Part 8 of 8 – Where It Began and Ends
December 9, 2010
Turn
Our culture wants us to define our understanding of God according to our liking. Religion requires us to know a lot about God before we can turn to Jesus. But the Gospel invites us to turn to Jesus so we can understand God and have a relationship with Him.
Reflect
Our culture convinces us to value personal freedom over following Jesus. Religion offers us freedom but imprisons us with rules to follow. But the Gospel frees us from sin to reflect God’s glory when we turn to Jesus and follow Him.
Glory
Our culture pressures us into promoting our glory to get noticed. Religion expects us to glorify ourselves to impress God. The Gospel reveals the glory of God to the inglorious through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that we may know and reflect His glory.
Worship
Our culture convinces us to worship everything but Jesus because it’s harmless. Religion keeps worship shallow by defining it as a Sunday morning practice. The Gospel reveals that we will resemble Jesus only as we worship Him as God.
Worship Some More
Our culture wants us to worship it so it can receive all the glory. Religion is all about showing off our glory to impress God and others. The Gospel is all about Jesus forgiving and freeing us from worshiping ourselves so we can worship Him to reflect and reveal the glory of God.
Kill
Our culture views our sin nature as our identity that shouldn’t be tampered with. Religion prefers cleaning up, instead of killing completely, to modify behavior while neglecting idolatry of the heart. The Gospel reveals a God who is willing to die to kill our godliness so we could become godly.
Clothe
Our culture picks out the outfits – attitudes, behaviors, and language – it accepts and values. Religion corners us into believing God won’t save us until we kill our bad habits and transform ourselves. The Gospel is all about God transforming us when we turn to Jesus and walk with Him.
The Cross
When we turn to Jesus and worship Him for who He is we will recognize who we aren’t. Once we realize who we aren’t this is when we are most ready for God to begin transforming our character to resemble His.
Jesus revealed the glory of God. He revealed God’s compassion, patience, forgiveness, and truth to us by the way He lived, how He spoke, the way He died, and when He rose to life.
Jesus revealed the glory of God’s love when he died on the cross so we could stop worshiping ourselves and start worshiping Him to reflect His glory.
What is your life telling others about God?
About Jesus’ death on the cross?
About being a Christian?
Does your life tell us more about your glory or the glory of Jesus?
Does your life tell us more about Jesus or your idols?
Does your life point others to the cross or away from it?
To reflect and reveal the character of God we must turn to Jesus and allow Him to kill our godless character and clothe us with God’s character.
Our culture mocks the cross and convinces us that we are the primary source of salvation and transformation. Religion requires us to fix our sinful character before we can turn to Jesus for the forgiveness and freedom to be transformed.
But the Gospel is all about Jesus dying on a cross and rising from the dead so we can be forgiven and set free from sin to reflect and reveal the glory of God.
