11/22/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Epistle reading for this week is from 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. Here we read that Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection. Just as death came into the world through a man, resurrection and life comes through a man.
Jesus is portrayed here as the true Man, the second Adam, the one who is able to stand before God the Father in righteousness, as Adam could not do after his sin in the garden. In his role as the true Man, he is the one who overcomes all the enemies of all mankind. This includes even death (v. 26). God the Father has placed everything in subjection to Christ. This is what it means to be the sovereign Lord of all.
This is the Christian’s hope. Sometimes we get sidetracked by little details. Songs have talked of the streets of gold or having a mansion with a great view of God’s throne. Popular culture seems to make the resurrected dead into angels. When we picture an eternity of perfection we often think that has to do with getting revenge on our enemies or showing ourselves superior. That isn’t what it is about at all. The Christian life is a life of hope in the resurrection.
Why is that meaningful? It means that we don’t just have a hard life until it ends and then we’re done. It means that one day we will see that even the things we couldn’t deal with in this life have actually been taken care of. When we are partakers of Jesus’ resurrection we realize that even the things we feared in this life have been overcome. This is a gift of God to his people. We can stand in the perfection of Jesus, knowing that he has cared for us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Epistle reading for this week is from 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. Here we read that Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection. Just as death came into the world through a man, resurrection and life comes through a man.
Jesus is portrayed here as the true Man, the second Adam, the one who is able to stand before God the Father in righteousness, as Adam could not do after his sin in the garden. In his role as the true Man, he is the one who overcomes all the enemies of all mankind. This includes even death (v. 26). God the Father has placed everything in subjection to Christ. This is what it means to be the sovereign Lord of all.
This is the Christian’s hope. Sometimes we get sidetracked by little details. Songs have talked of the streets of gold or having a mansion with a great view of God’s throne. Popular culture seems to make the resurrected dead into angels. When we picture an eternity of perfection we often think that has to do with getting revenge on our enemies or showing ourselves superior. That isn’t what it is about at all. The Christian life is a life of hope in the resurrection.
Why is that meaningful? It means that we don’t just have a hard life until it ends and then we’re done. It means that one day we will see that even the things we couldn’t deal with in this life have actually been taken care of. When we are partakers of Jesus’ resurrection we realize that even the things we feared in this life have been overcome. This is a gift of God to his people. We can stand in the perfection of Jesus, knowing that he has cared for us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
RSS Feed