PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 24:17–21
“After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me. Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin—unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”
CONSIDER THIS
“‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”
Here’s how I used to think about the gospel:
- I am a sinner and if I don’t have a savior I will live eternally without God, which is another name for hell.
- Jesus died for my sin and if I believe this and trust him as my Savior I will live eternally with God and all my departed relatives and friends, which is another name for heaven.
In other words, my gospel began with sin and ended with heaven. In other words, my Bible began with Genesis 3 and ended somewhere around Matthew 28 or John 21.
And you know what? All of that is true. It’s just not the whole truth and it’s certainly not the whole Bible. The Bible does not begin with original sin. It begins with original righteousness. And the Bible does not end with heaven. It ends with final righteousness, the resurrection of the dead, and the new creation. The last time I checked (which was this morning), the Bible begins with Genesis 1 and 2 and ends with Revelation 21–22.
The story of the Bible, which is the story of the world, is the story of creation to new creation. Sin and salvation form the plotline, but they are not the big story. Paul believed in heaven, but only as an intermediate place of waiting in the immediate presence of God for the end of all things broken and the consummation of all things made new—the resurrection of the dead and the new creation.
“‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”
For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus did not signify a future hope but a present reality. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the end of the age had dawned—the resurrection of the dead had begun. For Paul, Jesus was not merely a Savior to get us into heaven when we die. Jesus was the ascended Lord, the reigning King of all kings who was bringing all things under his rule and making his enemies a footstool underneath his feet.
Why does this matter? Because if we don’t get the big story right we will get our small stories wrong.
If we think the gospel is the story of sin to salvation to heaven, we will reduce it to a religious transaction. But if we understand that the gospel is the story of creation to new creation, we will realize it as the transformational reality of “on earth as it is in heaven” and abandon our lives to this God as we find our small stories swept up into this grand epic.
If we don’t get the big story right, we will get our small stories wrong. I think that’s the story of at least the last hundred years. When we get our small stories wrong, we slowly drift off to sleep and the world around us moves on in search of a bigger and better story. I think that is, in part, what all of the faith deconstruction activity going on these days is all about—people waking up to the fact that they have gotten the big story wrong and their small lives have lost the plot.
If you’ve got an extra few minutes today, read the kind of things Paul was writing to churches as he endured all the trials that were his life. Paul got the big story right. It’s why his small life made such an impact. Here’s a stunning sample of the gospel’s scope in his sanctified vision:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Col. 1:15–23)
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
I receive your full story and big gospel—from creation to new creation and release my small sense of the plot.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
Is your gospel too small? How do you grapple with this notion of “If we don’t get the big story right we will get our small stories wrong”?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “I Love to Tell the Story” (hymn 160) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P.S. For those of you in the Florida panhandle this weekend . . .
I will be preaching Sunday morning at Good News Church in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (4747 Hwy 98 W, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459). Services at 8:15, 9:30, and 11:00. And livestream. You can see all the details here. If you come, please do come forward and say hello after the service.
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2 Responses
AMEN and AMEN!!! Thanks to my time spent here at the daily Wake-Up Call over the last several years, I’ve come to embrace these central truths about the Gospel. I believe it began to sink in a few years back when JD made mention of the second part of the Gospel. I call this epiphany the Big Picture, describing Genesis 1-2, and Revelation 21-22, as the BOOKENDS of the Gospel. They begin with no sin, with perfect harmony between God, man, and the Cosmos, and end with the final restoration of the same. The Kingdom of God and His Christ consummated.
Just because a group of people calls itself a church it doesn’t mean that group is functioning as the body of Christ. Jesus is the literal Head of His body. If He hasn’t been given actual and full supremacy over a group of people to personally direct and lead them by His Spirit, are they functioning as His body? (See Colossians 1:28 and Romans 8:14.)