Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 8: Joy

 

Advent Words 2023
Word 8: Joy

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9

Here is the promise of Advent: On the night of Jesus’ birth, an angel appeared to the shepherds and told them, “I bring you good news that will be great joy for all people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).This news of the arrival of Christ brought joy because the people knew the Savior would bring them salvation. During Advent, we celebrate Christ’s first coming with joy. Joy is our response to God’s gracious gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Joy is also a result of faith. Like the first readers of Peter’s letter, we are among those who have not seen Jesus. Yet, as Peter points out, we do not need to see him to love him. This is faith. Believing gives us eyes to see and ears to hear. Spiritual eyesight enables us to see God’s love for us through the gift of His Son. We love Him, we trust Him, and the result is inexpressible and glorious joy!

New Testament scholar Wayne Grudem says this joy Peter speaks of is “joy so profound as to be beyond the power of words." We have joy now because we have confidence that we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls. Peter stated earlier in this passage that we have an inheritance kept for us in heaven that can never perish, spoil, or fade (1 Peter 1:4). Our joy is rooted in the salvation we have received through Christ and in our hope of everlasting life with him. We have joy now because we are in His presence and have the hope of everlasting life—the joy of being in His presence forever.

 

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Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 7: Grace

 

Advents Words 2023
Word 7: Grace

“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.” John 1:14

This verse in John’s Gospel describes the advent of Christ that we look back on.  John tells us the Word, Jesus Christ, became flesh. God the Father sent God the Son into the world, and He became a man, and he dwelled among us. God with us. Not only did he live among us, but he made God and his glory visible to us in the flesh. When we see Jesus, we see God; we see glory.

Then John gives us good news, God the Son came from God the Father full of grace and truth. God’s grace through Christ means freedom for sinful mankind.

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26

It’s not that grace was not present before the appearing of Christ, but rather that God's grace was fully realized in Christ. The nature of God's grace was made manifest, it became visible, in Jesus Christ.

 

Grace, in its shortest definition, means the unmerited favor of God. It is an act of His loving kindness given to those who do not deserve it and who have not earned it. Paul reminds us of this in the book of Ephesians:

 

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

 

In the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, Jesus made God visible to us. In Jesus, God made grace available to us. Jesus, the Word, came from the Father, full of, and abounding in, grace and truth. This is the Good News! 

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Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 6: Between

 

Advent Words 2023
Day 6: Between

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Titus 2:11-14

As we saw with the word “epiphany” on day 2, we live in this present age between the two comings of Christ. His first coming brought the promise of salvation to all people (Titus 2:11); his second coming will bring our hope of glory (Titus 2:14). For now, we live in between what God has done and what God will do.

In this in-between time, we are called to a specific way of life. Right now, those who are in Christ already have every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). It’s a done deal. In Christ we possess these spiritual blessings which enable us to live for Christ. We just need to discover and accept that we already possess them and allow them to enable us to live the fullness of life God intends for us. This is the role of indicatives, or statements of fact, in the New Testament. Indicatives point out what is already true of you in Christ. Some of those indicatives are spelled out in the rest of Ephesians 1:3-14: In Christ you are chosen, holy, blameless, adopted as a child of God, you have redemption, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and an inheritance.

One might say then, “since we already possess every spiritual blessing in Christ, all we have to do now is to be happy and wait for Christ to return”. Like I said before, it is true that we possess every spiritual blessing in Christ now, but Paul points out in Titus 2:11-14, that while we possess those blessings, the grace of God, it is intended that God’s people will live in this current age in a manner that expresses to the world around us that we are His very own people. In this present age God’s people “live self-controlled, upright and godly lives… eager to do what is good”.

How we live in between Christ’s two epiphanies matters. We live for Christ and as Christ’s representatives, His ambassadors.

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (RSV)

In this time between Christ’s two comings we are called to live by the grace God has given us, living upright and holy lives, eager to do good, while we wait with our eyes focused on the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

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Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 5: Peace

 

Advent Words 2023
Word 5: Peace

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

In the second week of Advent, the theme is peace. As we look ahead to Christmas and celebrate that the Prince of Peace has arrived, we rejoice that, through Jesus Christ, we now have peace with God. Paul makes this very clear earlier in the book of Romans.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Romans 5:1-2

We are justified (made right) with God through faith in Jesus Christ, and the result is peace with God—not a feeling of peace, although that is true as well, but peace as in we are no longer separated or alienated from God because of our sin. Jesus has paid the price for our sin. Through him, we are reconciled to God. Jesus made “peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).

In Paul’s prayer in Romans 15:13, his desire is that the God of hope – the source, the giver, and the object of our hope – would fill us with all joy and peace. Peace in the New Testament is equivalent to shalom in the Old Testament. Shalom is not only absence of violence or wickedness, but it is also the fullness of life, the wholeness of life, harmony, and goodness.

Did you notice the word “as” in this verse? God is the great giver, but in this case, he expects something of us as well. God fills us with all joy and peace as we trust in Him. Joy and peace are God’s byproduct for those who walk in faith, who live in dependence on God’s power and his promise to provide what we need. We are His children, and we are secure in His Love and His mercy. So, walking by faith and trusting in God means we are living life firmly believing in God’s ability to do all that he says he will do. And the result of living in this trust is that God will fill you with all joy and peace.

Here is just one example of how this is lived out. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Anxiety is the opposite of peace. As we continually turn our anxieties and fears over to God through prayer, Paul says that we will then have God’s peace guarding our heart and mind. Prayer is one of the ways we trust in God and one of the ways he fills us with his peace.

The end result of God filling us with all joy and peace is that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives will overflow with hope. I get the picture here that when one is overflowing with hope, it is visible in their life, possibly even contagious to those around them. When one is overflowing with hope, their gaze is continually focused on Jesus and on His promises. This is the result of being filled with the peace that only God can give.

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Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 4: Prepare

 

Advent Words 2023
Day 4: Prepare

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

Matthew 3:1-3

 

The Advent season is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. We don’t often think of the Advent season as a time for repentance. We associate that more with the Lent season. But at the heart of preparing for the coming of Christ is coming face-to-face with our own hearts. And that preparation involves repentance, for repentance prepares us to receive grace.

 

In Matthew’s gospel, right before Jesus will begin his ministry, we are introduced to John the Baptist. Matthew tells us that John came preaching. John was the prophet that was promised in Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:1-5, the prophet that would prepare the way for the Messiah. Isaiah tells us in 40:1-5 that the Messiah’s arrival will indicate that sin has been paid for and that the Lord’s glory will be revealed.

 

John the Baptist’s message of preparation was to call the people to repent. Repentance in the Bible means to change one’s mind or perspective and then to act on it. To turn from one way to another. Repentance involves action so that not just the mind is changed, but one’s lifestyle changes as a result.

 

Paul gave a picture of what this repentance looks like when he was on trial before King Agippa. He describes to them what Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus:

The Lord said, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ …So then…  to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.” Acts 26:17-18, 20.

 

Our changed life is an outward expression of the repentance and salvation that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. When we turn in the baptismal pool, it represents our repentance and our acceptance of faith in Christ, as we turn from our old way of life to new life.

 

John preached repentance because, “The kingdom of heaven is near”. The King is coming. The way to prepare for his arrival is to prepare our hearts. Sin separates us from God and all he has for us. Repentance opens our hearts to God and to His grace and enables us to accept and receive His gift of grace, His Son Jesus Christ. 

John’s command to repent in Matthew 3:2 in Greek is a present tense imperative. Greek present tense calls for a continual, habitual action. Repentance, therefore, is not a one-time action but it becomes a lifestyle. It becomes a way of life where one continually looks at one’s heart and lifestyle and goes before the Lord, turning to Him and repenting of our sins, looking to the Spirit of God to bring about in us the character of Christ. Advent’s time of preparation helps us connect with our need to repent and to prepare our hearts for the coming King.

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