This week a new blog was set up for the teens of Berean Baptist Church. We are calling it Inside Out, because under the New Covenant God works with us from the inside out. We're still a little slow getting started, but I'd like to invite y'all to come over a take a look. . .feel free to join in on the conversation as we work together to become more like Christ from the inside out.
I have a tendency to let my room stay messy for a while before taking care of it. My little brother told me that if I work on keeping it clean every day it would be easier. He’s right. This applies to my relationship with God also. I need to come to God and repent continually. The longer I let things pile up the harder it is to take care of them . . .to get rid of the sin. Some things have sat on my carpet for a while slowly leaking. The longer the item sits, the bigger and deeper the stain. My heart is the same way. The longer I leave sin undealt with, the more irreparable scarring it causes. The mess is long gone, but the damage has already been done. It’s too late to fix the carpet. That stain will be there as long as the carpet is. I can’t change that, but I can look back to see where the problem started, and see that letting it sit only made it worse; and hopefully I’ll learn not to put that lotion on the floor next time. The scars left by sin will be there as long as I live, but hopefully I’ll learn to take care of the sin as soon as I see it. It seems to me that is what will be most glorifying to God. After all, isn’t that our goal in life?
“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today; I know that He is living, whatever men may say”1 What a joyous message! So many religions serve dead gods, but we have a risen Savior! I am so thankful that it is true. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable.”
You are probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. It says, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” What wonderful news! Imagine the joy that must have flooded through Jesus’ followers so many years ago as they realized for the first time, that He was indeed alive. What would it have been like to see the Lord beaten, bruised and crucified, and then to come to the tomb and hear “He is not here; For He is risen.”2 Sometimes it seems that those of us who have heard the story of the resurrection again and again don’t give it as much thought as we should. Stop and think about it for a moment. He is risen. Let it sink in: He is not here; He is risen! It is a message filled with glorious hope! But the story doesn’t end there. After the women received the message, they were told to go and tell others. If you’ll come with me to John 20, I’d like to pick up the story there. After Mary told Peter and John, they came to see the empty tomb. “Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.”3 When John saw the empty tomb he believed. Then he went and told other people—he wrote the gospel of John, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”4 Mary heard and she told others, they believed, and they told others. We have believed, now let’s go tell others.
In John 1:29, John says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He came to take away our sins, and 1 John 2:2 reminds us that he died for the sins of the whole world! This shows his love, mercy, grace, compassion, justice, goodness and forgiveness! John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave us His only Son. This again shows His love. Philippians 2:5-8 links Jesus death with His humility and obedience, and Matthew 20:28 reminds us that Jesus came to be a ransom for many. It is an amazing thing to consider! That God Himself would be willing to come and die for us. As Isaac Watts said in one of his hymns, “Alas! And did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such as worm as I.” What an amazing love, what incredible humility to be willing to die the excruciating, humiliating death of the cross!
Hebrews 13:12 tells us that Jesus came to sanctify us, and 1 Peter 2:24 says that Jesus died so that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness. In Titus 2:14 we see that He also died so that “He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Colossians 1:21-22 says, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” He came to reconcile us to Himself, so that we might glorify Him by reflecting His character. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 reminds us, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Wow! Almighty God, willing to become sin for us! Why? So that we might be like Him. There is nothing more important to Him than His glory, so there should be nothing more important to us than His glory. But we could not reflect His character, because we were in bondage to sin, His death was the only way for us to be free from that bondage.
As I was thinking about the reasons Jesus came and died I noticed something. Every reason I can think of points back to the glory of God. In John 17:1, right before Jesus was arrested he prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” He came to die for His own glory, so that He could glorify the Father. In John 12, as Jesus is looking forward to his death, he prays that God would save Him from this, but then He says, “But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” Wow! What a wonderful attitude! Jesus was willing to give up everything to come to earth for the glory of God, and since Christ is our example, then we should be willing to give up whatever doesn’t glorify Him. When you look at what really matters, a year from now no one will care that you didn’t get to listen to that CD, watch that movie, or read that book, but it will make a difference if you have lived for Christ. It will matter if you are becoming more like Christ and if you are glorifying God by reflecting His character. That truly is what we are here for.
