Books about gardening can describe various vegetables, but you can't grow vegetables just by reading aloud to a garden plot. Dirt can't grow corn just by being told what corn is like. It takes living seeds, not just words. In the same way, you can't grow in obedience to God's law simply by hearing words. The reality described in those words must be planted and nurtured inside you by the Holy Spirit.

This Spirit-driven growth in holiness--called sanctification--is a process, not a once for all event. We saw yesterday that when we are justified by faith, God gives us a new standing and credits Jesus' perfection to us. Despite our sin, he declares us not guilty and adopts us as his children, freely and forever. Justification is a once for all declaration which completely changes our standing. Sanctification, by contrast, is an ongoing process which gradually changes our character. In this process, the Spirit's life is stronger than the old sinful nature, just as newly planted seedlings are stronger than weeds that have been plowed under. Still, more weeds do spring up, and the seedlings still have a lot of growing to do. Once the Spirit's seedlings of holiness are growing in us, we also need his "weed and feed": the Spirit shrivels sinful weeds and feeds the good plants of obedience to God's will. The plants will be mature, full of ripe, Christlike fruit, when God's new creation reaches perfection.

Suppose you work hard and do everything your boss tells you. Then, on payday, he hands you a check for the amount you've earned and says, "Here's a gift for you." Wouldn't you feel insulted? That's no gift--he owes you! You earned that money. "When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation" (Romans 4:3).

If we always kept the Ten Commandments, if we loved God and loved others without fail, salvation would be not a gift but an obligation, something we deserve. However, the fact is, we've sinned many times. Even as Christians, we often break the Ten Commandments; we don't love God and others perfectly. God doesn't owe us anything except the wages of sin: death (Romans 6:23). We cannot be justified--have a right standing with God--based on our efforts.

In the books of God's perfect memory, he is keeping an exact record of everything we think, say, and do. Can God really keep track of every last thing about billions of people? Well, even humans can store astonished amounts of information on computer, so the Almighty can surely maintain a complete record of what happens in his universe. At the final judgment the books will be opened, and the Lord will publicly display the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about your entire life.

Then another book will be opened, "the Lamb's book of life." The Lamb is Jesus, and the book of life is the record of all who are saved by his blood and follow him in faith. Your eternal future depends on whether or not your name is in the book of life. God's judgment about you will be based on whether you have a saving relationship to Jesus.

Paul "would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." The great missionary loved living in his body, working for Jesus and helping others. But Paul knew that when death destroyed his body, Jesus would be waiting to welcome his soul home, and that thought thrilled him.

After Paul died, his spirit would exist without a body ("this tent") until he got a glorified body on resurrection day ("a building from God"). The thought of not having a body for awhile didn't appeal to Paul ("we do not wish to be unclothed"). But his misgivings about leaving his body behind were overwhelmed by his eagerness to be at home with his dear Lord.

When Jesus went up into the air and disappeared in a cloud, his followers kept gazing upward, wondering what had happened. They soon got the answer from two angels: Jesus had gone into heaven.

When Jesus left this earth, he did more than change location. Heaven isn't just a nicer planet in a distant galaxy. Heaven is the realm of the eternal, the place of direct, unclouded contact with the Father. Jesus entered heaven in his glorified body, and he will remain there until he comes again and brings heaven to earth.

When Jesus rose from the dead, it was hard for his friends to believe it. When Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty, she at first thought someone had moved the body (John 20:13). When some women heard the angelic message about the risen Lord and told the apostles, "they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (Luke 24:11). Even when Jesus stood right in front of them, they still had a hard time believing he was alive (Luke 24:37; Matthew 28:17). It seemed impossible.

But what was really impossible was that Jesus stay dead. Why? Because of what God said. God said in Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would die and then live again. Jesus could stay in the tomb only if God was lying--and it is impossible for God to lie.

Some people blame the Jews for Jesus' death. Others blame Pilate and the soldiers. But according to the Apostles' Creed, Jesus "suffered for us under Pontius Pilate." For us! Our sins are what killed him.

No, it was not the Jews who crucified,

This man Jesus is quite a preacher. Rumor says that he even does miracles. But wait a minute! What makes him so special? Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? The hometown folks have known him since he was in diapers. They've seen him play and heard him cry. They've seen him with sweat on his forehead and dirt under his fingernails. Isn't he just an ordinary guy from an ordinary family? Isn't he the son of that carpenter? Isn't his mother Mary? (Come to think of it, didn't she get pregnant before marriage?) Aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Don't his sisters still live right in town? No doubt about it: this man is as human as anyone; he's nobody special.

The townspeople are right that Jesus is as human as anyone. But they are wrong to think he is nobody special. They look so hard at Jesus as a fellow human that they don't see him as God. Let's not repeat that mistake. But let's not make the opposite mistake, either. Let's not look so hard at Jesus as God that we don't see him as human.

A biblical psalm says, "Praise the Lord ... who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:2-3). Only God can forgive all sins and heal all diseases. So when Jesus told a paralyzed man, "Friend, your sins are forgiven," he was saying what only God can say. When his authority to forgive sins was challenged, Jesus proved his divine authority by doing what only God can do: he healed the incurable disease of paralysis.

Another psalm says, "O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? ... You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them" (Psalm 89:8-9). Only God can still stormy seas. So when Jesus rebuked a storm and told the wild waves, "Quiet! Be still!" he was saying what only God can say. As the storm hushed and the sea became calm, Jesus' disciples exclaimed, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:37-41)

Someone has defined a scholar as "a person who learns more and more about less and less until he knows almost everything about almost nothing." By that definition, the religious teachers of Jesus' day were scholars indeed. They specialized in trivia and knew almost everything about almost nothing. When they had a point to prove, they simply piled up quotes from other scholars. The voice of God was no longer heard.

How different when Jesus spoke! "The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." People exclaimed, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?" (John 7:15) "No one ever spoke the way this man does" (John 7:46). Jesus didn't base his teaching on scholarly opinion; he did the opposite. "You have heard it said [by your experts]," Jesus would say as he introduced a subject, "but I tell you"--and then, on his own authority, he would declare the real truth of the matter. As Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), his voice rang with the same authority as the voice on Mount Sinai that thundered forth the Ten Commandments. It was the voice of God.