1 Peter 2:18-25 Return to the Shepherd!

1 Peter 2:18-25  Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.  For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.  But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?  But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.  To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.”  When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.  Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.  “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”  For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 

If the world is your home and everything you do is your oyster, beware, for your life is on the wrong foundation.  Today, Peter addresses the slaves in bondage, suffering not being free to do what they desire in this world.  As with all humans, they will go around only once in this world, but sadly their status in life will be as those who have no possibility of doing their own will, living as they desire in all situations.  They will bow down to the wishes and controls of others.  Peter asks these enslaved people not only to submit themselves willingly to good and considerate masters, but also to the harsh and cruel masters.  Is Peter validating slavery and its tyrannies in this passage?  No, Peter is expressing a truth of Christianity.  This world and everything in it is not to be your oyster: what you are living for.  Whether free or in slavery, we are not to live our lives as our flesh wishes but as God’s servants.  Whether we agree or not, we are not independent of all authority.  Jesus said there are two authorities in this world; we either have the devil as our father and master or God as our father and master.  Jesus also said, No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  (Matthew 6:24)  No man can live a double-minded life successfully.  Since our nature is Adamic from our birth, we easily fall into the camp of fleshly desires and sinful pursuits, not in the camp of God’s will with the attributes of the Holy Spirit.  Peter addresses which camp the slaves should be functioning in by talking about submission to good or bad masters.  The good master is easy to serve; the harsh master is hard to serve.  But submitting to the latter reveals the nature of God, while submitting to the good master is a matter of course for the flesh.  Submitting to a harsh master reveals commitment to the Lord, for He went to the cross for his enemies, those who desired to humiliate, hurt, and kill him.  Peter tells the slaves, if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.  To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.  By suffering though the horrible conditions of a cruel master, the slave radiates light to the world and to his master.  Such light might bring his master to God.  If the slave strikes back passively or aggressively, his master will assess this action as typical of all humans.  No divine light of God will shine in that situation.

In our times, we probably find Peter’s position on slavery rather disconcerting.  Instead of telling slaves how to behave, why not come out against slavery?  But in Peter’s world, two-thirds of the people in the Roman society were enslaved.  Some of the slaves were the result of wars.  Ending up on the losing side of a war caused people to become the property of the victors.  Other individuals be0came slaves because of economic hardships.  To survive, people sometimes sold themselves into slavery.  Many were born into slavery, part of their family’s inheritance.  Paul expresses this matter-of-fact social and economic reality of his time by saying to the Corinthians: Were you a slave when you were called?  Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so.  For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.  You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.  Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.  (1 Corinthians 7:21-24)  In this statement, he merely tells them that the reality of bondage is not the most important aspect in their lives.  What is really important to the Christian is that he or she is free from the captivity of sin.  Don’t let it trouble you if you are a slave.  Don’t let your bondage to others be a major concern in your life in comparison to what you have been given IN CHRIST: eternal life.  However, if you can gain your freedom, do so.  With freedom to do what you desire, your life as a Christian, as a light in the world, may have more impact.  You will not be restrained to a household or restricted to a parcel of land—you will express your life as a Christian to other families and other communities.  Surely, Paul desired freedom for all people to spread the Good News, to travel freely and share God’s goodness with all people.  He told the Corinthians to be content with their lives, not striving to be different, but to express God wherever they were and in whatever physical surroundings they found themselves.  He did not want them to be slaves to men’s desires and activities.  Even though slaves, they should not be enslaved by sinfulness.  He wanted them to remember Christ purchased their freedom from sin at a price.  The victorious life IN CHRIST is one of slavery to God.  Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.  When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?  Those things result in death!  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:19-23)  Peter and Paul were not sharing the good news of being delivered from the physical slavery of this world; they were bringing the good news of deliverance from the slavery of sin.  They were not overly concerned about the condition or position of people in the world.  They were concerned about the condition of the soul because eternal life was at stake.  Gaining eternal life was much more important to them than gaining freedom from bondage to men.

By Christ wounds we have been healed from the finality of death.  His suffering, his death, brought life to us.  He bore our sins, bringing life and righteousness to us through the cross.  In today’s focus, Peter tells the slave, who has a difficult master, to emulate Christ, to particulate in Christ’s suffering by enduring the wickedness of a froward master.  By going though this difficult life with love and caring for even his master, the slave portrays the work of Christ on the cross.  All of us IN CHRIST are slaves; none of us are the master.  None of us has the right to live life as we desire.  If we try to do that, Christ is not in control at those times.  We should not function independent of God’s authority.  When we become Christians, we repent of our old lives.  We begin our new lives with Christ in the driver’s seat.  Consequently, slavery in the flesh was no big thing to Peter and Paul, for they saw their lives as slaves to God.  We too who name the name of Christ as our Lord are no longer to live our lives as we desire in the flesh.  We live our lives as Christ desires.  If we are trying to live a double-minded life; sometimes doing Christ’s will and sometimes doing our own will, we will fail as bright shining lights.  No one wants to follow a double-minded person, sometimes earthly minded and other times heavenly minded.  When we operate in the flesh, we want the things of this world: power, position, and money.  Paul warned Timothy against seeking riches and said, But godliness with contentment is great gain.  (Timothy 6:6)  We cannot make this world our home, seeking worldly treasure, and remain happy in Jesus.  We will not endure hardship with a contented heart if we are caught up with carnal thinking.  Jesus said not to save up things on this earth, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  (Matthew 6:21)  If we are earthly minded, we will not have sacrificed our lives, our freedom for others.  We will not have displayed the attributes of the Holy Spirit by loving others unconditionally.  If we try to have this world and Christ, we will lose everything.  There is no other life than to be a slave to the Master.  As Peter wrote in today’s verses, Jesus was sinless and without deceit.  When He was insulted, He did not answer back.  When He was suffering, He did not make threats against others.  He trusted himself to his Father who judges fairly, and then He took our sins to the cross.  We had all gone astray like wandering sheep, but now we can return to our good shepherd.  Have you entrusted yourself to the one who judges justly?  This means being content in all situations, for God will have the last word.  No one will mistreat you and get away with it!  No one will abuse you and escape God’s justice!  God is just, God is holy.  He will judge all things that were not righteous or good in this world.  He will make everything whole.  Slaves IN CHRIST, live as He would desire you to live.  For once we were sheep with no one to care for us, all of us going our own way, but now we have a Shepherd, the Overseer of our souls, the Master of eternal life.  Seek him!  

1 Peter 2:11-17 Live as Free People!

1 Peter 2:11-17  Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.  Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.  Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.  

Jesus was asked about honoring rulers and those with political control.  A hard question, for evil rulers will always exist, rulers who want to put people into bondage.  Maybe not emperors, but people around us daily attempt to manipulate us into following their will, not ours.  But Jesus puts secular authority in perspective with his answer: Teacher, they said, “We know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.  Tell us then, what is your opinion?  Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”  But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?  Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”  They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied.  Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  When they heard this, they were amazed.  So they left him and went away.  (Matthew 22:16-22)  In the areas of man’s authority, where obedience usually brings order, we are to be submissive to this power, but in the areas of God’s domain, where following his will brings eternal peace, eternal life, we are to be submissive to God above all else.  We are not to fear those who can take our temporal lives but God who can take away eternal life with him.  God’s eminent authority surpasses all temporal authority on Earth.  Jesus relates to them that Caesar owns the coin; therefore, in that realm they should function properly.  If they use Caesar’s coins for commerce, they should comply with his directions and laws.  Jesus did not come to overthrow the authorities of the secular world: He came to free people from the prince of the air who has imprisoned all mankind in a state of rebellion, leading to eternal damnation.  Christ’s quarrel was not with men, but with the powers of darkness that inhabit the ethereal world of the spirits.  Previous to his teaching about Caesar’s authority, Jesus entered the temple, God’s holy domain and place of authority, where the Jewish people worshipped him.  Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”  (Matthew 21:12-13)  Here we see another economy, functioning at the behest of the priests.  Business entrepreneurs were in the temple facilitating the buying and selling of birds for sacrifices.  People from foreign lands, wanting to perform these sacrifices, could exchange their money to buy doves with the right currency.  These convenient  transactions, exchanging money and buying doves, offered an orderly, efficient process under the auspices of the priests.  Jesus rejects this commerce, for the coin of the realm in God’s house is not money, but a heart to serve God.  The Temple is a place for spiritual activity, dedicating oneself to God, not temporal transactions contaminating the holy purposes of the Temple.  In this situation, Jesus does not honor the administration of the priests.  Instead, He rebells against this hierarchical authority, for the purpose of the God’s house is to honor the Creator of all things.  The Temple was consecrated to prayer, service, and holy sacrifices to the God of Israel.  Jesus’ anger towards the commercial activity in the Temple reflects  the difference between honoring secular authority and God’s authority.  Temporal power is finite, a way of organizing societies, but God’s power is infinite.  Obeying and honoring him brings eternal life.

Our obedience to secular powers remains important, for such compliance is in contrast to the prevalent nature of humans: rebellion.  The Bible says that we have all gone astray, doing our own thing, moving away from God and others to seek what we think is best for ourselves. The sensuous nature of man commonly becomes the captain of our souls.  Our desires to eat, drink, and be merry, to prefer ourselves above others, functions innate within all of us.  Peter compels us as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  He tells Christians to fight the natural inclinations of the secular man by putting our lives under God’s control and doing what we know is right.  Even if it chafes us, we must fight the good fight, so the God within us might be honored.  If we live a disciplined, circumspect life, God will be glorified, but if we live in this foreign, alien world for ourselves, God will not be honored.  We will be hypocrites, honoring ourselves over God.  This kind of life is like a ship on rough waters—life will never settle down.  A double-minded man will never receive anything from God, especially peace or victory over sin.  James calls this kind of life, caught in-between serving God wholeheartedly and the world’s desires, as adulterous.  What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill.  You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?  (James 4:1-4)  A life caught in the middle between God and the flesh will not receive anything from God.  If we love this world more than we love God, our flesh will always ask amiss, always with SELF in the middle of our request.  How do we know that we do not love this world more than we love God?  If we are not submissive to authority, if we try to get out from underneath serving others, using our freedom IN CHRIST as a reason not to be obedient to anyone, especially the world’s laws and obligations, we are in the midst of loving ourselves more than God.  This selfish state reflects the spirit of disobedience endemic to all of us.  When we begin to love the unlovely, to wash the feet of others, to lay our lives down for the sake of the gospel, then we know the world and its attractions have no part in us.  As you live freely in the Lord, Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. 

Often, our flesh is tempted to go back into the world in attitude and activity.  We can so easily choose not to obey rulers, authorities, people who seek to have control over us.  Why not reject or strike back at friends, neighbors, family members who demand so much from us, wanting us to meet their desires, ignoring our wills and desires?  Why should we allow people to sculpt our lives, shaping us as they desire, trying to control our individuality, our uniqueness?  We go around this world only once; why bow to the authority of others, ignoring what is best for us?  Why not just launch out on our own, live separate lives, free from entanglements, free for our flesh to do what it desires?  Why should we control the rebellion inside of us?  Are we not free?  Did not Jesus come to set us free?  So what if I am a little rebellious to authority and other people’s influence: the Bible says God’s grace is sufficient for me.  Wait a minute!  We cannot pick and choose scripture to justify our selfishness when serving God.  He is the justifier of our lives!  And He will not let us off the hook of being obligated to others.  Jesus said to take up the cross and follow him.  Our lives are not our own.  We have been bought with a high price: the blood of Jesus Christ.  We do his will for his benefit, not ours.  God is light; we are lights in a dark world.  Our will, our way of thinking in the flesh, is darkness.  That kind of thinking leads to fights, wars, corruption, death.  No good will come out of fleshly thinking or rebellion.  Harmony with God’s will for our lives brings peace and love.  In all things we must follow God in obedience to his will and authority.  As we grow in grace, we learn to follow God’s Spirit in all things.  We are new creatures.  Definitely, we function in an alien world where we obey the laws of the land and live in peace with others to the best of our abilities.  However, the world will always dislike our Christian lifestyle, for the Bible says they love darkness over light and hide there because of their evil deeds.  Yet we can let our lights shine before people, so they can see Jesus in us.  The Bible says, You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.  (Ephesians 2:1-4)  We used to live in this darkness; we were dead in our transgressions and sins.  We are no longer there; we are alive IN CHRIST forevermore.  Let us reveal light rather than self, rather than flesh, rather than darkness.  Walk in the light as He is in the light, living as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.  

2 Peter 9:10 A Special Possession

2 Peter 9:10  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

What a wonderful salvation has been given to us!  We are God’s special possession.  Once we were in an untenable position, far away from God, without eternal life.  We were self-oriented, performing our wills, not God’s will.  We were as evil as in Noah’s time when God decided to kill all humans except for his chosen Noah and family.  Now because of the cross, we have been led out of darkness into his wonderful light.  We are a chosen people of God.  As born again believers, we have been placed into the body of Christ, into the family of God.  All of this wonderful inheritance has come through God’s mercy, his grace to us, undeserving as we are.  The Bible says, Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.  (Romans 5:20) The penalty for being opposite of God is death.  Outside of Christ, we have that penalty in our future.  How could we so marvelously change from sources of darkness to sources of light?  Of course, first we needed a complete transformation from the lost to the saved.  This comes through faith in Christ’s work.  But being born again in the eyes of God does not mean our flesh is always obedient to God, always perfect in actions or thoughts.  In God’s eyes, we are perfect because Christ is perfect, and we are hidden in him.  But we still walk in the flesh.  How do we become lights in a world of darkness?  Jesus stated that his followers are lights.  You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.   Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)  Let your light shine is Jesus’ request.  When Jesus went back to his hometown in Nazareth, they rejected him, for they saw him as just one of them—not a person of light.  They knew him from his childhood to his adulthood.  They questioned how this son of Joseph and Mary could be anything other than a man of flesh?  But Jesus claimed more than a fleshly life: he claimed to be a special messenger from God.  The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  (Luke 4:18-19)  How could this carpenter claim such a high position with God?  His messenger?  But Jesus had been baptized in water for repentance and blessed by a dove from heaven: filled with the Holy Spirit.  He had been elevated from the work of a carpenter to God’s work by the Holy Spirit.  As a source of good, He traveled around Israel, revealing the light of God.  Now God transforms believers by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.  We are not the Son of God, but we definitely are his lights in the darkness He came to dispel.

Yes, the world is dark, and people without a loving relationship with Jesus are not the friends of God, but enemies of God.  We see the people in Nazareth, even some acquaintances and apparent friends of Jesus try to destroy him when Jesus states that they will not accept the fact that He is a messenger of God.  In that incident, Jesus escapes from their intensions to destroy him.  Even in his hometown, the darkness in men’s hearts rallied to snuff out the Light from God.  Jesus recognized that He was in an alien world, one that would not display God and his goodness.  When He sends out his disciples to minister He warns them, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  (Matthew 10:16)  The world is not accepting to the gospel of Good News.  For the gospel demands repentance of sins and a wholehearted turning towards God.  The gospel demands a recognition that a person's natural inclinations are not always godlike.  And because God is perfect, his will, his nature, must always be displayed in our beings.  We cannot vary, for He is holy; therefore, we are holy or perfect in Christ Jesus.  So the world will always reject this message of loving and knowing God, no matter how we present the gospel to them.  To what can I compare this generation?  They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:  “We played the pipe for you and you did not dance, we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.”  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “ e has a demon."  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “there is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.  (Matthew 11:17-19)  No matter what our approach is, people will resist turning to God.  In our churches we have loving people, we have great music, strong preachers; but few, unless in deep trouble in their personal lives, will enter through their doors.  Nonetheless, God’s continually extends his mercy and grace to all who will turn from their own ways and accept the Christ who died for them.  Whosoever will can enter through those doors and find salvation from their sins, freedom from their darkness.  They can say with the blind man, “One thing I do know.  I was blind but now I see.”  (John 9:25)  They can know for eternity, “I was lost but now I am found.”        

As lights, we should not merely sit in the pews, waiting for people to enter our sanctuaries.  We must go forth with the Good News that Jesus died on the cross to set captives free, that eternal life comes to all who put their trust in Jesus.  We should be sources of light, the opposite of the world’s darkness.  We are testimonies of Jesus Christ’s work in our hearts.  The people in Nazareth did not understand that God’s power, the Holy Spirit, was resident in Jesus.  Jesus told them the truth: the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.  He was not the carpenter; He was the LIGHT.  As believers, we are lights when the Holy Spirit is upon us.  We cannot come in our own names because of our own positions in our families or communities and convince people that they should turn from their wicked ways and accept Jesus.  They will not view us as anything other than people, playing roles with just another message that does not satisfy.  We will be as the carpenter’s son, without respect, another person from Nazareth.  People must see us as believers, new creatures made by God’s hand, through the work of Jesus Christ.  We are God’s chosen priesthood, his nation of believers.  The source of power to change the world is within us.  “In the last days,” God says, "I WILL pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters WILL prophesy, your young men WILL see visions, your old men WILL dream dreams.”  (Acts 2:17)  Your sons and daughters will tell of the glory of God.  Their lives will illustrate God’s nature.  Your old men will see things that they could never imagine when they were young.  All of God’s people, young and old will reveal God to the world.  This only happens when the Holy Spirit is present.  This scripture does not say that they might do these things, but it says they WILL perform the works of God.  We must be sensitive to that WILL—God’s promise.  The Holy Spirit wants you to demonstrate God in your language and activities.  When you leave from talking to someone can you say, God’s promise was primary in your talk?  As you leave a person or people, can you hear in your ears the Lord saying, “I have given you those words.  They were mine.  You prophesied.”  To you the words may have seemed mundane, very ordinary, but to God they were prophesies for the Spirit motivated them.  Saying a simple, “I hope you have a great breakfast and enjoy your day,” to the people next to you at a restaurant can be a blessing from God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:22-25)  As we keep in step with the Holy Spirit wherever we go, people will see and hear the Good News, the prophetic word of God’s redemption to all people.  The message may be indirect at times, but through our everyday words and actions, they will see Jesus.  Our families, friends, acquaintances, strangers should see the fulfillment of God’s will in us.  Believers, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, WILL express the prophetic word through their daily lives.  A waitress once said to us, “I knew you were Christians just by how you acted, even before I saw you pray over your food.”  Dear friends, walk in his wonderful light today!


  

1 Peter 2:1-8 Precious Cornerstone

1 Peter 2:1-8  Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.  Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.  As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For in Scripture it says:  “See, I lay a stone in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.  But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the  cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”  They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

Peter writes that since we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23), we should rid ourselves of immature fleshly behavior such as malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander.  Because the Lord has redeemed our finite lives, giving us eternal lives, we should function as new creatures, giving ourselves up as spiritual offerings.  Our lives should be living sacrifices, revealing God in everything we do.  As Paul would say, we must consider the old man as dead, moving on in our lives to new beginnings: Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you.  (Philippians 4:4-9)  The fleshly ways of our former lives should be avoided as much as possible.  But often we feel as if we are fish swimming upstream, attempting to be good, to be holy, to never displease God.  Yet condemnation and disappointment often trouble our minds because we see ourselves as not always doing the will of God.  Maturity seems to slip from our grasp.  To survive as Christians, many believers constantly go back to the fundamentals of becoming a Christian: repenting of sins, accepting Jesus as Savior; receiving baptism in water and Spirit, and acknowledging they will be raised from the grave.  Returning to the rudimentary elements of Christianity is not bad unless that is where the believer wants to abide, refusing to go deeper in the things of God.  Immaturity leads to seeking pastors who preach only the elementary teachings of Christ, preaching that provides comfort rather than challenge because the people have already fulfilled the initial requirements of salvation.  But the writer of Hebrews desires believers to move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,  instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  And God permitting, we will do so.  (Hebrew 6:1-3)  Fundamentals have their place and should not be ignored, but they represent spiritual pablum to one alive IN CHRIST.  As spiritual men and women seeking maturity, we should desire pure spiritual milk so that we may grow up in our salvation, walking in the full knowledge of who we are IN CHRIST.  We do not need to continually discover salvation; we need to come alive in the Spirit in our salvation.  Of course, our spiritual maturation will culminate in the future when we see Jesus on the other side of this life.  At that time, we and all of creation will know who we really are as adopted daughters and sons in the household of God.  The angels and all of creation will rejoice, for no longer will creation be under the burden of sin.  Consequently, dear brethren around this devotional table this morning: Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Salvation is yours!  The fundamentals are completed!  Appreciate that you have been made complete, perfect, through the works of the cross.

What is it to go deeper in the Lord?  How do we know that we are treading on a deeper landscape than the flat meadows of elementary teaching?  See, I lay a stone in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.  But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the  cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”  We must believe that the cross and its works are always with us, that we will never be put to shame.  We do not have to repeat the elementary works of salvation to know that we are complete in the Lord.  He is our cornerstone for sure; we build our lives on his teachings, on his life by faith.  But Jesus is also the touchstone in our lives.  He is the perfect God.  He is without end, always the same, exactly perfect in every way.  As the Bible says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (Hebrews 13:8)  With Christ as the touchstone, we cannot vary at all from that perfection if we are going to reside with God.  Do we believe that fact?  Or are we trying to live that perfect life in ourselves?  Are we the fish that is always swimming upstream, but never making it to the top of the rapids?  Are we the one who is bruised by every rock on the way, often pushed underneath the current, hardly surviving in our journey?  Are the rudimentary tenets of Christianity what keeps us moving and alive as Christians?  Does the unending struggle seem too much?  If so, we are still battling life with the milk designed for babies, that which will never give us enough energy to bolster our spiritual lives forever.  The rocks, the obstacles in life, will hinder our struggle to find security in the Lord.  James adds to this insecurity by informing us of the error of trying to find our way to God by obeying the law: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.”  If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”  (James 2:10-11)  James points out that any sin, no matter how insignificant, makes us guilty of not being acceptable to God.  If we sin, we are not perfect, and God is perfect.  What is our hope of security, our hope of reaching the top of the waterfalls?  Trust completely in the works of Christ.  He is the touchstone, the gold standard of life.  He is the way to life eternal.  Faith in God’s work will bring us security.  When we fail, we know for sure that we are still in the household of God, for Jesus paid the price for failures.  His efficacious work is continuously providing for every failure, every weakness.  We and the Touchstone are one, for we are IN THE TOUCHSTONE!  We are IN CHRIST.

What is the deeper work of Christ?  What is a life that is mature in Christ, that is seated in heavenly places with Christ?  If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.  (James 2:8)  Actively loving people as you love yourself, represents a deeper work.  When God’s love takes over, salvation is not all about yourself: how you get to heaven; how you please God.  Milk for baby believers is oriented towards self-survival in the kingdom of God.  However, for mature Christians, the life you live in the flesh is not for personal survival, but for the survival of others.  Your life becomes one of a servant.  You are not concentrating on what God can do for you; instead, you are asking God what you can do for others.  A mature believer makes his or her life available for God’s mission on Earth rather than following a personal mission.  Paul wrote: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)  The Bible says, God is love.  His great patience with this world signifies his love for the world.  Outside of God’s love, we are a cancer on existence, enemies of God.  Yet while we are and were in this state, God sent his Son for our survival.  He not only willingly redeemed us, but He placed us in his household, glorifying us.  He made us as He is, complete, perfect, exact.  We do not have to live in a state of wondering if we will meet God’s standard for eternal life.  We exist in the ETERNAL ONE: JESUS CHRIST.  Believers do not need to fight the battle of finding salvation or defeating sin.  God has defeated sin through the One in whom we have placed our trust, Jesus Christ.  We who trust in him have died with him and are now presently alive forevermore with him.  That battle is over.  Now the struggle we might be experiencing as mature Christians is to love others as God loves them.  This is a daily struggle for all Christians.  Christians no longer need to swim upstream for security in Christ, but what we must be willing to do daily is to love the people of the world as Jesus loves them.  Beloved friends, inventory your love.  Do you love others who are not like you, those who are not in your ethnic group, your culture group?  Do you care for those unappreciated by society, those who struggle with addiction and poverty?  To what level does the dipstick in your love reservoir rise?  The battle to love others is a war for all of us, no matter where we are on the ladder of supposed maturity in Christ.  Jesus said, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:44-45)   Why?  Because God loves them, and we are to reflect God’s image to the world.  Are we reflecting him or are we reflecting the natural man’s parsimonious love for others?  Go forth today as living stones, the children of God with the attributes of God, loving one another deeply from your hearts.  

1 Peter 1:20-35 Love Deeply

1 Peter 1:20-35  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.  Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.  For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”  And this is the word that was preached to you. 

Christ was appointed before the foundation of the world to provide salvation for all who are contaminated by sin, not being like God.  This plan came to fruition in the last days when Jesus Christ came to the world in the form of a child.  Through Christ’s miraculous exploits during his earthly ministry we see the manifestation of God, the Creator of all things.  We who trust in Jesus and his salvation power have placed our hope of life forever in his loving hands.  We know He was raised from the grave by the authority of God, breaking the power of death over the flesh.  Since we have by faith vicariously accepted his death and resurrection as ours, we are made into new creatures with eternal life within us: the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls.  We read in the word: And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.  (Romans 8:11)  As new creatures, designed by God to be holy, we possess an earnest and passionate love for our fellow believers who are also new creatures in the likeness of Jesus Christ.  We love one another deeply, from the heart.  Our lives as born again people are no longer fixated on the servitude to the flesh, for we are truly born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  We are eternal in nature, not structured according to the finiteness of this world, with death like grass, here for a while, but soon the vitality of life will vanish and its glory will fail, shriveling into nothingness.  But our lives are forever, for Christ is eternal.  We are hidden in him.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  (Colossians 3:3-4)  As the word will never cease, so we will never cease.  Heaven and Earth can pass away, but we will never pass away, for we will be with God.  This is our hope when we trust in Christ; God’s plan from the beginning of time.  With joy we trust in his way, understanding our existence as eternal with a knowledge of God and his righteousness, exactness, purity.  By faith in Christ, with boldness we can enter the chambers of the Most Holy, as his children, adopted forever into his family. 

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.  (John 14:6)  Peter says, Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, love from your hearts.  How do we obey the truth to obtain this purification?  Perfect purity comes from the absolutely pure one: God.  We have minds with great abilities and possibilities.  Otherwise, our minds are fantastic.  Even as you read this breakfast, focused on its content, your mind accepts and processes other information.  You possess an acute awareness of your surroundings: sounds, colors, comfort, distractions, and so much more.  Sensory input is constantly in action.  The neurons in your brain incessantly fire: receiving, interpreting, categorizing, and sending input throughout your neuro system.  If your chair is uncomfortable, your mind sends that signal.  If there is noise in the other room, your brain processes that.  Even though you desire to pay complete attention to this devotional, you are not able to control your mind to focus only on the words in front of you.  The input you receive from the words is processed too slowly for the fabulous computer in your head.  Consequently, the expansive energy of your neurotransmitters receives information other than what you are reading.  You may be unconscious of your mind’s processes, for they occur faster than nanoseconds.  At times, this ability of our brains to take in a myriad of thoughts all at once troubles us, as our minds seem to spin out of control, piling up information.  Some of this input is not supportive to our spiritual well-being.  In some situations, we feel swamped with critical, angry thoughts; thoughts we do not desire to hold to ourselves.  Even when we are performing a spiritual activity, picking up manna for the day, our minds might be battling fear, anxiety, doubt, impurity.  But we ought not condemn ourselves, for true holiness is not our work but a work of God—a faith work.  Our minds of the flesh are wonderfully made, but they are not holy.  Our exposure to a fleshly world and its ideas keeps us from perfection, total godliness.  Consequently, we must receive Christ’s perfection, his purity, in place of an uncontrollable mind of firing neurons.  IN CHRIST we inherit rightness with God, paid for by Jesus’ blood on the cross.  Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.  (John 6:47-51)  No one will see God in us without the bread that comes down from heaven, Jesus Christ.  Partaking of that bread makes us holy, right with God.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever.  We are not the bread; our supposed purity does not open the gates to heaven.  As we have seen, our minds are too elaborate and too active to be right with God in the flesh at all times.  Consciously or subconsciously, we cross over the plum line of purity, righteousness, perfection.  God never varies or moves from perfection.  Therefore, we need a Savior who is God, perfect in every way; in thought and action. 

Time dictates how long we will live in the flesh.  Even the healthiest of us will die sometime.  Peter quotes from Psalm 103 when he writes that people are like grass and the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall.  But he knows that when we deal with God, we are dealing with timelessness, with existence that has no beginning, no ending.  When we approach God by faith, we enter that domain of spacelessness, timelessness.  There are no boundaries around God.  We who become alive IN CHRIST have no boundaries; we extend as far as the farthest galaxies for we abide IN GOD.  In God, we are without boundaries and do not have the dictates of time on our souls.  We become as He is: embedded in his nature.  Christ, who is our Savior, is our Lord today and forever.  The Bible says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 2:5)  His perfection is always the same.  He is not partially perfect or exact, or almost perfect and exact—He is forever perfect and exact.  We too take on that nature when we are found by faith IN CHRIST.  Our metamorphoses into his likeness and nature will be fully realized when we see Jesus.  As Christians we know God has given us special names, and under those names, ascribed to us by God because of Christ’s works, will be the words: perfect, holy, complete.  God is a good Father, and all of his children will be honored as being a good work—a perfect, holy, complete work.  We who were once corrupted by sin, headed for the garbage pile of eternal damnation, have been salvaged, redeemed.  We are saved not just to survive in a quasi-state of existence, living outside of the intimate presence of the Creator.  No, our forever existence with the Father God will be much more than just existing.  For we who are free from the shackles of sin will be everlastingly free with him in his household.  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.  (Romans 6:22 KJV)  As Peter says, this is the word of truth that was preached to all who would hear from the beginning.  The just shall live by faith.  (Habakuk 2:4, Romans 1:19)  Believers embrace this enduring truth to be told forever, for the word of the Lord does endure forever. 

1 Peter 1:13-19 Free Indeed!

1 Peter 1:13-19  Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 

Christ’s coming to take us home will complete our salvation.  On that day, all of creation will know those who are IN CHRIST are sons and daughters of the Most High, new creatures adopted into the family of God.  We will be fully molded into his image, no longer possessing the difficulties and imperfections of the flesh.  Jesus divulges God’s marvelous plan of salvation when talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus:  Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”  (John 3:5-7)  Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand that the miraculous works he observed Jesus doing revealed the kingdom of God coming down to Earth to all people.  Jesus wanted him to know that no one can enter into God’s eternal kingdom without faith in Jesus Christ and his supernatural works.  He alone is the gate to God’s dominion, his provision for eternal life.  John 3:16-17, clarifies that faith in Jesus and his works leads to eternal life.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Through faith in Jesus, we become new creatures, totally fit for the household of God.  But we see Peter saying that we must be holy.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  What does this holiness refer to?  What are the acts of holiness?  Are we new creatures, born by the Spirit in God’s image or are we still people of the flesh who must display acts of holiness to enter into the kingdom of God?  Peter goes on to tell us that as foreigners in an alien land of the flesh, we should live our lives in reverent fear.  Is this fear of losing our salvation, or is this fear an awareness that we should respect our Father, the eternal God?  We must live upright lives, for we are children of a righteous God.  Peter warns us to display God’s nature in our lives, the Holy Spirit’s attributes: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  However, the real question is, are we holy or not?  Is it true that we are born again, viable spiritual beings, capable to live in God’s kingdom or are we spiritual premies, living in the hospital ward of the flesh, waiting for the full development of our spiritual beings with some trepidation that we might not make it out of the premie center and into God’s kingdom?  Are we free now as a complete work IN CHRIST, fully developed with all of our hands, feet, organs or are we partially birthed, reflecting part new creature, part old creature?  The Bible is true when it says, And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.  (1 John 5:11-12 KJV)  We are not half-slave and half-free.  Jesus completed the work when He said it was finished at the cross.

Often when we Christians consider our walk with Christ and the holiness we should display at all times, we tend to think of our lives as if we were on an eternal balance beam.  In gymnastics, one of the routines demanded of gymnasts is to perform on the balance beam, an apparatus consisting of a four inch wide board, four feet off the floor, sixteen feet long.  To perform well on this board, demands much balance, physical dexterity, and strength.  Most of us would fall off immediately, even while not attempting any movement such as walking.  To stay on top of this four inch wide beam for any length of time is an impossibility, even for the most seasoned gymnast.  Sooner or later everyone falls.  For the Olympic performer, maybe a day or two, but all will eventually land on the floor.  In the spiritual sense, when we attempt to live holy lives, lives completely pleasing to God at all times, we fall off the beam.  Of course, we know God does not tolerate even the shadow of sin; He is exact, perfect in everything He is and does.  We are not!  We wobble, we fall.  Consequently, which one of us is exact, perfect?  Only Jesus, He fulfills God’s demands of exactness, perfection.  We who have placed our trust in Jesus rest in that fact.  Christ is perfect, not us.  We are free from the consequences of eternal damnation because Christ has paved the way for our everlasting life with God.  He has gone before us, through death and the resurrection.  We vicariously died with him, and we are raised with him to eternal life.  He went to the Father, we too will follow him to the Father.  We all say with our brother, Paul, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)  So, breakfast friends, rejoice in the provisions of the new life, one of which is holiness, that God has given freely to you.  You are not beggars, mendicants, hoping to make it to heaven, if only you are good enough, living an acceptable life of holiness.  Cults and other false religions believe that striving is the primary way of making it to the next life.  No, you have a life in you that is the life of Christ.  You have eternal life existing in you because the Holy Spirit’s power exists in you.  You have Jesus holding your hand as God held his hand in this life.  Breakfast companions, on this journey, you are children of God, walking with Jesus, holding his hand.  Often, you look up at his face, asking, “Where are we going?”  “We are going to the Promised Land!  We will meet the Father there.” 

Dear friends around this table, do not define your lives by your weaknesses.  You are not your failures; the times you disappointed yourself, the times you knew that you had sinned too willfully, too readily, and too completely.  Don’t look at those times as if you have fallen off the balance beam without hope for a future.  God has placed your spiritual lives in his hands.  You are not redeemed by your works, but his works.  If you could have performed well on the balance beam of life at all times, you would not need a Savior.  The works of Christ would have been superfluous, unnecessary.  The law and the talent of obedience would have been enough to stay on that balance beam of righteousness, perfection.  Intentionality, dedication, discipline, hard work, fortitude would keep you right with God.  Christ would not be needed.  And if you happened to fall off for some reason under the governance of the law, you could restore yourself on the beam of rightness by the talents of obedience and self-will.  But this is not the answer for flesh, for the flesh is always wayward, self-oriented, giving no total obedience to anyone, especially to law.  The flesh is under the gravity pull of sin, pulling us off the narrow way of rightness with God.  But God had a plan of redemption for the wayward, the unredeemable, the unholy.  Christ suffered, was humiliated, and persecuted.   He died because we could not find perfection through our own efforts.  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  (1 Peter 3:18)  Christ alone was the answer, for we could not be sons and daughters of the Most High by our own dedication, discipline.  As Paul wrote, we could not save ourselves, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.  (Titus 3:5)  No, we needed a savior, we needed someone who could walk that beam perfectly, forever.  Of course, that is the Perfect One, the Exact One, Jesus Christ.  He paid the price for our failures, our wobbliness.  We are presently in his arms, walking the beam of rightness before the Father.  Yes, be holy, for God is holy.  We should represent God in the best way we can, in and out of season, every day, everywhere.  Putting off the rags of this world, the thinking of this world, we do work to show ourselves as obedient servants of the Most High.  But perfection, righteousness, holiness without a shadow of a flaw in us, rest only in Jesus Christ and his works for us.  Be free dear friends in the Lord.  If you are truly free, resting in his holiness, you will be as joyful as a calf set free from a restrictive pen.  This joyfulness is the beginning of all revivals, for people cannot resist those who have been set free from the bondage of right and wrong, of condemnation, of striving.  As the Bible says, those who have been set free are free indeed.  Love, Dad and Mom

1 Peter 1:10-12 Grace to You!

1 Peter 1:10-12  Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.  It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.  Even angels long to look into these things. 

The Old Testament represents an expository of the Good News that God would at some future time rescue mankind from its fallen state, its absence from God’s intimate presence.  As the prophets expounded, this position of hopelessness would not always exist, for the redemption of mankind was in the heart of God, and this redemption would come through a person known as the Messiah.  He would bless the world and break down the barrier between man and God.  This restoration plan to reclaim a wayward creation existed with God from the beginning of time.  A new life had to be formed in the hearts of men.  A new creature had to come forth from the midst of their old lives.  Although hopelessly lost, someday a newness of life would come to the souls of men and women, saving them for all eternity.  The plan of creating new life in a lost, sinful people was evident in how God dealt with Noah.  He destroyed the people of that era, knowing their constant sinfulness, their destructive, self-willed nature, would never change.  He decided to save a few, a  remnant, even though they too were evil from their conception, for they were conceived out of sinful flesh.  We find in God’s covenant with Noah, God said, Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.  (Genesis 9:11)  And He set a rainbow in the clouds as a sign of his commitment to mercy.  In this covenant with Noah, we see the anguish of God toward his wayward creation.  God decides not to extinguish mankind, but allows them to exist to eventually fulfill his purpose of knowing him in an intimate manner.  He made mankind in his image; He made them to live harmoniously with him, without experiencing good and evil, designed to know only good.  God gloried in mankind; He interacted with Adam and Eve in the evening time.  He knew that once again, in the last days, after the Holy Spirit was poured out on all people who accepted Christ, He would glory in their interaction with him.

Later on in the Old Testament, we see God dealing with the man Abraham.  Just as with Noah, God picks out a man who has a desire to know God, to hear his voice, to obey what he hears from God.  Just as God’s voice caused Noah to build an ark, He caused Abraham to leave his country of origin in obedience to his will.  Because of Abraham’s willingness to believe God, the covenant of mercy and grace by faith was presented to mankind.  Mankind would find an acceptance by God, a rightness with him through their belief in his promises to them.  God’s foundational promise to Abraham was that He would bless all nations eventually through the seed of Abraham; of course, that seed was the Messiah who would come in due time.  All nations would be blessed through the loins of the man Abraham.  God said, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  (Genesis 12:2)  The law was introduced 400 years after Abraham to protect the promise God made to the man of faith.  The law was to keep the seed of Abraham preserved from destruction.  Mankind’s waywardness, sinfulness, always leads to death—sin left unchecked will result in chaos and destruction.  The law brought order to the Jewish people, restraining them from doing everything their flesh desired.  The Jewish people constantly broke away from these laws, but the efficacious nature of the law saved a remnant.  Through this remnant, the promise of Abraham came to fruition; the Messiah was born, the Son of Man, as Jesus Christ called himself.  Speaking of himself, Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”  (Matthew 24:37) 

Of course, this knowledge of the Messiah coming to rescue the Jewish nation and the world from the corruption of sin was central in the prophets’ proclamations.  We see the prophet Isaiah’s prediction of the Savior: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.  He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.  (7:14-15)  Jesus himself quotes from Isaiah.  In Luke 4 we see Jesus going to Nazareth, where he grew up, and He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath where he read from the scroll of Isaiah, and selected the place where we find Isaiah 61:1-2: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah coming to save the world from its destructive nature was realized in Jesus Christ, for He takes this mantel of the Messiah on himself.  His many miracles and his eventual death and resurrection fulfill God’s plan of creating new life, a new people who can intimately be with him in perfection for all of eternity.  The culmination of God’s plan for a wayward creation came to realization through the works and death of Jesus Christ.  Who of us cannot praise God with great joy for another of Isaiah’s prophecies: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his named shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  (6:9 KJV) 

The Spirit of God has carried this wonderful good news of restoring mankind to their Creator through the ages; from generation to generation; from century to century; from millennium to millennium.  The prophets, the angels desired to see this good news come to realization, always looking forward to that day when the Messiah would come and fulfill the plan of God for mankind.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”  (Luke 2:10)  The reclamation of the people made in God’s image was completed through Jesus Christ 2000 years ago.  He lived a sinless life and then died as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind.  He was without sin, yet brutalized for our benefit.  He paid the righteous judgment for sin—all our human imperfections—which is death.  We who were lost, who could never enter into the perfection of eternity, needed redemption, needed to be new creatures, with the nature eternity could accept.  But now, because of the Messiah who was predicted ages ago to be the balm of Gilead, we now have found great favor with God the Father because his only begotten Son lives with him in great favor.  We are blessed for we are IN JESUS, AND HE IS IN US.  With Simeon, the man who saw the baby Jesus and took him in his arms to bless him, we also who are alive IN CHRIST, praise God for the salvation He prepared for us.   At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon.  He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.  The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.  That day the Spirit led him to the Temple.  So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there.  He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace as you have promised.  I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.  He is a light to reveal God to the nations and he is the glory of your people Israel!”  (Luke 2: 25-32)  God let Simeon die in peace, rejoicing in seeing the fulfillment of God’s promise to him and to all people in the light of Jesus, God’s Son.  May we all rejoice today in this great gift of mercy and grace, for God has revealed his great love to us through his Son’s victory over sin and death.