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THE
NEW LIFE by
John Marshall
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Chapter
23 • OUR
LORD AND SAVIOUR
WHILST God, our Father, has in the Scriptures revealed something
of His Majesty, power and holiness in His Universe, and in
His love and compassion for men, we see and understand Him
best through His well-beloved Son, who lived so closely to
his Father in prayer, in life and in his teaching that he
could truly say to Philip: "He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father."
Even a superficial study of the Scriptures will show that
God not only revealed the glory of His compassion, grace,
mercy and truth to Moses, but manifested them to the nation
of Israel whose people were, more often than not, "stiff-necked
and impudent." Like his Father, Jesus manifested the
same qualities to the righteous and the sinner alike.
Immediately after his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness,
Jesus began his ministry with a declaration of his mission
so that men might see that his character and work had been
foretold by his Father.
The declaration came from a prophecy through Isaiah, which
Jesus read at his home synagogue: "The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor (meek, humble); he hath sent me to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
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References
1 John 14v9, Deut 9v13, Ezek 3v7,
Isa 61v1-2, Luke 4v18-19
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Chapter
23 • OUR
LORD AND SAVIOUR
Selfless Service
In God, the Father, in His angels, and in Jesus there is the same
characteristic of selfless service: it is of the very nature of
immortals in the Universe, and the grandeur of the task to which
saints have been called is that it is a partnership in which the
Father believes they are capable of participating. This had been
made clear to the angels, otherwise the one on Patmos could never
have said to John: "I am a fellow-servant with thee and with
thy brethren . . ."
In the first century anyone knowing God and living in expectation
of the Messiah (as in the case of the wise men seeking the babe,
Jesus) would look for one who manifested the divine graces of love
and service. And those who received Jesus recognized these qualities
in him. Throughout his ministry he made clear by his words and deeds
that he had come to serve. He crystallized his whole purpose in
the words: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give . . ." To give: this was Jesus
manifesting the love and compassion of his Father; not willing that
any repentant sinner should perish, and ready to give his most precious
possession of all-his life-as a ransom for those who would follow
him.
Jesus sought sinners who were humbly repentant: he was not interested
in the self-righteous egotist. And on those who sought him he lavished
the compassion, grace, mercy and truth which his Father had manifested
to Israel. He never refused the sincere appeal for help, and because
he is still the same Jesus, he is still at hand to comfort.
The man who went to Jesus to tell him that the disciples had failed
to heal his son with "a dumb spirit", said to him, "If
thou canst do anything have compassion on us, and help us".
Jesus instinctively seemed to feel his Father's pity for the sufferings
of mankind and he always did and always will, respond
to a heartfelt appeal; in the case of this lad, he healed him, pointing
out to the disciples that this kind of healing could be done only
after prayer and fasting, only after being near to the Father to
absorb His pity and His grace. Until that is done our own hearts
will lack the pity and the grace (the divine charm) to help others.
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References
Rev 19v10, Matt 20v28, Mark 9v22
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