Confrontation In Nazareth (4)

 

 

“You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Luke 3:22).

 

The Father expresses His love for Jesus and His pleasure in Him at Jesus’ baptism, and the Father does the same with us, for as with the Head, so with the Body. Through our baptism into Jesus Christ we have died and our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:4).

 

Justification is not something that is given and withdrawn, given and withdrawn, given and withdrawn; rather it is a completed work of Christ in which we stand, a declaration of the Father, an entry in the annals of Heaven. Having been justified, we “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1), are being “saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10), and have received God’s glorious reconciliation (Rom. 5:10 – 11).

 

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The righteousness of Jesus Christ is both imputed to us and infused within us; it is both forensic and organic; we are justified and we are made new creations in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

 

The Father’s declaration of, “This is My beloved Son,” was under attack throughout the earthly life of Jesus Christ, and the same can be true in our lives. In other words, the identity of Jesus Christ was attacked and questioned, and the same is true of us.

 

During the temptation in the wilderness, the enemy twice challenged Jesus with the words, “If You are the Son of God.”

 

In Nazareth the people said, “Who does He think He is?”

 

In the Gospels Jesus is accused of having a demon, His background is questioned, the fact He comes from Nazareth is held against Him, and on the Cross He again is challenged, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (We see this attack on His identify particularly in the Gospel of John.)

 

Our movement toward sin and death, into what we term “the fall,” began when Adam and Eve doubted their identity in God, doubting the Word of God. The serpent tells them, “You will be like God,” when they were already formed in the image of God. The Word and work of God was not good enough for our first parents, they chose not to rest in God and to be satisfied in Him. God was satisfied with them, they were not satisfied with Him.

 

Ever since those earliest times the enemy has attacked our identity in God, our salvation in Jesus Christ. Hence, he is styled, “the accuser of our brethren” (Rev. 12:10).  Yet, in Christ, we are justified, we are called to live in open heavens in unbroken communion with God and with one another. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

 

A tragedy is that our justification and identity are often challenged within our congregations, and we hear the cry, “Who does he think he is? Who does she think she is?”

 

We teach justification, but do we truly accept one another as being justified, as being holy in Jesus Christ? When we look at one another, do we affirm that the Father has said of our brother and our sister, “This is My beloved son, this is My beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased”?

 

O dear friends, we are in Jesus Christ, hidden in Him, wedded to Him, buried with Him, raised in Him, seated in the heavens with Him.

 

Yes, yes, it can be easier to go with the flow in Nazareth and not speak up about our glorious life in Jesus Christ. It can be easier not to fight the strong current of condemnation and Law and accept that we will live in Egypt for the rest of our lives. We may want to give up and agree that the idea of an open heaven is unrealistic, and that the Father could not possibly say of us, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well- pleased.”

 

Yet, our Father loves us too much for us to deny Him. We love Him because He first loved us. Let us continue in God’s love, love for God, love for one another in Christ, love for the people of the world. It is incumbent upon us to be faithful to our Father, to not deny Him, but to confess our glorious salvation and sonship in Jesus Christ - let us declare His Name to our brothers and sisters. (1 John 4:19; Hebrews 2:9 – 13; Romans 8:29 – 30).

 

O dear friend, when the Father sees you coming up from the waters of baptism in Jesus Christ, He proclaims, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased!”

 

Do not allow anyone to deceive you into denying your Divine parentage – even those in your hometown of Nazareth.