I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. Isaiah 50:6.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
I give you gifts, do not take them lightly. Do not treat them as no value. What you do not value, you will not keep. Like Essau with his birthright, it was his most precious possession, but he threw it aside for a bowl of beans. Jacob valued the blessing of Abraham and the double portion, and he gained them. Your life is a gift, a very special gift, endowed with gifts that make you amazing and enable you to engage in works of excellence and fruitful endeavors of creating and producing with Me. Every good thing and every perfect gift comes from above, coming down out of Me your Father of lights. I give good things to those who ask for them. I give the perfect gifts.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:13.
But to you today I am speaking of the perfect gift, the pearl of the greatest price, that is freely given to you by faith. I give you the gift of Jesus and He in turn gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And through Jesus and in the Spirit, I give you the gift of Myself. Do not fear, I am a shield to you, your very great reward.
I want to talk to you about the enormity of the unfathomable riches of Christ.
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:8-12.
And I want to focus on one aspect here. Jesus, as we have talked about in prior Life Lessons, had glory with Me before the world began. He is God with Me as One. He has all the divine attributes.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Colossians 1:15-20.
And just as I hate sin and cannot look upon it, so does He. He, like Me and the Spirit, is pure love. This love is beyond comprehension in its breadth and length and height and depth, it towers above the earth and reaches deeper than the sea.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:11-12.
When man sinned against Me, it grieved Me, but I had an eternal purpose for you which I carried out in Christ Jesus your Lord. I wanted you with Me and I wanted to dwell always with you. But sin has no place in love, pure love. I had to get the sin off you to have you with Me always. I had to free you from sin to bring you in. You had to be justified to be glorified. You had to be created anew. Not just forgiven, but the sins gone. No longer a dead spirit born again from the perishable seed of lies in Adam, but a living spirit born from above by My imperishable Word in Christ. No longer in the fear Adam put you in, but in the faith My Word causes to come in.
They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3:8-10.
But now for you who are in Christ Jesus, perfect love casts out all fear. Fear has to do with punishment, but there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. What you could not earn in flesh, I did for you in Jesus. Jesus took all your sins and gave you His righteousness, which is also My righteousness, and took your sins to the cross and cancelled them out as if they had never been.
But this required Him to become sin on your behalf, though He knew no sin, so you, in this divine exchange, could become holy, righteous, and blameless in My sight, beyond reproach. He stepped out of His glory into a cesspool of sin to pull you out of the miry pit and put your feet on the height with a new song of praise in your mouth. He went down to the dust of death for you so you could be raised up with Him to the heights of Heaven. He took your sentence on Himself and gave the eternal life He had in the flesh to satisfy justice for the eternal life Adam had murdered. An eternal life for an eternal life and the life is in the blood.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay Me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Psalm 22:14-18.
Here is the King of Glory to whom the ancient gates that Adam shut would again open, the East Gate of the Temple, the One who sustains the universe by His Word of power, through whom and for whom all things were made, whose brilliant glory is the lamp of the Kingdom, stumbling as the lowest of the low, bathed in blood from being scourged and crowned with thorns for your sins borne in His own flesh, walking the new and living way opening the Holy of Holies to you as He trod the painful path of sin to Calvary as if He were the scum of the earth, the worst of sinners and a worm and not a man.
But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” Psalm 22:6-8.
This was so far beneath Him, and so contrary to His nature, that it had caused Him to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and to ask Me to let this cup of divine wrath for sin pass Him by without Him drinking it.
Thus says your Lord (Adonai), the LORD (Yahavah), even your God who contends for His people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of My anger; you will never drink it again.” Isaiah 51:22.
But for the joy of saving you to the uttermost so that you could be with Me as My delight forever, He set His face like flint and continued on all the way to the finish line.
And I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord LORD helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. Isaiah 50:5-7.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3.
He finished the work of salvation I gave Him to do. He undid the works of devil in you for all who will receive Him as Lord despite the appearance of who He became for you. He was humbled and abased before His own people, the religious leaders, the government officials appointed by Rome, that is, Pontius Pilate and Herod, and the guards and soldiers, even one of the two criminals hanging next to Him ridiculed and taunted Him. The Pharisees jeered at Him.
Surely our sickness and griefs He Himself bore, and our pains and sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:4-6.
Satan rejoiced in what he believed to be his victory but that victory was short lived. Jesus took from him the keys to death and hell that reigned over mankind.
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Hebrews 2:14-15.
Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Corinthians 2:6-8.
But in Jesus the sentence of eternal death placed upon all men through Adam was satisfied, lifted, and done away with forever for those who would embrace so great a Savior and so great a salvation.
Because He poured out Himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12.
I have many things to tell you about the unfathomable riches of Christ, for in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in Him the fullness of the Godhead resides bodily, but for now they are too big for you to hold, but as you run in the ways of My Word your heart will enlarge and you will understand more and more the mystery of Christ, which was for ages was hidden in Me.
I love you. In Christ I was willing to stoop down low to raise you up worthy in Him to be seated with Me in Heaven. Jesus, who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, upon whose shoulders dominion rests, who has all authority in heaven and on earth, to whom every knee must bow, whose name is Wonderful, Counselor, God Hero, Father Forever, Prince of Peace, was willing to be ridiculed, scorned, beaten, dragged through the streets, and humiliated, rejected, and shamed in mock trials and false accusations and sentenced to death like a common criminal, all to save you forever to the uttermost. Have you ever pondered the immensity of His humility? And yet most people are totally unwilling to do anything they consider beneath them. In fact, they are offended if you think they should serve in a capacity they consider lower than the great person they are! Watch out for pride, it never makes you better and never takes you higher. I resist the proud and give grace to the humble, grace upon grace.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11.