Journey through the Shadowlands

“He is risen!” The angel’s words thrill the heart and soul. Jesus, crucified and buried, seemingly defeated, is victorious over death. He is the Christ, the Son of God. He is risen. He is living. He is reigning at the right hand of God. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us confidence God has forgiven us. Through the resurrected Jesus Christ we know God is powerful, the Almighty God. We know God will fully restore and reconcile his creation to himself, for Jesus is risen. Jesus is risen. He is living. He is coming again. We are assured of our salvation and eternal life. When we face death, the death of our loved ones or our own death, our hope, comfort, and strength are in the resurrection of Christ and the promised resurrection of his people. When we remember the resurrection of Jesus, most often our eyes are on the future, on life after death. The resurrection of Christ, however, is not simply about our resurrection yet to come. The resurrection of Christ is about our resurrection already experienced. Notice the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 6:3-13.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death…” (Romans 6:3-4a). I did not fully understand this when I was baptized into Christ. Now I understand Paul to be saying to the Christians in Rome, to us Christians today, when we come to Christ in faith and are baptized there is more happening than the physical act of baptism. In baptism, Paul reminds us, we were participants with Jesus in his death. We died with Christ. Paul will explain.

“In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:4b-5). We were baptized through faith in Jesus as the Christ, himself crucified and resurrected. “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). When we were baptized we placed faith in God. We trusted in his powerful working by which he raised Jesus from the dead. We trusted in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Dying with Christ, buried with Christ, united with him in his death and burial, when we physically rose out of that watery grave, more happened than the physical act. By the power with which God raised Christ, God raised us with Christ to new life, a resurrection like that of Christ to walking, living, in newness of life.

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). United with Christ in his death, we were crucified with him. Our old self was crucified with him, so that sin might be emptied of its hold over us. We have been freed to live a resurrected, new, and transformed life. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live” (Galatians 2:20).

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:8-11). “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). Death in Christ is death to sin, death to living sin. Resurrection with Christ is resurrection to new life, to living to God in Christ Jesus. We were dead in sin, separated from God. Through faith in Christ, by the power and grace of God in Christ we were raised from that death, forgiven, and transformed.

This is more than belief in doctrine. This is the reality of our experience with Christ. By the power with which he raised Christ, by the riches of his grace and mercy, God raised me and you from death. He raised us from the death we knew in our sins. With Christ we were raised by God to life, a new life, a new self, a new creation, a transformed life.

Two other images used of salvation carry the same message of being transformed, of newness, and of the old passed away. One of those images is that of a new creation, created by God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The picture is not that of the old self left as it is but with the slate wiped clean. Rather it is the picture of a new self, a new creation, a transformation that takes place by the grace of God through faith in Christ. It is a transformation, Paul reminds the Roman Christians and us, identified with being buried with Christ in baptism.

The other image is new birth, being born again, born from above. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). The image is not an adult, forgiven, now needing to try harder to be good. It is the image of a new born baby, a new life, a new self, born of God, transformed.

All too often after that initial expression of faith in Christ and commitment to him, confessing “Jesus is the Son of God who died for me,” and being baptized, people find it all too easy to get the idea there really isn’t that much more to do. The result often is “a big gap in their vision of what being a Christian is all about. It’s as though they were standing on one side of a deep, wide river, looking across to the further bank. On this bank you declare your faith. On the opposite bank is the ultimate result–final salvation itself. But what are people supposed to do in the meantime? Simply stand here and wait?”¹

We might respond, “While waiting to cross the Jordan to the other side, there is church attendance. Of course there is trying to keep our noses clean and being a good solid citizen.” The image of a clean slate and now the effort to keep it clean. Being raised with Christ, a new life, a new creation, a new birth, present a more dramatic picture of transformation.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:11-13). Paul is not calling us to a new set of rules, starting over with a clean slate, and seeking to do better this time with a better set of rules. New self, new creation, resurrection with Christ to new life, are about who we are within, our very character, being transformed. Transformation, a metamorphosis, like the ugly caterpillar transformed into a beautiful butterfly. The mind, the heart, and thus life, created in the image of Christ with a new way of looking at life, a new way of living life. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Raised from death to life, we are to give our members, that is our hearts, minds, hands, feet, every part of our bodies to living as those alive in God through Christ, living righteousness.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ is God” (Colossians 3:1-3). “Put off  your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Raised with Christ to life hidden with God we are transformed in heart, mind, and life. Through Christ and by his Spirit, God created each of us with a new self after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Transformed, resurrected to life in Christ, we are to think and live toward others with the mind and heart of Christ. The heart of Christ led him to come in the flesh and die on the cross for those who were sinful, weak, and ungodly–you and me. As Paul goes on to urge in Colossians 3 those things that are above, that are part of the character of those raised with Christ, include a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love like that of Christ. The Spirit of Christ produces within the new self, within the resurrected and transformed life, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Final and full resurrection of our physical bodies, transformed for eternity, is yet to happen when Christ returns. The experience of resurrection, however, is not only in the future. The experience of all who in faith are united with Christ in his death are united with Christ in his resurrection now! We have been raised with Christ to new life. Resurrected we have been transformed, renewed, and created after the image of God. In Christ, through his Spirit, God is restoring us to the image God meant for us to have in the very beginning. In true righteousness and holiness of heart, mind, soul, and life, we are being created after the image of our Creator. Raised with Christ we have a new life, a new self. We are a new creation. A new birth, born by the will of God in Jesus Christ, is our experience.

The image of a clean slate can easily fall into our thinking of our lives, “I really was not bad. Growing up in church I have always believed and sought to be good. When I was baptized nothing really changed except being able to partake of the Lord’s Supper and some other things I couldn’t participate in before. I still go to church as before I was baptized. God forgave me. He cleaned the slate. Now I have a fresh start. Hopefully I will do better in obeying him now.” Unless we were “despicable sinners” it is hard to grasp our need for, let alone the fact of, a transformation in Christ, a resurrection to a new life. The point Paul makes is that resurrection from the death of sin to life in Christ, transformation, is exactly what we all need.

Resurrection, transformation, is our experience in Christ! “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20) My life, your life, as children of God, as disciples of Christ, as Christians, are resurrection lives. Resurrected in Christ our lives are to be lived now as we will live in eternity. We are not to wait until eternity to live in the righteousness and holiness of God. God is creating us in the image of Christ now. He is restoring us to the image he created humankind to live. We are to live in the image of Christ. We are to live as he has created us anew to live, as God has raised us with Christ to live.

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¹N. T. Wright, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 3.

“In giving his son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty which he himself inflicted.”¹ The apostle Paul makes this point with the following: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

How do you adequately describe what the apostle describes as God’s “inexpressible, unspeakable, indescribable, gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). “This gift too wonderful for words” (nlt); “No language can praise it enough!” (msg); “This gift which is beyond all praise!” (reb). God’s gift of Christ is the truth that compelled me to become a Christian. Christ crucified is the truth that compels me to hold to my faith in Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is the truth that urges me on to live for Christ. “For the love of Christ controls us once we have reached the conclusion that one man died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:14 reb). “The love of Christ controls us, urges us on, impels us, compels us.” “We are ruled by Christ’s love.” So the various translations help us hear the force of Paul’s words. Phillips paraphrases, “The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ” (jbp).

Consider the story of the apostle Paul. We are introduced to Paul as Saul of the city of Tarsus. Saul was driven by his faith in and zeal for God, both built on a Pharisaic understanding of the Law of Moses. He was highly educated. Saul was passionate about his faith. Convinced Jesus of Nazareth was a pretender and a blasphemer of God, Saul led a fierce persecution of the followers of Jesus. His goal was to wipe out the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul later described his pre-Christian life in texts such as 1 Timothy 1:13; Galatians 1:13-17; Philippians 3:5-6; Acts 22:3-4. In Acts 26:9-11 he speaks about the persecution he led against Christians.

“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”

In Acts 7:58 Luke introduces us to Saul as a young man, sitting and watching with approval the stoning of Stephen, a disciple of Christ. “And Saul approved of his [Stephen’s] execution….But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison (Acts 8:1, 3).

Likely you know the story. Saul the persecutor of Christians, the zealous young Pharisee defending the faith against the heretic and blasphemer Jesus of Nazareth became a Christian and an apostle. The persecutor became the persecuted! The fervent and zealous unbeliever became a believer!

“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest” (Acts 9:1). He asked for permission to go to Damascus to seek out and arrest disciples of Jesus. On the road to Damascus, as he was traveling with the intention of persecuting Christians, Jesus Christ appeared to and spoke to him. Saul was blinded. He did not know who was speaking to him. “And (Saul) said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And (Jesus) said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:5). Jesus told Saul to go to Damascus where he would be told what he was to do. “And for three days (Saul) was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:9).

I have to ask, what was Saul doing as he sat alone, blind, and fasting for three days? Luke tells us Saul was praying. He also had a vision and was told a man named Ananias was coming to lay hands on him and restore his sight (Acts 9:11-12). Saul is blind, alone, praying, for three days. What is going on in his mind and heart?

Saul was convinced Jesus was dead and in the grave. Up to now he was certain Jesus was a liar, a blasphemer, and certainly not the Son of God. He had zealously given his life to persecuting the followers of Jesus, seeking to end this blasphemous sect. “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:13-14).

Here he is now confronted by the resurrected Jesus, contradicting everything he believed from Scripture, from tradition, from his education at the feet of the great rabbi, Gamaliel. A person does not forsake such an imbedded conviction in an instant. I have to conclude Saul was in a heart wrenching and soul wrenching struggle. During those three days of darkness, fasting, and praying he was humbling himself before God. Saul must have been fervently wrestling with what he had so fervently believed and the faith to which the resurrected Jesus was calling him. He reached the conclusion that Jesus was indeed the Christ. Jesus was one man who died for all. God was calling Saul to submit to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to submit to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and to surrender his life to God through Jesus Christ, not through Moses or the traditions of his fathers. Saul had a choice to make.

Looking back, the apostle Paul described the decision he made. “But whatever gain I had [from his faith and life as a Pharisee], I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith–that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:7-11).

For Saul of Tarsus becoming a Christian was more than learning the “steps of salvation,” hear, believe, confess, repent, be baptized. The metaphor is a simple way to remember faith’s response to the gospel. Unfortunately the “steps of salvation” often has turned into a check list without realizing the life changing impact of placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ. For Saul of Tarsus coming to faith in Jesus as Christ was more than obeying the right rules. It was more than getting into the right church. Faith in Jesus as Christ was more than the correct form of baptism.

Saul coming to faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, was a decision of the heart. His was a difficult choice of leaving behind what he had been taught all his life, totally reversing what he believed,  forsaking that to which he had so passionately committed his life. Saul placing faith in Jesus Christ was a surrender of his heart, mind, soul, and life to Jesus Christ. Placing faith in Jesus as the Son of God was a commitment of his life to Christ.

“For the love of Christ controls (compels) us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “Crucified” is a horrifying metaphor of being saved in Christ, of becoming a child of God. How powerfully it pictures the decision of the heart, the surrender of the heart, mind, soul, and life, the commitment of life to Christ that is the choice of becoming a Christian.

Perhaps for most who read this the choice to become a Christian was mostly a matter of accepting what we had known and were taught all of our lives. Others, having believed in Christ, made a choice concerning what was a fuller understanding of Scripture, for example of the meaning and significance of baptism. In the context of most of our lives few of us likely faced the type of struggle and the difficult choice Saul, and so many of the early Christian converts, had to make. This is why it is important for us to remember for ourselves and when teaching others, that to answer the call of Christ in the gospel is much more than taking some steps on a list or obeying the right rules.

Becoming a Christian, placing faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and allowing oneself to be baptized in the name of Jesus, is a decision of the heart, a choice between self and Christ. Placing faith in Jesus Christ is a surrender of the heart, mind, soul, and life to God in Christ. Faith in Christ is a commitment of life, of body, heart, and mind, to Christ. “And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

How do you adequately describe what the apostle describes as God’s “inexpressible, unspeakable, indescribable, gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)? “This gift too wonderful for words” (nlt); “No language can praise it enough!” (msg); “This gift which is beyond all praise!” (reb)?

How do you respond to God’s inexpressible, unspeakable, and indescribable love in Jesus Christ? Saul of Tarsus responded with the surrender of his heart, mind, and life to Christ.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

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¹John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 159.

The five previous posts I shared with you God as I know him in Jesus Christ. My knowledge of God in Christ especially has its origin and shape in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. The following quote from Stott summarizes the core of my understanding of God.

“In giving his son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty which he himself inflicted.”¹ The apostle Paul makes this point. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:2).

As I consider Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected I learn important truths concerning myself through Christ. In this post I share with you what I know about myself through Jesus Christ.

First, I know I am like the rest of humankind. Of humankind the apostle Paul concludes, “All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understand; no one seeks for God….There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:9b-11, 18). The way in which God dealt with this reality, Jesus Christ, tells me there is more to it than humankind breaking rules, though that is involved. Sin and rebellion, faith and salvation, is all about relationship with God. We see Jesus crucified and realize how seriously sin disrupts relationship with God.

Sin disrupts our relationship with God as Creator. “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). Sin disrupts our relationship with God as Father. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me’” (Isaiah 1:2). Sin disrupts our relationship with the love of God. “In this is love, not that we have loved God (1 John 4:10). Paul wrote in Romans 5 that we were weak, sinners, ungodly, and enemies of God.

“The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God.”² Sin is unbelief. There is the unbelief that denies the existence of God and of Christ. There is also the unbelief which believes in the existence of God and of Christ but does not believe God, does not believe his wisdom, his righteousness, resulting in disobedience, in substituting self for God. A command or a principle for godly living is found in Scripture, but it is contrary to what we want to do. We do what we want because we do not trust in the wisdom of God on that particular point. We do not believe God on that particular point. This unbelief describes mot of us. We are going to do what we want to do. I am not discussing them. You know, those other people out there, whose unbelief is so obvious. I am talking about me and you.

The necessity of Christ crucified for my salvation teaches me I am among the all who have sinned, the all who are painted with such dark words in Roman 3. Yes, I was like the rest of humankind, in rebellion against my Creator and Father, rejecting love for God, rejecting the love of God, a child or wrath. This is how Paul describes the pagan unbelievers, now believers, in Ephesus. As I look at myself it is key to realize Paul attributes his description to all of us.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). This is ME?! Paul’s metaphor is telling, “dead in the trespasses and sins.” Dead–separated from the source of life, true life, separated from God. This is the seriousness and finality of sin’s impact on our relationship with God.

We will own up to sin, even admit we are sinners. Paul, though seems a little over the top. He describes them, those horrible sinners out in the world. My pride does not want to admit Paul’s words apply to me. Ah, but then Luke records the story of Cornelius, that Gentile, a Roman soldier, who believed in the God of Israel, who worshiped and followed God. Cornelius is described by Luke as “a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God” (Acts 10:2). Cornelius is a good man. He is good because of his faith in God. In a vision an angel of God appeared to Cornelius. The angel of God said to Cornelius, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4). Certainly such a man, so praised by God himself, does not fit into Paul’s description of us all in Ephesians 2! As Peter retells the story in Acts 11, we discover the angel of God also told Cornelius to send for Peter who “will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (Acts 11:14). “Will be saved”? As good, as devout, as benevolent, even how accepting his good works were to God, the goodness of Cornelius could not save Cornelius. He and his family needed the message of the gospel, of the life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. The seriousness and the finality of sin’s impact on a person’s relationship with God!

I am like the rest of humankind. My salvation didn’t come, will not come, by my doing better in keeping the rules. My salvation comes and will come by the deep and holy love of God through Jesus Christ crucified. My salvation comes and will come by the horrible price God and his Son were willing to pay for my redemption. On occasion it is helpful and sobering to personalize scripture. Making 1 Peter 2:24 and Ephesians 2:8-9 personal help me understand I am like the rest of humankind.

“He himself bore the sins of David Fisher in his body on the tree, that I might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, I, David Fisher, have been healed.” “For by grace I have been saved through faith. And this is not my own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that I may not boast.” I cannot stand before God with my head held high, thanking God for how good I am, so worthy of salvation. I fall on my knees with my head bowed in shame. For like all of humankind, I was, I am, a sinner. I need the love of God so freely and costly given on the cross in Jesus Christ.

I realize I am like the rest of humankind. Seeing God’s love on the cross in Jesus Christ I also learn about myself that I am wanted by God.

The picture is not of the great law Maker and enforcer coming up with a better idea with new rules. Then he waits for us to choose to be better rule keepers of better rules. Rather it is the picture of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, out of the depths of his holy love, out of the heights of his glory, out of all he is, demanding of himself what needed to be done in his holiness to rescue, to save, to restore us, and to reconcile us to himself. Out of the depths of his love and all that he is, it is God seeking, pursuing, his creation and pursuing humankind, pursuing ME!

Passage after passage speak of God pursuing, seeking, reaching out, doing what needed and needs to be done, reaching out and calling out to humankind in Jesus Christ. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). God seeking the unrighteous, the ungodly, the sinner, his enemy, so that I might become righteous, not my own, but the righteousness God gives through Christ. God, in his holy love giving himself in Christ, pursues us to rescue and reconcile us. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Through Scripture, the Word of God, through the apostles, the history of Christianity and of the world, Father, Son, and Spirit have been and are working, pursuing us, wanting to rescue us, wanting us, choosing us. “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14). Beloved, chosen to be saved, called, God’s pursuit of us, of ME!

I was like all of humankind, dead in my sins, weak, ungodly, without love for God. Yet God wanted me, wants me. God pursued me, is pursuing me in Christ. Oh the joy of being wanted, of being pursued by God because of his love for me!

Through Jesus Christ I know I am like the rest of humankind. I know I am wanted by God. I know I am valued and loved by God. Returning to texts quoted above I realize how deep and true is God’s love for me. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). I am not deserving or worthy of such love. Who is? Yet in spite of me, because of him, who he is, his love, God so values me and loves me, he gave his Son for me!

Through Jesus Christ I also know God places his confidence in me. God believes in me, that I am able and will live the life to which he calls me. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). “Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). I don’t understand given my failures. But God has chosen me in Christ, saved me, made me part of his people, to live NOW for him–as a new creation to do good works, as his very own to be zealous in doing good works, chosen to proclaim his praises. God is confident I will hold to my faith in him and give myself to him. He assures me he is with me all the way, to guide me, to give me wisdom, to give me strength, and to continually pick me up when I fall and to forgive me. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32).

As I began to know myself through Christ I did not want to hear I am like the rest of humankind, by nature a child of wrath. This knowledge, however, opened the door of my heart as I bowed before God in humility and shame, to the knowledge of God wanting me, of God’s rich love for me. Knowing myself through Jesus Christ opened my heart to the call of God to salvation in Christ. I know I am like the rest of humankind. Oh the joy of knowing I am wanted by God, of knowing I am so richly valued and loved by God. What confidence I am given by God as I know he has confidence in me to live the new life to which he calls me in Christ.

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¹John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 159.

²Ibid., 160.

As I read the teachings of Jesus and observe especially his confronting the self-righteous religious establishment of his day, I come to know God as the God of justice and judgment.

The following words of Jesus are such a positive and wonderful teaching. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:14-16.” Jesus teaches that God’s purpose, God’s goal and desire, are to save, not to condemn. God seeks to save through Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” “Whoever believes,” I wonder, what is the implication for those who do not believe? Jesus continues teaching. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:17-18).” Unbelief is condemned. The unbeliever is condemned.

Jesus stresses the justice and judgment of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:24-26). The Father has given life to the Son to give to all who will believe God through Jesus Christ. The authority to administer justice and judgment has also been given to the Son by the Father. “And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:27-30).

Notice a couple mores texts, and there are a number more, from Jesus. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:28, 32, 33). “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31, 46). Justice and judgment are central to the picture of God Jesus taught and lived.

The justice and judgment of God is found in the teaching of the apostle Paul. “Now (God) commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30b-31). “Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). A number of other texts could be chosen from Paul, also Peter, James, Jude, Hebrews, and John in his epistles and Revelation.

God is just. In his justice God condemns sin. He will bring to judgment those who reject him outright and who reject him by rejecting Jesus Christ. This is God as I know him through Jesus Christ.

I learn from Jesus that God is the God of reconciliation and redemption. In the last post I wrote of God’s creation of humankind in his image, to be his image in his creation. Humankind was to live with a character like that of God, caring for and tending to God’s good creation. God provided what was needed for humankind to so live. Humankind, however, in the persons of Adam and Eve, and ever since, in the persons of us all, made the choice and keep making the choice, to live contrary to the image of God, to live contrary to a character like that of God. The choice is continually made choosing self and selfish pride. Scripture calls our thoughts, words, and behavior contrary to the image and character of God sin. Sin is missing the mark, missing the goal of what God created us to be. Taking a look at history, at the world today, even at ourselves, the results and consequences of the choices of self instead of God are readily seen.

The story of history as told in Scripture, yes, is the story of God’s justice and judgment, of his just and holy response to sinful and fallen humankind. Reading that story we read of God’s response of judgment, condemnation, wrath, and punishment. Examples, especially from the Old Testament, are easily recalled. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The flood in the days of Noah. The plagues against Egypt. There are numerous incidents in the history of Israel.

As we read the interpretation given by Jesus and the New Testament writers to the story we discover the story is more. Yes, God’s justice and judgment are part of the more in the story. The more is the story of God’s desire for his creation, of God working to accomplish a plan he set in motion even before creation. The more is the story of God’s just, holy, and loving work to redeem and reconcile his creation to himself through Jesus Christ. It is the story of God’s work to restore, to recreate, humankind in his image. It is the story of God’s work to free creation from the bondage brought upon it by the rebellion of humankind. Note the following passages.

“This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “…the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21). “And through (the Son) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). (The non-italics are my emphasis.)

The apostle Paul tells this story in Romans. He teaches us what we learn in Jesus, God is a God of righteousness and love. Paul tells how humankind chose self against God missing the goal of what God created them to be. The result was and will be God’s just and holy response of judgment. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).

“We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things” (Romans 2:2). “On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:16). Paul draws a devastating conclusion. I quote just a portion. “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God’” (Romans 3:10-11, from Psalm 14). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). No one is or can be good enough to stand before the holy God and be found righteous.

Consider the way we tend to interpret God’s justice, judgment, and holiness. God is quick to unleash his wrath. He is, we often conclude, angry, harsh, and eagerly ready to condemn. If we did not already know the gospel and Paul’s teaching in Romans 3, we would expect the end of the story as told by Paul to be justice, judgment, and condemnation. In the context of humankind’s sin and God’s justice and judgment, Paul’s words are surprising and contrary to our understanding of justice.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). What follows in the text is the opposite of what is expected. “And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Justified, redeemed, forgiven, new creation–the unrighteous, the ungodly? Created anew with the righteousness of God? Romans 3:23 is surrounded by this unthinkable thought as it is preceded by verse 22. “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22).

God’s concern and desire are seen in the Law of Moses, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets. Jesus has like concern and desire seen in the Sermon on the Mount, especially Luke’s version, the Sermon on the Plain, and elsewhere in his teachings and treatment of others. Justice, that humankind treat one another justly, the innocent and weak knowing justice, the guilty and oppressor knowing judgment, Scripture is very clear this is God’s concern and desire. Certainly this comes out of his holiness and love. With this in mind how can Paul speak of the unrighteous and the ungodly as new creations, righteous and godly?

In the above context Paul makes a startling, certainly contradictory statement about God in Romans 4:4-5. The brackets are my own commentary. “Now to the one who works [sets up a bunch of rules, counts on keeping rules, being good, worthy], his wages [what he receives for his efforts at being good] are not counted as a gift but as his due [no matter the length of the list of rules, the problem is we are all guilty of sin, of breaking one or more rules]. And to the one who does not work [doesn’t trust in his own goodness, in how well he keeps the rules] but believes [places his faith, trusts] in him [God] who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Without my commentary: “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

Did you notice the startling if not contradictory statement concerning God? How can it not be contradictory in the context of God’s justice and his expectation of justice within humankind? Here it is: “him who justifies the ungodly”!  How is that possible without God contradicting himself? Does not God justifying the ungodly contradict himself? In justifying the guilty does not God deny his very character and being as the holy God of justice and righteousness? Paul’s answer is Jesus Christ.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25a).¹ To be justified is to be forgiven and cloaked with the righteousness of Christ, standing before God guilt free, righteous before God, and at peace with God. The ungodly, those who fall short of the glory of God, are justified, not by their own goodness, but by God’s grace as a gift, freely by his grace. Redemption is being set free from the bondage of sin by the purchase of freedom. God and Christ paid the cost to set the ungodly free. The cost was the sacrifice of Christ, the shedding of his blood.

“This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25b-26). When God justifies the ungodly through faith in Christ he does not contradict himself or deny his very character and being as the holy God of justice and righteousness. Rather when God justifies, forgives, reconciles, declares righteous, and creates anew the ungodly coming to him in faith, he is being very true to himself. He is being true to his justice, his righteousness, his holiness, and his love revealed so fully in Jesus Christ on the cross. Christ bore the penalty wrought by the justice, the righteousness, and the holiness of God. When he justified and forgave, for example, David and Abraham in the past and me and you in the present his righteousness is revealed in the sacrifice of Christ.³

Again I quote John Stott concerning God’s giving of his Son. “In giving his son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty which he himself inflicted.”⁴

God as I know him in Jesus Christ is the God of justice and judgment. He is the God of reconciliation and redemption, the God of righteousness and love. There is more for me to see, to understand, more depth, more insight, more to experience. There is more that I will perhaps discuss at a later time. For now, here is God as I know him in Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, died on the cross, was buried, was raised from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of God.

God himself gives himself so completely for me, loves me so dearly, at such cost to himself. This is the sustaining foundation of my faith. God as I know him in Jesus Christ keeps me believing in the midst of my questions and doubts and my struggles and disappointments.

Jesus Christ, the good news of Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrection–through my faith in Jesus Christ God by his grace freely justified me, redeemed me, forgave me, and made me a new creation. Me!, the unrighteous and ungodly, I am created anew with the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. This is the sustaining foundation of my life.

Jesus Christ is the place I stand, committed to the calling of being a new creation in Christ. In Jesus Christ I stand, striving to live life in a manner reflecting the character of God. Upon the solid Rock of my salvation, Jesus Christ, I stand, giving myself to living life in a manner pleasing to my Creator, Redeemer, and Savior.

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¹The NIV 1984 translates “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

²The NIV 1984 translates, “He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

³Note Romans 4:6-25 where Paul goes back to David and Abraham to illustrate and support his point that God justifies the ungodly through faith.

⁴John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 160.

In reference to his death, Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

Remember the underlying theme of these posts under the above title? To see Christ is to see God. To know the Son is to know the Father. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God.

In Jesus Christ on the cross I see God most clearly and am drawn to him. God as he is revealed in Jesus Christ on the cross sustains my faith, keeps me believing in the midst of my questions and doubts, my struggles and disappointments, and my joys and blessings. In Jesus Christ on the cross I see God himself giving himself for all of humankind, for me.

God created humankind in his image, to be his image in his creation, living with a character like that of God, caring for and tending to God’s good creation. Humankind, however, in the persons of Adam and Eve, and ever since, in the persons of us all, made the choice and keep making the choice, to live contrary to the image of God, to live contrary to a character like that of God. The choice is continually made choosing self and selfish pride. Scripture calls our thoughts, words, and behavior contrary to the image and character of God sin. Sin is missing the mark, missing the goal of what God created us to be. Taking a look at history, at the world today, even at ourselves, the results and consequences of choices of self instead of God are readily seen. And we understand “the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God.”¹

Jesus Christ on the cross helps us to realize the essence of the cross, “the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.”² God himself takes the initiative to do what only God could do, to do what God desired to do, to bring about the reconciliation of his creation, of humankind, to himself. God himself presents the sacrifice. He does so not as a result of our demand of God or of God making a demand of us. Rather God demands of himself to give of himself in the person of his Son, to give himself.

“Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation [sacrifice of atonement] by his blood…to show God’s righteousness” (Romans 3:25).

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [the atoning sacrifice] for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

Jesus, the Son of God, came, not forced, but willingly, out of love for his Father and for humankind.  “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Of his life Jesus claimed, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18).

“The Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4). John Stott writes, “In giving his son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty which he himself inflicted.”³

In Jesus Christ on the cross I see God’s nature, God’s character–his holiness and his love. I see God’s holiness in Jesus on the cross. In Jesus God, true to his holiness, his righteousness and his justice, condemns sin.

“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24). “Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation [sacrifice of atonement] by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness” (Romans 3:25).

In his holiness, his righteousness and his justice, God does not condone sin. He condemns sin. He brings his wrath against sin as he placed the weight and the liability of my sins, our sins, on his Son on the cross.

In Jesus Christ on the cross I see God’s love, his mercy and grace, his longsuffering and forgiveness. I see God in Jesus Christ giving of himself, his suffering with us and for us.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” Jesus told the Twelve as he prepared them for his crucifixion (John 15:13). “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16). “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [the atoning sacrifice] for our sins (1 John 4:9-10). “Christ died for the ungodly…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5: 6, 8).

Charles E. B. Cranfield writes, “God, because in his mercy he willed to forgive sinful men, and, being truly merciful, willed to forgive them righteously, that is, without in any way condoning their sin, purposed to direct against his own very self in the person of his Son the full weight of that righteous wrath which they deserved.”⁴

Stott writes that God “both exacted and accepted the penalty of human sin…it is the Father himself who takes the initiative in his love, bears the penalty of sin himself, and so dies. Thus the priority is neither ‘man’s demand on God’ nor ‘God’s demand on men’, but supremely ‘God’s demand on God, God’s meeting his own demand.”⁵

How do I wrap my mind, my heart, my reason, and my emotions around the truth of God in Jesus Christ on the cross? I remember the calling of Isaiah to be a prophet of God. God comes to Isaiah through of vision of God enthroned. There were two seraphim calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts [or Almighty]” (Isaiah 6:3). Before God, the Creator, the Almighty God, I, like Isaiah, tremble. “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

Yet in Jesus Christ on the cross God, in the fullness of his holiness and love, gives himself so unselfishly and so completely so that he can pour out on my heart and life his love. He forgives me, saves me, reconciles me to himself, and gives me a living hope in Christ. How do I wrap my mind, my heart, my reason, and my emotions around the love of God in Jesus Christ? “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).

During forty years of ministry I have been at the bedside of a number of people facing death, including our fifteen-month-old grandson Sully and my father. Always I have been able to draw on the hope that is found in Jesus Christ without hesitation. Recently I was visiting with a friend who has been an encouragement to me over the years. He knows his life is soon to end. I knew he needed to talk about it and to express his faith in Christ and the hope Christ gives him. For the first time I can remember I had difficulty giving him the opening to share his heart. I could not, I did not want to, discuss death and Christ and hope. Digging deep I made myself for my friend’s sake. When I prayed for him I found the prayer flowed freely from my heart. My hesitancy surprised me. Was it too painful for me to discuss my dear friend’s approaching death? Or was it one of those dark valley moments when the lingering grief of Sully’s suffering and death wrestles with my faith? How was I able with honesty, though struggling, to encourage my friend with his hope in Christ? In my journey through the Shadowlands how do I find the strength to continue to believe and to hold on to my faith in God through Jesus Christ?

Christ on the cross, God himself giving himself in holiness and love, this is the sustaining foundation of my faith. Christ on the cross keeps me believing in the midst of my questions and doubts, my struggles and disappointments. How do I wrap my mind, my heart, my reason, and my emotions around the love of God for me expressed in Jesus Christ on the cross? If God himself gives himself so completely for me, loves me so dearly at such cost to himself, then surely whatever happens in my life, God’s love is greater; God’s love is present. With the eyes of my heart on Jesus Christ on the cross I tell myself, “Believe and hold on.”

A closing quote from John Stott. He writes of a picture, unidentified as to title and artist, seen by and described by George Buttrick in his book Jesus Came Preaching. Buttrick had seen the painting in an Italian church. “At first glance it is like any other painting of the crucifixion. As you look more closely, however, you perceive the difference, because ‘there’s a vast and shadowy Figure behind the figure of Jesus. The nail that pierces the hand of Jesus goes through to the hand of God. The spear thrust into the side of Jesus goes through into God’s’.”⁶ How do I wrap my mind, my heart, my reason, and my emotions around the love of God in Jesus Christ?

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¹John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 160.

²Ibid.

³Ibid., 159.

⁴Ibid., 134.

⁵Ibid., 152.

⁶Ibid., 158.

Matthew applied the words of the prophet to Jesus. “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus said of himself, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me” (John 12:44-45). So I continue thinking about God as I know him in Jesus. To see Christ is to see God. To know the Son is to know the Father. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God. God as I know him in Jesus is good, compassionate, and loving.

“And as (Jesus) was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10:17-18). I know, Jesus’ statement is much discussed as to meaning. My point in looking at this text is to notice Jesus taught God is good. Jesus also demonstrated by his own life God is good.

The disciples of Jesus spoke of Jesus as good and sinless. “But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:22-23). “For our sake (God) made (Jesus) to be sin [on the cross] who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

God as I know him in Jesus is good. God is the very definition of what is good, what is right. He does not act contrary to his goodness. God is good toward his creation, toward all people, and toward his people who believe in him through Christ. When Jesus taught love for our enemies he taught that he is calling us to be like our Father who is in heaven. “For (the Father) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). God is good.

When bad things happen in life I may question the goodness of God. Yet as I see the goodness of Jesus, his life, his teaching, whatever happens, even when I do not understand, I know God is good. I know God desires my good. He is seeking in all things to accomplish the best good for me–being transformed into the image of Christ and receiving the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

I know God is good through the goodness of Jesus especially as seen in the compassion and love of Jesus. Speaking of the compassion and love of Jesus one of the texts that comes to mind is Matthew 11:28-29. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

“Compassion” is composed of two Latin words meaning “with” and “suffer,” thus the meaning “to suffer with.”¹ The heart of Jesus went out to people. His heart was genuinely moved and grieved when Jesus saw people hurting. His heart broke as he watched people live lost in sin. Jesus reached out with compassion and desire to help as he saw people whose lives were wondering aimlessly, confused and helpless. He wept with those whose lives were devastated by sickness and death. Jesus grieved with the grieving. Out of his compassionate and loving heart Jesus unselfishly gave of himself. He suffered with us. Jesus came to live among us. He reached out to people with teaching, healing, feeding, befriending, forbearing, and forgiving. His compassion led him to the cross, offering himself as the sacrifice to give us forgiveness and life. He suffered with us. The following selected passages of Scripture paint this picture of Jesus.

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Other translations of “harassed and helpless” further picture the situation of people, of us, as they, we, experience the struggles of life–“distressed and dispirited,” “confused and aimless,” “confused and helpless,” “weary and scattered,” “hurting and helpless,” “bewildered and miserable.” “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:13-14). “Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” (Matthew 15:32). Two blind men on the side of the road as Jesus was leaving the city of Jericho were told by people not to bother Jesus. They did not listen and called out to Jesus. “And Jesus in pity [or had compassion on them] touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him” (Matthew 20:34). “As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:12-15). When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died Jesus went to Lazarus’s home. As the apostle John shares the story with us he tells of when Jesus saw Lazarus’s sister Mary and of Jesus going to the tomb. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Jesus wept. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb” (John 11:33, 35, 38).

The compassionate heart of Jesus and his response to people reveals the compassionate heart and response of God toward us. Especially is the compassion of Jesus seen in his response to those who rejected him and who crucified him. When Jesus approached Jerusalem knowing his time had come to accomplish his purpose, he was saddened by the thought of the judgment coming upon the city. “And when he drew near and saw (Jerusalem), he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). Matthew’s record reads, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! (Matthew 23:37). As the Gospels record the arrest of Jesus we read, “And one of (the disciples) struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him” (Luke 22:50-51). Dying on the cross, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’” (Luke 23:34). In Jesus we see the compassion of God as his heart is grieved by our sin and rebellion, yet he continues to give himself to and for us, reaching out to us with his readiness to forgive.

They were finished eating their last Passover meal together. Judas had left to betray Jesus. Jesus knew what was coming. The disciples were confused. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9). John began his record of that evening describing what was going on in Jesus’ mind and heart. “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). What follows is Jesus acting as a servant, a house slave, washing the disciples’ feet. Then he taught them, preparing them for what was about to happen. It was understandable for Jesus to be turned inward. He knew Judas was going to betray him. All the disciples, in fact, were going to flee for their own lives forsaking Jesus. His heart was heavy with the anguish and intensity of what he was bearing in obedience to the Father and because of the love with which he loved his disciples and all people. The cross was hours away and Jesus could see it with his heart. Oh the dread he expresses later in his prayer in the garden. To have his heart turned toward himself was understandable. To the contrary his heart went out to his disciples. He loved them in heart and action to the end.

Jesus spoke of his purpose, of his self-giving, and of his sacrificial love for us all. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:10-11). “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). “By this,” the apostle John wrote, “we know love, that (Jesus) laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16).

The love Jesus Christ lived, unselfish, humble, self-giving, willing to take on our suffering, to serve, willing to lay down his life for us. God as I know him in Jesus loves me to the end. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

My faith and hope are strengthened throughout life, even when I do not understand what is happening and why. For as I believe in Jesus I believe in God. As I know Jesus I know God. What I know is that God “who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:32, 35-39).

God as I know him in Jesus is good, compassionate, and loving. I am strengthened and encouraged by this knowledge of God. I am also challenged to imitate God in his goodness, compassion, and love. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 4:32; 5:1-2).

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¹Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew, Volume 1, The Christbook, Matthew 1-12 (Dallas: Word, 1987), 363.

To see Christ is to see God. To know the Son is to know the Father. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God. N. T. Wright makes this point. “It is because of Jesus that Christians claim they know who the creator God of the world is…It is all because of Jesus that we speak of God the way we do.”¹

The apostle Paul wrote that the beloved Son of God through whom we have been redeemed and forgiven “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth” (Colossians 1:15-16). In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the apostle writes, “Christ, who is the image of God.” The Hebrew writer also claims the Son, Jesus Christ, is the image of God and the one through whom God speaks to us. “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature [nrsv “of God’s very being]” (Hebrews 1:2-3).

This is the claim Jesus made concerning himself. “And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.” (John 12:44-45). “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9b).

God as I know him in Jesus, as I wrote in the last post, is all powerful, able to do what he promises; and God is faithful and trustworthy. In this post I share with you that God as I know him in Jesus is more than I could ever imagine him being.

One of the scribes asked Jesus, “‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”’” (Mark 12:28-30). Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It is important to note Deuteronomy 6:4. “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The Deuteronomy text is speaking of YHWH, thus “Lord” in our English translations. It is YHWH to whom Jesus is meaning to make reference with this quote. There are not multiple gods. There is only one true God, YHWH, the God of Abraham, the God of the Old Testament. God, YHWH, is one God. God is one! Yet…

During one of many Sabbath confrontations Jesus answered his opponents. “‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:17-18). Jesus did not correct this belief. It also possible John is not simply giving us the understanding of the Jews but also his own when he wrote his gospel. Jesus is equal with God.

At a confrontation in Jerusalem Jesus was asked, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” He responded, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:24, 30). One, Jesus means more than agreement and working together. He and the Father are one, though two. They are one God. The confrontation continued. “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God’” (John 10:31-33). Jesus does not correct them.

Remember Jesus’ quote of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as the first and great commandment? “Hear, O Israel”: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God” (Mark 12:29-30). Deuteronomy is speaking of YHWH, Creator, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of Moses and of Israel. Yet when Thomas sees the resurrected Jesus, he confessed to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Thomas, whether he fully understood or not, was equating Jesus with YHWH. Jesus does not respond with rebuke or correction. Rather Jesus accepts the confession of Thomas concerning Jesus. Jesus then goes on to bless all who will believe in him as Lord and God. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Jesus, my Lord and my God, is a key foundation stone on which John builds his gospel. He lays this foundation stone in chapter one. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Clearly John is speaking of Jesus, “the Word became flesh.” John’s familiar words in John 1:1-3 are bold. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” The Word became flesh and lived among us. That Word is Jesus. That Word was in the beginning, was with God, was God, and created all that was created. Jesus, my Lord and my God!

In the midst of a discussion concerning idolatry we perhaps hear Paul reflecting on Deuteronomy 6:4. “We know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth–as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’–yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). What Moses wrote of YHWH, Lord and God, Paul applies to the Father, one God, and Jesus, one Lord. One not many.

One with God, was God, equal with God, “my Lord and my God,” all applied to Jesus. There is one God, yet he is more than I could ever imagine him being–Father and Son, and even more. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, identified by one name. God is one, yet God is three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three yet one God. How do you explain what is the mystery of God, the more of God, of his very being? The mystery of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is more than I can imagine. My faith in Scripture and in Jesus Christ I accept the clear and unexplained statements of both. Father, Son, and Spirit, three yet one!

Illustrations fall short in seeking to help us clearly understand the oneness of Father, Son, and Spirit, the one God who is one. Yet one which helps me is the explanation given by C. S. Lewis. “You know that in space you can move in three ways–to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body, say, a cube–a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.”

“Do you see the point? A world of one dimension would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three-dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: yuou still have them, but combined in new ways–in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.”

“Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings–just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube. Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: just as, if we were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space we could never properly imagine a cube. But we can get a sort of faint notion of it.”²

As human knowledge grows concerning creation we learn of a complex creation to the smallest part. If the God of Scripture is true, and I believe he is, if the God Jesus reveals is true, and I believe he is, he is complex. As we learn of the complex of creation the complexity of God is not surprising. What earthly good, though, is discussing this which we cannot imagine?

The God Jesus came to reveal, the God I know in Jesus, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not the God of Islam or God as he is understood by Judaism. This is not God as he is understood by Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. The importance of discussing God as Father, Son, and Spirit, is knowing the true God proclaimed in Scripture and revealed in Jesus Christ.

God as I know him in Jesus Christ as Father, Son, and Spirit, helps me to understand more completely, more deeply, God’s grace and love toward us. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9). The love we receive from God and from Jesus is the love they have first for one another! Paul writes of “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” abiding with us (2 Corinthians 13:14). Read Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul prays to the Father to strengthen Christians within “with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” The Father, the Son, the Spirit are all involved in our relationship with God and our growth in faith and love. In Romans 8 we see Father, Son, and Spirit involved in salvation, transformation of hearts and lives, hope, strengthening, and prayer.

I cannot fully imagine or understand, but in Jesus Christ this is God as I know him, Father, Son, and Spirit. As Father, and through his Son and Spirit, God loves us, saves us, guides us, enables us, sustains us, and gives us hope. Through all three we have fellowship with God and with each other. Notice the following texts.

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

“And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

“And because you  are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6)

“For through (Christ) we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

“Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-21).

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14).

“To those who are elect exiles…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Peter 1:1-2).

“By this we know that we abide in (God) and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:13-14).

“But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 20-21).

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit love me with a love beyond by full understanding, a love originating within and between them. My salvation, my redemption, my justification, my forgiveness, my strength to live new life in Christ, my hope, and more, come from God and are accomplished by God, the Father, through the Son and the Holy Spirit. God as I know him in Jesus Christ is more than I could ever imagine him being.

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¹N. T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: HarperOne, 2006), 140.

²C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, 1996), 142-143.

Jesus Christ is the source, the reason, and the foundation of my faith in God. To continue the metaphor from the last two posts, Jesus Christ is the place I stand. He is the fulcrum and the lever with which I am able to lift my heart and mind to faith in God. Jesus Christ is the place I stand, the fulcrum, and the lever with which I am able to lift up and remove any doubts and challenges that come to my life and attack my faith in God.

The apostle Peter agrees that we “through [Christ] are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). Notice what is in bold. Peter proclaimed on Pentecost, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Again notice what is in bold. The key, the central, event and evidence of who Jesus is is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He was not resuscitated. He was not a ghost or spirit. The body of Jesus, Jesus himself, was given new life, transformed, by the power of God. The resurrection of Jesus is the key and central evidence on which my faith stands. His resurrection convinces me Jesus is the Christ and God is true.

Through Jesus I know God. God as I know him in Jesus is what I begin to share with you in this post.

The apostle Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians that God will give them growth in wisdom and knowledge of God. Especially he prays they will know the hope to which God has called them in Jesus Christ. The faith-sustaining hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus.

“¹⁵For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:15-18).

Creation–my simple mind cannot comprehend creation being the result of chance without a Creator. I see creation. I see Creator, his power. I see God. Yet I see the wickedness of humankind. The loss of our fifteen-month-old grandson, Sully, to leukemia is imprinted on my heart. I am caused to question the Creator’s power. I have those moments, those days, when I question just how sure is the hope he promises in Christ? I question, is God able?

The apostle continues his prayer asking God not only to give Christians the knowledge of the hope to which God has called them. He also asks God to give them knowledge of the power of God by which their hope is sure.

“¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might ²⁰that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²²And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:19-23).

Notice the emphasis on God’s power which I emphasize with other translations. “The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe”–NASB “the surpassing greatness of His power,” NIV “his incomparable great power,” KJV “the exceeding greatness of his power,” NLT “the incredible greatness of God’s power.”

“According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places”–NASB “in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ,” NIV “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ,” REB “His mighty strength was seen at work when he raised Christ from the dead.”

Paul is assuring us of the promised hope. God is able. Notice the great might and the power of God by which he raised Jesus is the power which he extends toward us to accomplish our salvation and our hope–”the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”

I look at creation. There must be a Creator. What power must be his! So the psalmist writes concerning God as Creator. “He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved” (Psalm 104:5). The psalmist continues, “O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:24).

Jesus, the Son of God, came in the flesh. He lived among us. He died. God raised him from the dead. Jesus ascended and was enthroned by God. I understand Paul’s words as expressing in God’s power expressed in Jesus’ resurrection as a far greater working of the power of God and the strength of God.

God as I know him in Jesus is the God of immeasurably great power. God works with great power and energy to rescue his creation, to save us, and to give us hope in Christ.

God is the God of immeasurably great power. He is able. Yet I see the wickedness of humankind and remember Sully. I have those moments and those days when I question God’s faithfulness. Will God fulfill the hope he has promised?

I look at Jesus, at God as I know him in Jesus. Jesus was so determined to do the will of his Father who sent him. He was intent to accomplish God’s purpose to rescue and save. To do so Jesus had to walk the journey to the cross. Peter confessed Jesus is “the Christ of God.” It was then Jesus began to tell his apostles, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). Jesus knew his time, the cross, was near. Luke tells us of Jesus’ determination. “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his fact to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

His time came. We find him in the Garden of Gethsemane. “⁴¹And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴²saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” ⁴³And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:41-44). Jesus was in a faith struggle. He rose from praying to do the will of the Father. When his enemies came Jesus willingly went with them. With strength of meekness Jesus endured mockery, beatings, and crucifixion.

The faith struggle of Jesus struck again on the cross. For three hours darkness covered the land as Jesus was dying on the cross. Matthew records, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46). “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). Looking back, the apostle Peter wrote of Jesus, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:23-24).

Jesus entrusted himself to God. In his faith struggle, the faith of Jesus won. The Father won. In the midst of his suffering and his dying Jesus believed. Jesus knew. The Father is trustworthy and faithful. His Father would accomplish his purpose. God would raise him from the dead.

Back to Paul’s prayer that Christians might know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19-20).

There is much to challenge faith in God. The world tempts us to live a lifestyle different from the lifestyle to which God has called us. We are surrounded by wickedness in this world. There are tragedies in life as what happened to our grandson. Even so, the God I know in Jesus is trustworthy. God is faithful. God is true to his word.

There will continue to be the struggle of faith in the journey of my life. Times of doubt will come, times of questioning. “My God, my God, why?” It is especially at these times I must remember the place I stand, Jesus Christ, Son of God. As I remember his life, his faith, his death, his resurrection, and his enthronement, I learn of God. What I know of God in Jesus is his exceedingly great power and his faithfulness.

With Jesus Christ as my place to stand, my fulcrum and my lever, I am able to lift the doubt and the questions, to move them out of the way, believing and trusting God.  The hope of resurrection, of the glorious riches of God’s inheritance in his saints, is sure, is true, for the God of immeasurably great power is faithful. By the power and might with which he raised Jesus from the dead, God will raise us to life eternal with him.

From our perspective it seems so strange. They were with Jesus. Heard his teaching. Witnessed his miracles. Were prepared by him for what was coming. Experienced his authority. How could the disciples not understand? How could they not expect Jesus’ resurrection? Why did they doubt, not believe, and lose hope?

Jesus began to tell the disciples he must die and be raised from the dead.  “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matthew 16:22). Jesus died on the cross. His dead, lifeless, body was laid in the tomb, partially prepared for burial. “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1). They came to finish the preparation of the body of Jesus. There was no expectation of his resurrection. Jesus told them! Yes, but none of the disciples understood. That is not the way it was supposed to be. Those Jews who believed in resurrection believed in a final resurrection of all God’s people. There was no expectation of God’s Messiah, of one person, being raised first.

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the body of Jesus gone, she did not rejoice. “So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him’” (John 20:2). The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant when he told them he would be raised on the third day. Raised? No. Stolen? Yes. The crucifixion of Jesus crushed their hopes. Obviously Jesus was not the one for whom they were hoping. A prophet, a man of God, who did mighty works and spoke powerful words, this was Jesus, but not the hoped for Messiah.

On the road to Emmaus the resurrected Jesus came upon two disciples, walked along with them, and conversed with them. They did not recognize him. Surprised this man was not aware of what had recently happened in Jerusalem they told him of the disappointing events which happened that Friday. It was Sunday as they walked to Emmaus. “And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened’” (Luke 24:19-21, emphasis mine). A prophet, condemned, crucified, dead, buried now three days, they had hoped he was the one, but obviously Jesus of Nazareth was not the one for whom they hoped. Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah.

The cross had a clear meaning in the days of Jesus. “We Romans run this place, and if you get in our way we’ll obliterate you.”¹ The cross was not exactly a symbol of victory over evil. It was just the opposite. Crucifixion presented a clear message concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He was not the Messiah. The expectations of those looking for a promised Messiah were about victory over the pagans not defeat and crucifixion.

From his study of the Second Temple period, N. T. Wright summarizes the expectations the Jewish world of the first century had concerning the Messiah. “Win the decisive victory over the pagans,” which of course meant the defeat of Rome and the liberation of Israel. “Rebuild or cleanse the Temple. Bring true, god-given justice and peace.”² “Bring Israel’s long history to its climax, reestablishing the monarchy as in the days of David and Solomon.”³ There were would-be Messiahs before and after Jesus. Wright discusses two who came after Jesus whose agendas and efforts fit more into the expectations the people had for God’s Messiah.

In the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70 A.D. Simon bar-Giora was a would-be Messiah. The Romans crushed the revolt, destroyed Jerusalem, and flattened the Temple. The Roman victory was memorialized in Titus’s Arch at the east end of the Forum in Rome. Among the depictions, on the arch, of the victory procession through Rome, is that of the procession of Jewish prisoners carrying the spoils which included articles from the Temple. Simon was marched into Rome and executed. The city celebrated the Roman victory, Roman justice, Roman empire, and Roman peace. That was the end of Simon. There was no effort by his followers to continue his movement. He was dead, defeated. Obviously he was not the Messiah for whom they hoped.⁴

A second Jewish revolt against Rome occurred from 132-135 A.D. Simeon ben Kosiba led this revolt, initially meeting with success. One of the leading rabbis of the day hailed Simeon as Messiah. Simeon’s agenda and confidence is seen in the coins he had minted for three years. The dates on the coins were year 1, then year 2, then year 3, signifying the beginning of the new Jewish era with the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom of God. One of the coins depicts a restored Temple with the ark of the covenant. Simeon’s plan was to rebuild the Temple. The agenda of rebuilding the Temple, of being king in Jerusalem as David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and others, establishing the kingdom of God, and defeating the forces of paganism, was more in line with the expected agenda of the Messiah than that of Jesus. The rebellion was crushed by Rome. Simeon was killed. Dead, defeated, so was the end of Simeon. There was no effort by his followers to continue his movement. Obviously he was not the Messiah for whom they hoped.⁵

Considering the expectations for the Messiah which were held by the Jewish people and seeing what happened with the movements of men like Simon and Simeon, the disciples of Jesus losing hope and doubting, is not surprising. What is surprising, somewhat shocking, is to see the rise of Christianity after the death of Jesus. Crucified, dead, defeated by Rome and by the religious authorities, it was clear, Jesus was not the Messiah, the one for whom they hoped. There was a clear alternative for the disciples of Jesus. As with the followers of other so-called Messiahs who had been defeated and killed by the Romans, the disciples could go home, be grateful they escaped with their lives, and forget about Jesus of Nazareth who made such claims but was dead.⁶

Fifty days after the crucifixion of Jesus there is a surprising scene. Peter and the other apostles are found in Jerusalem before a large crowd gathered for the celebration of the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Peter preached. He gives a shocking conclusion to his message. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Jesus died. His body was in the tomb. Why did Peter proclaim Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, and the kingdom of God has come? Why did the disciples of Jesus make such claims concerning him with a willingness themselves to face rejection, arrest, beatings, and even execution? Unlike other messianic movements, why was there the rise of Christianity after the death of Jesus?

The disciples came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was the foundation for Peter’s bold claim concerning Jesus. “God has made him both Lord and Christ.” Notice Peter’s words in Acts 2:24 and 32. “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.” The disciples saw Jesus, risen. That is their claim. Seeing Jesus, talking with him, eating with him, touching him, convinced them to believe. He is risen! He is Lord and Christ.

When the women came and the two disciples from the Emmaus road came to the disciples the apostles did not believe they had seen Jesus. He was dead. The empty tomb, his enemies must have taken his body. Then that Sunday evening Jesus came into the room where they were gathered in fear, all but one of them. They believed. The following Sunday Jesus came to them again. Thomas, who was not there the previous week, was present this time. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-28). Resurrection–this was not a ghost, not a battered, bleeding survivor, but here was Jesus, living, his body raised from death.

The resurrection of Jesus was God’s vindication of Jesus. The resurrection was God’s proclamation that Jesus of Nazareth who died such a shameful death, who by all appearances was defeated, was dead, therefore done, and certainly not God’s Christ, is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The apostle Paul wrote, “the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:1-4, emphasis mine). Teaching in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch Paul proclaimed, “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (Acts 13:30-33).

Their belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the result of their seeing the resurrected Jesus, I understand to be the best explanation for the preaching, faith, courage, and changed lives of the disciples and for the explosion of Christianity in the first century. No other explanation makes sense within the context of history.

Jesus is risen. This is why I believe in the truth and trustworthiness of Jesus. Why I believe what Jesus claimed and what his disciples said about him is true. Why I believe the religion, Christianity, founded on Jesus of Nazareth is true. God raised Jesus from the dead. Believing this, Jesus Christ is my core belief, the place I stand, the lever and fulcrum which enable me to believe in God, to know who God is. The living Christ is my strength and my hope with which and on which I seek to build my faith.

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

____________________

¹N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (New York: HarperOne, 2008): 40.

²N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003): 557.

³N. T. Wright, Simply Christian (New York: HarperOne, 2006): 106.

⁴Wright, Resurrection: 558.

⁵Wright, Simply: 106.

⁶Wright, Resurrection: 560.

“Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.”
Archimedes

Ludmilla Pavlova, an adjunct professor at UMass Amherst, wrote on her blog: “Archimedes’ famous quotation has always been a symbol for me of the power individuals have to change not only their own destiny, but also to affect social and organizational change. The two prerequisites are: a place to stand, and a lever long enough.”1

There have been times in my life I have asked myself, “Where is my place to stand? What is my lever and fulcrum with which to build my life, my faith, to change what needs to be changed in me, to empower me to live with a faith and a moral integrity that are genuine and true?” A simpler way to phrase the question, “Why do I believe in God and seek to obey him in my life?” Yet asked another way, “What is my core belief, the place I stand?”

Since July, 2007, I have asked this question with more seriousness and questioning than any other time in my life. The questioning began when our two-month-old grandson, Sully, was diagnosed with A.L.L. leukemia that July. Since Sully’s death on August 2, 2008, the questioning has continued with earnest. If I ever did, no longer do I take for granted the existence of God. No longer do I take for granted the truth of Scripture, the place of the church, the importance of moral integrity, or anything else connected with Christian belief, teaching, and the faith I have held all of my life.

Two weeks ago, in a gathering of fourteen ministers for study, I was asked about Sully and the impact of his suffering and death on my faith. My response, without hesitation, was this: “What has helped me is my belief in Jesus Christ, the love of God revealed in him, and the promised hope we have in him through his death and resurrection. If it wasn’t for Christ, for being able to keep coming back to him,” I said of my faith in God, “I’d chuck it all.”

At that moment, and other moments the past three and one-half years, this is my answer to the question asked above.“Where is my place to stand? What is my lever and fulcrum with which to build my life, my faith, to change what needs to be changed in me, to empower me to live with a faith and a moral integrity that are genuine and true?” “Why do I believe in God and seek to obey him in my life?” “What is my core belief, the place I stand?”

The answer…Jesus Christ!

Faith must come from reason. “Faith comes from hearing,” the apostle Paul wrote. Certainly then it is wise to construct our faith on what we have the most reason to trust. Faith built on groundless trust is really superstition.2 Groundless trust is useless faith.

As a college student I was required to read A Place to Stand by Elton Trueblood. He wrote, “The primary proposition for the Christian, his ultimate act of faith, is the trustworthiness of Jesus Christ. It is here that the Christian finds a place to stand.”3 The answer to my question above could begin with creation or inspiration of Scripture or God himself or a number of philosophical arguments. I long have pondered Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:21 (see below). Trueblood’s statement strikes a cord with me. (Last week I pulled his book off my shelf where it has been since my college days.)

Take every reason for faith in God and all the beliefs and practices of the Christian faith, as important as all of these may be, and put them together. Where do I go as I struggle with my doubts, my grief, and my questions? At times I ask myself, is it true, what I have believed all my life and preached these forty years? I keep coming back to Jesus Christ.

How did I respond to Trueblood’s words forty-two years ago? I do not remember. Last week his words gave expression to the faith in which I stand. “A Christian is a person who, with all the honesty of which he is capable, becomes convinced that the fact of Jesus Christ is the most trustworthy that he knows in his entire universe of discourse. Christ thus becomes both his central postulate and the Archimedean fulcrum which, because it is really firm, enables him to operate with confidence in other areas.”4

I am convinced of the truth of Jesus, the truth of what he said and claimed concerning himself, what his disciples said and claimed concerning him. Above all I am convinced of, humbled by, and my heart moved by his love seen in his death, his resurrection, and his life now. The apostle reminds me. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).5

Jesus is the place I stand.

Jesus Christ convinces me God is. Concerning himself, Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). Jesus is the source, the firm ground on which my faith in God stands. Notice the apostle Peter’s words concerning the faith of the Christians to whom he wrote, “who through him [Christ] are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). Jesus is my core belief, the core reason I believe in God.

Jesus is the place I stand.

Jesus Christ reveals to me and convinces me who God is. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Of the unbelieving, Paul writes, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Peterson paraphrases, “Christ…gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get” (THE MESSAGE).

Jesus is the place I stand.

Jesus Christ reveals to me and convinces me God loves Sully, my family, me, and all of humankind. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Jesus is the place I stand.

Jesus Christ reveals to me and convinces me God does not abandon me when bad things happen to those I love and to me. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Commenting on Romans 5:6-10, John Stott writes, “So what we have been given in the sin-bearing death of Jesus Christ is not a solution to the problem of pain, but sure and solid evidence of both the justice and the love of God, in the light of which we may learn to live and love, to serve, to suffer and to die.”6

Jesus is the place I stand.

Jesus is my core belief, the place I stand, my fulcrum, my lever with which I am able to lift any doubts and challenges that come to my life, attacking my faith.

Jesus is my core belief, the place I stand, my fulcrum, my lever with which I am able to lift my heart and mind to faith in God.

Jesus is my core belief, the place I stand.

Jesus keeps me standing.

____________

Sully, six months old

1 http://blogs.umass.edu/lpavlova/2009/09/19/solar-decathlon-a-lever-for-growth/
2 Elton Trueblood, A Place to Stand (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 38.
3Ibid., 35. 4Ibid., 38.
5 All Scripture quotes are from the ESV, unless stated otherwise.
6 John Stott, Why I Am A Christian (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 60.