Purpose

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

PURPOSE

Acts 13:32-37

32 "We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: "'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'   34 The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'   35 So it is stated elsewhere: "'You will not let your Holy One see decay.'   36 "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

NIV

For the rest of the story we need to know the rest of the story. David was buried and his body did decay, but then what are we to know about what happens after that? Was David left to decay, to perish or did God save the man who he testified was a man after his own heart? Paul was certainly setting the stage for two results of life. One to be buried and our body to decay, and two to be raised from the dead, not to see decay because we are in Jesus. As we will see Paul warns them to make sure they are not among the first type, thus by implication be of the second type, being in Jesus. If they, and we desire to escape decay, we must accept Jesus as the Holy One of God. Certainly we have done that and we are assured eternal life, but is that guaranteed no matter what, as long as we accept Jesus as our Savior? Can we continue to live in a manner that suits our own fancy? Certainly we cannot resist every temptation for if we did we would be perfect and that is just not possible. But the desire of our heart is to resist. The other truth which is here for us is the fact that it was when David had served God’s purpose in his generation he fell asleep, he died. This would imply the reason David lived in the first place, was to serve the purpose of God in his generation. It would seem right to make the leap that the reason we live is to serve the purpose of God in our generation, and when we have accomplished that we will fall asleep. So then we must make that next leap and state that as long as we are not asleep, or dead, we are or should be serving the purpose of God in our generation.  What does that look like in our flawed condition? How can we, who still fall to temptation serve the purpose of God? If we continue with the analogy of David, surely he was flawed, imperfect in many ways, yet it is testified that he served the purpose of God in his generation, so then we too, who are flawed, human, and imperfect in that condition can still serve the purpose of God in our generation. Now should we continue to live in sin, God forbid? But with a heart desiring to serve our Lord, failing at times to various temptations, making mistakes, we can serve our Lord, do his will, and accomplish his purpose for our life. We each have a purpose, each may be different, yet all are the same, to serve the purpose of God and when we have done so we get to fall asleep and be with our Lord. So we need to live with purpose.