C I R C L E O F H O P E

Other than the fact that a Christian does some religious things, how is he or she different from anyone else? The Bible says that the difference between a follower of Jesus and a person who doesn’t believe in Him is so great that the Christian is called a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).[1] The Christian is a whole new species of human being.

But Christians look, feel and smell the same as anybody else. What makes them so different? And how do they get to be that way? The short answer is that God makes them different, and they get that way by giving their lives to Jesus and receiving all He has to give them. It’s the “all He gives” that makes Christians new creatures.

Everyone who isn’t in a grave has biological life. We breathe, think, move, plan, love, work, play. Biological life lasts about 70-80 years and then ends. Christians have eternal life. Eternal life never ends. Jesus said (John 11:25-26): “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Everyone who isn’t in a grave also lives an earthly life. Circumstances and a person’s own strength of character determine the quality of such a life. If a person’s circumstances turn sour and they lack natural optimism or strength to overcome life’s hardships, then their quality of life goes down. Eternal life is God’s life. Jesus said (John 14:6): “I am . . . life”. 1 John 5:11 says: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” When circumstances turn sour on a Christian and he or she lacks personal strength to overcome life’s hardships, the Christian still has God’s life and strength to draw on.

Finally, everyone who isn’t in a grave has natural life. People with natural life are enslaved to sin, according to the Bible. This means that, whereas they can recognize things in themselves that they don’t like, they will never overcome some of them no matter how hard they try. Christians, since they have life from God, have supernatural life, meaning they can’t change themselves either, but God in them will make the needed changes.

How does a Christian get eternal life? It comes as a gift the moment Christ joins His life to that of a person who comes seeing that union:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

People in a democracy believe they are free, whether they are believers in Christ or not. That is true if all we are talking about is freedom to vote, to travel, to say what we think, to not be arbitrarily arrested, to meet with anyone we want, and so on. But true freedom is so much more than that. True freedom is being able to be and do what I want instead of being controlled by something or someone else. Based on that definition, let’s see how free someone without Christ really is.

Can you stop the day of your death? Or will you fall captive to death? A Christian will not. Jesus said (John 11:25-26): “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Christians just move on to a better life – in heaven. Non-Christians do not. Also, Christians can be free of the fear of death. They don’t have to be worried about terrorism, mad cow, west Nile, SARS or crime (Hebrews 2:14):

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Christ] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--

15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Non-Christians cannot overcome every bad habit and shortcoming they have. In other words, there are some things they can’t get free of no matter how hard they try. Christians, because they are linked to God Himself, can overcome anything (2 Peter 1:3-4):

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

When life turns sour – you lose your job, your marriage is in trouble, you develop cancer, your kids go astray – do you lose your quality of life? Christians don’t have to. Jesus came to give us “life to the full” (John 10:10)[2] even when things are going horribly wrong. Christian history is full of stories of believers who find their way to joy even while being martyred. Christ Himself modeled that kind of life (Hebrews 2:12): “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

True freedom is knowing that evil can’t take you out, that you have everything within you that you need to get through any circumstance and to come out of every evil situation better and stronger than before you suffered. That is the kind of hero every Hollywood film shows us. The ultimate survivor. The one who suffers, but survives and saves others at the same time. That is the kind of life Jesus gives His followers:

John 8:36 “So if the Son [the Son of God – Jesus] sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Getting more than you deserve is called grace. Jesus told many stories to help us understand God’s grace. Here is one of them (Matthew 20):

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.

2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’

5 So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.

10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.

12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?

14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.

15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Most people’s reaction to this story is that it’s not fair. Those who had worked the longest should have been paid more than those who had worked only a short time. That’s true. But that’s what makes grace so amazing. Grace is not fair.

The Bible says that we have all sinned - meaning that we have all tried at some point or another to push God out of our lives and live without Him, and have screwed up somewhere and done wrong as a result - and sin reaps wages. Those wages are death, both the first death (when our bodies stop functioning and are put in the ground while our soul goes into eternity) and the second death (when those of us who have not been saved by Christ are separated from God and go on to live in the hell of eternal destruction). That’s what’s fair. What is not fair is an innocent person – Jesus – dying in our place. But that’s grace. And we are generally grateful for it. So why are we not so grateful for the grace shown in the story of the landowner and his workers?

I would say that we are uncomfortable with the story because most of us, including most Christians, don’t really believe in grace. Oh, we believe in the grace of Jesus dying for our sins. But after that, we figure we earn our way. If we work hard and do our best, we should be blessed – and blessed more than those lazy pew-warmers who do nothing other than show up for Sunday service. Then, when our lives fall apart and those pew-warmers are doing just fine, we become indignant because we feel we have earned better than that. But earning your way is not grace – it’s law. Law says you get only what you deserve, no more and no less. If you want more, you do more; if you do less, you get less. But grace is generous even where we would not be generous.

Let’s look at Jesus’ story again. The people who were angry were the people who lived by the law. They had made an agreement: We work the whole day, and you give us a denarius. That is what is fair. The others lived under grace. They went to work in the landowner’s field on the understanding that they would be paid what the landowner thought was right. When it came time to pay, look what happened. The people who bargained for a denarius got a denarius. But the landowner was more generous than they had judged him to be. The others got what the landowner thought was right, and they got way more than they deserved.

That’s grace. Getting more than you would ever deserve. Christians are the richest people on planet earth. Millionaires can be robbed, or their stocks can go down and they can be ruined. Christians have been “blessed … in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), and nothing can touch that wealth. Life can turn, but Christians still live out of a place of blessing. They are always rich in what really matters.

21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

ADOPTION AND NEW BIRTH: Christians get to be born all over again, into a new family, with a new father

The first person to say this was Jesus, and the person to whom He said it was flabbergasted (John 3):

3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

People today have the same reaction. Or they flare up because the media has painted “born again” Christians as red-necked, close-minded, hate-mongering bigots. But nothing could be further from the truth.

The confusion people experience at hearing Jesus say what He said in this passage is that they tend to think of birthing and fathers only in physical, earthly terms. They do not realize that all people always have two fathers - an earthly one (or two in the case of adoption) and a spiritual one.

Because we are all born as sinners, our spiritual father, by default, is Satan:

8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

But when we put our faith in Jesus and receive Him into our lives, God becomes our Father instead of Satan (John 1)”

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--

13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

In earthly terms, we become someone’s child by birth or by adoption. When God becomes our Father, He does so in both these ways. This easily trumps Satan, who is our father by default only. Once we choose against him and for God, a new birth and an adoption occur and seal our place in God’s family with even more finality than an earthly birth certificate or adoption papers (Ephesians 1):

13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of his glory.

There is nothing Satan can do to trump God’s Fatherhood. He can tempt us into sin and fill our heads with nonsense about what bad Christians we are, but our place in God’s heart and life as His beloved children can never be shaken.

Let’s look first at our new birth. Jesus said (John 3:3): “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” When questioned about how we could possibly be born again (John 3):

5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit gives birth to a spirit in us. This is such a radical event that Scripture says it makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Just as surely as a newborn baby is a new creation, completely innocent, and with a fresh start in life, so are born again believers new creations, completely innocent, and with a fresh start in life. We also bear our new family’s resemblance. At the core of our being is a newly birthed spirit (John 3:6),[3] so we are just like our new Father, Who is spirit (John 4:24).[4]

We are also God’s sons and daughters by adoption. The Holy Spirit who births us into God’s family is also called the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15).[5]

To understand our adoption as God’s children, we need to understand how adoption worked in Bible times because it was a very different thing from what we have in the western world today. Today, babies and children are adopted. In Bible times, adults were adopted. Today, parents adopt knowing nothing about what their new child is like. In Bible times, adoptive parents knew the child they were taking into their family. A frequent situation was a slave being adopted by his or her master because a love relationship had developed to the point that the master wanted to do more for this person than have him or her live in his house as a servant.

The story Jesus told of the boy who thought he was only good enough to be a slave in the father’s house well illustrates how much love and honour is given to the one the Father chooses to be His children (Luke 15):

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’

20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

God has planned from all eternity for us to be His children (Ephesians 1:4b-5): “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”. There are no “mistakes” birthed into God’s family. God also planned for us with full knowledge of all that we would be and do in our lifetime, so God never has cause to regret that we are His children, or to think about disowning us. Ephesians 1:4b says that God planned for us “in love”, and Jeremiah 31:3 says that His love is everlasting.[6] He doesn’t welcome us with great joy and celebrations, as in Jesus’ story of the returning son, and then, when we mess up, regret our presence in His family and feel ashamed of us. His love is everlasting. He always appreciates and celebrates us as His children. Even when He disciplines us, His attitude remains unchanged (Hebrews 12):

5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

1 John 3:1a says: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

As God’s beloved children, we enjoy, right now, every spiritual blessing He has to give (Ephesians 1:3): “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” But we also have something to look forward to - our inheritance. Part of that inheritance is “the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).[7] 1 Corinthians 15:52b-53 says it this way:

52 For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

At that point, we will have everything God had in mind to give us as His children, and we will know Him and enjoy life with Him without anything every getting in our way again. This is heaven (Revelation 21):

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Of course, that expression is usually used about someone who tries to make out that they are so much better than others and rubs everyone’s nose in it. That is not what is meant here.

The Bible is very clear that no one on their own is righteous. Being righteous means being good enough for God. To be good enough for God means being perfect. Romans 3:10 says: “There is no one righteous, not even one”.

However, when a person puts their faith in Jesus, they receive righteousness as a gift. They don’t earn it, and they don’t deserve it – they are just given it.

Romans 3:21-22 “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

Philippians 3:8-9 “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord . . . and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Romans 5:17 “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Does this mean that Christians never do anything wrong ever again? If only that were true! No. The Bible is honest about that. It says that Jesus “has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). This means that Christians have been given all the righteousness they need to be perfect, but it takes them a while to learn how to live out of that righteousness. In other words, Christians can live out of God’s righteousness, but they don’t always. On the other hand, they get better at it over time, and, when they step into eternity, they will be fully holy and will never again sin or make mistakes.

I like watching disaster movies. Especially the more recent ones. In the latest films, the whole earth faces potential destruction. A meteor the size of Texas will hit the earth, sending up enough dust to blot out the sun’s light and cause the rest of the earth to freeze. Global warming will melt polar ice caps and cause an imbalance in the salt/fresh water in the oceans that will alter ocean currents in such a way as to cause radical changes in the weather and bring on an almost immediate ice age that no one can run from fast enough. Aliens attack, seeking to eradicate all human life and take over the planet for themselves.

In all these movies, there is someone who sees the disaster coming and tries to warn everyone else that something needs to be done before it’s too late. This person also usually knows what needs to be done. But he is never believed. What he has to say sounds too far-fetched. Besides, this character usually has a history of being a little odd. At any rate, the powers that be won’t listen. They convince everyone that things aren’t really all that bad - until it’s too late. Then they look for help to the one person who knew all along. This person then works feverishly and against all odds to save the world.

These films are heart-pumping and action-filled. The hero faces all kinds of dangers. He’s rejected and scorned by those he’s trying desperately to save, and he is treated badly by those in authority. Yet he sets his face like flint to save even those who hate him. And he saves the day - although he loses many who won’t listen and who perish as a result. But everyone knows, by the end of the film, that there has been only one saviour, and he has delivered the goods.

Lately, disaster films are being turned out one after the other, and people are eating them up. Why?

I believe with all my heart that when a person or a people has an appetite for a certain kind of movie/book/song/etc. it’s because that movie or book or song speaks to them in a deep way. They may not know what it is in their spirit that’s being stirred, but something deep is aroused.

I believe disaster films speak to something incredibly deep in people. I believe they arouse the sense of eternity that God has put in everyone’s heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11),[8] and that, within that wordless knowledge, they also sense a danger that is imminent, personal and very grave. It’s too bad that most have no idea what that danger is. They are being told, but they won’t listen. And so they will be destroyed unless a way can be found to get their attention.

Everyone on earth is living the greatest disaster story of all time. That story begins, as all the made-up stories do, with everyone living peaceful, normal lives. In this scene, the first man and woman are hard at work farming. Life is good. The weather is perfect. They love one another deeply and passionately. They are probably planning family. And God comes and spends evenings with them, walking and talking with them in the cool of the day. Life is good. They have no worries.

But disaster is about to fall. They have been warned by God: “Don’t do this one things, or you’ll die. It looks like a really innocent thing to do, but it will destroy you.” But an enemy comes and talks circles around them, convincing them that God lied. God doesn’t want them to do this one thing because it’s bad for them, but because, if they do it, they will prove they are just as good as God and can live life without Him. So they do it. They decide to break their relationship with God. Only too late do they realize that disaster has been in the wings all along and they listened to the wrong person.

The couple suffer the first hit. In the movies, the aliens would have launched their first attack and destroyed New York; the climate change would have caused the first super storm and destroyed an Asian city; a piece of the meteor would have hit earth and caused multiple deaths. In real life, the couple’s spirits die - that part of them that linked them to God so that His eternal, perfect life flowed in them, the part of them that allowed them access to all His wisdom and love and goodness. They are orphans in the world. Satan and his demons are now unleashed. And the earth is cursed, so that violence and upheaval are now part of the creation.

In short order, the situation deteriorates. Within the couple’s family, one child murders the other. More people are born. Evil increases. The earth floods. The climate changes. Life spans shorten dramatically. Disease, wars, plagues, crime all enter human life and can’t be eradicated. And waiting in eternity - the wrath of God and eternal torment.

But people continue to live as if the ultimate disaster will never happen. There is no God to deal with in eternity. Or, if there is, He won’t have a problem with them - they’ll be fine. And they live life, happily oblivious of the oncoming asteroid, the melting ice caps, and the evil mission of the alien space ships.

There is a Saviour who is desperately trying to convince them that they will die and suffer eternally unless they listen to Him. He speaks truth, but they think He’s telling lies, or He’s just a kook, or He’s irrelevant since there is no real danger. His name is Jesus.

Jesus was rejected by the powers that be. His teachings were scorned. He faced shipwreck, contracts on His life, threat of arrest, an attempt to confine Him as a mental patient, stoning, and finally execution. But He set His false like flint to save human life. Fortunately, death didn’t keep Him. He rose from death and still pleads with people that they need to be saved. They need to believe now before it’s too late.

Because disaster is coming (2 Peter 3:10b): “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Then, as the Old Testament says (Daniel 12:1-2): “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people - everyone whose name is found written in the book - will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” And as the New Testament says:

16 [Jesus speaking] “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power

10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

This is one of the more crucial dividing lines between Christians and non-Christians (1 John 5:11-12): “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Christians are saved. They will not be destroyed by the disaster to come. They will live, and live eternally in a world God will make anew. That world will be perfect, and so will they. All their struggle with sin will be over. Finally, they will be as God has always intended people to be - holy, as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44a; 1 Peter 1:16).[9]

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son [Jesus], that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

God thinks I’m so important, he asked His Son Jesus (my brother) to die for me. And when did this all happen? It happened while I was rebelling against the whole family, doing my own thing, and thumbing my nose at the two of them:

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!

10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

All this happened when I was unsaved. I’m a Christian now. If I was worth this much unsaved, how could being a Christian top that? How, indeed! But being a Christian does top it.

A non-Christian, without doing a single thing to earn it, and perhaps doing many things to turn God against them, has God’s entire love. They are not worthy of God’s love, but as much love as God has to give (and He is love),[10] He gives to each and every person who has ever lived on planet earth. Some accept His love. They receive Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and are saved. Then, they become worthy of God’s love and His calling. Because why exactly? Because Christ makes them worthy. He makes them so worthy that the world is not deserving to have the humblest of them living among them:

36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.

37 They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--

38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Notice that these people of faith were considered by their society to be the scum of the earth, but the world was wrong. The earth was not worthy of having them. These were, in fact, the salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16).[11] They were the glory of God come in the flesh (John 17:22a; Jesus speaking): “I have given them the glory that you gave me”. And they brought glory to the Lord Himself (John 17:10b; Jesus praying for His people): “And glory has come to me through them.”

This is who you are, if you are saved. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel this glorious or if you have just this week “blown” your witness. It doesn’t matter what your parents, your boss, your former spouse, your kids, your circumstances, or anyone or anything else has ever said about who you are. It doesn’t depend on what you’ve done or what you haven’t done. This depends on what Christ has done for you. And what has He done for you?

Let’s assume that you’re Joe or Josephine Average Person. You never make the news. You have a few friends, but no one else even knows you exist. You love your spouse, but you’ve had your moments when your relationship got pretty rocky. Your kids are decent kids but not perfect, for sure. Your job isn’t spectacular. You don’t love it, but you don’t hate it either, and your salary pays the bills - just. You have a little saved for a rainy day, but not much. You’ll retire at age 65 and hope you’ll have enough to live on when that time comes. Oh, and when you were 24, you gave your life to Christ.

Your life doesn’t sound like much, does it? You’ll never make the news, the public will never know about you, you’ll never be rich, you’ll never be a leader or make any kind of significant mark on the world. Maybe not. But that last sentence changed the whole picture of your life’s value.

At 24, you became a child of the Sovereign Lord of the universe - royalty far outranking any king or queen in the world today (1 Peter 2:9).[12] God, in a way that can’t be explained, birthed you so that you became a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17),[13] something not seen on earth apart from this divine birth. You live on earth, but you have another life in heaven (Ephesians 1:19b-21).[14] You are a soldier with “weapons of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 6:7b)[15] and the armour of God (Ephesians 6:13-17).[16] Whether or not the rest of the world knows it, you rule (Romans 5:17).[17] This is who you are. Your humble life and this life co-exist, and both are true (2 Corinthians 6):

4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;

5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;

7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;

9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;

10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Your humble earthly life will pass away, but your glorious life in Christ goes on forever (1 John 2:17): “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

Stay tuned for future updates. We have so much more to share with you about what happened to you the moment you received Jesus as your Lord.

[1] “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

[2] “[Jesus speaking] “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

[3] Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

[4] God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

[5] For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (NIV)

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (KJV)

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” (NRSV)

The Greek work means “placing as a son”.

[6] The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

[7] Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

[8] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

[9] Leviticus 11:44a “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:16 “ … for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy.”

[10] 1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

[11] [Jesus speaking] “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

[12] But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

[13] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

[14] That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

[15] . . . with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

[16] Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

[17] For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.