Chosen For The Mission Of The Father

Theme: Chosen for the mission of the Father

Text: Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43, Matt. 3:13-17

A well planned mission always has a goal and a plan to achieve that goal. For a mission to be successful it must fulfill its desired purpose the correct way. Many people embark on a mission and then allow circumstances to change the intended purpose or the way of achieving it. A failed mission is ending up with something else than what was envisaged or ending up with what was envisaged the wrong way. An ambassador is someone sent on a mission to represent his government in another country. He succeeds in his mission when he focuses on doing the will of the government the prescribed way. An ambassador who fails to fulfill his mission by not listening to and carrying out the will of his government is recalled or dismissed. Choosing a person without the right qualifications for a mission is a recipe for failure and the right person had to be chosen for the mission of the Father.

The goal of the mission of the Father is to restore God’s divine will and purpose for man. The first consequence of sin was the loss of God’s glory and the loss of God’s image and likeness. This immediately led to a breakup of the union between God and man and separation from His presence. Sin cost us our union with God. Man lost the sinless nature that manifested the glory of God and passed his corrupted image and likeness on to his descendants. Man is not a sinner because he sins, he sins because he is a sinner. The mission of the Father is to restore man’s sinless nature and state by restoring total reliance on Him through obedience to His will and purpose. The goal of the mission of the Father is also to restore man’s authority and dominion. This depended on his union with the Father and his sinless nature and state. Man’s authority and dominion is to empower him fulfil God’s will and purpose.

The mission of the Father is to restore God’s image and likeness so that man could fulfil God’s divine will and purpose of ruling the earth. In the dictionary, ‘to restore’ means ‘to bring back to a former or original condition.’ When something is restored in the Scriptures, however, it is always increased, multiplied or improved so that its latter state is significantly better than its original state. Our restoration was a most difficult one and was only possible through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. At His baptism the Father revealed His chosen one. He showed His approval for His sinless life and encouraged Him for the work ahead of Him by calling Him “His beloved Son”. God’s beloved Son became the Son of man that sons of men could become God’s beloved children. If we cannot trust Jesus Christ with our lives, who can we trust?

The qualifications for the mission of the Father were those of a man possessing all the divine qualities God had given the first man Adam. It required a man without the sin nature. The only man without the sin nature is the last Adam, Jesus Christ who was born by the Virgin Mary. According to the Scriptures “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit”. (1 Cor. 15:45) It required a man without the sin nature who had led a sinless life, God’s intended life for man. Jesus Christ was born without sin and lived a sinless life. “He was tempted in all ways as we were yet He did not sin”. (Heb. 4:15) The qualifications for the mission of the Father required a man who is empowered to exercise God’s given authority. Jesus was empowered by His constant union with the Father. The only time He was separated from the Father was when He became sin with our sin.

God in His infinite wisdom gave all authority and dominion on earth to man and therefore only a human being could accomplish the mission of the Father. Man, however had sinned and “just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”. (Rom. 5:12) The only way to pay the penalty for sin was the death of a man without sin “For the wages of sin is death”. (Rom. 6:23) Jesus Christ was the only One who qualified to pay the price for the forgiveness of sin and our eternal redemption. The least we can do is to say thank you and worship Him.

Christ came to live among us to be the perfect sacrifice for sin. He, who was without sin and had never sinned, was made sin with the sin of the whole world, past, present and future to pay the price for our forgiveness. Christ shed His blood for the forgiveness of sin for “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”. (Hebrews 9:22)