08-27-24-DAILY READING-ENG.

EXPERIENCING THE SPIRIT

                                  THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS

Jesus is the example, the model, of how we can live in relation to God. Although He was God, He chose to set aside what was rightfully His and take on the frail and limited abilities of the human race. When the apostle Paul presented the humble attitude of Jesus as our example to follow, he emphasized the human condition He assumed: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-8) When Jesus took on human flesh, He chose to live under the limitations that come with a physical body.

That doesn't mean He ceased to be divine, but He willingly set aside His rights as God and lived as a human. And being limited by His physical condition, He was forced to rely upon the Holy Spirit as His source of wisdom and power. We see the presence of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life in a clear and visible way at the time of His baptism. Something spectacular happened there at the Jordan River, something that initiated a new role for the Spirit in His life: When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22) This moment represented the beginning of a new stage in Jesus’ life, a special anointing by the Father for extraordinary and demanding tasks.

From the moment Jesus began His public ministry, the work of the Holy Spirit enabled Him to do everything the Father asked of Him. The Scriptures make this clear. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, Luke tells us, “Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (4:1). Immediately after being tempted in the wilderness by the devil, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (4:14). Jesus then went to Nazareth, where we see Him speak with clarity of the assignment God had given Him. Standing in the synagogue, He turned in the

Scriptures to Isaiah and read: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the    LORD…. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your    hearing. (4:18-19, 21) So we see the pattern: the assignment was given by the Father, accepted by the Son, and fulfilled through the working power of the Spirit. That pattern is exactly what will happen in our lives as children of God.