Strong Man Of God Blog

            With the awesome help of the Holy Spirit, I have presented a strong (if brief in this limited blog format) case for the value of men to humanity, God in salvation and His Kingdom cause in the Gospel as well as families.  As a close to this special blog series on the value of men, I greatly rejoice to declare the selected words and actions of Jesus, Son of Man and Christ about His “brethren” from the Bible.  Only here will I mention in a non-apologetic, matter of fact way for those offended because of attempting to see spiritual reality through rebel feminist constructed, egalitarian eyes, that Christ’s regard for men in no way diminishes females since His eternal good end includes them too!

            Truly we are taught that spiritual reality and wisdom--to include what God has done, is doing and will yet do in the future--is only understood by those with the “mind of Christ” revealed to us by the Holy Spirit (John14:15-17; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, NKJV).  In revealing the mind of Christ to us, the Holy Spirit fully draws from the Old Testament along with New Testament eyewitness accounts and instruction of the Bible He inspired (John 16:5-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21)!  As well, the Lord Himself comes near to reveal His mind, teach and direct us as promised (John 14:18-21; Acts 9:10-16, 10:1-16).  O, the amazingly incredible, unsearchable and limitless ways of God!

            Thus, the mind of Christ toward men is first abundantly seen in the Old Testament when for example, a thousand years before He appears on the earth in mortal form, He speaks through His Jewish royal forefather, David, and declares triumphantly at the end of His suffering and death on the cross: “I will declare Your name to My brethren,” (Psalm 22:1-22a, NKJV).  Now, while the Psalm goes on to include expanding groups impacted by His Father’s deliverance (Psalm 22:22b-31), the risen Christ speaks of “My brethren” before all even as He does to the first persons to see Him--women--as He instructs them: “Go and tell My brethren…,” (Matthew 28:9-10; John 20:17, NKJV).

            Jesus, Son of Man and Christ seeks out His earthly, Jewish brethren first as God’s fellow elect leaders, apostles and soldiers in the dangerous Kingdom warfare and cause for which He had just suffered and would now send them (John 20:19-23)!  They would begin as He did with Jewish men as the first audience and heads of households charged by God to lead and teach them.  For Jesus, Son of Man is the Anointed Savior-King of the Jews first, then us Gentiles (Isaiah 49:5-7; Acts 1:6-8, 2:36-39; Romans 1:16).  With few exceptions conditioned by evangelistic opportunities, the pattern to reach men first and their households would persist among the Gentiles (Acts 10:17-48, 16:11-34).

            The writer of Hebrews gets in on this and writes of the ultimate, eternal end of the Lord’s sufferings as “bringing many sons to glory,” (Hebrews 2:5-10, NKJV).  He then speaks of how Christ who has done the work and those that are set apart to God as a result “are all of one;” the reason “He is not ashamed to call them brethren,” (Hebrews 2:11, NKJV).  After this, the writer cites Psalm 22:22 and further celebrates this astounding truth by quoting from Isaiah 8:17-18 written 700 years before the Lord’s mortal sojourn; putting Him in the midst of His “brethren” voicing obvious delight in God’s redemptive purposes that brought them forth beginning with those of Israel (Hebrews 2:12-13, NKJV).

            Indeed, the restoration cause of Christ in the Gospel goes well beyond saving mankind from sin in this present age as all important as this is as a first step.  For Him as God and one of us, it is also about what follows salvation; the divine end game and exceedingly great spiritual reality He prayed for on the way to the cross.  The opening up of the God Family to include adopted sons of God the Father and brethren for Christ from among Jews and Gentiles who share in His inheritance of life now through the Holy Spirit by faith (John 17:20-26; Romans 8:12-17; Ephesians 1:1-14, 2:11-22, 3:14-15); the fullness of His inheritance that includes resurrection for most, metamorphosis and immortal glory for all the redeemed at His Second Coming (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 35-57)!

            We know that the present age assembly of His mortal brethren in the generic sense includes women.  However, in the future, brethren after the metamorphosis that conforms the bodies of all to Christ’s own immortal body will be used without any qualification (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2).¹  At last, the value of man to God as eternal sons and rulers in the divine image and likeness as declared at his creation is fulfilled (Genesis 1:26; Revelation 21:7, 22:5c).  With His Father, therefore, the value of men to Christ is their redemption as sons, disciples and servants vigorously now engaged with Him in the perilous and risk filled Kingdom cause in the Gospel to restore others; bringing them as brethren with their households into the God Family and an eternal destiny!²

1 Read the July 10-31, 2016 blog posts under the category, God’s Creatures, where the Lord leads me to write about our coming bodily resurrection or living translation to

   immortal bodies.

2 As an excellent supplement to this, the other three posts that preceded it and yes, those still to come dealing with men, I urge the reader to purchase my newly released
   audio  series,  “I  AM A MAN” available exclusively in the Strong Man Store.  All proceeds go to help fund the work of Strong Man Ministries and our passionate cause to
   restore men!

            The historic value of men as intentionally designed by God to the world is such that on the authority of His Word I have declared it along with guilty professed Christians and churches following suit as foolish for marginalizing them!  Truly, nowhere is this foolishness more plainly seen than in the sinful re-defining of men in their roles and responsibilities as husbands and fathers in the divinely ordained, foundational family unit.  In marginalizing and re-defining men as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the world is sowing the seeds of its own destruction as in the mix of negative consequences, families--the basic building blocks of societies--are being devastated.¹

            The value of men to families in their God designed temporary (due to death) roles and responsibilities as husbands and fathers in this present age are absolutely critical to their creation, effective functioning and wellbeing.  The first man had God bring him the first woman and his wife (Genesis 2:18-23).  After this, in God’s perfect will a man has typically taken the initiative to leave out from his parent’s household to find a wife, unite to her in marriage and create a new household (Genesis 2:24).  Men alone have been equipped by God in their bodies with the seed necessary to initiate new human life and follow the first man in doing so with his wife (Genesis 4:1-2, 25-5:5).

            By God’s express design, order and purposes of mankind men are His elect heads of their families.  This is shown by Adam being created first, the command God gave Eve after she sinned in usurping her husband’s headship and His rebuke of Adam for following his wife’s lead while judging him (Genesis 2:7, 3:1-6, 16-17; 1 Timothy 2:12-14).  The authority and responsibilities of headship in the family have been exercised with only occasional historic challenge until these latter days of all out rebellion against it (Esther 1; Psalm 2:1-3)!  Even many Christians seek to dilute the headship God has given men not believing abusers will give an account to Christ, their Head (1 Corinthians 11:3). 

            In God’s design of the human family reflecting His own, the effective functioning of it requires the leadership and management of a chief authority.  In the God Family where all three Persons that have eternally made it up are equally God, nevertheless, the Chief Authority is the Father (Luke 3:21-22; John 3:35, 10:30-33, 14:7-28).  So, in the human family while each person of the unit is equal in person, the husband and father has been assigned chief ruling authority as the head by God!  And though the family rule of men corrupted by sin has been less than perfect, nowhere in Scripture does God diminish or revoke their chief authority assignment.

            Indeed, the divine expectation of the family rule and stewardship of men is maintained by speaking of them first in the fifth of the Ten Commandments and addressing them as the first audience throughout the pages of Scripture (Exodus 20:12; Acts 1:15-16; 1 Corinthians 10:1)!  The chief ruling experience of men in their families has also been transferrable and beneficial to human social units beyond it to include the Lord’s Church on earth (Exodus 18:13-27; Acts 15:1-22).  Besides ruling authority, God expects men to give visionary leadership to their families ideally listening to Him for the best outcomes (Genesis 11:27-12:9; Matthew 1:18-25).

            God has assigned men three other equally important roles and responsibilities He holds them accountable for.  Men have the lead role and responsibility for teaching their families by precept and example (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4).  So influential is a man as the lead teacher, his family is instructed even by his failure to teach because they watch him!  Men are most known historically for and relied on as material providers for their families as another important role and responsibility (1 Timothy 5:8).  Finally, men are also assigned by God to protect their families from spiritual and physical harm though they are most known for their physical protection (Proverbs 6:20-35; Matthew 2:1-18).  The value of men to families in God’s design, order and purposes for mankind is truly great!

            However, rejecting God’s design, order and purposes of mankind by marginalizing and re-defining men to fit a rebellious, feminist worldview is not fixing anything, but confusing everything!  For example, many sinful men now passively, routinely and irresponsibly allow their wives to be the chief authority, visionary leader, teacher, provider and protector in the family if there is marriage at all.  Divorce is common because unless the man does submit to his wife, there is no chief authority, harmony or coherent family vision as each selfishly does as they please.  Fatherlessness is rampant as irresponsible men create children, but have no widely accepted moral imperative to father them except by the payment of child support.  Anarchy is already underway; social collapse follows!

(Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers reading this.)

1 The  Lord  leads me to deal frankly with the world’s confused, 21^st century frontal attack on His design of men and the irreparable (in some cases) damage being done to
   families until the restoration of all things at His coming in chapter two of the book aptly titled, What Is A Man?  The book is on sale in the Strong Man Store digitally as an
   E-Book in two formats and special for Father’s Day, the print Soft Cover Edition with free shipping though June 20^th.