What 2011 Holds

So what’s going to happen in 2011?  As a new year begins, I’ve been thinking about the heart of the Gospel, and the important things in our Christian lives.

Some would say the heart of our message is love, or peace, or tolerance, or community.  In a sense, these things may be true.  But God has made it a lot more concrete.  To show us that it’s not about us – not about our attempts to love, our attempts to include people, to make peace, and so on – to show us that it’s about Him – He shows us exhibit A: a cross.

Paul says this in Galations 6:

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.  But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.  And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

(Gal 6:12-16)

All throughout the letter, Paul is talking about those who want to make a good showing in the flesh.  People are still like that today.  We want to find something that we can do that will look good to others, or that will look or feel good to ourselves.

People are making New Year’s Resolutions – there’s nothing wrong with that, of course – but these resolutions are all about what we can do better, or how we can do less, or prioritize.  We imagine ourselves living a better life – being a better version of ourselves…

But God shows us exhibit A: a cross.

In 2011, we won’t be able to brag about who we are, or what we’ve done.  But we’ll still be able to brag about the cross.

The cross.  God did it – He showed His love while we were still sinners.  God did it – He lived the perfect life, and obeyed right up until the point of death.  God did it – He created new people.  We did not create ourselves.  We did not give ourselves new hearts.  We can’t even renew ourselves – but we can be renewed (2Cor 4:16).

What does 2011 hold?  For believers, it’s the cross.

This is not our world (Rom 12:2).  It’s a world destroyed, a world being destroyed, a world that will be destroyed.  So what can we expect from it?  "…through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

In 2011, some of us will be asked to give our lives for the sake of the cross.  Will it be you? or me?

In 2011 some of us (most of us?) will have to deal with direct or indirect persecution for Christ’s sake.

…as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

(2Cor 6:4-10)

Hard times – that’s what we can expect from the world.  A cross.

But what can we expect from God?  Everything.  Yes, even in this world the grace of God rains down everywhere.  And even when the world has nothing left to give but grief and loss, we still have all that the cross gives us – we are accepted by God, we have hope for the future, we can leave behind the past, find forgiveness, see true love.

So in 2011 may we leave behind the world – die to it, and live to God.

Today I heard about this incident in the life of Jesus:

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?"

(Mark 8:31-37)

Yes, I want to live for the Lord in 2011.  But after all my attempts and failures, I can still celebrate what God has done, what He’s doing, what He will do.

May we rejoice in suffering in 2011.  May we join our brothers and sisters around the world who are in prison for the Gospel, who are being beaten because of the Gospel.  May we support them in prayer.  May we speak the Truth when they are silenced.  And if we are asked to join them, may we remember that this is the path God put us on from the start, when He asked us to take up our cross.

2011 is going to be great, because God is great!  May we see it with His eyes, and not our human world-focused eyes.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

(1Cor 1:18-24)