reading for: 17 March

John 12:20-33

The glorified Christ on the Cross

• READ

John 12 is at a point in the life of Jesus in which he has entered Jerusalem for the final time in his earthly life and he was about to be crucified shortly. The passage starts with some Greeks (Gentiles) coming to Philip and telling Philip that they wished to see Jesus. Philip went to look for Andrew and together with Andrew they went to look for Jesus. (v20-22)

Jesus replied that the time has come for him to be glorified. (v23) He was clearly referring to his impending death on the cross because in verse 24, he compares himself to a kernel of wheat that falls on the ground and dies. Jesus sees his impending death on the Cross as a work that will not only glorify him but also glorify the Father who sent him. A voice of heaven came and spoke these words “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (v28) confirming that the cross will bring the Father glory. Jesus also sees his impending death on the Cross as a work that will bear fruit (v24). After he is lifted up from the Cross, he will draw all man to himself. (v32)

The work of Christ on the Cross is not just a shameful and humiliating act, but it is an act that shows forth the glorified Christ and his Father. It is a work that will be long lasting and bear fruit.

How then should we respond to this glorified Christ on the cross? Jesus tells us in verse 25 and 26 how we are to respond. Jesus calls on his hearers to hate their life in this world. They are not to love their life in this world. (v25) The world is a deceitful place, in it we have many distractions which we love in this world. In it, we can choose to do actions that will bring us glory and honour but do not glorify Christ. Disciples of Christ need to choose a different way, to learn what it means to serve and follow him. We must be prepared to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. (Matthew 16:24-25) This are the people that the Father will honour. (v26)

• REFLECT

  Pray that God will open our eyes to learn to see the work of Christ on the Cross as a that shows forth the glory of Christ and his Father. What is one way in which we love our life in this world? Pray that God will help us to learn to surrender our life in this world to him and learn to serve him and follow him.

reading for: 18 March

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The glorified Christ as the mediator of the new covenant

• READ

  In today’s passage, the Lord declares that the days are coming when he will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah which is not like the covenant that he made with Israel in Mount Sinai. (v31-32) The Lord made a covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 and 20 when the law was written on tablets of stone. Israel failed to live up to the covenant at Mount Sinai(v32).

  Instead, the Lord will make a covenant with Israel and Judah when the law will be written on their hearts. This new covenant will be a covenant that the people of Israel will all know the Lord, for they will be the people of God. This will be a covenant where their sins will be forgiven by the Lord. (v33-34) Deuteronomy 30:6 makes essentially the same point that the people’s hearts had to be circumcised.

  The Glorified Christ is the Lord, he is the mediator of the new covenant through his work on the cross. (Hebrews 9:15) We as believers and the people of God in Christ are grafted into Israel. (Romans 11:11-24) For those who receive Christ become the people of God, the people that will know him and have their sins forgiven.  We are the people of God in Christ that will have the law of the Lord written on our hearts.

• REFLECT

  Have we received Christ in our hearts? For those who have received Christ, do we see ourselves as the people of God, people who have the law of God written on our hearts, people who truly know God? Pray that God will help us to understand and live out the reality of who we are, as the people who truly know God and have the law written on our hearts.

reading for: 19 March

Hebrews 5:5-10

The glorified Christ bringing salvation to us

• READ

  Aaron was the first high priest in the Old Testament who was appointed by God. In the same way, in this passage we read of Jesus being appointed by God to be the high priest. Christ did not appoint and designate himself as the high priest. (v5) Jesus only took up the glory and honour of the high priestly office because the Father appointed him. The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 2:7 to make the point that Jesus who is the begotten Son of God is the same one that is also the high priest.

  Unlike Aaron, Jesus is and forever will be the high priest. The author of Hebrews makes this point in his quotation of Psalm 110:4. Aaron was the high priest till the point of his death at Mount Hor. All future high priests who were descendants of Aaron also died.

  Jesus is a high priest that is not only appointed by the Father. Jesus is a high priest that understands our struggles and pains. Because in his life on earth he offered up loud cries and prayers to the Father who freed him from the power of death. Jesus learnt what it meant to obey the Father in his time on earth, through the various events in his life where he had to choose to obey. (v7-8) It is only because of the obedience of Jesus in his life and crucifixion that those who obey him can have eternal salvation. Previously in Hebrews 3:18 and Hebrews 4:6,11, the author had already warned the listeners not to repeat the sins of Israel especially the generation that wandered in the wilderness.  Instead, the author exhorts his readers to obey and believe Christ.

• REFLECT

  What does it mean for us that Jesus as High Priest is the source of salvation for us? And how is that a continuing work in our lives? (ref Heb 5:2)  Do we obey Christ, or are we like the people of Israel in the Old Testament who wandered around in the desert, often refusing to obey God? Pray that God will give us the strength to obey Christ in all that we are and all that we do.

reading for: 20 March

Psalm 119:9-16

Obeying the glorified Christ

• READ

  In the previous three readings of the week, we have seen the work that the glorified Christ has done in his life on the earth and on the Cross, how he is the mediator of the new covenant and the bringer of salvation. We have also seen how we are to respond to him by receiving and obeying him. Psalm 119:9-16 continues to show us how we are to respond to the glorified Christ.

  Psalm 119:9-16 starts of with a question of “How can a young man keep his way pure.” The response to that question is that he must guard it with the word of the Lord. (v9) The psalm then continues in verse 10 to 16 shows us the cry of the young man heart, how he seeks the Lord with his whole heart, how he does not want to wander from the commandments of the lord, how he does not want to sin.  He can do all that because he has stored the word of the Lord in his heart. He so delights in the word of the Lord.

  Just like this young man, we need to delight in the word of the Lord, we need to ask the Lord to teach us his word, to write his words on our hearts.  We need to learn what it means not to sin and to keep his commandments. In short, we need to learn what it means to obey Christ.
  

• REFLECT

  Pray that we will delight in the word of the Lord, that we will not wander from the commandments that he has written on our hearts. How can we delight in the word of the Lord? How can we obey the word of the Lord?