Devotions that Resonate Truth

 
Romans 5:6
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.                         
While we were weak and helpless, trapped in sin, Jesus Christ died for us. This reminded me immediately of a story I heard several years ago about a child falling down a pipe in South America. I couldn’t find that article because so many recent stories came back when I searched. Evidently this happens all the time around the world. Here’s one.
They rescued a girl from a horrifying ordeal after she stumbled and fell down a well. The youngster had been playing on a building site in China and was found trapped between the wall of the well and a cement pipe. She was crying and trying to protect her face from dirt and soil that kept falling into the tiny hole as rescuers stood above her wondering what to do. Worse still, as workers worked to free her, she slipped further down. They saved her by removing two top sections of the pipe, and a man attached to a rope clambered down to pull her out.
Look, being born with a sin nature is like falling down a spiritual hole. Our access to God, our peace and relationship with him are immediately out of our reach. And the more we try to move toward the light, the deeper we fall. Like the little girl, we are powerless to get out of this void. Every move we make drops us deeper.
And Satan’s lie, and the lie of our hearts is that it isn’t true. The lie is that God is standing over the opening of the hole telling us, “Just try a bit harder and you can pull yourself out. I’m right here waiting for you with a wonderful eternity—there’s a party up here.” Or as some religions tell us, he’s lowered a rope ten feet down to help us. “Just climb halfway up and my grace will help you the rest of the way.” Imagine if this girl’s rescuers had told her that, we’d be so angry—and rightly so!
These verses tell us that while we were still ungodly, while we were sinners trapped deep down the hole and falling deeper—weak and helpless—Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. He reached all the way down to us, cradled us in his arms and pulled us up to eternal life with God.

 
Mark 10:42-45And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45 is a very simple verse but look for the two backward statements Jesus makes. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”If you read that and it feels right, then you either have an inflated view of yourself, or a deflated view of Jesus. Jesus says the king came to serve the poor and something of extremely high value was paid to ransom something of much lower value.
Picture this, the President of the United States walks into the oval office and the janitor is sitting on the couch and he calls out, “Hey, I’m hungry, could you run out and get me a sub sandwich, and a pickle? Oh, and I like my pickles quartered.” That picture makes me laugh. Why? Because it’s ridiculous! This man is running the most powerful nation on earth, you don’t ask him to get you a pickle and cut it into quarters! Picturing him in the kitchen cutting a pickle is a joke. 
What about walking into a local pawn shop and asking how much some earrings in a jewelry case would cost? “I’ll take the British crown jewels, trade you straight up,” comes the reply. “Ha ha ha, very funny.” You don’t redeem middle class earrings with the crown jewels. Kidnappers don’t break into houses, take American Girl dolls, and leave ransom notes.
Our verse says that God came to serve the people he originally created to worship him, he didn’t come to be served by them. More than that, they refused to worship him but rebelled, pretending to be like gods themselves. So, he came to ransom them from sin and death and eternal judgment, to buy them back from their evil ways.
And the price for the trade was…his only perfect son, Jesus. And this notion is ridiculous…or it’s the greatest wonder of all time. If it’s true and if it’s for you, then it changes every day you live.If the President actually took time out if his day to go buy you and sandwich, and a pickle, and to cut it into quarters for you, then regardless of who you are or what you’ve done, that would make you special. Post that video on your social media profile and you’ll see! If the Queen traded her jewels to buy your jewelry back for you, they would also be filled with value, and you couldn’t even wear them anymore! It would be incredible. You’d have to get a new insurance policy.
More incredible is that God came to serve you - not to make you a sandwich - but to make you his son or daughter, to buy you back for himself, because he wanted to love you and have you worship him for all eternity.
It’s wonderfully backward but wonderfully true. In real space and time, Jesus gave his life a ransom for many real people, for me and for you. 

 
Mark 10:45For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
The picture of God offering Jesus as a ransom for many is one of the most powerful, illustrated truths in the Bible. So, I want us to lower our buckets down into the well twice, to drink in its rich encouragement.
Today, I want you to remember that you and I, and all humanity after Adam and Eve, were born into captivity – to sin and spiritual death. All of us.But then one day a messenger hands us a message, a letter as it were (hold it up and open) that said (in my case) – “Dear Nate, today is an amazing day for you. You thought you were trapped here chained to the floor, with nobody rich enough, and who also cared enough, to pay your ransom price of sin and get you out of here. But someone has paid the ransom. I have received the briefcase and it’s all here. In fact, there was way too much included, so here’s a Righteousness MasterCard with an unlimited balance for you, too. Take it, you’re free to go.”
Astonished, we look around, making sure we’re the intended recipient.
“But I haven’t done anything to earn this. I can’t accept it.”
“Well,” we’re told, “this is your only chance, you either take it or leave it…but if you leave it…then you’ll be left in here…until the Day of Judgement.”
“This seems too good to be true, though. Is it a hoax? Is it a joke?”
“It does seem pretty incredible,” comes the reply. “But I checked it carefully…it’s signed in Jesus own blood. I ran the account, and it’s in your name, everything checks out. And I represent God. He never jokes about an eternal human soul.”
I was really given that wonderful message…and one day I took it and walked out of the cell of darkness and into the kingdom of light and life. And nothing and no one can ever put me back in there. 
And one of those notes and MasterCards has been handed to every human being – you, too.
Many have accepted the gift. Even now in your mind you can look down at your letter and remember that day – and all the days of life you’ve enjoyed since that day you were ransomed. And you remember that it was Christ’s body broken for you and his blood given for you, that redeemed your life and set you free. That is what we are to celebrate every time we take communion at church.
On the other hand, maybe you’ve been handed your letter, but you’ve read it and put it back into its envelope and you’ve set it on a shelf in your cell. Or, it’s even possible, that as I’m sharing this truth with you today, it is the first time you have heard these things explained. I am handing you God’s letter telling you that you have been ransomed from your sin and Jesus’ blood was not only sufficient to pay for your mistakes, but a Righteousness MasterCard is yours, too. God will cover any (and there will be many) future mistakes you make. 
I want you to look down at the letter and see your name written there. See your name stamped on the debit card. Then look up at the barred door of your captivity to sin and guilt that stands open. Nothing stands in your way, you can be redeemed today. Don’t put it back on the shelf. 

 
1 Corinthians 1:17 – 25For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,     and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  Why does Paul talk so much about foolishness and wisdom, folly vs power, over and over in these verses? What is his point and why does he feel the need for so much repetition to hammer his point home? I’d like to illustrate this.
Two women meet each other one morning as they sit down right next to each other at a scientific talk. They listen to the same lecture, which is on a new cure to a rare disease. At the end, the first woman thinks to herself, “What a boring dry speaker, I wish I had chosen the other session.” The other woman rushes forward to be the first to meet the speaker and to learn more. Both women have the same rare disease, for which a cure has just been discovered. But the difference is that the first woman doesn’t know she has it and the second woman knows she is dying and has no other cure. The first woman was unimpressed and heard nonsense. The second woman could care less about the eloquence of the speaker, she heard only POWER and WISDOM that would change her life.
The Corinthians were connoisseurs, they knew how to really appreciate and discern the best rhetoric and eloquence. They made much of the style and giftedness of the speaker, and little of the content. The content Paul preached was of Christ’s crucifixion, a method of execution considered so crude it was not even mentioned in polite company. There was no way to make this content “cool”, the “wow” factor wasn’t there. It’s a gruesome, shameful, topic that shouldn’t even be brought up. It was deemed nonsense for the elevated mind to find hope, power, and God in a man killed by crucifixion.
The same has been true across the following centuries and is true today. The world today, full of very smart people, scoffs at Jesus on the cross. What they miss is that the cross isn’t meant to be cool. It is meant to be so low, so painful, so ugly that we weep in amazement at a God who would lower himself to that point, the point we deserved, to heal us.
You, along with every human alive, were born with the spiritual disease of sin and guilt and the bad news is that it is terminal. But there is news of a single cure and you and I have heard it. We sit in our chairs now at the end of the talk and the question is, do we think it’s foolishness and walk away? Or do we rush the stage to follow our savior and to be healed by the wisdom and power found at the cross?

 
1 John 3:1 
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!                                   
The letter of 1 John is very different from other letters in the new testament, like Romans or Galatians. The author, John, doesn’t step us through a linear argument or truth. Instead, he circles around, covering and covering the same idea adding a bit more or explaining it differently. 
Here’s an illustration of what the letter of 1 John is doing, that really helped me understand and appreciate the truths in it. 
I want you to picture yourself dating the perfect human being. Then you meet his or her family and they are incredible, too. You get married and are now part of this family – really a part! And you are excited about this, but you aren’t really sure how to be, how to act, how to relate to Uncle Frank. What’s expected of you? How do you see and treat the rest of the world now? Does this change things? 
An old white-haired grandpa hobbles up and he sits you down in a rocking chair and starts to tell you everything you need to know - the benefits of being in the family, the riches you have been given and all that is yet to come! He tells you about your new father and what he is like, what is important to him, and the love that your new family members have for you, and how you should treat each one of them. Lastly, he explains the threats to you from the world, now that you are in this family, and how to respond. 
He doesn’t go through each of these once, he explains it and then remembers another aspect or detail and jumps back to something he’s told you and elaborates on it more – just like you would if I asked you what your family or roommates or friends were like. You’re trying to put people and relationships into words. That is what John is doing here in 1 John. And it’s not “like you were part of a new family” – and please don’t miss this – YOU REALLY ARE part of the best family in the universe now, and for the rest of eternity, and it’s just going to get better! 
John is saying, “Here’s what your new spiritual dad (God the Father) and brother (Jesus) are like and have done to bring you into their family forever.” We could substitute dad and brother and it would be true for us. 
 
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all 
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 
He is the propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world 
The promise he made to us – eternal life 
He is righteous 
He is pure 
He appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin
The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil 
He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world 
Love is from God 
God is love 
God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him 
In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins
He has given us His Spirit 
God is love 
He first loved us  
His commandments are not burdensome 
The Spirit is the truth 
He hears us in whatever we ask 
He always answers us 
He always protects us 
The Son of God has come and given us understanding 
He is the true God and eternal life 
 
See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God! 

 
1 Timothy 2:5-6For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 
Verse 5 makes very clear that there aren’t many Gods, there is one God, a single God to all humans. This is a big truth statement and defines Christianity as a monotheistic religion. It’s still very broad, though, because many religions believe in just one God, but each offers very different claims on ways or routes to knowing and being loved by that one God. 
Well, the very next phrase in verse 5 narrows down the Biblical view much further and separates it from all other views. It says, “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” That is very clear cut. There is just one God for everyone, but there is also just one mediator, Christ Jesus, who was a man.
If we picture the many suggested paths to God as footpaths branching out in different directions, each taking a different route to the same destination, the Bible is saying that eventually they all become dead ends, except one. If we follow the path that the Bible claims is the one true way, we still come to a deep ravine that we cannot cross alone. God desires that you be saved and that you know him, he desires peace and for his promises to be yours. But there’s been a terrible breach in the original agreement, the old covenant between you and God. If you sin, then you lose it all.
I lost it all. You have, too. We burned down the only bridge to God.
So, a third party is needed, a mediator. In an official setting, a mediator is a person who attempts to help people involved in a conflict come to an agreement. Normally this person’s job is to be detached from the conflict and objective, to help both sides to compromise, to admit and make amends for their part in the conflict, and to coach the two parties until enough overlap and agreement can be found to resolve the conflict. To use the path and bridge picture – mediators don’t build bridges, they encourage each party to rebuild their part of the bridge and meet in the middle so that they can reconnect. Is Jesus really good at doing that with us and with God? Is that why he’s the only mediator?
No. Because you can’t coach a holy God into accepting what is unholy. He doesn’t compromise with sin, that’s what makes him perfect and unstained and pure. Jesus doesn’t ask God to try to see the situation from our viewpoint, to cut us some slack because he knows what it is like to make mistakes. Instead, Jesus tells his Father, “I know what it’s going to take for you and Nate to be restored, he needs to be made perfect like you, and so all his offenses must be paid for in full. Would that bring peace back between you two?” And God says, “Yes. I would fully receive him back forever, if that were done.” Then Jesus looks over at me and says, “Do we have a deal? That sounds fair to me. It’s in your original agreement.” 
And in despair, I say, “No, I can’t repay the debt, I can’t uphold my side of that deal. We both know that I will exist in lonely punishment and agony for eternity and that won’t even pay the first installment. I have no hope to rebuild the bridge I destroyed. Is there another way?” 
There was no way. There was only one who could pay the price to rebuild the bridge…the mediator himself. Hold on a second, isn’t a mediator just here to guide? “Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all.” As Hebrews 9:15 says, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
Wow. The mediator cares so much, that he gives himself, he pays the price to build the bridge! He is no uninvolved coach; he is not a detached third party. He truly gets in the middle of the conflict, in order to establish a new agreement, a new covenant between the parties; he becomes the new bridge. And I must mention that God the Father is not detached and angry in this, either. He is angry with sin, yes. But it was his plan from the beginning to offer Jesus in our place. As verse 4 says, he desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The Father gladly joins in the sacrifice needed to be restored to us. Oh, how wonderful it is to live with God on the other side of the ravine! 

 
John 1:14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The first two gospels (Matthew and Mark) were written between 50-60 AD. Then Luke came after, around 60-61 AD. Matthew and Luke give us our traditional story of the baby born in a smelly barn, and Mark moves fast and jumps right in at the baptism of Jesus. Perhaps even in the early years of the church people thought mostly of the lowly human side to the incarnation. After all, it’s a side we most naturally relate to. So when John writes his gospel twenty to thirty years later, it’s a very different side of the same coin. We don’t even find out who he is writing about until verse 17! 
John describes a being he calls “the Word” in such awe-inspiring language that it doesn’t sound like a human being at all. Let’s consider John’s words, as if for the first time.
The Word existed in the beginning (v1) – so he’s really old, that’s pretty cool. Some kind of really old being became a human.
The Word was with God in the beginning (v1) – so he’s powerful and on God’s side, with direct access to God too. That’s important to know.
All things that were made were made through The Word (v2-3) – wait a second. So, he wasn’t just there at the beginning – he wasn’t created then, but was a creator. He’s really powerful and designed and created every single particle upon which he then built everything in the vast universe? That creator-being became a human? This is getting interesting.
In him was life and that life was the light of men (v4), the true light, which gives light to everyone (v9) – so he not only has jaw-dropping power, there is some kind of special life in him that is shining forth to everyone – there is no place this light cannot touch or reach. What is this life? Any stipulations on getting it from him?
To all who receive him, who believe in him, he gives the right to be called children of God, born of God (v12) – so the Word has power from God, but also the authority to change humans into children of God – that is incredible! Yet not for all people, but only those who believe in him. Makes sense. This must have been an amazing being to see. What was that like?
Verse 14 says “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So when John lived with the Word he saw a unique glory from God – a glory shining full of grace and full of truth, like no other being ever has. Can you imagine seeing that? And yet, he became human, he became flesh, not just a god looking like a human.
John the Baptist, a prophet of God, saw this glory. The first time he saw The Word, he cried out “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v29) I can’t take away a single sin from myself, let alone the world. Who is this being!? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the next verse said the Word was a giant man with a gold sash, white hair, bronze legs, eyes like a flame of fire, a two-edged sword coming from his mouth and a face like the sun shining in full strength!
He actually does show back up looking exactly like that in Revelation, but Verse 29 actually says, “he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’” So the Word…is Jesus!?
You mean this elaborate introduction is all about the cute, helpless baby born in a smelly barn? That’s the Word? The being John is describing and saying you have to believe in to be called a child of God? The unattractive, poor, Jewish rabbi who died as a criminal? Yes.
You see, he was born to do the work of a lamb, so his power is veiled in weakness and humility. He will do the work of a Lion one day and will come dressed in terrible beauty. So, embrace the kindness and approachability Jesus offers when you look into his patient, forgiving, human eyes, but do not fail to also see the powerful fire of heavenly holiness and of cosmic creation burning there.

 
Colossians 1:15, 19-22
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  
[In] him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
Often when we meditate on the Good News, we reflect on something that has happened and is true – “we were reconciled to God”. Often, we meditate on a name or attribute of Jesus – “our Passover lamb”. Who is solving this problem? It is Christ (verses 15-19). Who has the problem? Verse 21 says, “you… were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”  Today I want to do something different. It is not a “what” or a “who” question, but a “why” question that I want us to think about.
In business, when we encounter a very difficult problem, where it is tough to get to the root and solve it, there’s a technique called “5 Whys” – where you continue to ask why, until you get to the root. The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies.[1]
It works sort of like a 5-year-old asking “why, why, why, why, why.” Let’s do that today with the gospel in these verses from Colossians.
Why is being alienated from God a problem? Because God is holy and blameless and cannot accept us as we are.
Why is that hard to solve? Because we can’t “unalienate” ourselves from God.
Why? Because we are constantly doing evil deeds (not to mention our thoughts or intentions behind even the good deeds we perform).
Why? Because we are slaves to sin.
Why? Because Adam sinned and passed along to all mankind the nature and proclivity to sin.
So, five layers down, that is the root of our problem. To solve it, someone would need to remove every sin separating us from God – not just up to today or the problem would instantly return and be just as bad as before. It must be removed for all time.
That is what Jesus Christ did for us. Look at verse 22 – (what?) he has now reconciled (how?) in his body of flesh by his death, (why?) in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Nothing and no one else go  down the steps of our problem to the very root and changes us and fixes us. No other religion even dares offer a solution to us that will transform us and clean us in our entirety, inside and out, head to toe. They all require us to be an agent in fixing our problem.
It may sound believable to say, “You can look inside and believe in yourself and be better.” But it is outrageous to say, “You must look inside and believe in yourself to undo every mistake you’ve made, wrong thought you’ve entertained, and every hurtful action you’ve ever done.” Instead, we must look outside and believe in the perfect work of Jesus; he promises to present us holy and blameless and above reproach to God.
 
[1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys