What is the need of a man, and why does God want to use a man? Can’t He fulfill His will by Himself since He is so powerful and almighty? Of course, He can, but there is a specific purpose and a reason for which He wants to get involved in our lives and also use us to fulfill His purposes. The reason for this is because of His love for us, and with that love comes a lesson that we must learn. Then there is the fact that He even uses a man to reach other men to show them God’s love. Obviously, the power to touch their hearts and to open their eyes comes from God alone, and that man that’s been used is just a messenger. Let us see some of the reasons why is that He wants to get involved in our life and perform His work through us.
10 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.
8 Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. (Matthew 9:1-8)
Here we see another situation in which Jesus shows His power by performing a miracle. Another one in which He left the people marveling at what He was doing. The evidence of a miracle is that it doesn’t leave people indifferent. They always marvel at it. It is something unexpected many times. It can be a physical miracle, as well as a spiritual one, or experiencing a radical change in someone’s life. Or the providence of God for something.
Here we see the story finishing with the verse: “Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.”
We need to know that in that time in Israel, they haven’t been experiencing miracles or any signs from God for about 400 – 500 years. No one had been performing anything similar all that time, also known as a time of silence. One of the last prophets, Malachi, prophesied about the coming of a prophet with the spirit of Elijah that would prepare the way for the Messiah. That prophet was John the Baptist, who as well didn’t perform much or none of miracles. So, for people seeing Jesus doing that was really a reason for marveling that God had given such power to men. And Jesus was a man and, at the same time, God. He had a divine nature, but still, we know He came as a man. For people, this was enough to give them hope that God had come closer to them. If we read Matthew 1:23, we will see that He was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us“. At the same time, He was representing a man in its full sense. He was representing weakness, and He came humble. He wasn’t the strong Messiah the people were expecting, a deliverer that was going to free them from their oppressors, the Romans in that case. The one that would give them a solution to all their problems. That is the kind of solution that sometimes we so selfishly look for. And one day, He will really come in this way, and that will be at His second coming, but before that, He wants to show us something else. He came to show us the way of humility, the one that comes before the glory. We need to humble ourselves sincerely, before we can be exalted. This is how it works. He had to walk this path before He went in His glory to sit on the right hand of the majesty. He did it to set a perfect example of how we should walk, and live. That’s why He came as a man in His full form and sense. Born in a poor family. Living in Nazareth of which was said: “Can something good come out of Nazareth?“ And being of the tribe of Judah instead of the tribe of Levi, the one from which the priesthood was coming from. And still, He was a God on the inside, but coming in the form of a Lamb. And all of this was so that He could show us something. Something that He initiated and performed in a most perfect way.
He did all of this to show us how a man should live. He was the first and absolutely perfect of many sons. “The prototype“(if we can call it in such a way), and the firstborn of many brothers. I’m saying this not excluding His deity, but there was a purpose why He did come as a man. Obviously, the greatest work was Him dying for us, but His work was also living as a man. In a way that He can get closer to us and show us that is possible - with Him only. To show that God wants to have a relationship with us. To have us participate in His plan. He was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. The miracle we saw in Matthew 9:1-8 and many others that Jesus did, led the people to see and wonder what kind of power God gave men. Throughout history, we see the kind of people God always used. People with weakness, not being anything so special in this world. This was happening so that the power could be seen in them, not their abilities. As the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:7 says:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.“
So, following this example, Jesus had to come in a humble way and show us the ultimate example. But how hard this was to be swallowed and accepted by people then, and it is still today. We are always waiting on something instant, something we can see, strong and great. We want to trust in our own power. I think the people were marveling at Jesus’ simplicity, and depth and power at the same time. And they saw God coming close again to people but in a different and more special way. We have to remember that until that moment, God was manifesting Himself only to the Jewish nation and only to some of them. Special men chosen by Him like kings, prophets, etc. With the coming of Jesus, we see that those gates were opened to more people, and He taught that the kingdom of God had come to people. He was showing them how to have a relationship with the Father. “The poor have the gospel preached to them”. This is a part of a passage we find in Matthew 11:5, and it was a sign of His coming. It means that the gospel became available to each person, even to the poor and common man. Many people couldn’t understand that this was the purpose of His coming.
When someone believes in the gospel and accepts Jesus, the power of God manifests in his life, and it is expressed in the new life and nature that person receives. God doesn’t manifest his power only through physical miracles, and healings (we don’t exclude them), but also in changing someone’s heart. God wants to manifest Himself to man and through man too. If it wasn’t so, then He was going to do everything by Himself alone. And we know that this is also possible. But also, if He does that, it is always with a purpose to reach a man, like the case with the apostle Paul (Acts 9:1-9). He reached Him, without the intervention of any man and we can see how many other people his life touched.
Since Jesus came and died for us, heaven’s gates were opened to many. Today you and I can feel the same things as any other believer. Of course, there are people with more experience than us, and they are probably elders in the ministry, but we can feel and have a relationship with the same God as them. He wants us to personally hear His voice. And that can happen only when a person repents and is born again. The problem occurs only when people contribute God’s power to themselves. This usually happens after we accomplish or do something for God. Then in our hearts, we start to glorify ourselves. We are nothing without Him. We've got this treasure in earthly vessels. We can see 1 Corinthians 15:47 as well.
“The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven.“
Jesus is the second “man“, the second Adam. And we can also belong to that group. If we believe, if we are regenerated by Him. Of course, it is not easy to understand how is that God of all the universe made himself a man. It is a mystery. Apostle Paul called it “the mystery of godliness“.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in flesh, justified in Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.“ (1 Timothy 3:16)
But He did it. He made Himself a man to open a path for us, dying on the cross. He wanted to reach us. He set a start for us, giving us the ultimate example, so that we can walk in His steps, to finish what He started, or better said, to continue what He started, because at the end, He will finish it as well. He is Alpha and Omega. We can compare it to a relay race, a team sport in athletics. He started it; then He passed us the baton. The only difference is that He will finish it as well. He is waiting for us in the last stage. Without Him, we will never make it. With Him, we overcome. With Him, we start, and with Him, we can finish. He gave us an example that it is possible for a man to live a godly life with the help of God. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all
points tempted as we are, yet without sin.“ (Hebrews 4:15)
He wants to make the man partaker of His glory and His plan. Let us go way back to the very beginning of everything. In Genesis 3, we see humankind's downfall and defeat, but we also see God coming up with a plan and a solution. In Genesis 3:14, 15, we see the judgment pronounced upon the snake (Satan). All the judgments pronounced by God upon the snake, upon the man, and the women occurred. It happened as God said it will be. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
This passage is also known as the first messianic prophecy, which explains that Jesus being born from the seed of the woman will bruise the snake’s head. As a seed from the women, we also enter into this promise. Only if we are with Jesus. The one by whom this started. He overcame on the cross all principalities of darkness. It means that if we believe and accept Jesus and start walking by faith and we overcome Satan in some way by standing in God’s will through His power, we are accomplishing God’s judgment on the “snake“, the devil. That was his judgment pronounced by God, and man is also used to accomplish that, not by himself, but with the strength of God. By overcoming the devil here on earth with God’s help, man executes a judgment upon the devil. And what a greater judgment for the devil than to be humiliated and defeated by man, the one he once deceived and overpowered. That was also one of the reasons why Jesus came as a man and had to face and endure all the devil’s temptations. He was the first one to do that and gave that power to us as well so that we can continue to walk in His steps. That’s why as well God wants to use man. To fulfill His judgment, to show in this way His glory, His victory over Satan, and obviously to save the man and bring him into His glory. We are not like Jesus. We are just redeemed sinners, but we see in the Scriptures that we are exhorted to aim to be like Him, which is possible through His work in us. From being once losers, He wants to make us overcomers. This happens when we have Him on our side. He suffered till death to make that possible. He wants to work through our weakness and fragile nature.
He wants to use a man. And by personal experience, we can see that while we are used by him to reach out to others, He also works in our lives. If, for example, He wants us to reach someone and to communicate with him the gospel, but at the same time, we acknowledge we don’t have the strength to do that, then we will rely on His power, which will inspire us to have more faith. So, we can see He works in our life to increase our faith as well, while using us and reaching others. It means that we benefit from this. When the Lord appeared to Ananias to send him to pray for Saul (Paul) to receive his sight, Ananias didn’t want at first, but after that, He told him:
“Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.“ Acts 9:15,16
By this, we can see that along with working through Paul's life, He also worked in Ananias’ life to show him to have compassion and to reveal His will to him. So, the reason why He wants to get involved in man’s life is not only to reach others but also to teach him something, to show him something, to make Himself known to him. We need His lessons in our lives. Otherwise, we will not be able to know Him and follow Him. We have to know that He wants the best for us, and this life we are living is with the purpose of learning from Him. This obviously happens if we are from those who follow Him and love Him. Only then all the things and situations we face will work out for our good. (Romans 8:28)
So, by this, we see that He wants to get involved in our life and use us because He loves us. This is because He wants to bring the right judgment on the snake (Satan), and together with that, He wants to work in our life and show us the way, teaching us a lesson. We can see how many things God accomplishes at the same time.
We see how his will is getting accomplished contemporarily just by one action. One single step, one single man, but how many purposes into it, which means that every single work He is doing is with a purpose, and it is like a perfect piece of a puzzle that fits together with the rest of the pieces. Praise be to God for His unsearchable judgments and His knowledge! How all-knowing and almighty He is.
There are ideas and religions that reject the fact that Jesus is the son of God or that God made Himself a man. In this way, they also reject that God wants to be close and have a relationship with us, and He is often portrayed as so far away from us. But the Bible speaks differently and states that He did all of this for us. And with this, we don’t want to exalt a man. Psalm 8:4 says:
“What is the man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?“
And this Psalm explains also that we as men have a part of how He established the creation and everything.
“For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen – even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:5-8)
That really happens only when we are redeemed by Him. Then we can say that we are back in our original state before Adam fell, and not only that but even something more. We also know that this part of the scripture is also used to describe Christ, and so it is. I am not comparing here the man, the simple and mortal man as us, to Christ. I am just saying that by accepting Him, we inherit something from Him and become His brothers and sons of God, but He always remains the only begotten Son and the greatest among all brothers. As for this scripture in this psalm, it speaks about Him, but also about us if we accept Him and inherit what He has for us. Then we start to follow Him and to walk in His shadow. We can compare His light to the light of tAhe sun, and ours being merely like the light of the moon, but still shining somehow and indicating the others to find the greatest of all lights – Jesus. We anyway cannot have any light if we don’t reflect it from Him.
Going back to Psalm 8:4, we see that its author was actually wondering how God was having such a mercy to look at man and visit Him. He understood that God wanted to do something with a man, draw him closer to Himself, and make him part of His plan. The psalmist was seeing his weakness and how unworthy he was. We need to see all of this through the prism of His mercy. We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are nothing without Him.
He suffered to show us that with Him is possible even when we go through trials. Sometimes, by following His steps, we will get also into trouble. This is because, as the world had rejected Him, in the same way, it will reject those who follow Him and walk in His steps. Matthew 10:24, 25 tells us:
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!”
Even though this happens, we need to know that there is a reward in heaven for all those who have followed Him.
We walk in His shadow and His steps.
Add comment
Comments