Most of us have known Jesus in separate moments and familiar scenes. This book brings those pieces together and follows His whole life - from conception to throne - as one continuous journey, unfolding toward the Father's purpose.
There was the baby in the manger. The teacher in the red letters. The Savior on the Cross. The risen Lord. The friend we speak to in the dark. Each is true. Each is precious. Yet few of us have ever been shown how these scenes belong together - how the hidden years, the wilderness, the miracles, the suffering, the Cross, the resurrection, and the throne form one life moving toward one destination.
We were given the stations. The Pattern Son - Jesus walks the road.
But the story does not end with Him.
Jesus is the Pattern Son - the One in whose image the Father is forming His children. His life is not only the story of what He did for us. It is also the living pattern of what the Father is doing in us.
His belovedness before works becomes our place of beginning. His wilderness reveals the testing of sonship. His obedience shows the way of surrender. His compassion reveals the Father's heart. His Cross shows the death of the self-given life. His resurrection reveals the life that follows surrender. And His throne shows where mature Sonship is going.
The road He walked before us becomes the road we walk in Him.
- The Son in the Father's heart - before creation began
- Eden as nursery, the Fall as changed route, the promise of the Son
- Bethlehem, Egypt, and the long hidden obedience of Nazareth
- Jordan, the open heavens, and beloved before works
- The wilderness and the three temptations of sonship
- The Son and the broken body, the tormented mind, the forgotten, the sinner
- The Son and money, power, women, and religious control
- Gethsemane, the Cross, and the defeat hidden inside the death
- The third day, the forty days, the ascension, the throne
- And then - your Jordan, your wilderness, your cross, your resurrection life
From spiritual birth to maturity, from receiving to obedience, from testing to surrender, from death to resurrection life, the Father is forming His children after the likeness of the Firstborn.
This is not a system to memorize or a distant example to admire. It is a walk with the living Christ.
And as the pieces become one life, a remarkable truth comes into view:
The Pattern we have been looking for has been Jesus all along.
A volume in The Master Plan Library - a collection exploring God's love for mankind, the purpose of the ages, and the final fullness of all things in Christ.
