PREFERENCE - PART 4

SATURDAY 01 JUNE 2024

I ended up with a question in part 3, which says, "What manner of man is Jesus? What was His mission?" I will attend to the first question, by acknowledging that Jesus was and is a wonderful and merciful Saviour, full of goodness and unconditional love. For this reason, He was able to penetrate any circles and traditions, in order to save and rescue their souls from eternal damnation. This is the reason Jesus often answered His self-righteous critics saying, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." More below!

Reference: Daniel 1:20  Amplified Bible (AMP)

"In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the [learned] magicians and enchanters (Magi) in his whole realm."

Second question: What was His mission?

This was Jesus' mission:

John 12:46-47 (AMP)

"I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes and trusts in Me [as Saviour - all those who anchor their hope in Me and rely on the truth of My message] will not continue to live in darkness. If anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but to save the world." In confirmation of this truth, Johannine literature numbered as John 3:17 reads, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him" (NIV).

Ephesians 2:14-16 reads, "For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. And [that He] might reconcile them both [Jew and Gentile, united] in one body to God through the cross, thereby putting to death the hostility."

But before the Lord Jesus Christ broke down the wall of hostility that separated the Jews and the Gentiles through His death on the cross, He was living in accordance with such example during the days of His ministry - by purposefully engaging the company of sinners, regardless of their race, tradition and background, thereby accomplishing the salvation of their souls through that means.

Beloved, God always has a glorious mission to accomplish wherever He sends His own. In the process of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles, a similar vision was shown to Peter in a trance. As he became hungry and wanted something to eat, while his meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven (study Acts 10:10-31 NIV).

This was God Himself communicating to Peter about breaking diverse barriers and racial limitations, in order to spread the Gospel to all the people of the world. To Peter, the four footed animals shown to him in the trance are forbidden in the dietary laws of the Hebrew Scriptures, bearing in mind that he had never eaten non-kosher food like that in his entire life. But God was using that vision as a symbol of actualising the extension of salvation to all of mankind, which was about to commence, because Jesus had already foreshadowed the glorious gospel that would reach out to all of mankind, through His exemplary life on earth and death on the cross- by breaking down the wall of hostility separating the Jews from the rest of the world, thereby ending the system of law with its commandments, traditions and regulations. And that means - unrestricted salvation of souls without the limitation of any cultural and race-related barriers.

To that effect, Peter found Himself at Cornelius's House. And to be specific, Acts 10:27-28 stated that, "While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: 'You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean'" (NIV). This simply means that he could reach out to all manner of people with a range of different or various social and ethnic backgrounds, from the standpoint of spreading the glorious gospel. Stay tuned for part 5. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - 2 Corinthians 13:11; Romans 12:18; Colossians 3:15; Romans 14:19; 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

Guided Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I know how valuable and powerful it is to embrace your Word, and I know that I have been justified through faith; therefore I have unsearchable peace with you through the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I have gained access by faith into this grace on which I stand in Jesus' Name, Amen!