Author: Paul Nordman

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A Counterintuitive Grace

My little town had its share of parades when I was a boy—the Homecoming parade, Kiddies’ Day parade, and of course, the Fourth of July—all of them kindling warm smiles and a shared sense of community. Yet Memorial Day was different; there we soberly gathered to honor those who sacrificed everything in times of war. Most of the marching vets at that time were of the WWII era, men who had enlisted in droves to fight the expansion of totalitarianism. Their silent salutes through 21-gun salvos conveyed an understanding of freedom that only they could know and an enduring bond with those who suffered alongside them. We held these men in highest esteem.

If we’re going to have a conversation about grace, we must recognize it in its most counterintuitive form: suffering. There is something about suffering that heightens our appreciation of—and deepens our devotion to—a good and right cause. It augments our strength and directs our focus as nothing else can do. To the gathered crowd, Jesus promised, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”1 The apostles would understand this soon enough, for when later flogged for proclaiming the risen Christ, these men left “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Jesus] . . . They never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”2 For why would we suppress the truth of Christ for the conditional acceptance of His enemies?

On the eve of His betrayal, Jesus told His followers, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”3 Yet this Christ for whom in grace we suffer is the same One who by grace sustains us in our suffering. God will not abandon us in such times—“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”4 So like those who have gone on before us in Christ, “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”5 And if we must suffer on His behalf, then “rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”6

“Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus . . . Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”7

Father, amid our suffering, You are still God and you are still good. Move us to receive and celebrate Your grace in all circumstances. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 5:11-12
2 Acts 5:41-42
3 John 15:20
4 1 Peter 5:10
5 Hebrews 12:1-2
6 1 Peter 4:12-13
7 2 Timothy 2:1-3 ESV

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What Happens in Us as We Look to Him

Imagine. With Peter, James and John, you’re on the mountain at the invitation of Jesus. Suddenly the appearance of His face is altered,1 and it shines like the sun.2 His clothes become “radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”3 Moses and Elijah, long since dead, appear and speak with Jesus, and a bright cloud4 comes and overshadows all of you.5 Then from this cloud comes a voice, the Heavenly Father affirming His Son.6 Like the disciples, you are terrified and fall on your face.7 If ever a noun needed an adjective, the Transfiguration, as this historic event is called, might be it. “Breathtaking,” “mind-boggling,” or “magnificent,” perhaps?

It was a triumphant moment for Jesus—and therefore all mankind—for His human form was glorified and His Father’s love for Him proclaimed. Of that moment, Peter would later write, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a declaration as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased’—and we ourselves heard this declaration made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”8 Yet Jesus came down from the mountain where there awaited Him more challenges from His distractors to thwart, more truth for His followers to grasp, and great suffering to incur on our behalf.

The Bible teaches us “if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation,”9 and “together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”10 Then as we are new, so also are we changed, for as Paul writes, the gospel of Jesus Christ “is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”11 Yet often amid our trials and sufferings in this world, we don’t feel new, we don’t see change, and inheritance in God’s glory seems unfathomable. In times like these, we must understand that, despite life’s challenges, our transformation indeed is true and its process continues as we look to the glory of Christ. For “we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”12 Then regardless of our circumstances, may we look to Him through prayer and the Word, steadily becoming more like Him with a glory that becomes more glorious. Breathtaking. Mind-boggling. Magnificent. And true.

We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” —1 John 3:2.

Father, Your ways are the best ways. Grace us to see the face of Christ through the eyes of faith, that contemplating His glory, we would become ever more like Him. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 Luke 9:29 ESV
2 Matthew 17:2 ESV
3 Mk 9:3 ESV
4 Matthew 17:5 ESV
5 Luke 9:34 ESV
6 Matthew 17:5 ESV
7 Luke 9:34 ESV
8 2 Peter 1:16-18 NASB
9 2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB
10 Romans 8:17 NLT
11 Colossians 1:6 NLT
12 2 Corinthians 3:18

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The New Live-stream

Driving my son to his friend’s house—he was in high school at the time—I took the opportunity to share an observation with him: “Music can influence you to accept thoughts and worldviews that you would never entertain had they not been put to lyrics with a pleasing melody. You have to be careful about what you take in through music.” After silent pause Matthew replied, “You’re right.” (A rare and welcome confession from a teenager.) Whether from audio files or radio frequencies, music reaches our ears, each song purposefully planting its own message into our soul and ultimately influencing how we think, speak, and act.

In our March 22 post (The Artist at Work in Us), we observed that God is the actor in our transformation—in kindness and love He steadily changes us to the image of His Son. Yet we also have an active role in this divine work: we participate in the renewing of our minds. Paul urged believers in Rome, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind;”1 likewise to the Ephesians he wrote, “be made new in the attitude of your minds.”2 For our minds have a default “frequency”—the alluring “music” of our flesh. Paul warns us, “the mind set on the flesh is death . . . because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”3 But “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”4—this is the new “live-stream” accessible to all who are born of the Spirit5 and made new through faith in Christ Jesus.6 What we choose matters.

So Paul exhorts us: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”7 Our life is in Christ and our citizenship is in heaven,8 so we align our minds accordingly, setting them on the Spirit through the truth of the Word and the power of prayer. As we draw near to God relationally, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”9 God renews our minds as we set them on Him.

Gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 RSV

Father, send Your Spirit to dispel lies with truth, that we would reset our minds from our flesh to Your Spirit. Renew our minds as we set them on You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Romans 12:2
2 Ephesians 4:23
3 Romans 8:6-7 NASB
4 Romans 8:6 NASB
5 John 3:6
6 2 Corinthians 5:17
7 Colossians 3:1-3
8 Philippians 3:20
9 Philippians 4:7