What Did Jesus Do?
Jesus Did The Father’s Will, And Accomplished His Work
“My food is to do the will of him
who sent me.”
John
4: 34
“God wills it!” I don’t know if you have ever seen Kingdom of Heaven, a fictionalized account of the Crusades. “God
wills it!” was the repeated cry of people who were tragically flawed,
terribly misguided, pretty much clueless about God’s will, and eager to slap
the label of God’s will on their own in order to justify the spilling of a
whole lot of blood. The truth is, when
it comes to the spilling of blood, we can be certain of this alone: it was the Father’s will that his Son’s
blood be spilled for the sake of sinners.
Beyond this it is extremely risky to ascribe to God’s will the spilling
of any other blood.
Think about it. Jesus spent his
entire time on earth doing the will of the Father. The Lord literally nourished himself on the
Father’s will. Also, before he offered
up his spirit to God on the cross, Jesus made sure to accomplish all the works
his Father had ordained for him. And
none of this involved/required the shedding of any blood other than that of the
Lamb of God. So, before unsheathing our
swords, or locking and loading our high magazine firearms, we would do well to
consider whose will we are intent on accomplishing with such weapons (You may
recall that our weapons are not supposed to those typically employed by flesh
to wage war according to the flesh—see 2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
Before I go any further, let me assure you that this is not an anti-2nd
Amendment diatribe. While I do not own a
gun I support 100% the right on citizens to keep and bear arms. But, please, let all restraint be exercised
before being tempted to cry out “God
wills it!” and switching off the safety and pulling the trigger. I must confess that it troubles me that
gun-toting images far outnumber Bible-toting images in social media. Has the Sword
of the Spirit (the Word of God—the Bible) become so dull and rusty as to be
unreliable? Have we come to believe that
any other weapon can be better employed to accomplish the works of God? Have we lost our faith in the blood of the
Lamb having completely and perfectly fulfilled the Father’s will?
Here’s what I believe. Blind
Bartimaeus cried out to the Lord and received his site. God
willed it! A father believed
enough to ask for help beyond his unbelief, and his son was set free. God
willed it! A poor woman whose body
and finances had hemorrhaged for years dared to reach out and touch the robe of
Jesus and was healed. God willed it! An angry and indignant Jesus stood before the
tomb that held the dead body of his friend, and summoned Lazarus back to
life. God willed it! Jesus bore
the sins of many in his body on the cross, literally becoming sin though he
knew no sin, so that we should become righteous in the Father’s eyes. God
willed it!
Christ died on the cross according to the will of God. The Lord’s death is also the means by which
the Father revealed to us his most
gracious and merciful will for us. Whenever I am angry, bitter, or upset with
another, or have hate begin to well up within me against someone, I would only
be kidding myself to ascribe these things to the Father’s will. Is not our calling to do whatever it takes to
let others know how lavishly beyond measure in and through Jesus they are loved
by the Father, and by us? God wills it!
Christ IS All!
Jim
Marion, NC
PS 37.4
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