Focus: Divine Approval

Text: Act.2:22

"Jesus of Nazareth, a man APPROVED of God among you by MIRACLES and WONDERS and SIGNS, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."

Jesus Christ is the man among men. He is the original species of humanity. He has on Him the seal of divine approval. When He stilled the storm, His disciples wondered, "What manner of man is this!" He is not the usual kind of man. His humanity is unique. He is the original - the prototype of man. Not only was He the best of men, but also, the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. He is the embodiment of deity. He looks like us, but He is definitely different from us. The Apostle Paul says, "God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh…" (Rom.8:3). You get that? He is every whit like us, except that He has no iota of sin in His nature. He is a man without sin. His nature is different. No sin in His genes and no evil in His DNA. He came straight from heaven and from God. He does not possess in Him the nature of sin, and He committed no sinful acts. As the Scripture makes clear, Christ knew no sin, did no sin, and no guile was found in His mouth.

The body with which He died is the same with which He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, and with it He is coming back to reign on the earth. At the resurrection of the saints, John tells us, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1Jh.3:2). Then we shall be His kind, His brand, His exact replicas. Then we shall be conformed to His image. Right now, we are metamorphosing by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Then we shall finally conform to His image in every way, except becoming or being God. We can't replicate or duplicate God, and there will be nothing as multiplicity of deities. God living in us doesn't make us Gods.

Jesus Christ is not our present brand of humanity; He is radically different, and we all need the authentic Christ, not His resemblance.

God approved of Christ by using Him to work miracles, wonders and signs.

Now here is the wonder of wonders: Christ living in and working miracles by us. That is the wonder! That is divine approval. Christ is still working miracles, wonders and signs through the consecrated believer or minister. The church is God's medium for the miraculous on earth. Paul says, "Salute Apelles approved in Christ" (Rom.16:10). Like Apelles, we are approved in Christ, and the evidence of that approval is what we allow Christ to do in and through us.

I pray you let Christ use you. He wants to use you to announce to the world that miracle-days are not over, and that God has not ceased to be relevant in the world that He created and owns. We need to show the world that in Christ we are a new creation, and that the original is here again. Christ is approved OF God and we, as believers, are approved IN Christ. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter