Some friends of mine say that nobody comes to salvation through Jesus Christ without prayers -- lots and lots of prayers -- being sent up on their behalf. Is that true?
Well, Jesus has already done all the heavy lifting for us. We read in Hebrews 2:9 that "by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." And in 1 Tim. 2:6, we see that Jesus "gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone." So that part is done. And how do we, and others, come to know this amazing grace? Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of "sin, righteousness and judgment."
So God is perfectly capable of doing his work without our help. But how does he want us to feel and act toward our neighbors who may not know him yet? Do our prayers matter? In what way?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 "But I say, love [even] your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" So loving our neighbors means praying for them. Even the guy who plays his music too loudly, or runs over our geraniums with his Jeep. How do we pray -- that they will reform, in order for us to be more comfortable? Rather, that they will come to know the love of God, who through his Son's death and resurrection has already brought them from death to life.
Jesus' command about love gave prayer as the first example of how to love someone. In prayer, we learn to care. When I'm praying for someone else's salvation and peace, for his or her sole benefit, that prayer will change me, helping me to care for that neighbor as God already does. I'll be more likely to respond lovingly -- as God, through Jesus, already has responded -- in any interaction. Earnest, intentional prayer for them to know Christ's love will make me more likely to be the right example and, if it comes up, to give them the right words also. And to be able to thank God, with genuine love for them, when they accept the love he is offering them. Without that prayer, God's work will still be done for them -- but less of it will be done in me.
Jesus told us to pray for our neighbors. Somebody prayed (maybe for years) for you to come to know salvation in Christ. Who are you going to pray for today? This week? This year? Without ceasing? --And how will all that prayer change you?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Why are you here?
Last week at summer camp, seprockies.org, one of my friends got to reflecting on life's purpose. I encouraged him to think what he wanted on his gravestone, because that's the last word we get.
How about you? What is your purpose in life? Do you know what God says about it? I find my purpose summarized in 2 Cor. 5:15 -- "He [Jesus Christ] died for all, so that those who live would not live to please themselves. But they should live to please him who gave his life for them and rose again from death." This is part of the Great Reversal talked about many times in scripture: that in Jesus, God has both offered and accepted a perfect human life to replace my sinful (even with the best of intentions) humanity. In Jesus, I have (in effect) died, so I don't have the death penalty for my sins hanging over me: "We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died" (2 Cor 5:14) In Jesus, God has offered me eternal life, so instead of just a temporary reality ending in death, I get to live with him forever in the ultimate reality of his presence.
So, what do I do in the meantime? God answers me through Paul, in that same chapter 5, verses 18 to 20: "And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, 'Come back to God!' "
My job is to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ in saying "Come back to the Father of all things and live with him forever." My calling is to show how God has taken care of the debt caused by our sin and fallenness by his Son, Jesus Christ, and that he welcomes all people into his eternal home. My joy is to talk about the unbelieveable-yet-true love God has offered us, and to show that love to everyone I meet, regardless how unloveable they are, because that is the same love God has shown to me.
Well, it's not just me. Every Christian gets this privilege. Every one of us gets to show and to tell somebody else about this outrageous offer God has made us. Who do you know that needs to hear about this news? How might you tell them about it? Would you use a story, or a song, or a picture, or modeling clay, or what? And if you're worried about whether it will work, are you willing to give it a shot anyway, and let God work out the results? He's really good at that -- after all, it worked for you!
What will your gravestone say? For that matter, what does your Facebook say right now? Or your face? No sense waiting until it's all over to say it...
How about you? What is your purpose in life? Do you know what God says about it? I find my purpose summarized in 2 Cor. 5:15 -- "He [Jesus Christ] died for all, so that those who live would not live to please themselves. But they should live to please him who gave his life for them and rose again from death." This is part of the Great Reversal talked about many times in scripture: that in Jesus, God has both offered and accepted a perfect human life to replace my sinful (even with the best of intentions) humanity. In Jesus, I have (in effect) died, so I don't have the death penalty for my sins hanging over me: "We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died" (2 Cor 5:14) In Jesus, God has offered me eternal life, so instead of just a temporary reality ending in death, I get to live with him forever in the ultimate reality of his presence.
So, what do I do in the meantime? God answers me through Paul, in that same chapter 5, verses 18 to 20: "And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, 'Come back to God!' "
My job is to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ in saying "Come back to the Father of all things and live with him forever." My calling is to show how God has taken care of the debt caused by our sin and fallenness by his Son, Jesus Christ, and that he welcomes all people into his eternal home. My joy is to talk about the unbelieveable-yet-true love God has offered us, and to show that love to everyone I meet, regardless how unloveable they are, because that is the same love God has shown to me.
Well, it's not just me. Every Christian gets this privilege. Every one of us gets to show and to tell somebody else about this outrageous offer God has made us. Who do you know that needs to hear about this news? How might you tell them about it? Would you use a story, or a song, or a picture, or modeling clay, or what? And if you're worried about whether it will work, are you willing to give it a shot anyway, and let God work out the results? He's really good at that -- after all, it worked for you!
What will your gravestone say? For that matter, what does your Facebook say right now? Or your face? No sense waiting until it's all over to say it...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Seen and Unseen
What's more real -- the things you can see, or the things you can't see? Most people think, well, for sure, it's what you can see. And feel, and taste, and smell and hear. But the vast majority of the light spectrum is not visible to humans, neither is the range of sound waves. I wonder about touch and taste and smell?
Paul writes a lot in Second Corinthians about what's real and what's not. He writes in terms of what is eternal versus what is only physical and temporary. He tells us that what is most real is what we don't (yet) see, because it will be revealed one day, and that it is eternal. For instance, in 1:9, telling about the way they were persecuted for the Gospel, he says " In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." If Paul felt that physical life was the only life that mattered, he would have certainly despaired. But knowing that God had something more for him, he could hold on to hope even though physical life might be ending.
What's he basing that on? An absolute certainty of the promises of God. In chapter 1:3, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." Through the story of their suffering in chapter 1, to the comparison between physical life and eternity (4:7 to 5:10) Paul is confident that all will be well because God will see us into the future safely no matter what we face today. Even while suffering some sort of 'thorn in the flesh,' he received the message that God's grace to him was more powerful than any other issue: "Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' "
Today I have all sorts of needs: physical, emotional, financial, time pressure, and others. It's easy to look around and think the list of factors against me is impossible ever to overcome. But Paul's words keep coming back to help me. God's overwhelming power, and his grace -- his focus on delivering what is best for us no matter what troubles we think will defeat us -- will win in the end. Paul could call his troubles, which were far greater than mine, "momentary light affliction" in chapter 4. Maybe I should too.
Paul writes a lot in Second Corinthians about what's real and what's not. He writes in terms of what is eternal versus what is only physical and temporary. He tells us that what is most real is what we don't (yet) see, because it will be revealed one day, and that it is eternal. For instance, in 1:9, telling about the way they were persecuted for the Gospel, he says " In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." If Paul felt that physical life was the only life that mattered, he would have certainly despaired. But knowing that God had something more for him, he could hold on to hope even though physical life might be ending.
What's he basing that on? An absolute certainty of the promises of God. In chapter 1:3, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." Through the story of their suffering in chapter 1, to the comparison between physical life and eternity (4:7 to 5:10) Paul is confident that all will be well because God will see us into the future safely no matter what we face today. Even while suffering some sort of 'thorn in the flesh,' he received the message that God's grace to him was more powerful than any other issue: "Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' "
Today I have all sorts of needs: physical, emotional, financial, time pressure, and others. It's easy to look around and think the list of factors against me is impossible ever to overcome. But Paul's words keep coming back to help me. God's overwhelming power, and his grace -- his focus on delivering what is best for us no matter what troubles we think will defeat us -- will win in the end. Paul could call his troubles, which were far greater than mine, "momentary light affliction" in chapter 4. Maybe I should too.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Why?
Children ask a lot of "why" questions. Why does the sun come up in the morning? Why do birds eat worms? And so forth. Isn't it a shame we tend to lose our curiosity as we get older? Maybe we should get it back. It's a very useful trait.
I've spent a lot of time this last year studying the #1 question of all time: who God is. I think there are, roughly, three ways you could understand God and what he wants from us. They range from great strictness to complete looseness. Here are the first two:
If God is primarily concerned with whether people are doing wrong and then punishing them for it, you have a God of judgment and the primary job of his messengers is to tell people not to sin. If God is primarily concerned with accepting people, then he will overlook or excuse their sins and evil ideas, and the primary job of his messengers is telling people that he loves them and has decided not to care about their imperfections. Those are the two extremes.
There's a third option that addresses both of these: If God is primarily concerned with bringing people into a loving relationship with him, then he has found a way to deal with peoples' imperfections, weaknesses, sins and evil. The primary job of his messengers is telling people that God is passionately interested in a deep relationship with them, and that he has already handled the problem of evil in them and in the world.
This last one is the comprehensive message found in the Bible. It includes God's judgment against sin (overall, our rebelling against his love and instructions in an attempt to do it our own way) as well as his limitless love for us and desire to have relationship with us.
Here's the grand unifying theory, in two passages from the New Testament: "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." (Romans 5:6-11)
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
God's judgment against our sins, and his love for us, come together and are dealt with perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ, who was the perfect union of humanity with God. That means the Gospel is, truly, good news -- the best news you could ever hope for. And that message is what his messengers live for.
Why are you here?
I've spent a lot of time this last year studying the #1 question of all time: who God is. I think there are, roughly, three ways you could understand God and what he wants from us. They range from great strictness to complete looseness. Here are the first two:
If God is primarily concerned with whether people are doing wrong and then punishing them for it, you have a God of judgment and the primary job of his messengers is to tell people not to sin. If God is primarily concerned with accepting people, then he will overlook or excuse their sins and evil ideas, and the primary job of his messengers is telling people that he loves them and has decided not to care about their imperfections. Those are the two extremes.
There's a third option that addresses both of these: If God is primarily concerned with bringing people into a loving relationship with him, then he has found a way to deal with peoples' imperfections, weaknesses, sins and evil. The primary job of his messengers is telling people that God is passionately interested in a deep relationship with them, and that he has already handled the problem of evil in them and in the world.
This last one is the comprehensive message found in the Bible. It includes God's judgment against sin (overall, our rebelling against his love and instructions in an attempt to do it our own way) as well as his limitless love for us and desire to have relationship with us.
Here's the grand unifying theory, in two passages from the New Testament: "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." (Romans 5:6-11)
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
God's judgment against our sins, and his love for us, come together and are dealt with perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ, who was the perfect union of humanity with God. That means the Gospel is, truly, good news -- the best news you could ever hope for. And that message is what his messengers live for.
Why are you here?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Daddy
The picture many of us have of God is often one of a stern, harsh ruler, ready to 'take us out' at our next infraction. Some see the OT God as some sort of angry authority figure, balanced out by his really nice and loving son Jesus. The angry God sent the Son, the idea goes, to be punished because of us -- sort of like the vicarious 'whipping boy' employed by royalty when the prince messes up.
But we need to remember that God is one (Deut. 6:4, etc). So there is no difference between the God of the Hebrew scriptures and the God of the Greek New Testament. Whether we think of the Father or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, the passions and love and desires of God are the same.
Jesus referred to God as his Father. To do so in a personal sense was unheard of in Israel's thinking. Observant Jews of his day would not have dared claim God as a Father. But Jesus did!
He told us to pray to "Our Father" in a personal way (Matt. 6:9). So he was opening up that relationship of love and acceptance, tenderness and grace, on a personal level, for the first time.
The Father wants us to experience that relationship with him, not just learn about it in some sort of classroom way. Paul uses some OT verses to construct a new thought in 2 Cor 6:18: "And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." The Father is serious about being our Father, and he wants us to accept our status as his children. He thinks of us as his children, and he wants us to think of him as Father.
Those of us who are fathers know how much we want to be Daddy to our kids. We desire to be close to our children emotionally, to have a deep relationship with them. That's just what the Father says to us also. His love for us was so strong that, before the universe existed, he knew he would have to sacrifice his own self, through the Son, to bring us into intimacy with him: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life"(John 3:16).
God has already made that move. We already belong to him as his children and he yearns for us to have that same intimacy with him. That relationship already exists, whether we see it or not. But the experience of it is up to us. How about it? Will you run into his arms and call him Daddy? It will change your life forever.
But we need to remember that God is one (Deut. 6:4, etc). So there is no difference between the God of the Hebrew scriptures and the God of the Greek New Testament. Whether we think of the Father or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, the passions and love and desires of God are the same.
Jesus referred to God as his Father. To do so in a personal sense was unheard of in Israel's thinking. Observant Jews of his day would not have dared claim God as a Father. But Jesus did!
He told us to pray to "Our Father" in a personal way (Matt. 6:9). So he was opening up that relationship of love and acceptance, tenderness and grace, on a personal level, for the first time.
The Father wants us to experience that relationship with him, not just learn about it in some sort of classroom way. Paul uses some OT verses to construct a new thought in 2 Cor 6:18: "And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." The Father is serious about being our Father, and he wants us to accept our status as his children. He thinks of us as his children, and he wants us to think of him as Father.
Those of us who are fathers know how much we want to be Daddy to our kids. We desire to be close to our children emotionally, to have a deep relationship with them. That's just what the Father says to us also. His love for us was so strong that, before the universe existed, he knew he would have to sacrifice his own self, through the Son, to bring us into intimacy with him: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life"(John 3:16).
God has already made that move. We already belong to him as his children and he yearns for us to have that same intimacy with him. That relationship already exists, whether we see it or not. But the experience of it is up to us. How about it? Will you run into his arms and call him Daddy? It will change your life forever.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A Union Carpenter
Jesus, son of God and son of man, was a carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3). I guess that makes sense, because the Logos was the builder of the universe (John 1:3) so maybe it made sense for him to be a builder when he was a human (John 1:14) also. But did you know he was a union carpenter?
Okay, not like a labor union. But he was the perfect union of God and humanity, and that's very important. It surprises me to realize that it took four centuries for the church to decide this question. But there are a lot of crucial issues hanging on the answer.
Here's the background: Jesus was obviously a man. But he claimed the title "Son of Man" from Daniel 7:13, which everyone of his day recognized as a claim of divinity. Matthew 1:22-23 says that he was Immanuel, God with us, fulfilling Isa. 7:14 and 8:8-10. Scripture gives the Messiah divine (meaning Godly) titles in Isa. 9:6. The early church recognized him as divine/authoritative/Lord/Savior, for instance in 1 Cor 8:6.
The argument arose over whether the Son of God was only divine, so that the human form he assumed was only an illusion; or whether he was only human, which kept God away from being polluted by flesh. There were good-sounding arguments for both sides, yet both sides also had scriptures contradicting them. But what became more and more clear was that Jesus had to be fully God and fully human, even though that sounds impossible to us.
Gregory of Nanzianzus wrote it this way: "What has not been assumed has not been restored; it is what is united with God that is saved." That is, if flesh had not been completely 'assumed,' or taken on, by Jesus, then flesh -- that's all of us -- could not have been saved. In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon decided that "Only God can save; only that which God has become is saved." So if Jesus the Messiah had not been fully God and fully human, salvation wouldn't have worked. Jesus had to be a 'union carpenter' as it were.
So by fully 'assuming' flesh, Jesus became our perfect representative before the Father; and the Father's perfect representative to humanity. Isn't that amazing? Because of Christ, our broken flesh is fully reconciled to the Father. Though we still have human weakness and sin, those don't exclude us from the Father's presence, because Immanuel (God with us) is our eternal advocate before the Father (Heb. 7:25), and his perfect death paid for all our sins. (And he's still Immanuel, God with us, by the way -- see Matthew 28:20.)
Can we fully understand that? Not really. But we can look with awe on the God who figured out how to do it, and thank him that he did it for us. And keep thanking God for a certain 'union carpenter', forever.
Okay, not like a labor union. But he was the perfect union of God and humanity, and that's very important. It surprises me to realize that it took four centuries for the church to decide this question. But there are a lot of crucial issues hanging on the answer.
Here's the background: Jesus was obviously a man. But he claimed the title "Son of Man" from Daniel 7:13, which everyone of his day recognized as a claim of divinity. Matthew 1:22-23 says that he was Immanuel, God with us, fulfilling Isa. 7:14 and 8:8-10. Scripture gives the Messiah divine (meaning Godly) titles in Isa. 9:6. The early church recognized him as divine/authoritative/Lord/Savior, for instance in 1 Cor 8:6.
The argument arose over whether the Son of God was only divine, so that the human form he assumed was only an illusion; or whether he was only human, which kept God away from being polluted by flesh. There were good-sounding arguments for both sides, yet both sides also had scriptures contradicting them. But what became more and more clear was that Jesus had to be fully God and fully human, even though that sounds impossible to us.
Gregory of Nanzianzus wrote it this way: "What has not been assumed has not been restored; it is what is united with God that is saved." That is, if flesh had not been completely 'assumed,' or taken on, by Jesus, then flesh -- that's all of us -- could not have been saved. In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon decided that "Only God can save; only that which God has become is saved." So if Jesus the Messiah had not been fully God and fully human, salvation wouldn't have worked. Jesus had to be a 'union carpenter' as it were.
So by fully 'assuming' flesh, Jesus became our perfect representative before the Father; and the Father's perfect representative to humanity. Isn't that amazing? Because of Christ, our broken flesh is fully reconciled to the Father. Though we still have human weakness and sin, those don't exclude us from the Father's presence, because Immanuel (God with us) is our eternal advocate before the Father (Heb. 7:25), and his perfect death paid for all our sins. (And he's still Immanuel, God with us, by the way -- see Matthew 28:20.)
Can we fully understand that? Not really. But we can look with awe on the God who figured out how to do it, and thank him that he did it for us. And keep thanking God for a certain 'union carpenter', forever.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Start to Finish
Most of us like to have an example to follow, someone who has already gone before and knows the way. That is, unless you're one of those pioneer types that explored the North Pole on foot.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that we have an example who was the pioneer. Speaking of enduring in the Christian life, the writer says "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith." So as we look at the difficulties we face in life, we have an example to look to, of someone who had a much more difficult journey and has already gone ahead of us.
Much more than that, our pioneer completed the journey perfectly on our behalf. It's one thing to have an example to look to. But it doesn't help me to look to Kobe Bryant and imagine that I can slam-dunk the way he does! Nor, in that sense, does it help to look to Jesus' perfection and imagine that if I try extra hard, I will manage to measure up to his example of perfection!
The point being made here is that the perfect life-journey of Jesus himself wasn't just an example for us to follow. It's the story of the One who knew ahead of time that he would have to sacrifice ("Author, Pioneer, Captain, Founder" as this word is translated in different versions). Not only did he conceive that his infleshment would have to happen to bring humanity into oneness with God, he is the one who walked that journey himself, did it perfectly, and did it to full completion ("Finisher, Perfecter", in different versions). This might be similar to saying "the Alpha and Omega" as Jesus is described three times in Revelation.
The Greek here says "perfecter of the faith", not just "our faith." What does that mean? It means that faith itself is made perfect in Jesus Christ. Our measly human-effort faith only serves to identify us with his own perfect faith, which alone -- because it's perfect -- is acceptable before the Father. It means that his perfect journey --which alone is acceptable before the Father -- has already been made on our behalf. Our on-again, off-again human attempts at following Jesus identify us with his successful journey, and it's his perfect journey that we have faith in (surely not our own!).
How did he endure? Because he was fully human, and because he didn't ever use his divine powers for his own personal comfort, he had to use something powerful: "Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame." He knew that he would come out of the grave (Psalm 16:8-10) and rise to glory.
So he held on. And because we know he held on, we can hold on in the face of far less pain, persecution and shame than he endured. Because we know he was successful, we know that our salvation, in the end, is completely assured. So instead of looking to someone in the past, or trusting in our own measly efforts, we can keep our eyes on him -- who is our example, our captain, our guide and our guarantee of salvation.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that we have an example who was the pioneer. Speaking of enduring in the Christian life, the writer says "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith." So as we look at the difficulties we face in life, we have an example to look to, of someone who had a much more difficult journey and has already gone ahead of us.
Much more than that, our pioneer completed the journey perfectly on our behalf. It's one thing to have an example to look to. But it doesn't help me to look to Kobe Bryant and imagine that I can slam-dunk the way he does! Nor, in that sense, does it help to look to Jesus' perfection and imagine that if I try extra hard, I will manage to measure up to his example of perfection!
The point being made here is that the perfect life-journey of Jesus himself wasn't just an example for us to follow. It's the story of the One who knew ahead of time that he would have to sacrifice ("Author, Pioneer, Captain, Founder" as this word is translated in different versions). Not only did he conceive that his infleshment would have to happen to bring humanity into oneness with God, he is the one who walked that journey himself, did it perfectly, and did it to full completion ("Finisher, Perfecter", in different versions). This might be similar to saying "the Alpha and Omega" as Jesus is described three times in Revelation.
The Greek here says "perfecter of the faith", not just "our faith." What does that mean? It means that faith itself is made perfect in Jesus Christ. Our measly human-effort faith only serves to identify us with his own perfect faith, which alone -- because it's perfect -- is acceptable before the Father. It means that his perfect journey --which alone is acceptable before the Father -- has already been made on our behalf. Our on-again, off-again human attempts at following Jesus identify us with his successful journey, and it's his perfect journey that we have faith in (surely not our own!).
How did he endure? Because he was fully human, and because he didn't ever use his divine powers for his own personal comfort, he had to use something powerful: "Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame." He knew that he would come out of the grave (Psalm 16:8-10) and rise to glory.
So he held on. And because we know he held on, we can hold on in the face of far less pain, persecution and shame than he endured. Because we know he was successful, we know that our salvation, in the end, is completely assured. So instead of looking to someone in the past, or trusting in our own measly efforts, we can keep our eyes on him -- who is our example, our captain, our guide and our guarantee of salvation.
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