[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Galatians 3:13, 6:14

Watch on YouTube

I believe Jesus was crucified. As we pause today to think about Jesus crucifixion, I have to ask, what does the cross mean to you? Because honestly, today many people are offended by the cross and are offended by the picture or the image of Jesus being crucified on the cross. There are many Christian worship centers and campuses today that have no cross because it’s offensive. Other Christians will say that I won’t turn the cross into an idol. Even more tragically, more and more sermons on Sunday mornings around the globe are intentionally doing everything they can to cut Jesus’ crucifixion out of the message on Sunday morning. What does the cross mean to you?

Well, back in Jesus’ day, we have to say that the cross was absolutely an offensive image. If you go back in the ancient world, it was oftentimes a common practice that when someone had died as a result of a crime, their body would be displayed by being nailed up to a tree. And that was this public incentivizer to encourage people to not do what that person did to end up this way. Eventually, the Persian Empire took this a step further. They thought to themselves, if we want to deter people from doing things, it would send a much stronger message to nail that person up to that tree while they are still alive.

Now, when the Roman Empire came across this practice, they applied their scientific minds and their understanding of medical knowledge to take that torturous, awful death a step further. They studied how they could extend the human life as long as possible, while also being nailed up to a tree or a cross. In fact, this death was so horrific, the Roman philosopher Cicero had to come up with a word to describe it. They didn’t have a word in language for it. So he came up with a word excruciating, which literally means out of crucifixion. The cross was offensive to Roman culture because it embodied everything that they feared. It embodied horrific suffering, it embodied shame, sin, punishment for sin, and judgment. And when we think about the cross today, it’s true. It does represent all those things that people fear the most, namely suffering, death, and judgment.

But when it comes to fear, how do you overcome fear? Well, you’ve probably heard the advice before. You have to face your fears. You have to face it head on. Look at it in the face in order to overcome that fear. That’s what’s truly interesting. When God had a serpent hung on a pole in the wilderness and the Israelites were being bitten and killed by serpents. God had them stare at that serpent on the pole, and only by looking at fear in the face. In faith they were saved and delivered from the venom of the snakes. God has done the same thing for us. When Jesus hung on the cross. Paul says in Galatians chapter three,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)

Do I fear suffering? Well, there’s Jesus taking suffering in my place. Do I fear feared death. Well, there is Jesus dying in my place. Do I fear sin and its dreadful, dreadful curse? Yes. But there is Jesus taking the curse in my place. Do I fear God’s wrath and God’s judgment and sentence against sin? Well, there’s Jesus taking that in my place.

You see, we don’t worship the cross. We worship the God who use the cross to deliver us, to save us. Yes, the cross was a powerful tool, but more than that, the cross is a symbol of your and my victory over sin, death, and the devil. And just as the Apostle Paul says, I will boast in nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (Galatians 6:14) So too the cross and the Savior on the cross is our boast when we confess He was crucified. Amen.

Psalm 51:5, Galatians 3:26-29

Watch on YouTube

My name is Anthony Bruce Pittenger. Pittenger comes from my dad’s side of the family. That was the name of the man who adopted my dad when he was just an infant. And so Pittenger is a part of my identity. Bruce, Bruce also comes from my dad’s side of the family. Grandpa Bruce is the name of the man who raised my father, and I was given his name as my middle name. Anthony comes from my dad’s side too. That was my father’s first name. So I’m Anthony Bruce. He is Anthony Frank. Those are things that are part of my identity on my mom’s side. My mother’s maiden name is Blohm. B-L-O-H-M, an old German name. And you can probably tell just by looking at me that my ethnicity, my roots, are from northern Europe.

What about your identity? Your ethnicity would be a part of your identity. Your name. Your first name. Your middle name. Your last name. Your mother’s maiden name. Our government identifies us with driver’s license numbers. That’s how Washington state identifies me. We have Social Security numbers that the federal government identifies us with. But what is your identity in God’s eyes?

That identity, the beginning of that identity, isn’t very good. Psalm 51:5 tells us that we are sinful even from the time that our mothers conceived us, and so that sinfulness it is, unfortunately, it is a part of our identity. Some of you who are watching this may be living with consequences of your own sinful actions, your own sinful decisions, long term, maybe even lifelong consequences. Someone could be watching this right now from a prison or a jail cell, and as a prisoner that is a part now of their identity because of decisions or actions they’ve made.

Everyone, myself included, we’re all growing older. We get weaker. We’re either racing or inching, at least, toward death and the grave. So sinful and mortal, that’s a part of our common identity. But that’s only a part. Here are some other parts. Loved. Forgiven. Redeemed. Cleansed. Renewed. That’s also who we are. There are a whole lot of verses in the Bible, but Galatians 3:26 through 29, this is one of my favorite identity verses. The Apostle Paul says,

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about identity theft. We need to be cautious and wary using our personal information online. The devil wants to rob you of your identity in Christ. The devil wants to lead you so deeply into sin that you can’t imagine that you could be saved or loved by God. Or the devil wants you to be so ambivalent and carefree about sin that you start to think sin doesn’t really matter. But no matter how he does it, what Satan is trying to do is to steal, to snatch your identity. The identity of Galatians 3. Baptized. Child of God. Heir of heaven itself. Your past sins prove to the rest of us, what? Prove that you need a Savior. Prove that you need saving. Even your present sins that you still commit. These things prove that you need a Savior. Scripture proves that you have one.

God has provided a Savior, a new identity for us in Christ Jesus. We are loved. We are saved. We are redeemed. We are children of the Heavenly Father. That’s who and what you are because thanks be to God, that’s part of your identity. Until we see each other again, God’s grace and peace be with you. Amen.

Galatians 3:26-27

Watch on YouTube

A few years ago, I kept hearing ads on the radio advertising a carpet cleaning service which claimed to leave zero residue, and I was curious what that meant. And so I did a little investigating, a little research, and they claimed to do a superior job of cleaning your carpets, both because of what they don’t do or don’t use, and because of what they do use.

What they don’t use is regular soap or carpet shampoo. You see, soap, shampoo, works by binding to the particle of dirt or grease or some other grime, and then when it’s rinsed away, the soap and the dirt are rinsed away. Obviously, then you’d have to use enough soap to get all the dirt, but there’s a tendency for there to be left over, residual, soap. And that soap stays in the carpet. And maybe if you’ve ever shampooed your carpets, they seem to get dirty so quickly. According to this company that’s because of that residual soap that’s still there, and it’s actually attracting, grabbing hold of, new dirt where otherwise, you know, if there was nothing there, the dirt wouldn’t stick.

So this company claimed that they do a superior job because they don’t use soap or shampoo and because they use this: water. They just use water. Well, that got me thinking about our lives as Christians. We naturally tend to think of our status with God as something we’ve done. Some promise that we’ve made to him about how I’m going to live from here on out. And those are good things. Those are well meant, well intentioned things. I should promise to live my life according to Ten Commandments, but they don’t perfectly cleanse us. They don’t get us as clean as we need to be to be in God’s presence. We need to be completely cleansed of all our sin.

And so there’s this residue that’s left behind. But in baptism, in the simple water of baptism, we are cleansed. We are washed of all of our sins. Saint Paul said this to the Christians who lived in Galatia. Galatians 3:26 and 27.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

That’s such a neat image that Paul gives us. Just as I am my mother’s son, a child of my mother, but I had absolutely nothing to do with that. And in the same way as Paul says, we are God’s children, sons of God through faith in Christ, the only begotten Son. Because as many of us as were baptized, as were washed with that water of baptism, have put on, have been clothed, covered with Christ. Covered with God’s only begotten child, God’s only begotten Son.

And so, while my works, my Christian life, certainly are important, and I must resolve to live a life in a way as God describes, that’s never going to cleanse me. Instead, baptism has already cleansed me. So put your faith. Put your trust, your hope in baptism. That’s not a symbol. It’s not a ceremony. It is God’s means of grace for cleansing you perfectly, completely, totally for creating you, recreating you to be one of his children, a child of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have been dressed in, have put on Christ.

Until we see each other again. God bless and keep you in that faith cleansed, washed, clean and pure and the waters of your baptism. God bless and keep you. Amen.

Isaiah 43:25, Galatians 3:26-27

Watch on YouTube

Are you harder on you than God is on you? Sometimes I can be pretty hard on myself, especially when I realize I’ve sinned and I’ve been in a sinful thought pattern and just not living out what God has called me to do. And as a result, I can have these, weird things that I’ll start doing. Like, for instance, I’ll even hesitate to speak to God in prayer after I realize I’ve sinned. It’s like, oh, I should wait a little bit, you know, because I just did that sinful thing. But is that what God would call us to do? Is that what God says? You should wait after you’ve sinned to speak to me? That’s not how it works.

And sometimes after I confess my sins and I’m assured I’m forgiven, I can still carry a lot of guilt and feel a lot of shame. Maybe you can too. And that’s why we need to be reminded. Reminded of how God sees us, how God sees you. In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 25, it says,

I, yes I, am he. I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)

Your sins have literally been taken off of you, and they were placed on Jesus. When Jesus died on that cross, so did your sins. They died there with him. When Jesus rose again, that new life is your new life. When you were baptized into Christ, you were connected with his death and his resurrection. As far as God is concerned, your sin was dead there in the tomb with Jesus. Who you are now is someone who has a new life with Christ. You are washed. You are clean.

When God looks at you, he is not saying, all right, you need to wait and kind of work off that sin. He’s not saying that okay, you need to carry this guilt and shame. God is not looking at you disappointed and shaking his head. He sees you through Christ. In Galatians chapter three, verse 26,

In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

God sees you through Jesus. He delights in you. He is pleased with you. We might struggle with being hard on ourselves, but remember how God sees you. And when you remember how God sees you, it can change the way that you see you.

Malachi 2:10, Matthew 6:31-32, Galatians 3:26

Watch on YouTube

Why do we call God our father? Now that it seems like there’s a lot of people in the world today that refer to God as father, and so it makes us wonder, you know, why do we even call God Father? Does that even make sense? Well, hear this in Holy Scripture. In Malachi chapter two, verse ten, it says this

Don’t we all have one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? (Malachi 2:10 EHV)

You know, one reason that we can refer to God as our father is because he’s our creator, he made us. And we can think about an earthly father. None of us would be here without an earthly father, right? I know there’s a lot of mothers that say, well, fathers don’t contribute that much to human life, and maybe we’d say that so, because mothers do so much, in carrying a child and giving birth and so forth. But the reality is, is none of us would be here without an earthly father. And so that’s one reason we call God Father is because he is the one who created us, the one who gives us life.

Another reason is found in Matthew chapter six, beginning at verse 31.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unbelievers[a] chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.(Matthew 6:31-32 EHV)

Now on those verses, we are reminded also what God does for us, like an earthly father who is supposed to take care of his family and provide for his family needs. So also God provides for our needs. He gives us this beautiful world in which we live, the world that’s filled with so many resources to provide for our food and clothing and shelter. And he takes care of us using those things.

But the third and most important reason why we call God our father is this. In Galatians three verse 26, it says,

In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26 EHV)

And that’s the real reason we have the right to call God father. Is through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and what he has done. It has brought us into God’s family. It’s brought us into a good relationship with him. Now it takes us back to the Garden of Eden, as we think about Adam and Eve, and how they had that perfect relationship with God back then. What happened? As a result of their sin there was a divorce, so to speak, a separation between their heavenly Father and his creatures and his children. Sin separated them from perfect and almighty God.

But Christ has come to repair the damage. He has come to repair our relationship with God, and he has done it through suffering the punishment that our sins deserve. So through faith in Christ, we are right in God’s sight. And now his children. So, especially for Christians, we have the right to call God Father.

Yes, there are many people today who refer to God as their father. Isn’t he the father of everyone? And maybe we can say that’s true when it comes to the fact that he created all things, or he provides for everyone. What a joy it is to say, as a Christian, that God is our father, and to know that it is true that we are his children through what Christ has done for us. Amen.

Galatians 3:24-25

Watch on YouTube

My wife and I were so excited when our eldest child was old enough to babysit. We could leave her at home and she could take care of the younger kids while my wife and I could get out and do some things, not having to drag the kids along was a huge relief.

I’ve noticed that as the younger kids have now become older and they’re doing the babysitting, that the kids often want to know who’s in charge. I can tell you, I want to know who’s in charge too, but probably for a different reason than the kids do. They want to know who do they have to obey? For me, I want to know who’s going to keep them safe.

In our verses today, we’re going to read that God is speaking to us as children and that he has put something over us to supervise us. And as children, we can misunderstand that thing. And not understand God’s purpose for it. So in Galatians chapter three we read.

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (Galatians 3:24-25)

God placed the law over us, to supervise us, to lead us to Christ. The law is very often misunderstood, though. People look at the commandments and what God has required of us, especially in the Old Testament. And thought that is the way to obtain righteousness. People think that as long as they’re doing what God commands in all of the steps of life, then he’s going to be happy with them. But God reveals here that he put us under the law to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. That word justify means to be declared righteous.

We’re not declared righteous by God’s law and commandments. In fact, those laws and commandments, they declare us guilty of sin. We’ve lied. We’ve been hateful. We’ve been greedy. We’ve been unkind. All of those actions are revealed by the law to be sin. If the commandments were the way to receive righteousness before God, none of us would ever get it. But here God reveals that we’re justified, declared righteous by faith in Jesus. Jesus lived the life that the law demands, and Jesus died the death that the law demands, so that we are perfect in God’s eyes. And our sins are forgiven.

When we look at God’s law, we see our guilt. And our need for Jesus. God gave us that law so that we would be led to see our need for the Savior. And hold on to him by faith. So as you live as God’s child, remember the purpose of the law. We cannot obtain righteousness before God by it. Only faith does that. The law, then, is there to guide us as we live in thankfulness to Jesus for the salvation he won for us all.

May God bless you and lead you to Christ your Savior. Amen.

Galatians 4:4-5

Watch on YouTube

There’s a legend in my hometown. It goes like this. In order to get through the DMV line, you have to show up at the DMV office, that’s the Department of Motor Vehicles, right when they open. Otherwise, you’re going to be stuck there for an hour. Two hours. When I bought my first car in high school, I got a chance to try out this legend firsthand. I showed up there 15 minutes after they opened, and sure enough, I had to wait an hour and a half.

Certainly many faithful Old Testament believers knew what that was like. They had read in the scriptures how God was going to send the Christ, that he would be coming soon. And yet they looked around and they didn’t see any signs that he was here. The prophets have been silent for over 400 years. Maybe they doubted God’s timing. They wondered when would the Christ come? And we read in the scriptures.

But when the set time had fully come. God sent his Son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

We hear in these verses why Jesus has come. To redeem those under the law. And we see this specifically at Christmas time. We hear about how in the Ten Commandments that we have failed to meet up to God’s expectations, that we have sinned. That we have fallen short of what God expects for us. But Jesus never did this. Jesus was perfect. He always trusted his heavenly Father’s timing. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly in our place. When God views us, when by faith in Jesus, he sees the perfection of his own son. And that’s why we can claim adoption as God’s own child by faith in Jesus.

Jesus came to the right place at the right time. He came to tiny little Bethlehem in Judea. And yet he came for one purpose to fulfill the law and release us from the bondage of sin. Here at Christmas, we recall the promises that God has set forth. We know that he has sent a Savior to redeem those under the law that is us, and that by faith in him we have perfect righteousness. That there is nothing that stands between us and the glorious throne in heaven.

Let that fill you with joy this Christmas season. Amen.

Genesis 3:7, 21, Galatians 3:27, Matthew 11:30

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Through sheer tyranny of will my wife and I have managed to grow a fig tree even though we live in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. The fig, of course, features rather prominently in the Bible. In fact, fig leaves were our very first clothing (Genesis 3:7) and I never really appreciated how lousy they would be at being clothing until I actually started growing a fig tree myself.

When you feel a fig leaf, it’s a really rough and actually almost even a little bit stingy. If you were to make a garment out of fig leaves, it would be unbelievably itchy and chafing and it would be terrible to wear. Beyond that, fig leaves are really light and delicate. If a little itty bitty breeze comes along it would completely blow the outfit away. It would completely leave you exposed. They offer nothing by way of insulation. They’re very thin and papery. So if it were to rain on you or if it got very cold or if it got very hot, you’d have no protection from the elements whatsoever. And in fact, I’d probably make them a little bit worse with how itchy and scratchy it is to be in the cold or to be in the heat while wearing those garments of sandpaper, practically.

And then at the end of the day, the actual shape of a fig leaf is completely impractical, completely useless for actually covering you up in any meaningful way. As soon as humanity fell in the sin, we found the stupidest possible thing to try to cover up our sinfulness with. It hurt. It chafed. It didn’t do the job effectively. Any little disturbance in the world blows the entire thing away. It leaves us exposed. And at the end of the day, even if everything was going correctly, it still wouldn’t do the job that it had been intended to do.

God came along after our earliest ancestors fell into sin, looked at what they had done, took away the terrible, pathetic effort that they had put in, and he replaced it with something new. He gave them different garments made out of leather and fur. (Genesis 3:21) Leather and fur are still the best things that you can wear now. They’re incredibly comfortable to wear. They feel nice against your skin. When the elements come along, if you get rained on, it rolls right off. If it’s cold outside, it’ll keep you nice and warm. And they actually do the job. They cover you completely from head to toe. But in order to have that happen, blood had to be shed. A life had to be lost in order to cover up our nakedness, in order to cover up our sin.

The analogy here is pretty obvious. Any time we look to our selves to try to cover up who we are and what we are and what we have done wrong, the result is catastrophic. It hurts as we try to make up for the wrongs that we’ve done and as we tried desperately to live lives that we can’t possibly live, it leaves us completely exposed because even the littlest of breezes will reveal in a very pointed way how deeply we have failed. And ultimately, it doesn’t do anything at all to cover us up. We are still sinful people. God gives us garments that actually cover our sins, that actually cover us up. But it required the shedding of blood. He had to send Jesus into this world to live the life that we should have lived and ultimately face the cross. It’s his blood, his body that provide us with the garments that actually cover our sins. (Galatians 3:27)

When Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, (Matthew 11:30) he is referring to the difference in what we were trying to do to cover our sins. And what he does instead, wearing his garments is a relief. They actually do the job. They actually shield us from the world. They actually cover our sin. When we look to our earliest ancestors and their failure, we can relax and smile and take hope knowing that the Lord has provided Christ to truly be a garment that covers us.

2 Corinthians 5:10, Matthew 5:48, Galatians 4:4-5

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

How do you explain the Christian faith to someone? A number of months ago. I got a message from a man who was wondering about Christianity, and who wanted me to explain it to him. I quickly went into pastor mode and thought about some of the ways in which to start this conversation, and I went to some classic questions that I know people use. One of those questions is this: If you were to die tonight, are you sure that you would go to heaven?

I was kind of shocked at the man’s response, he said. I don’t even know how to answer that question. It was obvious to me that he really didn’t know much at all about religion or God or even heaven. And so I realized that wasn’t the place where we should start because there was no common ground upon which to start. And so I decided to take a different approach with him. And I used a different question, focusing on our conscience and our natural law. So I asked him this question: Do you ever have a sense of something you do as being right or wrong?

He responded, Yeah, of course. I went on to talk to him about the sense of right or wrong that it’s kind of curious, especially when we note that the animals apparently don’t have a sense of things being right or wrong, but human beings do. In fact, it’s such a universal sense that we have that no matter where you go, no matter what country, no matter what people you’re among, it seems like there’s kind of the same list of things that are considered to be wrong and the same list of things that are considered to be good or right in general. That everyone knows that it’s wrong to murder, that it’s wrong to steal, that it’s wrong to commit adultery, that everyone knows that it’s good to help someone when they’re in need or to care for them if they’re injured or sick. It seems like those sort of things are universal, this right and wrong.

I went on to tell the man that the Bible tells us where that sense comes from, that law that’s on our hearts and that conscience that we have. The Bible says that it comes from God, that he’s the one that gave us this sense and that God himself is ultimately a God of right and wrong, a God of justice. I think there’s part of us that that’s really appealing to, especially as we think about all of the bad things that people do in this world, how they hurt one another, especially murderers and rapists and child molesters. We like to know that there is a God of justice who, if someone isn’t punished in this life, God is going to punish them in the next world or in the next life, and to hold them accountable for what they have done wrong.

Then that maybe makes us wonder. What about us? The Bible says in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse ten

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he did while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

And the Bible tells us that there is going to be a day of divine judgment from God. And it doesn’t say that just the murderers and child molesters and rapists are going to stand before God, but all are going to stand before him. So what is God going to hold us accountable for? Is it just those really serious actions that I just mentioned, or is it maybe other things as well? Jesus himself says in Matthew chapter five.

So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

God’s standard by which He will judge us on the final day is perfection. God expects us to never once say something bad or to hurt someone else, never once to steal or to lie or to lust. And so many other things. God expects us to be perfect. We know that it’s kind of terrifying to think about divine judgment. What is God going to say to me when I have to stand before him on that day? Herein lies then the precious message of Christianity in Galatians Chapter four, if we hear this.

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

The Bible tells us that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, and he’s born of a woman born of the Virgin Mary, born under law, the same law that God has placed on our hearts. Jesus is born under that law. But guess what? He never once disobeyed. He kept it all perfectly. And he did this to redeem you, to buy you back unto God.

Now maybe to kind of understand Jesus and what he did for us we can think about it in these terms. Imagine that you’re driving down the road and you’re speeding and you got pulled over by a cop and he gave you a ticket, maybe a couple of hundred bucks. And so you try to go and fight it in court. But when you show up before the judge, the cops there and the cop shows his radar readout and he testifies, yeah, you were speeding. And so the judge declares that you’re guilty and you need to pay the fine or else. Well, what if that day in court, there was someone there who took out their checkbook and wrote a check for $200 and paid the judge? What would the judge do? He’d let you go, wouldn’t he. Even though you didn’t pay the punishment, you didn’t pay the fine someone else paid. As long as that punishment and fine is paid, you are free to go.

In some ways, that’s kind of a picture of what Christ does for us. We certainly are guilty of so many wrongs against God’s holy, and perfect law that he has even placed on our hearts. We know the wrong that we’ve done. But God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer your punishment, to pay your fine. And that’s what Jesus did on the cross. He came under God’s divine justice and judgment for you. You see, Jesus was perfect in every way, and you were sinful and are sinful. Yet he paid your fine, the punishment you deserve. And so God tells us now that all who believe in Jesus and trust that He has paid that fine are free to go.

And we can know that we are right before God and have the sure hope of everlasting life. We’re thinking about ways to share our faith with other people, especially those that maybe don’t know a whole lot about religion or God or Christianity. That might be one approach to focus on natural law, to focus on conscience and to point people ultimately to Christ and what he has done for them. Amen.

Galatians 3:27, Colossians 3:3, Philippians 1:21, Philippians 2:6-8

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

So tell me about yourself. Who are you? What do you, what do you like? How would you describe yourself? Go ahead to even pause the video for a minute and just think. How would you respond to that? How would you describe yourself?

The way you describe yourself is important because it tells us a lot about how you define yourself, where you find your identity. Like maybe you the first thing you say is, well, I’m, you know, like for me, I might say, like, I’m a pastor. You might say you’re a, you’re a mother, you’re a father, you are a student. You know, you work here. You work at a bank. You work these other places. And we think about all these various things that we do or our relationships. And often we look for our identity there. And those things are good things. But there’s weaknesses to finding our identity in those places.

There’s weaknesses there for a couple of reasons. Part of the reason why there might be a weakness there is that those things in life can change. Relationships can change. What you do for a living can change. So then when it changes, then you can start to have an identity crisis. Well, who am I? That’s also problematic because where you find your identity actually drives very much of what you do. It drives your decisions. It becomes to be what you live for because if you find your identity somewhere and that becomes so important for you, it can become the driver for your life because you need to keep that identity. And something that starts to drive your life, can begin to do what really God was meant to do. It can begin to take over the place of God in your life.

There’s a better place to find your identity. To go find your identity we can go to God’s Word to see what God says about us. If you go to the book of Galatians, it talks about how we have been baptized into Christ. You, if you’ve been baptized, you’ve been baptized into Christ, which means you’ve been clothed with Christ. So when God sees you, He sees the perfect life of Christ. And Christ also then being the Son of God, Christ is God, God when He looks at you, He sees a spitting image of himself. Your primary identity when you look in the mirror should be that I am in Christ.

Maybe instead of thinking yourself as a Christian, maybe use this word. It sounds maybe a little bit weird, but say I’m, I’m a Christ-in. I’m somebody who is in Christ that defines you. I mean, if you look at Colossians chapter three, Paul says that your whole life is now hidden in Christ. That is who you are. So now what does that mean for how you live your life, though? Because all these other things, we think about where we get our identity have to do with living my life in my relationships, what I do. How does our identity now connect with the way we live our life?

Well, I want to take you to Philippians chapter one in verse 21. Paul says that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I think the second part of that statement is easier to understand, and the first. To die is gain, as a Christian, that becomes pretty clear to us. So we understand, we know, that because Jesus died and rose again, we are set right with God. We know that promise that Jesus said that when you close your eyes to this world and open them, you will be with him in paradise. And we’re looking forward to resurrection. We know that. So to die is gain, that makes sense. But what does it mean to say to live is Christ?

Well, the second chapter of Philippians helps with that. When you look to the second chapter of Philippians, Paul talks about how Jesus did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but he humbled himself and took the form of a servant. That section, there’s a lot of big words. It can be a little bit confusing sometimes, just so kind of just to boil it down. What does it mean? It means that that the Son of God could have stayed in the comforts of heaven. But instead he humbled himself because his father had a job for him to do. He humble himself and became a servant to live that life you and I were meant to live, but don’t. To lay his life down and to die on the cross so that he could then rise again and give us new life.

When Jesus lived in this world, he was living as a humbled servant, carrying out his father’s plan for the good of those around him. As you think about living and Paul says to live is Christ, for you life is the same way. You are first and foremost a servant. Here because you have a job from your father. That job can change over time. Sometimes your primary thing will be to take care of little kids. Some day they grow up. You know, you might have a job here and then a job there. Those things can shift. But what doesn’t shift is that you are a Christ-in you are somebody who is in Christ. Your whole life is hidden in Christ. You are a servant carrying out your father’s work as you looking forward to that day of life with him. You are a Christ-in that’s who you are.

Matthew 5:44-45, Galatians 3:26-27

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

What’s your first reaction when someone cuts you off in traffic? Probably that initial reaction is to lay a heavy hand on the horn or maybe to yell out in anger at your dashboard or even out the window. Maybe someone even go to the extent of shouting an expletive or even making a hand gesture. We want everyone to know when we have been wronged and we can be filled with so much rage and anger as a result.

Well, have you ever considered praying in such a time? Praying even for the person that cut you off? You might be thinking right now: no, of course not, Pastor. I would never do that because that person wronged me. That person hurt me.

However, Jesus tells us in his Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew, Chapter five. He tells us this,

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:44-45)

He doesn’t suggest to do these things, but he commands us to do these things, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. That’s a pretty tall order, isn’t it? How difficult it is to love those who hate you or love those who hurt you and to pray for them. Right? Because we only feel the anger and resentment over how we have been wronged.

Note again what Jesus said.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute us that we may be children of our father in heaven. (Matthew 5:44-45)

If that’s the only way for us to be children of our father in heaven, by loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, we certainly have no hope to be a part of God’s family. Because who of us responds that way to our enemies and those that hurt us by our own nature? Instead we look to Jesus to think about Jesus and what he did even after he had been so wronged by his enemies. Those enemies who wrongfully accused him. Placed an innocent man to be executed on a cross. Yet what were the very first words from his mouth? “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

As Jesus spoke words of forgiveness and love to those that didn’t deserve it. And he’s really done to the same to you and me. Who by our nature, can claim to be part of God’s family? Aren’t we all born enemies of God? Opposed to his will, not wanting to follow his commands, the least of which is love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Yet God has shown that love to us in Christ hasn’t he. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians Chapter three.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

He says the real way that we can be children of God, that we are children of God, is through faith in Jesus Christ. He tells us of the treasure we receive, even in holy baptism, not only the gift of faith, but we are clothed with Christ’s holiness, His righteousness, Christ’s perfect love that He showed toward His enemies is ours through faith in Christ. So that God views us not in our sin, he views us covered in Christ’s holiness and righteousness. And he declares that we are part of his family.

As a result of God’s love that He has shown toward his enemies. Love that He has shown towards us. We desire to live as children, to live like our Heavenly Father lives and exists. To love even our enemies who don’t deserve it. So the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, I encourage you to pray for that person. Pray not that they get into an accident, but pray for them. Pray for their souls. Do it, not because they’ve been so kind to you, but pray for them because of God’s kindness that He has shown you in Christ. Amen.

Galatians 4:4-5

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Ladders can be very useful. I saw my neighbor the other day using a ladder to put up his Christmas decorations. Have you ever imagined a type of spiritual ladder that you are climbing in order to get to heaven? Adolph Koberle once spoke of three different ladders that humans often imagine that they can use to climb to heaven and to get closer to God. There is the ladder of moralism, the ladder of mysticism and the ladder of rationalism. Let me explain.

The first ladder, moralism, is the ladder of the will. This is the thought that you might have that if I can have a good moral life, if I can do enough good works, I can climb my way up to God. God will look down at me and go, Oh, I have to let that person into heaven. They’re so good.

The second ladder, that of mysticism, this is the ladder of the emotion. This is the ladder of feelings. And this is the idea when we think that, well, if I can just get in the right emotional state, if I can just get worked up with my feelings, then maybe I will feel the presence of God.

The third ladder, rationalism, this is the ladder of the mind. This is when people think that they can climb a ladder to God if they can just think deeply enough about him, if they can just come up with the right philosophy or the right ideology, then I can climb and I can grasp God with my mind.

Now, the problem with all of these ladders is sin. Imagine you have a spiritual backpack on and in that backpack, all of your sins and all of your guilt from your failings before God. These things weigh us down. They make it impossible for us to climb any kind of ladder to heaven. In fact, they pull us in the exact opposite direction towards hell. This is why we rejoice at Christmas time. Galatians Chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 says

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

The Son of God left the throne of heaven, and he came down to our earth. He assumed the humanity in the baby Jesus. There’s no ladder to climb. No, rather, God came down to us. Jesus was born under the law to fulfill what we couldn’t. And Jesus redeemed you and me at the cross. There Jesus took your backpack off of your back with all of its sin, all of its guilt, and he put that heavy backpack on himself. And he took all of the world’s backpacks and he put them on himself. And there he suffered and died with them in order to redeem you and the entire world of our sins.

The Lord demonstrated that he had accomplished this in his resurrection from the dead. And now you can know that you have heaven, not because you are climbing it, no, ladders don’t get us to heaven. Rather because Jesus climbed it already for you. He has accomplished everything. And heaven is yours through faith in Jesus. Amen.