The Joy of Glory

Joy in All
Philippians 4:10-20 (click here to read the entire passage)
On Sundays during Lent, there will not be an email devotional because a sermon will actually be preached on the passage for that day. Today’s sermon has been posted and may be found by searching for “Shades Valley Community Church” in your podcast app or by simply clicking here.

If you were unable to participate in the livestream a replay will be available tomorrow. A link will be sent out with tomorrow’s devotional.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Today’s devotional is authored by Brad Brown 

Ephesians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Reflection
Ephesians 1:3-14 is a feast for the believer’s hungry soul. It speaks to the only thing that ultimately matters for the church in life and in death. That is…You and I belong to Jesus Christ.

Marcus Peter Johnson beautifully articulates the blessing or the gifts given to those who are now and forever “in Christ”. I think its worth reading his words at length:

“…Jesus Christ does not bestow his benefits in the abstract; he bestows himself to us, that we might enjoy who he is for us in all his saving graces….

Jesus Christ is an inexhaustible fountain of blessing to us. When he gives himself to us that we might enjoy him, he is not only our justification— the One through whom we experience the forgiveness of sins and the fellowship of his righteousness— he is also our sanctification— the One through whom we are made holy and are transformed into his image. 

Yet he is the source of yet another blessing, one so amazing that it would be blasphemous to suggest if it were not true. In our union with Christ, the only begotten Son of God, we participate in what is most precious to him: his relationship with his Father. We are, in union with Christ, adopted into the family of God; we become the children, the sons and daughters, of the Most High God.

To say that our union with Christ is Trinitarian means that by virtue of being incorporated into the life of Jesus Christ, we participate in the life, love, and fellowship of the Trinity. Because the Son is one with the Father, our being joined to the Son means we are joined to the Father. And because the Spirit exists as the bond of communion between the “Father and Son, he brings us into that communion by uniting us to Christ.

There can be no union of greater personal intimacy than that which exists between God the Father and God the Son. But…Jesus (in John 17) tells us that we are incorporated into that relationship as he dwells in us, and the Father in him. Our union with Jesus Christ is a participation in the most personal and intimate union that has ever, and will ever, exist…”

You may want to go back and read through that a few more times very slowly  ( I certainly had to…). I think it’s well worth our time to think deeply about the lavish gifts given by our heavenly Father. I think it’s worth our time to ponder the rich communion we have with the God that spoke creation into existence and hung on the cross for our sin. I think its worth the effort to ponder the riches of our salvation. To belong to Jesus is to receive so much more than a ticket out of hell. 

The salvation of Christ is the greatest gift of all, not just because of what it saves us from but because of what it offers: God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It offers the One our hearts were made for…Hallelujah. All I have is Christ!

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Today’s devotional is authored by John Kegley 

Galatians 6:7-10
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Reflection
Sin is often so deceitful not because it tricks us into believing complete lies but because it tricks us into believing half-truths. For example, sin tends to deceive us into believing that our behavior and actions do not matter to God. After all, if we are justified by faith apart from works, why does our behavior matter before God? If we have already been saved, what difference does it make how we live? Does God really care about how we treat our neighbors, how we behave towards our spouses, how we raise our kids, what we choose to watch on TV, what politician we vote for, and what sexual identity we choose?

Sin wants to make a mockery of our lives by tricking us into believing that our behavior does not matter. Sin wants to make an embarrassment of our lives by tricking us into believing that how we live makes no difference. Have we bought into Satan’s half-truth that because we have already been saved and made right with God that we need not pay attention to how we live? While we often buy into Satan’s deception and allow our lives to become a mockery, Paul leaves no room for Satan to deceive us on this matter: GOD IS NOT MOCKED. We may believe Satan’s lie that God is unconcerned with how we live our lives, but the day is coming when God will render a verdict on our lives, and while if we believe in Christ we need not fear punishment for sin, let us strive to not be among those who “will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15).

How then shall we live?

First, Paul instructs us to not “sow” or live according to our flesh, in such a way that our own desires and personal gratification is all that really matters. One chapter earlier in Galatians, Paul describes the various manifestations of living according to the flesh: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-20).

Second, Paul instructs us to “sow” or live according to the Spirit. He summarizes what this means in v.10 when he instructs us to “do good to everyone.” To live life according to the Spirit is to live in such a way that we are focused on the good of those around us and on bearing each other’s burdens. This Spirit lifestyle will produce fruit like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” and will ultimately reap what we have already been promised and assured by faith in Christ, “eternal life” (Gal. 5:22-23; 6:8).

In sum, Paul reveals that while we have been justified by faith alone apart from our own works and efforts, our faith is never alone but always leads to behavior and actions which reflect the Spirit’s work in our life. While I think C.S. Lewis overstates the point, I think the following quote from Mere Christianity encapsulates Paul’s point in Galatians, that although we are not saved by our choices and efforts, our choices and efforts still matter. He writes, ““Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 92).

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.