Jesus The... || Part 4
Jesus The… || Part 4, Day 4
Philippians 4:10-20 NLT
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen.
Colossians 2:4-9 NLT
I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
Jesus the Provision means He provides for our eternal salvation.
When God created man, He never created him to be apart from Him. Everything in man and about man was genetically designed to respond to close fellowship with God. Everything in man was created to encounter the manifest presence of God on a daily basis. Everything in man was designed to react to the call of God’s voice daily. Everything in man was created to walk with God daily. We were crated to function in close fellowship with God.
But then man fell in the garden to sin, and sin entered the world. At this moment man became separated from God. That’s one of the reasons why man began to die. Because we were separated from the very One we were designed to be connected to.
Throughout the years man would make attempts to reconnect with God. However, the fellowship could never be completely reestablished because the wrath of God wasn’t satisfied. It is kind of like being around someone that has hurt you deeply. If there has never been any true healing and forgiveness, everything is just on the surface. You are cordial with one another and can even be acquaintances, but there is no fellowship. That’s how it was with man and God.
Every time God would be with man, He would remember what man did and what man was capable of doing. Therefore, man was only allowed to come so close. He was only allowed so far into the presence of God.
This was not how God wanted it, but since He is completely Holy it had to be this way or else man would die approaching Him. So, it was His mercy that kept man at a distance. It was His mercy that kept man from entering into the closeness with Him because man wasn’t clean or holy enough to be there.
Therefore, He had to send His only begotten Son in the form of man to die in our place. There had to be something in place that every time God looked, His wrath would be satisfied. There had to be something in heaven, in place that would remind God that man was forgiven, and no longer an enemy.
Therefore, Jesus dies on the cross a sinner’s death. Why? Because the wage of sin is death, therefore sin requires death. Jesus, the One with no sin, dies on the cross and satisfies the penalty. Then He places His blood on the mercy seat in heaven. This was not done for Him; it was done for us. This blood was to remind God that every time He saw man in His presence He would remember the penalty has been paid and man has been reconciled to God. Peace has been acquired.