“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound…” Isaiah 61:1
There is coming a day when God will set all things right. All things will be brought under His sovereign control, His authority. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important ones concerns the salvation and blessing of men. It was Isaac Watts, who in his great hymn, “Jesus Shall Reign,” wrote the following: “Blessings abound where-er He reigns: The prisoner leaps to lose their chains, The weary find eternal rest, And all the sons of want are blest.” In this hymn, Watts seeks to reveal something of the heart of God, by describing the outflowing of His grace and mercy through His blessings, both physical and spiritual. If there is one thing that is revealed by God’s dealings with men, it is His goodness. This goodness will have its expression, revelation, and influence upon men, even though many would reject the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He makes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He provides food for the hungry, both physical and spiritual. It is a fact that God has provided for all of the needs of men, but in giving men the authority to choose how they shall live, their selfish and arrogant bent of heart and spirit, has deprived countless multitudes of the necessary provisions of life.
When Jesus came, walked upon this earth, He ministered to men, to their needs. Because of His authority, that communicated to Him by the Father, He received the authority of the Father to minister to the multiple needs of the multitudes. He preached the truth of God, and of God’s ways leading to salvation from sin and Satan. He healed the sick, gave nourishment to the hungry, ministered to both children and adult, rich and poor. Above all, He stretched forth His hand to deliver the sinner from bondage to sin and Satan, providing cleansing from sin and its consequences, in order to give peace, His peace to the heart with regard to eternity, and the assurance of acceptance before God. Christ came to minister and to save, from the washing of His disciples feet, to the response of everyone who would truly seek Him. His works were so many that John the Apostle tells us that all the books in the world could not contain the accounts of all that He did. Why did He do this? It was because he was GOOD, perfectly good, and HOLY, separated unto His Father. But where did the strength and power come from in order to do this, to overcome such need, and minister to so many? It came from the Father by the Spirit.
When the Lord Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River by John the Baptist, Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God came upon Him in the form of a dove. That day, all the power and authority of heaven was given to Christ so that He could minister to the needs of fallen men, in an atmosphere of desperate spiritual need, ignorant of God and in many cases rebellious towards God. But Christ would not be deterred. Why? Yes, it was primarily out of love for the Father, being moved by the love of the Father for the world. But it was also because He was good, perfectly good, both He and the Father, and the Spirit. When Christ embraced the cross the day of His baptism, knowing that He would die one day for the salvation of men, He became the source of blessing for all men. To those who would receive Him, and be receptive to what He declared, then repented and believed in Him as Savior and Lord, the way was open for great blessing. Rejecting Christ is to deny Him access to bless.
Dear Father, Fill us with Thy goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.