“clothed with our dwelling from heaven”
HOLY WEEK is upon us, the week begins as we walk through this day. HOLY WEEK. At fifty-seven, I find that several years of HOLY WEEK have occurred in my past, but not all, leading up to Easter, leading to Resurrection Sunday, have been ‘holy’ in my focus or approach. Today, I am convicted by that truth because I have been a Believer, a Christian, since the age of fifteen, but I have wasted many annual opportunities from the Father to walk within HIS HOLINESS throughout the days leading to EASTER SUNDAY.
THIS YEAR, I REFUSE TO ALLOW THE DEVIL TO STEAL WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO HOLY GOD!
Maybe you too.
“So Jesus said to them again,
(The Gospel According to John 10: 7-11 NASB)
[Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders, using figures of speech, but because they did not intimately know Jesus as their Savior, the religious leaders struggled to comprehend Jesus]
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door;
[JESUS CHRIST is the ONLY WAY to come to know GOD]
if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd;
the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
The Gospel According to John consists of twenty-one chapters, and Jesus’ crucifixion dominates 50% of this text. Since learning this statistic, I have begun to wonder—WHY?
Yes, why do the other Gospels record Jesus’ crucifixion, BUT WHY DID the Holy Spirit lead the apostle John to devote 50% of this Gospel to what occurred during the days leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross—HOLY WEEK?
To help understand, we find ourselves digging into the apostle Paul’s second letter to the believers living in the city Corinth.
“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down,
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5: 1-3 NASB)
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
For indeed in this house we groan,
longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,
inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.”
Consider for a time. Think back to the day you accepted Christ. Dwell there. See yourself as you were and now as you are. Clearly, on the outside, you have aged, but relatively, your outside body (your earthly tent) has remained the same. If your hair was red, well, then despite the presence of a few grey strands, still people identify you as a person with red hair. If you did not wear glasses back then but do now wear glasses resting on your nose, then still you are recognizable to those you meet. On the outside, we are pretty much the same, but that is where the division occurs—the inside has changed because once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, SUDDENLY & IMMEDIATELY we were clothed by God.
Yes, that is correct; we have now been clothed “with our dwelling from heaven,” and our Father God recognizes us as His children because “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
God recognizes us as His children because of the robe of Jesus’ righteousness we have received, the covering our sins with the shed blood of JESUS!
- We look in the mirror and suddenly see ourselves not as the world sees us but as God does!
- We walk throughout our days and suddenly the world of people surrounding us see us display the Fruit of the Spirit, doing things, reacting, speaking, and acting in a way we never before appeared.
They may scratch their heads, see our outside body, and wonder: WHAT CHANGED?
Here’s the CHANGE!
Here’s the MIRACLE!
- WE HAVE RECEIVED A ‘NEW BIRTH’!
- OUR FATHER CHANGED US FROM THE INSIDE OUT!
Even though our outside body continues to live and continues to age, inside our body—we are now MADE BRAND NEW—because GOD’S AMAZING GRACE—CHANGED US & MADE US BRAND NEW THROUGHOUT OUR BEING!
WHO WE WERE—HAS BEEN TOTALLY CHANGED TO WHO WE NOW ARE THROUGH HIM!
- FATHER GOD GAVE US NEW LIFE THROUGH HIS AMAZING GRACE OF NEW BIRTH!
Christian artist Brandon Heath sings the melody “I’m Not Who I Was” that displays through song what I am attempting to write. Please pause to listen.
- God is at work within us—within His children!
- God is working in His people, in His work, doing Spiritual work in the lives of people, even more than we can see with our earthly eyes!
For a time, we remain here on earth, and our walk is not always easy because we encounter struggles of health, challenges of others opposing our faith, and burdens that often seem way too heavy to carry. Nevertheless, the apostle Paul provides us assurance, reminding the believers at Corinth (and us living today too).
“For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed,
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5: 4-5 NASB)
so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God,
who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.”
Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross is not a secondary item within God’s Word.
- Jesus’ death.
- Jesus’ burial in the tomb.
- Jesus’ resurrection to new life.
This is the CORE of all the SCRIPTURES!
This is why HOLY WEEK is so IMPORTANT—
- To the lost soul wandering in the world of darkness &
- To the saved soul who has received the pledge of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us!
So, why did the Holy Spirit lead the apostle John to devote 50% of The Gospel According to John to the events that occurred during the days leading up Jesus’ death on the cross—HOLY WEEK?
THE ANSWER—
BECAUSE THE CRUCIFIXION, THE DEATH, THE BURIAL & THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS IS EVERYTHING!
“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down,
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5: 1 & 6-9 NASB)
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.”
. . .
“Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body
we are absent from the Lord—
for we walk by faith, not by sight—
we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body
and to be at home with the Lord.
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”