Rejoicing that Your Enemy is Alive

Yesterday, John Piper posted this on Twitter:

What if your least favorite person died? Then you saw your favorite person rejoicing that the least one was alive? Luke 15:32

I quickly grabbed my Bible to find out what the reference was. It was the last verse in the story of the Prodigal Son, where the father is rebuking the older brother for being upset that his younger brother had returned.

The thought shook me a little bit. Could I be willing to rejoice when my least favorite person is found to be alive? Would I be able to stand it knowing that my favorite person is rejoicing over this?

I guess this gets to the heart of forgiveness and grace. You see, there was a time when we were the enemies of God. We were opposed to Him, but yet He rejoiced when we were made alive again and at a cost to Him. God had to sacrifice His own Son to restore us to life. He let His Son take on our sins and He rejoiced in doing so.

An amazing thought, isn't it?

The Horrible News that Became the Best News Ever

In Awakening, we have been doing a series on Advent. As I was studying for the series, I realize that the news the angel brought to Mary and to Joseph in his dream was not really good news. Well, at least not at first. In fact, to them, it was probably the worst news you can receive. The only experience I have to equate it to was the time I found out I was being expelled from college (another story for another time).

Mary was a young girl, getting ready to be married. I can remember how excited my wife was when it came to planning our wedding. She spent hours looking at bridal magazines, going over all of the wedding related stuff. It was her favorite topic. I can imagine it was the same for Mary. She was probably thrilled over what was about to go on. Then, the angel shows up and delivers the news. BOOM! All of her plans and dreams, gone. In an instant. This was not good news.

Joseph was getting the final preparations ready for his wedding as well. I am sure he was just as excited, but, as a dude, he had to keep it under control. Then he gets word that Mary is pregnant. He knows he isn't responsible, so it has to be another man. Under Jewish law, he could have Mary executed. He didn't really believe that story she was telling about it being God's Son, did he? Then the angel arrived and confirmed it for him. This was not good news.

There were looks. There were whispers. They lost many friends. Joseph probably lost business because of this. But they continued on. They stayed together and Joseph protected Mary. He married her to protect what was left of her reputation. It was not an easy life.

The news from the angel was not good news. But it became good news. The baby that was born to Mary was Jesus, God in the flesh. He grew up sinless and died on the cross for our sins, the sins that separated us from God and kept from having a relationship with Him. He was bruised and crushed for our iniquities. God turned His back to Jesus in the hour He needed the Father the most. He was buried and, three days later, Jesus made an open mockery of sin and death by coming back to life. Jesus did all of this willingly and He extends the salvation from sin freely to those who believe, without any preconditions or requirements.

And that is how the horrible news became the best news ever.

The Promise of Salvation

I was doing my devotions yesterday out of Galatians 3. In this chapter, Paul is discussing with the Galatians how if humans make a covenant and it is ratified, no one can make changes to it. It cannot be annulled or added to. And this is with a man-made contract.

Paul continues to say that God made a promise to Abraham and that it is was made to his offspring. That promise, as I have been teaching my kids in Children's Church, was the Rescuer (Jesus) who would take away our sins.

Think about that for a second. If a man-made contract cannot be changed, how much harder is it to change a contract if God is the one making the promise? There is nothing that can be done to change the promise of salvation and those of us who are firm in that, through our faith in Christ, have nothing to fear.

Galatians 3:26 - For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.