The Victory of the Cross of Christ (continued)
Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of Faith: - He is the Author, the Leader, the Captain, the Source, the Beginning of Faith, He is the Finisher, the Perfecter, the Completer, the Consummator of Faith. We have capitalized Faith, because Christ is the Author and Finisher of ALL FAITH spoken of in the Word of God. This FAITH is two-sided. One the one side, Christ is the Source, the Development, and the Perfecter of our faith, the faith we live by; because in the redeemed, faith is both a gift of the Spirit; and the fruit of the Spirit. And on the other side, Christ is the Author and Finisher of the Faith. He is the Source, the Perfecter, and the Consummator of the Faith, the "One Faith" (Ephesians 4:5; Jude 3). The Faith, the "One Faith," is the sum total of the Truth of God; and the Word tells us that the Truth is a Person, for Christ says: I AM THE TRUTH (John 14:6). I AM the Reality of ALL that God Is. Therefore, the Faith, the "One Faith," upon which we stand and have our existence as Christians is the Living Reality of ALL that Christ Is, and of ALL That Christ accomplished. In both cases, whether it is our faith, the faith we each live by, or whether it is "The Faith" upon which we all stand and have our existence as Christians, we have to believe, trust, live, move and have our being in Him.
How did our Lord and Saviour complete the Faith, our faith, ALL Faith? He endured the Cross. He laid down His Life. He died in Faith. He died in perfect trust believing that God would raise Him from the dead by the Power of the Holy Spirit! "Jesus ... endured [patiently endured] the Cross." "Here is the patience [ the endurance] and the faith of the saints."
Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross. - Jesus ... for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross. He Whom God "appointed Heir of all things," patiently endured the Cross. He through Whom God "made the worlds, and the reaches of space and the ages of time," patiently endured the Cross. He Who is "the Radiance of [God's] Glory, and the express Image of His Person," patiently endured the Cross. He Who "upholds all things by the Word of His Power," patiently endured the Cross (Hebrews 1:2, 3). He Who "Was the Word, and the Word was God," patiently endured the Cross. He Who is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, patiently endured the Cross. "Jesus ... for the joy that was set before Him" endured the Cross What was this joy that was set before our Lord Jesus. What was this joy that caused Him to lay down His glorious Life, a Life so vast and eternal that it cannot be comprehended fully by mortal man, nor by any other created being? What was this surpassing joy that was set before Him? The Holy Spirit gives us the answer as He records what was in the heart of our Lord Jesus as He fulfilled all that His Father had purposed in and through Him: "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy Will, O God." And in the volume of the book where these words were first recorded, the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Spirit, shares what He knew had always been in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ: "I delight to do Thy Will, O God" (Psalm 40:8).
The joy of the Lord Jesus was to fulfill the Father's Will, thus He patiently endured the Cross and upon Him was laid the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53). He Who knew no sin was made sin, "despising the shame," but crying: "Nevertheless not My Will, but Thine, be done." The Lord Jesus Christ patiently endured the Cross and "when He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High" (Hebrews 1:3). Oh, beloved, the Lamb is in the midst of the Throne and He bears the wounds of the Cross in His Glorified Body.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 67 - "The Tribulation, The Kingdom and the Patient Endurance Which are In Jesus Christ")
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