Can’t Be Mended (Lent 21, 2023)

When you stop to think about it, it’s really amazing how the Image of God ties everything together. It helps us to understand why once sin broke the Image of God in us, it can’t be mended, it can’t be repaired it, can’t be tweaked, or improved! It must be born again. This is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus.

John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

…13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven– the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.“

Focus for Lent: Jesus came to die so that we could be born again through the Spirit and desire to display His Image.

Questions for further thought:

If sin is making the Image of God do something He wouldn’t do because we’re broken people, what do born-again people do? If they have been truly born again, will they ignore the Image of God in themselves?

People who don’t believe in God or the Image of God are like people in darkness. It’s why it doesn’t bother them to sin or violate what remains of their conscience. No God means no standard of moral conduct or consequences, in their minds. For people in darkness, do the ends justify the means? For people in the light, how should the resulting end for the Image of God dictate what path to take?

Can “good works” earn salvation if our brokenness cannot be mended by our effort? What role do “good works” play?

Prayer: Father God, how we need Your Spirit to give life to our souls and to make us born again. Lord, even though our culture derides that term, for those of us who know You, and the blessings You have given us in being born again, we ask Lord that You would rekindle in our hearts the meaning of this rebirth. Open the eyes of our culture to see what we see and to see how it glorifies You for us to be born again. Born of the Spirit so that we will follow what Your Spirit desires and so that we will not be led into temptation to sin. We thank You, Lord, for the gift of salvation. For Your glory, Amen.

===

If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.