God has purposes on many different levels. He has purpose for every Word He sends forth. He has purpose in specific events. For example, a man was born blind so that God’s glory could be shown. He has established specific purposes for you to accomplish during your tour on the Earth. He has distinct purposes for your generation and for the generations of your disciples. {We will look at these sometime soon.} And, He has overarching purposes for the Church, for Mankind, and for the Creation. It is these larger overarching purposes that we want to consider today.
Taking the Scripture as a whole, we see that God’s purpose for creation was to develop an appropriate bride for the Son of God. For those who see types in the Old Testament this purpose is alluded to in the story of Abraham (the Father) sending Eleazer (the Holy Spirit) to bring Rebecca (the Church) as a bride for Isaac (the Son). The qualities of the true Bride can be understood in the context of this purpose. She must voluntarily choose Jesus. She must participate in her preparation. She must love Him above all else. These are just a few of the things to be seen in this eternal purpose. The realm of time and space together with satan and all of his demons can now be seen as tools for the carrying out of this purpose. These things all function to equip and test the Bride such that she might reach and know when she has come to the point of readiness. It is then that she will join with the Holy Spirit in calling Jesus to come for her. I encourage all who are interested in this purpose to read Paul’s more expansive explanation of the purpose, the plan, and the process of fulfillment set forth in Ephesians chapters 1 through 3.
Within that great and overarching purpose, God has a special purpose for the Church as a part of her preparation to be the Bride. That is to be conformed to the image of the Anointed One. Jesus was very aware of this subsidiary purpose and emphasized it to us. He said that He is sending us into the World in the same manner that the Father sent Him into the World. In the same vein Jesus instructed us to love one another as He, Jesus, has loved us. Over and over again He became our example to follow.
A few specific aspects of the image of the Anointed One are brought to mind by way of illustration:
1. He emptied Himself and made Himself a servant.
2. He suffered and thereby learned to comply with Father’s plan.
3. He lived with the expectation that He would lay down His life for us.
4. He came to save not to judge the World.
5. He acted to express His love while we were insulting Him.
6. He never did what He wanted to do. He did what He saw the Father doing.
7. He never said what He felt like saying. He only spoke what He heard from the Father.
8. His purpose was to destroy the works of satan.
9. He frequently set people free from whatever held them in bondage.
10. He loved all people and discipled a very few of them.
If we will allow the Holy Spirit to move in us to make us like Jesus in these few things we will be starting to learn how to fulfill the purpose of God for us.
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