Good morning!
Since I was in here last I have been half way around the world and lived to tell about it.
We have entering the Easter season now, as you can tell by the chocolate bunnies, pink and white dresses in the little girls section, and the same Cadbury audition commercial that has been on the air for 20 years!
Easter time on our home is marked by “Resurrection Eggs:” 12 plastic eggs that contain items to talk about every day leading up to Easter. These is a donkey, a bowl and towel, a cup (which, thanks to the movie Cars, has now been dubbed the “Piston Cup”), a nail, a miniature crown of thorns, a rock, and one that might be my favorite: the empty egg! There is nothing inside because Jesus is no longer in the grave, he has taken on our guilt, our sin, our shame, paid for them with his own blood and by the mighty power that only He has, Jesus the Messiah has defeated death and lives again!
Along with watching my chocolate intake and explaining that rabbits don’t lay eggs, I have the opportunity to remember, evaluate and think upon what Jesus did for me that weekend many, many years ago.
Sometimes, I feel like what Jesus did was so long ago that is hardly real. Sometimes I need a reminder that Jesus is a real person, that he lived a real life, really walked on this earth, really ate and drank, and really died for me. I think the hardest reality that I face is that Jesus really did do all this and he really really did it to save me. I am just too small. I screw up too much. I just don’t deserve this amazing act, and I sure don’t the relationship Jesus wants to have with me.
This past weekend, I had the privilege of teaching the ladies class at our church. The text we covered actually really helped me with this. For the first time in many years, I can face up to my salvation without insecurity. Here’s what I took away from the Word…I know, I’m telling you the conclusion before we even get started! But hang with me anyway…
Ok, here’s what it is: Jesus didn’t save me for me. He saved me for Him.
There is no arguing that I am important, or treasured, or special to Jesus, I am, more so that I, will ever understand. But my salvation didn’t happen for me, it happened so God would be glorified.
This understanding took the pressure off me in so many ways, I am so undeserving of God’s grace and I so misuse it and I sometimes feel like such a disappointment, that I feel like sometimes I want to deny any kind of relationship with him, just put my head down and serve him. I’ll just serve, I don’t need a relationship, just let me do his laundry, I’ll watch kids, clean the dishes, just don’t count on me to hold my own in any type of relationship. I can’t maintain it and I don’t deserve it.
But then I get in God’s word, and he speaks to me almost audibly and He tells me, He’s not in this for me, He’s in this for Him and He can handle a rollercoaster relationship with me, and He wants the world, the nations, all of them, to know what an amazing God He is, and He wants to do it by saving me from despair, and destruction.
I don’t know if you have ever felt the way I do. But if you have, let me tell you there is HOPE.
Isaiah 61
The main idea is this: God has a plan to display His glory through the restoration of His people, of all nations through His messiah, Jesus Christ.
We are going to unpack this idea, so let’s start at the beginning…
1. Who? GOD I like it when stuff starts with God.
2. Has a plan and he is in control: from the time Adam sinned in the garden, through Abraham, and Moses, and David we see God progressively revealing His plan to restore the world.
3. To restore his people..Jesus, the Messiah does this by making exchanges.
We see this ultimately on the cross…, we’ll, get to that…
but here we see, the exchanges God makes in order to restore us, his people.
Let’s read and find the first list of exchanges, in verses 1 and 2 the
broken hearted get bound up
captives get freedom
prisoners get released
When I first read through this, I thought that captives and prisoners were kinda the same thing, and passed this redundancy off as a literary tactic, but after prayer and some time, the Lord helped me see a difference.
Captives have their freedoms taken from them, but not because of something that they did. They are victims of war, refugees, something has been done to them, they are the victims.
But prisoners, prisoners have their freedom taken because of something that they did. They have wronged someone or broken the law.
So who am I? The victim, of course, right? Laughter…
No, I think we, spiritually, are both.
Adam sinned, so sin entered the world. By no choice of our own, in 21st century Odessa, we are held captive by sin. Bad stuff has happened and bad stuff will happen to us and around us. We cannot escape the effects of sin.
But, at the same time, we sin. We, I, choose to speed in my car, choose to be snippy with my kids, to brag or gossip. For the most part, I know when I am sinning, ‘cause I am choosing to do so!
And I am held accountable.
The sentence I receive for Adams sin, and my sin, is death. I am held captive and prisoner.
But God demonstrates his love for us in this that while we were, are, still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus, in his love, took Adams sin, and my sin, took the shame, and filth, and lies and quarrels, and depressions and insecurity.
He took off his splendor in heaven, and put on my ugliness in the form of a cloth that just barely covered his loins, and he took my death sentence and put it on his head as a crown of thorns and nails through his hands.
Out of my hands he took these things, but in exchange, he gave me freedom. He released me from the captivity of sin, and took on my death sentence. And he chose to do so, so He would be glorified.
Remember, that was his plan all along. He wants the Glory. He deserves the glory. If Adam had never sinned, then Adam would be Lord, so Adam’s sin leveled the playing field. Now all humans are equally messed up and in need of salvation. Only God is perfect. Only God is holy. And he gets the Glory when he saves his people.
I am going to stop here, because this blog is getting long. Sunday I had a captive audience, but you can walk away, feed the kids, have a coffee, etc. So I’ll let you go do those things. I actually do need to go feed my kids. it's national Grilled Cheese Month ya know...
Have a good lunch…
