God's Agenda
by Fred Rapp | October 16, 2016
God's AgendaMost Christians have no idea what God's agenda really is, yet it has been clear from the beginning of time. Genesis 1:26, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Jesus is the first man to experience the reality of Genesis 1:26. It is written of Jesus in Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Jesus never fell under the indictment of Romans 3:23, “All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory.” Jesus lived a life in the glory of His Father. The life Jesus lived produced the reality of Jesus being the brightness of God's glory and becoming the express image of God's person. Jesus said in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." This is God's agenda.
Jesus prayed in John 17:23, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” Jesus not only died for our sins but the life He lived is the life we are to live. This is God's agenda. We are to experience a life of being agaped by the Father the same way Jesus is agaped by the Father. In the last part of verse 22 of John 17 Jesus said, "that they may be one, even as we are one.” The life Jesus lived is the same life we have been redeemed to live.
Paul wrote in Rom 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” I have always maintained that you can't be the firstborn of something if there is nothing like you that follows. The Greek for "conformed" means: taking on the actual inward likeness not just a mere outward appearance. What Jesus is we are to become. This is in accordance with God's agenda.
The blueprint to how this is going to be accomplished in our lives was given by Jesus Himself over 1900 years ago. In John 15, we see the process of how we become like Christ. In verse 5 Jesus lays the ground work for how this is going to happen. This is the only way it is going to happen. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." It is very important to realize that what we become will be produced by Jesus only. Our only involvement will be to receive. We will not be able to take any credit for how we turn out. This is why Jesus told the rich man when he called Him good master, "why call me good, there is only one that is good and that is God," Mark 10:18. Jesus's life is a product of receiving from the Father, just as our life will be a product of receiving from Jesus.
John 15:9 is the key to how our change will take place. Verse 9, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love." The Greek word for love is agape in all three places. This is not talking about natural love but divine love. This is the path to conformity to the Son of God so that Jesus will become the first born among many brethren. Paul wrote in Eph 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” As we experience for ourselves the agape of Christ we will come unto all the fullness of God Himself. We will live a life like Christ fulfilling the two greatest commandments, agaping God and one another. This is God's agenda for our lives.
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