'Grace to you and peace from God who is and who was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood, —'
Last week we celebrated Jesus' resurrection and the enormous impact that has on our lives.
As Helen said, that momentous event ushered in a New Era. This past week I have reflected a lot on what it means for us humans in today's world. We could be forgiven for asking cynically sometimes – what has changed after over 2000 years. That for us mortals is a looong time!
But God's perspective on time is far different from ours. We live in a physical world with its four known space-time dimensions of length, width, height(or depth) and time. But God's realm is beyond the perception of our physical senses. That is not to say that God isn't real but that it is a matter of His not being limited by the physical laws and dimensions that govern our world. (Is. 57:15)
In Psalm 90:4, Moses used a simple yet profound analogy in describing the timelessness of God:
'For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.' The eternity of God is contrasted with the temporality of man. Our lives are short and frail, but God does not weaken or fail with the passage of time. As believers, this can give us a deep sense of comfort knowing that God, though timeless and eternal, is in time with us right now. He is not unreachable but right here in this moment with us. And because He's in this moment, He can respond to our needs and prayers.
Christ's death on the cross and subsequent 'resurrection' ushered in a new era in which those who surrender their lives to God are freed from the consequence of their sins. The consequence being death.
Our word SIN originates from the Old English term 'syn' – missing the mark – perhaps originally in spear throwing...
The Hebrew word hata, sin, literally refers to hitting the target but missing the 'gold' centre of the target.
In the Christian situation the gold centre of the target could be seen as God's commandment for righteousness. To sin – missing the mark of living as a God expects us to – not only failing to meet God's commandments but acting against our own interests by engaging with the world in ungodly ways. Another definition of sin is - the choice of short-term self-gratification over the highest good of God and His Creation, including ourselves. Sin is, at once, both selfish and short-sighted!
Jesus freed us not only from the consequences of our own personal sinful choices of behaviour but also from what we call 'original sin'.
The sin that corrupted Lucifer was self-generated pride. Lucifer, just as we, had 'free will' – but even with the full understanding of the issues involved, he chose to rebel against the Creator. Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden is another illustration of how we too, so often think we know best and go against God's good intentions for us. In the Bible we learn what are the most dangerous sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth!
And the tragic truth is that 'ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!' (Rom. 3:23)
Some may want to ask, why did God create humans in the first place and why did he create them that they able to be disobedient?
Well he certainly didn't create humans because he needed them!
The short answer is found in Rev. 4:11 – 'for his pleasure' That doesn't mean we were made to entertain and amuse God. God is a creative Being – just a look around our planet proves that. He loves creating. He is also a personal /relational Being, and it gives him pleasure to have other beings He can have a genuine relationship with.
The Bible tells us that God made Men and Women in his image and likeness. (Gen. 1:27)
In other words, human beings have the ability to know God and therefore also to love Him, worship, serve and have fellowship with him. But love which is not freely given is not love – you cannot force someone to love you!
Not because He needs us – as God , he needs nothing. He loves us, but that is not the same as needing us. If we had never existed, God would still be God – the unchanging One. (Malachi 3:6) The I AM (Exodus 3:14) . When God made the Universe, He did what pleased Himself, and since God is perfect, His actions were perfect. 'It was very good' – Gen. 1:31
Deut. 4:35 'The Lord is God; besides him there is no other' Anything that God creates must of necessity be lesser than He.
As we recognise the complete sovereignty and holiness of God, it is amazing that He would not only make humans and crown them 'with glory and honour' (Ps. 8:5) but also that He condescends to call us 'friends' (John 15:14-15)
Let that sink in for a moment: God created us for his pleasure and so that we, as His Creation, would have the pleasure of knowing Him and enjoying all that he created.
But the great tragedy is that, while human beings were made to glorify God, we have ALL fallen short of this purpose and, as Paul in Romans 1:23 puts it 'we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man' especially the one in the mirror. This is the essence of what we call sin.
God did not need the world or need people because God lacks nothing. Instead, God is so full of all that is good, that it overflows and spills out of him. He created people out of love for the purpose of sharing love. People were created to love God and each other. Additionally, when God created people, he gave them good work to do so that they might experience God's goodness and reflect his image in the way they care for the world and for each other. They were created without flaw or sin and God intended that they live this way eternally.
The rest we know...
Grace to you and peace from God who is and who was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, —
and made us to be a Kingdom, priests serving His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.
We bring nothing into the world and we will take nothing with us – everything we have comes from God. But that doesn't mean that we are just puppets and robots. He gave us free will and intended that we would become kingdom co-workers and priests.
We don't have to look far to see how humans are full of their own sense of importance. It's easy to point to some world leaders as illustrations of this but I'm thinking about each and every one of us. We are all guilty of giving ourselves praise and glory – instead of admitting that all that we have and are is from God's goodness. I am not saying that we should put ourselves down – but that we should give thanks to God for all that we are enabled by him to do – to his glory.
What does it mean to glorify God? It means to give God the glory that He is due and honour Him through praising and worshipping Him alone. What does this look like today? Here are eight suggestions for what it means to glorify God right where we are every day:
1: Believe who He is – trusting in God means believing in all that the scriptures say about Him – believing in Him, the creator and sustainer of all things – rather than anything that has been created by mankind.
2: Love Him and Love Others – the Great Commandment (Matt. 22: 37-40) – Filling our minds with Scripture will transform our hearts and lives. We will then be able to love our neighbour (both nearby and far away) with the same love that we have experienced in Christ. Loving others like Christ loves us gives him glory as we are following his example.
3: Obedience to what he says .. Deut. 11:1 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. These are given to protect us . Following Jesus, who knows us better than we do ourselves, will bring us freedom and contentment. We can enjoy God as a loving Father.
4: Give Praise and Worship to Him alone. (I Chronicles 16:28-29) What things grasp your affection, time and loyalty most? We need to remember to give honour and glory to God alone. He deserves all glory, honour and praise and when believers praise and worship the Lord, it is swimming against a culture that glorifies the individual. Only God deserves glory. It is due to Him alone and no one or nothing else.
5: Confess Sin and turn away from anyone or anything we are glorifying other than God
Those things that we may intentionally or unintentionally place above God (how we spend our time, money, resources, thoughts etc.) could possibly indicate where we may have idols in our lives. Even those good things that we do for God and others could become an idol if left unchecked. Let us continually look to Jesus in all things and at all times.
6: Bring yourself as an Offering by living for him Romans 12:1 '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).
When we lay down our own desires and surrender our good intentions to God, we are trusting Him with our life. And we CAN trust Him with our very life, knowing that His peace and plans over our lives will prosper. Contentment shows that we trust in God for all that we need in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. He is sovereign and we can trust Him
7: Display His glory in Everyday life
'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' (1 Corinthians 10:31)
With every step that we make in life, we are making decisions on a daily basis. What decisions will bring glory to God in how we live our lives? What choices we make, how we choose to relate to others and respond to situations etc. can reveal what it is or who it is we are living for. How we live our life every day can highlight our fears, insecurities, anxieties, hopes, plans and desires. Glorifying God is a way of life, not just turning up for church on Sunday. It should affect our Monday to Saturday interactions and decisions.
8: And Prayer
When we pray, we are depending on God and relinquishing control - or we should be. We come before the King of Kings and we need to lay down our plastic, fake crowns of autonomy and lay low before the One who laid down His crown and His life for us. Prayer is a conversation between the sovereign King of the universe and His children.
Jesus prayed to His Father and this is reason enough that we should also pray. Jesus made a way for us to be in relationship with His Father through what He did on the cross for us. When we spend time in His presence, we give Him the glory and trust Him for His will to be accomplished.
'Grace to each one of you and peace from God who is and who was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His Blood, —
'and made us to be a Kingdom, priests serving His God and Father, to Him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever, Amen'
Elizabeth Bussmann