Tag Archives: glory

Given a glimpse of future glory

“As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Luke 9:29-31 (read v. 28-36)

As the time neared for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die for the sins of the world, He took three of His disciples up on a mountain to pray. And, while He was praying, His appearance changed and the glory to which He would soon return shown from Him.

And there on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him in glory, speaking of Jesus’ coming sufferings and death which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem when he made atonement for the sins of the world. Moses, who witnessed God’s glory on Mt. Sinai, taught God’s people the Word of God and died and was buried by God before the children of Israel entered the promised land (cf. Deut. 34), and Elijah, who spoke God’s Word and called God’s people to repentance and faith and was carried alive into to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2), spoke with Jesus and prepared Him for the fulfillment of God’s Word when He would go to the cross and bear the just punishment for the sins of all the world. God the Father also testified of Jesus from the cloud of glory, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”

Jesus’ transfiguration to glory was a foretaste of the glory which was to come, by way of the cross, for Him and for all who hope in His name. Because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, Moses and Elijah were glorified. And because of Jesus’ sufferings, death and resurrection to glory, you and I have pardon and forgiveness and will be glorified with Him forever in His eternal kingdom.

Like Peter, we might wish we could stay on the mount of transfiguration and witness Jesus’ glory, but we have work to do down here in this world, for we are witnesses of what Jesus has accomplished for us and for all people when He died on the cross at Jerusalem and rose again in glory and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us to be with Him forever (cf. John 14:1ff.). We are called upon to “Hear Him” and testify of His Word (Matt. 28:18ff.).

Seeing Jesus, with Moses and Elijah, in glory assures us that glory awaits us as well – that after we have suffered with Christ Jesus, we will also be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:17-18; 1 Pet. 5:10-11)! And, having witnessed the glory of our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, let us boldly bear witness to Him in this world, confident that, no matter how much we must suffer here for Him, glory awaits us with our Savior in heaven!

O pure and holy Son of God, through Your Word, show us Your glory and grant that we faithfully bear witness unto You and the salvation You won for all by Your death on the cross until that day You receive us to glory. Amen.

 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Peace with God through Christ Jesus

“Then being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we glory on the hope of the glory of God.” Rom. 5:1-2 (Read Rom. 5)

A common Biblical greeting is the word “peace” (Shalom in the Hebrew and Eirene in the Greek). But the word as it is commonly used in the Bible does not refer to earthly peace among nations but to peace with God. What does it mean to have peace with God and how can we have that peace?

When we remember that all of us are by nature enemies of God and in rebellion against Him – not loving Him, trusting Him or seeking to honor Him with our lives by obeying His commandments – and that we are, as a result, under the wrath and condemnation of God our Maker, the prospect of having peace with the LORD God restored is indeed inviting, for not to have this peace is to stand condemned to eternal punishment in hell.

To have peace with God is to be pardoned and forgiven. It is to be acquitted by Him for all our transgressions of His perfect and holy law, and it is to be accepted back into fellowship with the LORD God who fashioned and made us in our mothers’ wombs. And that peace was won for us by the holy life and innocent sufferings and death of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ (cf. v. 5-11; 2 Cor. 5:18-21).

The Bible says: “But now, in Christ Jesus you who then were afar off came to be near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, He making us both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, in His flesh causing to cease the enmity, the Law of the commandments in decrees, that He might in Himself create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmity in Himself. And coming, He proclaimed ‘peace to you, the ones afar off, and to the ones near.’ (Isa. 57:19) For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Eph. 2:13-18). Whether Jew or Gentile, Jesus won for us peace with God the Father by the shedding of His holy and precious blood in our stead, for all sins.

And that peace of sins forgiven is ours not by anything we do to please God but through faith in what Christ Jesus has done for us when He died upon the cross and rose again in victory over sin, death and the devil. For Christ’s sake, God is gracious to us and has pardoned us, and that grace and pardon – His peace – is our through faith in Jesus.

Therefore, we “we glory on the hope of the glory of God” and are “glorying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” for we have the certainty that, as Christ was raised up from the dead on the third day, we will be raised up on the Last Day unto life everlasting with our God and Savior!

Dearest Lord Jesus, we thank You for shedding Your blood on the cross and making atonement for all our sins that we might have peace with God and the certain hope of the eternal joys of heaven. Amen.

 Scripture quotations from Green’s Literal Translation (LITV). Scripture quoted by permission. Copyright 1993 by Jay P. Green Sr., All rights reserved. Jay P. Green Sr., Lafayette, IN. U.S.A. 47903.

Words of Encouragement for the Week of July 18

Meditations in St. John’s First Epistle

“Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it was not yet revealed what we shall be. But we know that if He is revealed, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2

What will we be like in heaven? This is a question about which Christians often wonder.

St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:35-53, writes: “But someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come? Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow the body that is going to be, but a bare grain, (it may be of wheat, or of some of the rest), and God gives it a body according as He willed, and to each of the seeds its own body. Not every flesh is the same flesh, but one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of fish, and another of birds. And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is truly different, and that of the earthly different; one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. So also it has been written, ‘The’ first ‘man,’ Adam, ‘became a living soul’; the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. (Gen. 2:7) But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual. The first man was out of earth, earthy. The second Man was the Lord out of Heaven. (Gen. 2:7) Such the earthy man, such also the earthy ones. And such the heavenly Man, such also the heavenly ones. And as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I speak a mystery to you: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet; for a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

So, when we are raised up from the dead on the last Day, or changed at Christ’s coming, what will we be like? We know that our bodies will be changed to glorified, spiritual bodies. We know that they will not be subject to corruption as are our earthly bodies. We will be raised up with incorruptible bodies made to live forever with Jesus our Savior in heaven.

As the Apostle Paul writes, we are now like the first man, Adam, with bodies made of the dust of the earth. We will be like the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who was raised in glory and exalted to the right hand of God the Father. “And as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

This is what John also writes in his epistle: “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it was not yet revealed what we shall be. But we know that if He is revealed, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”

We are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. As many of us have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. We are clothed in His perfect righteousness and have forgiveness for all our sins and a place in His eternal kingdom (Gal. 3:26-29).

What we will be like when Christ Jesus returns, raises the dead and changes the bodies of those who believe in Him has not yet been revealed. If it were, we couldn’t begin to grasp it and understand. But, when Jesus returns, we will be like Him. We will see Him in all His glory and be changed into His image. We will be like Jesus – without sin, righteous and holy, in perfect fellowship and communion with our God, incorruptible, made to live forever with our Lord and Savior!

We look forward to that day when this corruptible body is changed into an incorruptible body, this mortal puts on immortality, this weak and sinful body becomes a holy and powerful body, when we see Jesus in all His glory and are made like Him, to dwell forever with our God in His heavenly kingdom! God grant this to us for Jesus’ sake – because He took on our earthy body and suffered and died in our stead to redeem us that we might take on His heavenly body and dwell forever with Him in heaven!

O gracious Savior, thank You for taking on our earthly body, bearing upon the cross the curse and condemnation of our sin and rising again in glory. Keep us ever faithful to You, trusting alone in Your shed blood for forgiveness and life eternal. And grant that on the Last Day we may see You in all Your glory and be changed into Your image to dwell with You forever in heaven. Amen.

 

A Simple Explanation of Christian Doctrine

By Pastor Randy Moll

What does the Bible teach about the Gospel?

The Gospel is the good message and announcement that Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son made flesh, suffered and died and made atonement for the sins of the world, and then rose again in victory. It is God’s good news to you and to me that, because of what Jesus did for us when He shed His blood and died upon the cross for the sins of all, our sins are paid for in full and forgiven. It is God’s word of forgiveness and life everlasting by which he reaches out to us in mercy and with pardon and forgiveness in His heart toward us.

The Bible tells us: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging their trespasses to them, and putting the word of reconciliation in us” (2 Cor. 5:19); “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone believing, both to Jew first, and to Greek; for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; even as it has been written, ‘But the just shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16,17); “… you, hearing the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise….” (Eph. 1:13); and “He proclaimed ‘peace to you, the ones afar off, and to the ones near’” (Eph. 2:17).

Jesus proclaimed the Gospel to the paralytic when He said, “Be comforted, child. Your sins have been forgiven you” (Matt. 9:2); and to the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet, when He said, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48).

And so, the Gospel is the means whereby God offers, gives and assures to you and to me the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting which Jesus won for all by His holy life and innocent sufferings and death upon the cross in our stead. The Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel, creates and sustains faith in our hearts whereby we believe and trust that God forgives us, accepts us as His own dear children and gives to us the everlasting joys of heaven.

Next time, we shall begin to look at what the Bible teaches about Christian Baptism.

 

Bible Study in Preparation for Sunday

Scripture Readings for Sunday are: Psalm 23; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Romans 3:1-31; and Mark 6:30-44. Please read them in their context as you prepare for worship on Sunday.

The Sunday Adult Bible Class will continue its study of the book of Hebrews, in chapter 13, verse 7ff.

 

Remember to Pray

Remember to pray for our church and for all our members, that none be lost to Christ’s kingdom but that all continue in repentance and be strengthened and built up in the true and saving faith in Christ Jesus through the hearing and study of His Word. We continue to pray for all who have been sick or who are suffering among us – for Sam Rusch, for Dawn Hiebert who may soon undergo surgery, and for Mel Boren who is in a nursing home; for our extended families; and for believers who are alone and have no congregation. Continue to pray for Lutheran congregations and believers around the world who are persecuted or suffering for their faith in Christ Jesus.

 

Events and Announcements

Information for bulletins or newsletters may be sent to Pastor Moll by calling him at 479-233-0081 or by email at pastor@goodshepherdrogers.org.

 

Scripture quotations are from Green’s Literal Translation (LITV). Scripture quoted by permission. Copyright 1993 by Jay P. Green Sr., All rights reserved. Jay P. Green Sr., Lafayette, IN. U.S.A. 47903.

He that glories….

But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that even as it has been written, “He that glories, let him glory in” the “Lord.” 1 Cor. 1:30-31 (Read verses 18-31)

Are we Christians because of our own wisdom or prominence in this world? The Scriptures make it very clear that we have faith in Christ and eternal salvation because of God’s gracious working, both in sending His only-begotten Son to redeem us and in bringing us and keeping us trusting in Jesus alone, and in His blood shed upon the cross, for our salvation.

It is as the Bible says: “For by grace you are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, that not anyone should boast….” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Consider our calling. Was it because we are wiser than others, richer, more powerful or more influential? No, and in most cases, the opposite is true. We are little and even foolish in the eyes of the world.

And how do people come to faith in Christ Jesus? It is through “the word of the cross,” the preaching of “Christ crucified.” This is foolishness to the wise of this world and an offense to the Jews. It is as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those being lost, but to us being saved, it is the power of God” (v. 18; cf. Rom. 1:16-17).

Though the world counts it as foolishness and the Jews stumble and fall over it, the truth is that we are saved because God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to suffer and die for the sins of the world and rise again (cf. John 3:14ff.). Because of Jesus’ blood shed upon the cross for the sins of all, God is gracious and merciful and reaches out to you and me with forgiveness and the offer of life everlasting in His Son (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18ff.).

And this message would be foolish to us too, or we would stumble and fall over it because we are seeking to please God and earn His favor by our own righteousness under the law, but God has graciously assured us of His love and mercy – of His forgiveness and acceptance – through the preaching of Christ crucified for the sins of the world (cf. Eph. 1:3ff.). His Holy Spirit assures us through the preaching of the cross of the forgiveness of our sins and of life everlasting because of Christ crucified.

“Of Him, [we] are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that even as it has been written, “He that glories, let him glory in” the “Lord.” Can we glory in ourselves or in anything we have done for our salvation? No, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord who has done it all!

Thank you, O Lord, for Your mercy upon us and for granting us salvation in Christ Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.

[Scripture taken from Green's Literal Translation (LITV), Copyright 1993 by Jay P. Green Sr., All rights reserved.]