THE PRINCIPLE OF DELIVERANCE EXEMPLIFIED

PRINCIPLE OF DELIVERANCE AS EXEMPLIFIED IN JESUS CHRIST

He is calling upon us to come to Him and take His yoke upon us so that we can learn of His spirit of humility and meekness as that is the only attitude of finding rest for our souls- Matt. 11:28-30. He exemplified the right attitude and purpose of a humble mind as a pre-requisite for deliverance. He had no need for deliverance, rather He came to be our deliverer. And to be a qualified deliverer, He had to show us the way to be delivered- Phil. 2:5-11. This is shown through;

 Abdication of the seat of dignity: Though He was essentially one with God (the father) and in the form of God (the Godhead), possessing the full attributes of God, He never thought the equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained at the expense of the entire lost humanity. He stripped Himself of all privileges and dignity so as to be our savior and deliverer.

 Taking a common place: After the Lord abdicated His place of dignity, He took a common place with us. This was a common place of being made like one of us. It was a common place of coming to dwell with us in this sinful world and to be tempted in all kinds of points that we are tempted. The truth remains that He took a common place with us without committing  a common sin like us.

 Taking the place of a servant: The miracle of deliverance and greatness is brought down to the lowly in heart  where they can reach out by faith and get it. This accounts for the reason the Lord chose coming down to our level in the plan of redemption. Those who are low in heart are lifted by God's grace to get it by faith, while those who are lofty and high in life must come down by faith and humility to get it (Jam. 1:9-11). The low in life may not be the lowly in heart, but the low in life responds more to the Lord than the high and lofty. This is why the Lord has chosen to reveal Himself more to the low in heart than the high and lofty (Lk. 10:21-22). The lowly are those who lay aside their inferiority or superiority complex to respond to the Lord on His terms of salvation or deliverance. They are those who, not only take a common place with the lowly, but still willingly descend lower to serve others (Matt. 20;20-28).

Obeying to the extreme: The only place where extremity is justified  in all we do in life is in obeying God. Abraham was one of those who went to the extreme to obey God by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. By this act, he became a type of  God the father who gave up His only begotten to die for our sins. Jesus as the son of God obeyed the father to the extreme and came to this sinful world to be our saviour. Not only that He humbled himself and took a common place with all men as well as that of a servant, He also obeyed His father's will to the point of dying like the worst criminal on the cross for the sins of mankind. This is obedience to the extreme. The death of the cross was the most horrifying and horrible death anyone could taste.  Such death pictures the awful nature of sin and its corresponding awful judgment. His death and resurrection marked His earthly complete break from this earthly system and gravity that He is no more controlled or limited by them. By the principle of positional faith- identification, we are said to have been crucified, dead, buried, resurrected and ascended with Him. However, this positional faith-identification must be translated into practical experience of truly being crucified, dead, buried, resurrected and ascended with Him in the newness of life- Rm. 6:1-2, Phil. 3:7-11. We must be ready to be crucified with Him so that we can die to live with Him in the newness of His resurrected life. We must be willing to obey God o the extreme until old things experientially pass away and all things become new- 2 Cor. 5:17.

The result: Resurrection and exaltation

As a reward of Jesus stooping so low, in extreme obedience to the Father, He was raised from the dead and highly exalted and given a name that is superior to other names. By His resurrection, exaltation, and superior name, all creation, both in heaven and on earth and below the earth has been placed under His subjection and command by the Father. The resurrection of Christ was a foundation of deliverance upon which our own deliverance stands- Heb. 2:14-15.

PRINCIPLE OF DELIVERANCE AS EXEMPLIFIED IN APOSTLE PAUL

This great apostle of the church is another great model we must learn standards of obedience and dedication from. In his epistle to the Philippians, the  voice of a man who was consumed with the zeal of the Lord that he counted his dignity as refuse was heard- Phil. 3:4-9. The word ''refuse'' means a waste or worthless material. A refuse is a waste and worthless material collected to be dumped in a dustbin. This is the way apostle Paul looked at his status of dignity; and that is exactly the way God is looking at it. It is a man who is spiritually bind that so much values his earthly dignity to the point of neglecting the salvation and deliverance of his soul from bondage.