Is Christ Worthy Enough...All The Time?

Is - it - enough?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about how we are doing?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about our relationships?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about what has been going on in our life?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about school, work, business?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about the latest news in the world?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about how we have been wronged, been hurt, misused?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about theology?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about what's coming up?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about our problems?

Is it enough to sit around with loved ones and talk about things that make us laugh?

Guess what...

It - just- is - not- enough!

Let us be reminded of something; God, being so rich in mercy, because he loved us with such a great love, demonstrates this in that Christ died.

For who? His enemies.

Who were they? You.

Why? Because he loves you.

Why is it not enough to fill our time with anything other than reminding each other DAILY of the helplessness we were in; yoked in an unbreakable chain of slavery, defeated by the ultimate giant, rotting in the death of our worship to these golden calf's - miraculously having a Hero come in to save the day, painting His blood on the doorway of our hearts, firing the Rock directly at the giant conquering it in one hit, and coming down from the highest mountain to deliver to us the true and comforting words to be His people for eternity?

Why is it not enough we still ask? Nothing fulfills the way the true story of how God through Jesus Christ came and redeemed a people not wanting to be redeemed, a people lost, helpless, dead (cf. John 1:10) does then the things that consume our mind so quickly from the false story this world tells us. The very fact that it is so easy for us to get together and talk about anything and everything other than Jesus Christ and what He has done for us shows us how forgetful we are and how desperately we are in need of being reminded of the story we are a part of. Hebrews tells us:

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of of Christ, if we hold fast...(3:12-14a)

Again Deuteronomy tells us:

When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us our from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.' So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. (6:20-24)

In Christ, the true story of God is manifested - our story of a filthy bride loved, captured, and made beautiful by One who gave everything to give us everything! No longer run to the false story of this world; the empty claims and fleeting materials and ideas, but run to hear and tell and live for the story and the things which God gives us for our good and survival, ALWAYS. Jesus Christ loves sinners!

Be encouraged fam.

Christ the Hero

Man it has been a good minute since I've had some time to sip on some tea and chop it up! I have had a chance to partake a study of Abraham's life in relation to Christ and the gospel. I mentioned it in the last post, going through a rosy book entitled, "Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham", by Iain M. Duguid. And let me just sprinkle you with this, this book is just one fat beauty of Jesus! I encourage you to check it out; you can cop it here.

Biblical theology is essential to the vitality of the church but also to the health of a believer and his/her understanding and relationship with Christ as seen in Scripture. What I mean is that seeing the Bible as a redemptive story, or narrative account, of Adonai's interaction with His people is tantamount to see the Gospel's in its' fullness; the pinnacle of history.

Luke's account in his gospel is extremely interesting and his introduction of what seems to be a new story actually validates the aforementioned. The Old Testament is alluded to by Luke with many echos in 1:5-2:38, evidencing the continuity of his account of Jesus' birth as one story, the Old and New Testaments, of Adonai's missional interaction with His covenant people. As we will see, Luke parallels the events of Abraham and his life to introduce the narratives proper beginning [of Jesus' mission]: In the past, in Adonai's redemptive purpose as set forth in the Scriptures. Luke therefore is not introducing a new story as many Evangelical Christians see, a dichotomy between Testaments, but an old whose real beginning is the Septuagint.

Chronological and Geo-political markers

"In the days of Herod, king of Judea..." (Luke1:5)

"...in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar..." (Gen 14:1)

Righteousness before God

"They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly..." (Luke 1:6)

"Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." (Gen 15:6)

"the Lord appeared to Abram and said...Walk before Me, and be blameless." (Gen 17:1)

Barren Women

"But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years." (Luke 1:7)

"Sarai was barren; she had no child." (Gen 11:30)

Appearance of a divine messenger

"And an angel of the Lord appeared to him..." (Luke 1:11)

"...the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him..." (Gen 17:1)

Promise of a son and instructions to his name

"...your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John." (Luke 1:13)

"..."No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac..."" (Gen 17:19)

Objection to this promise

"Zacharias said to the angel, 'How will I know this for certain...I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years'" (Luke 1:18)

"Then Abraham...laughed, and said...'Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?'" (Gen 17:17)

Report of conception

"After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant..." (Luke 1:24)

"So Sarah concieved and bore a son to Abraham in his old age..." (Gen 21:2)

Removal of their shame

"...He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men." (Luke 1:25)

"...God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." (Gen 21:6)

The Lord's assurance of His power

"For nothing will be impossible with God." (Luke 1:37)

"Is anything too difficult for the Lord?" (Gen 18:14)

Promise to Abraham remembered

"As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever." (Luke 1:55)

"I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly" (Gen 17:2) cf. Gen 15:5, 13-14, 18-21; 17:4-8

Blessing of deliverance

"To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies..." (Luke 1:74)

"And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand..." (Gen 14:20) cf. 15:13-14

These O.T motifs, or thematic elements, are to introduce us to Scripture as the Lord's great story and how He intends and reveals His marvelous work; to "hear" and appreciate the wealth. But what is more is the way Luke tells his readers the introductory account of the Messiah's birth. Luke 1:34 reads, "Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" Here again is another reverberation of God's doings in the past. Seen in the Scriptures, hero's were born of women who were barren:

• Sarai to Issac
• Rebekah to Jacob
• Rachel to Joseph
• Manoah's wife to Samson
• Hannah to Samuel
• Elizabeth to John
• Mary to Jesus

But what is the connection with all of these barren women and their birth to hero's in God's redemptive story? Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Manoah's wife, Hannah and Elizabeth all had husbands to give birth. Not so with Mary. Mary was betrothed to Joseph, young, probably around the age of 12-15 years and a virgin. With no husband to go into her to birth the Son of the Most High, Gabriel responds to Mary's question that, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God...For nothing will be impossible with God." (vv.35, 37). Mary has to be the climax of the motif, in that, she is a virgin - the most barren of the barren women!

Be encouraged. God has been sovereign in His doings as the Alpha and Omega. His story is the greatest and the Messiah, Second Person of the Trinity, is the climax, pinnacle and consummation of all things to this story. Let us see through the lens of the God-Man, the Man Christ Jesus.

Grace and Peace