Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Tim: Hello. Welcome. Here we are again. Wonderful days, wonderful days. This is the unveiling. I'm Tim, and along with Mark and Aja, we're your hosts and we're all here today. This is episode 74, part two of God's Purpose for us, which is a discussion on, why God created us in the first place. , this is part two, so last week we touched on a couple of items. Guys, I believe some of the things we talked about was that God created us to be his children, that he wanted us to share in his eternal life, and that we were to bring pleasure and that we were to bring God pleasure and doing so, have that relationship with him through which he would extend to us his love and immortality and glory as his children. I'm a little surprised. What? That's not enough? We have to go into more, there's more things that Guy created us for?
[00:00:56] Mark: Yes, Tim. There's more.
[00:00:58] Tim: Sounds like, it sounds like an ad from the knives. But wait, there's more. accept Jesus now and we'll send you this set of Ginsu knives.
[00:01:08] Mark: Not now before midnight. It's always before midnight tonight.
[00:01:12] Tim: Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, it's been a long time. Mark, those, those were a long time ago. <yes they were> in a galaxy far, far away. So let's, let's bring it back to here and now and today. So, AJ, since I think I mentioned last week, this was your topic if you think there's more, you're gonna start us off, cuz I'm sitting here waiting to find out what they are.
[00:01:31] Ajai: Thank you Tim and Mark. And there is more, I think today I have a bunch of scriptures, but we will take it slow. We'll go scripture by scripture. But All the scriptures speak to the same thing. I'm going to dive straight in. I think as we read the scriptures, it'll be evident. Our purpose or why God created us and for what purpose and for who he created us. I think that is a keyword for who. Ephesians. Chapter five from verse 22. Typically this passage is used for beating up. Wives and husbands right. Hey, submit to your husband and husband. Love your wives. So that is something, you know, most people use it for, but you know, we are not going to use this passage for that. We will look into something more today. Ephesians chapter five verse 22. I'm going to read it quick and then we will talk about it. Why submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is ahead of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church and he's a savior of the body. Therefore, just as Church is subject to Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives. Just Christ also love the church and gave him himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word that he might present her to himself. A glorious church. Not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and rejoin his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. , I wanna stop here. On the surface it all looks like, oh, this is a passage about husbands and wives, you know, telling us what to do, what not to do. But there is a really interesting verse here, right? He's saying, oh, this is a great mystery. But I speak concerning the church and the Christ. So the great purpose for us, in fact, you know, the purpose that we discussed last time, we being the children of God is also joined to this purpose. These are not two different things, but in, in in the same purpose. You know, these two things are purpose, for lack of better words. So there we saw, , we are the children of God, but here it says, We are the bride of Christ. This is a great mystery and we become one with Christ. So here the Bible is clearly saying, , God created us for himself, for his son to become one with him, and to be his bride and to be joined with him in union with him forever and for forever. In a loving relationship, just as the most loving husband on this planet, he is united. To his beloved wife. This is much more than that. Multiply that by infinity. That's what we get our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:04:51] Mark: Yeah, that's very interesting Ajai. I like that. And what the similarity between Jesus teaching us that God is our father and we are his children. Obviously the Apostle Paul and many of the apostles taught that as well, is that this is another form of close, close union, okay? Because even as much as we are children of God and he's our father, that illustration, that metaphor doesn't do it justice. The union between us and God is even closer. Than earthly children and their father, that it's even closer than earthly husbands and wives. So I think Paul's like just trying to pound this point home to people with every possible device he can come up with that the closeness of this union we have with God because of his love and his grace and because of the cross. It's just another powerful way of describing that.
[00:05:52] Tim: You referenced something we referenced last week, which is the parent-child relationships that we have here. And it is a mere shadow as you kind of just suggested, and even worse. So for people who weren't raised in a household where. There were good relationships. So it becomes a very difficult analogy for some people to be able to grasp. But I think through some of that scripture you just read, Ajay, he tries to paint his clear picture of what that relationship should, could, would look like. Of course on this side of heaven, we probably aren't gonna get that completely either, so.
[00:06:37] Ajai: Yep. Yeah,
[00:06:37] Mark: That's a great point, Tim. And I've heard the point made by pastors before that some people have problems seeing God as father because of, you know, a poor relationship. With the earthly father, but the very point you made means you don't have to look at God as a father. You can look at Christ as your husband. You can look them as a brother. You can look at him as you're in the family, you're part of his body. They, the apostles give us many different metaphors and not everyone is gonna speak as powerfully to each individual person as the other will. So I think that's a great point, that, hey, you know what? If you have trouble seeing God as your father, well then look at Christ as your bridegroom. You know, look at him as your brother. Look at it as you are a member of God's family in his household. There's a lot of great ways of describing that union.
[00:07:33] Ajai: . This typology as The church is a bride of Christ. It's been there from the beginning, you know, even from the Garden of Eden, right? Adam and Eve, and our Lord Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. So the typology, you know, Lord created us for himself. And then here we see that for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. And The two shall become one flesh. So our Lord Jesus, he was in heaven with the Father and he left heaven and came for us, and then to redeem us, and then to take us back home to the Father. , that is a picture of, husband and a wife. Similarly, , when we seen the story of Rebecca and Isaac, , the father Abraham sent the servant. To go to their own native land and then bring Rebecca, the bride for the son. So these pictures are there and we think like the greatest closest relationship that we have on this side of earth is husband and wife again. , like Tim said, , there are always bad relationships. So if you have a good husband and wife relationship, nothing is perfect, but that is one of the closest relationships we can have. But it is saying, , that's only a shadow. So the relationship that we have with our Lord Jesus Christ is much more closer, much more intimate, and much more loving than a husband and a wife or a lover and a beloved can have on this side of earth.
[00:09:02] Mark: What's kind of cool, just a little afterthought, I know it's not right on, but is that that illustration works in both directions. Those you know, husband and wife, father and child inform us of our relationship with God, but then it also informs. Or at least sets an example for how our relationships , should be in marriage or as a parent. , if that gets reflected in marriage, then that marriage is gonna be , the most it can be. <Yeah>. So just think that's cool , and I think Paul, he, he calls it a mystery. <Yeah>. That the closeness of a husband and wife are a picture of Christ in the church and that's has benefit in both directions as an illustration in my opinion.
[00:09:52] Ajai: . So I'd like to look at another scripture. This is one of our favorite ones. We saw it in a different context before in the context of law and grace. But today, , we are going to look at the same scripture in the context of our union with our Lord Jesus Christ and our relationship. And again, here also the purpose, right? Why did our Lord Jesus Christ redeem us? Why did he redeem us from the law? You know, most of us think, okay, we are redeemed so that, you know, we can go out and do this and that and do some great things for God. That is well and good. But end of the day, God created us for himself for a relationship. God is one God. But you know, we know one God in three persons in relationship to. God the father, he created us to be children. You know, the parental and children relationship is the greatest relationship we can have on this earth. And then in relation ship to our Lord Jesus Christ, he created us to be his wife. So in Romans chapter seven, from verse one through four, or do you not know brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman who has a husband is born by the law to her husband as long as she lives. But if the husband dies, she's released from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband leaves, she married another man, she will be called an adultress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she's no adultress, though she is married, another man. And look here verse four therefore my brethren. You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. So here again, , you see that the purpose, that you were dead to the law so that we may be married to another who is raised from the dead, so that we might bear fruit to God. So, , we also see another mystery or secret here. Unless we are united with Christ, unless we become one with him, we cannot bear fruit to God. You know, the picture here is everybody was married to the law before and and then, , there was no fruit bearing. You know, in a Bible it says so bad and right. You know, rejoice so bad and so. Whoever is married to the law, they cannot bear fruit. You know, they might go out and do work hard and do this and do that and do things in the flesh, but they can never bear fruit to God. But when we are delivered from the law and then we are married to Jesus Christ, only then we will bear true fruit. And God created us to bear fruit. Right? And even at the beginning when God created Adam, what was a command he gave? It was not, , go do this, go do that. Do all these miracles for God. The command was be fruitful and multiply, and similarly in our redemption. Also, when we are married to Christ, our purpose is to bear fruit to God. And when we bear fruit to God, the Bible says our Father is glorified. And that happens only through our union with the resurrected Christ.
[00:13:10] Mark: Just a little bit of an interesting point I think is a lot of the Bible is written during patriarchal times when it was a very male driven society, and so I think some of the illustrations, sometimes women have a different take on or a different view of, but I think this bride one actually gives I think females a little more insight because I don't know what it means to be a bride. When I think of being the bride of Christ, I would love to hear from a Christian woman to tell me how she feels about that, because she, she's going to be, it is, or was, or is going to be a bride. So, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think there's a, a different insight from a female than a man sometimes could try to think of himself as being a bride.
You know what I'm saying?
[00:14:04] Ajai: Yeah, that is true. That is true, mark. I think it's easy for us to relate a children to our father or even relate to our children. , to know that, you know how a father loves us, you know, when we also become fathers, we know how much God loves us. You know? Yeah. Here I think it's little difficult to be on the other side for us as men, but I think in order to gain a little bit of insight into it, I think we have a beautiful book on the Bible. It's the Song of Solomon. Many of us, , think or many great men of God say that, you know, that is actually the romance or the love story of Christ and the church. So to understand a little bit, you know, how the bride feels, there is a lot of insight there. it almost feels like, R rated stuff, but it is spiritually union with the logic. Right. It's not just physical stuff. Yeah. One of the things, it's written, one of my favorite scriptures is my beloved is mine and I'm his, he feeds his flock among the lilies, so it is clearly talking about our Lord Jesus Christ , when we say, my beloved is mine and I am his. And we can boldly claim that, , Lord Jesus christed his mine and I'm his
[00:15:16] Mark: and he feeds the flock. He is the shepherd.
[00:15:19] Ajai: . And he's the shepherd too. That's another beautiful picture. I think at one point, , one of the podcast we can go into this pictures of our Lord Jesus Christed, you know, of all the pictures, Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself as a good shepherd. That is his that is his favorite typology. For lack of better words, and there is so much there. The Psalm Shepherd and a good shepherd lays down his life. So everywhere we see, right? Even here in Ephesians chapter five, the point it is made is he laid down his life for us, regardless of the typology. He as a husband, he laid his life down for the bride and a good shepherd. I mean, in reality, which shepherd dies for the sheep? nobody. So who would die for an animal, but you know, he's a good shepherd. Even in the sheep analogy, our largest Christ loved us and died for us.
[00:16:10] Mark: Well guys, I'm going to recite a little line here and I just want your impressions cuz I know many of us have heard this over the years on TV in churches. But here, here it goes, and just gimme your impressions. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
[00:16:32] Tim: Oh yeah.
[00:16:34] Mark: Have you heard that before?
[00:16:35] Tim: Oh, very. Yeah. Very often.
[00:16:37] Mark: Yeah.
[00:16:38] Tim: It's like he's just waiting for you to come in and submit so that he can then do away with who you are and what your plans are and what you want to do and replace 'em all with his. Sounds like a wonderful idea, doesn't it?
[00:16:51] Mark: Well, it's very works oriented. You know, that wonderful plan for your life is doing this, doing that. Perhaps I will send you to Africa as a missionary, or I'm going to send you to this town to marry that woman and to take that, you know, it's, it's just. It's one of the reasons I think we wanted to do this podcast is to clear that kind. Yes, God does have the most wonderful plan, and that's for you to become his child. So when they say that they're actually right, the problem is they're looking at it from a different kind of angle. That is not really the most wonderful plan,
[00:17:30] Tim: I gotta tell you, as a young teen, in church, I was told by some people, oh, you're going to, you're gonna do great things for God. One day you'll, you're gonna go spread the gospel. You'll maybe you'll go to Africa. Man, I cannot. At that time I was, I was living in the northern US and loved my winters and the idea of going to some, , equatorial region, I don't know if South America, Africa, any of those. Not only didn't fill me with great joy, but really kind of filled me with great dread and I kind of avoided anything that might possibly smell of the idea that I might have to do just that. And what's really funny is when the time came and I did feel the call to go, Of course it wasn't to that, cuz that wasn't, wasn't who I was and that wasn't what God was gonna do for me. He said, I meet to Russia in the middle of the winter for the very first time , I was in heaven.
[00:18:27] Mark: That's awesome.
Yeah. . Again, I think, , we are not saying that
[00:18:30] Ajai: God doesn't use us or God doesn't send us to preach the gospel and bring more people to his family. But that's not the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is, Himself, he created us for himself. Think about that.
[00:18:45] Mark: And I think also doing those things are great. <Yeah>. But if you're not going as his child, understanding that first, that that's his, his wonderful plan for you and really growing in that, then that's gonna open up a conduit for the spirit to do things through you as his son, as his child. Because that's the message we bring.
[00:19:10] Ajai: Yeah, I'd like to look at one more scripture on the same topic of the Bride of Christ, but it's from a little , different angle and it brings out a beautiful truth in second Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 2 for, I'm jealous for you with Godly jealousy. For, I have betroth you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So I want us to focus on that last word, present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So again, it goes back, right? We might think that, oh, we are not pure, we are not holy. , we are, we have misbehaved. We have. Cheated on Christ. We did not obey him. We did all kinds of things. But when we are presented to Christ, it says, , we are a chaste virgin. How did that happen? That happened because of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took us and then he washed us in his own blood and purified us and made us a chaste virgin so that , we can be united with our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a gift of righteousness we have. , when Lord looks at us, he's not looking at our sins. He cannot impute in his sin to us because our Lord Jesus Christ, washed us, clenched us, made us pure. In fact, in Revelation it says, , the Lord who loved us and washed us with his own blood and made us kings and priests. So when we look at ourselves, I think this is very important. As Christians, , we are in this body. One day this body will go away, and then we still have the old thoughts. We get messy thoughts all the time, and then our flesh also comes and messes with us. But the reality is when we look at ourselves, we see as chaste virgins. There is no spot, no wrinkle, no blemish. We are absolutely pure in his eyes. And we are a delight to his eyes because of the Lord Jesus Christ work. Not because of our behavior, but because he washed us and cleansed us, and he clothed us with his righteousness. So we should always, our first view of ourselves as a Christian is we should see ourselves as the righteousness of God in Christ.
[00:21:34] Mark: If you listen to the last couple months and more and more, the longer we do this podcast, I, I've been saying this a lot lately, but. All roads lead, every topic we do, all roads lead back to Christ himself. It always ends that way. Doesn't matter what that title is on the podcast that you press on our website or some podcast service, but they all end up leading back to Christ himself. And I found this scripture here that's one of the most beautiful, and it's, you know, about 6, 7, 8. Lines. I'm gonna try to get through 'em, but they're so beautiful and they work so well together. I hope you guys will indulge me on this. This is Colossians one 15. It says, the son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. He's the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And before I read these last couple lines, you wanna know your purpose. Just look in there. We were created for Christ. That's just beautiful and if, and Paul finishes up once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith established and firm and do not move from the hope held out. In the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant. I just love the way Paul brings it all back to the gospel, his gospel, and that's what we preach here on the unveiling from day one. It's that gospel living in the grace of Christ, the message of God's grace. It's not about us doing, that's not our purpose. Our purpose is to come to Christ through the gospel. The good news, the best news that ever came on the face of this planet.
[00:24:25] Ajai: . I'm so glad you brought that up, mark. In fact, and I was kind of scrambling to find that verse, you know, all things were created through him and for him, you know, that is a reason and the purpose of our creation. Again, , when we say through him and for him, it's not so much like, , he is going to be we are minions in his sight and, you know, he's created for us, you know, to be his mins and servants and all that. No, he created us. To be united with him. So one other aspect I think we can quickly touch upon, we did not, is our union with our Lord Jesus Christ. So the picture of husband and wife is a perfect picture of our union with our Lord Jesus Christ. So our purpose is accomplished. , we don't become the children of God by doing this, by doing that, by making ourselves holy. It's not accomplished like that. We don't become the bride of Christ, also by our own righteousness or by doing this and that, but through our union with our Lord Jesus Christ. So all things are created through him and for him. Right? So how did he create us? Through him, through the cross, you know, through his death. He crucified our old man and in his resurrection, our new man comes to life. And then as we have just seen through our union with Christ. We become his bride, we also become the child of God. So that's why, , everything we have, sometimes people think of Christianity as a ticket to heaven and they totally ignore life. Ignore Christ. They trade heaven and hell as places. So somehow, you know, they don't understand that they don't see Christ is needed in that. Right? So I work my way to heaven. or. If I don't do enough, , I go to hell. But as Christians, when we are born again, everything we have in Christ , are all the benefits of salvation that we get are in Christ and through Christ. So unless we are joined with him, unless we are in Christ, we cannot really have the benefits of salvation, including forgiveness, everything, righteousness. You know, the Bible says, , he who knew no sin became sin for us. So that we might be made the righteousness of God, not outside of Christ, but in Christ. So everything we get is through Union with Christ. So when we understand that, you know, we understand heaven is not a place. If you go to heaven and Christ is not there, that's not heaven. And if you go to Hell or if you go to most beautiful place on the earth and Christ is not there, , it still will become hell one day because we don't have the life of Christ. That God created us for. So this beautiful union is ours right now. Our spirits are already united with Christ and, and the Bible says, you know, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, and if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. So this is one of the things I think we can meditate on and understand that we are joined to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, we get everything in our salvation.
[00:27:35] Mark: Just hearkening back to the marriage illustration one more time. I'm reading Mark 10 here. Cuz I was thinking , as you were talking Ajai, that how does a bride become united to her husband, to the bride groom? It's not by. Doing a lot of stuff. It's by standing before God and the two being joined together. She becomes the bride right there because God has joined them together and it says so. They're no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together cannot be separated. Paul already said that marriage is a mystery, but it's a picture of Christ and the church. And I think we can say right there, you know what, what God has joined together, which is our union with Christ. No one can separate, and Paul also said, what can separate us from the love of Christ? And he lists a ton , of possibilities. And then finally says, or anything else in all creation can separate us. So if I, if we play that illustration out to its logical point, we have become one with Christ.
[00:28:48] Ajai: That's an awesome point and that is another solid scripture for eternal security. You know what? God joined together cannot be separated. So some of us are scared that, you know, if I do this, if I do that, I'll lose my salvation. But in scriptures there is no evidence for that. Imagine, right. You know, you are married to somebody and the husband is threatening you every day. If you don't do this, I'm going to leave you right. I'm going to send out divorce papers. No relationship will work like that. So in order for us, again to bear fruit to God, we need to rest in our relationship with our Lord Jesus is Christ, that we are secure in him and we are joined to him and no force in heaven or earth can separate us from our Lord Jesus Christed. ,
[00:29:34] Tim: that's funny, Ajai, because I was thinking the same thing. Oh look, there are some more good verses that seem to indicate that we can't be, , plucked from God's hands, that we can't lose our salvation and that sort of thing. I hesitated to bring it up because. I thought that might be a very long bunny trail.
[00:29:52] Mark: I think that's a great point, Tim, because it's saying your purpose cannot be thwarted by anything you do or anything anybody else does. Your purpose is eternal once you come into it as being God's child and the key Ajai, , you briefly touched upon it, but it says what God has joined together. No one can separate but. What man joins together can be separated. That's why when we are religious Christians who think the way that we are joined to God is by doing this, doing that, don't do this. Don't do that. Give this much money. Serve this much time. All those things cannot bring you that same union that can't be separated. It's what God joins together. And that's why we rely completely and solely on Christ, because that union will never be torn apart.
[00:30:50] Tim: Amen. Well, we've come to that period of time where we get to summarize today's discussion and as always, I wanna let you guys have that chance to do that. So, mark. Why don't you start that off tonight?
[00:31:03] Mark: \Sure. Well, I think I would just finish by reiterating something that we said in the last podcast that God's purpose for us is not to do, but to be. Anything we do comes out of that being, comes out of our union. So why in the world would we, would we focus on the things we do? Focus on your union with Christ, we're created. As that last scripture said, we're not only created by and through Christ, but he's continuing to sustain us. And we were created for him , so probably the simplest way of putting what our purpose is. Our purpose is Christ. Just as Paul said, he knew nothing but Christ and him crucified. That was his purpose. That's our purpose. Knowing Christ, being joined to him.
[00:31:55] Ajai: Amen. Mark, I'm going to bounce off something you just said. , God's purpose is to be. But even that being is not of us. It's of him, like you said, it God who joined us to Christ. We did not do anything to join ourself to Christ and become somebody it God who did it. I want to close with this first. It is beautiful again. Like Mark, you said, all roads lead to Christ and him crucified. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. But of him, of God. You are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glorious let Him glory in the Lord. When we understand that, , everything we have is basically Christ himself and it is of God, it's not our doing. Because all our position is Christ himself. He's our righteousness. He's our scientification, even. He's our wisdom and he's our redemption. So if everything is him, what do we have to boast in? We only boast in the Lord He hope glory is let Him glory in the Lord.
[00:33:05] Tim: Well, mark, you started with the line, , our purpose is not to do, but to be. And I think that was gonna be my entire summation. And for, for this topic,
[00:33:17] Mark: that's a confirmation of two witnesses, Tim. So that's a good one.
[00:33:20] Tim: And Ajai's Clarifications made it even better. So
[00:33:23] Mark: three witnesses. There you go.
[00:33:26] Tim: Well, I think that's gonna do us for tonight, guys. I wanna thank everybody for listening and hope you've been blessed and uplifted. , as always, if you have any comments, questions, anything you'd like to just to tell us about, get on our website, check us out, plenty of places to comment, email even got a phone listener line if you wanna leave us a voicemail.
Well guys, I wish you both a great weekend and follow our listeners the same. We'll talk to you all again the next time.
