Most of us know the verse well, Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.”
While that verse can stand alone, the next verse brings its truth into sharper focus.
Verse 29 says, “For those whom foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers.”
Verse 28 tells us the “what,” verse 29 tells us the “why.”
The joy and sorrow that come to every life – the good and the bad, the heartbreak and the victories- are all working together to conform us to his image. The suffering we go through is not without purpose; it’s changing us to be more like him.
Remember as you walk through hard things, that he is using even this, maybe especially this, for a greater purpose.
So whether you are in a season of prosperity, or a personal Gethsemane, know that he is weaving it all together, so that the story of your life will bring him glory.
As this year comes to a close, I am thinking about building.
In 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul says he has laid a foundation, which is Christ. He says, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (vs 10-13).
Anyone who has built a house or other structure knows the importance of a strong foundation, and what goes on the foundation must also be sturdy. If we built with rotten or weak wood, the house would soon cave in.
If we build our lives with things that are not sound, are not strong, then we will end up with a crumbled mess.
So, how are we doing? In Christ’s Church, are we building well? Are we adding to what others have built in a way that sustains the House? How about in our homes and families? Are we building on the strong foundation of Christ?
It seems some want to live on the second story while at the same time knocking out the foundation. But this, my friends, is not possible. “Cultural” Christianity is not strong or sustainable. Many chip away at the foundation bit by bit and build their lives around the “precious things” of the world, that cannot sustain.
Paul says that people should regard us as “servants of Christ” and “stewards of the mystery of God.” He goes on to say, “It is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” Paul encourages others to “imitate him” and in 1 Timothy 4:6, he says to “practice these things, immerse yourself in them,” meaning the things that help us grow as believers.
We are to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Tim 6:11).
In Chapter 15, verse 58 he admonishes us to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Let’s build with things that are strong – with lives built on Jesus Himself, on the Word of God, on love, on faith, on good works.
Tom Holland’s book, “Dominion,” is a deep and gritty depiction of the Roman occupied world into which Jesus came. It was a world where pride, human achievement, and status were prized, and humility would have been viewed with disdain. In this world the Romans, in order to maintain a firm grip on any uprisings against them and the order they sought to maintain, would devise heinous and humiliating methods of torture and death. Criminals would often be crucified, lined up on crosses on the road entering the town, naked and exposed as they met the most degrading death humanly possible, an example to any who dared cross them.
It was into this cruel world that a New Way was introduced. The cross, an implement of torture and humiliation, would become a symbol of salvation, Christ’s death on it being the sacrifice, once and for all, for our sins.
This King of the Jews from Nazareth preached something entirely different – “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Imagine, if you will, those early disciples, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, instructing the Church in this New Way, where believers were encouraged to “submit to one another, out of reverence for Christ,” and consider others’ needs before their own (Eph. 5:21). The very opposite of the culture where pride of place was central. Paul’s letters, Luke’s account of the early church, Peter’s epistles, and James’s writings, all gave instruction to the Church in a New Way of thinking and living.
Paul encouraged, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (Col 3:12-15).
In the way they lived and spoke, believers were encouraged in the way of love, kindness, humility, and grace.
Paul goes on, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Col 4:6).
The Apostle Peter writes, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:5-6).
It would be Christians who saw every life as valuable, every life worth saving, including babies left on the outskirts of town to die. In time, the Roman culture would crumble and the New Way would flourish.
The Christian message spread and with it a respect and understanding of all human life as sacred, as made in the image of God.
They changed the world.
Now so should we.
“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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19).
Lord, your faithfulness is to a thousand generations (Deut. 7:9) You have loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) Your mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) You are near to the broken-hearted And save those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18) You give strength to your people And bless your people with peace (Psalm 29:11)
Therefore, we will Enter your gates with Thanksgiving and your courts with praise (Psalm 100:4) We will bless you at all times We will magnify and exalt your name together (Psalm 34)
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4-6).
For a parent, there is nothing better than hearing your child say “Mama” or “Daddy” for the first time, and there is nothing more precious than that title to a parent.
Romans 8:15-16 says that it’s the Spirit of adoption that allows us to say “Abba! Father!”
The irony is that Jesus himself was adopted, and because of his coming, we can be adopted into the Family of God. As adopted sons and daughters we can call God, “Father.”
“In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“’And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the ruler of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
(Matthew 2:6, cited from Mic. 5:2)
The wise men saw the star. They knew the prophesy that said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and they began the journey to behold him. When they came to Herod, they asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” They came, bringing their worship with them. “And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him” (Matt. 2:11). They offered the proper response to what they were witness to – the Promised One before their eyes.
“Then, opening their treasure, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” The gifts they brought foreshadowed what lay ahead. Gold denoted his Kingship. Frankincense, an incense used by the priests, indicated he would be a Priest greater than any other. Myrrh, a spice used in burial, foretold his death and the suffering to come.
“The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” Psalm 118:27
Psalm 118 is rich in prophetic implications. Verse 22 says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” A cornerstone of a building is placed before anything else, and is the thing around which the whole structure is built. Jesus is the Cornerstone of the symbolic building that is his Church. We are the “living stones,” as Peter says, who are “being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:5).
In Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, before the tide of public opinion turned against him, the people cried out in adoration, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118:26). The Psalm then goes on to say that God has “made his light to shine upon us.”
The light had come, but a sacrifice was still required, a “festal sacrifice” as talked about in verse 27. The sacrifice that was to be “bound and brought to the altar” was Jesus. He is the Passover Lamb, the perfect sacrifice.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:5-7
St. Irenaeus, an early Church Father said, “Through his transcendent love, our Lord Jesus Christ became what we are, that he might make us to be what he is.”
Jesus left the splendor of Heaven, condescending to our level. Even though he was with God from the beginning, he did not cling to his position. He became one of us, “taking the form of a servant” (v.7). He humbled himself by becoming “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v.8).
We who are in Christ are to have this same mindset. 1 Cor. 2:16 says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” We are to have his mind and imitate his life.
There Was a Life
There was a life, a life come to show us the way
There was a life that was the word become flesh and blood
There was a life that pierced the darkness of the world
“I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.”
Hebrews 10:16
Covenantal agreements were a part of Jewish life. These formal agreements could be agreements between God and people, or between people themselves. But one important feature of a covenant was that it had a relational aspect.
In Hebrews 10, the author quotes Jeremiah 31:31, in which God makes a promise of the future to Israel, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”
He goes on to say that this covenant will not be like the one He made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt. He says in verses 33-34, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord; I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The old sacrificial system can never remove sins, and “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v.10).
A new covenant through the blood of Jesus. Forgiveness of sin because of his sacrifice, offered for everyone.
Life By The Way 