Author: Brian Burdett

“And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.” – Mark 15:19

Picture this being done to Jesus… The Roman soldiers gathered to have their fun with Him. The Son of God repeatedly hit on the head. Spit on over and over. Shown false respect to emphasize their complete lack of respect. Picture it. It’s completely outrageous. It’s horrible. How does it make you feel? Angry? Sad? Do you want to scream? Do you want to cry?

Now realize that this is what each of us does to God every time we sin. No, it isn’t visible like this, but every sin (whether we think it’s a big deal or not) rejects and mocks God’s authority to rule over our lives as our Creator. Every sin is our way of saying, “I’m in charge, not you.” Every sin spits in the face of God. Every sin claims we are smarter, better, wiser. Every sin claims we’re exempt from God’s will and plan for human flourishing. Every sin we choose to commit is like smacking God with our own self-importance.

When did you last mock God? Have you gone to Him to ask forgiveness for your sin? The good news is that despite our vile treatment of God, He remains ever-ready to forgive us through Jesus Christ. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

“Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.”
– Psalm 112:4-5

We’re invited, commanded, and blessed to live lives modeled after the character of God. Regardless of your earthly situation, God will honor and bless an upright life. God is gracious, merciful, and righteous and He wants you to be the same. Unlike God, you’ll never be perfect in these matters, but in Christ, God gives His Spirit to empower you to become like Him in character. Regardless of what you may be “by nature” (whatever that means), the Holy Spirit can transform you to be gracious (giving good things people don’t deserve), merciful (refusing to give bad things people actually deserve), and righteous (not practicing sin).

In Christ, God deals with us generously. He redeemed us though we didn’t earn it. He blesses us with new life though we don’t deserve that. He welcomes us into His family and loves us even though we’re often unlovable. He walks with us even when we try to flee from Him. God invites us, calls us, and expects us to likewise be abundantly generous toward others, especially when they don’t deserve that generosity. We are to care about justice and practice it in our daily lives because God is ultimately and perfectly just.

Walking in the attributes of God is never easy. It goes against human nature. The world certainly views it as naive and foolish. Oh well! May God bless you in abundance for your grace, mercy, righteousness, generosity, and justice!

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!”
– Psalm 111:10

There’s great value in education and learning. We’re made in God’s image and gifted with wonderful minds equipped to learn from academic study, reading, observation, experimentation, and electronic content. We should always seek to learn and develop our God-given minds.

However, true wisdom – living life skillfully and well for the purpose for which it’s been given – is always grounded in “the fear of the Lord.” It’s only when we have a proper awe toward God, His nature and His work, a humility before His majesty, a reverence for His holiness, and deep love for Him that we’re truly on the path to wisdom. All our other knowledge becomes dramatically more valuable and relevant when directed by wisdom and aligned toward God and His purpose. Our understanding deepens without limit when our knowledge and wisdom converge on the awesome reality of the Living God. Build your knowledge, but pursue wisdom — fear the Lord!

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” – Galatians 1:3-4

Take a few moments to meditate on this truth that you may have heard many times before… Jesus Christ “gave himself”. The eternal Son of God, the sinless Son of Man, the Anointed One of God gave Himself. He stepped out of the glory of heaven and into the ugliness of this world. He took on a human body and nature to experience the indignities and temptations of life firsthand. He lived and He died. He gave everything!

Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins”. He sacrificed His life, dying in agony to deal with our sins. Not just the sins of people long ago – our sins, today, right now. Not just some sins, ALL of them. Jesus died so we could live. He suffered so we wouldn’t have to suffer eternally. He traded His life for ours, our punishment for His. And it was a gift, a choice of His to give as well as an expression of the perfect wisdom and will of God the Father.

Jesus Christ did this “to deliver us from the present evil age”. We should readily agree that this present age is evil! War, plague, injustice, economic distress, famine, religious persecution, tyranny, a flood tide of mental and physical illness… The list goes on and on. But this isn’t all there is or ever will be. Jesus gave Himself to deliver us out of this age. He gave Himself so that when we believe in Him, we’re immediately made new, transferred into His glorious Kingdom, and sealed by His Holy Spirit as a guarantee that our eternal future is wondrous and secure in God’s presence. Our life doesn’t end in this evil age, but in Christ we will live and rejoice forever in the age of Messiah!

“Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.” – 2 Corinthians 13:3-4

Today, as was true two thousand years ago, Christians are often confused about what strength and weakness looks like in God’s Kingdom. Indeed, we often have these concepts completely reversed! Our secular culture views strength as the visible exercise of power and authority, calling down fire upon opponents and wielding authority like a tyrant. This worldly understanding of strength seeps into believers all too often!

Jesus, the Almighty Son of God, explicitly rejected the use of such power until the day He returns to judge the world. Jesus changes the world through internal heart change, not through exercises of power meant to coerce obedience through fear. Jesus saved the world by silently enduring false accusation, humiliation, suffering, and terrible death. By these means, Jesus conquered sin and death itself. Through His death and resurrection all who believe in Jesus are saved and receive access to the infinite strength of God given through His Spirit.

Such strength isn’t given to violently conquer the world or harshly bring order out of chaos. Christ’s power is given for us to endure whatever it takes to love the world, to guide lost souls into faith in Christ, and to firmly but humbly teach believers how to embrace and obey the impossibly tough commands of Jesus. The weak call down fire. The strong endure fire for the sake of love and obedience to Jesus.