Peter’s message like Paul’s focused on Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Both events were real, objective and historical.  And surely the right response to the existential mood of today is not to create a parallel Christian existentialism which despises history in favour of experience, and demythologizes the resurrection into an inward encounter with reality, but rather to offer to the modern mind as it flounders in the quicksands of subjectivity the objective bedrock of Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection are solid historical events.

John R.W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

—Philippians 3:13-14, 18-21 (TNIV)

Paul summarizes why sanctification (the process in which the Holy Spirit transforms us to be like Christ) is so difficult. We are broken beings, determined to play God without the proper tool set. Paul is not telling us to adopt an otherworldly attitude and ignore our world. To the contrary, Christians are called to be the Light of Christ in his broken and hurting world (see, e.g., Matthew 5:13-16; 25:31-46). Instead, Paul is urging us not to put our ultimate hope and trust in ourselves or our world because we are mortal and finite. Hence, the world is bound to ultimately disappoint because mortal life is transient, not permanent.

This is the purpose of Lent: to help us come to our senses and to focus on what life really is about. To do this, we must first be honest with ourselves so that we can identify those things in us that prevent us from developing a relationship with God or growing in our relationship with him. Once we have identified those things that keep us focused on ourselves and in putting our ultimate hope and trust in the world, e.g., job advancement, power, wealth, prestige, etc., (there is nothing wrong with job advancement, et al. as long as they do not claim our ultimate allegiance and loyalty) we must work to reorient our priorities in life so that our top priority is living as God calls us to live. The biblical language for engaging in this process is “dying to self” or “dying with Christ.” It is difficult work, but when we make the conscious effort to put to death our self-centeredness and exchange it for a God-centeredness, we create a space for the Holy Spirit to work in us and transform us into the persons God created us to be. This doesn’t mean we try to follow a bunch of rules but rather that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become new beings in Christ. Rules can help in this process by giving us healthy boundaries but they are not the end game nor should we treat them as such.

This Lent, I invite you to look at yourself honestly to see what is holding you back from developing a life changing and life saving relationship with God in Christ. Then ask the Lord to help you overcome whatever it is you’ve identified. You’ll have some setbacks along the way because that is the problem of the human condition. But in the end, you will find a new life and peace to which nothing in this world compares.

Oh yes. You will need to engage in this process long after the Lenten season ends. 🙂

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

—John 17:3 (TNIV)

What madness not to understand how to love human beings with awareness of the human condition! When my weeping [over his friend’s death] stopped, my soul felt burdened by a vast load of misery. I should have lifted myself up to you, Lord, to find a cure. I knew that, but did not wish it or have the strength for it.

—Augustine, Confessions 4.7.12

Jesus chose to endure with us all the pains of being human to teach us that we should not seek our happiness in earthly goods nor be afraid of becoming unhappy when we must give them up.

—Augustine, On Catechizing the Uninstructed, 40

Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world. God want all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness.

Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings.

—Clement of Rome, First Letter to the Corinthians