trusted

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 13:5-6

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

This Psalm did not start well.

Psalm 13:1

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me? 

But something happens.  A simply prayer is spoken in faith and is answered:

Psalm 13:3

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 

The Psalmist asks for and receives what we all need:

John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

spirit

This week we begin worship with:

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, . . .

This verse follows after Peter's encouragement for believers to keep a good reputation and to be willing to suffer for doing good.  Peter here, puts forward as our example, the one who "also suffered", Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose reputation was spotless, who was sinless, and who suffered to the point of death.

Jesus died at the hands of men, but better said He died within the sovereign will of the Father.  This is why Jesus, in His divinity as the Triune God could say:

John 10:17-18

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Our passage goes on state what He did while in the spirit for the three days, prior to taking up His life again (1 Peter 3:19-20).

It is this transition from flesh to spirit, and from spirt to a new body that we await, and it is what Peter is encouraging us with here.  For it is not only Christ who will do this, but by His authority, He will "bring us to God", who is spirit (pneuma).

help

 This week we begin worship with:

Hebrews 2:17-18

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Without atonement, we would be met by the full wrath of God for sin, our sin.  A priest mediates atonement to prevent that wrath.  But to serve in that role, our LORD Jesus Christ had to become "in every respect" like His brothers.  For if in some respect He was not like His brothers, His divinity would have delivered wrath, rather than atonement.

The aspect most essential was that He "suffered" (paschō):

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

On the cross, His pain was real.  He suffered and died.  Sinless, He became the atonement. This is past tense (and so is the verb!).  It is done.  It is not ongoing.  It is never to be repeated for Christ.

We, however are "being" tempted.  And if we look, we find Jesus holding out His helping (boētheō) hand.

redeem

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 130:7-8

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

    and with him is plentiful redemption.

And he will redeem Israel

    from all his iniquities.

This verse uses “he”, “him”, and “his”.  Most refer to God; the last does not!  The phrase “his iniquities” refers to the masculine collective noun “Israel”, and can be modernized into “their iniquities” (See NIV).

When we share our faith, there is a seed to plant.  Our verse this week does it so well.  We must convey to them that God loved them so much that He made them, and that if you hope in that He will redeem you.  When the false narrative of evolution fails in their mind, when they see design in nature rather than chaos, that seed will grow.

The phrase “steadfast love” (ḥeseḏ) is covenantal.  We never earned it.  We were chosen.  Better said, we were designed, loved, and then made.

Ephesians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, . . .