Important Note To Students And Teachers
The first quarter of this study focused you on Jesus. Jesus is God's son, God's perfect servant. Be certain that you understand the word perfect properly. It is simple to think, "Jesus was perfect," meaning that he was sinless. That is true. He never had any evil in his heart, mind, or life [Hebrews 4:14,15; 5:7-9].
The primary point to be seen in Jesus the perfect servant is not his sinlessness. Jesus was sinless and God's perfect servant. In his servanthood, his perfection is seen in two truths. (1) He was perfect because evil was totally absent in his life. (2) He was perfect because he served God by doing exactly what God wanted in the way God wanted. That is why he was the perfect servant.
Christians commonly agree that we should not sin. We commonly understand that Jesus should be accepted as our example of sinlessness. We commonly understand that loyalty to God involves rejecting evil. We commonly understand a Christian cannot deliberately be evil and belong to God.
Christians too often fail to understand that our goal as God's children is this: we commit ourselves to becoming God's perfect servants. From spiritual birth to physical death, that is always the Christian's goal. Only Jesus can show us how to pursue that goal. Only Jesus can teach us what God's perfect servant is and does. The perfect servant does the will of God (1) by placing his or her emphasis in all of life where God places it; (2) by pursuing God's emphasis with Jesus' heart and attitude; and (3) by allowing God to reveal His will for us through Jesus.
Understanding Jesus enables us to have the correct understanding of the church. Understanding Jesus enables us to have the correct understanding of life. Understanding Jesus enables us to have the correct understanding of eternity. No person can correctly understand any of these unless he or she understands Jesus.
Jesus saw God. We do not. Jesus understood God. We do not. Jesus perfectly grasped the desires of God. We do not. Jesus perfectly accomplished the purposes of God. We do not.
By seeing and understanding Jesus, the Christian can see God, understand God, know God's desires, and identify God's purposes. Jesus enables us to do God's will because Jesus gives us "eyes." Without Jesus, we are spiritually blind. When we are spiritually blind, the church is misguided, our work is misguided, our lives are misguided, and our commitments do not lead us into God's will and purposes.
God's perfect servant must be our example. Only Jesus enables us to see God. Only Jesus shows us what God would be and how God would act if God the Father was in fleshly form. If we accept Jesus as God in the flesh, we must permit Jesus to teach us how to be God's servants.
The heart of the Christian life is found in serving. The Christian understands how to be God's servant by understanding the earthly life of his Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.
