Articles

We live in a culture marked in many ways by self-promotion, selfism, and fierce individualism. For many, the ideal is to “be your best self,” to “live your best life.” It is to proclaim, “I am unique, and I will make much of my uniqueness. I define my own existence.” And as a new group of young adults graduates this year and embarks on life’s journey, commencement speakers are telling them things like this: “You are the most significant generation that has ever lived. You have gifts that can change the world. You have the opportunity to write your story, one day at a time.”

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John Stott once wrote, “Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body.”¹ Many people suffer from misery of the soul because they have withheld forgiveness or because it has been withheld from them. The words “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you” are painfully difficult to utter with sincerity. But this shouldn’t be true of God’s people! Indeed, a readiness to forgive is one of the markers that Jesus has given His church to show that it is set apart as His.

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On one occasion, Jesus asked, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?” (Luke 12:51). Ask that question about Jesus to the average person today, and they will respond, “Well, yeah, of course!” Many people rightly understand that Jesus is a champion of love, forgiveness, and harmony. That’s why His own answer to the question is so surprising: “No, I tell you, but rather division.”

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Evangelism and salvation are supremely God’s work. God created the world out of nothing; similarly, He is the one who gives us faith. And although we can imagine Him doing this with a simple “Let there be…” as in Genesis 1, that is not how He has chosen to work.

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The certainty of death brings clarity to the living of life. For every single one of us, our days will soon be over, and the wise among us will take this reality to heart (Ecc. 7:2). Our mortality ought to awaken us to the truth that as we walk this earthly sod, we are all leaving a legacy.

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More than one hundred years ago, just before the outbreak of World War I, Congress passed a resolution to honor mothers on the second Sunday in May. For the last century, we have celebrated Mother’s Day as a day of reverence for the unique and sacred institution of motherhood.

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As Jesus traveled to Jerusalem for the last time before His crucifixion, many thought He would be crowned as a king and immediately begin ruling over Israel (Luke 19:11). Jesus addressed this assumption with a parable, which is recorded in Luke 19:12–27. In Jesus’ story, a nobleman leaves his servants at home as he travels to receive a kingdom, giving each of them money to invest in his absence. His servants and citizens respond to these circumstances in different ways—some in rebellion, some in disobedience, and some in faithfulness.

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You can probably think of someone who seems like just the sort of person God would use—someone, say, with fantastic gifts and an attractive personality. Perhaps you’ve wished you were like that person or that you had this gift or that quality so you could be more useful for Christ. Yet while it’s good to want to grow, we must remember: we often don’t measure usefulness the way God does.

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It’s hard to fathom Jesus Christ’s final, agonizing hours upon a Roman cross. The floggings, the torture, and the humiliation He had endured were reserved for the worst of criminals. It is no wonder, then, that with His last breath, Jesus cried out in a loud voice “Tetélestai!”—“It is finished” (John 19:30).

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The historicity of Jesus’ death by crucifixion is widely accepted. Jesus’ resurrection, on the other hand, is still met with doubt. Everyone dies, after all, but very few people in history, even as the Bible records it, have experienced someone coming back from the dead. So from the beginning, the resurrection, and particularly its implications, has proven a stumbling block for many.

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