We aren’t built into a spiritual house to be nothing and do nothing.  This spiritual house, Scripture says, is to be a holy priesthood.

“As you come to him, the living Stone– rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him– you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)

Think of all the things people sacrifice to…spend their time doing…dwell upon…and offer their service in support.  That’s not to say that it’s unimportant, undesirable, or unnecessary, but how much of it will fade away? 

Now think of the spiritual house, the holy priesthood…it’s eternal.  Given the fact that it will last forever,

Psalm 119:12 Praise be to you, LORD; teach me your decrees. 13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. 17 Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word.  18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

Amen.

To Jesus who is the living Stone, God’s Chosen and Precious Cornerstone, His view is that the Church and its faithful are not just a jar of identical marbles.  Each man, woman, and child is individual–and is as individual as each person’s decision to follow Christ. This fact is proven by unique gifting from the Holy Spirit.  No two of us are identical.

Scripture tells us that Jesus is the living Stone in the example par excellence.  We, as His fellow brothers and sisters in the fully human sense—children in the family of God, are chips off the old block.  We are like Him and “like” living stones—not bricks, not blocks, not Legos.

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone– rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him– 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.

Imagine a house so alive that its walls breathe and wriggle in the joy of the Lord.  Tremors of excitement shake it like Jell-O, yet unmovable it its Christ-alignment as each new believer is fitted into this organic structure which ripples from the immovable Cornerstone.  The Church is miraculous in its spiritual sense.  No wonder the angels sing. 

The Church is truly organic—growing more substantial, developing to maturity, and bearing fruit to the glory of God.  Each person is uniquely gifted to do his part in this fruitful enterprise.  

Have you decided to follow Christ, repenting of past sin, and are you ready to be built into this living Church?

Now that I’ve risked making YOU feel like YOU are unimportant, let me correct back to who YOU are that God would send Jesus as payment for your sins. 

He loves you and in Christ, you are family.  This love is powerful and salvific.

What kind of love is that? Scripture says in 1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Any of us who have children know they are not carbon-copies of each other.  They are not clones.  They aren’t even similar in looks or temperament in many cases.  Not even twins are fully identical in every way. But each child is fully family. By the grace of God, we are all adopted children, loved as family!

Setting aside the bad case examples for a moment…parents, imperfect though we are, still love our children because they are our children.  Sometimes, parents can acknowledge that they don’t like a particular tantrum or action, yet good parents (and God is the best!) love our kids.

For this reason, each person–in Christ–can have a sense of belonging to something greater than self…we are family.

In Galatians 6: 9-10, it says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

You are important as a member of this family, of Christ’s Church.

Thank You, Father, that You love us, called us into Your family, Your Church!  What a privilege that just as we do not choose our birth families, we did not choose ourselves to be in Your Church.  Your grace alone accomplishes this act of love.  May we respond with hearts of gratitude always.  In Jesus’ Name and for His glory.  Amen.

Here’s a good litmus test for our understanding of how “God loves YOU, God cares for YOU, Jesus died for YOU” and how YOU view this love…made personal to YOU by well-meaning evangelical pastors looking for a new convert.

Another favorite idea with Bible-believing Christians in the evangelical world is predestination, meaning that God chose YOU before He ever created YOU, which admittedly is a lovely thought.

Take the predestination litmus test:
Suppose YOU are wrong.  YOU were not among the chosen.  Jesus died for others, but He did not die for YOU personally. 
Now, think of the person YOU hate the most.  
The individual who has wronged YOU in unthinkable ways.  Maybe someone YOU are waiting for God’s vengeance against, the peer who always escapes accountability or justice or seems to get ahead while YOU don’t.  Think of the ex-husband, ex-wife, or rebellious children who have hated YOU with every ounce of their being and proclaimed that to YOUR face.  Think of the person who abused YOU, took YOUR promotion by taking credit for YOUR ideas, did unthinkable things to YOU, stole from YOU, or committed other crimes or insults against YOU.  Just being real here, but if YOU are such a perfect Christian that YOU don’t harbor any negative emotions or thoughts regarding anyone…think of someone who hurt someone YOU love.

Now tell yourself that instead of YOU (not chosen),
God loves “that person.”  God cares about “that person.”  Jesus died for “that person.” 
And chose “that person” YOU hate, not YOU.
To fulfill Scripture, it happened before that person had done anything good or bad
so that election might stand apart from works.
This is the danger of the personal YOU focus.

“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!  For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:14-16)

You see, if God loves His Image-bearers (as a group and as individuals) and cares for them and died for them, it makes more sense.  If God loves the group and the individual, Jesus died so that “in Him” they could be saved just as the Way was predestined.   Yes, it means that some of those people are like the thief on the cross next to Jesus—even someone YOU secretly hate in your silent moments can come to a saving faith.  The grace of Christ means none of us is beyond redemption because none of us earns His favor.

Prayerfully ask yourself whether YOU have unwittingly made yourself more in the scenario than a sinner in need of forgiveness. 

Lord Jesus, thank You for level ground at the foot of the Cross and how any of Your Image-bearers can find refuge and forgiveness there. Your grace is beyond our understanding, the power of Your blood is sufficient to cover any of our sins. Help us to see that it is not a contradiction for You to love Your Church, Your people, Your world, and in the miniature, each man, woman, or child whom You have called…personally. Turn our focus, O Holy Spirit, toward magnifying Christ and minimizing ourselves. With right mind, clear and sober assessment, focus our hearts on considering that we bring nothing to the equation except a repentant heart wanting nearness to Jesus. Give us right minds in these terrible days in which society screams for us to seek self. May we seek You and live. Amen.

What is mankind that God is mindful of us? 
And beyond that, exactly how personal does God get
with knowing us individually?

Evangelicals are fond of the personal relationship aspect of Christianity. Especially at Easter, pastors will often emphasize that “God loves YOU!”  Which God does, it’s just His love is on a totally different level than we can experience from fellow human beings. 

God loving YOU is an easy sell. 
It’s so inviting, costing us nothing,
that it’s almost a platitude in its commonly portrayed lack of depth.

Pastors continue “God cares about YOU!”  He cares about what you’re going through as an individual.  Which He does, but in a different way than we can fathom.  For that reason, it may not always look like He cares about YOU because He’s doing things His way, not the way any of us might want.  But like “God loves YOU”, the idea that “God cares about YOU” is an easy sell because it’s sold through the lens of our lives and the world revolving around us, not His Word and His Will.

“Jesus died for YOU,” is the Easter proclamation of many pastors.  Which is true but God cares about His Image and He cares about YOU—both/and—not either/or.  “Jesus died for YOU”, however, is the easy sell, and why? Because the focus is on YOU. 

So much emphasis on YOU,
it was all done for YOU, and how all YOU have to do is receive it,
risks turning the sacrifice of Christ backwards in a sense,
and makes YOU into the deity…instead of God. 

We can be so focused on YOU that we can totally forget that it cost Jesus everything.  It cost the Father everything.  Worship or exaltation of YOU had nothing to do with it. 

I know it’s hard for those of us with a more evangelical mindset, but today, I’d ask that YOU reflect upon how YOU are simply a side-beneficiary of a transaction that didn’t involve YOU…personally…at all.  It was personal between Jesus Christ—the Son of God—and God the Father.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice of love. Thank You for Your faithfulness to finish the work the Father sent You to do. Help us to balance our true understanding of the true love You have for us with the full knowledge that grace means–by definition–unmerited favor. There’s nothing we did to earn it. It was all You. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, guide us to look beyond ourselves and give us discernment for the ways in which our Christian culture of tame Christianity leads us down a path of comfortable focus upon ourselves. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive the well-meaning pastors who fail to speak the cost of salvation, who for the sake of comfortable converts, fail to teach true Biblical Christianity, which is far from feel-good, easy sells. A call to crucify ourselves, our old ways, our old lives, and our old devotions, to pick up our cross and to follow You. Even if it’s into the way of suffering, this is the call of discipleship and what we owe You. We owe You our lives. We humbly ask Your help, for us to be bold for You, even more because the days are short before Your return in Judgment. Open our eyes to see the fields are ripe for harvest, give us hearts to love others, and send us as harvest workers for Your glory. Amen.

Throughout Lent, I emphasized the point that we are Image-bearers. Each person belonging to the human race is endowed with this Image-bearing. Now because of sin, it’s in broken form–a relic of what once was…in original created perfection. 

It was my hope to offer a helpful corrective to the human-centric
“Jesus thinks you’re so special that He died so you can be happy” nonsense
that is peddled by many so-called pastors. 

If Jesus died for that, then He’s playing favorites.  He’s picking His basketball team and either you’re on it or you’re not, and it depends on you and your abilities or special qualities that Jesus finds endearing or desirable.  That makes God self-serving and capricious at best.

But if God so loved the world, that Jesus died for His Image-sake,
then any Image-bearer finds level ground at the foot of the Cross. 

It doesn’t matter the family you were born into, any innate abilities, any endearing qualities, good looks, strength, smarts, or anything else.  We all start at level ground, standing together in need of forgiveness. And it’s ours if we’ll only repent of our sins to restore relationship with our God and receive this free gift of His grace.

Take a moment today to consider where you are. In the flow of time and in the story of the Bible and God’s redemptive work in the world, we’re nearing the end of the story. Time remaining is short.

Who is man that God is mindful of us?

We will explore this question over the next few weeks, but for now, in light of Jesus’ imminent return in judgment, please get right with the Lord. There are no do-overs on this one.

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  It’s traditional celebratory verbiage for Christians at Easter.  The tomb was empty and that’s worth celebrating, but why was the tomb empty?  Because He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! While a circular answer, that’s not what I’m asking.

Why was it necessary that the tomb be empty…that Christ rose bodily from the dead?

If His body was still there, we could say He was alive in spirit and had a new body, but there would be no evidence to back up our claim.  The empty tomb is one piece of evidence that He is Risen.

But there’s more to it than that. Ours will rise, just not yet. Our bodies—when we die and are buried—can yet be exhumed.  Our eternal life is already with soul and spirit but not with our bodies until the Return of Christ.  His Resurrection makes ours possible.

But there’s more still.  He appeared to people with His Risen body…which still bore the marks (the stigmata) of crucifixion.  He was Jesus, not a ghost, but flesh and bones as the significant piece of fish showed us on Lent 27.

Because He has a Risen body, we will get one too when He returns, the dead in Christ rising first (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  We will resemble ourselves but also perfected as God’s Image-bearers.

The empty tomb and the encounters of the early disciples with the Risen Lord to be witnesses (in real time and in Scripture recorded for us) are meant to encourage us and embolden us.  Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The body and soul (Image-bearing identity) are coupled in this life but separated at death.  Jesus’ Resurrection shows us that death no longer has a hold on our bodies and eternal life replaces mortality.  Death has lost its sting.

The demons in Hell’s prison know it and writhe now in eternal anguish, awaiting Judgment Day, and no longer laughing, mocking God’s people as under the same curse.  The curse has been broken and the empty tomb is Exhibit A.  Exhibit B is His Resurrection appearance to disciples, but adding to the compelling truth is this: At His Ascension, Jesus’ sacrifice was totally accepted by His Father. It was proven in the coming of the promised Holy Spirit to dwell in believers who are now fully clean and forgiven, born again to eternal life, and which will include resurrection bodies at Christ’s Return.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow is ours
because He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

At His death, where did Jesus’ Very Image of God go? He wasn’t extinguished…with no spirit, no soul bearing the Image of God, a dead body only.  If He wasn’t extinguished, what happened at His death?  It’s “deep time” on the Image of God.

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In the past, when the ancients in faith died, they had no spirit of life left, just a dead body.  Their souls (Image-bearing identity) went to the place Jesus refers to as Abraham’s side.  Any ancients without faith died and were buried.  They went to Hades in torment (with their Image-bearing identity).  According to Jesus, Luke 16:22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side”.

Souls—even with identity–don’t have the bodies they left behind.  In the past, a human body was in the ground, the human’s Image-bearing soul was at Abraham’s side for those of faith, but the spirit was gone.  No life.  The curse of death persisted as the wages of sin.  Dust to dust.  No spirit of life.

In the moment of His death, Jesus, I’d argue, was different for a multitude of reasons.  “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’” (Luke 23:46).

He gave up His fully human spirit life and died a fully human death.  But He was also fully God.  His Spirit-life was never extinguished by a curse of death.  Unlike us, death had no hold on Him.  Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me” and this fulfilled Scripture from Isaiah, according to Luke 4:16-21.

His human body was dead enough to be in a tomb on Holy Saturday.  But His Spirit-life and Very Image soul went straight to Abraham’s side…the place Jesus called “paradise” to the thief next to Him at Crucifixion.  Here’s the distinction: Jesus showed up at Abraham’s side with His Spirit-life in addition to His Very Image of God soul.  His Spirit-life made all the difference.  The only thing Jesus left behind was His earthly body which would be resurrected.

Focus for Lent: Those ancients of faith who had been imprisoned by the curse of death (no life), were souls without life until Jesus set them free by His earthly death and Spirit-life.  His Spirit-life gave them eternal life and once He was resurrected, He’d be able to give them bodily resurrection in due time.  They will rise first when He returns according to the Apostle Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Questions for even deeper thought:

Jesus, we’re told, also made proclamation to the disobedient imprisoned spirits, the distress for them so great it’s something people sometimes refer to as the Harrowing of Hell. 

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.   19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits– 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”

As long as all humanity was imprisoned (obedient at Abraham’s side/bosom and disobedient in Hades), the disobedient could still taunt.  Prison was, after all, prison.  And death came to all. It was prison for everyone, “ha-ha” was the taunt of the disobedient.

But then here comes Jesus with His Spirit-life, able to give life to all.  He even talked about it in a sense,

John 6:60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you– they are full of the Spirit and life. (Jn. 6:60-63 NIV)

Suddenly the disobedient aren’t laughing anymore.  Abraham’s side gets the spirit-life, freedom, and eternal life.  Ah, but the souls who are disobedient will also have eternity, but they will remain imprisoned in hell.  God will not be mocked, and Jesus silences laughter of the willfully ignorant mockers.

In what way was mortality for Image-bearers made possible by sin, but eternity was made possible by Jesus’ resurrection?

One final point of depth in Scripture (and truly I don’t have all the answers, but I read God’s Word and these things make sense to me).  Matthew tells us of a weird scene from the Crucifixion and beyond.  It’s almost as if he breaks the timeline into happening now, happening spiritually, and will happen someday when Jesus returns.

Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

No other gospel writer mentions this event, but keep in mind that Matthew was written to the Jews for the purpose of displaying Jesus as Messiah.

So, on this Holy Saturday, to recap as we fully appreciate Jesus as the Very Image of God in advance of the empty tomb with His body resurrected, setting the launch for resurrection of all the faithful…

Jesus is God’s Very Image of Perfect Love, Perfect Holiness, Perfect Unity, Perfect Knowledge, Perfect Sacrifice, Perfect Mercy, Perfect Relationship, Perfect Creativity, Perfect Submission, Perfect Rulership, Perfect Service, Perfect Patience, Perfect Endurance, Perfect Completion, Perfect Ethics, Perfect Mindset, Perfect Justice, Perfect Goodness, Perfect Faithfulness, Perfect Peace, Perfect Gentleness, and Perfect Self-control.  These, among others, encircle the Image of God in us and form His fingerprint upon human life, broken now, but born again to perfection at His Return.

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This concludes the Lenten Devotional Series for 2023. Thank you for coming with me on this journey. Wishing you all a blessed Easter with full confidence that He is Risen, He is Risen indeed.

In the words of Eugene Peterson, perseverance is a long obedience in the same direction.  Jesus knew it by living it.  He persevered until the very end.

After fulfilling the very last of Scripture needing fulfillment by drinking vinegar from a sponge (one last act of kindness from some anonymous person to our dying Savior) Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Focus for Lent: The 33-year ministry of our Lord Jesus reached its end in earthly form.

Questions for further thought:

How does Jesus’ ministry continue? What role does discipleship play?

They were real people who were at the foot of the Cross on which our Savior died.  They heard His last words.  They saw how He died. Yet, Scripture keeps almost all of them anonymous.   In what way did they perform this following Scripture? “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? (Matthew 25:37).

On the Holy Week calendar, Maundy Thursday was the night of the Last Supper (when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an act of humility and service). On Good Friday at the Cross, someone served Him. That person didn’t know He would rise from the dead as Messiah. To that person with the sponge, maybe Jesus was just another being crucified, no one special, yet that person served anyway. In what way did that person display the Image of God? 

Prayer:  Lord, help me to be a compassionate and loving person at all times, not just when there’s something in it for me.  Help me to neither seek fame nor attention.  The temptation is great to want to be known for what we do, to go viral or have many followers.  I ask for Your help in resisting that.  May I be content with Your awareness and knowledge alone.  That the good things I do quietly and in secret will be rewarded by You someday.  It’s an act of faith to persevere when we cannot see the fruit or know the outcome.  It’s an act of trust that whatever small good we bring, when it’s given to You, multiplication of what is good is what You do.  Give me the kind of servant’s heart that knows Your pleasure and is well-content with that.  Thank You Lord for showing the way.  I love you, Lord Jesus.  Amen.