Holier Than Thou?

Holy.

We call our God holy. We say buildings dedicated to Him are holy ground. We call the Bible Holy. We even claim to be holy people belonging to the Lord.

Holy     –     Sanctified     –     Consecrated     –     Pure

What do these words even mean?

I caught a glimpse of it once – what it means to say God is holy.  Just a glimpse. That was all I could handle. My mind flinched away as though burned. There is a purity about God so far removed from human imagining, I finally understood, at least for a moment, what Isaiah recorded in Isaiah 55:9

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Putting that in perspective, if you took a train to the moon, our closest heavenly body, it would take you 150 years to get there. God’s ways are not at all like ours. He is our creator. He has the right to do things however He wants. Yet…Psalm 145:17 declares

The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, the all-powerful One is not capricious or random in what He does. He’s not just righteous in the sense that He’s always right because He makes the rules. He is righteous because He keeps His rules. Everything He does is done in the right way: no shortcuts, never sloppy or whimsical, and always, always in accordance with his exacting moral standard. He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 135:6), but He does it in a way that is holy. This is such an integral part of who God is, He built His throne on it. Psalm 89:14

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

In Isaiah 5:16, the Lord defines His holiness with His righteousness.

But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice,

Then He goes one step farther, and asks us to be holy – because He is holy. (I Peter 1:15-16)

One of many ways God is different than we are. We are more likely to say, “I’ll be holy if you are!”  But God is holy first, showing us how. He would not expect fidelity from us if He was unfaithful. He would not expect honesty if His words were not truth. Unlike us, He never expects others to be more than what He is.

His holiness is founded on His justice, shown in His righteousness, rooted in His faithfulness, and secured by His immutable truth.

As Moses stated in Exodus 15:11, God is truly majestic in His holiness. Majestic because in His purity He has no shame, nothing to hide. His holiness is so beautiful, so absolutely pure, that when I caught a glimpse of it, I had to turn my face away.

Because I could never measure up. It’s a standard every human alive has failed at, according to Romans 3:23.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There was a time when I had to face this fact in my own life–face the fact that no matter what I did I could not rid myself of sin, could not make myself clean, and in that moment I saw myself in Ephesians 2:12

…(I was) at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Left to my own devices, I truly had no hope. How could a holy, pure, righteous God ever be satisfied with my endless failures and hopeless brokenness?

But the story does not end there. Nor for me, nor for you, nor for anyone who dares to come to Christ in faith. Jesus Christ, knowing we were flawed, came and defined holiness for us:

 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.  Hebrews 7:26

Holy: innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, (and don’t miss this) exalted above the heavens. Our perfect, sinless sacrifice, able to do what we could not. For some reason I will never understand Jesus came to all who sinned and deserved His wrath, and instead

         (we) are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Romans 3:24-26

Our pure, flawless, holy God required a price be paid for the sin that stained my soul, but He allowed His Son to pay the price, and redeem me.

I would not have done it. My ways are not His ways, but His are higher, better, far beyond anything I could ever ask or think.

He was, is, and always will be

Holy.

Joy in the Broken

                                                                                                                                             

                                 

Broken, marred... the light shines through the cracks. A vessel held up in unmerited favour awaits, in reborn hope, maybe even, renewed purpose. Maybe this time the kind saviour will heal the battered scars. It waits... meanwhile, light still shines. Shines through the cracks.  Roland Gotzke








Have you ever wished you could bottle the joy of the Lord so you could just hand it out to those in need?

To the lost,
                  to the hurting,

                                        to the broken.

                                                           
Because we are all broken. Some of us worse than others, some of us more aware of it than others, but sin has broken all of us. We are hurting, and we need joy.

There is only one remedy for our broken, wounded, bleeding spirits: the Cross of Christ and His precious blood poured out for us.

One would think, after all God has done for me, after the way He has loved me and drawn me and cared for me and redeemed me, that I would stand boldly in His love and walk in faith. That I would claim His salvation and rise up, unbroken, ready to tackle anything life throws at me.

Nope.

I'm still broken. I stumble blindly along the path He has clearly revealed. I weep with gratitude over His miraculous provision in the past, yet tremble in fear and unbelief over the things I face today. I proclaim the beauty of His plan and His ways, and even His laws which He gave me for my good, while desperately seeking a way to break His laws, because my case is "special".

I find a true brother in Paul when he mourned,

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.   Romans 7:18-19

My heart cries with him as he exclaims:

Wretched man that I am! Who shall save me from this body of death?!!!! (vs. 24)

Yep. Broken. And yet...Paul also gives us a glimmer of hope.

There is therefore now NO condemnation... For God has done what the law,weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,he condemned sin in the flesh... Romans 8:1-3

And John chimes in with,

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.  I John 4:10

Propitiation: the act of appeasing wrath. Webster's dictionary.

In our failures, our weakness, our brokenness, our flat-out sinfulness, Jesus Christ chose to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.              Romans 5:8

Wow! That right there should be enough to fill our hearts with joy. But God did not stop there. When we believe on Him, He gives us a gift:

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  Ephesians 1:13-14

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?   I Corinthians 6:19

Yes, I am broken. I am very broken. 

BUT THERE IS SOMEONE INSIDE OF ME WHO IS NOT!!!

Want to know what else? Sometimes, just sometimes, I can tap into the power that lives within me. I can walk in the joy and strength of my Lord. I can stand strong and boldly proclaim the faithfulness of my God while my world crumbles around me. In those moments, the joy of the Lord becomes my strength. His peace passes all earthly understanding of my circumstances. In those moments, those precious, fleeting moments, my flesh has no power over me, and I get it. I get what Paul meant when he said, 

...Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  Galatians 5:16 (KJV)

Then the moment is gone. But the memory lingers.

If only I could walk in the Spirit all the time! My heart cries. But I know why I can't. Walking in the Spirit is a powerful place. If the mundane didn't crash in on me, if I didn't sleep it off, if I didn't get distracted by the constant demands for my attention, then my pride would get in the way, I'd forget it was the Spirit's power, not my own, and I'd crash right back to earth.

So He gives us moments--glimpses of what it will be like when we walk with Him free from this sinful, broken, constantly failing flesh. He gives us the ability to walk partially in the Spirit when we cannot do it perfectly. Best of all, He gives us joy down in the deepest part of our being. Joy that bubbles and dances and seems completely immune to the chaos around us.

I cannot walk in the Spirit perfectly at all times. But, to the extant that I remember who Jesus is and the miracle of what He has done for me, I can walk in joy. 

His joy takes the edge off my frustrations, making it a tiny bit easier to be patient. His joy bubbles up to comfort me in my grief, my tears wiped away by His incredible love. His joy reminds me that I am forgiven, and so need to forgive others.  What is a thoughtless, if hurtful word spoken to me in the light of the deep offenses I've committed--offenses that cost Jesus His life?

He paid a debt He did not owe, to buy a sinner who could not pay Him back. In the light of that one truth, everything else fades. 

Have you met my Jesus? Oh, my friend, kneel at the cross and tap into His endless joy. Quit striving, and let His Spirit transform your life. Let His light shine through your cracks. 

Blessings, 

Jules

What Good is Just One?

What is it with me?

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on The Elder Brother. Most people read the story of the Prodigal Son and see the incredible love and grace of the father, the importance of repentance, and the surety of our Heavenly Father's forgiveness when we repent. They look at the older brother and rightly see the self-righteousness, jealousy, and lack of compassion he displays.

Me? Forget the prodigal. My heart bleeds for the forgotten older brother. Yes, forgotten, because in the excitement over the prodigal's return, no one bothered to send a message to the faithful son working diligently out in the field.

And I'm doing it again--looking at a story intended to teach a right/wrong lesson, and siding with the "wrong"side. This time, it's the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30.  It's a long passage, so I'll sum it up:

Getting ready to leave on a trip, the master of the house gives one servant 5 talents, the next one 2 talents and the last servant one. While he's gone, the first two servants double their money, and are able to present their success to the master with joy at his return, and are rewarded. The final servant had buried the money. When the master returned, the servant dug up the money and gave it back. The master was furious and condemned him to "outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

We applaud the first two servants for their diligence, and shake our head in disgust over the laziness of the third. Although the talent in this story was actually a unit of money, most of us get the connection between the monetary talent, and the English word "talent" meaning "skill, ability." We understand that we are to use the talents God gives us and not hide them.

Jesus Himself showed little mercy for the unproductive third servant.

However, if I may, I would like to take a moment to look at this story from his point of view.

All of us know at least a few five-talent people. People whose talent oozes out at their pores. They're skilled, confident, out in front of the pack. Often, they're the people we wish we could be. Most of them are more than happy to share their gifts with the world. In a choir, we would call them the soloist.

Then there are the two-talent people. Their talent doesn't ooze out of them, but they are competent in their gifts--and usually a bit more humble. A few of them hide their gifts, but for the most part, they seem to fit easily into their niche. They're the back-up singers for the five-talent people.

Finally, there's the one-talents. These would be the ones who have a voice - but are best used in the choir, as one of many.

In the story of the talents, I tend to identify with that third servant. By himself, he's probably content with his talent. But then he sees the blazing beauty of the five-talent servant, and the solid competence of the two-talent servant. He looks down at his tiny little one-talent, and realizes he can never measure up to the first two. The thought crosses his mind, They are so good at what they do, what would they think if they saw how insignificant my gift is? 

"I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground."  Matthew 25:25

I cannot judge him harshly because I've been there. Have you? If they see what I have to offer, they'll just laugh!  So we turn, and we hide what God has given us, because we don't think it is enough.

But that's not our decision to make. In fact, it's a decision that angers the master. He responds to the servant,

"Thou wicked and slothful servant... at my coming I should have received mine own with usury." vs. 26-27

The gift came from God, and when He returns, He expects us to give it back to Him with use(- ury).

Often, I look at what I have to give, and it appears one talent is all I've got. What is that next to what Jane Doe sitting next to me has? What if I am rejected? Or worse, laughed at? Or ignored? That's almost as bad, because then I start to put all sorts of evil thoughts in the other person's head. What if my gift is treated with contempt? Afraid, I put what I have away, hiding it in the earth of my heart. It's so little, I think, no one will notice its lack.

"THOU WICKED AND SLOTHFUL SERVANT!!!!"

The words thunder at me. I was not given the gift to hide it in a fit of cowardice. Because no matter how small I think it is, God had a plan for it when He gave it to me. I am reminded of the George Herbert poem where an entire kingdom was lost for want of  a nail in a horse's shoe.

So, to my fellow one-talenters out there, let me offer a bit of encouragement.

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in his presence."  I Corinthians 1:27-29

Don't forget that it's not about us--it's about God. It is not about what I can do, it is about what He can do.

"...For when I am weak, then He is strong."  II Corinthians 12:10

I am not asked to control the effect of my gift, I am only asked to use it.

Lord Jesus, please give us the courage to step out and use what You have given us, no matter how small, for Your glory. Remind us that we do not need an ocean of faith, just a tiny mustard seed. Teach us that You who made the earth out of nothing, can use even the smallest talent for Your purpose. Thank-You for giving each of us a place in Your plan. Amen.

Jules

I Surrender...All?

                         

All to Jesus, I surrender

All to Him I freely give...

The words from the old hymn drift upward from the radio as I drive home on this lovely Spring day. What memories it brings back!

When I was young, I loved this song. I sang it with gusto. Of course I surrendered all to Jesus! I was completely secure in my "surrender;" maybe even a bit proud. 

I had no idea what I was talking about.

Fast forward twenty years--to a time when things had been taken away from me that I didn't know were up for discussion. A time when my well-planned life had completely fallen apart, and my hopes, dreams, expectations, and absolute assurances had all crumbled into dust. 

Suddenly, the song is not so easy to sing. Discussing the song with a new friend, we shook our heads together and agreed the song should not even be in the church repertoire, because no one could sing it truthfully. They either didn't know what "all" meant, or they were lying through their teeth.

That was four years ago, and once again my perspective has changed. 

Over the past ten years, I have been asked to surrender my church, my friends, my husband, the house I loved, my control...even my children. Instead of tossing the song aside as unrealistic, I have come to understand I do need to surrender all. I have also learned that "all" in this case actually means, "ALL."

Some things I fought God over for years before I finally surrendered--only to find my struggle had been keeping me from a beautiful treasure He wanted to give me. The surrender gets easier as I

1) acknowledge God's sovereignty and bow to His power over my weakness and

2) remember He is always working for His glory...and my good.

Sometimes I believe I have finally done it--finally surrendered it all. Pat myself on the back. What a good Christian I am!

But Jesus knows my heart, He sees the things I've hidden even from myself, and He wants it ALL. 

I'm walking along, minding my own business, thinking I'm doing pretty good at submitting to my Lord and WHAM! Out of nowhere, something I have held onto is ripped from my grasp.

"But Lord, YOU gave me that! I'm supposed to hold onto it." I protest in agony.

No answer. 

"You talked directly to Abraham and Samuel," I grumble under my breath.

Still no answer.

Reluctantly, rebellious to my core, I take it to the Lord in prayer.

"Lord, I confess I'm rebellious. I want to surrender, but I can't."

Then I remember. I really can't. Nor is it my job. My job is to do what I have just done: confess my weakness and inability to Christ. Through my tears, a calming peace steals over my soul. The answer, as always, is in the Word of God.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness." I John 1:9

I don't have to do this on my own. Slowly, I mentally pry open my fingers and ask my Lord to help me surrender even this thing to Him.

And He does.

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give.

I will ever love and trust Him

In His presence daily live.

This song is not the self-righteous proclamation of the hypocrite. It is the heart cry of the true believer. As I sing the song, I am reminded right now, today, there are things I need to surrender. I sing in faith and humility and brokenness, opening my hands to release what I am clinging to in this moment.

Tomorrow there will be other things. Tomorrow I will need to sing the song again. And the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And next week. And next year. And...you get the picture.

Is there something in your life you have not surrendered? Do you understand how much Jesus loves you and wants to mold it into something that will bring glory to Him and good to you?

Jesus is not jealous and spiteful. But He is jealous in His intense love for us, determined that nothing block the healing relationship He wants with us.

Many things He asks of us seem opposite to logic. Surrender in the world is defeat.

Surrender in Christ is victory.

Trust His plan, rest in His love, and let go of all else.

May your day be richly blessed, 

Jules

Embraced - But At What Cost?

                                                                                                                           


                                                                                                                               
Do you know what it feels like to be embraced? To be wrapped in arms of love and held close?

Do you know what it feels like to be embraced by your Heavenly Father?

It's having wounds break open wide and knowing God is not angry with you for hurting. It's crying over something no one else can understand and knowing you are not crying alone. It's having grief rip you apart but feeling strangely comforted at the same time.

It's watching your world crumble but knowing you stand on solid ground.

It's watching a young man on his seventeenth birthday choose to be baptized. Choose to stand before his church family and proclaim his love and faith in the Lord who has embraced him. Barely six months ago, this young man lost his father. Watching his joy that Sunday, I could not stop my tears. In his loss, this young man has been embraced by his Heavenly Father.

Just guessing, but I think in that moment, his widowed mother was feeling embraced as well.

Do we have any idea how much our Savior loves us?

Do you realize that before Jesus came to earth, He had never felt pain--never even had a body that could feel pain? Did He really know how bad it would be?

What kept Him here the first time He scraped His knee or felt hungry or cold or sick?

By the time He reached Gethsemene, He knew the meaning of pain. Furthermore, He was well aware of the agony Romans liked to inflict. The Romans were deliberate and public with their torturous executions.

Jesus had seen enough and felt enough to be filled with dread at the ordeal He knew was coming. He even asked His Father, "Isn't there any other way?"

The answer, apparently was, "No," because Jesus said, "Okay, if this is how it must be, I will do it." (Major paraphrase there.)

Our "humane" Western minds cannot even begin to grasp the horrors of Jesus' day. Christianity has revolutionized the way humans treat each other, even among those who do not believe. But Rome had not yet met the Christianity about to be born. Speaking of births, we westerners think labor pain is the worst pain a human body can endure.

We're wrong.

The Gospels say Jesus actually sweat drops of blood over what He saw coming. Did you know this is actually possible? It is a very rare condition brought on by intensely high stress. The capillaries in the sweat glands break, leaving one's sweat tinted with blood. But that's just the visible side of this condition. Th invisible side is that it also makes the skin extremely sensitive. When Jesus took the stripes for our healing, He did it with no resistance to the pain.

How could He have loved us that much?

Those lashes were not just skin deep. Rumor is a Roman lashing laid bare the bones of the whipped. These lashings were so brutal that even Rome took pity at this point and decreed the convicted could not be both whipped and crucified.

Pilate ignored that law--or perhaps hoped Jesus would invoke it. Instead, "...as the sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."

Quivering with pain and shock from loss of blood, Jesus allowed them to put the horizontal beam of the cross across His shoulders and attempted to stagger up Calvary's hill.

Interesting piece of trivia here: the convicted did not carry their entire cross, as it would have been too heavy. Instead, the Romans left the vertical stakes in the ground at the execution site, and had their prisoners carry the horizontal cross-piece, which was not so heavy.

However, in Jesus' weakened condition even the cross-piece was too heavy. He fell, and a man named Simon was conscripted into carrying it the rest of the way. Then they nailed Jesus' hands to that horizontal piece and raised Him up for the world to see.

Our eyes want to turn away from the shame and agony of that moment.

We want it to be less.

Instead, it is more. In the midst of incomprehensible physical suffering, the pure soul of the Son of God became black with our sins. Sins His holy nature could not bear. Sins that caused His Father to turn away from Him in His darkest hour.

Have you ever done something you were so ashamed of you wanted to crawl out of your skin to get away from it? Experienced guilt so great your chest constricted in physical pain?

I have.

Like a diabetic whose sugar runs high, I'm somewhat used to it--toughened up by hundreds of little sins committed. It's part of being human.

But Jesus--He'd never felt that before. As His body screamed in agony, His soul was crushed beneath the sins I, in a healthy body, could not bear. And not just mine. Not just one person's; a life for a life as dictated by the law of Moses. No, Jesus took on the sins of every believer, past, present, and future...a nearly infinite crushing weight as agonizing to His soul as the crucifixion was to His body.

He bore this weight and agony for about six hours before His human body could take no more, and He breathed His last.

They laid Him in a tomb, rolled the biggest stone they could find over the entry, posted soldiers to make sure no one stole the body, and left Him there. For three days He suffered the punishment ordained for my sins--and yours--standing in our place, taking our shame. For three days, God's enemies rejoiced, certain they had won.

But Sunday was coming...

On Sunday morning, He burst out of that grave with His body healed, His soul pure, and our debt paid.

This is what it means to be redeemed.

This is what my seventeen-year-old friend proclaimed at his baptism. What joy to begin life freed from sin and walking with Jesus!

What joy to know you are never too old to begin!

Jesus sacrifice, as great as it was, is given to us as a free gift. All we have to do is accept it. It's never too late.

Oh my friend! Don't struggle to pay for your own sins! What could you possibly add to the sacrifice Jesus has already made? Instead, answer His plea,

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28


Do you know how much Jesus loves you?


May you find rest in His love.

Jules

God Loves It When A Plan Comes Together

         

                

Several months ago, our pastor challenged us to memorize the book of Ephesians. Not just a verse or two, but the entire book. When I was young, I could have memorized it in two weeks or less. But I’m getting older. After several months, I’m almost through chapter three.

It isn’t just that my brain is older and slower. It’s that my attention gets caught by different words…different phrases. They stick in my brain and de-rail my rote memorization as my brain attempts to grasp what is really being said. I can say with no exaggeration that Ephesians is currently my favorite book of the Bible.

Did you know that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing…such as the fact that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world!? (Ephesians 1:3-4)

If you don’t think that’s personal and specific, keep reading. I spent weeks on just the first four or five verses. The book of Ephesians is dripping with God’s love for us. For you. For me.

As I struggle to engrave these precious words into my permanent memory, I occasionally find a concept that seems to have many layers. The most recent of these was Ephesians 2:14-22 (ESV[1])

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

“For He, Himself is our peace.” 

I need peace right now. It doesn’t matter what circumstances we face. As believers, our peace can always be found in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. I found that thought incredibly comforting – until a nasty voice in the back of my mind accused, “You’re taking that out of context. That’s not the peace Paul’s talking about.”

Maybe not, I thought rebelliously, but it’s still true.

Paul is referring to the conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles in this passage, and the miracle of love shown by Jesus when He included Gentiles in God’s kingdom through His sacrifice. In our day, we have the opposite problem. We Gentiles have to be reminded that the Jews are also included – if we know any Jews to include. Our culture is not the clear-cut mix it was in Paul’s day. Aside from general racism, I really have to stretch to find a corresponding example in my life.

I had a difficult time with this passage because it seemed too specific to have any relevance for me. Everybody knows the Gentiles are included – why keep harping on it?

“For He, Himself is our peace…and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility…” (vs. 14)

What does that mean? Romans 8:7-8 flitted across my mental screen.

 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

I sat up a little straighter. Maybe there was a way I could apply these verses in my life.

“For he himself is our peace, who … has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” (vs.14-15)

My mind was hostile, at war with God, until Jesus came - as a man - prone to that same hostility, but broke down in His flesh the wall of hostility by living a sinless life and allowing Himself to be slain as a sacrifice, both fulfilling the law and abolishing the “law of commandments expressed in (639) ordinances” – the law that made God impossible to please and left me consumed with guilt, dead in my trespasses and sin. But He abolished it – put a stop to it…

“that He … might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (vs. 16)

What a way to put it! He didn’t just make peace, He killed the hostility. Killed it, buried it, left it in the grave when He resurrected. It is gone. Forever!

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”(vs. 17)

Then He came and told His disciples about it, and sent them into the world to declare that

 “ … through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (vs. 18)

Both Jews and Gentiles, “us” and “them”, whoever that may be today.

Then Paul reveals the true miracle:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,” (vs. 19)

Me? Really? Can it be true?

I, who was once

“…separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (vs. 12)

I am now included among the saints as a member of the household of God. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, so are you.

This is a household, not a bachelor pad. I find I have come full circle from what Christ has done for me personally, to what He has done for those who are hostile to each other.

I am not allowed hostility toward others because He did not break down the wall of hostility between myself and God only, He broke it down between each of us as well.

“that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,” (vs.15)

His desire for His people is that we would become one. He emphasizes this again and again in the prayer he prayed for us in John 17:22-23

  … “that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

He has brought us together for a reason. Returning to Ephesians 2, the household of God is

“built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (vs. 20)

The whole structure…this is not a physical building, Paul clarifies in the next verse:

  “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (vs. 22)

This is the reason for the command found in Hebrews 10:25,

“not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

We are not islands.

The “church” is not a building, or an institution, or a religious system. It is the act of assembling together.

We gather together as a church to worship together, to learn from each other, to correct each other when we start to get off course, to encourage each other… to love each other.

And in this gathering, a temple for the Lord is being built – a microcosm of the plan set in motion before the foundation of the world. A plan Paul reveals in Ephesians 1:9-10

“making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

One day all of creation will be united in Christ. That unity began in God and continues in us.

We see the moments. We see the brokenness, we see the failures, we see the abuse, and we see the hurt.

But let us not forget the plan God has set forth in His Son.

A plan for eternity, for healing, for victory, for love, for joy…

For His glory.

And it will be more beautiful than anything our human minds can comprehend.

Have faith, hold on to His nail-scarred hands, and accept the spiritual blessings He has prepared for you.

And go read Ephesians - maybe even memorize it. 

God bless!

Jules

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[1] For those of you who know me, I have switched to the ESV – but that is material for a different blog.