I was reading my bible this morning and I was struck by a sentence. I could no longer continue after I read these words. Have you ever read something and felt so connected to those words that you could no longer continue. Here they are:
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
These words are written by Saint Paul to the church in Rome roughly 2000 years ago. The wonderful thing about the words of God is that they never change. We change and we are transformed but His words remain the same.
We can look at the context of the verse and ask what the author was trying to communicate to the orginial audience and then seek counsel through the Spirit of God to the personal application of the day. The wonderful thing is: They are usually the same thing. What God was speaking through Paul 2000 years ago is exactly what we need to hear today.
Paul is writing a letter to the church in Rome explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Good News! That we were created good, have disobeyed God in word and deed, have a redeemer name Jesus that has saved us from hell and for heaven, and that one day Jesus is going to return to earth and restore the world to the way it gets to be.
Reading this verse, this sentence, this thought, made me a little upset. You see, because Im American. I am no powerless. I'm an athlete, I'm not powerless. I have worked hard for everything I have in my life. It's humbling to be called powerless when all we are feed every day is the complete opposite. Pop-culture tells me I'm special (like a snowflake). But powerless, never.
This is a place where one needs to tend lightly. Because I am not taking about low self-esteem. I am not taking about having emotional/psychological issues like depression or the opposite end of narcissism. I am taking about our sense before God awaken us to the truth of who he is!
Maybe the best way to explain what I am trying to say is through a story.....
A few years ago I worked at a summer camp. I was in charge of teaching sailing for a part of the day. I dont know why they chose me considering I have never sailed myself before the one hour orientation I received. But there I was. The camp was for kids ages 8-18. And many younger kids had a difficulty sailing. It is tough. The wind blows fast and without warning.
One day, as two 9 year olds were out of the lake the wind did increase without notice. The students panic and pulled on the rope and they went so fast that the sailboat capsized. Without hesitation, I jumped into the water and went after them. I swam toward them in the heavy winds and waves until I reached them. At this point, I flipped their boat for them and told them to get inside. We dumped as much water out of the boat as we could as I began to swim two 60 pound boys plus the boat to the shore.
They were powerless. They were stuck. Have you ever felt stuck and didn't know what to do? There was nothing they could do. They were waiting and crying for help until their hero came to rescue them.
This is the message of how much God loves us. That when we didn't even know we needed to be saved that Jesus took our place on the cross.
Later in the scriptures we see God call us other words, "Children," "Saints," "Forgiven," "light." But it didn't start with you choosing to be a better person. Moralism only gets you so far. Trying to be a good person only gets you so far. You are powerless to come into a relationship with God. It's only after he awakens you by His spirit that you can follow him.
This sounds like fatalism but it is not. The truth is that it starts and ends with God but it is also about you. God's spirit awakens us to the truth and the fact that Jesus is Lord and in that awakening moment we are brought to crisis moment. Which way are we going to go in life.
I think of Paul's conversion. He sees a light that blinds him. It is Jesus from heaven. He proclaims, "It is I, Jesus, the one whom you are persecuting." He is blind for three days until God sends a man named Ananias to heal him. In that instance Paul is completely healed and can see again. Paul is awoken to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah but Jesus himself but still has a chose to make. Does he follow his leading and lose all he has worked for his whole life?
Paul was powerless. He was blind way before he was physically blind. Ironically, It took him becoming blind physically for him to see spiritually what was happening.
Before, God awakens us to the truth that He is real we are left in a state of blindness. Without power. But he flips on the light switch so that we can see the truth of who he is.
What role do believers have in the role of salvation then? As a believer, your responsibility is to follow Jesus. Fall in love with Jesus. As unbelievers see how your life has become transformed by God they will chose to follow him as well when they are having their next crisis moment.
You see, we had no power but now we have unlimited power from on High. The Holy Spirit has given us the empowerment to follow him and share his love with the world. You were powerless now you are full of power but this power is from God alone. Will you be a person of power of loving others and by laying down your life for the other?
Jun 24, 2014
Jun 9, 2014
Offensive Love
God's love is incredibly offensive. Not in the sense that "The Pirates need to generate more offense" but in the sense that his love is above and beyond our cognitive understanding of what is good and right.
We have unintentionally shape our understanding of God and His love toward us based on our experience and the love we have receive from others. If one wants to judge by this merit he or she will continually underestimate the capacity God has to show favor, grace, and love toward his children.
I am a Christian and believe in the mystery of the Trinity. I believe in One God yet he has revealed himself in three characters. We call this the Father, the Son (Jesus, the Christ), and the Holy Spirit. They are equal in power and authority for there are literally one but they are different in their roles. The Father creates and sustains the world, the Son sacrificed himself showing us the great love of the Father, while the Holy Spirit empowers us for daily living and enlightens us to the truth that Jesus in the Messiah.
Trying to explain God in human terms is very difficult for He (even using gender is incorrect analysis) indescribable. The best one can do to explain and understand the glory of the Father is to look at the Son. The author of Colossians, Saint Paul, show the resurrected Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven in a vision. He says two important things of God: "The Son is the image of the invisible God" and "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him."
What's the point. We can fully and truly know God through the character of Jesus Christ. If we have some understanding of God that does not match up with how Jesus acted then we need to repent (change the way we think) at once.
Many of the religious people in the First Century did not like Jesus. They were offended by how he did things. He was offending people before he was born. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. God chose to bring His Son into the world through a teenage Jewish girl who was engaged to be married. Many people would have looked at Jesus and mocked him calling him a bastard child. Neither did Jesus get married. This is more common in today's culture but not in the First Century! In addition, Jesus who was a teacher with much authority, chose disciples that were the rejects of the day. The majority of his followers were fishermen and tax-collectors.
What is this Jesus guy doing? As you read through the Gospels you will see that he continues to offend the religious yet stun the "Sinners" by welcoming them into his life. He breaks down their man-made religion and reveals the true heart of God. "To seek and save the lost."
There is an account of great offense that Jesus brings in Luke's Gospel. Some Pharisees (this was a devout Jewish sect that held morality to a high standard) invited Jesus to have dinner at their home. This was the greatest level of intimacy in the Jewish First Century culture. As they are enjoying their meal and woman who doesn't even get named walks right into the house. She is simply called, "a sinful woman." She does the oldest thing. She falls to the ground at the feet of Jesus, pouring perfume and washing his feet with their kisses and hair.
This event caused the Pharisees not to be mad at the woman but at Jesus. But why? Because he was not offended at the woman. She was unclean. She was unholy. She was unworthy. She was a SINNER. She was a woman. She wasn't one of them. She wasn't a child of Abraham. The Pharisees say about Jesus, "If this man was a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is- that she is a sinner."
Jesus explains why he is not offended with a story (this was pretty common for Him).
"Two people owed money to a certain monelender. One owed him 500 days of wage, and the other 50 days of wage. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?
His rhetorical question was answered correctly by Simon, "The one who had the bigger debt forgiven."
If the Pharisees and many Christians today it is about doing more right than wrong. Life is about achieving perfection; more good deeds than sins. But the thing is no one is perfect. And if we are honest with ourselves trying to achieve perfection is hard and it is tiresome task.
The very fact that God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place is the fact that we could not rescue ourselves. That is
God's
Great
Love.
That he chose to love everyone equally. You might say, "Well, Jeff. Don't we all? No, I don't think so. We might try to love everyone equally and unconditionally but this again is a task that you and I fail.
God's love is offensive because your eternally status before God is not determine by how you act or what you do. It is totally, 100% in the fact that he loves you and me and us and paved the way for us to have an eternal relationship with Him.
Jesus didn't care that the woman who was at his feet was considered to be a sinful woman. He didn't view people in light of their sin but in light of how much he loved them. To this day, Jesus' love is incredibly offensive to many. It is "too good to be true." We many times believe this because we believe the falsehood that God can only love me by how good of a person I am. You are not a good person. You are however, a child of God. A prince or princess in God's kingdom. Forever loved and forever cherished simply because you are you.
Because this woman had a huge debt her understanding of God's love was able to increase. Y(our) ability to love others is directly proportional to the love we have received. To those who have received grace in light of their error how much greater has their capacity to show grace increased.
As you walk through life today, I pray that you know that there is a God and He is madly in love with you. I pray that you can reflect on your life and understand no matter what you have gone through that God is willing to fully forgive you of everything.
And when He forgives; He forgets.
We have unintentionally shape our understanding of God and His love toward us based on our experience and the love we have receive from others. If one wants to judge by this merit he or she will continually underestimate the capacity God has to show favor, grace, and love toward his children.
I am a Christian and believe in the mystery of the Trinity. I believe in One God yet he has revealed himself in three characters. We call this the Father, the Son (Jesus, the Christ), and the Holy Spirit. They are equal in power and authority for there are literally one but they are different in their roles. The Father creates and sustains the world, the Son sacrificed himself showing us the great love of the Father, while the Holy Spirit empowers us for daily living and enlightens us to the truth that Jesus in the Messiah.
Trying to explain God in human terms is very difficult for He (even using gender is incorrect analysis) indescribable. The best one can do to explain and understand the glory of the Father is to look at the Son. The author of Colossians, Saint Paul, show the resurrected Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven in a vision. He says two important things of God: "The Son is the image of the invisible God" and "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him."
What's the point. We can fully and truly know God through the character of Jesus Christ. If we have some understanding of God that does not match up with how Jesus acted then we need to repent (change the way we think) at once.
Many of the religious people in the First Century did not like Jesus. They were offended by how he did things. He was offending people before he was born. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. God chose to bring His Son into the world through a teenage Jewish girl who was engaged to be married. Many people would have looked at Jesus and mocked him calling him a bastard child. Neither did Jesus get married. This is more common in today's culture but not in the First Century! In addition, Jesus who was a teacher with much authority, chose disciples that were the rejects of the day. The majority of his followers were fishermen and tax-collectors.
What is this Jesus guy doing? As you read through the Gospels you will see that he continues to offend the religious yet stun the "Sinners" by welcoming them into his life. He breaks down their man-made religion and reveals the true heart of God. "To seek and save the lost."
There is an account of great offense that Jesus brings in Luke's Gospel. Some Pharisees (this was a devout Jewish sect that held morality to a high standard) invited Jesus to have dinner at their home. This was the greatest level of intimacy in the Jewish First Century culture. As they are enjoying their meal and woman who doesn't even get named walks right into the house. She is simply called, "a sinful woman." She does the oldest thing. She falls to the ground at the feet of Jesus, pouring perfume and washing his feet with their kisses and hair.
This event caused the Pharisees not to be mad at the woman but at Jesus. But why? Because he was not offended at the woman. She was unclean. She was unholy. She was unworthy. She was a SINNER. She was a woman. She wasn't one of them. She wasn't a child of Abraham. The Pharisees say about Jesus, "If this man was a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is- that she is a sinner."
Jesus explains why he is not offended with a story (this was pretty common for Him).
"Two people owed money to a certain monelender. One owed him 500 days of wage, and the other 50 days of wage. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?
His rhetorical question was answered correctly by Simon, "The one who had the bigger debt forgiven."
If the Pharisees and many Christians today it is about doing more right than wrong. Life is about achieving perfection; more good deeds than sins. But the thing is no one is perfect. And if we are honest with ourselves trying to achieve perfection is hard and it is tiresome task.
The very fact that God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place is the fact that we could not rescue ourselves. That is
God's
Great
Love.
That he chose to love everyone equally. You might say, "Well, Jeff. Don't we all? No, I don't think so. We might try to love everyone equally and unconditionally but this again is a task that you and I fail.
God's love is offensive because your eternally status before God is not determine by how you act or what you do. It is totally, 100% in the fact that he loves you and me and us and paved the way for us to have an eternal relationship with Him.
Jesus didn't care that the woman who was at his feet was considered to be a sinful woman. He didn't view people in light of their sin but in light of how much he loved them. To this day, Jesus' love is incredibly offensive to many. It is "too good to be true." We many times believe this because we believe the falsehood that God can only love me by how good of a person I am. You are not a good person. You are however, a child of God. A prince or princess in God's kingdom. Forever loved and forever cherished simply because you are you.
Because this woman had a huge debt her understanding of God's love was able to increase. Y(our) ability to love others is directly proportional to the love we have received. To those who have received grace in light of their error how much greater has their capacity to show grace increased.
As you walk through life today, I pray that you know that there is a God and He is madly in love with you. I pray that you can reflect on your life and understand no matter what you have gone through that God is willing to fully forgive you of everything.
And when He forgives; He forgets.
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