God writes the endings…

Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will. (Luke 23:20–25)

While no one is innocent except Jesus, Pilate was willing to put Him to death for his own selfish gain. He didn’t want to lose his position. Such is the power of sin.

We watched a television series about a very popular police woman who rose to a top position because she was good at her job. But she was also willing to kill anyone who stood in her way. She did it in such a way that others took the blame until finally she was discovered, arrested, and charged for her evil ways.

This fiction story makes me wonder what happened to Pilate. History gives no definite story. He did govern Judea for a few more years, but used violence against Samaritans and was charged then exiled. After that, various groups created legends from regret, to suicide, to an eventual conversion with honor. Only God knows his final destiny.

The TV story ended with the police woman in a jail cell and with me relieved at justice accomplished. I could not imagine this fictional woman becoming a Christian. What does that say about loving my enemies? If this story had been real, I may have wanted her crucified, maybe forgetting or ignoring the fact that Jesus had already taken that punishment in her place. 

As hubby and I discussed it, and the sermon from Sunday about Jonah’s hate for the Ninevites, we agreed how challenging it is to pray for the Pilates of this world. At least Pilate realized that Jesus was not worthy of death. Today’s truants seem to have no idea about fair play, justice, or the daily stresses of life for ordinary people. Like the police woman in the fiction story, whoever gets in their way or opposes what they are doing is in grave danger. Some lose their jobs. Some mysteriously die or simply disappear.

When it comes down to innocence, we cannot say that any person is without guilt, at least before God. If He gave me what I deserve, I would not be here. But His love and mercy is why Jesus didn’t try to fool Pilate or the Pharisees; He spoke truth and died for the whole world, including me.  

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

Pilate did wrong to crucify the innocent Son of God, but “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:23–24)

God used this sinful decision of Pilate just as God knew He would, then raised Him from the dead — eternal life cannot die — so I (and Pilate) could be forgiven and receive that forever life.

Jesus, as Your redeemed child, being put to death by Your enemies could be the way You take me home. Fearing death is not the end, only a doorway. The Pilates of this world may win for a while in life or in fiction, but their story also has an ending. All of us, saints or stubborn rejectors, will wind up where You want us to be.

 

A Changed Life

Before and after photos can be fake or fascinating. An internet search shows everything from make-up transformations to jaw surgery, no hair compared to hair transplants, obesity to slim and trim, crooked teeth to perfect white teeth. Most photos are about human appearance and made me wonder what the changes did for the person who had been transformed. Did it make them kinder? More gracious? In many cases, confidence in themselves might change, but an outward change does not mean a new person, only a new look.

This was not true for Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jew who said, “I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:4–6)

Scripture does not describe his appearance, but a clear before and after. In his zeal for God, he “was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3) Then one day . . .  

While still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, he went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (Acts 9:1–6)

The NT goes on to describe a changed man. After Jesus encountered him, instead of persecuting Christians, he preached Christ, edified his new family, and said:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death . . . . (Philippians 3:7–11)

He still looked the same, yet he was a new person. He wrote:

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. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore 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 5:17–21)

And he told Christians, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

Their before didn’t matter; their lives were changed. He knew that God can transform anyone, even those deep in sin, and make them new, even treating them just as if they had never sinned.

He changed my life and now I pray with hope for others who seem without interest in Jesus, or are in cults, or who have lost their way in a sinful life. He turned Saul around; He turned me around; He can turn anyone around and bring them to Himself.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, You know those on my heart who seem hopelessly beyond reach, yet You also know how to draw them to Yourself. My faith is in Your grace and power, not in their character or lack of it. Nothing and no heart is too hard for You to soften. I’m so thankful for new life in Christ and that I know I am a child of God, no matter what I once was or did. Wonderful Jesus, wonderful Savior!

READ Luke 19:1–10. How did the crowd react when Jesus went to Zaccheus’ house? What prompted Jesus to say that salvation had come to Zaccheus?

 

 

God justifies . . .

 

At times, I’ve tried to justify my actions with either an excuse or a lame explanation that “I didn’t mean to” or some other reason for doing what offended another person. I’ve even compared myself to someone worse by saying, “At least I’m not that bad” or some other remark. Most people realize that this cannot remove the guilt. When I’ve done something wrong the only way I can be righteous is through forgiveness and cleansing from God. Only He can declare me righteous . . .

Luke 18:10–14. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you; this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

God is the one who JUSTIFIES people. Only He can declare it so. The book of Romans clarifies this truth, yet right at the beginning, it says that claiming that I’m declared righteous is mockery unless my behavior shows that God has changed my life. Romans 2:13 says, “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

Yet it is not in the doing that justification happens. The doing comes afterwards to prove it happened. My changed life is proof that God has justified me. Here are some phrases that describe what He does, all in Romans 3 and 4:

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin . . . We are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus . . . For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law . . . and God is one — who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith . . . And to the one who does not work (to save himself) but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

Romans 5, 8 and 10 add these thoughts:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . Since, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God . . . And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified . . . Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies . . . For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 explains that no sin is too awful or too great to prevent God from making a person His child and declaring them righteous:

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

While verses like Galatians 2:16 are clear (it says, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified) the Bible is also clear that justified people are changed people. James used several verses to explain that being justified or declared righteous had evidence; the person who is justified acts like it. Therefore James 2 says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” and “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Looking at my Savior who declares me righteous because I put my faith in Him is  humbling. I want to rejoice yet also weep. I deserve not this wonderful grace and realize my life is nothing without Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who justifies the ungodly and gives us new life.