Jesus' Loving Death: Gateway to New Creation
Daily Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
14 The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. 15 He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.
16 So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
18 All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
As we remember Jesus’ self-giving death on this “Good Friday,” Miles Steele sent us a reflection on Salvador Dali’s striking painting “Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus).” Miles is a non-traditional student currently studying web design and digital media at JCCC after graduating from KU with a BA in Art History. When he has the time Miles can be found coding at his desk or working on a personal project in the JCCC ceramics studio. To see Dali’s dramatic vision of Jesus’ cross with Miles’ commentary, click here.
As a young Pharisee (using his Hebrew name Saul—cf. Acts 13:9), the apostle Paul fiercely opposed early Christians. Yet he wrote today’s passage to people he himself had won to faith in Jesus in the city of Corinth. He was a vivid example of a “new creation.” He knew people’s deepest spiritual issue is alienation from God. He said Jesus’ cross gave us forgiveness, but not by convincing an unwilling God to love us. Instead, “God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ.”
- You can read in Acts 9:1-20 about the encounter with Jesus that changed Saul’s life. He went from “spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” to being the apostle who wrote, “The love of Christ controls us…. All of these new things are from God…. If anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation.” In what ways is the effect of Christ’s death reshaping your identity and way of life as you live in God’s “new creation”?
- Have you, like most of us, moved away from God at some point(s) in your life? When you create that distance, do you picture God as eager to bridge it, as indifferent to you and distant, or as angry with you and out to punish? How has God’s loving, reconciling action through Jesus’ death made you “a new creature in Christ”? Who do you know who needs to hear that good news (maybe from you)?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, God was reconciling the world (the world that includes me) to himself through you. Shape me into a transparent, winning beacon of the message that God loves us all. Amen.
GPS Insights
Lauren Cook
Lauren Cook, who serves as the Entry Points Program Director at Resurrection, wrote today’s Insight. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, a bookworm, and is always planning her next trip. She has the sweetest (and sassiest) daughter, Carolina Rae, a rockstar husband, Austin, and a cutie pup named Thunder. She loves connecting with others so let her know the best place you've ever eaten, best book you've ever read, or best place you've ever been!
Have you ever found yourself struggling with the same issues, again and again? Maybe you just can’t seem to break that one bad habit, or you tend to fall into the same temptations repeatedly? Maybe you just always seem to say the thing you know you don’t need to, but it just comes out so quickly. Maybe it’s a continual struggle against pride, or arrogance, or any of a number of sins.
Just a mere two weeks before Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season, I experienced a bit of a faith crisis. I was fighting (and failing) at the same things over and over and feeling so incredibly defeated. I found myself asking God why He would ever want to love someone who couldn’t seem to pull it together. I felt that my debt was growing so large, and I felt myself moving away from God out of shame, creating distance out of fear, and I saw God as welcoming that distance.
Then, we entered six weeks of sermons about why Jesus had to die, about the cross, about the forgiveness of our sins.
Throughout Pastor Adam’s sermons, I realized that I was still holding onto an image of God as a punishing God. I grew up with the message that if you did something wrong, you would be punished, and your mistakes would define you. Your mistakes would make you less worthy, less good, less lovable. I think we forget how often we use human messages, images, and beliefs to try and define who God is instead of letting God define who He is. I certainly thought I had stopped thinking of God in this way but realized that this was still so pervasive, and that this way of thinking might also be a stumbling block for others, too.
As Pastor Adam has said each week, the cross was not a mechanism, it was a message. It was the message that our human messages, images, and beliefs that we try to put onto God are not who He is. Instead He is love. It was the message that God wants us so desperately that He was willing to send His Son to repay the debt that we could never pay. It was the message that He can make all things new, including us.
So that thing you can’t seem to beat? That sin you struggle with? God understands, He is not angry and aiming to punish. He is waiting with open arms to say, “I know, it’s hard, and I want to help you change but no matter what, I love you more than words can ever say—just look to the cross.”
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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