Tag: The Gospel

Helping Us See

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series that is going to take us from now to Easter. The question of who Jesus is, is the most important question anyone could ever ask or answer. Over the course of this series, we are going to be walking through the various signs Jesus produced which the apostle John noted in His Gospel were all pointers to His true identity. Each sign helps us to get a better sense of just who Jesus was. Let’s get this journey started with a trip to a wedding.

Helping Us See

Who is Jesus? That’s one of the most significant questions that anyone could ask or answer. The only one with potentially greater significance is the question of whether or not there is a God in the first place. Literally everything hinges on the answer to that question. And that may sound like somewhat of a grandiose claim, but think about it. Let’s say someone protests our claim here by pointing to science. “The question of the existence of God or the identity of Jesus is irrelevant,” they might argue, “because science does for us all the things our ignorant ancestors naively relied on some made up god to give them.” Okay, but why do you think science as you know it exists in the first place? Because of a belief in God on the part of some really smart men and women in the past. Actually, that’s not quite right. They didn’t merely believe in God, they believed in a specific and historically unique understanding of God that made their efforts to study and strive to understand how the world works in an organized fashion reasonable in a way that no other worldview had ever done. And, honestly, they only believed in God as they did because they and their forebears had a certain answer to the question of who Jesus is; an answer that was at least mostly consistent with the broadly orthodox position on it dating back to the very first believers. So, yes, the question of who Jesus is really is the most important question anyone could ever ask. 

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Morning Musing: Romans 3:25-26

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“God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When an offense occurs, someone is responsible and someone is offended. There may be more than one responsible party, and there may be more than one offended party, but there is at least one of each. Indeed, if there is no offended party, then it wasn’t an offense. That is, it wasn’t wrong. And when this offense has occurred, it has to be made right or justice is never achieved. Today, let’s explore why God is always the ultimate offended party, and what He has done about making sure justice—His justice—is ultimately satisfied.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 4:26-27

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“‘Be angry and do not sin.’ Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Anger is a challenging emotion. It is also a masking emotion. Anger can serve as an easy emotional substitute for whatever it is we are actually feeling. Often we don’t or can’t put word to what our actual emotional state is, and because anger is easier to both understand and express, we just let that take over. Sometimes anger is the right emotional response to a particular situation. More often it probably is not. But in spite of the good that can come from righteous and proper anger – anger over injustice, for instance – when anger gets in the driver’s seat of our lives, it can cause all sorts of chaos. I’m thinking about anger this morning because that complicated emotion lies at the heart of the newest Marvel offering. Let’s talk about Captain America: Brave New World.

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Digging in Deeper: Philippians 3:17-20

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“Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross  of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory  is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Films and series about villains don’t typically do very well. There are a handful of exceptions to this, but not many. Sony’s attempting at creating their own Spiderverse (mostly) separate and apart from the MCU is a great example. They took a bunch of villains, removed the hero who gave them substance, and tried to sanitize them by making them complicated antiheroes. And most of them bombed. Badly. The Joker 2 is another good example. By all accounts it was unbelievably awful. A villain-based series from HBO Max, though, seems like it could be an exception. I’m only three episodes in, but the story is pretty good, if frustratingly depressing. Let’s talk about The Penguin.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 2:13-16

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“For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and then you hear about a judge getting arrested for violating the law in some way. Those always feel like rather scandalous stories because judges are supposed to be the ones who know the law best as well as what the consequences for violating the law are. They are the ones who set the consequences for violating the law. They should know better than anyone else not only what not to do, but why not to do it from at least the consequences side of things. And yet knowing the law and doing the law are two different things. One does not necessarily or naturally lead to the other. As Paul continues to challenge the Jewish background believers in his audience, this is what he seeks to help them understand next. Let’s unpack this with him.

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