David W Palmer
Today, we continue to gaze at Jesus; when we see him, we will be like him. After all, the perfectly trained disciple is like his teacher. To help with this, let's look again at the prophetic word from Isaiah that the Holy Spirit applied to Jesus:
(Matthew 12:15–21 NKJV) … Great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. {16} Yet He warned them not to make Him known, {17} that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: {18} "Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. {19} He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. {20} A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; {21} And in His name Gentiles will trust."
"In whom my soul is well pleased."
Jesus was the chosen servant who pleased his Father; to do this, he must have believed God, trusted him, and lived by faith:
(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) "But without faith it is impossible to please Him …"
Therefore, faith is a vitally important aspect of Jesus's life, ministry, and character. We need to admire, cherish, love, and gaze upon Jesus and his faith until we understand it. Then, like beloved children, we can begin to imitate him (See: Eph. 5:1).
Have you ever thought about the faith life of Jesus? Jesus lived by faith in his Father, and this is what he taught us about it:
(Mark 11:23 NKJV) "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says."
Our Lord and Master instructs us to speak to a "mountain," and to command its final outcome. He also said that if we do not "doubt" in our "heart," we will have "whatever" we say. To have full clarity on what this means and how to apply it, we need to ask: "Did Jesus live this way?" After all, God re-created us to be like him. To act like Jesus, we need to know what he did and how he operated so we can imitate him. Therefore, we should seek to learn how Jesus applied what he taught here—not because we are checking to see if he was consistent, but because we know he was perfectly consistent. Therefore, his actions and verbal teachings combine to give us a clear picture of what he expects of us.
Did Jesus speak to things? Yes, in Mark 11:14 he spoke to a fig tree, and he spoke loudly enough for his disciples to hear him. He also spoke to the wind, the stormy sea, a fever, etc., and they obeyed his words.
Did Jesus command the final outcome? Yes:
- To the fig tree he said, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again" (Mark 11:14 NKJV).
- To demons he said, "Keep quiet, and come out." They did.
- To other demons he said, "Go"—implying, "Go into the pigs"; and that's where the demons ended up.
- To the bent, deformed woman he said, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." He stated what hadn't happened yet as though it had, and this was the desired final outcome.
To clarify this, the Holy Spirit said:
(Romans 4:17 NHEB) … God, … gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were."
The Holy Spirit says that God speaks of things that haven't existed yet as though they did. He even says that when God speaks of things that don't yet exist in the present time— "calls things that are not"—he declares them to already be in the past— "as though they were." The grammar is challenging, but his point is clear: God's words don't describe present reality; they change it. His words are creative and eternal. When he creates something by speaking, its existence is eternal; in other words, its origin pre-dates the time at which we perceive he said it. This is the way God wants us to use our words too; Jesus did. For example:
(Luke 13:10–13 NKJV) Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. {11} And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. {12} But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." {13} And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Jesus said to the woman, "You are loosed," while she was still bowed over and crippled. At the moment he said she was free, she was still obviously bound by the infirmity. In the next verse—which we would all agree was chronologically later in time—he laid his hands on her, and "immediately she was made straight." This is showing us that Jesus spoke of something that had not yet happened as though it had. Subsequently, God's supernatural power was released to bring physical reality into line with what Jesus's faith declared: "she was made straight." No wonder God was pleased with his Son; he really did live by faith.
See also: Jesus speaking of Lazarus's resurrection before it happened (John 11:11–14). Moreover, Jesus said in the present tense that "now" the son of man is "glorified" just as he was going to his trial and the cross; he spoke of what hadn't happened yet—his glorious resurrection—as though it already had (John 13:31–32, John 17:11, Mat. 23:38, etc.).
"And does not doubt in his heart"
Did Jesus refuse to doubt in his heart? When under his greatest test and trial—before the High Priest and Pilate—Jesus kept up a consistent confession of faith. Not even one doubting word exploded from his heart through his mouth—even under the most extreme pressure while being whipped, tortured, ridiculed, mocked, and dying on the cross. This proves that no doubt was in his heart at all. (See: Mark 14:60–64; John 18:33–38).
Jesus overflowed with faith continually to the point where he readily expressed thanks to his Father before receiving miracles (See: John 6:11, John 11:41–44. etc.).
Did Jesus believe that what he said would happen?
(John 13:19 NKJV) "Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He."
What have we seen today? Jesus lived completely by faith, and fully pleased his Father in doing so; and he is the one into whose image God "conformed" us:
(Romans 8:29 KJV) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
(Romans 8:29 APE) "And those whom he foreknew, he also fashioned in the likeness of the image of his Son, that he would be The Firstborn of many brethren."
God's destiny for us in Christ is to be just like Jesus. In this verse, we see God speaking of things that haven't happened yet as though they already existed. In other words, in our own perception, we may not already be perfectly like Jesus; but God declares that in the new birth, we are. He believes what he says about us, and he refuses to doubt in his heart. What's more, he will never confess that the new birth fails to produce the image of Jesus in true believers.
God has already declared our final outcome in the present tense. In his mind, therefore, we are already conformed to the image of his son. He has said it without doubting; therefore, our being fashioned into the image of Jesus is already in eternal existence, and we step into it when we receive his new birth. Now we need to renew our minds to this truth, appropriate it by faith, and thus please God.
It is impossible to please God without faith. So his pleasure doesn't come from our efforts to become like Jesus, but from our belief that in Christ we are already like him. Then, like Jesus did with the woman bowed over with infirmity; when we speak God's words from a heart filled with faith in them, the Holy Spirit can enact them. Physical reality will come into line with what God says about us when we believe, refuse to doubt, and declare God's final outcome as a present reality. We should do this constantly and consistently, even when our own perception of ourselves is very far from being like Jesus.
Today, remember that God says he has conformed you to the image of Jesus—con-formed meaning "formed with." In other words, when God raised Jesus from the dead and formed him back into his sinless, spotless Son, you were formed into the same image in him at the same time. Believe this, and imitate Jesus's amazing characteristic of 100% trust in his Father today.
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