“Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” (Isaiah 6:8)
“I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me. … The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing. … Whatever I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” (John 6:38, 5:19, 12:50)
“But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
In Adam’s sin, his “hamartia”, his missing the mark, we all fell short of the glory of God. God the Son so loved the Father that while we were still under “hamartia”, He accepted being sent to the blood-emptying Self-sacrifice of the cross so that Father’s will for our restoration of communion with Him in His glory, might be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We were missing the mark, but the Son responded to the Father’s “Where are you?” missing of us with, “Send Me.”
Jesus’ eye was fixed on His Father, speaking only His word, doing only His will, tempted in every way as we are, but without sinning. As a man, He held to the mark, keeping faithful communion with Father, however strong the inducement to turn aside. “I have set The Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”
Beyond comprehension, holding to the mark led Jesus to the unbearable breaking of His own communion with His Father. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” The unique death of His “go-for-us” cross, the death of “Eli! Eli! Lama sabachthani?” The heart-breaking “Where are You, Father?” The cutting off of the guiltless One that we, the guilty, might have free access into communion with our Father.
“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” We are Jesus’ ‘gofers’, daily “carrying about in our body the dying of Jesus that the Life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body,” for the drawing of the world to share in His glory. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.” Yoked with Jesus as bullseye pursuers of the Father, we “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, … Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross…”
Father, there is none like You! You are my Lord, I have no good apart from You. Please let me hear afresh Your whisper, “Will you go for Me?” Please “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me” that I may daily say, “Here am I, Lord, send me!’ Refocus my eyes, Lord Jesus, that I may walk humbly and gladly yoked with You to Father, learning from You to walk as You walked, joyfully aware that without You I can do zilch, but with You, I can hold to the mark set before me, to Father’s delight. Amen!