grace Posts

The Question

10 Jan , 2014 No Comments

As we move into this new year, it’s good to remember that there are two mistakes we can make regarding the past. First we can stay in it, allowing past failures or past successes define us. This is why Paul said, “… but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Philippians 3:13  He’s saying, “Don’t live in the past”.  Don’t let it define you. Move on. But another mistake we make regarding the past is to disregard it altogether. And in our transient culture many tend to have no past, no connection with the past, and then feel that they live unto ourselves. We don’t know where we came from and so we live in the now and for the now. And when you live only in the present, you live only for yourself and not as a part of a community, a tribe, a family – a STORY.

As a pastor, one of the recurring questions I get (in varying forms) is essentially, “What is God’s will for my life?” We believe God has a specific plan and we want to know what it is. But the question itself betrays our misunderstanding. We’re asking the wrong question. The better question is, “What is God’s will?” Period. The first question centers on me; the second centers on God. He is the Source, Purpose, and Reason for life, not us. So what is God’s will? What is He up to? What is He doing that He wants me to join?

God is really about one thing: Himself.

Initially that sounds strange. Immediately we think that’s egotistical or self-centered. If we were to say that about ourselves it would be. But not God. He is already the Center of all things and because He is perfect, loving and good, anything- or anyone– who comes to Him experiences His perfection, love and goodness. So God wants everyone to come to Him to receive all that He has to give – for our good and to His glory. And what He has to give is always good and right for all things created because He created all things.

So, what God is up to primarily is bringing everything and everyone under His sovereign reign and perfect love. What He’s up to specifically is rescuing all of mankind from sin (from ourselves apart from Him) and renewing all things created. And all of this, “to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved..” Ephesians 1:6. He wants all people to come to Him through the Beloved, Jesus Christ, Who alone has made provision for us to do so. Christ alone came from God. Christ alone lived the perfect life and met the holy demands of God for us, when we could not. Christ alone has provided the sacrifice for our sin and He alone will lead us to new life in Him.

God has a mission and He has formed a Church (a called-out people) to bring all other people to Him. He’s calling us out. He’s calling us to Himself. He’s calling us together. He gives us power to accomplish what He;s called us out to do. Jesus said it this way:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

That is God’s will. That’s what’s up.

On Reformation Day- Trick or Treat?

31 Oct , 2013 No Comments

So today is Halloween. It’s a great day to trick others with unexpected grace and treat them with surprising love.

To track the etymology of the word is to understand it’s meaning: “Halloween” comes from a contraction of the German/Dutch, “All Hallowed Saints Eve” to “All Hallows’ (Saints’) Evening” – “All Hallows’ Eve” – Hallowe’en. It’s a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian (Catholic) feast of All Hallows’ Day. The day is dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all faithful departed believers.

More importantly for protestant believers, today marks the day commemorating Martin Luther’s posting of his ninety-five theses, grievances against the Catholic Church at the entrance to the Castle Church in the town of Wittenberg, Germany. Luther, an Augustinian monk, doctor of theology, and resident of Wittenberg, posted his objections on October 31st in AD 1517. He did so knowing that the next day, All Saints Day, many would come to the church and be able to read it. Luther’s theses sparked a rediscovery of the core beliefs of the Christian faith and primal teachings of Jesus. His protest (thus the term, “protestant”) or confrontation within the Church would eventually lead to the movement known as the Protestant Reformation.
The historical, theological trends that brought about the Reformation began centuries before its actual occurrence. The root cause of the Reformation was a departure from several foundational teachings of Jesus, including the believer’s relationship with God and relationship with the Church. At the heart of the protest, however, was the issue of salvation and namely a departure from grace.

Through the years the Church had gone the way of the default mode of the human heart: the way of the law. The formation of a self-salvation project is always the default mode of the human heart. The Church had veered so far off the track of grace that a radical course correction was necessary. The reaction of the Church against Luther and a constant refusal to discuss his theses prompted an internal schism that eventually became the Reformation movement. By 1530, the lines were clearly drawn and an official statement of faith, known as the Augsburg Confession, began the first Protestant Church.

ALL OF THIS BEGS THE CRITICAL QUESTION: How have we veered off track and moved away from the teachings of Jesus in our day? Without constant self-correction (Spirit-led correction) we will always run to the way of the law. Law puts us in control. It allows us to check the box, to add to, and measure our contribution. And as a result, the law always leads to guilt and shame or pride and a judgmental spirit. The law has no power within it to transform us. It only condemns us and (hopefully) points us to the better way of God’s free grace in Christ. If we do not constantly re-calibrate everything back to the Person and Mission of Jesus, we will always go back to the law. If Luther were alive today, what would he be nailing on the doors of our churches? Better yet, what if Jesus were to come to our churches? What would He see? What would He say?

I believe we’ve veered off the course of the Church Jesus intended us to be. The need for a radical reformation in our day stems from two primary problems or re-discoveries:

  1. We need to rediscover of the Gospel of God’s rescuing grace.
  2. We need to rediscover the Mission of Jesus- to make disciple-makers.

The first challenge today is not that we don’t believe that God saves us by His grace. Our problem is that we don’t believe that He saves us by grace ALONE. We come to Christ by grace through faith and then we think it’s time for us to get busy, adding our good works to the mix. We are saved by grace and then we strap on the law. As Paul noted, we want Moses to finish what Christ has begun. We move from Jesus as Savior to Jesus as Example. Jesus as Savior is liberating news. Jesus as Example is crushing news. We’ve forgotten that, just as central to our salvation as Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for our sin, is the fact that He lived the perfect life for us- so that we wouldn’t have to. I am free from condemnation because Christ fulfilled all of the crushing demands of the Law. There is nothing new inside of me, only the law. The Gospel (as News) comes from completely outside of me. I bring nothing to the table.

The second challenge of our day is a determination to join Christ on His core mission: to make disciples. We need to move from programs to disciple-making. Church leaders need to ruthlessly assess all programs, events, and gatherings in light of the singular mission of Jesus- to make disciples. The great sin of the Church in our day is not unlike that of Luther’s day: lots of church activities that form for us our own self-salvation project. We have so many options we can put together our own track, one that best suits our needs. Instead, we must bring all of our energies to making disciples. We must realize that being a disciple if not learning a body of knowledge but instead, mastering a skill set. And that skill set (in the context of loving, accountable relationships) is learning how to hear from the Spirit of God through His Word, obeying His Word, and telling someone else about it. Only through obedience will we see the power of God unleashed in our lives and only then will we see the reformation that will save the Western Church in our day. Lord, may it happen!

Let the reformation begin today with simple, unexpected acts of grace and surprising love without condition.

Happy Halloween.

Is Jesus who He claimed to be?

18 Sep , 2013 No Comments

“I believe; help me with my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

In previous posts below we explored the reliability of the Bible and the audacious claim that it is actually “God-breathed”. We looked at evidences for the existence of God and noted that perhaps the main evidence for God’s existence is that He came here in Person and told us He exists and showed us exactly who He is. Few doubt that Jesus lived and that He is arguably the greatest and most influential person who has ever lived. It seems logical to believe that a man named Jesus lived but was He really God in the flesh? Are the outrageous claims that He made of Himself true? How can I know?

Perhaps you have wrestled with this question of doubt. It’s critical that we wrestle with this one because it is at the center of the Christian belief, indeed (if it’s true) at the center of LIFE itself. As we approach this question, we need to realize that at the center of Christ’s teaching, His mission, His Message, His life, was His IDENTITY. The central theme or truth of His teaching was not a set of principles or commands; it wasn’t love or grace, per se. At the core of His teaching was His identity. Think about it: Jesus was ultimately crucified not because He talked about love or serving others or caring for the poor. No, His enemies crucified Him because of Who He claimed to be. And it is His identity that continues to be at the center of discussion, debate, belief and unbelief- and heaven and hell. We can’t overstate the importance of this question.

Luke 7:18-23 John asks, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” If there is anyone in the Bible that we would think did not doubt Jesus’ identity, it was John the Baptist. He was the foretold prophet and his role was to announce who Jesus was. In John 1:29, seeing Jesus, John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the Word.” Here in Luke 7 (also told in Matthew 11) John finds himself in prison, about to be beheaded and he’s questioning the true identity of Jesus. Notice how the Bible never hides doubt, sin, failure, brokenness. It simply describes real people wrestling real faith issues.

Who did Jesus claim to be? He said He was the Messiah, the long-awaited “Liberating King”, the Lord God in the flesh, the Son of the Most High, the now-seen Holy God.

Jesus answers saying, “tell John what you’ve SEEN (His works) & HEARD (his words)”.

1. His works prove He is Lord. What evidence do we have that Jesus Is Lord? We have what the Bible calls “signs” Jesus’ works (these “signs” were prophesied. The Gospels record 35 miracles that Jesus performed: 23 were healing miracles, 9 were miracles showing power over nature, and 3 were miracles of raising the dead. He had power over nature, He calmed the storm, turned water into wine, fed 5,000 people from 5 loaves and 2 fish, raised people from the dead. He performed miracles of physical healing, and He reports back to John that “many people of diseases, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed, & the deaf could hear..” He provided physical and spiritual healing, defeating evil spirits as well. He says,  “Go and tell… the blind receive their sight, the dead are raised up…” These were all signs of the kingdom of God, a New Order that Jesus came to usher in. His miracles proclaimed the nature of the kingdom- that is, blindness, brokenness, death do not reign and rule in the kingdom of God. He reverses the order of this fallen and broken world.

Of course, the ultimate demonstration of His Lordship was the resurrection (much more on that next week). BUT historically, how do you explain what happened 2000 years ago if Jesus did not rise again? Scholars have noted that within five weeks after the resurrection not just one but over 10,000 Jews in Jerusalem (including many Pharisees, the ruling priests of the day) who were willing to give up their social and religious beliefs that they had rigidly observed since childhood to follow Jesus.

2. His words prove He is the Lord. He said tell John about my works and tell him about my words- the truth that He spoke- and again namely the truth about WHO He was. Jesus didn’t simply walk around doing good things. He walked around making the audacious claim that He was the Messiah, knowing that it was blasphemous. He even challenged hostile, even violent skeptics to examine Him, watch Him, and prove that He wasn’t. I’ve talked to people who claim, “Jesus never really claimed to be God.” Just listen to His first hearers: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” John 5:18

John 10:24-31 “So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe (WORDS). The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me (WORKS), but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, & they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.” He is clearly claiming to be the Messiah and everyone knew it.

Note (back to Luke 7) that John the Baptist wanted to believe, the Pharisees did not.  And to answer John the prophet, Jesus looked at the Old Testament, the signs of the foretold Messiah. As He answered the Pharisees (theologians) Jesus gave a very theological and logical response. But again, faith precedes reason. Even with the works of Jesus, we still find ourselves doubting. One of the ways to come to a clear conclusion is to eliminate the possibilities. For some this will offer a very clear response:

 

Four Possible Options for Jesus’ Identity:

1. Legend – This option would say that the story of Jesus claiming to be God is a legend; it never even happened. Most people believe Jesus lived. The problem with Jesus as legend is that modern archaeology shows that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of Christ’s contemporaries. Most scholars agree that by 70 – 80 AD the Gospels were written. People knew Jesus personally. They saw Him. They could have refuted the claims about Him. See Dr. Luke’s purpose in writing His account of Jesus in Luke 1:1-4.

Consider this: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Imagine, if over the past 50 years, and over the past 15 years in particular, people claimed J.F.K. was the Messiah. What if people began saying that he rose form the dead? What would happen? Those who knew Him would refute those claims immediately. If Jesus was not a real person, how do you explain what happened on the in the Southwest region of the Mediterranean Sea? How do explain the emergence of the most transforming movement of history 2000 years ago? For some, the most impressive of all historical sources are the numerous ancient non-biblical sources that refer to the life and Person of Jesus, including the writings of Tacitus (considered the most famous Roman historian of Antiquity) and Josephus (a famous First Century Jewish historian, who was not a Christian), both of whom were born within 25 years after the death of Jesus. Within 150 years there are more extra-biblical sources that mention Jesus than who mention Tiberius (the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus). In the First and Second Century there are numerous sources that document historically that Jesus lived, died, and was crucified, that His disciples claimed to have seen Him alive after His death, that the empty tomb was commonly accepted and not disputed even by the enemies of Jesus, that the number of believers spread rapidly and widely after the claimed resurrection appearances, and that believers from the very beginning worshipped Jesus as God. This is why most people believed a man named Jesus lived. If He is not a legend, then perhaps He was a…

2. Liar – This option would argue that Jesus knew He was not God but lied and said He was. Few if any, take this option seriously because Jesus was such a great moral teacher. But how could He be a great moral teacher if He lied about the most crucial point of His teaching: His identity. And of course, what do you do with the miracles, the resurrection? Jesus consistently answered His skeptics, namely the Pharisees, with, “I AM” statements, to the questions concerning His identity. “I AM” was the name of God, YHWH, in the Old Testament. Revealing again that it was His identity that was the focal point of His teaching. Consider these amazing claims he made:

  • To know Him was to know God. (John 8:19)
  • To see Him was to see God. (John 12:45,14:4)
  • To believe Him was to believe in God. (John 12:44)
  • To receive Him was to receive God. (Mk. 9:37)
  • To hate Him was to hate God. (John. 15:23)

To honor Him was to honor God. (John 5:23) As if to say: “Prove that I’m lying”

3. Lunatic – This argument says that Jesus really thought He was God and though He was sincere, He was self- deceived. He was crazy; He was a lunatic. Is there any evidence of abnormality or imbalance as we look at Jesus’ life?  No, he did not behave like a madman. Again, you must deal with miracles, the resurrection, and the prophecies. Consider the prophesies: Mathematician Peter Stoner took just eight of the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus and calculated that the odds of them being fulfilled by any one person in history to be 1 in 10 to the 17th power- this 1 with 17 zeros behind it. To understand how incredibly unlikely that is, Stoner says you should take 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars “and lay them on the face of Texas.  They will cover all of the entire state two feet deep. Now mark ONE of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?  The same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time…” (see page 167 of Evidence that Demands a Verdict: Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith, Volume I, by Josh McDowell). Consider too that most of the prophecies were outside the control of Jesus (not self-fulfilling)- family lineage, date of death, born in Bethlehem, preceded by a messenger, rejected by His own people, betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, scourged, death with hands and feet pierced, crucified with thieves, no bones broken, soldiers gambling for clothes, suffer thirst during death, buried in rich man’s tomb.

4. Lord – If none of the other options is true, the only option is that Jesus was and is Lord. He knew who He was and He spoke the truth boldly. Jesus wanted everyone to check out His claims to see if He could back up what He was saying (John 10:38).

In his famous quote in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg- or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Now it seems to me- obvious- that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

Who do you believe Jesus is?

Jesus is the whole truth about God, God as God is, rather than whom we supposed God to be.” In Matthew 16, Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God.”

Who do you believe Jesus is?   

 

No News is bad news.

22 May , 2013 No Comments

News is not news if it’s something you already know.

Most of us think that the Gospel is something we already know. I was bad (but not that bad) and Jesus has come to make me better; and I get heaven too! This is not the Gospel. We have forgotten from where we’ve come. We were never anywhere close to being good and we’re not getting much better. Indeed, getting better is not the point. Jesus did not come to make good people better; He came to bring dead people to life.

It seems the only explanation to our lackluster approach to the Gospel is that we do not really believe that it is Good News. Or at least, we have misunderstood the News we have received. If it’s not news, it’s not a big deal and it’s certainly not worth sharing. When it comes to the Gospel, this is when no news is bad news.  We have no news to share because we don’t think the Good News is all that good. I don’t need anyone to tell me that I am not real good but I’m not that bad either. I don’t need anyone to tell me that I’m doing pretty well without Jesus but with Him I could do better. I don’t need anyone to tell me that I could choose a religion to follow that is superior to all others. That’s not Good News. And if Jesus is my model to follow, that’s crushing news! And if, when I die I get heaven, that’s not really news either. I was kind of thinking I was going there anyway.

The Gospel (“the Good News”) is first “News”. It’s something we did not know, and would never know had God not made it known. It is News. It is a declaration. It is a proclamation of an event that has come to us in the form of a Person. News needs a herald and this News has been heralded by God Himself. In fact, He told us it was coming. He prepared us for this News but we missed it. And who could blame us. This News has no comparison, no rivals, no precedent. This is truly breaking news.

This News is breaking because it did not come from any man. Only God could bring this News. Indeed, to study the theological thread leading up to Jesus there was no resurrection theology. The resurrection was a complete departure from Orthodox Jewish theology. No one saw this coming. But suddenly, after the Christ event (His birth, life and teaching, crucifixion, and resurrection) there emerged a clear resurrection theology (or better, Christology) that changed everything.

This was the breaking News of heaven- that Jesus had lived the perfect life so that we wouldn’t have to. No longer are we crushed under the weight of God’s holy demands; they have been met in the One who came to fulfill the Law. He suffered and died in our place so that there would now be no condemnation for those who are covered in His righteousness. He rose again so that we too could live in the power of the resurrection power and in the hope of our own coming resurrection. We were brought from death into life. To say this News is “Good” News is an understatement. “Great” doesn’t qualify this News. This News is the heaven-breaking, earth-shaking, life-rescuing grace of God that has come to us through the One and Only Son of God.

We need to rediscover the Gospel. We need to scrutinize it, get underneath it, on top of it, and all over it. We need to obsess over the Gospel. We cannot study it enough. We cannot think about it enough. We cannot talk about it enough. This is the News that keeps on coming and is constantly new News to our feeble minds and our wayward hearts. This is the News to which are now heralds!

Praise God for the Good News of the Gospel.

The God We Worship

20 Apr , 2013 No Comments

“As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well.” – Thomas Traherne (17th Century English poet and theologian)

If we ever think well, it should be when we think of God. Surely Tozer was right: “What comes into our minds when we think of God is the most important thing about us”. You and I are shaped by who (or what) we worship. At the end of Romans 11, Paul finishes major theological treatise to the Roman Christians. Then, his theology bursts forth into doxology:

33 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
36 For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things.
    To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11:33-35

God is… In all of these traits we remember that, when it comes to God, we must first believe and then understand. Faith precedes reason when we approach God because He is beyond our understanding.

  • all-wise (vs. 33) – the wisdom of God is unfathomable. All God’s acts are done with perfect wisdom. His wisdom is His ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve perfect ends with the most perfect means. A.W. Tozer- in “The Knowledge of the Holy” wrote, “All of God’s acts are done with perfect wisdom, first for His glory, and then for the highest good for the greatest number for the longest time.” Not only could His acts not be better done: a better way to do them could not be imagined. His plans cannot be improved. He is wisdom unimagined.
  • all-just (vs. 33) Revelation 4 tells us that Jesus is seated on His throne- He is in the highest place- of all authority and all judgment. He is just, righteous, perfect in everything He does. Every decision He makes is perfect. He does not seek counsel from anyone. He does not conform to some other opinion. He is always right, simply acting like Himself in every situation. His goodness and compassion flows out of His justice, because goodness without justice is not goodness.
  • all-knowing (vs. 34) To say that God is omniscient is to say that He has perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn- who’s going to teach Him something? God knows instantly and effortlessly all things. Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows nothing more than He knows anything else, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything. His knowledge is infinite. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything, He doesn’t seek information or ask questions. He is self-existent and self-contained and knows what no creature knows- Himself, perfectly. Only the Infinite can know the infinite. He is eternal and infinite. He is eternal in time and He is infinite in all of His qualities. When Moses said He is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 90), he was saying that God has no beginning and no end. That God appears at time’s beginning is not too difficult to grasp but to say that He appears at the beginning and the end- at the same time is hard to grasp. But it is true. He is the God of the past AND the God of the future. He is the eternal NOW- He has no past and no future. When words that describe “time” are used in the Bible they refer to us not Him. It’s why Revelation 4 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty- Who was, and is, and is to come.” He has already lived all of our tomorrows just as He has lived all of our yesterdays. From Him everything that will happen has already happened. God is beyond our comprehension and what God thinks when He thinks of Himself, only He can know. All this to say- He is transcendent, that is, He is far above what human thought can imagine. T.S. Eliot asked, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
  • all-sufficient (vs. 35)  No one can give Him anything. He is self-existent. No onemade Him. A more positive assertion of selfhood could not be imagined than the words of God to Moses: “I AM THAT I AM.” You cannot add to me. I don’t need anything. “Need” is a creature word. Nothing is complete in and of itself but requires something outside of itself in order to exist. All breathing things need air; every organism needs food & water. Every created thing needs some other created thing to keep it alive & all things need God. To God alone nothing is necessary. In fact, the word “necessary” is completely foreign to God. He is Supreme over all and cannot be elevated. You can’t add to Him. You can’t give Him anything that He needs. He doesn’t need our praise. God doesn’t need our approval. We are so prideful, and we think so lofty of ourselves, it is quite easy- even enjoyable- to think that we are necessary to God. He loves us, but He doesn’t need us. We cannot add to His infinite worth, we do not enhance Him, increase His value. And our worship of Him adds nothing to Him. If every man on earth were to become an atheist it would not effect Him in the least.

As Paul closes this doxology he says that all things are “from Him”. God is the Giver, is the Source; He is the Initiator. He says all things are “through Him”. God is the Deliverer the Provider, the Sustainer; He is the avenue by which the gift is delivered. All things come “through Him”. Not only that, but God is, at the same time, the Receiver. All things are “to Him”.  He is the beginning and the end. His glory is the goal. And Jesus teaches us that God IS the Gift. He is delivering Himself to us. Not only is it from Him, through Him and to Him but it is Him!

“For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16

What is God receiving? Look at the gift that God is giving and receiving through us! He is receiving THE GLORY. The word here is doxa. It translates literally as “an opinion”. In the New Testament it is always a good opinion that results in praise. What is God giving Himself through you? He wants you to respond to who He is and what He has done with such a high opinion of Him that results in praise. Commentator Douglas Moo asks, “What should be our response to our contemplation of God’s supremacy in all the universe? Like Paul’s, doxology.”

Perhaps the greatest of all of God’s qualities is the fact that He is all-loving. All of God’s greatness- every one of His eternal and infinite qualities- have found their expression most perfectly in a single Person. His name is Jesus. In Him our worship takes a dramatic Christological shift. Scotty Ward Smith writes, “Jesus turns our theology into doxology.” In the end, the purpose of our lives is live every day, and throughout eternity, “to the praise of His glorious grace!” Colossians 1:6