Year 5, Day 83: 1 Corinthians 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I haven’t spoken about challenge lately, so I think that it is time to do so.  So often when we think about forgiveness, we think of it in terms of grace and invitation.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is an incredible display of grace and it is probably the greatest invitation we could ever hope to receive.  So it is all about grace and invitation.

However, the way Paul talks about it here I can’t also help but feel the challenge.  Paul talks about the grain going into the ground to die.  The grain goes into the ground and something completely unexpected and totally different emerges!  That’s pretty high challenge.

I realize that Paul is using this analogy to talk about our pre-death and our post-death existence.  But does it have to be so limited?  Do I for a moment think that God is happy with me waiting until I’m dead and gone before I start to make that metamorphosis?  Isn’t part of taking up my cross and following Him something that requires change not unlike the grain that goes into the ground and comes out a plant?  Isn’t that what being crucified with Christ is all about – so that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me?

Whenever we talk about the crucifixion it is both a high invitation and high challenge conversation.  We are invited into God’s family through that act.  But we are also challenged to be more like Him.  Being a part of God’s family means being willing to be like that seed that dies so that something better and more useful can be brought forth.

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