The young boy Pi (whose questions we’re investigating during Lent 2018) is talking with the Catholic priest who seems genuine and kind and soft-spoken and has one answer to every question: 

All you need to know is that He loves you.” 

How often do we underestimate God? (All the time!)  We wonder, “Why Couldn’t a Smart God Find Some Other Way?”  Maybe we need a bigger box to see the genius of God’s work.

I try not to go back to recap what is in prior devotionals, but sometimes I find I don’t know how say it any better than what I said before.  In talking about how God’s Way wasn’t some quickly devised Plan B to bail out mankind by a God who didn’t think things through very well, I spoke about God’s amazingly beautiful Plan A that resolved our problem to absolute perfection:

“It really is remarkable (although, I suppose not surprising) how perfect His resolution to the dilemma was.

• God punished sin (demonstrating His perfect justice).
• God brought us back into relationship with Him (demonstrating His mercy).
• God showed us what His Image looks like (demonstrating His holiness, wisdom, and compassion).
• God acted in every way loving toward us, His Image bearers (demonstrating His love).

Justice Served.  Love Triumphs.”

***

That’s the beauty of the Cross, ridiculed as foolishness by the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  It’s not foolish–it is complete genius. 

The Cross.  It is there the perfection of God’s justice intersected with the perfection of God’s love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

Ponder the genius of it all:

1. What if God hadn’t punished sin?  What if He just ditched the relationship? 
2. What if He didn’t care about His image? 
3. What if He gave Himself freedom to take a vacation from loving us, just this once? 
4. What would happen to His perfection?

Join me tomorrow for “Why is It Important Where Jesus Comes From?”

==

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

It’s hard to contemplate the full extent of perfect love.  What it’s like to truly love unconditionally.  With mankind this is impossible as our nature is a broken one, even in loving others.  

But it’s something that comes naturally to God, after all, He is love. (1 John 4:16)

Most of us, if we’re honest, would give up on those who chronically disappoint us.  Eventually, we would reach a breaking point of feeling like someone is so incorrigible that it’s time to throw in the towel.  Even parents.  Even children.  We want to keep loving them and to keep believing that they’ll turn out okay or they’ll change their ways.  But then another disappointment and we end up feeling like we just can’t do this anymore.  When our loved ones are living righteously, they’re easy to love!  But to love unconditionally, when others fail us continually or dish out nothing but hate and rebellion, responding with perfect love is truly difficult.

How can God keep loving us even when we let Him down over and over and over again?  Why Does God Still Love Us After All That?

The young Pi, in the movie Life of Pi that we’ve been using as our launch pad for 40 hard questions Why during Lent 2018, asks that very question.

The only answer I can come up with is that He’s not like us. 

Psalm 145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

He loves unconditionally because He is love.

Food for thought:

• When you examine the loves in your life, how often are there strings attached? 
• With whom are you most likely to know love free from conditions and caveats?
• Do you love someone because of how they treat you or because of the nice things they do or because their Match profile matches yours? 
• What makes others love you? 
• Why is it hard to grasp God’s unconditional love?  1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Join me tomorrow for “Why Couldn’t a Smart God Find Some Other Way?” 

==

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

Isaiah 35:1 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

===

Devotionals for Lent 2018, Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One) continue tomorrow in which we’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” and discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

While God doesn’t tell us what He was doing prior to creating the heavens and the earth and all the living creatures, God tells us how He feels about what He created: Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

God looks for the good and loves what He has made. Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.

***

To completely destroy what was very good (all His Image-bearers) because many humans chose to do wrong—well, it’s a classic case of two wrongs don’t make it right. God would not destroy all His Image-bearers because God is always right. He had something far better in mind:

Redemption! He would redeem what was originally very good out of what had turned terribly wrong with Adam and Eve’s choices.

It’s both redemption and purification. In doing so, He would highlight the magnitude of His love, grace, and forgiveness, something the young boy Pi in our devotional series for Lent 2018 finds both curious and compelling.

It’s truly amazing how God never excuses sin or sweeps it under the cosmic rug. He still retained His holiness in the face of sin by paying the price…Himself.

Food for thought:

• Have you ever thought about how God’s love was magnified because of sin? How it gave God the opportunity to showcase His beauty? Romans 5:20 But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Consider all the world religions you know about. Do any of them solve the sin problem without diminishing sin to just a choice or making it possible for man to earn his way back as penance?
• If God didn’t want to start over, then why did the flood happen? Hmmm? Why did He destroy the earth once before? Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth– men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air– for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
• Why won’t He again? Genesis 8:21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”
• How does “starting over again” with righteous Noah and his family maintain the promise made to Adam and Eve in cursing the serpent (Genesis 3:15) and fulfill the blessing of God’s Image filling the earth? When is starting over, not really starting completely over?

Tomorrow, we rest for the Sabbath which is not included in the 40 days of Lent. Join me again on Monday for Why Does God Still Love Us After All That?

===

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Past devotionals can be accessed via the archives.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

In the movie, Life of Pi, which we are using as our launch pad for Pi and Chi, asking and answering 40 questions, the young Pi quizzes the priest at the International Catholic Church in Munnar asking,

If God is so perfect and we’re not, why would He want to create all this? Why does He need us at all?”

The caricature Catholic priest in the movie replies with a Sunday school answer, “All you have to know is that He loves us.”

Here’s a news flash: God doesn’t need us.  He wanted us.

***

He wanted us to bear His Image and to bring Him glory by displaying His rule and reign throughout the world.  He still wants us to do that. Let’s consider ourselves (you, me, and all mankind) to be God’s exponential increase of love.  More people to love and more glory for Him.

Food for thought:

• How does creating mankind accomplish the exponential increase of love?  Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
• How does our obeying this command and experiencing this blessing display God’s rule and reign?

Join me tomorrow for “Why Didn’t God Let Adam & Eve Die & Start Over?”

===

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

As we continue our Lent 2018 devotional series Pi and Chi looking at questions “Why?” and how they are all answered in Jesus Christ the Son of God, we’ll explore a subject Jesus spoke about a lot: Hell.  If Jesus could talk about Hell often, I ask your indulgence for one more day because eternal destination is really, really important. 

Why is There Hell? Especially if God is so loving, as the Catholic priest in the movie keeps saying, why would God even invent a place like that?

First, we must acknowledge there are some Christian scholars who deny the existence of Hell as a place of eternal torment.  These “annihilationists” believe the unsaved become nothing after the final judgment.  Advocates for that position include John Stott, Clark Pinnock, and John G. Stackhouse, Jr.  They have theological reasons for believing it. 

Others admit they don’t know:  F.F. Bruce and N.T. Wright are among the “agnostics.”

Critics of this annihilationist view include Wayne Grudem, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Tim Keller, Franklin Graham, Rick Warren, John F. MacArthur, and they argue that Hell is very real.

Perhaps those names are meaningless to you.  You may recognize some as authors and pastors you admire. 

My point is this: we can disagree on some things in the world of Christianity and happily remain brothers and sisters in Christ.  I own books from individuals in all those camps.

In case you’re curious, my view is that Heaven is just as real as Hell—Jesus spoke of both.  Hell is an uncomfortable subject.  Therefore, I think there are plenty of Christians who diminish Hell because it’s uncomfortable, embarrassing, and hard to explain.  They choose to believe that God will find another way since God is Love (1 John 4:16). He’s a loving God. 

My view is predicated upon the assumption that Hell is not a “place” like Dubuque or Dubai or Dublin.  You can’t set your GPS for it as a physical location.  Think of “Hell” as “Not Heaven”.  The Bible says of Heaven, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27).

Just as there was the Garden of Eden (holy) and a location outside of Eden (unholy), there is the presence of Holy God in His fullness (that’s called Heaven), but there’s a place away from God, too.  For those who hated God, rebelled against Him and every opportunity to be reconciled to their Creator, they are outside of God’s presence forever.  No second chances for the unholy after death.  No third or fourth chances after ripening in purgatory.  Just as God didn’t let Adam and Eve back into His presence in the Garden, there will be no coming back into God’s presence and it will feel like Hell. 

Hell is essentially one’s choice to reject God… carved in stone.  Having nothing to do with God is Hell.

And that’s why I believe you can be present with God (with Christ’s forgiveness applied to you by faith even today) … or you can reject/be without Him (it’s a daily choice).  But when it’s Game Over, there are no shades of faith just like there are no degrees of pregnant.  You either are or you’re not.  There are no fence-sitters in God’s world.  You’re either 100% in Heaven as a person made 100% holy or it’s 100% Hell of one’s unholy choosing day-by-day, fixed eternally.

Food for thought: 

• To have 2 destinations doesn’t diminish God’s being Love. He provided the way, the truth, and the life…in Christ (John 14:6)…fulfilling John 3:16-17 and saving us from Hell.  Are two destinations incompatible with a God of love?  
• In what ways did God respect both our Image-bearing and freedom of choice?
• What do you think about Hell? 

Join me tomorrow for Why Did He Create Us at All?

===

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

If there was ever a Christian turn-off, this one would be it: Why Does God Send People to Hell? 

It even makes Christians uncomfortable, this whole idea of hell.  It doesn’t jibe with the God of love (John 3:16) whom the end zone at football games and the Catholic priest in our devotional series launched from The Life of Pi proclaim.  

In the minds of discomforted Christians (and especially those who think Christianity is stupid), they picture God sitting up in some cloud, grabbing perfectly normal people, and throwing them into some gaping chasm in the ground with hot lava boiling in the bottom.  And He somehow does all this with a huge angry scowl on His face … with or without that diabolical laugh in your Hollywood version.

What a misunderstanding and a tragic one!  Let me say it clearly:

God does not SEND people to hell.  They send themselves there.

***

God RESCUES people from hell.  That’s why Jesus came.

***   

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  (John 3:17) 

Food for thought: 

• Why is it convenient for those who hate Christianity to point to this question, thinking of it as being “checkmate” in the game of religious thought?
• In what way does it all depend on God? 
• In what ways do people send themselves to hell? 
• In what ways is hell the default destination?  Read Genesis 2:17 for insight. 
• In what ways do we have a say in where we end up?  Read Romans 10:1-15 for insight.

More on this subject tomorrow with “Why is There Hell?”

===

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

Parents see it all the time with kids: an argument ensues and each child passes the blame to the other until it ends up with the pronouncement: “He started it.”  That’s the child’s version of Game Over.  It’s supposed to end all argument and settle the score.  The first to do wrong is at fault for everything that followed.

Even in the Garden of Eden, we see this passing of the buck.  The man blames the wife (and indirectly blames God for giving him this woman Genesis 3:12).  The woman blames the serpent (Genesis 3:13) and the serpent (Satan) is without a leg to stand on.  Serpents don’t have legs.  Plus, he started it.

For God, that doesn’t wash.  The serpent didn’t jam the fruit in Eve’s mouth or Adam’s, nor did he hide it in the applesauce.  He tempted and ensnared, but he didn’t force-feed.  So, all of them get punished, together and separately.  There’s plenty of brokenness to go around.

Have you ever wondered why God didn’t swoop in, kill Eve, spare Adam and give him a new wife?  One younger, maybe a blonde and Swedish or perhaps a Brazilian babe who really knows how to samba?  Have you ever wondered why Eve’s eyes weren’t opened immediately so that she would say, “Uh-oh!  Adam don’t do what I just did!”?  It took both Adam and Eve to launch the consequences.

This introduces two of the most fundamental concepts known to man: temptations will always come (and because of that), representation.

Had God just punished Satan, he’d still be at his old tricks after his time out.  Like the tiger Richard Parker in our series Pi and Chi, his animal soul and animal nature killed because he is a predator.  In 1 Peter 5:8, our enemy (Satan) is likened to a roaring lion “looking for someone to devour.”  As a predator, evil stalks and waits. 

Evil is persistent and insatiable. Temptations would come again and again.  Therefore, punishing Satan would eventually prove pointless.  Adam and Eve, despite their God-given freedom and Image-bearing, would someday choose poorly.  In fact, we are never told how long Adam and Eve behaved themselves before eating that forbidden fruit and how long those temptations had been resisted, maybe 1 day or maybe 1000 years.  To God, it’s all the same.  

Threats and punishment do little in the face of desire and autonomy, two of the worst predators out there when temptation crouches for the kill.  But God had something amazing in mind!

Without the Fall of Man happening as representation (Adam representing Eve and all who followed as future generations), we couldn’t have the beauty of representation in Christ—forgiveness and salvation—for all who follow Him. 

Food for thought: 

• Have you ever had a temptation that keeps coming around? 
• Does it become easier to resist over time? 
• Why is giving in to temptation to break your diet a totally different animal than giving in to temptation to disobey your Creator?

Join me tomorrow for Why Does God Send People to Hell?

Some may think, “You know, God could have prevented all that.  Why didn’t God stop Adam and Eve before they ate?”  Why didn’t He tape their mouths shut, tie their hands or even put a big fence around that tree if He didn’t want them to eat “the forbidden fruit”?  Probably the shortest answer is that coercion is incompatible with freedom. Love doesn’t coerce.  It frees.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he offers this beautiful tribute to the gift of love: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Love invites dependence and obedience.  Jesus’ own words tell us about the freedom God gives, John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

This invitation to obey God’s command—in the Garden and today–is grounded in three Image-bearing characteristics: freedom, rational thought, and love.  To each one among us since the days of Adam and Eve, Jesus appeals to our relationship, John 8:34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

To questions “Why?” in our devotional series, the priest in The Life of Pi offers the most pat Sunday School answer: “All you have to know is that He loves us.”  While true, it’s deeper than that.

Go deeper with this food for thought:

• Do you know the freedom to choose a relationship of love and obedience to God?  What are you doing with your freedom? 
• If God prevented Adam and Eve from accessing the tree, what would happen to that freedom, day after day?  What would happen to love? 
• What kind of rational thought and choice would Adam and Eve actually experience? 
• How was God’s choice to let Adam and Eve experience genuine freedom the most Image-honoring choice God could make even knowing they’d choose poorly? 
• How did God choose to redeem repentant sinners, showcase forgiveness, and perfectly display His love?

Tomorrow’s question: “Why Didn’t God Just Punish Satan? He Started It.”

===

For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” (Isaiah 61:11)

===

Devotionals for Lent 2018, Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One) continue tomorrow in which we’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” and discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page.  Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

===

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

• 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.