Gospel

Built together by and for Jesus.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

origin november 24 2013 005 - Version 2

19So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.  Ephesians 2:19-22

Jesus has radically altered the landscape of humanity with His death, burial and resurrection. Now together with all those who call on Him, we are being built together for a purpose that will culminate in His return and the redemption of all creation in Him. Now our lives are being altered by His grace. Such that together we are “holy building.” Jesus is the cornerstone; the apostles and the prophets are the foundation. Now we are being built up and inhabited by the Spirit of God. Now the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles united by faith in Christ as the people for God.

In carpentry, joining is an incredibly skilled process of linking two or more boards together. The craftsmanship when this is done well — is beautiful! The church is meant to display the beauty of God. The knowledge that I am being “carefully joined together” with others as the church by a master craftsman changes the way I see the church. Now, my participation in the church is not just an optional part of my life. You are an essential part of the church! This reality is meant to be an essential part of your identity in Christ.

God is not keeping you on the outside.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_9868

11Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

14For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.

We must understand that the Gospel has its roots in the Bible; and by that I mean specifically the Old Testament as the testimony of God’s work with Israel for the blessing of all the nations. God chose to make a people for himself, Israel, from those who were not a people in order to bless all the nations. From the Scriptures we see the great grace of God to choose and to make the way of holiness available to Israel. Jesus, according to these Scriptures, was born, lived, crucified, buried, and raised on the third day in order to open the way of holiness “once and for all” for Israel and for the Gentiles who were “far” from God. Now in Christ we have been included. We who are not Jewish have been “brought near.”

What was the Gentile condition before Christ? We were outsiders. We were people without a family that mattered. We were apart from Christ. We were excluded from citizenship with the people of Israel. We did not know the covenant promises God had made. We lived without God and without hope. But now God has made a new covenant for the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ and we have been brought near to God.

The Gospel of Jesus declares that something has changed! You have been brought near to God through the blood of Christ! God is not keeping you on the outside.

Graced by God’s kindness.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_1237

5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.   Ephesians 2:5-9

Incomparable, immeasurable, riches of His grace.

This is what God is showing to you. Together with all those who have received Jesus as Lord, we have become evidence of God’s grace. He is a gracious God. He is a kind God too! He intends to show kindness shown to us over and over from now through eternity with Him. This is what He has accomplished through Jesus the Messiah.

God is kind.

Its possible that each of us wrapped “god” up in a distorted idea of who God is. Each one of us has a view that left to itself is inadequate and not quite true. For you, we might call it, “god-according-to-(name).” But the Gospel of Jesus is always seeking to reframe our view of God because everything changes for us when we see Him as He intends—even our understanding of ourselves.

Paul is writing to the Ephesians and he reminds them: now and in the future,  God, is going to show you the “immeasurable riches of His grace;” He is going to show it to you with kindness! Kindness — now that’s a different view of power in action! God’s power is shown to us in undeserved, unmerited, unwarranted kindness all derived from the elevation of Jesus the Crucified to the throne of God as Lord of Heaven and Earth!

Take a seat… with Jesus.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

IMG_1276

4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7

Here is an aspect of our identity in Christ that may seem far out! But, this is what is being pictured here: God treating you with the greatest honour available to us—to be seated with Jesus!

The typical image of a servant is that a servant is “waiting tables.” The servant serves at a banquet. The servant may not even open his or her mouth if they are approaching the throne.  So the picture here is of immense honour and care being taken by God towards all of us who are in Christ.  At baptism we use the phrase, “buried with Jesus in baptism and raised to walk in new life.”  But here the picture is that we have been raised not just to new life, but also to a new status with the King Jesus who has been raised. Now, because of God’s mercy toward us In Christ, we have the honour of being seated with Him in heaven. Mercy is not merited. God has graced us with more than we can imagine!

Why? Because, God loves you! Because, God is rich in mercy. Because, God desires to show “the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward” you!

What an awesome God we serve!

What are you building your life on?

/ Craig / Leave a comment

IMG_2205

Here’s the quote from Tim Keller, in The Reason for God showing how “particular kinds of brokenness and damage” are caused by idolatry. You can also ask yourself, “What am I building my life on?  If I build my life on _____ then I could expect ______.

If you center your life and identity on your spouse or partner, you will be emotionally dependent, jealous, and controlling. The other person’s problems will be overwhelming to you.

If you center your life and identity on your family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you

If you center your life and identity on your work and career, you will be a driven workaholic and a boring, shallow person. At worst you will lose family and friends and, if your career goes poorly, develop deep depression.

If you center your life and identity on money and possessions, you’ll be eaten up by worry or jealousy about money. You’ll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up your life.

If you center your life and identity on pleasure, gratification, and comfort, you will find yourself getting addicted to something. You will become chained to the “escape strategies” by which you avoid the hardness of life.

If you center your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.

If you center your life and identity on a “noble cause,” you will divide the world into “good” and “bad” and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.

If you center your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous, and cruel. If you don’t live up to your moral standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating.

Tim Keller, The Reason for God (Dutton, 2008), pp. 275-276

Jesus invites us to build our life on Him through knowing Him and doing His word and will. When Jesus’ work through the cross is the foundation of our life He actually becomes what will last through the storms of time.  Jesus says,

24  “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”  Matthew 7:24-27