The Message of Hope and Grace
What happens when the sun goes down after Easter Sunday?
How do we live life in the light of Easter?
What difference does the resurrection make to how we live life?
Like Mary, on that first Easter Sunday morning we don’t stand in the moment dumbfounded. The moment with Jesus in the dawn of the new creation moves us. It propels us into action. There is work to be done. There is a message to be announced. There is good news to proclaim. The one who was dead is alive.
How do we apply one particular chapter (1 Corinthians 15) to our lives?
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. 1 Cor 15:1-11(TNIV)
What is the gospel?
What happens when the sun goes down after Easter Sunday?
How do we live life in the light of Easter?
What difference does the resurrection make to how we live life?
Like Mary, on that first Easter Sunday morning we don’t stand in the moment dumbfounded. The moment with Jesus in the dawn of the new creation moves us. It propels us into action. There is work to be done. There is a message to be announced. There is good news to proclaim. The one who was dead is alive.
How do we apply one particular chapter (1 Corinthians 15) to our lives?
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. 1 Cor 15:1-11(TNIV)
What is the gospel?
A gospel is a declaration of the good news of a new reality. At the time Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, the world was ruled by the Roman Emperor, probably Nero at this time.
In the context of the world of Paul and the church in Corinth, Caesar’s gospel was, “Rome is here! Caesar is now your king! Now you can be under the rule of the greatest government, military, and economy in the world! Does anyone have a problem with that, because if you do we have weapons of mass destruction and crucifixion to make you comply.
One popular statement of C. Augustus was this, there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved than that of Caesar.
The disciples went around saying “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved than that of Jesus." See Acts 4:8-12
The good news that Jesus proclaimed, was centered in Jewish expectations of return from exile. When Jesus came proclaiming the good news he said:
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15
For Jesus, the good news was a proclamation of an inbreaking reality (the kingdom of God is near) and a summons for people to revise how they were living their lives by placing their confidence in Jesus and his way (repent and believe).
For the apostle Paul, he would claim: “God is king! Jesus is the Messiah hoped for by Israel and therefore, the Lord of the whole world! Now you can be citizens of a kingdom that will outlast even Rome!”
Essentially both Jesus and Paul were saying, “look there is hope for the situation you find yourself, there is a solution to the oppression and evil that you face, there is a freedom to the slavery you are experiencing”.
If we view our hope as christians as “going to heaven” or as “salvation” from this world and new life away from this world then any sort of hope we have for the existing world will be unrelated and minimised. If we see ourselves as people who are going to check out one day from this disappointing and grimy motel of a world and check into the luxury mansion hotel we call heaven. Then our attitude towards the world around us and the people who share this space and time with us will be tinged with a sense of despair and sadness, and life in the words of one biblical writer will be meaningless. (Ecclesiates 1:2)
The good news of the Kingdom of God is the solid ground on which we stand and base our lives on. And this is what Paul wants to remind the church in Corinth. This is the gospel by which they were saved, but saved from what?
Salvation starts as we live in present. The point of the cross isn’t forgiveness. The point of the cross, the victory of Jesus death on the cross is more than forgiveness. It’s restoration and it’s reconciliation. Salvation comes for a reason. Being saved from our sin is just the start. It’s about God restoring us. Making us into the humans he originally had in mind when he first made us. Salvation starts at the cross but it leads us to become more and more the people God wants us to be. More loving, more generous, more compassionate, more merciful, more human.
For Paul, he understood that death was not the end. The central element of Jesus message is that death is not the end. This life is not all there is.
What is the resurrection?
For Paul and his listeners the word resurrection, never meant simply, “life after death”. It wasn’t used to describe ideas about what happened to people after they die. It was a specific term which described how people who were already dead would be given new bodies, and would them have a new embodied life similar to what they had had before.
What Paul is describing is the life we will have after the new state of existence we find ourselves in after death. He is describing a life after life after death. In this resurrected life people will be given new bodies, empowered by God’s spirit and would have a new life with a new body, yet similar body, to live in God’s new heaven and earth. (more on this later)
As Tom Wright puts it: “If Jesus has been raised, that means that God’s new world, God’s kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. The world must hear what the God of Israel, the creator God, has achieved through his Messiah.” (Simply Christian, 2006, p98)
What is our response?
For Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus changed his whole life. Hi response was to spend his whole life on living and communicating the beauty, hope, grace and love of the Kingdom. He too became an announcer of the message, convinced that Jesus was alive. The grace of God compelled him to rethink his life and share the message of the good news of the kingdom.
The grace of God is never to be earnt, we cannot earn it, but because of the grace given to us, there is effort on our part. Remember that quote from Tom Wright: “…We have a job to do. The world must hear.”
Those who have not heard about the grace and hope of the message of the kingdom of God need to be told. The grace of God causes us to change how we live our lives and the sort of people we are becoming. The grace of God makes us wake up from our sleep and become people of action. And it is the resurrection of Jesus that lies at the heart of God’s grace and love for humanity.
I wonder what is the message you believe?
I wonder how will you share the message of the good news of God’s kingdom to others? Can you do that this week?
And I wonder: Are you changing on the inside as this message of hope and grace grabs hold of your life?
In the context of the world of Paul and the church in Corinth, Caesar’s gospel was, “Rome is here! Caesar is now your king! Now you can be under the rule of the greatest government, military, and economy in the world! Does anyone have a problem with that, because if you do we have weapons of mass destruction and crucifixion to make you comply.
One popular statement of C. Augustus was this, there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved than that of Caesar.
The disciples went around saying “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved than that of Jesus." See Acts 4:8-12
The good news that Jesus proclaimed, was centered in Jewish expectations of return from exile. When Jesus came proclaiming the good news he said:
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15
For Jesus, the good news was a proclamation of an inbreaking reality (the kingdom of God is near) and a summons for people to revise how they were living their lives by placing their confidence in Jesus and his way (repent and believe).
For the apostle Paul, he would claim: “God is king! Jesus is the Messiah hoped for by Israel and therefore, the Lord of the whole world! Now you can be citizens of a kingdom that will outlast even Rome!”
Essentially both Jesus and Paul were saying, “look there is hope for the situation you find yourself, there is a solution to the oppression and evil that you face, there is a freedom to the slavery you are experiencing”.
If we view our hope as christians as “going to heaven” or as “salvation” from this world and new life away from this world then any sort of hope we have for the existing world will be unrelated and minimised. If we see ourselves as people who are going to check out one day from this disappointing and grimy motel of a world and check into the luxury mansion hotel we call heaven. Then our attitude towards the world around us and the people who share this space and time with us will be tinged with a sense of despair and sadness, and life in the words of one biblical writer will be meaningless. (Ecclesiates 1:2)
The good news of the Kingdom of God is the solid ground on which we stand and base our lives on. And this is what Paul wants to remind the church in Corinth. This is the gospel by which they were saved, but saved from what?
Salvation starts as we live in present. The point of the cross isn’t forgiveness. The point of the cross, the victory of Jesus death on the cross is more than forgiveness. It’s restoration and it’s reconciliation. Salvation comes for a reason. Being saved from our sin is just the start. It’s about God restoring us. Making us into the humans he originally had in mind when he first made us. Salvation starts at the cross but it leads us to become more and more the people God wants us to be. More loving, more generous, more compassionate, more merciful, more human.
For Paul, he understood that death was not the end. The central element of Jesus message is that death is not the end. This life is not all there is.
What is the resurrection?
For Paul and his listeners the word resurrection, never meant simply, “life after death”. It wasn’t used to describe ideas about what happened to people after they die. It was a specific term which described how people who were already dead would be given new bodies, and would them have a new embodied life similar to what they had had before.
What Paul is describing is the life we will have after the new state of existence we find ourselves in after death. He is describing a life after life after death. In this resurrected life people will be given new bodies, empowered by God’s spirit and would have a new life with a new body, yet similar body, to live in God’s new heaven and earth. (more on this later)
As Tom Wright puts it: “If Jesus has been raised, that means that God’s new world, God’s kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. The world must hear what the God of Israel, the creator God, has achieved through his Messiah.” (Simply Christian, 2006, p98)
What is our response?
For Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus changed his whole life. Hi response was to spend his whole life on living and communicating the beauty, hope, grace and love of the Kingdom. He too became an announcer of the message, convinced that Jesus was alive. The grace of God compelled him to rethink his life and share the message of the good news of the kingdom.
The grace of God is never to be earnt, we cannot earn it, but because of the grace given to us, there is effort on our part. Remember that quote from Tom Wright: “…We have a job to do. The world must hear.”
Those who have not heard about the grace and hope of the message of the kingdom of God need to be told. The grace of God causes us to change how we live our lives and the sort of people we are becoming. The grace of God makes us wake up from our sleep and become people of action. And it is the resurrection of Jesus that lies at the heart of God’s grace and love for humanity.
I wonder what is the message you believe?
I wonder how will you share the message of the good news of God’s kingdom to others? Can you do that this week?
And I wonder: Are you changing on the inside as this message of hope and grace grabs hold of your life?
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