Reflections — Pastor’s Blog

You have received a lavish gift—God’s grace in Christ.

Trust the Savior who redeemed you. You have redemption in Christ. God’s love for you and choice of you from eternity works out in time. It involved his sending his Son to die in your place. Significantly, you have redemption through the One that God loves. His love for you is tied up with the love of the Father for the Son. You have redemption. The term was used for buying back someone who had been kiidnapped, or a slave buying freedom. A price has been paid. The guilt of your sins are gone because the penalty has been paid by Christ. Pul has in mind the death of Christ on the cross, his blood shed for your salvation. This is essential to your being an adopted son or daughter of God. But the redemption is not only an individual matter—Christ redeems and restores his people and his creation. The great Old Testament picture of redemption is the Exodus. The exercise of power in delivering is crucial both on the level of individual salvation, and when you think of the redemption of creation.

“In his recitation of the blessings of God bestowed on the church so far, Paul has hinted at the center of these great gifts in the gospel, but now, in a few short lines, he zeroes in on the heart of the gospel and what makes it gracious: the substitutionary mediation of Christ…. ‘For Paul, God’s love is not found in the philosopher’s detachment from the world. Rather grace, motivated and empowered by God’s love and mercy (Eph. 2:4; 2 Thess. 2:16; cf. 1 Tim. 1:14), assumes a cruciform shape in a broken and suffering world.’ [quoting James R. Harrison]”

S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, p. 89

Continue reading “Redemption through His Blood”

Do you remember picking teams–and wondering if you were going to be the last one chosen? God doesn’t choose us for our good qualities, but because of his grace, as Paul points out in Ephesians 1:3–6.

Thank God that he chose you unconditionally. God chose you before the creation of the world. The teaching of election and the related concept of predestination are scary terms for many. They may feel loss of control. That may lead to distortions, such as describing election as God voting, Satan voting, and you casting the deciding vote! Perhaps fears like that gave rise to the teaching of Jacob Arminius and the Remonstrants. Arminius believed that God’s choice was based on his foreknowledge of man’s faith. The Synod of Dordt responded with the “U” of TULIP. The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 20. But these reflect the Bible’s teaching of God’s gracious, unconditional choice. God’s choice took place in eternity, before the creation of the world, verse 4. God did not choose you because you are holy, but he chose you so that you will be holy. Faith grows out of God’s choice, rather than being its grounds, Acts 13:48; Romans 8:30; Ephesians 2:8–10. “Know” in Scripture is a rich term. It means more than to have an intellectual grasp. Rather, it is parallel to the concept of love, Amos 3:2.

Continue reading “Chosen in Christ”

I doubt that my father, who died more than 40 years ago, ever heard anyone ask, “How do you identify?” I’m confident than an answer using the alphabet soup that is used today would have puzzled him. Paul, as he begins his letter to the church at Ephesus tells the Christians that they are saints — and the Holy Spirit uses the term of you. If you belong to Christ, you are a saint, and you need to identify as one.

Be the saints that you are! You are saints. Paul addresses the church at Ephesus. He had stopped there on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19–21), but spent an extensive time in Ephesus (2+ years) on his third (Acts 19). This was the city that had a reputation for hosting the statue of the goddess, Artemis, and the preaching of the gospel had a strong economic impact on the town. The letter was written from prison, probably at Rome, 60–62 A.D. The recipients were the church at Ephesus, though there are hints it might have been a circular letter. Paul speaks with the authority of one who is sent, commissioned for a purpose.

“Paul includes a reference to his office, ‘an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God,’ rather than simply saying something like ‘Paul, to the saints in Ephesus, greetings’ (e.g., Acts 23:26) as one might expect. Yet this more formal tone is customary for Paul to reference his apostolate at the opening of his correspondence nine times (in Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1–2 Timothy, and Titus).”

(S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, p. 56

Continue reading “How Do You Identify?”

Simeon, the elderly man descried in Luke 2:21–40, realizes that his life is now complete. What he has been looking for and praying about has happened.. His final words mark the transition from the old order to the new. He marks the change of watch.

God has given you his salvation in Christ. You have seen the Lord’s Christ. Christ was subject to the law for you. He was circumcised, verse 21. He was identified with his covenant people to redeem them. This is part of the background for Paul’s statement in Galatians 4:4–5 that Christ was born of a woman, born under the law. He was presented in the temple following the offering brought by his poor parents–according to the law: Exodus 13:2, 12; Leviticus 12:8. The offerings were required, not because of our humanness, but because of our sinfulness. He was involved in this humiliation for you. His first appearance in the temple is not as the object of worship, first of all, but as a truly human baby, identified with us as sinners. Yet, The Lord’s Christ is Christ the Lord. The Child whom Mary and Joseph presented was identified to Simeon by the Holy Spirit as the Lord’s Christ, whose coming he had awaited, verse 26. The Baby is the anointed of the Lord, set apart for his messianic work. The Holy Spirit’s activity was specifically mentioned in Luke 1:13, 35, 41, 67; 2:25 & 27. He, the Christ, is also the Lord, the sovereign God. Note how the angel identifies him, verse 11. Who he is and what he came to do can be distinguished, but never separated from each other. Christ may have been brought to the temple in obedience to the law, but Simeon recognizes that this is not just a baby, he is Simeon’s Lord. He is your Lord.

Continue reading “The Change of Watch”

The most unusual, the most unexpected of those coming to Bethlehem are the angels, recorded in Luke 2:8–14, appearing to shepherds outside of Bethlehem with joyful news. What makes the news good? That encouragement is spoken to you—who may not happen to be feeling happy this season.

Good news replaces fear. Stand in awe of the glory of the Lord. The shepherds were not easily intimidated. An angel of the Lord appeared to them in the dark, quiet fields outside Bethlehem. These courageous men were terrified by the glory of the Lord which shone around them. The light surrounding them was the glory of the Lord. This shekinah glory had led the Israelites in the wilderness, Exodus 13:21,22. It settled on Mt. Sinai as God gave his law to Moses, Exodus 24:15–18, and then was reflected from Moses’ face, Exodus 34:29. The glory of the Lord filled the Tent of Meeting at its dedication, Exodus 40:34, and later the Temple, at its opening, 1 Kings 8:10, 11. This glory had nearly undone Isaiah when he saw it filling the temple, Isaiah 6:1–5. The Hebrew term is from a root that means “weight.” What frightened the shepherds was not simply the brilliance of the light or the unexpectedness of the angel’s appearance. Rather, it was the sudden consciousness that they were sinners, and they were in the presence of a perfectly holy being.

Continue reading “Good News of Great Joy”