Gospel of Peace

Posted on by korgrocker

“He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:17-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Good News, the Gospel of Peace, is not just a few words written on a piece of paper, to be read and then forgotten. It is not a Peace Treaty signed by two generals after a period of war and strife. It is not just a nice sentiment, bringing with it warm feelings of brotherhood and friendliness. No! the Good News of Peace is far more than that. For a start it is eternal. It’s message reverberates up and down the centuries of history. It is the supernatural “glue” that welds together all God’s people, powered by the Holy Spirit. The Good News of Peace binds together people everywhere, regardless of race, skin colour, language and location. 

Peace between God’s people is not an option. There is no sectarianism allowed before God. Jesus was concerned by a lack of peace even in His own people, the Jews. In Matthew 5, in His Sermon on the Mount, He taught about the importance of having peaceful and righteous relationships. If we wish to enter into God’s presence we need to have right attitudes to our brothers and sisters in the faith. The Holy Spirit is displaced in an angry and unforgiving heart, removing the option of coming before the Father. 

It is hard for a modern pilgrim to find a place of peace. A place where there is no strife but instead love and unity between them and others. What we say can easily be misinterpreted, leading to disagreements and a lack of peace. We have to season our relationships with grace, keep short accounts, resolve differences, and move on. Step by step in our life-pilgrimage. The writer to the Hebrews said, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone…” (Hebrews 12:14). Wise advice indeed.

War and Peace

Posted on by korgrocker

“For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.”
‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Peace. A lovely concept but beyond human capability to achieve? All my life I have never known a total absence of strife. There seems to be something within human beings that desires war in preference to peace. As individuals, we battle anything that we feel encroaches on our space, disturbing our peace. The aggressive driver who annoys us on the roads. The person who cuts in front of us in the shopping queue. The spouse who disagrees with something we say. As nations we rattle sabres at the borders with the adjacent country, stressed over a few yards of barren soil. Religious groups fight and kill to eliminate other religions in their country, in some cases committing genocide in the process. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 120:7, “I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!“. 

So in this personal and national mayhem, a counter-cultural whisper calls out. “Christ himself has brought peace to us”. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). And right at the start of the early church an age old conflict between Jews and Gentiles was resolved. At a stroke. Over a period of about six hours one dark and dismal day. Jesus’ death at Calvary brought to an end the Old Covenant and replaced it with the New. A New Covenant of grace and love. The Old was discarded. The New was welcomed in. And there is no difference between the Jews and Gentiles any more. Regardless of our origins we are all one in Christ. 

So we pilgrims, making our way through a complex and strife-infused world, shake our heads in disbelief. We long for the whisper of Christ’s peace to amplify into an audible shout, so clear that it penetrates people, principalities, palaces and parliaments, even pieties and principles. So clear that the world becomes a peaceful place. But our enemy the devil will have none of that. He thrives on wars and strife, doing what he can to stoke up anger and dissent. But peace will come one day – there is no war or strife in Heaven. In the meantime, our pilgrimage through life brings us into contact with all sorts of opportunities to be counter-cultural. Situations where we can bring a kind word to angry hearts, dispensing God’s love and grace to troubled souls. We pray today for our governments, our politicians, our civic leaders. But also our friends, families and communities. That “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” (Philippians 4:7) will be with them all. And us too.

One With Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.”
Ephesians‬ ‭2:13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What does being one with Christ actually mean? Superficially, being that close to someone who died over 2000 years ago would seem to be the stuff of a science fiction novel. And do we have the capability to be that close with anyone, because we are each created as unique individuals? We all have walls we put up. We all tend to keep people at arms length most of the time. So the questions I ask today will puzzle us until we realise that Jesus introduced us to the Holy Spirit. In John 14:26, Jesus said, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” The Holy Spirit unites us with Christ. So as pilgrims continuing on our journey through life, we are not alone. We are always in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is always there to call upon. He is the gentle whisper at the crossroads of life, leading and guiding us as though Jesus was right there with us. 

Paul reminds his readers yet again that through God’s grace they are close to Him. At one time they were so far away they didn’t even know He existed. The God-yearnings inside of them were filled with other gods. Counterfeit deities that failed to satisfy. But Jesus provided the opportunity for all peoples, not just His chosen people, to be united with Him. And that was possible through His sacrificial death at Calvary, where His blood was shed for us all. 

So as pilgrims we continue through life, one step at a time. In deep gratitude for the Helper at our side. Unified with Christ. Blessed beyond measure. Today we hit the refresh button. Today we have the opportunity to reboot our lives and include the Holy Spirit update once again. As we open ourselves to Him we expose a new dimension of living, oneness with Christ.

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Outsiders

Posted on by korgrocker

“Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.”
‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:11-12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Jews considered themselves, and still do, a race set apart. God’s own people. And the Jewish opinion of non-Jews was the derogatory phrase used by Paul, “uncircumcised heathens“. Sadly, the act of circumcision became a symbol of great pride to the Jews. What was originally designed to set them apart as God’s special people became pointless – God desired circumcised hearts, devoted and obedient to Him. But Jesus changed all of that. He set the scene in the famous Scripture, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…“. This “world” set out an all-encompassing , all-inclusive description of the nations that populated the planet at the time when Jesus was having his chat with Nicodemus. And by further analysis of Scripture, the “world” is inclusive of all people, then and now. But Jesus focused His ministry on His own people, the Jews. And after His death and resurrection His master plan kicked in – where better to start a new God-world order than with God’s chosen people. And His chosen disciples. 

Cornelius, the Centurion, had the distinction of being the first Gentile person converted, though did the Samaritan women in John 4 come into the “Gentile” category? But come what may, Jesus gave us a commission  – Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8. The Samaritans and the people called “Gentiles” saw the fruit of it. The Ephesian church was in the main populated by Gentiles and Paul reminded them that they used to be “outsiders“. They were “living apart from Christ” and “excluded from citizenship among the people if Israel“. Not a lot going for them until, that is, they embraced the Gospel in all its fullness. 

The “covenant promises” Paul referred to was the Old Testament covenant, that was exclusively claimed by the Jews. Unless they converted to Judaism, Gentiles, the “outsiders” and “uncircumcised heathens“, had no Old Covenant blessing. But the Jews and Gentiles together, those who believed in Jesus, were the first fruits of the New Covenant of God’s love and grace.

In our pilgrimage through life can you imagine what it must be like “without God and without hope“? What a dark, depressing place that must be. And yet so many people in today’s societies are in that place. Forced to rely on their own resources – pilgrims without God neither know where they are going or what life holds in the future. Living in the “now” is ok as far as it goes, but sooner or later the “now” comes to an abrupt halt and suddenly becomes that place Paul mentioned – a place “without God and without hope“. We must continually look for opportunities where we can open the door wide enough for the “outsiders” to become “insiders”. And never lose sight of the fact that it is through God’s grace we are “citizens” in His kingdom.

God’s Masterpiece

Posted on by korgrocker

“God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

One of the most difficult things for a new Christian, or even older Christians, come to that, to understand is that we are all saved by grace. But there is something within all of us that wants to respond to a gift, especially a big gift, with some act of reciprocation. So if someone buys me a present, I want to respond in the same way and do the same for them. We get a glimpse of how good God has been to us, accepting that Jesus gave Himself sacrificially, dying for our sins. And we want to respond by doing things for Him. So we commit to joining the church cleaning rota, or spend time giving out tracts in the market place. And before we know it we are trying to justify the gift by feeling we have earned it. Pride kicks in and translates us into legalism. No! God’s gift of salvation can never be earned. Yes! We have been saved to “do the good things he planned for us long ago.” But we have not been saved by them. Salvation is a free gift. And we receive it when we came to accept and believe that Jesus died for our sins. A free gift that cost us nothing, but cost Jesus everything, even His life. 

So in our pilgrimage, it is as though we transition through the doom and gloom of a dark and wet day (quite common in a Scottish winter – the word used here is “dreich“) into a glorious day of sunshine and light. The transition occurs when we believe in Jesus. Nothing for us to boast about here, except for how good God is. But in the sunshine and light we then suddenly come to realise that this pilgrim has become another person. The enormity of who we now have become bursts into our minds. God says we are now His masterpiece and have become a new person. We can look behind us at the wall of gloom, see an image of who we were standing in it, and then compare it with who we now have become. Standing in the sunshine. Made new. Assured that we are now how God wants us to be. And it’s all by His grace. Having that truth firmly planted and established in our hearts, we can now go out and do the good things He has planned for us. With a grateful heart. We do His work because we love Him.

In our life-journey there is a truth that the devil would want to take away from us. He would want us to be ordinary people. Nothing special. Nothing that would make us stand out in a crowd. What is this truth? It is that God “has created us anew in Christ Jesus“. And as a result, each one of us is His masterpiece. Not just “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139). We are new people. So we can continue in our pilgrimages, reminding the devil what God has said about us. In the natural, in the physical, we may not be anything special. But if we put on our spiritual glasses, we will see a lot of grey corpses, children of the devil, dead in their sins, indistinguishable from each other. But we will also see, every now and then, a shining figure. Unique. God’s glory reflecting from them with a light so intense it cannot be missed. And we can say – “there’s another of God’s masterpieces”. That’s you and me, folks! So, fellow masterpieces, let’s praise and thank Him together today. 

Seated on High

Posted on by korgrocker

“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.”.
Ephesians‬ ‭2:6-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

As Paul continues with his Epistle, he sets out some truths that must have appeared as strange to Ephesian ears as they are today. Paul in many ways was a spiritual pioneer. He had received a glimpse of Heaven, which he wrote about in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 – “I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago …. and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.” Such a revelation fuelled his grace-filled writings, seeding them with God-truths. And he glimpsed the fact that we have been raised “from the dead”. And we are now seated with Christ in Heaven, united with Him. A “wow!” moment for sure. However, it gets better. Not only are we seated with Christ in Heavenly places, we are united with Him. Imagine it! With Him we will be party to victory over all the things that drag us back in this life. Sickness, death and so on. One thing for sure – we will not be sitting back passively, enjoying the comfort of Heaven. We get a glimpse of what we will be up to from reading the Book of Revelation.

The next verse, with its revelation that God wants to use us as examples of the “incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us”, has to be an understatement of staggering proportions. Incredible for sure. God’s grace is without limit. He pours out His love and kindness without measure. Such God-qualities demonstrate power far beyond human comprehension. We who are Christians are truly overwhelmed that He has chosen us to share in His glory. And the only way we can respond is with a deeply thankful heart. In fact our thanks cannot really scratch the surface of what God really deserves. He has done so much for us.

And so we plod along our pilgrim road, facing into our day to day issues. Dodging the traffic. Eating, drinking, working and sleeping. But inside there is the inner glow of the realisation that we are already there, seated with Jesus in Heaven. And we share how good God has been to us with others, in the hope that they too will be united with Christ. 

God’s Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”‭‭.
Ephesians‬ ‭2:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬

In the last blog post, we considered the enormity of our perilous status before God. Paul reviewed the sinful state of mankind, and the role of the devil in corrupting and contaminating the world, leaving rebellious and sinful people in the firing line for God’s anger. Thankfully, Paul reminded us that there is a “but” in God’s world. “But God…”. And it is when we read this that the realisation that God has a solution to our sinful state brings us to our knees in deep thankfulness. You see, in our sin pandemic, God’s vaccine comes quietly, effectively and completely, bringing healing and forgiveness for our rebellious and sinful natures. 

But what is this “But”? Paul goes on to mention four key words – “mercy”, “love”, “life” and “grace”. God’s mercy is without dispute. The very fact that we are allowed to complete a pilgrimage through our lives, free to make choices in the way we live, in the way we view God, can only point to a merciful God. And not a God who is stingy and mean, dispensing the bare minimum of mercy. Paul emphasises that God is “rich in mercy”. His mercy is present in copious quantities, providing every opportunity and more for a rebellious world. And Paul explains that God is merciful because He loves us. How can God, rejected by so many, love us? Finding that most people effectively shake their fists in His face declaring that He is unnecessary for their lives, even if He exists? But love us He does, again without limit. God never says, for example, that He will only love us on a Sunday if we go to church. It’s all the time. 24/7. Regardless of where we are and what we are doing. Paul then draws an analogy with a corpse. A dead body. Because that is what sinful people are. That’s what sin does to us. It kills us spiritually. The “but” is completed by God giving us life, the same life that came “when He raised Christ from the dead”.

Finally, in these two verses, Paul points out that we have been saved through God’s grace. The acronym, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense amply describes what this grace is. Unmerited favour. From a God who cares for every human being regardless of race, age, or sex. I recently tried to share the love of God with a man who lives in the village close by. But his sad response was that he had looked into “all this religious stuff”. It wasn’t for him he said – he wanted to join “the party that’s going on downstairs”. There was an opportunity accorded to him to grasp God’s grace and turn towards God, but he rejected it. Sadly, unless the seed planted bears fruit – and there’s always time for that – God is patient, kind and gracious – he will find out that the party he hoped to join might not be quite what he expected.

We have been saved. Well, those of us who have responded to God’s love by embracing the wonderful Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself. Believing in Him. Responding to His love and mercy by declaring His Lordship over our lives. Accepting His Life-giving Spirit. All by His grace. What else can we do other than fall to our knees in deep thankfulness? 

Living In Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”
Ephesians‬ ‭2:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul starts the second chapter of his Epistle, looking back at what his readers, entitled the Ephesian church, used to be like. He pointed out that they “used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil”. And he continued, pointing out the status and work of the devil and his demonic resources. He rounds up these three verses by exposing the fallen state of mankind, with no one escaping their lot in life, being “subject to God’s anger”. But how did it all come to this? As we know, it all started in a garden in an episode that must have broken God’s heart. When the devil exposed his strategy and through his temptation led the first couple into sin. And so the door opened, allowing sin to enter the world, infecting every human being who has ever lived. Everyone follows “the passionate desires and inclinations of [their] sinful nature”. Paul chose his words carefully, he didn’t use the excuse “the devil made me do it”, as some try to do.

It can be hard to get over to godless people the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “But I’m a good person” is a response often heard. “I pay my taxes”, “I try to help others”, “I give money to charity”, and so on, are reasons for the “good person” response. But four words in the verses above expose the real issue – “refuse to obey God”. Sin is all about rebellion to God. Notice that living in sin is a choice and is not inevitable. We can choose to be obedient to God, a choice that starts at a place called Calvary.

We live in a world infected by a sin pandemic. As Paul said, the word “All” implies that everyone catches this disease, and it is inescapably fatal. No ICU or Nightingale hospital will save us from the consequences of our disease. And there is no vaccine other than that supplied by God through His grace.

In our earthly pilgrimage, we journey in an atmosphere of sin. Temptations often and unrelentingly crop up, trying to draw us away from the right paths into the mud and mire of all sorts of transgressions. But God is always there to help us. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, we read, “ The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” What a faithful, loving and gracious God we serve!

But we have a Heavenly Father who loves us too much to leave us at the end of verse 3 – there’s more to come in the next verses in Chapter 2.

The Church

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.”
‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:21-23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Earlier in this first chapter of Ephesians we read that God had a plan. “And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:10‬ ‭NLT‬‬). Now that the plan had come to fruition, Paul reaffirms the greatness of Christ, and His status as being the ultimate head of all things. Even head over our presidents or prime ministers. Jesus had, and still has, that authority. And He always will have for all eternity. God’s plan has been implemented through Him. Paul continues with the revelation that all this was because of the Church. But what is this church? A dictionary look up immediately defines churches as ornate and religious buildings, but the dictionary writers had obviously not read these verses. Paul is quite explicit – the Church is the Body of Christ. And Christ is the ultimate authority over everything for the benefit of the Church. 

As an aside, the devil is not the least bit concerned about church buildings. He knows that they are a wonderful device for soaking up the resources of God’s people, their time and their money, in building maintenance. Two congregations local to where I live are in a perilous state because they were very building focused and their church buildings have had to be abandoned because maintenance will cost money that they don’t have. Without a building they are, as Jesus said, “like sheep without a shepherd”. 

But back to the real Church – the Body of Christ. Romans 12:4-5 reads,  “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” The Body of Christ is composed exclusively of Christians. Not denominations, I should add. All those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour qualify for membership of the Body of Christ. Sadly, this opens a can of worms, because Christians are not good at accepting people in other denominations. The problem is summed up in this old song by the Christian singing group, the Imperials.

Well, you can call yourself a Baptist and not be born again,
A Presbyterian or a Methodist and still die in your sin.
You can even be Charismatic shout and dance and jump a pew.
But if you hate your brother you won’t be one of The Chosen Few.

We need to be careful about what we say about other Christians and other denominations. Whatever we are denominationally labelled matters nothing – the important thing is our relationships with God and each other. Another reason to be careful in what we say about other denominations is that all Christians form the Body of Christ. If we criticise Christians in other denominations, are we not criticising Christ Himself?

Moving on swiftly, we Christians are in a very blessed position. With Jesus as our Head, and us made “full and complete by Christ” we are unstoppable. Praise be to our wonderful God!

God’s Power

Posted on by korgrocker

“I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honour at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:19-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We tend to minimise God and bring Him down to our level, where we can cope with Him. We keep God in a box, opening the lid now and then, letting Him out when we need Him, but otherwise carrying on in our work-a-day lives as though he wasn’t there. But Paul knew differently. His thoughts were flying into Heavenly realms, where his mind boggled at how great God was. No box could contain Paul’s God! His thoughts dwelt on the great Creator God he knew. The God who spoke matter into being. The God who set the stars in place and called each by name. The God who created him in his mother’s womb. The God who chose him before the creation of the world. And in this “wow!” moment he prayed that his readers too would get their minds around our infinitely great and powerful God. Just to confirm the reality of His power, Paul reminded the Ephesians that God was so powerful that death was a non-event to Him – He raised His Son, Jesus, from the dead, to a place of honour in Heaven.

So here we are, pilgrims walking the well-trodden path between the womb and the tomb, perhaps thinking about, and wishing for, some of this power. Power to help us when the paths become strewn with pot holes, boulders and many other obstacles. The cost of living, Covid, sickness, wars, strife – the list is endless. But through God’s grace we can tap into this power right now. And that is why Paul prayed that his readers would understand how great this power is. God’s power can make a difference.

Do we really understand “the incredible greatness of God’s power”? When I think of the word “power” I immediately associate it with electrical power, a necessary commodity powering our aspirations for an eco-friendly world. Or the great clanking, hissing, steam-powered behemoths that unashamedly transported people and goods for most of the 20th Century. The performance of car engines is compared in units of “horse-power” indicating their ability to speed around the pot-hole ridden roads of 2022. But none of these man-made definitions of “power” even scratch the surface of God’s power. His power, not horse power, is what drives the Universe. Which man-made example of power is there that can create matter from nothing? Or can raise someone from the dead? Has man ever found a way of circumventing our understanding of the laws of physics? Paul wanted his readers to get their minds round the infinite capability of God’s power. We are bounded by the limits of our physical senses but God’s power is unlimited and stretches into infinity far beyond what we can appreciate or even imagine. We can only confess our puny, infinitesimally small, understanding, and instead ask God to help us. In our pilgrimage through life we bumble along, occasionally thinking about God’s power, saying every now and then, “Wow!” and intermingling it with our praises to the God “Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine …”. And asking Him for more grace and understanding.