Old Testament
The Manifestation of Truth
By Linda Rex
March 2, 2026, Transfiguration Sunday—On this Sunday, we reach the end of the season of Epiphany, and enter into the season of preparation for Easter. As we consider the epiphany of the season of Epiphany, so to speak, we reflect upon that dramatic revelation of Jesus Christ which occurred at his transfiguration.
Our New Testament passage, 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2, is the apostle Paul’s message to the believers in Corinth, which includes a strong encouragement to stay focused on Jesus Christ. Paul’s purpose was to help the believers remain faithful in their life in Christ, and not get swept away into spiritual blindness. Apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, these believers would be unable to properly read and understand the Old Testament scriptures. He did not want them to go back into slavery to the law, but to live in the freedom that was theirs in Jesus Christ, because the law was written on their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Drawing upon the teachings of Moses, the apostle Paul noted that Moses himself, when he met with God, would come away with a glow on his face that frightened Aaron and the people of ancient Israel. So, for their sake, he would cover his face with a veil, preventing them from seeing this glow and how it would eventually dissipate. Moses did not create this glow, neither could he get rid of it. His reflection of the divine glory came about simply because he spent time with God, listening to him, and growing in his relationship with him. But it was something that came and went—it did not stay. And it was not something he was in control over, either. He simply participated, and covered his face for the sake of those around him (Exodus 34:29–35).
In contrast, we see the Son of God, Jesus Christ, on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, being transfigured—as though this was his natural state of being, only it was hidden. How astonishing it must have been for these three disciples to see their companion and teacher suddenly glowing with divine glory, and speaking to Elijah and Moses, who had been dead for centuries. What all did this mean? How were they to respond to this? Peter suggested building tents for them to stay in—but that obviously was not the answer. Jesus’ heavenly Father certain had a preference for what they were to do: they were to listen to Jesus, for he was the beloved Son of the Father, the Chosen One (Luke 9:28–36).
Just consider the manifestation of the truth which took place in Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that he was “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). As God in human flesh, we find the truth of who we are as God’s creatures in Jesus Christ. Humans were created to reflect the image of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus is the only true reflection of God’s nature and way of being. He was filled with and led by the Holy Spirit from conception, and he always lived in right relationship with his heavenly Father in the Spirit. If we want to know what it looks like to be truly human—we look at Jesus Christ.
What Jesus Christ did by living, dying, and rising again, is only significant because of who he is—God in human flesh. The transfiguration was a profound revelation of the truth of who Jesus is and was. What was hidden within his human frame suddenly shone out in radiant brightness. The limits of human time were suspended as he communicated with those who went before. And he heard the voice of his heavenly Father addressing him with great affection and affirmation. What Peter, James, and John witnessed in the transfiguration had to have wholly overthrown all of their previous concepts of who Jesus was. Sure, he was the Messiah, but somehow he was so much more than all that had previously been assumed!
When Jesus died and rose again, he ascended to heaven, to his Father’s right hand, and sent the Holy Spirit. Now we are so blessed to have the presence of God in and with us by the Holy Spirit. In many ways, we have the hidden glory that Jesus had, because we have received the Holy Spirit. The apostle John says that when we see Jesus when he returns in glory, that we will be “like him” (1 John 3:2). There is a hidden glory that is ours in Christ, given to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit that will be revealed one day in its fullness. As we respond to the Spirit’s lead and live in obedience to our heavenly Father, we begin to look more and more like Jesus even in this life. The truth of who we are in Christ, who God created us to be, is being manifest more and more as we participate more fully in our life in Christ, as we respond to the work of the Holy Spirit, and follow Christ wherever he leads.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, may you be fully manifest in each of us by your Spirit, for our Father’s glory, now and forever. Thank you for the freedom that is ours in Christ—freedom from evil, sin, and death, and freedom to love, serve, and obey you. May we live as true reflections of your glory and goodness, through Jesus our Lord and by your heavenly Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/olitthe-manifestation-of-truth.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
[Subscribe to Our Life in the Trinity YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ourlifeinthetrinity ]
Destined for Salvation
By Linda Rex
November 19, 2023, Proper 28 | After Pentecost—As I was reading the New Testament passage for this Sunday, I recalled the automatic go-to response I used to have whenever I heard the phrase “day of the Lord.” This phrase brought up all types of references to dispensations and a great tribulation and many other end-times presuppositions, that may or may not have been grounded in well-studied theology.
The more I have gotten to know and grown to love the Lord Jesus Christ, the more I have come to see that we need to keep the phrase “day of the Lord” within the context of Jesus’ parousia, which is an already-not-yet event in which we currently participate right now by the Holy Spirit. Even though the “day of the Lord” is most often associated with the “second coming” of Jesus Christ, it actually can be applied to the whole of the parousia, that the Word of God came in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, is present now by the Spirit, and will one day return in glory.
The apostle Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11, told the believers that they didn’t need to have anyone tell them how the “day of the Lord” will come “like a thief in the night.” The apostle Paul had personally experienced this when the glorified Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, illuminating his darkened life profoundly, setting him firmly in the present reality of kingdom of God as Jesus asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” Paul discovered suddenly that everything he trusted in, depended upon, and was allied with was worthless, useless, and valueless in comparison with knowing Jesus Christ his Lord (Phil. 3:4-11).
When we look at the Old Testament passage for this Sunday, Zephaniah 1:7, 12–18, we find a prophetic passage about the “day of the Lord”. Keeping in mind the lens through which we view the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, we see that in many ways, Jesus has fulfilled this prophecy in his incarnational life and ministry.
| Scripture Passage | My Reflections |
| 7“Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near, for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, | For many centuries, God prepared his covenant people for the coming of Jesus, the Lamb of God. In Advent, we rehearse this time of preparation and expectation. |
| He has consecrated His guests. | In the fullness of time, God prepared his offering and invited his disciples, the ancient Jewish people and their leaders, etc. |
| 12‘It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good or evil! | The Light of the world, Jesus, came to his people, then to Jerusalem, where the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and Saducees rejected him and moved to have him crucified, exposing the dark depravity and brokenness of our human flesh. |
| 13Moreover, their wealth will become plunder and their houses desolate; yes, they will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but not drink their wine.’ | This consequence of ancient Israel’s rejection of their Messiah was tragically fulfilled in AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. |
| 14Near is the great day of the LORD, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. 15A day of wrath is that day, | This day of wrath, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the pouring out of his blood, was filled with God’s passion against evil, sin and death. |
| A day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 6a day of trumpet and battle cry | As he hung on the cross and died, the earth shook and the sky grew dark. On the cross, Jesus Christ conquered over evil, sin, and death (and triumphed in the resurrection). |
| Against the fortified cities and the high corner towers. | Satan and his minions are defeated, his kingdom invaded—Jesus is triumphant! |
| 17I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; and their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. 18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them | Jesus’ blood, from his human flesh, was poured out, as he was beaten and torn by the humans he created, in our place and on our behalf. Judas tried to stop the results of his betrayal, but giving back the 30 pieces of silver didn’t stop the crucifixion. |
| On the day of the LORD’S wrath; and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy, | Jesus’ baptism of fire included all human flesh—all are included in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. As Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new.” |
| For He will make a complete end, | On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” |
| Indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. | All are included, but not all will receive and participate in his grace. One day, Jesus will return in glory, and evil, sin, and death will be no more—how will we respond in that day? What will become of those who refuse to participate in all Christ has done or to allow Jesus to be their Lord and King? What about us today who have heard this good news? |
| Zephaniah 1:7, 12–18 | Already-not-yet fulfilled in Jesus Christ |
Indeed, there will be a day when Jesus returns in glory. Every human being will need to face the reality that from then on, how Jesus says things are to be done is how they will be done. There will be no place left for evil and death—for these are destined for the lake of fire. Keeping this in mind, then, we live our daily lives soberly, attentive to and open to the faith, hope, and love which is ours in Jesus Christ, in the gift of salvation. This was always God’s plan for each of us—that we live together with Him, now and forever. Let us begin to participate in that life right now, and encourage and build each other up, as we go along.
Father, Son, and Spirit, thank you for giving us such a profound destiny, of life in union and communion with you forever. Grant us the grace to respond in faith, opening ourselves up to receive and participate in this perfect gift. And inspire us to encourage and build each other up, as we travel this road of faith together, in Jesus by his Spirit. Amen.
“Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not asleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/olitdestined-for-salvation.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
[Subscribe to Our Life in the Trinity YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ourlifeinthetrinity ]
Pending Judgment–Part III
By Linda Rex
When it comes to God’s judgment, we saw last time that God has done all that is necessary for our salvation. God frees us in Christ to participate fully in this gift of grace, enabling us by the Spirit to live in the truth of who we are as God’s beloved children. At the same time, though, we are free to embrace or reject the gift God has given us in his Son Jesus Christ.
In essence, we judge ourselves—we come into the Light of God’s penetrating gaze and allow him to cleanse and restore us, or we turn from him and continue to walk in darkness, thereby experiencing the consequences of turning away from Christ.
Adam, and all humanity since his time, has turned away from God—but God, in Christ, has turned humanity back into face to face relationship with himself. Jesus Christ is the right relationship each of us has with our heavenly Father.
But God does not force us into relationship with himself. He has secured our relationship with himself in Christ, but does not force us to participate in it. Rather, he invites us. He woos us. By his Spirit, he draws us to himself. We are beloved, held, cherished, and yet free to turn and walk away.
I do not know why people choose to resist and walk away from this awesome relationship, but they do. And if a person insists on resisting and turning from this relationship, God will eventually yield to their decision, while at the same time never ceasing to love and forgive them.
What’s interesting is that people who do not know or believe in Christ are still participants in God’s life and love. They do not recognize or concede that this is so, and may even resist any attempt God makes at drawing them closer to himself, but they are still included in God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ. God allows them to be a part of what he is doing in the world, even if the part they play is a negative one.
The struggle we have with reading the Old Testament is seeing God at work among the nations, allowing the destruction of people groups, wars, and genocide. We find it difficult to accept God ordering certain people to be killed or allowing others to suffer famine and other hardships. If the God of the Old Testament is just like Jesus Christ, then why did he allow or cause these things to happen?
The modern-day Jesus is often portrayed as soft, kind, gentle, and loving. Our pictures of the long-haired, white American Jesus give us the impression he was full of compassion, understanding, and was sensitive to every possible issue and feeling of the human heart. He loved little children and working with his hands. Yes, he might have had a moment of anger in the temple when dealing with the buyers and sellers, but this wasn’t his usual response to such things.
We don’t usually get the impression that the Jesus of scripture is a real, flesh-and-blood man who was strong, decisive, and oozing masculinity. It seems that the Jesus we think of who is powerful and comes to deliver and help is the One who sits in glory ready to condemn and judge the world, who in his second coming is expected to punish and eliminate all the evildoers in the world. This Jesus more closely resembles the God of the Old Testament.
Jesus favored the use of “I am” statements during his time here on earth. He made it quite clear that he was the God of the Old Testament here in human flesh—the “I Am” in person. Over and over he went out of his way to show the truth of this, and that he was the perfect embodiment of God in our humanity. And this is where we begin to struggle. Just who is Jesus, and just how does he jive with the God of the Old Testament? They almost seem like two different people.
There also seems to be a dichotomy between the Jesus of the first coming and the Jesus of the second coming. And this also reflects on how we view the God of the Old Testament. There are inconsistencies between each of these God-views because we do not see Jesus Christ clearly, and we do not see God himself through the correct lens.
And we see events almost always in terms of this life alone. We don’t usually keep a kingdom perspective about things. When someone dies, we think or feel that’s the end, even if we believe in an afterlife. But the apostle Paul tells us we need to keep our minds and hearts on heaven, not on things of the earth which are passing and fleeting. What happens in this life needs to be kept in the context of eternity and the eternal purposes of our Living Lord.
This is the same perspective we need to use when looking at the events in the Old Testament. We need to realize that this is God’s story. It is the story about all he did in preparation for and in bringing about the salvation of the world in and through his Son Jesus Christ. God’s ultimate judgment on sin and death was fully taken up in Jesus Christ and resolved once and for all.
The Old Testament tells the story of God’s covenant relationship with the people of Israel from whom the Messiah came. These scriptures tell about God’s love for his people, and indeed for the whole world, and his deep compassion as they wandered away from him, and his longing for them to be faithful and obedient to him. It tells how he defended and protected his people, providing for them in the midst of difficulty and struggle, and in the midst of hostile, pagan nations. It also tells how he allowed them to experience the consequences of turning away from their covenant relationship with him, while he still called them back and sought their change of heart and mind toward himself.
Everything which happened as recorded in the Old Testament must be viewed through the lens of Jesus Christ, and from the perspective of God’s eternal purposes. God judged all humanity worthy of the gift of his very own unique Son—Jesus Christ is God’s judgment on sin and death. God’s redemption of his own chosen people Israel set the stage for his redemption of all humanity.
In Hebrews 9:26 we read that Jesus, rather than being offered over and over like the temple sacrifices were, was offered just once “at the consummation of the ages.” When the time was exactly right, after specific events and circumstances had taken place, and after certain prophecies had been fulfilled or were prepared to be fulfilled, Jesus came and offered himself in our place. This was to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Jesus took care of sin once and for all—so we do not have that hanging over our heads any longer. Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus Christ we are free from sin and death.
Judgment, for those who are in Christ, is not a thing to be feared. In Hebrews 9:27-28 we read, “…inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Christ’s coming is meant to be a celebration. It’s meant to be the time when we all gather together, rejoicing in his return, and having a merry time at his banquet, clothed in his garments of righteousness. Death is not to be feared, but to be celebrated as the transition between this life and the life in eternity Jesus purchased for us to be spent with our loving God and all those near and dear to us.
Jesus Christ, being God’s judgment on sin and death, is the One we welcome with open arms and happy faces when we see him in glory, because we are trusting in all he did on our behalf. But it is equally possible that in that moment—in death or at Christ’s return—our hearts might condemn us. We may, when face to face with the glorified Jesus, be like those described in the book of Revelation who try to run and hide from him. We may come face to face with the glorified Savior in that particular moment and realize our way of being is a far cry from that ordained for us by God in creation as made in his image, and renewed by Christ in his redemption. And we have nowhere to turn if we refuse Jesus Christ since he is our salvation, and he is God’s judgment on sin and death. And so, our hearts will be filled with fear, fear of God and fear of his punishment.
But fear is not what God meant for us to have in that moment. In fact, God meant for his perfect love for us expressed to us in Christ to cast out all our fear. God has reconciled us to himself in Christ, and merely asks that we be reconciled in return. How often God has said to us as humans, “Don’t be afraid!” God means for our response when we see Christ in glory to be receptive, heart-felt love not fearful dread—this is why Jesus came and did all that he did and this is why God sent his Holy Spirit into human hearts.
This unhealthy response to God was something he battled with from the very beginning. Case in point was when Israel came to Mt. Sinai and God spoke with them. They were terrified and begged to have Moses speak in God’s place. And while Moses was receiving the terms of the covenant, Israel decided to play with idols. These people who were very special to God never really grasped the real nature of God. God wanted them to get to know him, but they constantly set up barriers between themselves and him.
God called the patriarchs and then the nation of Israel into covenant relationship with himself. He would speak to them through prophets. He would speak of bringing them to the place where they would “know” him—come to be intimately aware of and obedient to his loving will. He defended and protected them. He chastened them, and allowed them to stubbornly go their own way even when it was to their detriment. God’s heart from the beginning has been eternal life—this knowing and being known intimately as Abba and his Son in the Spirit.
We need to understand that God’s judgment ultimately is meant to restore, renew, and heal broken relationships—between us and God, and between us and each other. The purpose in judgment is not to destroy or punish so much as it is to bring us into truth so we can experience the true freedom which is ours in Christ. We were meant for life, real life, in fellowship with God and one another—and God’s purpose is for us to experience that both now and forever. We are free to refuse to participate in this kingdom life—but we will experience the consequences of having done so—and that is another conversation altogether.
Abba, thank you for your loving heart and the gift of eternal life in your Son Jesus Christ. Grant us the grace to embrace all you have done for us in Jesus. Let us turn away from ourselves and the things of this life and place our dependency fully upon Christ. In your Name we pray. Amen.
“Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:26-28 NASB
Pending Judgment—Part I
By Linda Rex
If Jesus is indeed the exact representation of the Father, does that mean that our heavenly Father is a really nice guy who never did or does anything in anger or that might be hurtful to us as human beings? If we look at the Old Testament and our Abba through the lens of Jesus Christ, does that mean that God never did any of those things such as burning up cities or killing people? What does it mean that God is love, and that he is gracious and forgiving, and yet is also just?
I have said before that if the God we see in the Old Testament is different than Jesus Christ, then we need to consider if perhaps we may have misunderstood something about Jesus Christ or God himself. However, we cannot discard or throw out scriptures just because they don’t agree with the picture of God which we believe we see in Jesus. It is entirely possible that those who wrote millennia ago saw God through the lens of the angry-must-be-appeased God, but that does not exclude their writings, for as the apostle Paul wrote, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Cor. 10:11 NASB) We can learn from the failures and mistakes of others, and also learn from these events and people about the goodness and faithful love of our God.
Moses recorded a conversation he had in which God described himself. In Exodus 34:6-7, we read: “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” It’s interesting that God described himself as being very gracious and forgiving, but also as a person who does not leave the guilty unpunished. In fact, Moses wrote, whole generations experience the consequences of people’s disobedience to God.
I find this quite interesting, because during Jesus’ ministry, one of his disciples consistently sinned against the rest of the group, and was left unpunished by Jesus—sort of. The apostle John writes, “But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?’ Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.” Judas was a thief, and Jesus allowed him to continue in his thievery up until the end of his life. He offered him rebukes, but Judas did not turn away from his sin.
Now granted, Judas was included in the twelve disciples for the very reason that he would one day betray his Lord. In the listings of the disciples Jesus chose after spending all night in prayer is this man who would be a traitor, who would betray Jesus into the hands of those who wanted to crucify him (Lk. 6:12-16; Matt. 10:2-4; Mk. 3:16-19). The apostle Peter, after Jesus’ resurrection wrote, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” (Acts 1:16-17 NASB)
Jesus was a great a scholar of the Hebrew scriptures, as the teachers in the temple indicated he was, so he would have known the prophetic word about the one who would betray him in such a way that he would be crucified and die. Every one of his disciples was capable of betraying Jesus, yet Judas is the one who did it—the one who never dealt with the truth of his thievery by repentance and faith in Jesus. If you or I were running a non-profit business and we found out someone was rifling the petty cash every chance they could, we would most probably fire them the minute we discovered the truth. But this was not Jesus’ way.
Jesus’ view of justice and judgment comes straight from the heart of the Father—to restore the one who has estranged themselves by sin to a right relationship with Abba and those they have hurt. He told Nicodemus:
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
Often God doesn’t need to judge anyone, because we are so good at judging ourselves—hiding in the darkness rather than coming into the light of God’s love and grace in Jesus. Hiding in the darkness eventually leads to painful and difficult consequences, some of which may lead to suffering and even death. Sadly, the outcome of Judas Iscariot’s hidden sin was his betrayal of his Lord, his subsequent remorse, and his tragic end of life by suicide. If Judas had only come to the Light—to Jesus—and received the grace which was his, owning up to the truth of his unloving behavior and allowing Jesus to restore him, his life may not have ended so tragically.
Peter wasn’t much better than Judas. He quite vocally denied Jesus three times—emphatically, with curses—because he was afraid of being arrested. After all his earlier promises to the contrary, when the chips were down he refused to identify with Jesus in his moment of greatest need. What might have gone through Peter’s head when Jesus caught his eye during his final denial? I can only imagine. Whatever it was, it led to Peter’s great repentance, and his urgent desire to reconcile with his Lord on the shores of Galilee after the resurrection.
Hiding in the darkness rather than coming into the light of God’s love is evidence of our lack of participation in our covenant relationship with our heavenly Father. Refusal to face the truth of our broken ways of living and being keeps us in the place of judgment. We have been given forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus Christ, but we can refuse it and live as though it isn’t true for us, and subsequently experience all the consequences due to us for having done so.
We can hide our “dirty deeds” in the darkness and pretend all is okay—living in the “freedom” of doing our own thing—and never receive the grace God has provided for us in Jesus. God has set us free from sin and death through Christ and empowers us by his Spirit to live in the truth of this and to share this truth with others. By refusing to receive what God has given to us in Jesus Christ, refusing to trust in God’s love and grace, we are judging ourselves.
We are placing ourselves outside the door to God’s kingdom which Jesus opened up for us in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and are saying to him that we can’t or won’t go in. The door is unlocked and even standing wide open—but we have no interest in entering. If Jesus is our true humanity, and he is the door through which we enter, the only exclusion which occurs is that which we choose for ourselves. God doesn’t have to stand with a big book of deeds either good or bad, deciding who goes in and who stays out. We do a pretty good job of doing that on our own.
Our entering in of the kingdom of God does not just happen at the end of our physical life. We live even now in the already-not-yet of God’s kingdom. This means we participate, or don’t participate, in Christ’s perfect relationship with his Abba right now, in this life today, as well in the world to come. We experience only glimpses of eternity right now, but we can begin to experience the blessings of the world to come in the midst of the struggles and difficulties in the world which is our today.
There are many things we need to learn about who Jesus is, and in learning about Jesus, come to understand about who Abba is. This will help us in our understanding of what was written in the Old Testament scriptures. I would like to talk more about this in next week’s blog. In the meantime, I encourage us all to find anything in our lives which we are trying to hide away from the view of Abba, and to bring it into the Light, so that through Jesus we may receive the reconciliation which is ours in him.
Thank you, Abba, for your perfect love and grace. Thank you that we can come to know you and your great love through your Son Jesus and by your Spirit. Give us understanding of what it means to live and walk in the Light, exposed fully to your loving gaze, hiding nothing. No matter how broken we may be, you have redeemed us and set us free in Jesus. May we receive this gift with open hands. In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:6-7 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 