Faith Under Fire.

1 Thessalonians 1

And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it. – 1 Thessalonians 1:8 NLT

Paul is writing to the new believers in Thessalonica. It had been a year since he and Silas has been there, preaching the Good News and helping lead these pagan Gentiles to salvation in Jesus Christ. His letter, probably written from Corinth, was meant to offer them words of encouragement, exhortation and clarification. As was the case with all of Paul's letters, he was having to write them because he couldn't physically be with them. These people had not had it easy since their acceptance of the gospel message. Their conversions had not come without cost, in the form of persecution and, to a certain degree, confusion. Thessalonica was a wealthy and influential city in the region of Macedonia. The book of Acts tells us that those who accepted the message of salvation through Jesus Christ included some Jews, God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. These individuals found their faith in Christ immediately challenged because of the hostility of their own community to the Gospel message. During their missionary excursion to Thessalonica, Paul and Silas had been forced to flee for their lives when the crowds turned ugly, accusing them of treason against Caesar because they professed allegiance to another king – Jesus.

Like all new believers, these people were struggling with a certain degree of confusion. There was much they did not know. Their knowledge of Jesus and their understanding of His ultimate return were limited. While they had received the anointing of the Holy Spirit and knew first-hand that the message Paul had preached to them was true, they were limited in their understanding of what the Spirit-led life was to look like. Yet Paul was able to commend them for the faithful work, loving deeds and enduring hope. In fact, they had become an example of faith to all the believers in Greece. Word of their faith in the face of persecution and difficulty had gotten out. News of their acceptance of Christ and rejection of worthless idols had spread, influencing others to follow their example. Their commitment to Christ had not been without cost. But it had not been without real change either. These people had been radically transformed by the message of salvation through faith in Christ alone.

Paul commended them. "So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 1:6 NLT). Salvation had brought suffering. Faith had put them under fire. Accepting Christ had led to rejection and ridicule. But they had remained faithful. A year later, Paul had received news that they were still holding firm in their faith, and this letter was his attempt to encourage and exhort them to remain faithful and strong. How easy it is for us to lose hope when our faith gets challenged or our walk with Christ becomes difficult. Accepting Christ requires nothing on our part, but walking with Him daily demands a great deal from us. We have to trust Him when things don't make sense. We have to believe in His love when the circumstances we find ourselves going through seem anything but loving. We have to rest in His promises, even when they seem unlikely or uncertain. The life of faith is anything but easy. But it is worth it.

Father, salvation cost me nothing. But the life of faith costs me daily. I have to die to self. I have to endure the animosity and alienation of this world. I have to give up my will for Yours. I have to sacrifice my desires and place the needs of others ahead of my own. I have to wait when I would rather act. I have to trust You when I would rather trust my own judgment. But any cost to me is well worth it. The gain is so much greater than any pain I might have to endure. The benefits far outweigh the costs. Thank You for that reminder today. Amen.

The Law of Christ.

Galatians 6

Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2 NLT

Our freedom from the law does not give us license to live according to our own standard. It is not freedom to live and do as we wish. Paul uses this last section of his letter to let his readers know that their behavior to change. They were to live differently than they had before. But it was not simply behavior modification brought about by mere human effort. It was to be the result of the Spirit's presence and work in them. Rather than living selfishly and self-absorbed, they were to love sacrificially and selflessly. They were to care about the sins of one another, not in order to point fingers and make themselves feel better about their own righteousness, but in order to restore that brother or sister. Paul told them they were to "share each other's burdens." When they did, they would be obeying a different law altogether, the law of Christ. His is a law of love, of selfless sacrifice, that requires us to put others ahead of ourselves, rather than compete with them in order to get ahead. John Piper describes the law of Christ this way: "But when Christ summons us to obey his law of love, he offers us himself to slay the dragon of our pride, change our hearts, empower us by his Spirit, and fulfill his law." The old law could not change our heart, it could merely alter our behavior, but never perfectly or completely. The law of Christ is driven by love and is focused on changing our heart and modifying our behavior from the inside out.

Paul tells us, "If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important" (Galatians 6:5 NLT). This had been a theme of Jesus when He walked this earth during the three and a half years of His ministry. He was constantly teaching His disciples that life in His Kingdom was about placing the needs of others ahead of your own. It was about service, not being served. It was putting others first and ourselves last. It was about life within a community, not self-centered individuality. "Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone – especially to those in the family of faith" (Galatians 6:10 NLT). Doing good to others. Loving others. That is the nature of life within the body of Christ. It is about caring and community. It is about the fruit of the Spirit being produced in our lives for the benefit of others, not ourselves. We are being transformed by Christ in order that we might be agents of transformation in the lives of one another. We are to love others as He has loved us – selflessly and sacrificially. We are to be instruments of change in the Redeemer's hands. As He works in us, He will use us to love the lost and lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ. But the antithesis of the law of Christ is the lure of pride. We are constantly battling our own selfish desire to make it all about ourselves. But Jesus gave us the greatest commandment when He said, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT). Love God. Love others. And God has given us His Spirit to make it possible. So we have no reason to brag or be boastful. It is His love in us flowing through us and influencing those around us.

Father, I want to fulfill the law of Christ. I want to love as He loved. I want my life to be marked by selflessness, not selfishness. I want to lift the burdens of others, but sometimes I can become too consumed with my own cares and concerns. Help me to learn to take the focus off of me and place it where it belongs on others. Help me to understand that your fruit, produced by Your Spirit in my life, is not for me but for others. Give me a growing desire to give my life away. Amen.

The Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-26

But the Holy Spirit products this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! – Galatians 5:22 NLT

Not only are we free to love others, but we are free to live under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. But if we're not careful, we are also free to live according to the desires of our own sinful flesh – our sin nature. It's a choice. I can choose to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct my life, or I can give in to the constant cravings of my sin nature. It's not only a choice, it's a daily battle. "These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions" (Galatians 5:17b NLT). The Holy Spirit directs us one way, while our sin nature prompts us to take an opposite and radically dangerous path. Allowing ourselves to get enslaved to the law only feeds our sin nature. Paul pointed this out in Romans 7. "…it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, 'You must not covet.' But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me!" (Romans 7:7-8 NLT). The law tells me what I should not do, and then my sin nature desires to do just that. It's like telling a young child not to touch a hot stove, and that becomes the one thing they want to try and do. Their sin nature creates a desire for the very thing they have been denied. Like Eve in the Garden, we can't seem to stay away from the one thing God has told us is off limits. When you attempt to live according to laws, decrees, rules and standards, your sin nature will always resist, tempting you to break those rules or justify your ignoring of them. When you try to do what God wants in your own strength, you will fail. But when you live empowered and guided by the Spirit of God, you will have all the strength you need and the motivation to do what needs to be done.

Following the desires of our sin nature produces obvious outcomes. Paul gives us a comprehensive list. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these" (Galatians 5:19-21 NLT). Notice the diverse nature of his list. He includes sexual immorality alongside jealousy. Drunkenness makes the list right there by envy. All of these things, from the dramatic to the seeming inconsequential, all have one thing in common – they are focused on self. They are self-centered and driven by selfish desires. This list contains destructive behaviors that are anything but conducive to community and selfless servanthood. Trying to live your life according to some set of standards or rules will feed your sin nature and produce an unhealthy and destructive list of outcomes. You'll end up comparing yourself with others. You'll compete and attempt to outdo others in rule-keeping. You'll attempt to justify your own insufficiencies and expose those of others. All this will lead to division, dissension, quarreling, jealousy, anger, and more.

It's interesting that when we try to produce the fruit of the Spirit on our own, we end up with results that look nothing like what we were aiming for. Rather than love that is focused on others, we end up loving ourselves. In place of joy, we find ourselves with discontentment and dissatisfaction. Instead of producing patience, we become irritable, judgmental and angry. Kindness gets replaced with pettiness and an overwhelming need to find fault in others so that we can feel better about ourselves. Goodness gets trumped by selfishness. Faithfulness comes out as unreliability and self-seeking. Gentleness becomes harshness. And self-control goes out the window, as love of self takes over our lives, turning out attention inwardly rather than outwardly.

Only the Spirit of God can produce the fruit God is looking for in our lives. These things are not self-produced. We are incapable of manufacturing any of them on our own. If we try, we only end up with cheap imitations that are like those knock-off perfumes you can buy at the local drug store. They may cost less, but they stink in comparison to the real thing. Paul encourages us to live by the Spirit, according to His power, not our own. Rather than having to live enslaved to the desires of our old sin nature, we are now free to live in the Spirit's power, allowing Him to produce in and through us what we could never have done on our own. He produces in us supernaturally what we could never have produced naturally. Like our salvation, it is the work of God, not man. This is no longer about trying to live up to some kind of standards, rules or laws. It is not about trying to behave in such a way that we somehow make God happy and satisfied with us. It is not about comparing ourselves with others and measuring our righteousness based on that of others. This is learning to recognize that our righteousness is the work of God, from beginning to end. It is the fruit of His Spirit, not our flesh. It is made possible by the work of Christ, not anything we do or don't do. So Paul encourages us, "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives" (Galatians 5:25 NLT). Let's live in His power. Let's operate according to His agenda. Let's seek His will, not our own. Let's watch Him produce His fruit in us, rather than try to produce it on our own. "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death" (Romans 8:1-2 NLT). We are free to live in the power of the Spirit and to bear the fruit of the Spirit – for the good of others, not ourselves.

Father, I want to live increasingly in the power of Your Spirit. I want to say no to my sin nature and yes to Your Spirit's leading. I desire to see His fruit produced in and through me. My attempts at fruitfulness always fall short and never produce what You're looking for. My sin nature tends to make everything about ME. But I want to live for You. Continue to patiently show me how to live in Your power, according to Your will, and expressing Your love for others through my life. Amen.

Free to Love.

Galatians 5:1-15

Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." – Galatians 5:13-14 NLT

When we become obsessed with earning favor with God or attempting to keep His righteous standards in our own strength, we end up self-obsessed. That kind of life can be totally self-centered, restricting us from loving others and pouring out our lives to them. Instead, we can end up seeing them as competition, causing us to find fault in them so that we can feel better about ourselves. We can heap them with guilt, demanding that they keep the same exactly standards that we have set for ourselves, causing them to be just as miserable with life as we are. Slavery to the law is debilitating. It robs us of joy. It is dead-end road that leads nowhere. But as Paul reminds us, Christ has truly set us free, but if we try to make ourselves right with God by keeping the law, we end up being cut off from Christ. In other words, we negate His saving work on our behalf and replace it with our own powerless attempt to save ourselves by some form of rule-keeping. Our righteousness comes through faith, not works. Once again, Paul states plainly, "For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness" (Galatians 5:5 NLT). We already have what is called "positional" righteousness. Because of Christ's death, we have been covered in His blood and are seen as righteous in God's eyes. He views us through the righteousness of Christ. But we are also in the process of being transformed into the likeness of Christ, through the presence of the indwelling Spirit and the power of the Word of God. We are becoming righteous in practice. But it is a process that takes place over time, and it is still the work of God. Paul puts it this way: "we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness." One day we will be like Christ. It won't happen in this lifetime. But it will be when Christ calls us home or returns for His Church. That is our hope. And it is based on the work of the Spirit and available only through faith.

This does not mean that we have nothing to do or that we can live our lives as we see fit. Paul is not against effort, but he stands completely opposed to earning. Paul tells us elsewhere to "work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear" (Philippians 2:12 NLT). In writing to the believers in Corinth Paul stated, "I don't meant to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me" (Philippians 3:12 NLT). Then he makes his famous statement: "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us" (Philippians 3:14 NLT). Paul pursued practical righteousness in his life, but he knew that full righteousness would only come about when his time on earth was done. Like his salvation, his righteousness was ultimately the work of God, made possible through the death of Christ.

So what's the point of all this? For Paul, it was that we would understand our freedom in Christ. But not only are we free from having to earn God's favor through the law, we are free to love one another. The greatest expression of our new-found freedom in Christ is found in our love for those around us. No more competition or comparison. No more measuring ourselves against one another or attempting to outdo one another for God's love and attention. This is not a contest. We are not siblings vying for the favor and attention of our parent. Rather than serve ourselves in an effort to elevate our standing, we are free to serve one another. Remember how the disciples seemed to be constantly obsessed with who was the greatest? They were vying for positions of prominence in Jesus' coming kingdom. They wanted places of prominence and power. So they jockeyed for position. The same thing can happen with us as believers today. But Paul tells us "use your freedom to serve on another in love" (Galatians 5:13b NLT). We are free to love, not compete. We are free to serve, not be served. We are free to put others first and ourselves last. Because our place in God's Kingdom has been secured by Christ. We don't have to do anything to fight for or earn our rights or secure our place. We are free to spend our time loving others. If someone else gets the credit, no problem. If no one notices our efforts, it doesn't matter. We aren't trying to earn favor with God anyway. We're free!

Father, this is such a hard concept to get our heads around. We live in a society that is steeped in the idea of earning and effort. We have grown up with phrases like, "No pain, no gain." We have been told "there's no free lunch," "the early bird gets the worm," and "to the victor go the spoils." We struggle with the idea that our salvation and even our sanctification are totally the work of Christ and have nothing to do with us. But help us to fully understand and appreciate the joy that comes with knowing that we are free from having to earn favor with You. No more performance-based motivation. No more competing with one another. No more jockeying for position. We are loved by You because of Christ. And we are free to love others. Amen.

Two Covenants.

Galatians 4:21-31

These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. – Galatians 4:24 NLT

The Old Testament and the New Testament. Two covenants made by God with His people. Paul uses the two wives of Abraham and their two sons to serve as illustrations of the differences between these two covenants. Hagar was actually the handmaiden to Sarah, Abraham's wife. When years passed and Sarah still found herself barren and unable to bear a son for Abraham, she came up with the bright idea of giving her handmaiden to Abraham so that he might have a son through her. This was her attempt to help God out. And Abraham willingly and eagerly agreed to the plan. The result? Ishmael. Paul makes it clear that "the son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise" (Galatians 4:23 NLT). God had made a promise to make Abraham fruitful and give him more descendants than the sand on the seashore. But when God's promise appeared to be bogged down, Abraham and Sarah decided to step in and fulfill the promise of God on their time frame. Ishmael was the child born by human effort.

But God had not needed any help when it came to fulfilling His promise. He simply had a different time line. He refused to accept Ishmael as the substitute, in spite of the pleadings of Abraham. Instead, in the course of time, God gave Abraham a son through Sarah, even though she was quite old and barren. God fulfilled His promise in His time and on His terms. Isaac would become the child of the promise. Again, Paul uses these two women to illustrate the differences between the two covenants. Hagar would come to represent the law. She illustrated life lived by human effort. Her son was the result of human effort and planning. But he was not the fulfillment of God's promise. His birth could not substitute for God's promise. And as Ishmael and Isaac grew older, Ishmael would persecute Isaac out of jealousy. Ishmael knew that he was not the heir, even though he was the first born. And those who lived according to the law were persecuting the rightful heirs of God even in Paul's day. The believers to whom Paul was writing were "children of the promise just like Isaac." They were children of God born by the power of the Spirit of God. But those trapped under the law were persecuting them, attempting to force them to earn their rightful place in God's family through human effort. But Paul reminds them, "dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman" (Galatians 4:31 NLT). We are free. We are heirs. We are beneficiaries of the promise of God completely as a result of the efforts of God alone. Like Isaac who was born by the miracle and power of God, we have been born again by the grace and mercy of God made possible by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. None of it is due to our effort. We have not earned it and we do not deserve it. God alone saves. We can't save ourselves. And we can't sanctify ourselves. Human effort plays no part in God's redemptive plan for man. It is His promise and it will be fulfilled according to His terms and through His power alone.

Father, thank You for this reminder that my effort is unnecessary. I don't have to try to earn Your favor through my own energy. But so often I try to come up with ways to help You out. I try to step in and do what I seem to think You are incapable of doing. But Your promise doesn't need my help. It is all based on You and You alone. My position as Your child has nothing to do with my worth or my works. It is all Your doing. Amen.

Re-enslaved.

Galatians 4:1-20

Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (of should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? – Galatians 4:8-9 NET

Why would anyone who had been set free from slavery ever voluntarily subject themselves to it again? That is Paul's question in this section of his letter. He reminds the believers in Galatia that they were at one time slaves to the basic principles of this world. In other words, they had been subject to the sad state of affairs made possible by the fall. They had been under the constant influence and control of Satan, their own sinful flesh and the world. At one time they had been slaves to their so-called gods – gods that didn't even really exist. Theirs had been a pointless and hopeless existence attempting to search for release by turning to false gods that offered false hope. But Paul reminds them that "in the fulness of time" – at just the right time – God sent his Son to buy them freedom. Jesus Christ had bought them out of slavery and set them free. As a result, they were no longer slaves, but God's own children, adopted into His family. They knew the one true God and He knew them. But now, as a result of the influence of the Judaizers, these so-called Jewish believers who were attempting to convince the new converts in Galatia that they must keep the law and adhere to the rituals and requirements of Judaism, the Galatian Christians were becoming enslaved again. Paul accused them of "trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years" (Galatians 4:10 NLT).

Paul plead with them to live in freedom, not slavery. He begged them to not return to the same kind of slavery from which Christ had set them free. Paul's greatest desire was that Christ would be fully developed in their lives. But he knew that a return to those basic principles of this world would hinder their spiritual growth. Even as believers, we are all still under the influence of Satan, our sinful flesh, and the world. We can still fall prey to the temptation to earn favor with God through our own self-effort. The enemy would love nothing more than to enslave us again to a life of works and pride-based effort. He wants us to see God as a task-master who demands what we can't deliver. He wants us to live in fear of God, not as children, but as slaves. Satan doesn't want us to see ourselves as God's children, but as His powerless pawns, condemned to try to keep Him pleased in order to escape His punishment and earn His favor. But Paul won't stand for it. And while he can't personally visit them, he does the next best thing – he writes them and pleads with them. He speaks truth to them. He exposes those who would do harm to them. Because unless they learned to embrace their freedom in Christ, they would never truly grow in Christ. Those who see themselves as slaves will tend to live and act as slaves. But those who truly understand that they have been freed from the basic principles of this world will enjoy all that freedom brings. They will relish their status as children of God. They will take advantage of His indwelling Spirit and allow Him to do in them what they could never have done on their own.

Father, we live in a fallen world and we are surrounded by the basic principles of this world. Ever since the fall, mankind has been in a hopeless quest to rectify their relationship with You. They have been searching for You. They have been trying to figure out to fix all that is wrong with them and with the world in which they live. But You have provided the solution through Your own Son's death. You have set us free from having to search for a solution or from having to earn back Your favor. But it is so easy to fall back into that old mindset. It is so easy to think that nothing is free and we must do something to get You to love us. But it's all a lie. Keep us focused on the truth. Keep us aware of the fact that we are free in Christ. Amen.

Faith.

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law. being kept as prisoners until the coming faith could be revealed. – Galatians 3:23 NET

There is an interesting thing happening in what Paul is saying in these verses. We know that he is talking about faith and juxtaposing it against any kind of merit-based salvation. Paul is contrasting the faith required to believe in Jesus and accept Him as your Savior and the false gospel of works being taught by the Judaizers. But if we're not careful we could easily turn faith itself into a kind of works that is based on our own human effort. We can make it all about OUR faith and wrongfully conclude that it is still about us having to DO something to merit salvation. Then we can end up in scary places, comparing the amount or degree of our faith as compared to other Christians. We can wrestle with the size of our faith and wonder if our faith is large enough, strong enough or sincere enough. But in verse 23 Paul states, "Now before faith came..." I think it strange that he would be talking about the faith of the Galatian Christians. He tells them that they were being held prisoner under the law "until the coming faith would be revealed." Is Paul saying that they were prisoners until they could muster enough faith to believe? Has the ball been in their court all along and they just didn't have enough faith? More and more New Testament scholars are making the determination that the faith Paul is talking about is the faith of Christ, not faith in Christ. When Paul says, "Now before faith came," he is speaking of the faith of Christ, or better yet the faithfulness of Christ. It was Christ's faithfulness to God and His faith in God that qualified Him to be our sinless substitute on the cross. He was completely faithful to the law. He never wavered in faith or doubted the plan of God for His life. He was obedient to the point of death. His faith in God was so great that He willingly gave His life, knowing that God would raise Him up three days later. It is the faith and faithfulness of Christ that set us free, not our own limited faith.

Take a look at verse 24: "Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ..." Our subjection to the law was in place until Christ came. He is the one who set us free. It is belief or faith in His faithfulness that is the point here. In verse 25 Paul says, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." Now that Jesus has come and lived a perfect life of faith, faithfully keeping the law of God and obediently following the will of God, He has satisfied the just penalty that God had imposed on mankind. He has provided a way for us to be made right with God. We can be declared righteous, not based on anything we have done on our own, but simply by having faith in the faithfulness of Christ. We must believe that what He has done has been effective and requires nothing more from us. In verse 26 Paul says, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith." While our faith certainly plays a role, it is the object of our faith that must be the focus. It is the faithfulness of Christ that gives our faith its power. Paul seems to be saying that if the Galatian believers put their faith in the wrong thing – like circumcision – it will be ineffective. What gives our faith its saving power is the faith of Christ, exhibited in His death on the cross. It is not the size, but the object of my faith that matters. Prior to Christ's coming, a Jew could put as much faith as he wanted in the hope that obedience to the law could save him, but it would never happen. The Pharisees had faith in the law. They had faith in their own ability to keep the law. But their faith was misplaced. It was all about them, when Jesus told them that it had to be all about Him. Our faith must be in the faith and faithfulness of Christ. It is what He has done that saves. It was He has accomplished that sets us free from the law. In verse 27, Paul tells us that we have been clothed in Christ. We now wear His righteousness, not our own. It is that fact in which we place our faith. I stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and do not have to depend on my feeble attempts to manufacture righteousness. Apart from Christ, all my best efforts are as filthy rags in God's eyes. But thankfully, I don't have to place faith in my efforts, but in the faithfulness of Christ alone.

Father, never let me mistakenly make all this about my faith. It is not the degree of my faith that counts, but the object. Don't let me try and take credit for anything I do. It is all because of what Christ has done for me. It is because He was faithful that I can even have faith. He has provided me an object in which to place my faith that can actually deliver. Thank You. Amen.

The Promise & The Law.

Galatians 3:15-22

Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. – Galatians 3:19 NLT

From the very beginning, God had intended for man to be made right with Him through single individual who would somehow satisfy His just and holy demands. God had made a promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. He had promised Abraham that his "seed" – singular – referring to a single individual, would be the source of this blessing. From the family tree of Abraham would come the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would bless the nations with His provision of salvation through faith in His sacrificial death on the cross. Paul makes it clear that this promise of the coming Messiah was given 430 years before the law was given at Mount Sinai. And the law did not replace the promise. "The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise" (Galatians 3:17 NLT). In other words, God would be changing the rules in mid-stream. Rather than God making a promise or covenant that was unilateral and unconditional, He would be placing impossible conditions on our ultimate salvation. But the covenant God made with Abraham did not include conditions. It was not dependent on Abraham's actions or behavior. It was purely based on the faithfulness of God. So then why did God bother to give Moses and the people of Israel the law? Paul has made it clear that the law was never intended to save mankind, so what was its purpose? Again, Paul tells us, "It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins" (Galatians 3:19 NLT). He clarifies this thought in his letter to the Romans. "…it as the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, ‘You must not covet.’ But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of coveting desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power" (Romans 7:7-8 NLT). The law was given to make it clear what God's holy and righteous requirements were. The law put in writing what God's expectations of man were. And by revealing His expectations, it also revealed man's limitations. It showed man just how impossible it was to live up to God's standard. When men tried to obey the law, it actually resulted in more sin, rather than less. Knowledge of God's demands revealed an inherent desire to break those demands. Our own sin natures rebelled against God's law.

Basically, the law was intended to show us our desperate need for a Savior. Trying to obey the law showed men that they were incapable of saving themselves. The couldn't live up to God's standard, so God provided another way. He sent His own Son to live as a man and do what no other man had ever done: keep the law to perfection. Jesus became the fulfillment of the law. He was completely obedient to the law, resulting in a sinless, spotless life. He kept the law. He met the standard. He fulfilled the requirement. And therefore, satisfied the just and righteous demands of God. So Paul asks, "Is there a conflict, then, between God's law and God's promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 3:21-22 NLT). For Paul, it always goes back to this one thought, this one truth. Man can't save himself. Man can't live the kind of life God requires on his own. He needs a Savior. The law shows us our desperate need for a Savior. "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood" (Romans 3:23-25 NLT). God gave the promise before He gave the law. And God will fulfill the promise because His son fulfilled the law. We have nothing to add except our faith.

Father, I have no problem admitting or acknowledging my sinfulness. It is painfully clear to me. You have shown me my sin, but You have also revealed to me the solution. And it has nothing to do with my effort to stop sinning. It is solely based on the sacrificial death of Your Son in my place. You promised to bless all mankind and You have. You have provided a way to be made right with You and it has nothing to do with my ability to earn or deserve Your favor. It is all because of what Jesus Christ has done on my behalf. Thank You! Amen.

Faith, Not Works.

Galatians 3:1-14

What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, "All nations will be blessed through you." So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. – Galatians 3:8-9 NLT

This is obviously a huge issue to Paul, because he is still talking about it well into the body of his letter. He is going out of his way to let the Gentiles know that there is nothing more that they need other than their faith in Christ. These men who had showed up declaring that the salvation of the Galatian believers was incomplete because they had failed to convert to Judaism, were in Paul's eyes, false brothers. If what they taught is what they really believed, they weren't truly believers at all, because they had believed a false or other gospel. They somehow believed that their "Jewishness" put them ahead of the curve, After all, they thought, Jesus had been a Jew. He had kept the law and obeyed all the ceremonial requirements, and so did His disciples. So if someone wanted to be one of His followers, they concluded, he had to become a Jew. But Paul puts that logic to rest. First and foremost, because that is NOT what Jesus taught. But secondly, because the good news had always been based on faith, not works. Long before the law had been given, God declared Abraham righteous because of his faith, not because of his obedience or adherence to any laws or requirements. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells them, "Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about begin made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’ (Romans 4:1-3 NLT).

Paul is using the patriarch of the Hebrew people as an example of faith. He was chosen by God because he was Jewish. He wasn't seen as righteous by God because he kept the law, because it didn't even exist yet. He wasn't even deemed righteous by God because he had been circumcised. Again, Paul writes to the Roman Christians, "Was he counted righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised! Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous – even before he was circumcised" (Romans 4:10-11 NLT).

Law keeping has a certain attraction to us as human beings. It appeals to our pride and sense of self-accomplishment. From the time we are children, we are trained to aspire to get the gold star on our homework or the A+ on our paper. We are driven to make it on to the winning team. We become obsessed with achievement and recognition for our efforts. This attitude infiltrates and permeates our entire lives, even our spiritual lives. We look for ways to measure up and can actually end up competing with others to see who is the most spiritual. We use criteria like quiet time, prayer, service, giving, Bible study attendance, and biblical knowledge to achieve some degree of righteousness and prove our spiritual depth. But Paul warns us just like he did the Galatian believers, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life" (Galatians 3:11 NLT). Studying the Bible, prayer, service, and giving are all evidence of a life of faith, not the means to get there. These things don't make us right in God's eyes. We can't earn His favor or acceptance through effort. We do these things because we believe in His Son and have accepted His gift of salvation made possible through His death on the cross. Then we read the Bible to get to know God and His Son better. We pray so that we might share with and hear from Him. We serve because His Son served us and left us an example to follow. We give because we have been given to abundantly by God and have been called to share out of that abundance with others.

It is so easy to let an attitude or earning based on effort creep into our spiritual lives. And Paul is warning us to watch out. Faith leads to righteousness, not hard work. Belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior is the only requirement God has placed on us. Any obedience to His laws or commands that comes based on a life of faith, will be based on an attitude of gratitude, not earning or merit. I have nothing to prove to God. I have nothing I need to do to make God love me any more than He already does. I don't have anything I need to do to keep God pleased with me. He loves me even when I was still trapped in my own sinfulness and sent His Son to die for me. God didn't save me because I deserved. And it takes real faith to believe that.

Father, salvation by faith alone is so counter-intuitive. It goes against our human reasoning. It makes no sense. Nobody gets something for nothing. Everything in life has to be earned. But You have made salvation a gift. You gave us Your Son in spite of us, not because of us. You gave us what we could never have earned or ever deserved. And it takes faith to believe that. Help us to continue to replace faith in ourselves with faith in Your Son. Amen.

A Point of Contention and Contrast.

Galatians 2:11-21

Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. – Galatians 2:16 NLT

To some, this whole confrontation between Paul and the Judaizers may appear overblown. Paul may come across as petty and too harsh in his opinions. After all, how can he be so sure that he's right and everyone else is wrong? Aren't they welcome to their own opinions? Can't there be more than one way for people to be made right with God? According to Paul, no. And he has already made it perfectly clear why he could be so adamant in his opinion – because it's NOT his opinion. It is the word of God given to him by Jesus Christ Himself. For Paul, this was serious stuff. It wasn't just a matter of a difference of opinion, it was a case of truth versus falsehood, the word of God and the lies of the enemy. Paul was so firm on this point that he was willing to confront one of the recognized leaders of the early church, the former disciple of Jesus, Peter.

On a visit to the region of Galatia, Peter had sat down and eaten a meal with Paul and some of the Gentile Christians – even though the men in this group were uncircumcised and not converts to Judaism. But later, when some Jewish friends of James, another former disciple of Jesus, came to Antioch, Peter snubbed the Gentile Christians, refusing to associate with them. It seems that Peter did not want to offend his Jewish comrades. Evidently, these men were not willing to associate with the Gentile believers because they were uncircumcised and, therefore, unclean. Peter's actions appalled Paul. And in spite of Peter's rock star status in the early church, Paul confronted him. As far as Peter was concerned, his actions were giving credence to the message of the Judaizers and leading others to believe that faith in Christ was not enough. But Paul made it clear: "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law" (Galatians 2:17 NLT). Case closed. Because otherwise, if these Gentile believers had come to salvation through faith in Christ alone, and then discovered that they were actually sinners because they had refused to keep the law, then the message Jesus had given Paul would have been the impetus or cause of their sin. As far as Paul was concerned, that was ridiculous and impossible. Jesus never taught that salvation was some combination of faith in Him PLUS adherence to the Jewish law. The law was never meant to save anyone. It simply revealed the full extend of man's sinfulness. The law was intended to stand as a standard of God's righteous expectations. It was His measuring stick, by which He judged the righteousness of men. And no one measured up. No one kept the law in its entirety. The law exposed man's sinfulness and revealed just how far he fell short of God's righteous standard. Paul says, "For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me" (Galatians 2:19 NLT).

But Jesus came to fulfill the law. He took on human flesh, lived as a man, and kept the law of God to perfection. He did what no other man could have ever done. He satisfied the righteous standard of God. Which is what made Him the perfect sinless sacrifice, worthy to offer His life in place of ours, as a payment for our sins. And when He died, we were crucified with Him. Our old selves, our sinful selves, were put to death. And by dying with Christ, we were freed from having to keep the law. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, "You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ" (Romans 7:4 NLT). As a result, we no longer have to try to keep all the requirements of the law in order to be made right with God. This is not about self-effort anymore. It is about faith in Christ – alone. To try to add to this message or require anything more for salvation to be available, is to treat the grace of God as meaningless. It is to treat the death of Christ as insufficient. "For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die" (Galatians 2:21 NLT). But He did die because He had to. It was a necessity. "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NLT).

Father, man is always trying to figure out a way to play a more significant role in his own salvation. We so desperately want to earn or deserve Your grace. We want a set of rules to keep or standards to live up to. But we can't even keep the rules we make, let alone the righteous standard You demand. And yet, You offer us a restored relationship with You through Jesus Christ – completely apart from our own self-effort, and then we try to add things to it. Help us grasp the unbelievable nature of what Christ has made possible through His death. He is the key to our salvation, nothing more, nothing less. There's nothing more that needs to be done. Amen.

Preserving the Truth.

Galatians 2:1-10

But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. – Galatians 2:5 NLT

Paul had a message, given to him from Jesus Christ Himself. And he was to share that message with Gentiles, introducing them to the availability of forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship with God Himself through Jesus Christ. No longer would they have to worship their countless idols made of wood and stone, in the hopes of appeasing them somehow with acts of service or gifts of grain, wine, animal or even human sacrifice. Gone were the fears of never knowing if you were worshiping the right god in the right way or doing enough to earn his favor. Paul had come to Galatia with a message about Jesus Christ, the God-man, the God who had taken on human flesh and lived a completely sinless life in order that the judgment of God against the sins of man might be satisfied. He had taken man's place as a substitute or stand-in, bearing the penalty due for our rebellion against God: death. And then He rose again, showing God's power and victory over death. Paul came preaching a message that offered men a way to be made right with God by simply believing in Jesus as their Savior and accepting His gift of salvation by an act of simple faith. No works necessary. No sacrifices needed. What Jesus had done was all that had to be done. Later in his letter to the Romans, Paul would clearly state the requirement for salvation: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9 NLT). That was it. No more. No less.

But from the early days of his ministry to the Gentiles, Paul had been hounded by the Judaizers, a zealous group of Jews who were demanding that all Gentiles who wanted to become Christ-followers, must become converts to Judaism first. Paul refers to these individuals as "false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaved" (Galatians 1:4 NET). In chapter one, Paul assures his readers that he had received his message directly from Jesus Himself. In chapter two, he says that his message is backed by the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, including James, Peter and John. He makes it clear that he hadn't received his message from them, but was fully supported by them. The recognized that God had given Paul the responsibility of preaching to the Gentiles, and his message was not to include circumcision, law-keeping or any form of conversion to Judaism. Paul says the Judaizers or false brothers "wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations" (Galatians 2:4b NLT). But Paul refused. He would not compromise on the message Jesus had given him. Instead, he fought to preserve and protect the truth of the gospel as given to him by the risen Lord. In these early days of the Church, there were going to be countless attacks from without, but also very subtle attacks from within. The problem was that the message of faith alone in Christ alone was almost too good to be true. It eliminated all need for self-effort and any form of earning. Rule keeping was no longer the measuring rod for determining righteousness. Compliance to a set of arbitrary demands or laws not necessary. And while comparing your good deedsto someone else's might make you feel better, it was not going to make you right with God. Jesus had ushered in a new standard, a new way. Jesus Himself had said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 NLT). Paul was going to guard that message with a vengeance. And we need to do the same today. Because the gospel is still under attack, in subtle and yet sinister ways. We are still prone to want to add self-effort to the mix. We want to include man-made rules and requirements. We want some kind of measuring device that allows us to compare righteousness with others. But any attempts to add anything to the gospel message should be rejected. Any requirement other than faith should be exposed for what it is: a lie and a false gospel. Jesus + nothing = everything.

Father, don't let us buy into the lie that faith alone is not enough. Don't allow us to unwittingly add to the gospel by requiring any kind of man-made standard that requires men to measure up to our demands. Help us keep the message simple and pure. Give us the same kind of zeal Paul had to protect the integrity of the gospel from the lies of the enemy. Amen

Chosen By God.

Galatians 1:11-24

But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. – Galatians 1:15 NLT

In the eyes of the new believers living in the region of Galatia, Paul is just another man with another message. They can think of no reason to give his message any more credence than any other man's. Yes, Paul had been to the Roman province of Galatia on his first missionary journey, and had visited Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. He had brought them the Good News of Jesus Christ, but there were others who had slightly different opinions regarding what it meant to be a Christ-follower. They were promoting the idea that it wasn't enough to simply believe in Jesus as your Savior, you also had to be converted to Judaism and adhere to its laws and ceremonial requirements. These Judaizers, as they were called, were so zealous in their beliefs, that they had actually followed Paul on his first missionary journey, spreading their pseudo-gospel among the new converts. Now these new Gentile converts were faced with a decision regarding who to believe – Paul of the Judaizers. Both claimed to have the message of good news. Both claimed to be speaking truth. But who were the Galatian Christians to believe.

Paul presents his case clearly and concisely. He tells them that his gospel message is not some man-made invention or the product of his fertile imagination. He didn't get it out of a text book or from a classroom. Instead, he had "received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:12 NLT). The message he had preached on his first missionary journey to Galatia was exactly what Jesus had given him personally. Paul's story was not an ordinary one. Prior to his conversion, he had been a hired bounty hunter, working for the Jewish religious leadership, pursuing and persecuting these new sect called Christian that had risen up after the death of Jesus. Paul was a well-educated Pharisee, trained under Gamaliel, a revered Jewish rabbi. Paul described his prior life by saying, "I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did" (Acts 22:3 NLT). He persecuted the followers of the Way, the term used to describe those who had become Christians or Christ-followers. It was his obsession to find them, arrest them, and make sure that they were punished for their heresy. Paul knew what it meant to be a fervent follower of the traditions of the Jews. He had been a law-keeper of the first order.

But something happened. He had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ while he was on his way to Damascus. Paul says, "Then it pleased him [God] to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles" (Galatians 1:15-16 NLT). For the next three years, Paul lived in Arabia. While there, he was isolated from the other apostles, receiving his instruction directly from God, not men. Paul's message was from God, not men. Paul had been chosen by God to deliver a very specific message to the Gentiles, and it did not include conversion to Judaism and adherence to the Jewish laws and sacrificial system. The Good News Paul delivered was based on faith in Christ alone. Nothing more, nothing less. He had no problem declaring his message superior to that of the Judaizers, because he knew that his message was divinely given and not to be tampered with. Paul was not out to win friends and influence enemies. He was out to proclaim the Good News of faith alone in Christ alone. The era of works-based righteousness was over. Jesus had died to deliver men from the dead-end pursuit of earning favor with God through self-effort. It was His works that saved, not man's. And Paul was chosen by God, even before he was born, to be the conduit of that message to the Gentiles.

Father, it is amazing to think that You had Paul in mind before he was even born. You had a job for him to do long before he even existed. Your plan of salvation is comprehensive and complete. There are no diversions or detours. You are never caught off guard or surprised. You know Paul was going to persecute the Church. But You also knew that he was going to accomplish for Your Kingdom, because that had been Your plan from eternity past. Your choosing of men is never without reason and our salvation is never without purpose. You have a job for each of us to do. We have been called and commissioned to serve You. Help us see our divine job description and take it seriously, just as Paul did. Amen

Pseudo Good News.

Galatians 1:1-10

Obviously, I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant. – Galatians 1:10 NLT

After a brief, yet heartfelt greeting, Paul cuts to the chase. He is writing to new believers living throughout the region called Galatia (now modern Turkey), and he wants to warn them about a problem he sees going on among them. He pulls no punches, but is extremely blunt with his assessment of the situation. "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ" (Galatians 1:6 NLT). Paul is completely baffled by the reports he has heard coming out of Galatia. Of the 13 letters that Paul wrote that became part of the canon of Scripture, this is believed to be the first one. It was likely written some time around 49 A.D. Since the time of Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Gospel has spread throughout the known world. It had made its way to Galatia and Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ. But as the Gospel spread, so did a lot of false teaching. There was no New Testament Scriptures at this time. There were few, if any, elders or leaders for these new congregations of believers springing up all over the place. There was little in the way of an established doctrine for the Church. Much of what Paul and others wrote in these letters became what we now have as the New Testament. Their writings, penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became the foundation of the doctrine to which we still adhere today. They were addressing issues and problems that were creeping up as the Gospel spread and the Church grew in numbers. Immediately after Pentecost, most of the early converts to Christianity were Jews, but that had begun to change as the Good News was carried around the world. Increasingly more and more Gentiles, or non-Jews, were coming to faith. And because Jesus and His disciples had been Jews, there was a strong tie to Judaism in those early days. Many of the Jewish converts were of the opinion that belief in Christ was simply an extension or add-on to their Jewish faith or heritage. In other words, becoming a Christ-follower also required that you become a Jew, submitting to all the Jewish laws and traditions. In time, a group who held an extreme form of this view rose up. They came to be known as the Judaizers. It seems that they were having a strong influence in places like Galatia, telling Gentile converts that their faith in Christ was incomplete or inadequate. They were teaching that faith in Christ alone was not enough. More was required of them. They must also become converts to Judaism, all males must go through the ritual of circumcision, and they must keep the Law and adhere to all Jewish traditions and customs. As you can imagine, this caused a great deal of confusion for these new believers.

And it caused a great deal of anger in Paul. This became one of the major themes in his letters. He warned his readers, "You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News, but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ" (Galatians 1:6-7 NLT). Paul makes it clear that what these believers are hearing is NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is some kind of an aberration. It is a "different way," but not the one true way. It is a false gospel, but not the true Gospel concerning faith in Christ alone. And Paul gives his feelings about this pseudo gospel and those who are promoting it: "Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who practices a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you" (Galatians 1:8 NLT). Paul was anything but tolerant and inclusive. He was not a proponent of the heresy that all religions lead to God. He was not politically correct or willing to accommodate all views. As far as he was concerned, there was one Gospel and it did not include conversion to Judaism or adherence to the Law. The Gospel Paul preached required faith in Christ alone and nothing more. It was faith-based, not works-based. It had no place for earning or merit. What made the Good News good news was that it was a free gift, unhampered by human effort or achievement. Gone were the days when sacrifice and law-keeping were the required means of pursuing a right relationship with God. No amount of either one had ever truly made anyone right with God. But with His death on the cross, Jesus had satisfied the just demands of God once and for all. He had paid the price for our sins with His own life. No more lambs needed to be sacrificed. No more hopeless attempts at trying to keep the Law to perfection were necessary. Salvation had been provided by Christ and was not dependent on the efforts of man anymore.

So Paul boldly and aggressively deals with this issue right up front. He is anything but subtle. And he makes it clear, "I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God" (Galatians 1:10 NLT). Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ. He answers to Him and Him alone. He cared more about what God thought about him, than what men did. This was not a popularity contest for Paul. He had been commissioned by Jesus Himself to take the Good News of salvation in Christ alone through faith alone to the world. He would not tolerate the teaching or preaching of any other gospel. He would not put up with those who attempted to redefine the Gospel as Jesus plus anything.

Father, it is so easy to try to add to the Gospel. We so want to put our twist on it. We want to add rules and requirements that are unnecessary and only muddy the water. We crave achievement and recognition for our efforts. We have been brainwashed to believe that we have to DO something to earn Your forgiveness and favor. But salvation is a gift. It was made possible by what Your Son did on the cross. It has nothing to do with human effort or earning. As we read through the letter of Galatians, help us see where we may be trying to add to the Gospel even today. Open our eyes and help us give up all attempts at self-righteousness and once again place our faith in the righteousness of Christ alone. Amen.

Ascended, but Interceding.

Mark 16:19-21; Luke 24:50-53

And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them. – Mark 16:20 NLT

This is it. The end of the story of the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. But is it really? While we will wrap up the closing moments of Jesus' ministry here on earth, He is far from done. His impact is far from over. He work is not yet complete. He finished that portion of God's plan for which He had come – offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind and dying on the cross as payment to satisfy the just demands of a holy God. But He rose from the dead "and was taken up into heaven and sat down at the place of honor at God's right hand" (Mark 16:19 NLT). Jesus returned to His Father's side. He rightfully took back His place of honor which had been reserved for Him while He was obediently accomplishing the will of His Father on earth. Paul reminds us that when He came to earth, "he did not think equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being" (Philippians 2:6-7 NLT). And when Jesus had "humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross" (Philippians 2:8 NLT), God "elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names" (Philippians 2:9 NLT).

But what is Jesus doing now? What is His role at this very moment? Paul tells us, "Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who is interceding for us" (Romans 8:34 NET). He represents us before the Father. He is our representative before the very throne of God. And when God looks at us, He sees us through Christ's righteousness. We are covered by His blood. Our sins have been paid for and forgiven because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven" (Hebrews 7:25-26 NLT). God listens to Him. He is like personal legal representative before the throne of God. When we sin, He speaks on our behalf. And we do sin. John writes, "My dear children, I am writing this to you to that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous" (1 John 2:1 NLT).

We can rest assured that Jesus is doing His job. He is not in retirement mode. He is far from done. In fact, He is preparing to return and fully complete what He began. But in the meantime, we have work to do – just as the disciples did. Mark tells us that after Jesus ascended, the "disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs" (Mark 16:20 NLT). They had work to do. They had a message to share and spread throughout the world. And Jesus was with them. He confirmed their words with miraculous signs. His Spirit accompanied them and empowered them. Jesus was busy continuing His transformative work in their lives through the ministry of the Spirit. As they obeyed His command to go and tell, His Spirit was busy transforming these men into powerful messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was molding them into the likeness of Jesus Himself. And that is what He wants to do in each of our lives today. Jesus is in the life transforming business. He is actively pursuing heart-change in the lives of His followers. He is continually saving us from sinful selves. He is praying for us. He is interceding with the Father on our behalf. He is preparing a place for us. And He is planning to return for us. "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. The, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NLT).

Thank You Jesus, that You are not done. I am so grateful that You are my representative before God Himself. You have a place seated right next to Him and, while I am stuck here on this planet, You are speaking to Him on my behalf. You pray for me and plead my case for me before the Father. And You are some day coming back for me. I don't know when it is, but it gives me hope and confidence that helps me make it in this world. Your work of salvation is not yet complete. There is more to this story than just Your ascension into heaven. As the angel told the disciples on the day You left them, some day you will return from heaven in the same way they saw you go. Amen.

Go!

Go!

Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:44-49

"Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned." – Mark 16:15-16 NLT

The Great Commission. These are the last words spoken by Jesus to His disciples. So they carry a significant amount of weight. After three and half years of ministry together, a gruesome death and His miraculous resurrection, Jesus is now leaving His disciples, but He had one last thing to tell them before He departed. It was a commission or charge. He told them to "Go!" He was sending them out as His ambassadors and emissaries with the message of the Good News of salvation through belief in Him. And they weren't just to go to their neighbor, they were to take this vital message to the ends of the earth. They were to preach to all the nations. Think about what Jesus said. Give some thought as to just whom He is speaking to. These are the same 11 men who He had chosen three and a half years earlier. They were common men. They were uneducated for the most part. They were slow to learn and had missed out on so many of His important messages to them. Even after His resurrection, they still struggled with belief. But He was giving them a commission to act as His spokesmen and to take His message of salvation to the world. I can't help but think that they felt overwhelmed at His words. They could not have been brimming with confidence at the thought of pulling off His command, especially in light of all that had just happened to Him. But Jesus was giving them authority – His authority – and they had seen what they could do with that kind of authority. He had sent them out before with authority to heal diseases and cast out demons, and they had returned reporting, "Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!" (Luke 10:17 NLT). So they had first-hand experience regarding His authority and what they could accomplish with it. Jesus even suggests that their efforts on His behalf will be accompanied by miraculous signs, including the casting out of demons and speaking in new languages they didn't know. Then He gave them two other "signs" that were a bit more spectacular or odd. He told them that anyone who believes will be able to handle poisonous snakes with safety and drink poison without ill effect. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and see them healed. Now we know that many of these signs took place shortly after Jesus ascended back into heaven and after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples proclaimed the Gospel in languages they didn't know to the multi-cultural crowd who had gathered. Later on, they healed the sick. Paul, on one of His missionary journeys, was bitten by a poisonous snake and shook it off with no harm coming to him.

While there are those who want to use this verse as a proof-text to justify their believes in sign gifts and tongues, I believe Jesus is addressing two kind of belief in this passage. He said, "Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16 NLT). At that point, Jesus is talking about anyone who responds to the Good News and believes. Their belief in the Gospel message would result in their salvation, and should be followed by water baptism. Refusal to believe the Good News would result in condemnation and eternal separation from God. Then I think Jesus addresses a different kind of belief. He looks at the disciples and says, "These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe" (Mark 16:17 NLT). At this point He is addressing the disbelief of the disciples. They can't believe what He is asking them to do. They can't comprehend how they are going to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. It all sounds impossible and inconceivable. So Jesus reminds them that if they will believe in Him and His promise of authority, their going will be accompanied by miraculous signs, just as they had experienced before. Jesus is not necessarily telling them that these are the specific signs they will see, but the kinds of signs that will accompany their efforts. Speaking in foreign tongues makes sense because they are going to be going to all the nations, attempting to minister in languages they don't know. They will need to cast out demons just as Jesus had done, because spiritual warfare was going to increase, not decrease. They would find themselves in situations, like Paul, where they were in remote places and exposed to dangerous circumstances, facing everything from poisonous snakes to enemies who might try to poison them. Whatever happened, they were not to worry, but believe. They would have the authority of Jesus on their side.

These words of encouragement were needed. Jesus was leaving and He knew that things were going to get difficult for the disciples. He wanted them to know that just as belief precedes salvation, belief would have to precede their efforts at global proclamation. What He was asking them to do was impossible. They were ill-equipped and under-educated for the task. But they simply needed to believe, then go. He would take care of the rest.

Father, it almost seems easier to believe in order to be saved, then it is to believe and obey Your Son's command to go and tell. We find it so easy to justify our inaction due to inability or lack of training. But Jesus didn't tell the disciples to go when they were ready or equipped. He simply said believe and go. He would take care of what they needed. He would be with them. We are to believe what Jesus told us to do and go and do it. Obedience requires faith. We have been given authority to go, so we must take Him at His word and do what He has called us to do. Faithfully. Amen.

Believe.

Matthew 28:9-15; Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-35

Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me." – John 20:29 NLT

In the days following His resurrection, Jesus continued to appear to His disciples at various times. On one of these occasions, when Jesus had suddenly appeared in a room where the disciples had gathered behind locked doors, Thomas had been absent for some reason. And when he was told later by the other disciples "We have seen the Lord!" (John 20:25 NLT), he responded in disbelief and doubt. "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side" (John 20:25 NLT). Eight days later, he would get his wish fulfilled, when Jesus appeared to them once again. It's interesting to note that they are meeting behind locked doors again, even though they have seen the risen Lord. They're fearful of the Jewish religious leaders, who have accused them of stealing the body of Jesus. But Jesus appears to them yet again, and this time Thomas is there. Jesus knew what Thomas had said the last time and so He offers him a chance to satisfy his doubt. "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe" (John 20:27 NLT). Can you imagine the shame and embarrassment that Thomas must have felt as Jesus stood before him, offering him the opportunity to stick his fingers into the wounds in His hands and place his hand into the wound in His side? When Thomas had made his bold statement of doubt, it had been dripping with sarcasm. He refused to believe what the others had said. True to his nickname, "Doubting Thomas," he could not bring himself to accept the fact that Jesus was alive. But now, the evidence was standing right in front of his face, and Jesus simple says, "Don't be faithless any longer. Believe." Jesus confronted his disbelief and lack of faith. He demanded him to become "Believing Thomas." And as a result, all Thomas can say is, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28 NLT). To which Jesus responds, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me" (John 20:29 NLT). Jesus knew that there were going to be many who would never have the privilege and honor of having seen the risen Lord with their own two eyes. He was going to return to the Father and His physical presence would be removed from this earth. But there would be many who would hear the news of His life, death and resurrection – and believe. They would hear the Good News and respond in faith.

Jesus went out of His way to assure His disciples that He had risen from the dead. He addressed their doubts. He assuaged their fears. He gave them evidence in order to eliminate their lingering doubts. John tells us that they "saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name" (John 20:30-31 NLT). John recorded all these events so that those who came after him might know exactly who Jesus was and all that He had done. He shared his eyewitness testimony to the life of Jesus. He gave detailed witness to the events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection. He was given the benefit of seeing Jesus alive so that he might be motivated to tell others of the truth of Jesus' claims. Jesus WAS the Messiah. He truly was the Son of God. He really had died on the cross for the sins of man. He did give His life and take on the sins of all mankind so that we might be restored to a right relationship with God. It was all true, and John went out of his way to put it in writing, so that we might believe. And Jesus calls to us today, just as He did to Thomas, "Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!"

Father, it is so easy to doubt. It just seems to come naturally to us as human beings. Even after all Jesus has done for us, we can still so easily doubt the reality of who He is and what He had done. We can doubt that we have the forgiveness He died to provide. We can doubt we have the power He said He would make available to us through the Holy Spirit. We can doubt Your love for us, even though His death was the greatest expression of Your love. We can doubt He is with us, even though He constantly intercedes for us in Your presence. We can doubt He is ever coming back, in spite of the fact that He promised He would. Help us to not be faithless any longer, but believe. Amen.

Believe It or Not.

Matthew 28:9-15; Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-35

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.” – Luke 24:17-18 NLT

This is a wonderful story, full of irony, humor, and fascinating juxtapositions of sorrow and joy, defeat and victory, and tragedy and triumph. Jesus has risen from the dead and has begun revealing Himself to many of His followers. News about His resurrection has begun to spread, but it has been met with disbelief and incredulity. When the Jewish religious leaders were informed about what had happened at the tomb by the guards who were ordered to protect the body from being stolen, they couldn't believe their ears either. This was the worst thing that could have happened. It was what they had feared would happen and they they had begged Pilate to post guards at the tomb in the first place. But rather than believe the guards' stories and accept that Jesus had risen from the dead, they concoct a lie that accuses the disciples of stealing the body while the guards were sleeping. Think about that. While the guards slept, somehow the disciples rolled away a large stone from the face of the cave and then carried off the body of Jesus – all without waking the guards! And how would this admission of dereliction of duty look on the records of the Roman guards? Sleeping on the job would not be a career enhancer for these men. But evidently the story of an earthquake and an angel appearing and rolling away the stone sounded far too unbelievable too. And the fact that the guards fainted at the sight of it all would not exactly leave the guards looking good in the eyes of their superiors either. So they agreed to spread the lie, and it became the popular explanation among the Jews as to what had happened that day.

But meanwhile Jesus was living, breathing and walking about. He was revealing Himself to His followers. And Luke records His encounter with the two on the road to Emmaus. They were leaving Jerusalem and heading home. Their mood is one of sorrow, dejection, and disappointment. Their dreams have been shattered. Their Messiah is dead. And all their hopes of a restored Jewish kingdom and salvation from Roman rule have died with Jesus. Then suddenly, Jesus appears walking next to them, but "God kept them from recognizing him" (Luke 24:16 NLT). Here was the resurrected Jesus walking right beside them, but they didn't realize it. So Jesus asked them what they were discussing and they respond with surprise at this individual's ignorance of current events. "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days" (Luke 24:18 NLT). Unbeknownst to him, Cleopas was addressing his somewhat sarcastic remark to the very one to whom all "the things" had happened. So Jesus, playing dumb, asks, "What things?" Then they begin to tell Jesus all that had taken place. But notice what he says. "He WAS a prophet." "He WAS a mighty teacher." "We had HOPED he was the Messiah." They had been told that His body WAS missing. These same individuals also told them that angels had appeared to them saying the Jesus was alive. But Cleopas and his friend hadn't believed a word of it. Why? Because Luke tells us that when Jesus found them walking on the road, they had "sadness written across their faces" (Luke 24:17 NLT). Despite the fact that there was news that the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb and that He had risen from the dead, they refused to believe. They were headed home in defeat and disbelief. So Jesus said, "You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26 NLT).

Then Jesus began to unpack the Old Testament Scriptures, from the writing of Moses to all the writings of the prophets, showing them all the things concerning the Messiah. This was a comprehensive Bible study taught by the Savior Himself, and the focus of the study was Jesus. Later, when they finally recognized who it was who had been walking and talking with them, they said, "Didn't our hearts burn with us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32 NLT). Why did their hearts burn? What was it that lit a fire inside them? At that point they still didn't recognize Him, but as they had the Scriptures opened up to them, they became convinced about who Jesus was and all that the Messiah had come to do. The written Word of God opened their eyes so that they could receive and believe in the living Word of God. Now, rather than going home, they returned to Jerusalem and found the disciples and told them about their encounter with the risen Lord.

The Word of God reveals the Son of God. The Old Testament gives us a vivid glimpse into the life of the Savior. He is represented throughout the writings of Moses and the prophets. His suffering, death and ultimate resurrection was prophesied. His crucifixion was predicted in vivid detail. His torture at the hands of the Romans was written about hundreds of years before it happened. His substitutionary death and sinless sacrifice were told clearly presented long before they ever happened. But all those things were overlooked or ignored by generations of Jews because they didn't fit their concept of who the Messiah would be. But God's ways are not man's ways. He never does things the way we would. He had a plan that would make no sense to us. But it was the only plan that would work. It was the only plan that would satisfy His holiness and still allow Him to extend grace, love and mercy to those who had openly rebelled against Him. Jesus was the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament predicted. The writer of Hebrews tell us, "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven" (Hebrews 1:1-3 NLT). God had predicted the coming of His Son. Then He actually sent Him to do what He had to do. And one day He is coming back to complete God's plan. And the Scriptures reveal that part of the Messiah's assignment as well. Believe it, or not.

Father, Your written Word is full of insights into the life and ministry of Your Son, and it's not relegated just to the Gospels. His life and ministry is found throughout the Scriptures. Give us a desire to know Him better. Give us a passion for Your Word because it is in Your Word where we discover the truth regarding Your Son and His ministry, past, present and future. Amen.

Doubt.

Mark 16:9-11; John 20:11-18

She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was live and that she had seen him, they didn't believe her. – Mark 16:10-11 NLT

There's an interesting word that crops up in the story of Jesus' resurrection. It is not one I have ever noticed before or would have expected. As we have seen, Jesus was crucified for claiming to be the King of the Jews, the Messiah. The religious leaders considered His claims to be blasphemy and worthy of death. The sign that was hung above Jesus' head on the cross by Pilate carried the nature of His crime: "King of the Jews." But in spite of Jesus' claims, the people refused to believe. The religious leaders refused to believe. Herod and Pilate refused to believe. So Jesus was killed, but now He is risen, proving that He was who He claimed to be: The King of the Jews, the Messiah, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. But the majority of the people would still refuse to believe. And they were not alone. In the verses above, Mark records that when Mary Magdalene went to the disciples and told them all that had happened, including the fact that she had seen Jesus with her own eyes, they refused to believe her. She found them weeping and mourning over the death of their Master and Savior, but when they heard the good news regarding His resurrection, they were incredulous. It was impossible.

This response of disbelief was going to become routine before the day was over. Time and time again, the disciples would find themselves struggling with disbelief at the thought of Jesus being alive. Even though this was all in accordance with His predictions prior to His death. He had told them He was going to die. And He had told them He would rise again three days later. But now that it had happened, the disciples couldn't bring themselves to accept the news. Later on, Jesus would rebuke them for their unbelief. After revealing Himself to the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, Jesus said to them, "You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory? Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27 NLT).

Their belief was based on ignorance. They didn't know the facts. They were biblically illiterate and had missed the major point of what the Scriptures had revealed about the Messiah. But they weren't alone. Their own religious leaders and the experts in the Law had also missed the forest for the trees. These men were highly knowledgeable of the Scriptures, but they too had failed to see the predictions regarding the Messiah's suffering and death. They wanted a conquering king and a political savior. They weren't looking for a suffering savior. They had no use for a martyred Messiah. So when news of Jesus' resurrection began to spread, it was met with unbelief. Why? Because it was unbelievable. It was too good to be true. It was impossible. But when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus, she was in for a surprise. Because not only was the tomb empty, but her dead Messiah was alive and talked with her. I love the encounter between the two of them. Before she even recognized Him, Jesus asked her, "Dear woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?" (John 20:15 NLT). Mary thought He was the gardener and responded, "If you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him" (John 20:15 NLT). As far as Mary was concerned, Jesus was still dead, and His body had somehow been misplaced. But then Jesus spoke her name, "Mary!" and immediately she recognized Him and fell at His feet. Her doubt was turned into belief. The impossible had happened. She had had a personal, intimate encounter with the risen Lord. And Jesus instructed her to go and tell the others His message. But they too would struggle with disbelief until they had the same personal, intimate encounter with Jesus. The word of another was not going to be enough. For their disbelief and doubt to be radically reversed, they were going to have to see Jesus face to face. And it is still that way today. We can tell others about our encounter with Jesus. We can share what we have seen and heard, but until they have a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus themselves, they will continue to disbelieve. But thankfully, Jesus is still revealing Himself to doubters today. He is still having personal, life-changing encounters with unbelievers and helping turn them into faithful followers.

I can tell what Jesus has done for me. I can testify that He is indeed risen and alive and active in my life. But it is not until You choose to reveal Yourself to the lost that they will truly believe. Thank You Jesus that You are still patiently, persistently revealing Yourself to a world filled with doubters and disbelievers. And thank You that I was one of them. Amen.

A New Day Dawns.

Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. – Matthew 28:1 NLT

Jesus was dead. His tomb had been sealed by Pilate and armed Roman guards stood at the entrance, in an effort to prevent the disciples from attempting to steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. A group of women who had been close followers of Jesus had bought spices in order to anoint the body of Jesus for burial. They got up that Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath, with plans to anoint His body, if only they could find someone who would help them roll away the stone blocking the entrance. But when they arrived, they found that the stone had already been rolled away and the entrance to the tomb was wide open. Matthew tells us that this was the work of an angel of the Lord. He was accompanied by an earthquake and the very sight of him caused the Roman soldiers to faint. Not exactly news they would want to get out among their peers. But the women entered the tomb and found an angel, but the body of Jesus was nowhere to be seen. They were shocked and stunned. The first thought that ran through their minds was that the body had been stolen or moved. The last thing on their mind was that He might be alive. But the angel told them, "Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn't here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body" (Mark 16:6 NLT). He isn't here! What a statement. So simple and obvious, but it contained so much power and carried so much weight. Jesus wasn't where they expected Him to be. Not only that, Jesus was not in the condition in which they thought they would find Him. He wasn't dead. He was alive.

As you read the four Gospel accounts, it can appear that there are contradiction as to just how many angels appeared and which women went to the tomb. But if you look and read carefully, you can begin to see that there are actually a number of events overlapping. In his book, The Christ of the Gospels, J. W. Shephard gives some insight into the chronology of events.

The order of the events of this memorable Sunday, the resurrection day, are probably as follows: the earthquake, followed by the descent of the angel, the opening of the tomb, and the resurrection (Matthew 28:2-4). The group of women came together and started for the tomb at the "very early” hour of “deep dawn,” while it was yet dark. Mary Magdalene being a nimble young woman, eagerly ran ahead and came to the tomb, finding it open. Immediately she ran back by the nearest way to inform Peter and John of this fact (John 20:1). The other women completed their two miles walk from Bethany to the sepulcher, arriving a little after the rising of the sun (Mark 16:2). An angel suddenly appeared to them and gave them an urgent message to the disciples (Matthew 28:5; Mark 16:5). Another party of women come a little later, and see “two young men” dressed in white at the tomb, and receive words of comfort and instruction (Luke 24:4). About 6:30 a.m. Peter and John arrive, John running ahead (John 20:3-10). Mary Magdalene coming a little later saw two angels (John 20:11-13). The other women had returned to bear the message to the other apostles (Luke 24:10). About 7:00 a.m. Jesus first revealed Himself to Mary of Magdala (John 20:14-18; Mark 16:9). A little later, He appeared to the company of women returning to the sepulcher, and sent them with the charge to the brethren to go to Galilee (Matthew 28:9). About 4:00 p.m. He appeared to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5), and from 4-6 p.m. to Cleopas and his companion on the way to Emmaus. Finally, in the evening, probably about 8:00 p.m., He appeared to the eleven, and others in the room with barred doors (Luke 24:36; Mark 16:14; John 29:19). Surely this was a never-to-be-forgotten day for the disciples. It made a new world for them, and for His disciples for all subsequent times.

What an amazing day! What an incredible turn of events. The unimaginable and unexpected had happened. Jesus had risen from the dead. And it really was the dawn of a brand new day. Things would never be the same for any of these individuals. The women were given instructions to go and tell the disciples what had happened. But their story wasn't exactly well-received. Luke tells us that "the story sounded like nonsense" to the disciples. So they didn't believe. But Peter and John finally decided to check for themselves and ran to the tomb. They found everything to be just as the women had told them. The body was gone. Jesus was not there. Something incredible had happened. And John ends his account with the words, "Then they went home" (John 20:10 NLT). It sounds so anticlimactic. But what else were they to do? They were in shock. Even though the women had even seen Jesus with their own eyes and He had given them the message, "Don't be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there" (Matthew 28:10 NLT), the disciples weren't really sure what to do. They were still struggling with disbelief and doubt. Could it all be true? Was it all really happening? This new day was only going to get better. Their doubt would turn into belief. Their sorrow would be turned to joy. Their heartache would be replaced with rejoicing. Because Jesus had done exactly what He said He was going to do. He had come back to life. And this was just the beginning!

Father, what a story. What a change in circumstances. How amazing and unbelievable must all of this been for the disciples. It was too good to be true. It was impossible and highly improbable. But they were about to find out that nothing is impossible with You. A new day had dawned. A new age had begun. Amen.

Dead and Buried.

Matthew 27:61-66; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55-56

So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it. – Matthew 27:66 NLT

The two women watched as the body of Jesus was placed in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. They silently viewed the rolling of the stone over the mouth of the entrance. Then they returned home to prepare spices and ointments to anoint His body. But they were prevented from returning to the tomb due to the coming of the Sabbath, which would have prevented them from doing any kind of work. But it's painfully clear that these women were not expecting any kind of resurrection from the dead. Their hopes had died when Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross earlier that day. Their dreams were shattered. Their long-awaited Messiah was dead.

Interestingly enough, it was the Jewish religious leaders that had resurrection on their minds. They recalled that Jesus had once claimed that He would rise from the dead. "Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead" (Matthew 16:21 NLT). While this information had been shared by Jesus with His own disciples, news of His claim had obviously made it to the ears of these religious leaders. And the thought of it was like a nightmare to them. That was the last thing they wanted or needed. So they went to Pilate and appealed to him to place armed guards at the tomb in order to prevent the disciples from stealing the body and claiming Jesus had risen from the dead. Even the rumor of resurrection filled them with fear. So Pilate gave in to their request and placed guards at the tomb and sealed the entrance. They were going to do whatever they had to do to keep Jesus dead and buried.

But while the women were preparing the spices to anoint Jesus' body and the guards were preparing to prevent the disciples from stealing it, God was preparing something altogether remarkable and earth-shattering. This was far from the end. Jesus was dead and buried, but far from finished. Something else had to take place to complete God's grand plan. A martyred Messiah was not how this thing was going to end. A dead Savior was part of the plan, but not the culmination. There was more to come, and with the rising sun the next morning, something truly remarkable was going to happen that would shock the guards and the women.

Father, I love this part of the story. Just when things look their bleakest, You are at work behind the scenes planning something so incredible it's hard for us to fathom it. While the religious leaders are worrying about body-snatching disciples, and the women are preparing body-anointing spices, You are planning the resurrection of Your dead Son to new life. What a surprise the morning was going to bring. Amen.