From my weekly e-mail …
Wind. Chicago may be the ?Windy City?, Oklahoma should be the ?Windy State.? My neighbor has a wind generator (read, large propeller spun by the wind to produce electricity). In this wind, it sounds as though a plane is in constant ?take off.?
We began a study through the book of Romans on Wednesday evenings. Many times we would like to think it is enough to have the letter. Is there really a need to understand the time in which it was written or is it so timeless interpretations in any century, decade, and year will reflect on the intent of God and the author he inspired? Take for example, Romans 1:1 and Paul?s self-designation as a slave of Christ Jesus. Today we might read, as our modern translations give us, that Paul was a servant. Our culture has some inherent misgivings about the word ?slave? and so we use a word that creates the notion of a bit more dignity. We read the transliteration of the Greek word ?Christos? to get ?Christ? and associate that with Messiah. On the surface we may have sense we have done very little to alter the intent of the verse.
Offering a preemptive strike against the notion that Caesar was ?King?, Paul used the word ?Christ? to signal that ?King Jesus? expresses the ?Good News of God.? Rather than elevate himself, he used a description so debasing the contrast between slave and King could not be missed. So, now to hear the ?Good News of God?, meant really good news to the slave who longed for God to make all wrongs right and to free by the power of the resurrection. We experience this ?Good News? ? the declaration that in Jesus, God satisfied his faithfulness and justice in the crucifixion and resurrection. Now our most hated enemy has been relegated to powerless ? ?The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.? (1 Cor. 15:56-57)
We have the Good News of God to declare to the people of the world in need of more than a home in a place called Heaven. People need to experience the freedom and liberation from the power and penalty of sin so they might live in the Kingdom of God the kind of life Jesus said he came to give ? here and now! This Easter may we declare ?Victory In Jesus!?
Who could you be declaring the victory of Jesus to? Who would need freedom from a life wrecked by the constant giving into sin? Who needs to know that in Jesus God secures a ?New Creation?? There is an old song that begins, ?We?ve a story to tell to the nations ?? As the people of God, we do not have the option of declaring the glory of God nor do we have the option to be a blessing to the world. We who live in the light of the Covenant of Faith God made with Abraham, we cannot live otherwise lest we fail to show whose we are and worse yet give evidence we are not what we say we are.?
Let?s both live in and declare the ?Victory of God? in King Jesus.