December 3, 2021 -- Luke 2:52 -- Jesus Perfect Reconciler

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And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Luke 2:52 ESV

Wasn’t Jesus perfect already? He is, after all, the Son of God. True. As the Son of God He was fully perfect and fully in favor with His Father in heaven. As the Son of Man, Jesus truly was human. At every age and every stage of His life, He was confirmed in perfection. Hebrews puts it this way: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him…” Hebrews 5:8,9 ESV. That passive “being made perfect” carries with it the sense that He at every stage of His life was accomplishing the goal for which He was sent—to glorify God and be the Mediator between God and man.

Jesus is the perfect source of life for all who believe.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, punished in our place, so that we are the children of God.

Jesus is the perfect Mediator, full-well knowing all our struggles—for in His flesh He was tempted, though He never sinned—He is able to give the grace necessary so that believers should overcome.

Jesus is the perfect Savior, He leads us to our Father in heaven by the power of the Spirit given to us. Yes, the same Spirit Who through-out Jesus’ earthly life was upon Him without measure.

In the strength of Jesus’ reconciling work and by His Spirit poured out on us, we as believers grow in wisdom and in stature, in favor with God and man.

Today’s prayer is a reading of praise, drawn from Isaiah 40.

Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.

Isaiah 40:21-23; 25-26; 28

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