The Good God - Salvation
Readings for this week August 12 - 16
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – Lovers in the Image of God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
Genesis 1 tells us that we have been made in the image of God. Over the millennia this has been interpreted in countless ways, with different emphases rising to the fore at different times, often based on the way certain social, cultural and scientific moments impress themselves on a given society. Are we a trinity of mind, soul and spirit? Are we primarily communal creatures? Are we relational? Whatever the emphasis at any given time, central to all definitions is love. If God is love, and we are made in his image, then love is surely a key component of who we are and an important way we should express ourselves if we are to be faithful to the image in which we are made. Our love, like the Triune God’s love, should be not just cultivated inwardly, but expressed outwardly, towards others.
We were created as lovers in the image of God. Created primarily to love God and return the love he first showed us, we are also created in the image of the God who shares his love with others. We were made to image God to each other and to image God to creation itself as part of our role as kaitiaki of God’s creation. We are like mirrors created to reflect God’s love to creation and also to reflect creation’s praise back to God. The Triune love that flowed outwards into creation returns to God as praise and glory. This is what we were made for, to share in this love, to share it around and to praise God for his love and the fruits it creates.
Questions to Consider
“Created as lovers in the image of God.” How does this definition shape how you see yourself? Others? What does it tell us about God?
Prayer
Lord God, you have created us to enjoy you, to be loved by you and to love like you. Make love – active, expressive, other-centred love – the centre of all I do. May my love mirror yours. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Twisted Love
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
We were made to love. We are creations of love and creatures designed to love. And we do. But there is, unfortunately, a problem with this story. The problem is us, and the uses to which we have put our love. We rebelled against God’s good and perfect love. Not content to be loved by him and to love him in return, and not content to be directed in our love by the one who is love and who made us, we went our own way. Rather than submit to God’s love, rather than being shaped by it, we decided to submit ourselves only to our own desires. We let them rule and shape us instead.
The problem was that our love turned and twisted upon itself. We tried to find the fullness of God’s love where we wanted to look, not the place where it was freely offered. We tried to love anything but God; our natural God-implanted desire for God turned into desire for ourselves. Rather than being made complete in God we seek completeness anywhere and everywhere else. We all still love. All of us. Everyone. Made in the image of love we are always motivated to love – but the problem is that we now do so in the wrong direction. Our compass is damaged and needs repairing, but we are now so far off course that we are unable to do this ourselves. We cannot reorient ourselves. We need rescue. We need saving. And the one who made us - the one who is love and who always acts in love - did indeed personally come to save us.
Questions to Consider
How has our love been twisted? How does this manifest itself in the world? How much of what is wrong with ourselves and our world is because of ill-directed love?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, convict me when my love is selfish. Turn me around and bring me back when I stray. I need your love to guide, transform and renew my love, making it more in the image of yours. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Godly DIY
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:11-15
The sending of the Son tells us several things about the nature of the Triune God, about his love for us, his desire for us to know him and experience this love he has for all that is, and that he isn’t afraid to ‘get his hands dirty’ if that is what it takes for our redemption and reconciliation with him. The work of Jesus on the cross deepens our understanding of just how far his love stretches, just how much God is willing to do in order to safeguard our salvation. In Jesus the incarnate Son, God suffers death. The Son did not take on human life only to opt out at the very end. Jesus was human from the beginning to the end of human life – and beyond.
And God makes no third party suffer for our salvation. He does not nominate someone else to accomplish the work of the cross; he does not see the problem, look around and then force someone else to fix it, to undergo the extremity of death. He does it himself. He takes on the responsibility himself. Nobody but God contributes to the work of salvation: Father, Son and Spirit accomplish it, we receive it. The emissary that God sends to achieve our salvation and begin creation’s restoration is…himself. No one else. God sees it through and does what is needed; Jesus is faithful and obedient even unto death; the Holy Spirit allows us to participate in Christ’s death and experience the benefits of redemption. Salvation is the good work of the good God.
Questions to Consider
What would change if God had got someone else to perform the work of salvation? Why is it important that God himself completes the work? What does this say about us?
Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for always being involved, personally putting yourself out for us, reaching out to us, saving us. Without you, nothing is possible for us. You have performed costly wonders for us. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Saved for a Purpose
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Without Jesus, we would not know God. We would still be lost, blind, stumbling our way down a road to ruin with no hope of being rescued, turned around, and pointed in the right direction, with all the provisions and equipment we need to complete the journey. The coming of the Son of God to the world was a rescue mission, was an almighty “NO!” to the threat of sin and an almighty “YES!” to our reconciliation with our creator. We were hopelessly lost and in bondage to sin and destruction and God intervened to save us. Yes and Amen! Salvation is real and is a precious gift of God.
But we haven’t only been saved from, we have been saved for. We have been brought back to God so that we might know him and want to serve him and join him in his work for the world – that we might desire what he desires and have our love untwisted and turned back towards God, and then outward to others. Relationship with God is only possible through Jesus, through the Father-sent Son who shares his Spirit with us and who reveals the Father to us and invites us to call him Father just as he does. Jesus is the radiance of God. We can know God and we can come to know what it is like to be known by God. We can live Spirit-filled lives of love and goodness and joy previously impossible for us, through the gift of the Spirit. We have been saved and empowered for a purpose, a purpose we can now fulfil.
Questions to Consider
What have you been saved for? What is the work that God has given you as part of the coming of his reign?
Prayer
Almighty Lord, thank you for involving us in your work. Thank you for our purpose and the role we have to play in sharing you and your good work of salvation with the world. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – God’s Fellow Workers
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Paul is emphatic: those in Christ are a new creation. The old ways – the selfish ways sought only self-gratification, the motives and desires that ignored others, subject to the irresistible pull of sin and destruction – no longer rule. Those in Christ are being renewed and transformed into new people with new, Spirit-led motives and Spirit-cultivated desires – a desire for God and a desire to do his will and join in his work. We cannot return to our previous lives and take up the mantle of rebellious sin again. Jesus has saved us, redeemed us, and opened us up to the transforming power of the God who made us. We need no longer be what we were; we are now free to become what we were always meant to be: God’s fellow workers.
We have the Spirit within us, the final gift Jesus promised his disciples in his final days with them. He breathed on them and gave them the very Spirit of God, as counsellor, companion, guide and empower. Continual renewal in the Spirit, God’s very presence permanently with us and in us, is the ongoing gift we have been given. We are not just saved, but saved for a purpose, a purpose that is beyond us – but not beyond the Spirit of God working in us and through us. What we thought impossible is now possible by the Spirit of God. We have been adopted into God’s family, made co-heirs with the Son, and invited to join in God’s holy work of redemption and restoration.
Questions to Consider
How does being a member of God’s family and one of his fellow workers influence your daily life? How do others see the reality of this in you?
Prayer
Holy Lord, you have blessed me with salvation, a new family, and a part to play in your plan for creation. May your Spirit strengthen me to be faithful, and to love wholeheartedly in the right direction. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)