Scripture: 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:9-15
Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and for the next 5 weeks, we will be considering several of the Gifts of God that come to us by faith in Jesus. It would be nearly impossible to look at all of them, but I hope that these will be a fairly good representation of what God desires for our lives, or at least that it would be a good beginning for our own personal studies!
But beyond this, what might the season of Lent also mean for us? The word itself comes from a root word meaning “Spring”, which has historically been a time of preparation for Easter, just as spring time is preparation for the summer. Lent remembers the time of Jesus’ ministry, from the day of His baptism by John in the Jordan and His subsequent time of temptation by Satan in the wilderness, until the day of His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
On an individual basis, Lent has also been a time of fasting, prayer, and baptisms, which many Christians continue to observe even today. But regardless of the formal preparations that we undertake, Lent should always be a time for reflection on the life we live, and how we should be growing in faith and obedience through our walk with the Risen Lord. And when we remember all that Jesus went through during His life here on earth - teaching us, and sacrificing for us, and preparing the possibility of salvation for our unworthy lives, this should also be a season of great humility and sorrow, while at the same time, bringing a great sense of joy to each and every heart who loves the Lord.
Through Jesus Christ, God has taken our sin upon Himself, and when we come to Him in faith, we need to know that our errancy and failure to follow His way has been buried in the pit for all time. That is just how much the Lord loves even the worst of humanity.
Read 1 Peter 3:18-22
This is one of the points that many folks struggle with – the thought that our Holy and Almighty God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, willingly suffered and died for our sins. They can’t quite grasp the fact that Perfection had to suffer in order that the imperfect could be made worthy! I will readily admit that this is anything but obvious and logical to the human mind, but it is also absolutely Godly in that someone had to pay the penalty for every sin that was ever committed by every person who has ever been part of this world! And who else could pay the price for everyone who had ever lived, as well as everyone who would one day live, and to do it in a single, perfect act? Flesh had to be sacrificed, but only God could make the ultimate sacrifice once and for all. And who would be the only one who fit the requirement? Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, the perfect One to be our Sacrificial Savior!
So is that all there is to it? Can we now go on living in any way that we wish, while God is seeing to it that we will never have to suffer again? Of course not! Jesus lived among us as our friend, while He also lived as the servant of His Father God. His presence in this plane of existence wasn’t solely to be our substitution at Calvary, and definitely not to make this life painless and perfect, but rather to teach us how to live in a Christ-like way. He came to us to be an example of how to live a Godly life. But was His example solely to show us how to live in the here-and-now?
His life, suffering, death, and resurrection was also meant to be a promise, that even though all who believed and followed in His ways would also have to live, suffer and die as He did, they would also have God’s assurance of life again with Him in glory! Eternal life was never meant to be lived in the same way that we live now – it will be one of Godly perfection, without all of the pain and uncertainty that this world brings to us.
Read Mark 1:9-15
Flash back to the beginning of Christ’s ministry with His baptism! Baptism is, traditionally, a time of repentance and commitment, so the question that many have asked throughout the years, is “why did Jesus need to be baptized?” He had no sin to repent of, and He is God, so how could He make an even greater commitment to His Father? The thing we have to remember is that Jesus was not only fully God, but also fully Man, and it was the humanity that lived within Him that allowed Him to be tempted by Satan. He never gave in to the ways of the prince of Darkness, but if He was totally focused on the task that God had laid out for Him, why would He sweat drops of blood while praying at Gethsemane, and why would He ask the Father during that time, that if it was His will, that the cup of suffering be taken from Him, and why would He need to have His disciples pray with Him during that time if He had the power of God already within Him?
Have you ever thought about the fact that it was His humanity, as well as our humanity that gets in the way of the Lord’s work within us, that it is this weakness that Satan uses to tempt and confuse us? But it is also, without a doubt, the Godliness that becomes ours by faith that sustains us and empowers us to withstand the lies and evil desires that the Darkness uses to make us doubt the Lord.
Mark tells us that it was at the time of the Lord’s baptism that the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Christ that day, proclaiming that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, the one sent from God, to make all things right through Godly love. It was in dedication and vision that ministry began for the Lord, and with the Father’s blessing of - “with you I am well pleased.” – that both the relationship and the task was firmly established.
During these 40 days of wilderness isolation, Jesus was never alone – wild animals who never harmed Him were all around, angels were present to care for His needs, and of course, Satan was right there, tempting and challenging and doing his worst to try to confuse the Lord as to the truth that His Father had already set down for the people. Some may feel that since Jesus was able to counter Satan’s lies at every turn, that apparently He had broken the power of the Dark Angel at the baptism. But if that had happened, there would never have been any temptation. The truth is that the divine relationship that had been reaffirmed gave Him the wisdom and courage to stand firm in the truth of God. Satan is always defeated by faith and overpowered by trust in God.
And after John the Baptist was taken away, Jesus’ preaching began where John had left off. John’s baptism was always about confession, repentance and forgiveness through the One who was soon to come. (Mark 1:4-7) This is the One who could reverse the effects of a millennia of sin and evil, this would be the One who would set the record straight regarding the truth of God’s word, and the hope of salvation, and the way of eternal life, and what a righteous life would look like, and just who and what the Messiah of God would bring to the people of earth, and who would really be welcomed into the glory of God’s Kingdom, and who would proclaim the Good News for believers, and, with authority, that “the Kingdom of God is near”.
In the final measure of faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty will never leave any doubt to clog up our mind and heart. Faith, trust and obedience to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, is always the answer to every question that may confuse us in the issues regarding faith.
For Jesus is the only way, and there will never be any other.
