Jesus Is The "Key" To Understanding God's Love

"Today's Devotion" For February 4, 2006

Read: John 5:16-27; Psalm 36

JESUS IS THE "KEY" TO UNDERSTANDING GOD'S LOVE

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." (Jn. 5:24)

Tomorrow, once again, we will gather for worship in our churches, with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As the Christian church as done for almost two millennia, those who profess Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world will come together to sing praises to God and to hear God come to us through His Word and Sacraments. Some people who profess to be Christians will not be in attendance, not because they're working at their jobs or in a place where there is no opportunity for corporate worship, but because they believe "organized religion" is not valid. Many people will not darken the doors of a church because the "language" spoken in church is foreign to them - they don't understand the "rituals" and "liturgical" practices of many Christian churches.

With all good intentions, many churches are striving to be "relevant" to those who aren't "buying into organized religion" and more inviting to those who aren't used to a church service. Recent sociological studies have shown a "new" trend in "doing church" for the "I don't buy into organized religion" crowd - house churches, small groups, more entertainment, and a host of other approaches. For the past 25 years or so the "Church Growth Movement" has brought contemporary worship - today's music forms, more entertaining worship services, and a host of other "innovations" for worship - into many churches of many denominations in a bid to be more "understandable," speak a similar "language," and achieve a greater "relevancy" for today's world. One might reasonably ask, however, if these approaches to reaching people and "growing" the Church are in truth "translating" the language of Scripture - the message of salvation by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ - to a fallen world in need of a clear proclamation of the Law and the Gospel.

Now, before anyone objects, please note that "contemporary" worship services are not necessarily devoid of good theology and doctrine. In my own church, where my family and I worship each Sunday, the contemporary worship service meets the needs of a specific group and generation of people without sacrificing solid doctrine and theology. The liturgy of the service, while set in a contemporary context, with contemporary music forms, and some flexibility in presentation still contains all the essential elements of the historic liturgy of the Christian church through which God comes into the presence of His people and lifts them to Himself.

Our reading in the Gospel of John today starts out telling us that the Jews persecuted Jesus because He was acting in a way that by their standards was unseemly on the Sabbath - He had healed a man at the Pool of Bethesda. As far as they were concerned, Jesus was disobeying the law concerning the Sabbath. Then they became even more incensed with Him because He called God, "My Father" (John 5:16), which was, for all intents and purposes, a blasphemous claim because it made Him equal with God (v. 18). Clearly the message of who Jesus was (and is) wasn't getting through.

It's no different today, as we face a world increasingly beset with irreligion, anti-religious bigotry, and the rise of Islam as what is now the second largest religion in an increasingly secular Europe. With so many religious options and faced with the spiritual darkness brought about by Sin in the world, people are lost. The natural knowledge of God that is a part of every human beings understanding of the world and the universe is often ignored because it just doesn't seem to fit what "science" has to offer. Just as the message Jesus shared with the people of His day was misconstrued and ignored, so it is today as well. The Gospel is a different "spiritual language" from anything else we human beings know or hear. To be saved from Sin, Death, and the power of the devil - so that sins are forgiven and there is hope and the promise of eternal life - by the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross is foolishness to sinful humanity. It's a foreign "tongue" in comparison to the "language" of "right living" by which human beings expect to receive a reward "if there is life after death."

In 1790 am amazing discovery took place in Egypt near the town of Rosetta. An officer in Napoleon's army stumbled across an archeological find that would unlock to mysteries of one of the world's greatest civilizations. Named after the town, the Rosetta Stone, a black basalt slab over 2,000 years old bears a royal decree in three languages: Greek, demotic writing, and hieroglyphics. Up until this time the last two languages were a mystery, but being set next to the Greek, a known language, linguists were able to translate the other two and open the door to the study of Egyptian civilization that was previously not possible.

For the world's salvation, God has made the "key" available to clearly "translate" His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness into the lives of people. His Word, both written and "made flesh" in Jesus Christ, is the "key" to understanding and believing His promises. He is the physical evidence of the spiritual realm into which God calls us to love others in His name. Jesus might be reasonably called the "Rosetta Stone" of God's kingdom, for in Him God fully and completely reveals who He is and His gift of salvation once and for all times, for when we see Jesus, we see the Father. In Jesus all the mysteries of God become clear, and while we don't fully undersand them, we know that in heaven they will be fully understood.

How marvelous for us to be able to go to Scripture and know that it is God Himself Who is speaking to us. His Holy Spirit reveals Him to us, His Will for us, His gifts to us, His love for us, His blessings upon us, His promises, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness of our sins, and His salvation of us in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. We want to always remember that our Lord Jesus Christ is the "Rosetta Stone" type key to the language of salvation and the gift and hope of heaven. Of Him the Apostles could say to the Sanhedrin, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Prayer: Father, the world grows increasingly hostile to You and Your children. As I look around me, I see a world that is more and more anti-religion and more tightly focused on the "ability" of humanity to transcend the problems of the world. Secularism rules the day, even in churches. The "language" of salvation is often misunderstood or ignored because the finite minds of human beings can't grasp it's truth. People gravitate toward churches and religions who dispense a "language" of "relevancy," putting great emphasis on "self-actualization" and "right living" rather than Sin and grace, Law and Gospel. Father, help me to not be led astray by these ramblings of men lost in sin and darkness. Keep me ever mindful that the "key" to heaven, the "key" to understanding Your love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness is found only in Jesus, in whose precious and most holy name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright @2006 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.