God has a plan for every one of us. In God’s plan you have a work to do that no one else can do. Oh, He loves His children. Christ was put out of this world, but we are ambassadors for Christ. The wonderful privilege of being down here in this world to represent Christ while He represents us up there is God’s plan for us.
First Corinthians 15:47 says, “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” The Bible is the story of two men, the first man and the second man. Before there could be a second, there had to be a first. God created Adam, a moral being, and gave him dominion over the lower creation in this world. Man, being a moral creature, had to be tested to see if he could abide in that position of innocence. As part of that test, Satan was allowed into the garden. Man sinned; all was spoiled in that place, and from that time until the second man, it looked as though God was defeated but God is never defeated!
Before the first man, in a past eternity, there was the Man of God’s counsel the second Man, the Lord out of heaven. What a tremendous plan God has—not just to have an unfallen creation down here living in a garden, but to bring man up to heaven and there, suited to His holy presence, to enjoy God. All this is involved in God’s plan for God’s man.
In John 19 when the Lord Jesus was brought up before Pilate, oh, what a scene it was! There are two short statements that are very impressive. “Then came Jesus forth” a mock trial “wearing the crown,” not of gold and precious jewels, but “of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!” What a tremendous statement! Behold the Man, the Man Christ Jesus. Christ came into this world, manifest in the flesh, and here He is at His trial. But the statement was made in verse 14, “And about the sixth hour: and he [Pilate] saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!” Now that is in God’s plan too, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
We will look at scriptures which present this in a way that I think we can understand. In the first words of the New Testament we have an introduction to this Man, the Man of God’s counsel: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” This is the kingly line into which Jesus Christ was born.
Now going on down to His birth in verses 20-21: “The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Here we have the Man of God’s counsels introduced as being born of a woman. “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” This is about the birth of Jesus Christ.
John’s gospel begins with Him as “the Word.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then in verse 14 it says that the “Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth.” Now we have the bringing in of God’s Man into this world as a man. The second Man came into the world as being born and growing up here. Adam, the first man, was created a full-grown man he never was a boy. However, both were tested. I don’t suppose it was very long before Satan got into the garden and tempted Adam and Eve, and they sinned.
In Matthew 3, Jesus being a grown man, came to John the Baptist, the forerunner, who was preaching repentance for the remission of sins. His message was that the King was coming and that they were to prepare to receive Him when He came.
“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” What John said was the truth.
“And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now.” There was a time for this because Jesus was come and had identified Himself with the guilty remnant of the Jews who had repented at the preaching of John the Baptist. Jesus entered into the fold of the sheep by the door that the Holy Spirit opened up for Him (John 10:2323And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. (John 10:23)).
So Jesus was baptized, and it is such an interesting sight that is before us in verses 16-17: “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Never before this Man was there ever a man on this earth upon whom the heavens opened and God’s delight in Him was announced. But it was God’s plan that this Man His beloved Son would be that Man in whom He could find His delight and satisfaction and the Man who would fulfill perfectly God’s plan of blessing and redemption for His fallen creature, man, and for all creation.
C. Buchanan