Psalm 45; Wisdom 3:1-9; Col 1:15-23; Luke 6:12-26
What a blessing that first verse is, “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.” The writer sees the future of those whose hearts are set on the Lord, he sees that even as the world has rejected them and persecuted them, so will they be exalted in the world to come. Most of us keep our heads low and avoid persecution as much as possible and yet the path to glory is to hold our heads high in praise of Him. We should be fearless in our proclamation as we have the sure and certain knowledge of eternity. If we truly trust God we will be tested and tried but it is in the testing and trying that we shine forth as gold.
The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount tells us what the contours of kingdom life are to be and they don’t sound like worldly wisdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the ones who mourn, blessed are you when you are persecuted, none of that sounds like a blessed life to me. As we walk with Jesus through the Gospel accounts of His life, however, we see just these things being true. Those who were in such situations were looking for relief not in the world but from the Lord. Those who came to Him seeking healing and consolation found it but those who came filled with the things the world has to offer went away with nothing. We have to let go of the things of the world in order to receive the things of God. We have a problem of values, we don’t properly esteem the kingdom because we are so caught up in the things of earth. Jesus said in the little kingdom parables He tells that we are that way as a species, we always have been. We chose equality with God in the garden rather than dependence, we choose that path all the time.
Paul knew the value of Jesus. He knows where his life had been headed before Jesus called to him from heaven on the road to Damascus that day. He thought he knew something and he thought he was headed in the right direction but Jesus’ voice showed him that he was headed pell-mell in the wrong direction, no matter how right it seemed to him. Paul knew that without Jesus he had no hope in the world and that every bit of his salvation was owed to the work of Christ. Without Jesus he was blind and he was lost but Jesus sought him and found him and saved him. Paul never forgot that grace is truly amazing, he never took it for granted and he never took credit for anything. He can pile up praises to Jesus without breaking a sweat, he doesn’t have to think, praise just pours out of the man. He is doing theology here with this passage but his theology and doxology are all one piece when it comes to his Christology. Is that true in your life as well?
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment