To love those who love you is reciprocity. To love those who don’t is grace. And just as God has bestowed the immeasurable riches of his grace upon us, loving us while we were yet sinners, so we must gratefully respond to this grace by bestowing it upon others, loving our neighbor as ourself, and may all that we do then be done in love.[14]
Tag Archives: Grace
The King’s Heralds
It is his word by his Spirit that does the work, as he told the seventy-two, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). We are simply called to be the King’s heralds, but where the gospel is preached the kingdom is near.
What Does Following Jesus Look Like?
Jesus traveled from region to region, from town to town primarily on foot. And he didn’t travel alone. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had a large following, made up not only of his chosen twelve but many more, some of whom he would commission into vocational ministry, as we will see in the next chapter. And as he traveled, he conversed with those who followed him as well as those who would, such as the three types we find our passage today, whom I call the naive, the preoccupied, and the half-hearted.
Serving As Christ’s Church
And so, serving as Christ’s church, alongside those who are for us, we advance the gospel to our neighbors and the nations, trusting God for the increase. For, as undeserving sinners saved only by the grace of God, we too desire others to receive the same. Indeed, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace [we] have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). Such is the testimony of Christ’s church.
Greatness Defined
Greatness for the Christian then is defined as Christ-like humility, humbling ourselves before God and others. Jesus said, “he who is least among you all is the one who is great” (Luke 9:48c). And what he said he lived, that we might live through him.
Let This Sink In
Though Jesus’ disciples did not understand in the moment, they would, and through their testimony we do too. Indeed, the Son of Man was delivered into the hands of lawless men, that he who kept the law might make us the righteousness of God.[10] May this truth sink into our ears forever!
When Christ Is Your Life
In the version of the Lord’s Prayer, taken from Matthew’s Gospel, we pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12 KJV). The word translated “debts” implies that we have an obligation due God that requires forgiveness. Of course, Jesus uses this financial term figuratively for sin, an offense against the holiness of God that imputes an insurmountable debt, a debt we cannot pay.
The Glory of God’s Son
After Jesus’ disciples confessed his true identity as “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), he confronted their confession with the cost, saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (9:23). What he described is essentially what citizenship in his kingdom looks like here and now, but it was a stark contrast from what his disciples had envisioned (How can a kingdom be built through a cross?).
The Incalculable Value of Following Christ
And if you are looking for a guaranteed return on the investment on your life in Christ, here it is: The Lord Jesus Christ will return in his glory and the glory of God the Father who sent him, with his holy angels, to gather all who belong to him.
The Lord Will Provide
Jesus’ twelve apostles had just returned from their first mission, where they proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and healed the spiritually and physically sick. As they were sent out by and with the power and authority of Christ, their mission was effective. Even Rome’s regional ruler, Herod the Tetrarch, took notice. But it was a short-term mission, and they soon returned to Jesus, eager to tell him all that they had done.
Planter, Pastor, Preacher 