December 8, 2015

Tuesday: “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (Matthew 16:23).

            John was a prophet, called by God to prepare the way for His Son. He was also a man of his times, shaped and limited by the world he lived in. This is clear from the fact that John expected judgment to come and to come soon. “The ax is already at root of the tree.” First-century Judaism widely believed that God’s great day of intervention and judgment was near at hand. (In that way, first-century Judaism and twenty-first century Christianity are similar.)

            The thing is that John didn’t have in mind the things of God. Jesus describes the concerns of God this way, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Before He would visit judgment on a sin-fallen world, the Lord would provide atonement for the sins of that world. That’s important: before He will bring judgment, our God offers mercy in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it’s a good question for us: Do we lead with grace or with judgment when we think about those outside the family of God?