Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (9)

 

 

In our previous reflection we asked, “What does the pruning of our Father look like?”

 

We concluded with the following passages:

 

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the word of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:12 – 14).

 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23 – 24).

 

We also asked how these passages might relate to John 15:1 – 2 and how each entire Psalm (the context) helps us to see each passage more clearly. Let’s consider these questions.

 

Our Father’s pruning has many facets and I think this is something we often misunderstand because we fail to appreciate the purpose of our Father in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father desires that we might be conformed to the “image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). Along with this, our Father desires that the Body of Christ might display the Head in all of His glory, and that the Bride of His Son might be glorious (see Eph. 4 and 5, and of course John 17 and Rev. chapters 21 – 22).

 

So here is something to ponder, while our Father’s pruning includes dealing with sin (at least I think it does), dealing with sin in our lives is not the primary focus of our Father’s pruning, in fact, for the disciple of Jesus Christ, as we grow in Him the issue of sin becomes less and less a focus, and whatever it may be it is not the center of our growth or of our pruning. God’s primary purpose in our lives is not that we live without sinning – it is that we be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

 

Now you may have to think about this for awhile if you’ve never pondered it. This is along the line of the idea, expressed by Biblically – grounded teachers over the centuries, that we can “love God and do as you please.”

 

If we love God, if we truly love God and are devoted to Him, then what we please will be what pleases God, for our delight will be living in our Father’s will.

 

You see dear friends, we can be without sin – so to speak – and yet not be conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son. Conformity to the image of Jesus Christ is about the Life of Christ and the character of Christ…about the very Person of Christ…being manifested in us, being formed within us. Language falls short here for there are so many nuances, and our thinking is affected by the Fall – but consider that lifeless things, such as statues, are without sin; yet they hardly display the Firstborn Son.

 

Let’s consider Jesus, always a good thing to do. What do you see in Hebrews 5:8 – 9?

 

“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation…”

 

Now then, we know Jesus was without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:21). So sin is not an issue in Hebrews 5:8 – 9. What then do we have? We see that Jesus “learned” and we see that Jesus was “made perfect” or “complete” or “mature.”

 

Again, consider Hebrews 2:10 in which we see that the Father made “perfect the author of their [our] salvation through sufferings.”

 

We see that there was a process of learning and maturation in Jesus Christ. But again, how can this be since Jesus Christ is God? Here, I think, we must look to the mystery of the Incarnation; Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man. Here also recall that mysterious passage in Philippians 2:7, that Christ Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant.”

 

We know that Jesus Christ was sinless. We know that Jesus Christ was and is God and that God is perfect and complete within Himself. Therefore, Hebrews 2:10 and 5:8 – 9 must be speaking to us of the Man Jesus Christ when they speak of being perfected (Heb. 2:10) and of learning obedience and being perfected (Heb. 5:8 – 9).  Now this is a mystery indeed and we do not have language to adequately write about it, and we must not be foolish and engage in speculation as to how these things might be, we simply cannot know what we might call the dynamics of Jesus Christ being fully God and fully Man – it truly is beyond us.

 

What I hope we will see is that the fact that Jesus Christ learned obedience and was made perfect had nothing to do with sin because He has ever and always been sinless and pure, He has ever and always been holy, holy, holy.

 

If we only believed what the Gospel teaches us about justification and sanctification (being dead to sin and alive to God – Romans 6:11), if we only believed that we are holy in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), then we would leave sin behind us and get on with life in Christ in service to Him and others. We would also realize that leaving sin behind does not complete the purpose of God in our lives, for His purpose is that we be “conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).

 

In other words, if Jesus Christ, the Holy and sinless Lamb of God, fully God and fully Man, went through a process of learning obedience and maturation, we are also called to know Him in this same process in order that we may bear His Image – is He not the Vine and are we not the branches? (Jn. 15:1ff).

 

Well, as you can see, we have not yet explored Psalms 19 and 139 and we’ve done enough in this reflection – but we needed to raise an awareness that the pruning of the Father is not primarily about sin – for sin has been taken care of (Romans chapters 1 – 8; 2 Cor. 5:11 – 21). The Lord willing, in our next reflection we will consider sin and Psalms 19 and 139, for we do need to deal with the elemental before we move deeper into the intimacy of the Father’s pruning.

 

I realize that you may have never thought about what I’ve written in this reflection. I ask a couple of things. First, I ask that you read the Scriptures as they are written, allow the Scriptures to overcome our preconceptions, allow them to overcome what we’ve heard from others, and in doing so look to Jesus, always look to Jesus.

 

The other thing I ask is to refrain from speculation. Speculations leads us away from Jesus and the Bible, they are a distraction. We cannot grasp the glorious mystery of the Incarnation, we can't grasp it in Jesus Christ and we can't grasp it as it lives in us. Paul did not explain what He wrote in Philippians 2:7; the author of Hebrews did not explain what he meant in 2:10 and 5:8 – 9. Both writers made statements relevant to the subjects at hand as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us glimpses of the mystery of God in the Incarnation is these passage – let us not be so foolish as to speculate on the dynamics of Jesus being fully God and fully Man, let us rather fall at the feet of Jesus Christ.

 

Speculation leads us away from Jesus Christ. Please, don’t forget this. And perhaps this is part of the Father’s pruning, to learn to seek Jesus and receive Jesus – rather than speculations. If doing the will of the Father was Jesus’s food (Jn. 4:34), then doing the Father’s will as we live in Jesus Christ ought to be our food as well…don’t you think?

 

“The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” (Dt. 29:29).