Wednesday, May 20, 2015

RESURRECTION LIFE

          Once upon a time there was a powerful king who owned all the land in the world. In the beginning, the king had given his servants everything they needed to tend the land so that it would bear fruit. But the servants failed to produce as much as they should have, so that even from the beginning, all of them were in debt to the king. These debts could not possibly have been paid even if all of the servants put their hearts and souls into farming the land. The servants became discouraged and farmed less and less while their debts grew and grew. The king was dismayed over this growing debt and the growing failure of all his servants to give him the produce and the honor that was his due. Since it was clear that the servants would never be able to pay what they owed the king, the king decided that the only way to restore justice was to do away with all his servants. When the king told his son what he had resolved to do, the king's son, who loved the servants, suggested that since he owed no debt, he could give his life for all of the servants and the debt would be paid. The king didn't want to lose his son, but he didn't want to lose all of his servants either, so finally he agreed to his son's suggestion and ordered his servants to put his son to death. Thus the debt was paid and all the servants lived happily ever after.

          Does this story disturb you? It disturbs me because it paints a troubling portrait of God. The king cannot or will not forgive the debt and will only be satisfied if somebody pays the debt, even his son.

          The story of Jesus Christ, God's Son, found in the Bible provides the true story of Resurrection Life. Jesus said that He came to give life and to give it abundantly. This means that He did not come to die; He came to give life, and that His death could not stop Him from doing that  God did not kill Jesus, humans did. God, in fact, raised Him back to life from death so that His giving of life would continue.

          The story of Jesus' resurrection has not come to an end. The story spills out of the Bible into our lives with its challenge to let God gather us into the abundant life of the living Christ. Through faith in Christ's resurrection and continuing power to impart life, people all over the world, of any socio-economic status can receive a debt free life. You might think that God is being soft by making this offer even to the worst of people, murderers, drug addicts and the like. But God's unimaginable offer of renewed life directly challenges us because it exposes the element of death in many of the things we do and think. We find out quickly that we will have to die to all of that before we can receive the joy filled life of Christ.

          I pray we decide to accept this offer of life as it flows out of the pages of the Bible and into our lives, leaving it to us to decide if we will accept the invitation to receive the free gift of Christ, a Resurrection Life.
       

Ministry Scenes

Have The Homeless Become Invisible?