Coronavirus

With Gospel love. It is very easy to become so concerned and focused on ourselves at a time like this that we being to turn all the attention on our own well-being and safety--at the expense of love. As 1 Corinthians 13reminds us, love does not seek its own. As we contemplate what God did for us in the Gospel, we see what true love (as referenced in John 3:16) truly looks like. It was love for us that moved Jesus to leave the contented glories of Heaven to walk the dirty streets of Earth amidst the sick and diseased. Without the intentional and loving actions of Jesus towards us in our sinful state, we would have no hope for eternal life. As followers of Jesus, it is necessary to respond with Gospel love to the world around us.

With Gospel grace. Imagine what those without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ must be thinking right now? What if their world were to end? What if they were to lose their financial security? What if they were to contract a disease? What would they do? So many questions can be found in the hearts of those without Jesus, and often those questions lead to a life of fear. May those of us who understand the beauty and assurance of the glory to come found in Romans 8:18 offer grace to those who do not have that assurance. I was reminded of God's amazing grace yesterday when Pastor Mike shared a story with me about a man who was imprisoned and sentenced to death in Romania in the last century. He was allowed one visitor before his execution. He asked to see his wife. He told his wife, "Do not hate the men who will take my life. I have already forgiven them, and I ask you to do the same." A certain prison guard overheard this conversation between this martyr and his wife. That guard later came to place his trust in Jesus--through the story of grace in this man's life. As followers of Jesus, it is necessary to respond with Gospel grace to the world around us.

With Gospel sacrifice. The empty shelves and long lines at stores display that our first instinct is to stockpile reserves for our own safety and assurance. However, the life of Jesus throughout the Gospel reveals that He lived to give of all that He had for others to know and experience the glory of God. When some shared their intentions to follow Jesus in Luke 9, He responded by telling them in Luke 9:58 that the Son of God did not even have a place to call home. Jesus knew that His temporary life on earth was to be spent declaring and displaying the truth of an eternal life one day. Jesus warned us in the Sermon on the Mount not to stockpile treasures here on earth, but to layup treasures in Heaven instead. May we live open-handed even now with what God has given to us. May we live as if God desires to give through us. As followers of Jesus, it is necessary to respond with Gospel sacrifice to the world around us.

With Gospel service. In the final hours of His life, Jesus took a towel to kneel before His disciples and washed their feet. He did this because none of the disciples offered to wash each others' feet upon entering the Upper Room. When He finished, Jesus turned to His disciples and commanded them to live in the same way. Can you imagine what must have been going through Jesus' mind on that night? He knew the terrors that lay ahead of Him in the next 24 hours. He knew that He would face the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, and the desertion of all His friends. He knew that He would be falsely accused, wrongly imprisoned, and unjustly tortured. He knew He would face the separation of the eternal union He had enjoyed with His Heavenly Father from the beginning of time. Imagine all that was in the heart of Jesus, yet He stooped to serve. He knew He was washing the feet of the men who would use those feet to run from Him. But He continued to serve them. What a Savior! What an example! And, as His disciples, that is specifically what we are called to do as well. As followers of Jesus, it is necessary to respond with Gospel service to the world around us.

With Gospel hope. We must continue to remind our hearts that our true hope lies beyond this world! The beauty of the Gospel is that we can never lose what Jesus has gifted to us! I can lose my possessions. I can lose my health. I can lose my loved ones. But I can never lose the eternal life that God has gifted to me through the work of Jesus. Through His life, Jesus lived the perfect life of righteous obedience to God that I could never live. Through His death, Jesus paid the penalty for sin that I could never pay. And once I place my complete trust in the finished work of Jesus, my sins are forgiven, His righteousness is credited to my account, and I can fully enjoy a relationship with God that had been ruined by sin! The Apostle Paul most certainly recognized this hope for he wrote to fellow Christians reminding them that even during the most tragic times in life, we do not have to grieve the loss of life as those who have no hope. We can know that eternal life is ours through Jesus Christ alone! May we regularly remind our hearts of the comfort and hope found in the Word of God when we begin to find fear and worry in the words of men. As Christians, we are not denying reality. There is concern in our world at this moment. But as Christians, we have confidence and hope that our Father holds the whole world in His hands. As we are reminded of these beautiful words, "We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know Who holds tomorrow." As followers of Jesus, it is necessary to respond with Gospel hope to the world around us.