How does the gospel shape us? (2 Cor. 5)
The Apostle Paul, by Rembrandt. Image from WikiMedia Commons. This week the church in many places celebrates the final week of the life of Christ, culminating this coming Sunday in the celebration of the death of Christ. This coming Friday is Good Friday, because it was on this day that our Lord died and secured eternal redemption for us. Every year, I try to preach a sermon on the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday, but every year I also feel funny about that because I always feel like I needed to have preceded it with a message on the death of Christ. Since I am always usually in the middle of a sermon series when Easter comes around, it means that the sermon before Easter is a sermon in that series, which may or may not deal with the cross of Christ as the explicit theme of the message (though I hope it has always been connected to it!). But this year, having just finished Romans 8 two week before Easter, I have had a chance to anticipate t...
