"Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say,
“People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
But the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And that word is the Good News that was preached to you."
In the construction industry, the cornerstones are "the stone(s) representing the formal starting place in the construction of a monumental building,"and so the word has also come to mean "something that is essential, indispensable." I would like to say that our passage today resembles four cornerstones for a life of True faith and a relationship with Jesus Christ, and they are in order. If we can get these things, we have the basics and the essentials.
1. Faith.
"Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory."
Everything is about Christ. It is because of Him that we can have a relationship with our Maker. It is through our faith and belief that Jesus really is who He says He is and that He died and rose from the dead that is the big deal. Many prophets, gods, and powerful people have been said to have done a lot of good in the world, but Jesus Christ is the only one who defeated death!!! And THAT is where our Hope lies. Hallelujah!
2. Cleansed.
"You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth..."
All of those horrible pieces of your past and all the destructive things you will do have been paid for, and you are clean when you believe in Jesus and what He did for you. You no longer have to carry the weight of your sin. Jesus paid for that, so that you could walk in freedom, my friend! Any thoughts in your head otherwise are from satan. Do not allow yourselves to be "burdened by a yolk of slavery" anymore. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. He wants you to be free from those things. You are free from all of that! (Galatians 5:1).
3. Love
"...so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart."
Because of how much Christ loved us, enough to die for us, we must love one another on this earth. This doesn't mean that we just do good deeds and call it a day. No, read 1 Corinthians 13 as a refresher if you have time right now -- this is not just a passage God wrote about marriage. This is the passage all about love. It tells us how to love everyone! And it is no easy feat. But just like this verse says, we are to love sincerely and deeply with ALL of our hearts. That is a lot to ask. But as we discussed yesterday, obedience is our gift back to God. If He asks me to love, then I am going to strive to love people the best that I can as a reflection of Christ in me! And I pray that that love I show will draw people to Christ.
4. Confidence
"For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
But the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And that word is the Good News that was preached to you."
I love this part! Because we have Jesus, we will live forever! Literally! Our parents gave us life, but that life will end one day. What is the percentage of people who will die? 100%! That sounds scary...but not when we know Christ. People, beauty, grass...they all fade; they all die. But God's Word remains FOREVER, and that Word is the Good News that was preached to us -- the Good News that Jesus has taken away our sin so that we can live forever in the presence of God the moment our heart stops beating on this earth. Can I get an Amen?! We have confidence in this, brothers and sisters! Knowing that, I can do anything. I don't have to fear; I don't have to worry about anything. The God I serve has the final word and He and I will live forever. Does that knowledge change the way you live this life? It has changed mine.
Trust these words, these cornerstones of our faith. How will they change your perspective today?
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