God is a covenant-making God. He wants to live in relationship with us. God says in Heb 8:6 that Christ is the “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” The New Covenant, promised explicitly in Jeremiah 31, was sealed with the blood of Christ. God wants us to live in communion with him (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and in community with one another. The doctrine of the Trinity says that God is one in essence and three in persons. Christians are monotheists; we only believe in one God. We know the Father through the Son, and the Spirit applies the work of the Son to our lives. The church is a Christian community, living in and according to the precepts of the New Covenant in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the New Covenant, the First Commandment still applies: “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” God demands single-minded devotion. Take up your cross and follow him. You will be hated and persecuted, but great is your reward in heaven. Follow Christ. Serve him and no other.
Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37
Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37
From Wesley C. McCarter "Glory and Greatness"
We got a glimpse of Christ’s glory and coming kingdom in the transfiguration narrative (Mark 9:1-13), but the recounting of the episode regarding the demon-possessed boy just afterwards reminds us why Jesus came and why he had to go to the cross (Mark 9:14-29). Sin had to be remedied. One should point out that even in the glorious account of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain, the Lord explained, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (Mark 9:12-13). The inner circle of disciples who witnessed the things on the mountain may have been a bit confused at first, but Jesus makes clear that “Elijah, as forerunner, did not come to prevent the Messiah's suffering and death but to foreshadow it” (Blomberg, 1992:266).
From Wesley C. McCarter "Glory and Greatness"
We got a glimpse of Christ’s glory and coming kingdom in the transfiguration narrative (Mark 9:1-13), but the recounting of the episode regarding the demon-possessed boy just afterwards reminds us why Jesus came and why he had to go to the cross (Mark 9:14-29). Sin had to be remedied. One should point out that even in the glorious account of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain, the Lord explained, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (Mark 9:12-13). The inner circle of disciples who witnessed the things on the mountain may have been a bit confused at first, but Jesus makes clear that “Elijah, as forerunner, did not come to prevent the Messiah's suffering and death but to foreshadow it” (Blomberg, 1992:266).
The Christian path to glory and greatness is by way of suffering, service, humility, and a willingness to associate with the same. Christ, our Lord and Savior, is a suffering servant (Mark 9:30-37). He was a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief. Let us descend into the valley of the shadow of death with him by faith. Let us take up our crosses and follow him. Let us die with him and so live with him. Let us endure and then reign with him.
Brief Commentary on Galatians 3:13
An excerpt from Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatian 3:13:
"When we hear that Christ was made a curse for us, let us believe it with joy and assurance. By faith Christ changes places with us. He gets our sins, we get His holiness. By faith alone can we become righteous, for faith invests us with the sinlessness of Christ. The more fully we believe this, the fuller will be our joy. If you believe that sin, death, and the curse are void, why, they are null, zero. Whenever sin and death make you nervous, write it down as an illusion of the devil. There is no sin now, no curse, no death, no devil because Christ has done away with them. This fact is sure. There is nothing wrong with the fact. The defect lies in our lack of faith. . . . If I examine myself, I find enough unholiness to shock me. But when I look at Christ in me, I find that I am altogether holy."
--Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 1535, Gal. 3:13
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”
"When we hear that Christ was made a curse for us, let us believe it with joy and assurance. By faith Christ changes places with us. He gets our sins, we get His holiness. By faith alone can we become righteous, for faith invests us with the sinlessness of Christ. The more fully we believe this, the fuller will be our joy. If you believe that sin, death, and the curse are void, why, they are null, zero. Whenever sin and death make you nervous, write it down as an illusion of the devil. There is no sin now, no curse, no death, no devil because Christ has done away with them. This fact is sure. There is nothing wrong with the fact. The defect lies in our lack of faith. . . . If I examine myself, I find enough unholiness to shock me. But when I look at Christ in me, I find that I am altogether holy."
--Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 1535, Gal. 3:13
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