is about. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law . . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." At new birth, the Holy Spirit also comes to indwell those who believe. The Spirit reveals these great truths to us through the word of GOD. Then, the Spirit gives forth the life of Christ through every humble, dependent child of GOD. "It is the Spirit Who gives Life" (John 6:63).
Of Christ's Greatness,
Isaiah 53:10-12 "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; HE has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; HE shall prolong His days; the will (good pleasure) of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."
Isaiah 63:1-6 "Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, HE Who is splendid in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? "It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save." Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like His Who treads in the winepress? "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me; I trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; their lifeblood spattered on My garments, and stained all My apparel. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought Me salvation, and My wrath upheld Me. I trampled down the peoples in My anger; I made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
Matthew 12:1-7 "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless."
Luke 11:29-32 "When the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here."
Philippians 2:1-11 "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of GOD, did not count equality with GOD a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore GOD has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of GOD the Father."
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