“For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him.” —Romans 8:29-30

Jesus the Elder Brother

From the beginning of creation, God planned to redeem and restore mankind through Jesus Christ.

“God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.” —Ephesians 1:9-11

Jesus came as a Representative of the legal authority of the earth: man. He came as a human being, the Second Adam, and the beginning of a new family of men who would be devoted to God.

The second person of the Trinity voluntarily put aside His heavenly glory and came to earth as a man, which gave Him the legal right to reclaim humanity and the earth for God. To restore man’s broken relationship with God, it was necessary for Jesus to live a sinless life and to choose to do God’s will. Only a perfectly righteous man who desired to do God’s will could redeem humanity.

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” —2 Corinthians 5:21

Prayer: Father, thank You for sending Jesus as my elder brother in order to restore me to You. Help me to remember that because Jesus became sin for me, I have become the righteousness of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Read 2 Corinthians 5: 21 | Ephesians 1:9-11 | Romans 8:29-30

– Pastor Ted Winsley, Chaplain of the Philadelphia Eagles