Building Blocks for Life (Pt. 3) "Favor"
God's Favor Was Upon Jesus
There are plenty of mixed messages that you receive concerning what’s most essential to your life. From a Christian point of view, it’s important to determine from who, or what influence you draw from each day. In this series of blogs I'm encouraging you to draw your influences from the early years of Jesus and the building blocks that God used to shape His life. In Luke 2:40, God is at work placing building blocks in the life of Jesus. Luke writes: "...the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him." The Greek word for “favor” is charis; it literally means, "freely and without merit, exerting to another the gifts of joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, good will, loving-kindness, and favor." This is what God does for you!
Before I go further, here's a fair question: "If Jesus is God, why did he even need God's favor?" Don't forget, Jesus is fully human (born of the virgin Mary) as well as fully God. Jesus needed the fullness of God's favor to conquer the desires and frailty of His human nature. Throughout the life of Jesus, God the Father turned the heart of Jesus toward the Holy Spirit and Himself as Father. He kept Jesus close, strengthened Him, increased His faith, knowledge, affection, and growth into a perfect demonstration of Godly virtues, authority, and power. God's favor was upon Jesus.
Because God's favor was upon Jesus, He was able to live a holy and perfect life. Jesus had a resolute determination to live out His calling as Savior. He flawlessly navigated life and revealed God's Kingdom message. He sacrificially suffered and died upon a cross, resurrected from the dead and victoriously completed His mission as Savior of the world all because of God's favor.
And what was Jesus' responsibility in all this? He completely opened His life to the exertion of God’s grace and it shaped Him into an obedient, truth-filled, righteous, faithful and wise Servant of God. That is to be our response to God's favor as well. Think about it, God may be exerting his favor upon your life right now! How will you respond?
Charis = Grace
The word charis can also be translated as “Grace” in the scriptures. It means "unmerited favor." We don’t deserve God's love, mercy, or forgiveness—but He freely gives it to draw us closer to Him. No matter what’s going on in your life, whether you’re on a mountaintop or in the severity of a valley, God’s favor, His grace, is being exerted to you by God. He's reaching out to you. Turn to Him in prayer and receive it! "God, lavish your grace upon me today, I desperately need your favor in my life!" When this idea of charis is attached to God's relationship with you, it means:
"God's merciful kindness by which He exerts His holy influence upon you, turning your heart and soul to Jesus Christ for salvation, keeping and strengthening you, and increasing your Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and growth into the exercise of Christian virtues." Take time to read that again and unpack the meaning for yourself.
Great Question!
Check this out: If Jesus needed God's favor to strengthen His human frailty, how much more do you need God's favor and grace!? That's why I love this picture of God exerting Himself to turn your heart to Him for salvation, as well as on-going strength and wisdom to help you navigate life as a Christ-follower. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8, "God saved you by his grace (charis) when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God." However, God's favor and grace doesn't stop at your salvation, it continues throughout your life.
You can count on this: God will continue to exert Himself into your life to keep you close to Him; to strengthen you, to increase your faith, knowledge, and affection toward Him; to spur you on to exercise Godly virtues each day. That's His expression of favor and grace in your life.
Jesus said in John 14:26, "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you." Take an Inside Look
Evaluate where you’re at today with God. If you have never purposefully rejected sin and received the favor of God’s Salvation through faith in Jesus, it start's there. God's greatest exertion of favor and grace was demonstrated on the cross where He took your sins upon Himself, suffered the punishment for your sins, and defeated sin when He said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Have you received God's forgiveness personally? Have you asked Jesus to be Savior and leader (Lord) in your life?
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." Invite and receive God's Salvation. His favor of forgiveness from the penalty of your sin and the grace of eternal life is yours by an act of faith. Go to Jesus today!
A Picture of God's Grace and Favor
Author and speaker Brennan Manning tells the story of growing up with his best friend Ray. The two of them did everything together: They bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together. They even enlisted in the Army together and fought on the frontlines together. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the foxhole. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan's life was spared. Years later he went to visit Ray's mother in Brooklyn. They sat up late one night talking. Manning asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?” Ray’s mother got up off the couch, shook her finger and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?” Later, as Brennan thought about it, he imagined himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, “Does God really love me?” Deep in his thoughts, he heard a voice that said, “What more could he have done for you?”
The cross of Jesus is God's way of exerting His favor upon you, doing all He could do for you.
Next Step Would you do this: 1. If you haven't yet, receive God’s unmerited favor for salvation. 2. Don’t stop there. Resolutely determine to live by God’s truth by receiving God's favor and all you need to obey His truth. 3. Just as Jesus lived in God's favor to sacrificially give His life in service to God, make a commitment to serve God with your life each day.
