Archive for category: Apostles’ Creed

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. – Galatians 3:26

Our Heavenly Father

There are hundreds of names for God in the Bible. Each teaches us a little something about who God is and how he acts. In some places God is called “Almighty.” Other places God is called “The beginning and end.” He even has some unique names that describe him as the “Root of David” or “launderer’s soap.”

However, when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he chooses the name “Our Father.”

That name “Father” has a special meaning. Whether we had a good earthly father or not, we know what fathers are supposed to do. Fathers love and care for their children. They want the best for them and strive to teach them all they need to know.

You can’t expect these kinds of things from a stranger. When you need something, you can count on your father.

This is what God wants for you. He is your Heavenly Father who loves you so much that there is nothing he wouldn’t do for you. He cares for you so much that he promises to guide all the steps of your life. He wants the best for you so that you may spend all eternity with him. He strives to teach you all the things you need for this life and the next.

How is this most special relationship with God established? It is only “in Christ Jesus.”

It is because Christ Jesus was willing to give his very life for you on the cross and to defeat death for you by rising from the grave that you can now be called sons and daughters of God. He is your dear Father and in Christ you are his dear child. Through faith these gifts become yours.

Treasure this as you confess in the Apostles Creed, “I believe in God the Father Almighty.”

“But what about you?” [Jesus] asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” – Matthew 16:15-16

The Real Jesus

Many people try to find the “real” Jesus. Who is this man who commands so much interest and attention? Who is this man who has had such a large impact on humanity?

Jesus once asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” The disciples gave a number of complimentary responses comparing him to great religious teachers and very moral men.

However, none of those answers were good enough. Wanting his disciple’s answer, he asks them, “But who do you say I am?”

Peter boldly responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This is the real Jesus.

More than just an ordinary man, he is the very Son of God sent for our salvation.

Is there any gift more precious? Any gift more valuable? Jesus is God’s own Son to right our wrongs and save us from our sins. No one else will do.

Jesus is God’s Son; he is true God. There was no sacrifice that would be sufficient to pay for our sins other than God’s very Son who is God himself. There was no one who could meet the perfect requirements that God demands other than his only Son, our Lord.

If you want to see the proof that God loves you and that he wants to draw you to himself, look no further than this most precious gift, God’s own Son. If you want to know if this Jesus is powerful enough to really help you, look no further than the one who has skin and bones like you and me but is nothing less than God.

This is the real Jesus.

Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:6-8

Equals

Tim and Tom were equals. If you asked them they’d agree and anyone else would have the same conclusion. They were hired on at the company the same day, they’d made an equal number of sales and had made the same amount of money for the company as the other. They were equals.

Which is what made it puzzling when Tim was promoted and Tom wasn’t. Tom felt underappreciated, undervalued. They were equals but they were not treated that way.

We tend to be OK when people more skilled than us move up in their particular field. That’s the way it’s supposed to work! The better musician sits in the first chair, the better athlete makes the team or the starting lineup. But when it’s our equal that gets the special treatment, that’s when the “unfair” alarms in our head start to go off. We think we deserve fair treatment and when we sense treatment that is less than fair, we get upset and feel abused.

It’s really our sinful nature that demands that we receive equal treatment. We puff ourselves up with pride and can’t imagine anyone seeing anything in us that is less than the best. We bloat with pride and arrogance and think that everyone else is inferior. And often that pride impacts the way we look at God and the way that we think God should look at us. We feel better than others and think that God should feel the same way.

But the sad reality is that we are all sinful. There is no one better than anyone else–we are all equal–equally sinful, equally deserving of death and hell.

But God sent one who was not our equal. Jesus was far better than us in every way. He was better than everyone and equal to God the Father, yet he set that rightful equality aside and became like us. He became like a servant and placed himself under us, under our laws, under our temptations. He gave up heaven to come to our earth and suffer our hell in our place. He lived a perfectly holy life, and yet wasn’t filled with pride about his accomplishments. Though he was the one who could rightfully boast about what he had done, he didn’t. Instead he quietly went about the work of being the world’s Savior. He humbled himself even to the cross for our sins, even to death to save us. And he did it to show his love.

For the times when we are prideful, we have a humble Savior. For the times that we are full of ourselves, we have a God who emptied himself for us. For the times when we are weak, we have a Savior who is strong—strong to save.