PENnED

Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Believe it or not, I don’t get paid for this and a lot of other things I am doing. So why do I do them?

Everything I do is a response to the love of God:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only (or only begotten) Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I think that we’ll appreciate the love of God more if we  know the true value of God’s gift to us: Jesus.  And when we do, we’ll respond to the love of God in a deeper and greater way.

Scriptures reveal Jesus to us. The opening of the Gospel of John declares: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (1:1-4).  It is quite clear that Jesus is presented here as one who was (still is) God. If you believe in Scriptures as the Word of God, then this is a revelation you must accept.

In addition, you must also believe the other revelation, that the Word who was God became human: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (v. 14). Thus the Word who was God and became human is appropriately called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). This phenomenon, the union of deity and humanity in Jesus, which theologians call the hypostatic union, is not easy to comprehend. But that’s okay. In the same way as, for example, we appreciate the universe although it seems infinitely so vast and our knowledge of it is quite limited,  so we don’t have to understand things completely to appreciate them. The important thing is that we have a better appreciation of what God has done in giving Jesus to us.

Christmas is a time to celebrate the gift of God. But the story of the gift of God in Jesus does not end in the Savior’s birth. Christmas is just the beginning. It does not end in the death of Jesus, either. It goes on and on, for the gift of God will never end. It is eternal! The moment we believe in Jesus we receive God’s gift of eternal life (John 3:16). However, experiencing the completeness of life will not take place until “the last trumpet” sounds (vs. 51-54):

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

The gift of a loving God in Jesus is eternal life. Jesus was born as a human being. He died on the cross for our redemption. But he rose again! So those of us who believe in him will no longer “perish” but that through him we have eternal life!  It is in response to this great love of God that I do what I do. And I believe, as Scriptures says, that my “labor in the Lord is not in vain” (v. 58). How about you? Why do you do whatever you do? I hope that the same Scripture will encourage you and, if it already has, will continue to motivate you:

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).