We are not given favor because of who we are but because of who Jesus is in the eyes of the Father. His favor is now ours because we have been placed in Him. We are not given favor because of our performance as Christians, but because of our placement in Christ.
We are given favor because of the Father’s relationship with us in Christ and because of the Father’s relationship with Christ in us. In Christ, we are a new creation, one that has never existed before in the earth. The first Adam was a living soul whom the Holy Spirit came upon so that he could fulfill God’s purpose. The second Adam (Jesus) was a life-giving Spirit. When we were placed in Him on Calvary, the old nature passed away and all things became new. The old race of men passed away and anyone born again becomes part of an entirely new race of people that had never existed prior to Calvary.
The second Adam is from Heaven so that we now bear the image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45-49). God has not restored us to the Garden of Eden. He has gone much further than that! He has placed us into the very heart of the Godhead where we are no longer looking at the earthly image but the Heavenly (2 Corinthians 5:16).
The first purpose of God was to make man in His own image (Genesis 1:26). That likeness is fully restored through death and resurrection (Romans 6:5). We are united with the likeness of Christ and given all the benefits of relationship with Him through the Father. Favor is attached to the image of Jesus, not our behavior. We are learning to grow in grace and favor. Grace is God’s empowering presence to us in Christ. Favor is the right and privilege of sonship.
In Christ, the empowering Presence of God guarantees us all the rights and privileges of Jesus. The Father loves us as He loves Jesus. He has a relationship with Jesus, who is in us, as we are in Him. Therefore, I am a joint-heir with Christ.
We belonged to the Father who gave us to Jesus. Everything given to Jesus is from God, including us! All those who were given to Jesus by the Father also still belong to the Father. All things that belong to the Father also belong to Jesus and vice versa. John 17:6-10 is a fascinating study of joint ownership.
Everything that the Father has given to Jesus now automatically becomes part of our relationship with Him too. We are joint-heirs with Christ. Therefore, the origin of all our favor is in Christ’s relationship with the Father and our inclusion into Christ. “I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20).
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you, abide in My love” (John 15:9). Whatever the Father is to Jesus, He is to us. He has put us into Christ, so that He can enjoy the same relationship with us as He does with Jesus!!
This is not just the very heart of favor; it is the essential nature of the Gospel. “You are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). “Even so (in the same way) consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). “We are a new creation, all the old things have passed away, behold, everything has become new, and all these things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
All our favor is tied into the new creation, not the old. Because our old nature is dead, Father only relates to our new nature in Christ. When the Father looks at us, He does not see what is wrong with us. He sees what is missing in our relationship with Christ, and He is committed to developing that in us by the Holy Spirit. Our ongoing favor is a part of that development.
The Father honors the sacrifice of Jesus and He includes us, not only in His death, but also in His life. This means that when the Holy Spirit puts His finger on a part of our life that is not working, He is pointing to the site of our next transformation. We are looking at our next upgrade in the image of Jesus.
-An Excerpt from Prophetic Wisdom
