Tools to Prove
Nothing in the world seeks anything but to satisfy “self.” Am struck by how odd the phrase then sounds to hear it said that Christ purified us ‘for Himself’ (Titus 2:4). For one, there’s something implicitly strange to think that supreme Divinity could be beneficiary of our salvation; for another, it goes against the grain to think that His motive was for anything but us.
For whom was salvation then?
Clearly, we become recipients of His immortality (‘…he who believes has eternal life’ ~ John 6:47); we are reconnected to the Source of Life. We are also shown the grace of being returned to His presence (we have the ‘hope’ which enters ‘within the veil’ ~ Hebrews 6:19); we are able to come before God, Perfect Righteousness, because covered with His merciful Blood. And we are granted His righteous favor (Christ ‘became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption’ ~ 1 Corinthians 1:30).
So why does the passage from Titus denote that something of our salvation is “for Him?” Why does Isaiah 59:16 say that, “His own arm brought salvation to Him…” (NASB), or “His own arm worked salvation for Him” (NIV)? Why has the psalmist worded it that, “His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory [accomplished salvation] for Him” (Ps. 98:1)? What is there of any value to Him in His having brought us rescue, deliverance?
The only good which seems to square with His love [1 Corinthians 13] is that, somehow in His redeeming us, in working us out of sin’s death-like grip and into a saving knowledge of who He is, He is meeting our needs. It’s as though His greatest intent toward us is to see that we’re re-fitted to communion with Him – not to restore victory to His design of these finite creatures, but to address our deepest hungers, and the core of our brokenness. When man seeks to acquire for himself, it is God's desire to offer Himself entirely which, so contrary to our understanding, strikes discordant.
And yet, what Jesus’ heart, bared and bleeding on that cross, shows most lavishly, is that what He counts His benefit, “the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2), is not that He receives communion, or even reciprocation, but that He can give His utmost for His Beloved.
Somehow the greatest joy to Him was never in retaining any temporal good (which all too often defines our driving goals), but specifically to use those “possessions” as tools to convey His true motivations toward us. Somehow His purpose, His foremost intent, was always to take that which was in His hands – His power, His glory, His very Life – and deliberately lay all down, for us.
As proof. Proof of how genuine His love; proof that He would seek not His own (1 Corinthians 13:5), but give preference to us (Philippians 2:3-4). Evidence through which He could demonstrate His desire toward us. For He laid aside self-will and took up deprivation; He set down glory and took on degradation; He cast aside honor and accepted the mantle of scorn. How our Savior sought to empty His hands of all He possessed, if only we would be returned to them.
It would seem that more pleasing was it to Him to forfeit heaven’s riches than the clay and breath He’d given being; more desirable to Him to relinquish His rights than to leave our frail spirits ‘in the dust.’
And somewhere in His forfeiture of all He should have held dear, He speaks in resounding tones which cause us to understand that, in His accepting their void, in being stripped of all He could have claimed by right, still He desired us more ~
For whom was salvation then?
Clearly, we become recipients of His immortality (‘…he who believes has eternal life’ ~ John 6:47); we are reconnected to the Source of Life. We are also shown the grace of being returned to His presence (we have the ‘hope’ which enters ‘within the veil’ ~ Hebrews 6:19); we are able to come before God, Perfect Righteousness, because covered with His merciful Blood. And we are granted His righteous favor (Christ ‘became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption’ ~ 1 Corinthians 1:30).
So why does the passage from Titus denote that something of our salvation is “for Him?” Why does Isaiah 59:16 say that, “His own arm brought salvation to Him…” (NASB), or “His own arm worked salvation for Him” (NIV)? Why has the psalmist worded it that, “His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory [accomplished salvation] for Him” (Ps. 98:1)? What is there of any value to Him in His having brought us rescue, deliverance?
The only good which seems to square with His love [1 Corinthians 13] is that, somehow in His redeeming us, in working us out of sin’s death-like grip and into a saving knowledge of who He is, He is meeting our needs. It’s as though His greatest intent toward us is to see that we’re re-fitted to communion with Him – not to restore victory to His design of these finite creatures, but to address our deepest hungers, and the core of our brokenness. When man seeks to acquire for himself, it is God's desire to offer Himself entirely which, so contrary to our understanding, strikes discordant.
And yet, what Jesus’ heart, bared and bleeding on that cross, shows most lavishly, is that what He counts His benefit, “the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2), is not that He receives communion, or even reciprocation, but that He can give His utmost for His Beloved.
Somehow the greatest joy to Him was never in retaining any temporal good (which all too often defines our driving goals), but specifically to use those “possessions” as tools to convey His true motivations toward us. Somehow His purpose, His foremost intent, was always to take that which was in His hands – His power, His glory, His very Life – and deliberately lay all down, for us.
As proof. Proof of how genuine His love; proof that He would seek not His own (1 Corinthians 13:5), but give preference to us (Philippians 2:3-4). Evidence through which He could demonstrate His desire toward us. For He laid aside self-will and took up deprivation; He set down glory and took on degradation; He cast aside honor and accepted the mantle of scorn. How our Savior sought to empty His hands of all He possessed, if only we would be returned to them.
It would seem that more pleasing was it to Him to forfeit heaven’s riches than the clay and breath He’d given being; more desirable to Him to relinquish His rights than to leave our frail spirits ‘in the dust.’
And somewhere in His forfeiture of all He should have held dear, He speaks in resounding tones which cause us to understand that, in His accepting their void, in being stripped of all He could have claimed by right, still He desired us more ~
posted by Purple at 6:28 PM
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