Join us today as Dr. George Murray and Dr. Charles Zimmerman share God’s Word at America’s Keswick. Morning sessions at 9:30 AM and evenings at 7:00 PM. Can’t join us live? Live-streaming available: www.americaskeswick.org.
His Radical Purpose
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 (ESV)
I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to reading books but when I find one that captives me it can get a hold onto me for a while. I also have been known to juggle through as many as three books at one time. But for the summer season I have scaled that back to just one. I have been prayerfully reading A.W. Tozer’s book titled, “The Radical Cross.” And I must tell you that from what I have read in there, it is just as right now as it was during Tozer’s lifetime. It really hit me right between the eyes when I got to chapter ten aptly titled, “Christ Came for All People.”
We seem to cling on to the idea that the geographical term “world” encompasses what we wake up to every morning. You know, the sun shining, the grass growing; the birds singing and the like. But, as Tozer suggests, Jesus Christ didn’t just come into that natural world only, He came into the world of the human race. And not just the human race that had been living in the distant land of what is now called the Middle East, No! He came to live among us, a race of people that, because of Adam’s sin in the garden, need to be reconciled with The Creator. Because just as God’s Word simply puts it, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”
When you look at John 3:17 you don’t see any expectations either. For me this would mean it doesn’t matter who you are. Once you understand that Jesus came to all human beings, those lines that separate state from state and nation from nation have no real use anymore. It will not matter if you are blind, crippled or in the best of health. It will not matter if you struggled in school or your I.Q. was at the top of your class. Jesus will not ask you how smart you are, how rich aren’t or how many times you got caught breaking and entering. He just wants you to believe and trust in Him and it doesn’t even need to be in a religious sense. Think of Nicodemus…
When Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees, made his trek through the night to meet up with Jesus we can only guess that either he was afraid or ashamed to be seen with Him. But whatever the case may have been, The Savior welcomed him anyway and Nicodemus was part of just one of the many redeeming teachings of Jesus. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God…we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” Even Jesus knew that His baptism (Matthew 3: 14-16), an outward sign of inner change, had to be done to please ABBA, Father, “and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
We shouldn’t ask why God would send His only begotten Son to this stew pot of a human race. We were made in His image and He has not forgotten about it. We, on the other hand, have had our momentary lapses of reason and think that there is a palatable theory that will give us all a warm, fuzzy feeling. We ain’t doing too good in that area are we? Tozer begins closing this chapter by writing, “Like a prodigal son in that most moving of all stories, each one of us must come to grips with our own personal need and to decide and act as He did: “I am hungry. I will perish here. But I will get up. I will go to my father. I remember his house and his provision” (Luke 15:17-20) He said, “I will go”---so He got up and went to His Father.” Yep…Jesus has a radical purpose, doesn’t He? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter Contributor
Compass Pointers: “We humans do have a tendency to use generic terms and general terms and pretty soon we become just scientific in our outlook. Let us cast that outlook aside and confess that God loved each of us in a special kind of way so that His Son came into and unto the people of the world---and He even became one of those people!” The Radical Cross A.W.Tozer
Anchored to the Rock: God shapes the world by prayer. E. M. Bounds
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