The Lord Jesus lived here on earth under a deep consciousness of having a mission from His Father to fulfil. He continually used the expression, “The Father hath sent Me.” He knew what the mission was. He knew the Father had chosen Him, and sent Him into the world with the one purpose of fulfilling that mission. He knew the Father would give Him all that He needed for it. Faith in the Father having sent Him was the motive and power for all that He did.
In earthly matters, it is a great help if an ambassador clearly knows what his mission is. That way, he has nothing to do but to care for its accomplishment, and to give himself undividedly to do this one thing. For the Christian, it is no less important that he should know that he has a mission, what its nature is, and how he is to accomplish it.
Our heavenly mission is one of the most glorious parts of our conformity to our Lord. He says it plainly in the most solemn moments of His life, that even as the Father sent Him, so He sends His disciples. He says it to the Father in His high-priestly prayer, as the basis upon which He asks for their keeping and sanctification. He says it to the disciples after His resurrection, as the basis on which they are to receive the Holy Spirit. Nothing will help us to know and fulfil our mission more than to realise how perfectly it corresponds to the mission of Christ, how they are, in fact, identical.
Our mission is like His in its object. Why did the Father send His Son? To make known His love and His will in the salvation of sinners. He was to do this not alone by word and precept, but in His own person, disposition, and conduct, He was to exhibit the Father’s holy love. He was so to represent the unseen Father in heaven, that men on earth might know what the Father was like.
After the Lord had fulfilled His mission, He ascended into heaven, and became to the world like the Father, the Unseen One. And now He has given His mission to His disciples, after having shown them how to fulfil it. They must so represent Him, the Invisible One, that from seeing them men can judge what He is like. Every Christian must so be the image of Jesus – must so exhibit in his person and conduct the same love to sinners and desire for their salvation – that from them the world may know what Christ is like. Oh my soul, take time to realise these heavenly thoughts.
Believer, whoever you are, and wherever you dwell, the Lord who knows you and your surroundings, has need of you and has chosen you to be His representative in the circle in which you move. Fix your heart on this. He has fixed his heart on you and saved you, in order that you should bear and exhibit to those who surround you the very image of His unseen glory. Oh, think of the origin of your heavenly mission in His everlasting love, as His had its origin in the love of the Father. Your mission is, in very truth, just like His.
The fitting for our mission also corresponds to that of Christ. Every ambassador expects to be supplied with all that he needs for his embassy. “He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone” (Jn. 8:29). That word tells us how, when the Father sent the Son, He was always with Him, His strength and comfort. It is even so with the church of Christ in her mission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” has the promise: “Lo, I am with you always” (Mt. 28:19-20).
The Christian need never hold back because of unfitness. The Lord does not demand anything which He does not give the power to perform. Every believer may depend on it. As the Father gave His Holy Spirit to the Son to fit Him for all His work, so the Lord Jesus made the same provision for His disciples to be endued with the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:8).
Our mission is also like that of Christ in the consecration which it demands. The Lord Jesus gave Himself over entirely and undividedly to accomplish His work. He lived for it alone: “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work” (Jn. 9:4). The Father’s mission was the only reason for His being on earth. For this alone he would live – to reveal to mankind what a glorious, blessed God the Father of heaven is.
As with Jesus, so with us. Christ’s mission is the only reason for our being on earth. Were it not for that, He would take us away. This heavenly mission is so great and glorious that without an entire consecration to it we cannot accomplish it. Without this, the powers which fit us for it cannot take possession of us. Just as with Jesus, our heavenly mission demands nothing less than entire consecration. Am I prepared for this? Then I indeed have the key through which the holy glories of this word of Jesus will be revealed to my experience: “As the Father sent Me, even so send I you.”
Prayer: “O Lord Jesus, You descended from heaven to earth to show us what the life of heaven is. You could do this because You were of heaven. You brought with You the image and Spirit of the heavenly life to earth. Therefore, did You so gloriously exhibit what constitutes the very glory of heaven – the will and love of the unseen Father. Lord, You are now the Invisible One in heaven, and send us to represent You in Your heavenly glory as Saviour. You ask that we so love men that from us they may form some idea of how You love them in heaven. Blessed Lord, our heart cries out: How can You send us with such a calling? How can You expect it of us who have so little love? How can we, who are of the earth, show what the life of heaven is? Precious Saviour, our souls do bless You that we know You do not demand more than You give. You who are the life of heaven live in Your disciples. Blessed be Your holy Name, they have from You the Holy Spirit from heaven as their life breath. He is the heavenly life of the soul. Whoever surrenders himself to the leading of the Spirit can fulfil his mission. In the joy and power of the Holy Spirit we can be Your image-bearers, can show to men in some measure what Your likeness is. Lord, teach me and all Your people to understand that we are not of the world, as You were not of the world, and therefore are sent of You, even as You were sent of the Father, to prove in our life that we are of that heavenly world full of love, purity and blessing, like You. Amen.”