Saturday, March 22, 2014

Lenten Devotional – Day 16

Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?

A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man, in two distinct natures, and one Person forever.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Gal. 4:4-5)

“For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6, NRSV)

Christ "walks through the centuries alongside each generation, alongside every generation, alongside every person. He walks alongside each person as a friend. An important day in a young person's life is the day on which he becomes convinced that this is the only Friend who will not disappoint him, on whom he can always count." - Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994).

  Pastor and author Max Lucado describes some of the weak views people have about Christ: For some, Jesus is a good luck charm. The "Rabbit's Foot Redeemer." Pocket-sized. Handy. Easily packaged. Easily understood. Easily diagramed. You can put his picture on your wall or you can stick it in your wallet as insurance. You can frame him. Dangle him from your rear view mirror or glue him to your dashboard.

galatians-4  His specialty? Getting you out of a jam. Need a parking place? Rub the redeemer. Need help on a quiz? Pull out the rabbit's foot. No need to have a relationship with him. No need to love him. Just keep him in your pocket next to your four-leaf clover.

  For many he's an "Aladdin's Lamp Redeemer." New jobs. Pink Cadillacs. New and improved spouses. Your wish is his command. And what's more, he conveniently reenters the lamp when you don't want him around.

  For others, Jesus is a "Monty Hall Redeemer." "All right, Jesus, let's make a deal. For 52 Sundays a year, I'll put on a costume - coat and tie, hat and hose - and I'll endure any sermon you throw at me. In exchange, you give me the grace behind pearly gate number three."

  The Rabbit's Foot Redeemer. The Aladdin's Lamp Redeemer. The Monty Hall Redeemer. Few demands, no challenges. No need for sacrifice. No need for commitment.

  Sightless and heartless redeemers. Redeemers without power. That's not the Redeemer of the New Testament. - Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (W. Publishing, 2004), pp. 89 & 90.

  Jesus offers himself as God’s doorway into the life that is truly life…. Does Jesus only enable me to “make the cut” when I die? … It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn’t. Can I not have both? - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our hidden life in God, p. 12.

  “Jesus’ good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control – though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us.” - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our hidden life in God, p. 61-62.

  Jesus is either the Son of God or he is in the same category as a man who thinks he is a poached egg. - C. S. Lewis

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 2, 101
Evening Psalm: 74
Jeremiah 5:20-31
Romans 3:19-31
John 7:1-13

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