sacrifices
God’s Generosity
By Linda Rex
November 10, 2024, Proper 27 | After Pentecost—One of the stories from the gospels that warms my heart when it comes to generosity, is where Jesus points out a poor widow who was dropping her last coins into the temple treasury. In comparison to the rich people who were putting large sums into the treasury, Jesus said that this woman “put in all she owned, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:38–44 NASB).
When we look more closely at what Jesus was saying in this passage, we realize that he was trying to help those gathered around him to see who he really was. Here, in their midst, stood the One who was at that moment, investing all of heaven’s resources in his human existence, for the sake of the kingdom of God and for all of us, the spiritually poor. Standing there, Jesus was the Son of God in human flesh, fully at the mercy of human beings, who would soon betray him and condemn him and crucify him. This widow woman, who laid down her life by giving her last cent to the treasury, was a living parable to the Suffering Servant Messiah, who was in the process of giving everything up by laying down his life on behalf of all.
The New Testament passage for this Sunday, Hebrews 9:24–28, reminds us that Jesus Christ did not enter a humanly constructed holy place, but into heaven itself, to appear before God on our behalf. Jesus did not offer any animal sacrifices on our behalf, but offered his own blood to be shed for our sakes. Because of who he is and was as the Son of God in human flesh, who lived, died, and rose again, Jesus’ one-time self-offering was sufficient for all time. Unlike our human efforts to make ourselves right with God, which need to constantly be repeated, Jesus offered himself just once, and it was sufficient because of who he is and was. In this offering of himself for us, in our place, Jesus put away sin once and for all. How wonderful is that!
But how does this impact our everyday life and the difficulties we face day by day? We are much like the poor widow or the rich people in the temple, going about our business, trying to do the right thing when we get a chance. First, I’d like to note the reality that even though this poor widow was ignored by the powers-that-be, she was noticed by the One who really matters—Jesus. God was not unaware of her circumstance, nor did he reject her feeble efforts to serve and to do the right thing before him.
Humble service and giving may not be noticed or given much attention by the world around us. Often, people’s attention is captured by the generosity of those who are able to make a big splash by pouring large sums into their favorite charity. Giving away large amounts of money isn’t a bad thing. When rich people use their money for the benefit of those who don’t have as much, they are actually following God’s instructions (1 Tim 6:18). But they are to do it in a way that reflects the character and nature of God as demonstrated to us in Jesus Christ, who—“though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). In other words, the attitude of humility in generous giving, and an effort to lift up those who are poverty-stricken and unable to help themselves, is what best reflects our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this passage in Hebrews, the author uses the word “now” two times. The first “now” has to do with where Jesus is presently—in the presence of his Father in the Spirit, standing in our place and acting on our behalf. Jesus is hidden from our human view at present, but is actively at work, intervening and interceding constantly for us. He is aware of our circumstances, our challenges, and our need, and is constantly seeking our best in each situation. As we come to him in faith, we begin to recognize and experience the reality of our participation in his life with his Father in the Spirit.
The other “now” has to do with the already-not-yet of God’s kingdom, inaugurated at the culmination of the ages when the Son of God entered our sphere in the person of Jesus Christ, and offered himself in our place on our behalf. We live in the midst of this “now” of Jesus’ high priestly ministry on our behalf, and look forward to the day when he will return in glory to establish the new heaven and earth. We can anticipate this day with eagerness and joy because Jesus took care of all our sin, removing it once and for all when he laid down his life for us. This means that the judgment which follows death is meant for our restoration and renewal, not for our destruction. What Jesus is bringing when he returns is our salvation. This gives us great hope. And it is in this Spirit of hope that we quietly, yet generously give to others in humble gratitude for all God has given to us in his Son Jesus.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your generosity towards us in giving us your Son and your Spirit. Thank you, Jesus, for giving your all for our sake, that we may be included in your life with your Father in the Spirit now and forever. Grant us the grace to be humbly generous with others as you have been with us. Amen.
“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 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 9:24–28 NASB
“In His teaching He was saying: ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.’ He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.’ ” Mark 12:38–44 NASB
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The Perfect Atonement
By Linda Rex
November 3, 2024, Proper 26—This year on October 11, 2024, many observed a special day called Yom Kippur. On this important day of the year, the holiest on the Jewish calendar, many fast and pray, cease from all labor, and gather together for a special service. In Leviticus 16, we learn there were specific sacrifices that the ancient nation of Israel observed on this day, which is often known as the Day of Atonement.
Two goats would be offered, and each would have a specific role to play—one would be offered to God in sacrifice for the sins of the people. Blood from the goat offered to God would be taken by the high priest into the most holy place (never entered except by the high priest on this day, once a year), and the high priest would sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in the tent of meeting, purifying them. And then there would be a bull offered as well, for the high priest’s cleansing, and its blood would be offered with that of the goat, and the great altar would be cleansed. Then the other goat would have the sins of the people laid on it, and as Azazel’s goat, it would be sent out into the desert to carry away the sins of the people. There were many more offerings than just this (Lev. 23:26-32; Num. 29:7-11), but what I’ve shared so far enables us to begin to see the significance of our New Testament passage for this Sunday, Hebrews 9:11-14.
In all those years of animals being offered in sacrifice, the Levite high priest offered up the means of grace given them by God for the annual renewal of the covenant for the ancient Jewish people. The sins of the people were cleansed, the covenant renewed, but only an external cleansing or purification occurred. Nothing was done for the inward work of transformation which was actually needed.
Now, though, because Jesus is the perfect offering, the person who had no sin, who lived a genuine human existence as the Son of God in human flesh, we have a greater, more perfect sacrifice. He willingly walked the road to the cross, allowed himself to be crucified, because he knew he was fulfilling every one of these sacred events in the life of his people. He would be both the goat who was offered and the goat who took away our sins once and for all. He would be the bull who would cleanse us of our own personal sins. He would be both the great High Priest and the perfect Atonement, for us.
The author of Hebrews explains how the Son of God came in human flesh and took on the role of our high priest through his own sacrificial self-offering. In this particular passage, the author explains that Jesus Christ entered into “the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands…not of this creation.” The tabernacle being described is actually heaven itself, for the Son of God, having taken on human flesh, lived a genuine human existence, was crucified and died, and was resurrected. Like the high priest who “ascended” into the holy of holies to offer the sacred sacrifice once a year, Jesus ascended into glory, still bearing our humanity, and offered himself in our place on our behalf. Today he continues to act as our divine Mediator and High Priest. Jesus has become our place of perfect rest in relationship with God, for he offers our prayers up to the Father in the Spirit, and offers us the high priest blessing of peace in return. Because he is without blemish, perfect in every aspect, he fulfills the sacred aspects of this day in his own person. As Thomas F. Torrance says, “Christ Jesus IS the atonement” (TFT, Atonement, 94).
Unlike the human high priest who had to offer a bull for his own personal cleansing, Jesus did not need any special offering for himself. As God in human flesh, Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God, as John the Baptizer described him, who was offered for the sins of all. Jesus was filled with the Spirit from conception, received the anointing of the Spirit for ministry, and lived and walked by the Spirit throughout his life and ministry. He lived in perfect unity with his Father in the Spirit each day, and was ever faithful in the Word of God and prayer.
Not only is Jesus the One who intercedes for us, but he is also the One who is sacrificed for us. What is cleansed is not just the outer person, but the inward person. For Jesus, in his perfect life and death and resurrection, writes God’s law on our inward parts, and then sends us the Spirit after his ascension so we can begin to live as new persons, in right relationship with his Father in the Spirit as we trust in him and walk in the Spirit. As the author of Hebrews says, “how much more” will Christ’s blood cleanse our inner mind and heart, enabling us to serve God as he always intended? This was always God’s plan, and in Jesus Christ, he accomplished it! And this sounds to me like some very, very good news!
Dear Trinity, thank you for the marvelous work you have done to bring us into relationship with yourself through Jesus in the Spirit. Thank you, dear Jesus, for your perfect self-offering, and for standing as our High Priest, interceding for us and mediating for us in the Spirit at all times. Thank you, heavenly Spirit, for growing us up into the maturity that is Christ. We are simply grateful for all you have done and are doing. Amen.
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He centered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:11–14 NASB
“But now Christ has made his public appearance as High Priest of a perfect tabernacle. The good things that were predicted have arrived. This new tabernacle does not derive from its shadow type, the previous man-made one. It is the reality. As High Priest, his permission to enter the Holy Place was not secured by the blood of beasts. By his own blood he obtained access on behalf of the human race. Only one act was needed for him to enter the most sacred place of grace and there to institute a ransom of perpetual consequence. The blood of beasts and the ashes of the burnt sacrifice of a heifer could only achieve a very temporal and surface cleansing by being sprinkled on the guilty. How much more effective was the blood of Christ, when he presented his own flawless life through the eternal Spirit before God, in order to purge your conscience from its frustration under the cul-de-sac rituals of the law. There is no comparison between a guilt- and duty-driven, dead religious system, and the vibrancy of living your life free from a sin-consciousness! This is what the new testament priesthood is all about!” Hebrews 9:11–14 Mirror Bible
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB
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The One Who Understands
By Linda Rex
October 13, 2024, Proper 23 | After Pentecost—In the message last week, we were reminded of who God is and who we are as his beloved children. We approach our relationship with God from the vantage point of beloved children, who are dependent upon our loving parent, the one who directs us, provides for us, cares for us, and seeks our best.
As we continue our journey through the book of Hebrews, we come to this Sunday’s passage in which we see Jesus at God’s right hand, interceding for us as our high priest. In Hebrews 4:12–16, the author shows us how Jesus, as the One who took on our human form and fully experienced our human existence, is able to intercede on our behalf with deep compassion and understanding. He did not yield to sin, even though he experienced the same temptations we do.
Today, many of us may not even know what someone is talking about when they talk about a high priest. But this is an important biblical concept, especially in regards to God’s covenant of love which he forged with his people, the ancient nation of Israel. The role of the high priest was that of a representative who ministered the word of God to the people, and offered the sacrifices and prayers of the people to God. This was all done according to God’s instructions, and was a way in which the nation could live in right relationship with God even though they were a flawed and faulty people. This relationship with God was a gift, made possible by God’s mercy and grace, simply because of God’s way of being, which is self-giving, other-centered love.
We as human beings do not live our lives in a vacuum, nor do we live our lives unseen by God. No, he knows us down to the core of our being, with all our flaws, all our glories, and all our weaknesses. What is interesting about this passage is that when the author says, “all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” it is using an expression commonly used to describe the neck of a creature being exposed so that it can be cut with a blade for sacrifice. In Jesus’ sacrifice, we as human beings are laid open, completely exposed, but in such a way that he stands in our place, interceding on our behalf. As the living Word of God in human flesh, who allowed himself to be crucified for our sake, Jesus Christ wrote the word of God on our minds and hearts. He turned us back to his Father in the Spirit, bringing us into his own face-to-face relationship.
And in that complete openness to the gaze of God, we are held within Jesus’ own life of faith in relationship with his Father in the Spirit. Jesus’ presence with his Father in the Spirit means that we can approach God with confidence and courage, trusting in Jesus’ complete sympathetic understanding of our weaknesses and temptations. In the humble recognition of our need for grace and mercy, we find ourselves welcomed and accepted, since Jesus is interceding on our behalf.
For many of us, this has not always been our experience of God. Do we feel as though we have to get all ourselves all cleaned up and dusted off before we can venture to have any conversation with God whatsoever? If this is the case, we need to reconsider our understanding of who Jesus Christ is, and who he is for us as the One who knows us so completely that he can judge the thoughts and intents of our hearts, while at the same time intercede for us with compassionate mercy and grace.
Do we understand that God created us to live a certain way—the way of other-centered, self-giving love—yet understands our frailty and weakness that seems to always betray us and keep us from walking in that way? We need to have both the humility to allow God to determine how we live our lives, but also the humility to trust in his mercy and grace when we don’t live that way. This is the position of rest God calls us to in Jesus Christ. This rest, which is ours in Jesus, is experienced as we trust in him and all he has done in our place and on our behalf. Apart from his gracious work, we cannot live in the truth of who we are as God’s children, in right relationship with God and each other. So, we put our faith in Jesus alone, allowing him to be who he is—our Lord and our Savior, and our High Priest.
Dear Father, thank you for sending your Son for our salvation and for giving us your Spirit. We acknowledge our sin and our need for Christ’s gracious intercession on our behalf. Thank you, Jesus, for always interceding for us, for enabling us to receive mercy and grace. Enable us to rest fully in you. Amen.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:12–16 NASB
“They were even more astonished and said to Him, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.’” Mark 10:17–31 NASB
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Salted Sacrifices
By Linda Rex
September 26, 2021, PROPER 21—Recently I was reflecting on memories I have of going to the beach with my friends. We would go in the late afternoon, find a spot with a firepit and roast hotdogs and marshmallows as we watched the sun go down over the water. Even today I can almost smell the scent of saltwater and seaweed, feel the rough sand between my toes, and hear the cries of the seagulls as they hover over the water.
At times we would do bodysurfing and ride the waves in to the shore, finding ourselves at times shoved under the water and pounded by the waves. Even though I’d always regret getting sand in my swimsuit, I loved swimming in the ocean and riding the waves. The water that I sometimes inadvertently drank when I got knocked over was very salty, too salty to swallow, and it burned my eyes.
It is amazing to me that there are creatures and plants which can live in an environment like the ocean even though the water is extremely salty. Salt, we have learned over the millennia, works well as a purifier, preservative and in helping wounds heal. Salt has been so valuable at times that it has been used as coinage for trading. Today salt is used in a myriad of ways, being essential in the manufacture of a wide variety of products. And in spite of being villainized as the culprit in high blood pressure and other health issues, people still season their food with salt.
If you want to ruin a batch of biscuits or cookies, though, just add too much salt to the recipe. Salt is meant to be used in limited amounts as a seasoning, to add flavor and zest to otherwise bland foods. When Jesus said that his followers were the salt of the earth, he meant that they added something pleasant and enjoyable to the world. If they became just like everyone else in the world, they would have lost their zest and tastefulness, and become worthless and unbeneficial.
Jesus was incredibly patient with his disciples. They were focused on who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus reminded them that they needed to be like little children—humble and dependent rather than arrogant and prideful. The measure of a person was not determined by their greatness in the human scheme of things, but by their spirit of humility and service, of laying down their lives for the sake of others.
The disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name (which they had recently tried to do and failed) and insisted that the person stop. The man wasn’t part of the twelve Jesus had chosen, so they assumed he wasn’t supposed to be using Jesus’ name, even though God was honoring his efforts. Jesus told them they were wrong. They needed to stop excluding people Jesus was including in his ministry and life. They needed to stop attempting to resist and quench the Spirit at work in the lives of those other than themselves.
In Leviticus 2:13, the priests were instructed to season every grain offering with salt, “so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt” (NASB). The apostle Paul wrote that we are to present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), as an expression of true and proper worship. Our lives are not to be spent solely for our own glory and our own pleasure, but in love and service to God and others. This is why Jesus told the disciples, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Jesus told his disciples that everyone would be seasoned with fire. The context of this particular statement is in the midst of several teaching sessions in which Jesus instructed the disciples about what would be soon happening to him—that he would suffer and die on behalf of the world for their salvation. The salt he was seasoning the world with was his own self-offering, and they needed to be willing and prepared to walk that same road with him. They needed to give up their human way of thinking about things and surrender to the spiritual realities of life in the kingdom of God. To truly live, we must be prepared to die—die to self, sin, Satan, and the things of this world.
Jesus used strong hyperbole or metaphorical language to make a point. He said that we must be prepared to eradicate or cut off anything in our lives that keeps us from participating in the kingdom of God. We want to enter into life, eternal life, that life in relationship with God that we were created for. But in order to do so, certain things in us must die with Christ—greed, lust, pride, selfish ambition, jealousy—these must be burned away by the baptism of fire Jesus offers us in the Spirit. In Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, we are given new life—but it is an invitation, one offered to every human, that we receive and act upon.
What price are we willing to pay to receive that new life and begin to live in it? For the kingdom of God is both a present and a future reality. We begin even now, by faith in Christ, to live and walk in the way Christ forged for us. We live and walk daily by the Spirit in close relationship with God, and in warm fellowship with others God has called to himself. God’s purpose for our lives in Christ by the Spirit is not division or exclusivism, but unity, harmony and peace. As we are salted with the heart of Jesus by the Spirit, we will live in peace with one another. This was Jesus’ point.
We may be pounded by the waves and tossed about in the water of life’s experiences, but our certainty is in Christ. He is at work in us and in this world by his Holy Spirit purifying, healing, and preserving. As we respond to him in faith, we participate in his mission and work in this world, and act as a pleasant seasoning in a world devoid of true spiritual flavor. Our service and sacrifice brings a taste or a hint of the glories of the kingdom of God which we will one day experience in its fullness. In the meantime, we turn to Jesus, trusting in his finished work and living day by day as salted sacrifices offered in true worship to God.
Heavenly Father, thank you for washing us in the water of your Word, Jesus Christ, and for sending him to purify, heal, and preserve us. Grant us the grace to let go of everything that may get in the way of us walking freely as your beloved children, allowing ourselves to be living sacrifices, salted with your indwelling presence through Jesus in the Spirit. Amen.
“John said to Him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, …. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, …. If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’” Mark 9:38–50 NASB
See also Numbers 11:4–6, 10–16, 24–29.
God’s Gracious Gift of Truth
By Linda Rex
January 3, 2021, 2nd SUNDAY | CHRISTMAS—We live in a world today, especially those of us hooked into digital media, where we are told on many fronts who we are, what we are to believe, how we are to act, and what is most important in life. It would be easy to go through life and allow others to assume responsibility for much of what is ours—so many people are happy to do it for us! And we are also reminded often that people don’t really want to know the truth about us—they are willing to accept the externals or the great story we tell about ourselves, but they don’t want to know the truth.
One of the reasons many of us avoid building relationships with people is that we don’t want people to know what we are really like. Allowing people to get close enough to us to see our flaws and failures means putting ourselves at risk for rejection or exclusion. Some of us get really good at only letting people see the pleasant façade—we don’t want to experience the shame, guilt or just humiliation of letting people see what we are really like.
There are others of us who love to tell everyone about how bad things are for us. We are caught in this place where the only attention we find we can get is when people feel sorry for us—so we come up with the best stories we can to get people to care. It does not matter to us that we adjust the truth a little to get the response we want. There is a way to manage or manipulate people to get them to respond in the way we want them to. It really has nothing to do with true relationship or truth—it’s just a means for us to get our needs met in that moment.
If we are struggling to figure out who we are and why we are here on earth, or how to have healthy relationships, the best place to begin is with examining the person of Jesus Christ. I say this simply because Jesus is the grace of God to you and me who reveals to us the truth about whom you and I are. One of the things we learn as we grow up in Christ, becoming more like him, is the truth about ourselves as human beings and that we are ultimately responsible for what is ours, and that caring for ourselves and what is ours also involves loving God and those around us. We find in Jesus Christ both the perfect image-bearer of God himself, but also the perfect human in our place, in our stead.
The law was a gracious gift from God to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament days. The law and sacrifices explained what it looked like for that nation to live in covenant relationship with him, and provided a means of gracious restoration when the people broke that covenant. The law pointed out the truth of their disobedience and rebellion, and pointed out the way they were to live. All of these things the people were to obey and practice pointed them to the Messiah who would one day come and make everything right, enabling true obedience by the Holy Spirit.
The law, though, didn’t change or heal anyone. There wasn’t transforming power in the law itself. Even though the Spirit works through the word of God to bring about healing and change, there is no genuine and lasting change apart from the gracious work of the Spirit in human hearts and lives. So Jesus came and forged within our humanity the capacity for the Spirit to indwell us permanently, bringing us into union and communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit now and forever. By faith we participate in this inner relationship the Son of God has always had with the Father in the Spirit.
Jesus, born under the law, lived out the Old Testament law as God intended. Moses may have been the one who mediated this law, but Jesus was the one who fulfilled it perfectly. The apostle Paul tells us that to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves fulfills the law. Jesus was ever faithful, devoted and obedient to his heavenly Father, doing only what he asked him to do or what he saw his Father doing. Jesus loved each and every person—disobedient or obedient, loving or unloving—as much as, or even more so, than himself, for he laid his life down for each and every one. As the Truth embodied in human flesh, we find reflected in him the truth of our human existence lived out the way it was meant to be lived.
Jesus, as God in human flesh, is the perfect image-bearer of God you and I were created to be. When we look closely at Jesus, examining his life, his words, his way of being, we come up against grace and truth—the truth of who we are in all our brokenness and sin, the truth of who we are meant to be as image-bearers of God, and the truth of what Jesus did for us in coming as God in human flesh to live our life, die our death and rise again—the grace of God for you and me as sinners in need of saving. God enables us to participate in Jesus’ perfected humanity by sending us the Holy Spirit as we trust in Christ and in his finished work.
Grace and truth come together uniquely in the person of Jesus Christ. As we begin to looking into the perfect law of liberty, Jesus Christ, we see the truth about ourselves, but always in the context of grace. We may fall very short of the glory we were created to bear as image-bearers of God, but God still loves us and values us, enough that he put a plan into action before time began so that we would be met in the depths of our depravity, and even on into death itself, and brought back up into eternal life with the Triune God. This is our true freedom—we are known down to the core of our being, all the way into our darkest places, and we are forgiven, accepted, and beloved, and are included in God’s life and love.
God goes even farther than his in his Son Jesus Christ. He not only reconciles all things and all people with himself, he also includes us by faith in the intimate relationship he has with his Son in the Spirit. The heavenly Spirit affirms in our hearts that we are the adopted children of our heavenly Father through Jesus his Son. We hear in our hearts the Spirit calling him “Abba” or Father—because by the Spirit we know we are his beloved children.
What a gift to know who we are! We aren’t just ordinary folks lost in a sea of faces, or a list of friends on a social media site. We are special—uniquely set apart and chosen from the foundation of the cosmos for a relationship with the One who made all things, who includes us in his own loving relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. We have a home with God just as he has a home in us by the Holy Spirit. We are included in his life and love just as we make him welcome in our hearts, our lives, our work, home and family each and every day. Daily companionship with God is our reality now and forever. What a gracious gift from the God of truth!
Dear Heavenly Father, God of truth, thank you for sending your Son as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, to live, die, and rise again for us. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit so we can know the truth about who you are and who we are in Christ. May we ever grow more like you, as your perfected image-bearers, children of you, Holy Father, through Jesus Christ and by your Spirit. Amen.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:12-14 NASB
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6 (7-14) NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 