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Wednesday, March 15, 2023

To Imitate Jesus in Death and Life

I am continuing to process the contexts of I Peter 2 and 4 in relation to us entrusting ourselves to God in our suffering the way Jesus entrusted himself to his Father during his suffering. These are the two Scriptures I am considering: 

I Peter 2:23

I Peter 4:19

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The theme is, how do I entrust myself to our faithful Creator in the things I suffer as I imitate Jesus who entrusted himself to his Father as the perfect judge? The attachment involved in entrusting has captivated me. 

Today I am here: 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.[1] 

I am considering the impact of Jesus bearing my sins in his body on the tree, “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” The “dying” and the “living” are extreme contrasts! 

First, that is a horrendously huge demand on me that cannot be ignored. Jesus’ direct purpose in dying for me was that I might die to my sin and live to righteousness. This is not an option, but the whole point of his death. As Paul said, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[2] We can only become the righteousness of God as we become dead to sin. 

Second, baptism is when this is sealed in us, as Paul said, 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.[3] 

This means that EVERY baptized believer alive in the church today (the church knows no other kind of believer) has already died to sin and been raised from the dead to live like Jesus in our love. Bitterness belongs to the old life; love belongs to the newness of life. 

Third, this verse really helped me see where God is taking this with me: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[4] God loving me WHILE I was a sinner requires me to love others WHILE they are sinning, and especially when they are sinning against me! 

Fourth, this verse sealed it for me, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”[5] Laying down our lives requires dying. That’s what Jesus did. And even though we cannot do this redemptively, we can do it comparatively. I can be like Jesus in loving others. 

Conclusion: God is not promising me how long this WHILE will be that I must love people WHILE they are sinning against me. However, I know I would rather feel the spiritual satisfaction of agapè-hesed-loving[6] like Jesus than the sarky[7] satisfaction of harboring bitterness against people for their injustices against me. 

Jesus bore my injustices against him to satisfy God’s justice against me, and I confess my willingness to be like him even though I must feel the sorrow of suffering unjustly as I entrust my soul-care to God and continue to do good.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 



[1] I Peter 2:24

[2] II Corinthians 5:21

[3] Romans 6:3-4

[4] Romans 5:8

[5] I John 3:16

[6] “agapè” is the Greek word used in the New Testament for God’s love for us and our love for others, including our enemies. It is all-encompassing over all other loves (family love, marriage love, friendship love, brotherly love). “hesed” is the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament referring to God’s covenantal love, often translated “steadfast love”. Together, these words summarize the glory of God’s unfailing love and guides us in how to love as the Triune God has loved us.

[7] The Greek word translated “flesh” in the New Testament sounds like “sark” or “sarx” so I have become accustomed to referring to our fleshly desires and feelings as “sarky”.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

The Wonder of Covenant with God

 

A long time ago, a favorite author presented this quote: “Out of wonder, worship is born.”[1] I have proven this true so many times as discovering some treasure of wisdom and knowledge in God’s word fills my heart with wonder at such gifts of grace that I can’t help but express worship to God for making himself known to me. 

This was once again God’s gift as I considered the amazing expression about Jesus: I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people”.[2] What struck me this morning was that the very concept of a covenant with God was more magnificent than my soul had yet considered (I love it when that happens!). It was as though a familiar scene in the Divine Tapestry suddenly drew me to look closer at the threads that wove the story. And as I looked at the fine artistry of the weaving, wonder quickly took my hand to led me on the journey. 

The first thing I considered was the definition of “covenant”.

Covenant: covenant n. — a contractual arrangement between God and a person, or between human beings, which required binding action from one or both parties; one party often had higher status in the arrangement.[3]

Just to consider this description made me feel a wave of reverence and awe at the loving determination of God to make it happen. But it also made me want to know how a covenant was “a contractual arrangement” but was not limited to a contract. I looked and found this: 

What is a Contractual Agreement? 

A contractual agreement is a legally binding agreement between two parties. The contract's terms and conditions will require the parties to either do or refrain from doing specific actions. A contractual agreement is legally enforceable if it meets these specific requirements: 

Offer and Acceptance: One party must make an offer, and the other party must accept that offer. 

Mutual Consent: Offer and acceptance must occur mutually and without coercion.

Consideration: Consideration means that something of value is exchanged between the parties, whether money, goods or services. 

Competence: Parties entering the contract must be legally competent. Parties cannot be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, mentally deficient, or a minor. 

Legal Purpose: The contract cannot require any unlawful action.[4]

So a covenant is a form of “contractual arrangement” but is beyond it, or greater than a mere contract. What then is the primary difference between a contract and a covenant? Answer: a contract is null and void if someone breaks it, while a covenant continues even when it is broken. Wow! 

In the overwhelming perfection of the steadfast love of God, God himself ordains a covenant that will not fail EVEN WHEN WE BREAK IT!!! It is permanently secure because of God’s side of the arrangement. It is “HE who began a good work in you” who “WILL bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[5] And it is God “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” so that, “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”[6] 

This new covenant in Jesus Christ would so outshine the old covenant that when Jesus said, “It is finished!”,[7] the covenant between God and his elect could never be null-and-void!!! 

As the pondering of God’s covenantal love overwhelmed me, I was drawn to another thread that seemed to be woven all through the Divine Tapestry: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”[8] 

When I looked at this in context, I felt the wonder grow into even deeper layers of worship. When God searches me and knows me, and when he knows when I sit down and when I rise up, and when he discerns my thoughts from afar and searches out my path, and he searches out my lying down and is acquainted with all my ways, and even before a word is on my tongue he knows it altogether, even then, knowing all that about me, he is faithful and determined and love-consumed to hem me in both behind and before, and lay his hand upon me as a Father putting his hand on his son’s shoulder in the securest love ever.[9] 

I share this in the hope that the wonders of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood will move you with how secure the child of God is because of the finished work of Christ. We can never empty the ocean of God’s grace by all our drinking of its undeserved provisions. 

But I also share this in the hope that you will desire to spend time with God in his word and prayer every day of your life because the wonders of God never cease as we attach to him in faith. As God himself says, his mercies are new every morning, and the best way to find them is by opening the spotlight of God’s word to shine light on the glories of his covenantal love.

 

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 



[1] G. Campbell Morgan (not sure where I found it)

[2] Isaiah 49:8

[3] Bible Sense Lexicon from Logos Bible Systems

[5] Philippians 1:6

[6] Jude 1:24-25

[7] John 19:30

[8] Psalm 139:6

[9] Paraphrasing the context of Psalm 139:1-5