God and Sinners Reconciled

Throughout the Christmas season, I often sing along with familiar Christmas carols. I burst forth in jubilant song, trying to outsing the radio, but I rarely ponder the words. This morning, God stepped in and caused me to focus in on a very important line of a very familiar song.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing was on the radio this morning, and one line has been on my mind today: God and sinners reconciled. That's a powerful line jam packed with truth and grace - comfort and joy!

In the midst of the American hub bub that is the Christmas season, most of us Christians take at least a little time here and there to ponder the true reason we celebrate: Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. I wonder how often we take those thoughts beyond the sweet baby in the manger. We rarely think on how unpleasant the circumstances were surrounding his birth that night, so I wonder how often our thoughts drift to baby Jesus all grown up and hanging in bloody shreds on a cross for us.

Sweet baby Jesus was God incarnate - God with a purpose - God come down to rescue sinners. A terrible chasm existed between God and man, a chasm caused by sin. The perfect sacrifice of Christ was the only thing that could reconcile God and man.

So, this Christmas, when you sing about the sweet little Jesus boy, born on a silent night, and tucked away in a manger, remember that He came so that you, a sinner dead in your trespasses, might be reconciled to God.

Hark! The herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled!

I Used to be Dead

I wasn't born with a terminal condition. I wasn't diagnosed later in life. I didn't suffer from an accident or someone else's wrongdoing. I was born dead.

If it weren't for the grace of Jesus, I would have stayed that way. I would still be dead. I would be a 28-year-old zombie.

But Jesus didn't want me to stay that way. He didn't want me dead in sin. He wanted me to be alive in Him. So He drew me unto Himself. He rescued me from sin. He gave me new life. In a sense, He resurrected me.

I thought about that today as we celebrated Resurrection Sunday. The focus, of course, was on Christ's resurrection - the fact that He died on a cross on Friday, laid dead in a tomb over the weekend, and arose from the dead on Sunday.

That's unheard of. People just don't come back from the dead. I'm very fortunate, because I haven't experienced a lot of death in my lifetime. I know something about death, though. Once the people I knew died, they didn't come back. Only Jesus did that.

The only other "resurrection" experiences I know of are the believers in my life. You see, I'm not the only one who was born dead. We all were. Every last one of us. No one escaped that.

As I was watching everyone worship in church this morning, I really thought about the fact that I was in a room filled with people who used to be dead. I was in a room filled with people who know the power of sin and death but who also are very familiar with the resurrection power of Christ. They worshipped so freely and joyously. They worshipped the fact that we serve a risen Savior, and they worshipped the fact that just as He arose from the dead, conquered death, and is alive, Jesus raised them from the dead into life with Him.

I love moments like that, when I look around and observe people worshipping. I love them because I know they're glimpses of what heaven will be like. I look forward to being in heaven with millions of believers rejoicing over the fact that they used to be dead, but Christ gave them new life, eternal life. Now that's going to be an awesome worship experience!

Purposeful Not Passive

A few minutes ago, I went through Day 2 of the devotion that Pastor Brian put together for this week. The focal passage is Mark 9:30-37, with the particular emphasis of this day's devotion being 9:31 (the pastors are teaching verse by verse through the Gospel of Mark).

Pastor Brian compared the word "delivered" with the way it is used in Romans 4:25 and Romans 8:32 in order to emphasize the purposefulness behind the deliverance of Christ unto death. Christ's death wasn't just a passive happening or the consequence of how things played out because of man's choices. Christ's death was a purposeful plan from our loving, sovereign God. Christ's redemption of His people was purposeful. Christ's atonement was purposeful. Christ's justification of sinful people was purposeful.

My salvation isn't merely a bonus prize that came along with a passive death.

My salvation is the result of a choice ... God's choice. God chose how to redeem His people, and He set forth that plan of redemption very purposefully.

So why do I live my life as a follower of Christ so passively?

Because it's easy.

Making purposeful decisions to put others before myself and to serve them with unconditional love can be really difficult and really inconvenient. On my own, I have no desire to live that way. That's why I'm so incredibly grateful that "it is God who works in [me], both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13 ESV).

I can do nothing apart from Christ. I must rely on the Holy Spirit every second of every day. It's time for me to stop being so ridiculously passive and start living purposefully. It is time to "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14 ESV).