The Joy of Glory

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.

Today’s devotional is authored by Dallas Knight 

2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace that was shown by our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich he became poor for your sake, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Reflection
During the Lenten season, we are encouraged to fast and abstain from pleasures in our lives in order to help us better understand the much greater sacrifice of Christ. As we long for these good things it helps us long for and be grateful for the greatest good, Christ, and his atoning sacrifice.

*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 Emily Knight 

Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Reflection
How are we supposed to worship?

That’s one of many questions that flew across my mind when everything started shutting down. As classes transitioned to online instruction and my employers started scrambling to figure out a plan, I knew everything we called “normal” about our routines was about to change, and church would certainly be one of them.

And I think you and I have really felt that question grow during this time of self-isolation. God has worked in a gracious and mighty ways during this season, through live-streams and Zoom meetings and phone calls and prayer and study and dozens of other ways.

But we long for when we can return to worship together as a body, in person. And I think this verse helps us understand why — and maybe how we can worship in the interim.

Romans 12:1 sets out a radical paradigm for worship as Christians: it is embodied!

We present our bodies as living sacrifices. We are meant to involve ourselves as whole persons in the worship of the Lord. He doesn’t just care for us as hearts that love, or as minds that think, or wills that make decisions, but also as bodies who live and who die.

The suffering and sickness and death we see around our world matters to him, because He really does care about our bodies — after all, Christ came, had a body, and suffered unto death.

So, we are not completely whole as a church body when we are not able to gather in person. We were made to experience God through community in person, as persons.

And I think this verse also forces us to ask: what are we embodying with our lives as we wait to gather in worship again?

I think there’s a trap that easily ensnares  during this interim, waiting period. The enemy whispers to us that our time stuck at home doesn’t count. Outside of our normal routine, whether life is busier or less busy than it’s ever been, the enemy wants us to think we aren’t really worshipping. It’s just an in-between time, he says, and your actions don’t matter.

I’m not sure how this lie may be tempting you… For me, it’s tempting me to withdraw from friends rather than to reach out, “because we’ll be together again soon enough.” Perhaps you have been fervently praying for loved ones who are suffering sickness, and the enemy wants you to believe your prayers are to no avail. Perhaps you are a healthcare worker, and the enemy is telling you your efforts to aid the suffering aren’t meaningful. Perhaps cooking one more meal at home seems like a thankless task.

But the truth is, we are always embodying something. As humans, we feel and think and act and do and decide – and these things that we do with our bodies, our lives, and our routines actually mean something! They are our acts of worship.

When we fight against the lie that our actions don’t matter, we worship God as the one who has imbued our lives with meaning in the ordinary.

In these days, may we attend to even the smallest of tasks as the greatest acts of worship. May we submit all we have to our Lord. May we cherish the humanity of Jesus, who bestows meaning to our embodied, everyday lives.

**May we also, as we ache to meet as a church body again, prayerfully stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who cannot meet in person because of persecution. Lord Jesus, we entrust the global church to your care and pray you would sustain them each day in your nearness to them.

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