4/12/25

God's love held Jesus to the Cross, not the nails

Yesterday, my friend Jason from SALT shared this amazing truth. It was God's love that held Jesus to the Cross, not the nails. That morning I had been pondering all the Lord is showing me through Receiving a fresh word from the Lord, preparing our hearts (Jer 4:3)

  • Command #1: “...Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts... 
  • Default "...or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it." Jer 4:3-4
I was pondering how the Lord changes our hearts and enables us to be fruitful. Galatians 5:22-25 exploded like a geyser of living water.
  • But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
  • I'm commanded to "break up my unplowed ground" and "circumcise myself to the Lord" to "circumcise my heart" and the only right tool to use is "love" 
  • Jesus teaches love precedes obedience and the indwelling Holy Spirit

I was pondering the great illustrations of good news and witnessing from the word studies from Bible Project, (and BSF lesson this week about eternal life in heaven) and just discovered The Lost Sermon of Tim Mackie -  Discovering the Melody, he says Job is 11 hours into a jazz ensemble and the melody is summarized by Jesus in Luke 24:46-47,  Messiah -> suffer and die -> resurrection, forgiveness of sins for all who repent. This is Jesus "summary sentence" of the old testament:

"And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ Luke 24:46-47

In the Q & A section of the sermon Tim talks about suffering and God's confidence in Job is like God's confidence in Jesus. God has confidence in us if we are connected to Christ. He also shares a story of his boys taking the hammer and clawing the dirt with it for hours in the backyard. Sure it sort of works but it's the wrong tool for the job. Turn it around and you can nail pieces of wood together. The big idea is to see the old testament like Jesus saw it, to have it mentor us like it mentored Jesus. We are the apprentice of Jesus, we should learn to use the tools correctly. Biblical authors share different aspects of what they saw (Ezekiel is different from Isaiah and John's Revelation is different). Everytime God interfaces with people its in our contexts (personal, cultural, imaginative). Presence of God is the most real thing but indescribable. 

Luke 24:24-47 is wonderful, in a walk for 8 or 9 hours (20 miles, similar to walking from Southdale to Weaver Lake Maple Grove) Jesus opened their minds to the scriptures (Luke 24:25-27). I hold the belief that the unnamed disciples on the road to Emmaus wrote Hebrews. 

I'm super excited for the Next Three BSF Studies


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