We’re so used to trying to earn our way. We swim in the polluted waters of relational tit-for-tat and failed expectations, feeling like we are constantly giving more than our fair share.  Where’s the love?  Earning our way just leaves us bankrupt and bitter.  Jesus came to release us from all this.  He earned our way for us by giving more than His fair share, by giving His life!  That’s how well He loved us.  You don’t—you can’t—earn that kind of love; you just receive it.  And then you show the world how much you’re loved.

Bob Dylan used to sing about how “You gotta serve somebody.”  Not a popular notion, but it’s true.  Paul went so far as to say we are slaves to whatever (or whoever) we serve.  But what is really shocking is that Paul was simply affirming what Jesus had said.  He bluntly said we all serve one master or another.  We can be free from the control of righteousness or we can be free from sin, but none of us is autonomous.  We are all either slaves to sin or slaves to God.  Every person you meet is either controlled by the sinful nature or by the Holy Spirit.  Which one controls you?

What’s the worst form of slavery?  It isn’t the kind the oppressors won’t recognize; it’s the one that even the slaves don’t see.  Imagine a slave who doesn’t know that he or she is a slave.  That person imagines their bondage is normal.  He doesn’t seek freedom because he doesn’t know he’s enslaved.  This is exactly how sin works.  It doesn’t just dominate us, but it deceives us into thinking we’re free from its dominion.  Jesus came to deliver us from the old way of life (a sort of death) by uniting us to Him in His resurrection.  If we have been delivered from the slavery of sin and death, why would we go back to that way of living?  Wouldn’t we want to live like free men and women?

Ever wished you could have a “do-over”?  Maybe you missed the game-winning shot back in high school.  Maybe you flubbed a key job interview.  Maybe you said something that you deeply regret.  Or maybe you look back on your whole life and wish you could reboot the whole thing! God knew that the whole human race needed a new beginning, which is why He sent His Son.  Paul referred to Jesus as a new Adam, the representative of a new humanity.  Where the first Adam failed, the second Adam super-succeeded.  Through faith in the new Adam, our guilt and shame are covered so that we can begin to live new lives as members of Christ’s new humanity.

How do you show your love for a person?  Is it through words, touch, gifts, or service?  All of these come through some sort of giving, some sort of gift: time, energy, attention, etc.  How do you show great love for a person?  The greater the love, the greater the gift.  These gifts can be seen as sacrifices, as something truly costly.  When God wanted to show us His love, He made the greatest sacrifice imaginable.  It cost Him His Son.

Examples of great faith are all around us and throughout the Bible.  We look at role models in the church and we see saints in the Bible.  Examples are inspiring, but they often leave us feeling insecure about our own efforts in comparison.  When Paul points to Abraham and Sarah as examples of those who believed the promises of God, he’s not just saying, “Believe like Abraham and Sarah!”  Paul is calling us to something greater: “Believe in the God of Abraham and Sarah!”  Believe that He keeps His promises.  Believe that He gives life to the dead.  Believe that Jesus was delivered up and was raised up.  Believe in such a way that you trust Him with your life—and live by faith.

It is a strange thing to simultaneously long for fairness and forgiveness.  When someone hurts us, we desire justice.  But when we do the hurting, we desire forgiveness.  This dynamic often brings out the worst sort of hypocrisy in us, but that is not to say that the simultaneous longing is wrong in and of itself.  God desires both.  God gives both.  “[W]e have seen his glory…full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  Being fair and forgiving seems hard for us—they seem almost contradictory.  But God demonstrates His wisdom through the cross, where the justice of God is consistently carried out and the mercy of God is graciously given out.  We get both by faith.

When the winning team in a piggyback race crosses the finish line, who gets the credit?  Unless he’s a jockey on a horse, the person being carried doesn’t have much to brag about.  If you’re a burden, you don’t boast.  It’s different for the winners of a three-legged race.  Both people get bragging rights, even if one is weaker than the other.  Which race describes your life with God?  If we understand the Gospel correctly, we come to Paul’s conclusion regarding all who are justified by faith in Jesus: “Then what becomes of our boasting?  It is excluded” (Romans 3:27).

“Justification” may sound like a churchy word, but you’d be surprised at how much it affects your life.  We actually spend a lot of time seeking to justify ourselves in the eyes of others.  We want people to think we’ve done the right thing, said the right thing, and thought the right thing.  If they question our “rightness”, we get bent out of shape (even when, deep down, we know they’re right to doubt we’re right).  We care more about what people think about than what God thinks.  What would our lives look like if the only opinion that really mattered was God’s?  And what would our lives look like if we were convinced at the core that, because of the “rightness” of Jesus, God is pleased with us and approves of us?

Today is the day that changed the world forever. 2,000 years ago a man rose from the dead, and a new way of seeing the world and the world to come emerged.  When Jesus walked out of the tomb, death was defeated.  Sin was paid for.  Amnesty was offered.  New life had begun.  But what if the resurrection was all a joke or a myth?  We would still be living the old life.  We would still be guilty.  We would still feel defeated.  If we say, “Christ is risen!”, do we mean it?  What kind of life do we live—old or new?  How much has your world changed?