Month: June 2024

 

Titus 2:14    who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

For people who lived during the time of Jesus, the cross was not a cute piece of jewelry or a decoration to hang in their home. Rather, it was a barbaric instrument of torture and execution.

The cross was intended to not just bring agony and death, but to do so in such an obscene, traumatic, humiliating, and public fashion that everybody knew the punishment they would receive should they disobey Rome. No one, and I mean no one, wanted to end up on a cross.

As I consider the cross of Jesus Christ, I’m often tempted to ask: Why would Jesus submit to being rejected, beaten, ridiculed, and crucified on my behalf?

This question often leads me to Paul’s letter to Titus. In Titus 2:14, Paul writes of Jesus: “… who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

This short passage encompasses incredible truths about Christ’s great sacrifice on our behalf.

First, we see that Jesus died because of His deep love for us. He showed the depths of this love when He “… gave Himself for us” (2:14a). It wasn’t Pilate, the religious leaders, or even the Romans who ultimately took His life. No, Jesus voluntarily laid down His own life on our behalf. 1 John 3:16a says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.”

Second, we see that Jesus died so that He could redeem us. Redemption means to buy back at a price. The term has been used in relation to the slave market, when a slave would be redeemed out of bondage and set free. And since we were slaves to sin and under sin’s control (see John 8:34, for instance), Jesus died in order to purchase our true and lasting freedom.

Why did He have to give His life? Because that was the price. Leviticus 17:11 states, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” The only way for Christ to purchase us was to die for us and shed His own blood.

Finally, we see that Jesus died so that He could purify us. This means that we are in a process of being made holy and set apart for God as we draw ever closer to Him. He died so that we could be freed from the power of the bondage of sin. Now we are His!

Jesus went to the cross because of His deep love for us, in order that He may redeem and purify us for His good works. He took away our sins and placed them on Himself, and in return He gave us His righteousness and salvation. This is how we can be assured of eternity in heaven, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for us.

At the cross, Jesus offered you the gift of eternal life. If you have not yet accepted that gift and surrendered to Him as your Savior, I encourage you to do that today.

 

 

 

This mystery . . . is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

–Colossians 1:27

As Christians, we have been charged with sharing the gospel, which is a message of hope—a message Paul described as a “mystery” (Colossians 1:26). In verse 27, Paul revealed this mystery: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I have to admit, this seems a little anticlimactic. This is the message we’re going to suffer for? Where’s the teaching about sin, salvation, the second coming, judgment, and heaven? Other passages in the Bible talk about those things, but the result of the gospel is this: Christ living in you is the hope of glory. That is the sum total of the gospel.

I want to focus on two words in this verse. First, the word “hope.” In the Bible, hope is not wishful thinking; it’s an assurance, a conviction, that something is going to happen. Second, the word “glory.” This is translated from the Greek word doxa, and it refers to the radiance, splendor, and everlastingness of God.

Here is our message: Jesus Christ living in you gives you the assurance that one day you will share in the splendor, radiance, and everlastingness of God.

To understand what a great message of hope that is, we need to contrast the everlastingness of God with the finiteness of man. No passage in the Bible does so better than Psalm 90, which was written by Moses. He began, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (vv. 1–2). God is eternal. But Moses continued, “You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men’” (v. 3). Compared to the eternality of God, you and I are nothing but dust.

Some years ago, one of my relatives died and was cremated. As we scattered the ashes, I thought, Eighty-five years of happiness, sorrow, trials, hard work, relationships—and it’s all reduced to a bag of dust. That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?

But here is the result of the gospel: if you know Christ as your Savior, then the same splendor, radiance, and everlasting quality of Almighty God is now part of your life as well. That’s the message we are to share. This life has meaning and purpose—and, more importantly, there is hope beyond the grave. Christ living in us is our assurance that we will share in God’s everlastingness.

 

 

 

Romans 14:1-23.

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵ One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister^[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:

¹² So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. ¹⁵ If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸ because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.^[c]