What are you doing with your life?

Music for Meditation

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This is a summary of a message I had the honor of sharing at Gideon’s Army the morning of January 26, 2011. It was inspired by a combination of a message our pastor shared entitled Why We Don’t Have Cable and my own personal Dad time. At the end of his message, our pastor posed the question that is the title of this spin-off. In this I share what I believe the general God-given purpose of our life is, that Jesus exampled what, why, and how to live it, and that by following His example, we can live it as well.

As Dad’s children, no matter what the specific calling on each of our lives looks like, all of us are universally called to live it with and for Dad for His glory, our sake, and the sake of our other brothers and sisters (aka the rest of humanity). And no matter what secondary brand of gas we put in our tanks of motivation to keep us living out this life, if our primary source of motivation isn’t love for Dad and the rest of the family, we will eventually run out and tire of trying to live it.

Jesus clarified He was living His life for Dad in Scripture such as John 5:19. He stated why He was doing it in Scripture such as John 3:16 in that it was out of simple, yet genuine, love for Dad and the rest of the family. He then further clarified who we should be living our life for through stating who His brothers and sisters are.

He then shared how He was empowered to live out this life.  Investigating this concept addresses the controversial question of if Jesus could have done anything else other than what Dad told him to do. My own relationship with Dad up to the point of this writing has me answering yes, believing this doesn’t take anything away from who Jesus is, and provides us with even greater hope of being able to answer His call to follow in His footsteps.

Before I dive into why I believe this, I feel led to clarify a few things. I am not saying Jesus sinned as the Scriptures make it very clear He didn’t. The Scriptures also make it clear that He was not born with the inherent sin as we are since He was divinely conceived by God. I am also not sharing this to argue theology as I no longer feel a need to do so. Concerning two of the biggest sources of influence in the area of theology, if the extreme Calvinists have it right then I know Dad chose me to be His son and if the extreme Wesley-Armenians have it right, then I know I have chose Him to be Dad. I personally do not believe the answer to this question is either/or but a beautifully graceful combination of both, but that discussion is for another day.

Now that that has been addressed, why do I believe Jesus had choice? I believe He had to have choice in order to genuinely know the plight of humanity as Scripture declares He does. In Philippians 2:5-8, we are told that even though Jesus was indeed, God in the flesh, He set aside His Godly attributes in order to know what it was like to be a human limited in areas such as time and place. He did this willfully and by choice. Believing this then poses the question of how Jesus performed the miracles He did.

The way He was empowered to do all this is best illustrated through His baptism which also serves as an awesome illustration of the trinity as well. In Matthew 3:13-17, we see Jesus as God the Son, submitting His human will to God the Father and, as a result, being empowered by God the Holy Spirit to do everything God the Father wanted Him to do. This free submission of His human will to Dad’s is then demonstrated in Scripture such as Matthew 3:15, Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 26:39, and Matthew 26:52-54. Most of these presented Scriptures demonstrate Jesus clearly submitting freedom of choice to Dad and it is seen in Matthew 4:1-11 by posing the question, if Jesus didn’t have the potential to sin, why would Satan have bothered tempting Him?

Finally, Jesus not only demonstrated why and how He lived His life of love for Dad and us, but that we can as well. As a matter of fact, not only did He promise in John 14:12-31 that He’d send the Holy Spirit to assist us in doing it, but that through receiving it, we have the potential to do even greater things than He did. Now how is that for both an invitation and a challenge?

And with that question is where I end. I pray Dad that for both everyone who reads this, and for all the rest of your children everywhere, that you would empower us all daily to live this life of love you’ve called us to walk out for your glory and the sake of all our brothers and sisters, which is ultimately for our own best sake as well.