Easter: So Much Bigger Than You Think

Posted on April 3, 2021 by salooper57

At Easter, Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and celebrate what his rising means for people and for the world. Too often, though, this vast hope has been so closely cropped that the only thing left is an expectation of a soulish celestial existence following death.

This is far too narrow a view, which is theologically unsupported and biblically unsound. Resurrection is not just about getting into heaven. It is the pivotal event in God’s plan to save creation. It is not simply a way for humans to live again after they die, but to live for the first time as God intended: joyously, vigorously, lovingly, justly, unendingly.

In the Bible, resurrection is viewed as the doorway into the age to come. Most people in first century Israel assumed this to be true. What surprised them was the Christian claim that the resurrection had already begun in Jesus. Their astonishing news was not just that people go on living after they die – most everyone in the first century already believed that – but that the new age had arrived when Jesus rose from the dead.

Christianity followed Judaism in dividing time into two ages: The present age and the age to come. The present age was seen as a time of injustice and conflict—who would say otherwise? The Apostle Paul referred to it as “the present evil age,” a time of suffering and growing corruption, from which people need to be rescued.

The age to come, on the other hand, was seen as the time of God’s undisputed rule, characterized by peace, justice, and human flourishing – a time of prosperity, reconciliation, and joy. And it was taken for granted that the line between this present age and the age to come was the resurrection. When Christians began “announcing in Jesus the resurrection,” they were heralding the arrival of the age to come.

But if Jesus’s resurrection means the new age has arrived, why is there still injustice and conflict? Because this is the period of overlap. The sorrows, sins, and corruption of the present age are still here, yet it is already possible to access the joy and peace and freedom of the age to come. The winds of that age are blowing across the borders of our time, and we can lean into them. We can experience what St. Paul called “the power of the resurrection” and begin living the future in the present.

The early Christians recognized that the two ages meet and overlap around the death and resurrection of Jesus. According to Paul, Jesus’s resurrection was not a one-off miracle that affected only him. It was the inaugural event of the new creation, which will fully arrive with the resurrection of “those who belong to him.”

Behind all biblical teaching on resurrection stands the idea that God is restoring creation. This explains why echoes from the Genesis creation account reverberate throughout St. Paul’s treatment of the subject in 1 Corinthians 15. We hear of seeds and plants, men and animals, birds and fish, the sun, the moon, and the stars. And, in case we still haven’t made the connection, Adam himself joins the chorus. This is about creation … and recreation.

The first creation floundered upon Adam’s rebellion and then fell. The new creation was established on Jesus’s obedience and is ready to rise. Paul makes it explicit: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

Christ’s resurrection was not simply proof that people continue to live in some form after they die. It was not just evidence that death has been defeated, though it certainly was that. It was proof that the new age had dawned and that God’s ancient promises – of a kingdom, a restoration, and a renewal – were being fulfilled. It was proof to the disciples, as G. K. Chesterton once put it, that the world had died in the night and that “what they were looking at was the first day of a new creation…”

(First published by Gannet.)

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Stumbling Block or Steppingstone?

Posted on April 1, 2021 by salooper57

St. Paul, writing to ordinary church members, said: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (Corinthians 10:31-11:1 NIV).

“Follow my example,” he says. “Live the way I do. Be ready to make personal sacrifices in order to help people come over to Jesus’s side. Everything you do, religious or otherwise, must make God look good – that is, “do it all for the glory of God.”

Living for the glory of God involves both a negative (what we should not do) and a positive (what we should do). We engage in certain things and not in others based (in part) on the impact our actions will have on people who have not yet come over to Jesus’s side.

Paul states what we should not do first (verse 32): “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God.” Stumbling here and throughout the New Testament, is not just about falling down but about falling away—from God. Our attitudes, actions, and words can make it harder for people to believe in God and confess Jesus Lord. We can cause them to stumble.

I have talked to many people over the years who do not trust God and won’t even think about being involved in his church because of people who are (or were) in the church. Some church-goer did or said something that caused them to stumble away from God. Sometimes it wasn’t what they said or did; it was the attitude they held (usually the self-righteous, “better than others” attitude) that caused someone to stumble.

And sometimes, that someone who stumbled was a child and (tragically) the church-goer that caused them to stumble was a parent – a mom or dad. The combination of self-righteousness and hypocrisy in a church-going parent is almost too big an obstacle to get around.

Our attitudes and actions can make us stumbling blocks that cause people to fall away from God or they can make us steppingstones that lead people to him. Of course, being a steppingstone will sometimes mean getting walked on. We will be called on to forfeit our rights and sacrifice our time and goods so that people will come to Jesus and live for him.

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Getting Saved: An Old-fashioned Idea?

Posted on March 29, 2021 by salooper57

St. Paul was radically committed to the world. His commitment was based, in part, on a belief he held that not everyone shares. That belief underlies 1 Corinthians 9:22, where Paul explains the reason behind his way of life: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” Paul believed that people need to be saved.

Isn’t that old fashioned? Nowadays, when someone starts talking about being saved, people cringe. Maybe it’s not racist or sexist but it sounds religionist—and that’s just as bad. Who are you to tell me I need to be saved? For that matter, who are you to tell me I’m not already saved? You are being discriminatory and narrow-minded.

Some people are offended by the idea – not to mention the assertion – that they need to be saved. And they’re offended even though they don’t know what it means to be “saved,” aren’t sure they want to be saved, and have no intention of finding out. They do have a vague idea that being saved is about getting into heaven and they have heard that not everyone is going to get in – and that offends them too. It is a cosmic violation of the Fair Housing Act!

But when Paul used the word “saved,” he had more in mind than just going to heaven. He knew that heaven’s king is coming here to put an end to evil and get his plan for creation back on track. For Paul, to be saved was to escape the coming extermination of evil and share in creation’s rescue. The true king is coming; anyone can join him; but no one can stand against him.  

But there is more. To be saved (and this is one of the primary meanings of the word in the New Testament) is to be healed of hurts, both those done to us and those done by us, including the ultimate hurt of death. To be saved is not just to live again after we die. It is to live for the first time as God intended: joyously, vigorously, lovingly, worshipfully, unendingly.

Paul understood that people’s most pressing need cannot be met by economical or psychological means, as important as those are. We need to be saved by a power outside ourselves, saved in the richest, fullest sense of the word. We need a salvation that changes our relationship to God, to others, and to ourselves; that remakes us and turns us lose to reach the mind-boggling potential with which God created us.

Everywhere the apostle looked, he saw people wasting their lives, awaiting wrath, heading for ruin. God did not create us for this: for hatred, greed, despair, and distraction. Christ did not die so that we could fall further into such lives but rather to give us new ones.

Paul longed for people to have those lives. He wept at the thought of them being caught up in the terrible annihilation of evil. He was always looking for ways to be an instrument of God’s salvation in people’s lives. To that end, he was willing to sacrifice his rights – or make use of them if that’s what it took – in order to persuade people to come over to God’s side. What’s more (and this is relevant to our situation), he expected the rest of us to do the same.

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Pass it on to the Next Generation

Posted on March 27, 2021 by salooper57

I sit in the same chair each morning, a cup of coffee on the table next to me, the Book of Common Prayer on the chair arm, and a Bible in my lap. I spend a considerable time reading, thinking, and praying.

Whenever I look up, I see a plaque opposite me on the wall. It is an odd decoration. Affixed to the plaque, which cost a couple of dollars, is a tin can bounded on either end by hose clamps. Right below the can are the words, “My God shall supply all your needs,” taken from the fourth chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

I placed it there, where I will see it every day, as a helpful reminder of how God has taken care of my family in the past and an encouragement to trust God in the future. But I had another reason for putting it there: I wanted to use it to help our grandchildren learn what God is like.

Our grandchildren are still young. But I expect that one of these days our oldest, now six years old, will say: “Grandpa, why is there a can on the wall in your study?” And I will say, “I don’t think you’re ready for that story yet. I’ll tell you when you are older.” And each time they see the tin can mounted on the wall, it will arouse their curiosity about the story behind it.

Someday I will tell them the story. The can reminds me of a time when I was pastoring in a mission-like church in a rustbelt city. When I was sent there, the average Sunday attendance was 19. Three months after we arrived, the biggest giver in the church died. Then began years of financial struggle. There were times when we had no money and no groceries.

One day, the pipe between the catalytic converter and the muffler on my old Buick rusted through, and I had no money to pay for repairs. So, I rescued a tin can from the trash, cut it lengthwise into a metal sleeve, then clamped the sleeve around both ends of the broken pipe. To my surprise, it worked.

I was driving downtown a week or two later and stopped at the post office. When I went to get out of the car, the driver’s side door would not open. I slid over and tried the passenger door. It would not open either. It was like a scene in a comedy as I climbed over the bench seat – in jacket and tie – to escape out the back door.

Later, on my way back to the church, my makeshift repair burned through, the pipe dropped to the pavement, and the car roared so loudly it could be heard for blocks. In frustration I cried to God: “I need a new car!”

That evening, five people came to our home in two cars. They left in one, after they had given us the other. The interesting thing is that we never told anyone about any of our financial needs—except God, who had already taken care of our needs in many remarkable ways.

I want to tell that story to my grandchildren. More than that, I want to impart to them a knowledge of God’s goodness and a confidence in his care. In the words of the ancient psalm, I desire to “declare [God’s] power to the next generation, [his] might to all who are to come.”

It is incumbent upon us to relate what we know about God to the next generation. One of the best ways to do this is through stories. Years of pastoral work have taught me that people have stories that are important for them to share. Teaching children doctrine is necessary, but without stories, they will have no hooks on which to hang their doctrines.

It is good to find creative ways to share the stories that display, as the psalmist put it, “the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done … so the next generation would know them.” Such stories are among the richest treasures we can give the next generation.

(First published by Gannett.)

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A Three-Point Sermon (in Nine Words)

Posted on March 24, 2021 by salooper57

In Romans 12:12, the Apostle Paul writes: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” There is a wonderful three-point sermon in those nine words.[1] Point one: there is a great future ahead of us, so be joyful in hope. Point two: there are great difficulties surrounding us, so be patient in affliction. And point three: there is a great God above us, so be faithful in prayer.

Though each point in this nine-word sermon is important, I want to focus on the final one: “faithful in prayer.” This is one way that our commitment to each other works itself out: we pray for each other. We pray for each other when we are alone. We pray for each other when we are together. And we are hopeful in our prayers, even in the worst of times.

We pray with hope because we know who is listening. This kind of hope does not come in the absence of affliction but in the midst of it. The affliction is real and painful, but it is not permanent. We know that and so we are hopeful.

The Greek word translated as “affliction” has the idea of something that puts pressure on us, that squeezes us. Money troubles, relationship troubles, health troubles all squeeze us. They leave us feeling like the walls are closing in and there’s no way out.

When our people (that is, the people of Jesus, especially those in our own church family) are going through tough times, our commitment to them expresses itself in prayer. We pray earnestly and repeatedly. And if ideas come to us as we pray, we act on them in hope. When our friend’s hope is lagging, we hope for them.

The phrase “faithful in prayer” means something like, “always on call for…” We are on call 24-7 to pray for each other. One of the most loving – and love-engendering – things we can do is to pour out our heart in prayer for another person.

[1] Ten words in the NIV but nine words in Greek.

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Climate Change in a Desert of Disrespect

Posted on March 22, 2021 by salooper57

St. Paul wrote: “Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). This was written to people living in a rigidly hierarchical society. They were forced to honor those people above them on the social ladder but taught not to honor those below them. But things were different in the church. Masters honored slaves, merchants honored peasants, and everyone honored everyone.

That seemed baffling – and dangerous – to the outside world. If you were a citizen, you didn’t honor slaves. And if you were an equestrian, you didn’t honor citizens. So imagine being a wealthy equestrian sitting in a church service for the very first time. The speaker is obviously a slave. “Well, that’s weird,” you think. But when the friend who invited you and shares your social rank stands to praise the slave and honor him for his wisdom, you are appalled.

The social order can’t hold if this kind of thing continues. Slaves will disrespect their masters. Citizens will be telling senators what to do. The whole thing will come crashing down.

Outside the church, people rationed respect (and still do). Inside the church, there was an abundance of it. James Dunn translates this phrase, “Showing the way to one another in respect.” In other words, in the church we are not to wait for others to show respect. We are to go first.

Now, wait a minute! Why should I go first? I’ll show you respect … as soon as you show it to me. I’ve heard husbands say, “As soon as she starts showing me some respect, I’ll start being more loving.” I’ve heard parents say, “My kids aren’t getting anything from me until they start showing me the respect I deserve.”

We think that honor is a zero sum game: giving it to someone else diminishes our own. How will we ever go first when that is what we think? But going first is just what Paul expects us to do.

We’re all saying: “You first!” “No. You first.” And instead of a climate where people thrive, we have a desert of dishonor, where people wither. And going first becomes more difficult by the day.

Paul understood this dynamic perfectly—and issued the instruction anyway. It is because society is a desert of disrespect that showing honor to one another is so important. He urges us to take the lead, to go first. He dares us to walk point.

But how can we honor people who do not honor us? Harder yet, how can we honor people who dishonor us? If we give honor without receiving it, won’t it diminish our supply – and our souls need this stuff. Only if we see how God has honored us, we’ll be able to take the lead in honoring others.

The noun rendered “honor” in this verse is sometimes translated differently. It is rendered “price.” To honor a thing is to set a high price on it. To dishonor a thing is to set a low price on it, that is, to treat it as if it has no value. The connection between “price” and “honor” shines through in Matthew 27:9.

In telling the story of the blood money the Sandhedrin paid Judas to betray Jesus, St. Matthew quotes the prophet Jeremiah: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel…” In Greek that reads, “They took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one whose price the sons of Israel priced.” But it could be translated, “the honor of the one whose honor the sons of Israel honored” – or, rather, dishonored at the insulting price of thirty pieces of silver.

When you honor something, you set a price on it; you value it at a certain amount. Jesus was dishonored by Judas and the sons of Israel when they set so low a price on his life.

Now here is what we need to understand. We are rich in honor because God set so high a price on our lives: “For,” St. Peter says, “you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious [that is the adjective form of the same word] blood of Christ…” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Whether others honor us or not, God himself has bestowed on us the spectacular honor of ransoming us at the highest price ever paid. We need to remember who we are – the highly honored, dearly bought children of God. If we keep that in mind, we can honor others whether or not they honor us.

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The Case of the Displaced Yard Signs: How We Gather Evidence Is Important

Posted on March 20, 2021 by salooper57
Photo by American Public Power Association on Unsplash

In our already splintered America, the last thing we needed was something else to divide us, but that is what we got. Solar power has come to our rural neighborhood. Or rather, solar power wants to come to our neighborhood.

Some of us in the neighborhood want solar power and some of us do not. More precisely, some of us want it and some of us want very much not to have it. Signs have appeared up and down our road, most opposing the massive solar farm but others supporting it.

My wife and I take a two-mile walk each morning along our country roads, so we walk by many signs. On a recent walk, I noticed that the signs opposing solar power were all standing where they had been placed, but more than half of the pro-solar signs were lying on the ground. It appeared that there was some mischief at work.

But then I remembered the strong winds we’d had. Perhaps it was the wind that knocked the signs down. But why, reason countered, would it knock down only the pro-solar signs and leave the rest standing?

I could imagine teenage boys from families that rail against solar paneled farm fields, driving down the road late at night, plucking up the opposition’s signs. That would explain why more than half of the pro-solar signs were down while all the anti-solar signs remained standing.

I was sure I had found the solution to the mystery. But, as in almost every Agatha Christie novel I have ever read, there was something I had overlooked. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wire-framed base on one of the pro-solar signs was squared at the bottom. That is, rather than two wire stakes pushed deeply into the ground, the wire was bent at 90-degree angles to form a box-like bottom.

I have never seen a yard sign constructed like this. My guess is that a provider attached the signboard to the wrong end of the frame, placing it over the wire stakes that were meant to be pushed into the ground. That would explain why only these signs were upended by the strong winds of the past week.

This may or may not be the solution to the mystery. There could easily be other details I have overlooked. This is always the situation, not only in the case of the displaced yard signs but in all of life’s mysteries.

Evidence gathering is therefore of great importance. But it is possible to gather only the evidence that reinforces a view already held and disregard all the rest. This has certainly happened in America’s politics and in its response to the pandemic. The fact that search engines like Google prioritize results based on previous searches only exacerbates the problem.

Gathering evidence to learn the truth rather than to reinforce a position requires humility, which is why pride militates against real learning and therefore against truth. Humility is the key to learning, which may explain why children are so much better at it than adults.

It is not only politics and pandemics that require careful, humble thinking. So do relationships. Relationships are often derailed by assumptions that become convictions based on faulty evidence. How many friendships have floundered and marriages failed because one person looked, and of course found, evidence to support a flawed conclusion.

This is also true in matters of faith. I have spent my adult life studying the Bible. After decades of insight and even delight, one of the most important things I have learned is that there is much more to learn. Professor N. T. Wright, one of the world’s best known biblical scholars, routinely tells his students, “Ten percent of what I am about to tell you is wrong. I just don’t know which ten percent that is.” That kind of attitude – treasuring what we have learned yet eager to learn more – is crucial. Research conducted by the Canadian Bible Society reveals that, for many people, Bible reading only reinforces already-held positions. Something more is needed: an inquiring mind, a humble attitude, conversations with others and, most importantly, a willingness to act on what one learns.

(First published by Gannett.)

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Spiritual Formation: Anything but Boring

Posted on March 19, 2021 by salooper57

God, according to the Bible, intends to conform humans to the image of his Son. We might think it would be boring to have a world full of people who were all the same, even if they were like Jesus. But that is to think wrongly. If everyone were like me, the world would be a boring place. In becoming like me, so many of the things that make people interesting would be lost. But in becoming like Jesus, nothing that is good is lost. Boring? It’s just the opposite. The world goes from black and white to living color – colors we have not yet imagined – as we become like Christ.

But wait a minute. If I become like Jesus – so different from what I am now – won’t I cease to be me? No. It is quite the opposite. The more I become like Jesus, the more I become myself. In fact, I can only be me to the degree that I become like him. If I refuse to be like him, I will inevitably lose myself and everything that makes me me.

Here is a mystery. If you become more like Jesus and I become more like Jesus (which, remember is God’s plan), we won’t become more like each other in a way that makes one of us superfluous. Instead, as each of us becomes more like Christ, our uniqueness becomes more apparent, not less. The good but undeveloped possibilities within each of us spring to life. Every one of us is designed to express some glory of the Infinite Christ more delightfully than anyone else can.

The more I become like Jesus, the more clearly I see Jesus in you in ways that are totally unlike me – see them and bless God for them with gratitude overflowing in my heart.

Maybe this sounds like something you want. I must warn you that wanting it is not enough. You must decide that you will have it. You must pursue it with such determination that if something gets in your way, you will move it out of your way. If something weakens your desire, you will forsake it. If something is an obstacle, you will get rid of it. This is not a hobby; it is a life.

There are many methods, biblical and extrabiblical, that Christians have employed in becoming Christlike. However, even the best methods, used profitably for more than a thousand years, will fail if we are trusting in the method rather than Christ himself.

Further, all the methods in the world won’t help if the intention is lacking. Before God Almighty, we must choose to become like Christ. And the sooner we choose, the better.

That’s because we are already being formed—either into Christlikeness or into something else. We were being formed when we were born, are being formed right now, and will continue to be formed until we die. The question is: Into what are we being formed? What shall we be when the shape we are now taking is complete? Our nature is hardening into its true shape, whether that shape is Christlike or not.

Imagine I want to make Jell-O for my grandkids. I have several different molds into which I intend to pour the liquid Jell-O while it is still warm. One looks like a pine tree, one like a star, another like a heart. But once the Jell-O has hardened, it’s too late to pour it into the mold. It will retain its shape, the shape of whatever originally surrounded it. The only way to reshape it then is by cutting it and discarding the parts that don’t fit or by exposing it to some serious heat.

Some kind of formation is already taking place in you and me. God intends it to be into the image of his Son and he will make it so. How much better to be poured into the mold early rather than shaped later by knife or by flame. But the person committed to Christlikeness – the person who has seen – chooses to be so shaped, whatever the means.

Do you so choose?

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What Is God Up To?

Posted on March 18, 2021 by salooper57

Romans 8:28 is one of the Bible best-loved verses. “All things work together for good to those who love God…” And yet things frequently don’t seem to work together for good. For example, let’s say you have been saving up for a better car for the last 18 months. The one you have now is unreliable and you finally have enough money to replace it. But before you do, you incur unexpected bills that wipe out all the money you’ve saved and then some. How does that work for good?

And that is nothing compared to what some people experience. How does a cancer diagnosis work for good? A tragic accident? How about a tsunami? The death of a child? The deaths of tens of thousands of children in war and famine? In what sense are any of these things good?

The answer is, they are not and the Bible never says they are. In fact, it says quite the opposite. These things are not good but God is. He is so wise, so capable, and powerful that he can make even bad things like these serve his people’s good.

But in what sense do such things work for our good? Verse 29 provides the only answer to that question that makes any sense. Let’s read the promise in verse 28 again and then look for the answer in verse 29: “…all things work together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

Conforming us to the image of Christ is the good that all things must serve. God will use anything and everything – even bad things – to conform people to the image of his Son. This is what God calls good: People that look, think, feel, and act like Jesus.

If that is not what we call good, if we choose some other good – whether comfort, power, popularity, or wealth – all things will not work for our good. But they cannot help but work for us when the good we’ve chosen is the good that God desires: conformation to the image of his Son.

Shaping millions, perhaps billions, of people so that they are like Jesus has been God’s purpose from the start. A Jesus-shaped humanity is what he calls – and has always called – good.

God does not just want this good for us but for everyone. What’s more, he intends this good to spill over to the rest of creation. This was Paul’s point earlier in the chapter when he wrote (verses 19 and 21): “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. … that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The good of all creation – whether animate or inanimate, rocks, trees, dogs, horses, elephants, chimps, people, all – awaits the revelation of the sons of God; that is, awaits the conformation of humans to the image of Christ.

This has been the plan since the very beginning. Even before Adam was created, God was determined to shape humanity into the image. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).

In ancient times leaders would place images of themselves throughout their kingdoms. (They do it today, too, in countries all over the world, including ours – just think back to the election, when pictures of Joe Biden and Donald Trump were everywhere.) Ancient leaders used those images to remind people of who was in charge and who cared for them.

When God created the earth, his plan was to place his image – humans – everywhere, a sign that he rules the world. But humans were not just signs, placed like billboards throughout the land. They were to be God’s living images, ruling creation (Genesis 1: 28) as his representatives, with his love and wisdom flowing through them to bless all creation. Everywhere one looked, or so it was intended, one would find the image of the gracious and benevolent king acting with grace and benevolence towards his creation.

To be made in God’s image was our glory. It conferred on us unspeakable dignity and delegated to us enormous responsibility. Adam’s sin (and ours) derailed that and the loss has been incalculable. God’s image was defaced and, from certain perspectives, unrecognizable. Yet, from his perspective, God sees it still, fractured thought it is.

The Bible teaches that humans were formed in God’s image, then deformed by sin. But now, through Christ, we can be reformed into the image – the living, working image – of God.

The second of the Ten Commandments forbids the making of idols or images (“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”) The word Paul uses in Romans 8:28 is the same one the Greek translation of the Old Testament used in the second Commandment. This explains why such images were banned: Because God had already authorized an official image of himself: humans. Idolatry both distorts the perception of God and degrades the position of humans, relinquishes their authority to non-human, non-image bearing things.

Humans abandoned God’s plan to shape humanity into the blessed image; God did not. He is still intent on having millions – perhaps even billions – of images of himself blessing and delighting all creation. He is making that happen by conforming those who love him to the image of his Son.

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Committed to Christlikeness

Posted on March 16, 2021 by salooper57

This sermon is from Romans 8:28-30, and treats the Christian’s commitment to becoming Christlike.

Committed to Christlikeness (Listening time:25:29)
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