In this chapter Jesus has been teaching about our life together as the church. Jesus sees each church, each congregation as a microcosm of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is leading us to that place where our congregation reflects to the world what it is like to live under the reign of God.
Like any good builder, Jesus knows that His church must be built upon a solid foundation. A few chapters ago Jesus laid the first foundation stone for His church. He said he would build His church upon the Confession of Faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. If the first foundation stone is about Jesus, the second foundation stone is about us. The strength of this foundation stone is not so much that we are the children of God, as it is in how we became the children of God.
Jesus is not the Messiah because he did all the things the Messiah was supposed to do. Jesus is the Messiah because of the incarnation. He is God’s only begotten Son.
In a similar way, we are not the children of God because we behave the way the children of God should behave. We are the children of God because we have been forgiven of our sin by the wondrous, overwhelming, amazing, incredible, extraordinary, awesome, marvelous grace of God.
The children of God aren’t meant to shuffle around muttering “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Our destiny is to forevermore sing, and dance and shout, and rejoice and celebrate and delight in the truth that we are the beloved of God, through and through, first, last and always, by the wondrous, overwhelming, amazing, incredible, extraordinary, awesome, marvelous grace of God.
When we remember who we are, and how we got here, living together in the way Jesus described is as natural as breathing.
What does today’s reading reveal to you
about God?
What does it reveal to you about yourself?
Think about what God wants you to do
or remember about this passage.
Does God want you to change anything in your life?
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