Within His Wounds

Godly Esteem

"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:3-5). Only the scriptures are adequate to speak to the innermost needs of a human soul. Fallen humanity is wasting away with a terminal spiritual disease. The rebellion of Adam in the Garden of Eden infected the entire human race with a corrupt nature and sickened souls. A mortal disease called sin grips every lost person. Many try to cover their guilt and shame with fig leaves of self-justification. Others look for relief in the futility of seeking redemption through good works. Still others misplace their trust in the tenants of humanism. But sin and all of its disgrace can only be removed when we experience God’s love as the blood of Jesus washes our sins away.

The plight of man’s inferiority came through the fall. When Adam and Eve rebelled, sin alienated them from God. When they were expelled from the garden, the maker’s ultimate purpose for the crowning achievement of His Creation was aborted. Sin separates all sinners from God. When Adam and Eve fell, they immediately became inferior. Banished from the garden, they forfeited their greatest privilege of communing with God. Mankind was created in God’s image and destined to dwell in the presence of God.

It is the disfigurement of sin that makes every soul inferior. Jesus paid the price to redeem our true esteem two thousand years ago when “He was despised, and we did not esteem Him… we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted” The Son of God was humiliated to restore true human dignity. Through His complete rejection, sacrificial love secured our absolute acceptance. “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Godly esteem can only be found in Jesus. Whether it is acknowledged or not, inferiority grips everyone until they find acceptance in the redeeming love of God. Sin makes every sinner inferior. In the scripture above Paul prayed that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith so we would become rooted and grounded in love. God’s love surpasses mere knowledge. We can only comprehend the dimensions of God’s fatherly affections as we experience them. God’s love for each of us is so great that His intention is to fill us with His own fullness! Sin humiliated mankind. If we humble ourselves in repentance, God’s grace will exalt us! We are only vessels of clay, but with God’s indwelling presence we contain a treasure of infinite value. God is completely full. He has absolutely everything and lacks absolutely nothing. His children are called to be partakers of His fullness! "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16). Anyone who is filled with God cannot be inferior!

Secularism rejects the realities of the human predicament and God’s solution revealed in the cross of Jesus. Without a living faith in the Living God, man looks within himself for answers and relief. Some misplace faith in the human spirit as a viable solution to the human dilemma. Others seek to fill their innate need for God in the fleeting pleasures of sin. Multitudes strive to fill the emptiness in their souls by accumulating material things. All the riches in this world could not replace the treasure Adam ceded in the fall. The gratification of desire and the pursuit of knowledge, fame or fortune can provide fleeting happiness and temporary fulfillment. But only a life lived in pursuit of God can fill the deepest longings of the human spirit. It is tragic when human beings who were created for intimacy with God let created things become the focus of their lives. No earthly fortune could ever compare to the riches found when God is your treasure.

"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27). Although man was created in God’s image that image was marred when sin corrupted the soul. "So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;" (Isaiah 52:14). The sufferings of Jesus were so pitiless that He was disfigured more than any man. "He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him….And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him," (Isaiah 53:2-3). The image of Jesus was so dehumanized with the repugnance of our sins and the physical butchery He endured that people turned in disgust and hid their faces from Him. The grace to restore God’s image in redeemed souls began when the godliness of the Sinless Lamb gave way to the sum of humanity’s wickedness. His horror initiated the restoration of our honor. His glorious image was mutilated to restore God’s image in mankind that was mutilated in the fall. Only the redeemed can experience the renewal of God’s image within them. "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29).
Before the fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve both bore God’s image. "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27) Self-image is what a person thinks he is. What we were originally created for and what we were redeemed to have is God’s image. Many benighted preachers are devoted to building up people’s self-image. Gospel preaching recreates people into God’s image. The difference between these two concepts could not be any greater. They are contradictory not complimentary. Improving self-image deals with propping up our fallen human nature. The gospel rescues us from our fallen condition, gives us eternal life and imparts Our Father’s divine nature. "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:2-4). Building up a person’s fallen nature through philosophy is a fatal substitute for the impartation of the divine nature through the gospel.
The scriptures are clear. Every unconverted human being is living a life of inferiority. So are many Christians. The truth is that anything in us unlike God leaves us inferior. If you live a life of spiritual mediocrity you are inferior because you are content with being less than God destined. When you compromise with sin, guilt overwhelms grace as condemnation grips your heart. Sin makes you inferior because it tarnishes your soul and distorts the image of God in you. Multitudes of believers are living a life of inferiority because worldly diversions, temporal pursuits and compromise with sin are distracting them from life more abundantly in the perfect will of God.