Friday, December 31, 2010

December 30, 2010

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." (Ephesians 1:17)

It was Thomas Edison who once said, "we don't know one millionth of one percent about anything." Even someone who has devoted their entire life to studying something, and who is considered the premier expert in their field, probably really doesn't have command of all the idiosyncrasies surrounding their area of expertise. As complex as anything in this world is, that "anything" is still just the creation. How much more complex and deep is the creator of the creation! "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things." (Romans 11:33-36) It's obvious that if we humans can't even get a tip of the iceberg grasp on anything in the creation, that we will certainly never be able to wrap our minds around the complexity of the creator of the creation. But the good news is that the Holy Spirit uses the Good News and the Word of God to reveal no less than than all the wisdom and knowledge necessary for our eternal survival. Remember what we are told in the closing words of John's Gospel? "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31) We have the written words that we may have life in His name. We have the "...Holy Scriptures, which are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15)

Without the Holy Spirit however, the Holy Scriptures themselves would be nonsense to us - the Scriptures would be but foolishness that requires discernment that's beyond our comprehension. Luther had it right in his explanation to the 3rd Article of the Creed, "I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith." Or think of what the Apostle Paul wrote, "No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3) Without the Spirit, we would have no understanding or be able to conceive or percieve the message of the wisdom of God. (here comes a big chunk of Scripture - avoid the temptation to skim over it - allow the Spirit to use these words, "so that you may know him better") "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2: 6-15) Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who has opened our eyes and minds, and who has revealed to us just what we need to understand about the out of this world wisdom of God!

Yes, none of us now know even a fraction of one millionth of one percent of the wisdom of God, but because of the work of the Spirit and through faith, all of us know one hundred percent of what we need to know to be prepared to share in the inheritance waiting for we who are God's holy people. Knowing enough however, shouldn't hinder our hunger for learning more, because the better we get to know Him and the more we grow in the knowledge of Him, the stronger our faith will become. While we are in the flesh and while we are in the world and while the devil is doing his best to find a way to devour us, our faith needs to be as strong as possible so that we may endure, moving forward day by day towards the perfection of fully knowing God, which we will experience when we begin to enjoy our inheritence in heaven. May God "fill [us]with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that [we] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that [we] may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light."(Colossians 1:9-14) My prayer for you (and for myself) for the new year is that God would continue to "give [us] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [we] may know Him better!"

O Holy Spirit, thanks and praise
in this new year we render,
For you have led our eyes to see
Your truth in all its splendor
And thus enkindled from above
within our hearts true faith and love
And other Christian virtues. (CW 72:3)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

December 23, 2010

Because of all the special services that will take place on December 24th, it's likely that the Scripture that we are going to consider here won't be heard in many, or even any of your churches. Nevertheless, this Lesson happens to serve as our Epistle Lesson for Christmas Eve.

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." (Titus 2:11-14) (NIV 2010)

Maybe it's just the practicality in me, but the first thing that I do after I crack open and identify a Christmas gift that I am receiving, is to try and determine how I am going to use it, or what I am going to do with it. As mentioned a few devotions ago, just because it's cliche' doesn't make it in any less true - the greatest (Christmas) gift this world has ever seen is the gift God gave us - His Son Jesus Christ. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) This Christmas, as we crack open God's Word and identify and ponder the Good Message of the Christmas story - that God loved us enough to give us what was most precious to Him - His Son, let's ask ourselves, now what? Let's determine how we are going to respond to receiving the greatest gift and what we are going to do with the greatest gift.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8) We have been purified and and redeemed and consequently by grace, and through faith, we have been given the gift of salvation. Now that we have our ticket to Salvation punched, we should be good to live and to do and to follow the world in doing what pleases ourselves - right? After all, after we sin, can't we just whip out our "salvation gift card" and use it to pay for those sins? As though we are going to somehow make God greater - as though the more we give in to worldly passions and ungodly living, the more merciful God will be and the more His grace will increase. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:1-2, 15) God didn't give us the blood of His Son to purify us, so that we can be free to dirty things up to whatever degree we please. No, God gave us the gift of Jesus, "to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

When we begin to identify and realize the magnitude of the gift that we have been given - when we begin to fully contemplate the fact that God gave us this gift, we will begin to realize that God did everything He did, as Luther put it in his explanation to the Second Article, "that I should be his own, and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness." God gave us the gift so that we can be set apart as His own children - living lives in the world, but not being of the world. Our natural response to this gift will be to "just say no" to sin and to be "eager to do what is good." When we crack open the gift of God's Son, we will naturally want to find a way to say thanks. When we live "self controlled, upright and godly lives," in accordance with God's commands, we are expressing thanks, "This is love for God to obey His commands," (I John 5:3) and we can say thanks for the greatest gift ever, by living our life for Him - as He wants us to live.


And I have brought to thee down from my home above,
Salvation full and free, my pardon and my love.
Great gifts I brought for thee; come bring thy gifts to me.

Oh, let thy life be spent, thy years for me be giv'n,
as I for thee was sent to bear thee home to heav'n.
I gave my life for thee; come, give thy life to me. (CW 454: 5,6)


Our first natural response to receiving the Good News and the greatest gift, is to live as redeemed and purified people of God. What are we going to do with the gift? We are naturally going to be eager to do what is good. This message is made abundantly clear in this Epistle Lesson from Titus. But there's another response that's a little more hidden, but no less important. "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people." The gift isn't offered to just a few select people - it's offered to all. "God our Savior, wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth," (I Timothy 2:4) or think of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) This gift is for all, but it only can be received through faith. "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) The world needs the word of Christ. The world needs to hear the message. We have the message. Let's tell the world the message! In our society the idea of "re-gifting" carries with it a negative connotation. You re-gift when you receive something that you don't know what to do with - so you give it to someone else. We have received the gift of eternal life from our God and naturally we will want to re-gift it, but not because we have no use for it ourselves, rather because it's use in our lives is a necessity and we know that it's use in the lives of others is necessary for their salvation too. There's plenty of God's gift to go around - there's enough gift for all men in the whole world - let's get re-gifting. "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!" (Romans 5:15) One of our natural responses to the gift of God - the Savior born in Bethlehem - is to re-gift the gift. To spread the Good News. To share the fact that God has offered salvation to all people.

We have received the greatest gift ever. This Christmas as we once again consider the fact that the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord is God's gift to us, we should consider how we will respond to receiving the gift. The gift of becoming one of God's redeemed and purified people, motivates us and causes us to naturally respond by being eager to do what is good. The gift also motivates us and causes us to naturally respond by not keeping quiet about the gift we have received. The gift that we have received can also be received by all people. Let's share and re-gift the Good News - the greatest Christmas gift ever - to all people starting with the "all people" that God has placed in our lives. These responses will please God and are our small way of simply saying thanks to God for the greatest gift ever - the gift of Jesus. "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

December 16, 2010

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:22-23)

"Oh, rejoice, all Christians loudly, for our joys have now begun; wondrous things our God has done. Tell abroad his goodness proudly, who our race has honored so, that He lives with us below, Joy, oh joy beyond all gladness, Christ has done away with sadness! Hence all sorrow and repining, for the Sun of grace is shining!" (CW 45:1)

We as Christians do have reason to be rejoicing loudly. The wondrous things that God has done and the very essence of Christmas is that Christ came from heaven above, to earth, to join the human race. And this is exactly what needed to be done in order to redeem us humans and do away with our sadness. This Good News is our joy, which causes us to rejoice. And as we are rejoicing during this crazed time of year, with (as the Advent prayer writer in Christian Worship puts it) the "stress of deadlines and the frenzy of commercialism," we might appear to be acting strange to the watching world. When someone in the watching world catches us rejoicing loudly - maybe we are humming or whistling a Christmas hymn, or maybe we are just smiling obnoxiously - when someone catches us rejoicing loudly, they just might ask us, "what's with you?" Our joy as Christians has nothing to do with what's with us, but has everything to do with who's with us.

God has been with His people throughout the ages. We think of how God was always with the children of Israel in the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. "Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." (Exodus 13:22) We think of how God was with the people of the Psalm writer's day, "The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress" (Psalm 46:7) We think of how God will continue to be with His people, as Jesus promised before he physically left the world, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) These are comforting thoughts to us as Christians, to know that God is with us always - that God is omnipresent. But what about all those dark times when we give in to one or all of the temptations and lies of the unholy trinity - the devil, the world, our sinful flesh? At those times are we comforted by the fact that God is with us always? During our dark times the thought that God is with us and sees not only our dark actions, but also our dark thoughts and hearts could cause us to be discomforted and could cause us to repine, to be sorrowful, to be sad.

But what we haven't fully considered in this devotion yet is that Jesus also came to be with us in a different sense as He came to join the human race. Why did Jesus take on human flesh? Paul in his first letter to Timothy includes the incarnation as one of the great mysteries of God, "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He (God) appeared in a body, (in the flesh) was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory." (1 Timothy 3:16) Why God loved us enough to send His only Son cannot be fully understood and will remain somewhat of a mystery to us humans. Perhaps the best explanation is the simplest one - "God is love." (1 John 4:16) What we do know is that because our God operates with justice, He needed to take on flesh and blood. "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:25-26) C. S. Lewis explains why God became man as he once put it this way: "The Son of God became a man that men might become sons of God." "God made him who had no sin to be sin (or a sacrifice for sin) for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) God needed to come to be with us and to take on flesh and blood so that He could sacrifice blood to atone for the sins of the world. "The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

And because Jesus, our Immanuel, carried out the plan of Salvation that rescued us from the darkness - a plan which required Him to be born and take on flesh and blood, to live a perfect life in the flesh as our substitute, and to sacrifice His blood that washed away our sins - we now want nothing more than to have Jesus, the shining Sun of grace, to be with us and to stay with us. I'm reminded of the text to a beautiful work sung by choirs around the world - Egil Hovland's Stay With Us. "Stay with us, Lord Jesus. It soon is evening and night is falling. Jesus Christ, the world's true light, shines where the darkness cannot overcome it. Let your light pierce the darkness and fill the Church with its glory." (Luke 24:29) and (John 8:12).

Because Jesus, our Immanuel, not only came to live with and be with us, but because He also came to live for us and die for us and redeem us, we want nothing more than to have our Lord be with us as our light, and stay with us until it's time for Him to take us home so that we can be with Him forever. "Joy oh joy beyond all gladness, Christ has done away with sadness." We don't have to wait to begin rejoicing until we reach our heavenly home where we will be completely void of all sadness. No, because of our hope, and through faith in our Immanuel, our joys have now begun! And if we should get caught rejoicing loudly, and if we are asked, "what's with you?" let's take that as our cue to respond by explaining that it's not what's with us, but it's who's with us. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who came to become one of us and live and die for us. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who is not only with us, but who, through faith, also can be with those to whom we tell His goodness proudly. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who will be coming again to take us to be with Him forever. We rejoice in Jesus, our Immanuel! Amen. Thank you Immanuel for coming into this world as our redeemer, stay with us now and come again Lord Jesus to take us to be with you forever! Amen

Saturday, December 11, 2010

December 9, 2010

"When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matthew 11:2-5)

I imagine that most of us are familiar with, and remember the PBS children's television program, hosted by Levar Burton, called "Reading Rainbow." But do you recall how the show always ended? The program ended with a children's book report segment which was kicked off by Burton's signature phrase: "But you don't have to take my word for it."

We're not told why John sent his disciples to Jesus to question whether or not Jesus was the promised Messiah. Some think that John himself was doubting whether Jesus really was the promised Messiah. John was in prison and probably had been there from some time. Maybe he just couldn't help but think and question, after he heard about all the miracles that Christ was doing, why Jesus wasn't helping him. Don't we ourselves follow that line of thinking from time to time? When we're stuck in a really tough situation, do we ever find ourselves questioning where is God and why isn't He helping us (as we think He should be)? Maybe doubt is why John sent his disciples to pose the question to Jesus, but let's not forget the crystal clear confession of faith that John provided when he first saw Jesus in the desert. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” (John 1:29-31) John certainly wasn't doubting in the wilderness, but perhaps the mental anguish caused by time spent in prison was wearing him down. Perhaps John was doubting.

Or, maybe John was sending his disciples to Jesus, not for his own good, but for their own good. Martin Luther liked this theory, he weighed in by writing, "It is certain that John proposes the question for the sake of his disciples; for they did not yet deem Christ to be He whom they should believe Him to be. And John had not come to draw disciples and the people to himself, but to prepare the way for Christ and bring all men to Christ, making them subject to Him." (Luther 11:75) It's as though John was saying, this is Jesus, the promised One, "but you don't have to take my word for it." Go see and go ask for yourselves. A good teacher knows that having their students go through the process of figuring out the answer, rather than just feeding them the answer, is most beneficial for the student.

We aren't able to go be eyewitnesses of Jesus. We walk by faith and not by sight, but in our walk of faith, we have something that John the Baptist's disciples didn't fully have. "From infancy [we] have known the holy Scriptures, (including prophecies and some fulfillment of those prophecies) which are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15) It's likely that all of us have had "John the Baptists" in our lives. We have had people who pointed us to Christ - people like Christian parents, Christian Day School teachers, Sunday School teachers, Pastors. Do we just take the word of the "John the Baptists" in our lives, or do we go to the Word and examine what we are being fed to make sure it is good food? I am reminded of a group whose personal "John the Baptist" was the Apostle Paul - remember the Bereans? "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11) How's that for not just taking Paul's word for it? When Levar Burton said, "but you don't have to take my word for it," a book review of a good children's book followed. When we, like the Bereans, realize that we don't have to (and shouldn't) take anyone's word for it either, a "Good Book" review should follow.

A residual effect of reviewing and examining the Scriptures everyday, is coming to a better understanding of what our purpose is in this world. I am blessed to be often reminded that our purpose as Christians is to be ambassadors for Christ, and it's not a question of whether or not we want the job, it's a question of how well we are going to do the job. "And [God] has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:20) Before Jesus made his first entrance into ministry in the world, God made his appeal through one of His ambassadors named John the Baptist. Right now during this time before Jesus makes his second and final entrance into the world, God is making his appeal through us. We are ambassadors of the message of reconciliation. We are "John the Baptists" to those around us, as we show others why they need Jesus Christ and then point them in the direction of Jesus Christ - just as John the Baptist did for his disciples even while he was in prison. And the more well versed in the verses of Scripture we become, the more we are equipped by the Holy Spirit to be able to point people in the right direction so we are able to say, "but you don't have to take my word for it," take a look at this passage or story which will help you with what you are struggling with. The more well-versed we are in the verses of Scripture the better ambassadors we become.


John the Baptist's disciples didn't have to take his word for it because they were able to go to the Word made flesh (John 1:14). We, like the Bereans, don't have to take anyone's word for it either because we can take everything and filter it through the Word of God to examine whether or not it is in line with God and His will. When we, like the Bereans, examine the Scriptures every day and receive the message with great eagerness, we become better equipped ambassadors of Christ. To those, who through us God is making His appeal, we can say,"the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." We can say that because of sin we are all spiritually blind, lame, diseased, deaf, dead and poor. But because Jesus took care of our sins and the sins of the world, our eyes have been opened, we are healed from the disease of sin, we hear the Good News, we will live eternally, and we are now Spiritually rich. And then we can say "but you don't have to take my word for it," rather take to the Word of God where the Spirit still speaks to us and strengthens our faith and makes us more and more sure that Jesus is the one who was spoken of by the prophets - Jesus is the long expected Savior - our Savior!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

December 2, 2010

"And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham." (Matthew 3:9)

The son of a prominent community figure asks the local authority who has pulled them over on suspicion of drunk driving: "Don't you know whose son I am?" As though whose son he was would be the ticket to avoiding a ticket and the way to get out of trouble. We don't have such a quote in our Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, maybe this is because John the baptizer gets ahead of the Pharisees and Sadducees who joined him in the desert by providing them with the warning - "And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father." The Pharisees may have thought that whose sons they were - the fact that Abraham's blood was running through their veins - caused them to be exempt from needing to truly repent. As though whose sons they were, and consequently who they were and the "good life" that they lived, would be the ticket to their salvation and their ticket to favor with God. In the Gospel of John we learn that the one and only ticket to God the Father is through the Father's one and only Son Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

We, who are gentiles, aren't sons of Abraham like the Pharisees and the Sadducees were, but ALL of us are sons of mankind's first father - Adam. God created our first father, Adam, from dust- "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have just given up on mankind. God could have started over, and this time instead of using dust, He could have used stones as his creation medium to create new living beings. Wouldn't that have been an easier plan?

But God didn't take an easy route. He didn't give up on mankind. It was His pleasure and His will to save sinners and bring them, not just into Abraham's family, but to bring all who believe into His family. Instead of using stones to start over and create children, He sacrificed and gave His one and only Son, and sent Him into the world so that through repentance and through faith in that Son, we have the privilege of being God's adopted sons. Just because the phrase is cliche' doesn't mean that it's not true or that it's not worth pondering and appreciating - God the Father giving the world His only Son was, and always will be, the greatest Christmas gift ever. God lavished us with the greatest gift ever - through the gift of Jesus Christ we are the Father's adopted sons! "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Ephesians 1:5-7) God the Father lavished us with love and lavished us with the gift of His Son Jesus, the One He loves. The One who lived the perfect life that the Father expected, that we could not, in our place! The One who died to pay for all the times when we did not live life perfectly and according to the Father's will. Because of what Jesus did for us, we are the loving Father's adopted children! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (I John 3:1)

If we ever have a day when our spirits are down, a day where it just seems like the worldly people among us - the "sons of the world" - are getting all the breaks, while we as Christians suffer all the setbacks - we should remember that the world and its cheap thrills will soon pass away, but the Alpha and the Omega and what He offers is eternal. The people of the world are "sons of the world," but we are "sons of the Alpha and Omega." We can say to ourselves, "We have God as our Father!" We can encourage fellow Christians by reminding them with the question: "Don't you know (or aren't you considering) whose sons we are?"

Whose sons we are makes all the difference for us now, and for the world to come. While John the baptist was preparing the way for Jesus' first entrance into the world, we are in a state of preparing to celebrate Jesus' first entrance into the world, even as we are concurrently also in a state of preparing for Jesus' next and final entrance into the world - when Jesus will be the judge of all. "For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." (Romans 14:10-12)

While it probably would be somewhat disrespectful to phrase it in this way, when we approach the judgment seat, we will be able to say to Jesus, when He asks for our account, "Don't you know whose son I am?" The only reason we will be saved from being sent to be burned up in the unquenchable fire is because of whose son we are. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Galatians 3:26-27) When, in faith, we clothe ourselves with Christ, our Savior and Brother, we clothe ourselves with everything that He merited for us and we will have a perfect record to present on Judgment Day. We can say (with joy) to ourselves that, "We have God as our Father!" How incredible is that?