Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He
reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek
My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).
Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern
throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way,
whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from
that purpose. “. . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . .
.” (Luke 9:51).
The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem
to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions
are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We
talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to
be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New
Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose
of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . .” (John 15:16).
We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we
are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no
idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even
more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because
we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the
beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s
purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,” and, “God has
called me to do this special work.” We do what we think is right, and
yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of
no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is
simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. “He took the
twelve aside . . .” (Luke 18:31). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.
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