Tag: Son of God series

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Where Are You Going?

We have a lot of questions in life, don’t we? And for many reasons. Through questions, we feed curiosity, clarify misunderstanding, validate skepticism, or even assert our hostility. Yet perhaps the primary driver of our inquiries is to assess how new thoughts or realities fit within our frame of reference. Does this proposition align with my experience, values, or beliefs? Do I even have a category for it? If not, do I accept this new assertion or explore it maybe, or do I reject it outright?

So as the Son of God “became flesh and dwelt among us,”1 we can sense the agita surrounding the Man, not only by the questions people asked Him, but also the diversity among the askers. Consider these. “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”2 — the Maji. “Where are you from?”3 — Pilate. “Are you the one?”4 — John the Baptist. “Where did this man get this wisdom?”5 — the synagogue faithful. “Who gave you this authority?”6 — the chief priests and scribes. “Where is your father?”7 — the Pharisees. And perhaps the most fundamental question of all: “Who is this?”8 — twelve men in a boat on a raging lake grown calm. The paucity of precedent sent the people pressing: Who IS this?

Peter figured it out. (He’d had help.) When Jesus queried His friends, “Who do you say that I am?”9 the loquacious disciple characteristically answered first, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”10 This is bedrock truth that matures us into humble submission of self and fitting dependence on Him. So it was a saddened Peter who asked the departing Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?”11 After all, he and the other disciples had left everything to follow Him.12 “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”13 This is who He was and where He has gone. Was that the end?

Not at all; the story continues. For this eternal Son of God has finished the divine work He came to accomplish and returned home, not only to be with the Father He’s known forever, but also to prepare a place in Heaven for us. “And if I go and prepare a place for you,” He assured them, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”14 This is His promise. No questions asked.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” — Hebrews 1:3 ESV

Father, You always keep Your promises. Fill us with Your Spirit, that You may bear eternal fruit through us, the church on Earth. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 1:14 ESV
2 Matthew 2:2
3 John 18:33
4 Luke 7:19
5 Matthew 13:54
6 Mark 11:28
7 John 8:19
8 Mark 4:41 NIV
9 Matthew 16:15 NLV
10 Matthew 16:16 NIV
11 John 13:36 ESV
12 Mark 10:28 13
13 John 16:28 ESV
14 John 14:3 ESV

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He Is Our King

Most of this blog’s earliest readers were friends and relatives I’d known well for some time. Occasionally some would respond, whether directly or by email or text, “Thank you for today’s post,” or “I really needed to hear this,” or “This was so helpful to me,” or simply “Amen.” Knowing these readers as I did, what struck me was the fact that, politically, they were quite diverse, residing all along the ideological spectrum from the radical left to the extreme right, and often at the others’ digital throats via social media. Still today, whether we shout “No kings” or cleverly counter “No jesters,” our differences run deep. Yet Biblical truth reaches deeper and raises us all to oneness in an eternal Kingdom that exceeds all earthly rule and wisdom. He who unites us is stronger than that which separates us. I’ve seen it in your replies.

A thousand years before Jesus’ incarnation, and through the prophet Nathan, God promised David an everlasting Messiah-king to come from his lineage. “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. . . I will be his father, and he will be my son. . . Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me.”1 This throne would be occupied forever after by One who existed from forever prior — a ruler “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”2 Moreover, this Kingship would be one of Sonship. Isaiah foretold this turning point in history: “to us a child is born, to us a son is given,”3 a Son who would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom . . . from that time on and forever.”4

Yet when Jesus came as promised, “His own people did not accept Him”5 as foretold.

Caesar’s proxy, Pilate, presenting Jesus to the Jews: “Behold your King!”6
The chief priests, in reply: “We have no king but Caesar.”7

Ponder the irony.

But Jesus was their King, and He is our King. “My kingdom is not of this world,”8 He has said, yet He reigns in this world — He reigns in and through the hearts and souls of believers “from sea to sea and . . . to the ends of the earth.”9 He unites us in Himself, and as His word resonates in our hearts, our swords of separation drop harmlessly from unclenching hands and onto the ground beneath our feet. Yes, we are closer than we think. You’ve shown me this.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” — Revelation 11:15 ESV

Jesus, you reign “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”10 Be my King, now and forever. Amen.

1 2 Samuel 7:12-16 NIV
2 Micah 5:2 NIV
3 Isaiah 9:6 NIV (see also Psalm 2:7)
4 Isaiah 9:7 NIV
5 John 1:11 ESV
6 John 19:14 ESV
7 John 19:16 ESV
8 John 18:36 ESV (emphasis added)
9 Zechariah 9:10 NIV
10 Ephesians 1:21 NIV

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We Know We Are Free

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives.” — Ephesians 4:8 ESV

Published in 1955, Milton Mayer’s nonfiction, They Thought They Were Free, explores how people in WWII-era Germany did not recognize fascism’s increasingly erosive impact on their own freedoms. His interviews with 10 working class residents exposed their tendency to compromise their own value systems and to consider themselves “free,” as long as their own personal needs were being met. History, however, shows they were not free.

Speaking to a crowd one day, Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”1 They had been a “friendly” crowd to this point — “the Jews who had believed him”2 — but now the people took offense at Jesus. They replied, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”3 They, too, thought they were free. And they, too, were not.

For Jesus spoke not of a political freedom, but a spiritual one. Centuries prior, Isaiah foresaw Him and foretold His mission: “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”4 And indeed Jesus has. Teaching in Antioch’s synagogue, Paul declared, “Let it be known to you . . . that through this man [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”5

Then from what shackles are we now free? What prison doors swing meaninglessly in the wind? What sentence is expunged? “We were held captive under the law,” writes Paul, “imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.6 The apostle continues, “The law was our guardian until Christ came . . . But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”7 Moreover, we live in Christ and He lives in us, so His death becomes our death and His resurrection is our own. “Our old self was crucified with him,” writes Paul, “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”8 In all of this, Jesus “delivers us from the wrath to come.”9

We know we are free. Then what do we do? First, stay that way! Paul, to the Galatians: “Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.”10 Then return to servanthood, but this time in the release of forgiveness, the joy of liberty, and the assurance of love.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. — John 8:36 ESV

Father, Thank You for freeing us from sin and making us Your own. We savor this. Send Your Spirit to lead us in “the obedience that comes from faith.”11 In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 8:31-32 ESV
2 John 8:31 ESV
3 John 8:33 ESV
4 Isaiah 61:1 ESV
5 Acts 13:38-39 ESV
6 Galatians 3:23 ESV
7 Galatians 3:24-25 ESV
8 Romans 6:6-7 ESV
9 1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV
10 Galatians 5:1 NLT
11 Romans 1:5