Boundless Mercy

“All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is his boundless mercy that has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family. Now we live in the hope of eternal life because Christ rose again from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3

I love a good magic show. Whether it is up-close street magic or a grand staged event, I always enjoy the illusions. As a child I picked up a couple of card tricks and couldn’t wait to spring them on my friends. I had a slight advantage, my dad being and amateur magician. Because of my father’s interest I also read graphic novels (they were called comic books back then) about both Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone.

The question left haunting everyone’s mind is always, “How do they do that?” Most times we are left to puzzle the answer because the magician’s code demands the secrets never to be revealed. Since dad did a few illusions, I got to be on the “inside” and sometimes figure out how a particular illusion might be done. 

Most times, though, I am guessing right along with everyone else, amazed at the disappearing maiden, the correct card chosen, or the flock of doves transformed into a bouquet of silks.

I hesitate to compare the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the work of an illusionist, but here is the thought: the stage magician does things to entertain and he uses sleight-of-hand and misdirection to accomplish his tricks. There is nothing other-worldly about anything he does. Also, though the best magicians are highly entertaining, they provide little else for those involved.

For instance, after a magician places handkerchiefs into a top hat and pulls out a rabbit, the handkerchiefs still remain. The handkerchiefs have not become the rabbit; there is not molecular machine that transforms woven silk into a large-eared mammal. Somewhere on stage there still exist those initial handkerchiefs.

But God, wanting to show both His power and His love for us sent Jesus to die by the cruel method of crucifixion, taking the punishment for the sins of all men and women on Himself. And, to punctuate that great act with living proof, God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Many books have been written showing the overriding evidence that Jesus, once dead and sealed in the tomb, showed Himself to over 500 people during a period of forty days. The tomb was occupied for barely three days, and remains empty. So much so, that no one, until centuries later, even attempted to make a shrine of the empty tomb. That is secondary when you know the resident of the tomb is fully alive.

That resurrection is an explosive illustration of what happens when we put our faith in Christ. The same power that breathed life back into the stiff corpse on the cold stone renews our own lives. We were as good as dead spiritually. Our lives were no more than tombs even though we fancied ourselves full of light and vigor. As much as the dead body was nothing like the resurrected Jesus, even so our new lives in Christ are energetic, spiritually lively, full of compassion and reoriented to live with Jesus at the very center or our being.

We are brand new people, part of a brand new family. We aren’t “born again” just to keep on living solitary lives. We are adopted instantly into the family of Creator God. We may have worshiped Him. We may have debated His character. We may have studied Him, mused about His existence. We may have even loved Him, written about Him and sung to Him. But, far greater than all of that, we know call Him Father.

We live each day with eternal hope. We struggle with the memory of our old life and its constant influence. Sometimes we even grow weary of the battle and think it easier to go back and hide in the darkness again. 

But then we remember our family Name. We recall the light we walk in, the unfathomable love we receive, the dynamic power we are given, all out of God’s mercy. Though the day may be challenging, once we remember our eternal hope because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, then the very least we can do is say, “All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Never let me forget, Father, the family You offer to me, and the lengths You went to for me to experience this new life in Christ. I place my hope, today and the future, in Your eternal mercy.