In this New Hope Video Reflection shot in Ephesus, Justin talks about the significance of inscriptions written on stone in ancient times, and why God is doing something different in us today.

We often forget that before the fall, Adam worked. God entrusted him with caring for the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). Unlike the work we experience today, it must have been a wonderful task. In fact, it must not have seemed like work at all.

Could you imagine working and being told that you could work as little or as much as you want, and all your needs would be taken care of no matter what? That’s what Adam and Eve experienced before the fall. In the garden, they had access to the Tree of Life. They didn’t have to work in order to earn it. It was always there – day or night. No need to put in eight hours before partaking. They were totally and utterly free to work simply for the joy of shaping the garden, creating just as God created.

But in a moment all that changed.

After the fall, God cursed Adam with work – the type of labor more familiar to us. Genesis 3:17-18 explains that this new kind of work would be difficult. Instead of working for joy or pleasure, work would be essential and functional, and Adam would have to work to live. Instead of the freedom to stop, work would never end. Adam would always be racing against the clock. No longer did he have all of the time in the world.

Perhaps the greatest curse of work is that it never ends. Even though it’s essential, it never fully satisfies, because, there’s never enough we can do. We could always do more, but no matter how much we do, it can never give us everlasting life.

Isn’t that ironic? The Tree of Life that God provided bore fruit that sustained forever. No need to work to get it. But when that was taken away, when man was left to his own labor, he would work for food that would only provide temporal sustenance. It’s a cyclical process he was doomed to repeat for a lifetime.

I wonder if Adam ever thought, “Maybe one day I’ll plant, and up will sprout that Tree of Life, and I can stop working.” Maybe he thought, “One day my work will prove that I deserve to return to Eden with its everlasting life-giving fruit.” Perhaps Adam entertained the idea that one day this work would finally be freedom.

Deep down I think we all entertain that Nazi mantra – “Arbeit macht frei” – Work makes freedom. Regarding this statement, Otto Friedrich wrote in his book The Kingdom of Auschwitz:

He seems not to have intended it as a mockery, nor even to have intended it literally, as a false promise that those who worked to exhaustion would eventually be released, but rather as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labour does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom.

Otto Friedrich is right. Endless labor does have a spiritual connection in our mind, especially in our Western society. Unfortunately, it is a spiritual element of idolatry. Work can be idolatrous when we find our identity in what we do. Yes, God did declare that work was necessary for life and that it would always be a part of our existence, but work was never intended to (nor can it) bring about a spiritual wholeness. We can never find spiritual freedom in our endless labor.

Recently a wise friend told me that she doesn’t like to look at all of those home improvement picture ideas on Pinterest. She said, “The biggest temptation on there for me is dissatisfaction with myself – like I ought to be doing more ‘stuff’ instead of walking in the Spirit.”

What a profound statement worth breaking down. Notice what she said. 1) Identifying work often makes us think we need to do more. 2) Work can lead us to feelings of self-satisfaction and equally (if not more often) self-dissatisfaction. 3) Work does not equal walking in the Spirit.

So if work doesn’t brings us freedom, then what does? 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Work, like many other pleasures or tasks, is not in and of itself idolatry. It is when we set work up in competition and contradiction with the Spirit that it becomes (like anything else) idolatry.

As the great hymn Rock of Ages declares:

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Today, us wilderness laborers, have received an invitation to return to Eden. It is not through the labor of our hands. There’s nothing to prove. There’s nothing that we could possibly do to prove ourselves deserving. The invitation is to love Jesus – to eat from His life giving fruit. There is no cost nor labor to earn it. It is total and redeeming grace. For when we love Him, when we give ourselves to Him completely, we will find that our work is simply work. We will discover not just the Tree of Life, but the author of life, and the realization that our identity is utterly and completely found in Him.

I always find movies that transcend a simple plot or sports that offer something beyond a winner and loser more compelling. Those that speak in some way of Kingdom principles or the human struggle stick with me more than those that offer a mere few hours of entertainment.

Perhaps beyond just the Ravens’ success, this NFL season has been more memorable to me than any other that I can remember. We witnessed as Coach Chuck Pagano overcame a battle with cancer to rejoin his team in the playoff race. Peyton Manning, one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks, came back from multiple neck surgeries to lead his team to a number one seeding in the playoffs. Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III made his debut by taking a bottom ranking team to the postseason. And one of my favorite players and most notable team leaders, Ray Lewis, returned from an injury, announced that he will retire after this seventeenth season, and somehow, he keeps managing to keep his underdog team alive in the race for the Lombardi Trophy.

Much talk has circulated around the Ravens’ linebacker this year. Every game we wonder, “Is this the last time we’ll see one of the greatest defensive players take the field?” Some have even used this story to motivate their team and discourage the Ravens. In Boston before the AFC Championship game, they erected billboards counting down to what they called “Ray’s retirement party.”

There’s something about humanity that loves the underdogs, the unexpected wins, the old veterans leading teams to unlikely victory. I admit that I feel a little sense of vindication, knowing that Boston commuters were forced to look at those unfulfilled prophecies erected high in the sky.

As Ray Lewis’ retirement party keeps getting delayed, he has become more and more outspoken about the Lord’s role in his life. Following the AFC Championship win he said, “If you sacrifice anything for God, He will give you your heart’s desire, if it aligns with God’s will… God kept telling me, ‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper.’ Anytime you trust in God, man can’t tell you what you cannot do… I was hurt when I saw a sign that that said my [career] would end tonight. Man can’t dictate that; God dictates that.”

Many might say that “football is just a game and doesn’t need to be over-spiritualized.” However, I’m sure others could say the same about life experiences that weigh on us – our occupations, life struggles, or anything we find significant. Likewise, there have been no shortage of people pointing fingers at Ray Lewis’ past – his moral failings and his run-in with the law. Even Ray himself has been open about those dark days. For us who aren’t in the spotlight, we are spared the public ridicule and criticism. Instead, a deeper voice often speaks discouragement to us. Our greatest critic often times is ourself.

A couple of Sundays ago, we studied the second half of Romans 7. We saw how every verse was an utter confession of failure. We saw in Paul a similarity to Lance Armstrong’s greatly anticipated confession. “I am deeply flawed.” For ten verses, these are Paul’s canonized declarations.

Many people will stop there. Many people will define themselves by their shortcomings. What I don’t or can’t do resounds louder than our potential. But Paul doesn’t stop there. One of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture follows the juicy confession of Romans 7. “Yes, even I, even a deeply flawed individual such as myself, can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength.”

What resonates so loudly in my heart is not what Paul or Ray Lewis did. My calling is not to plant churches in Asia Minor or play professional sports. What I look up to, what makes these men heroes to me, what gives me hope for my own life is that they heard God speak to them. They gripped onto the belief that their identity is not found in their failures or criticisms. It is found in God’s power in their life. They lived the idea of resurrection – that God will raise them from their ashes. “Victory in Jesus” should not be a forgotten or empty mantra. The story God weaves is bigger than our present circumstances and struggles and greater than the story we can fabricate ourselves. They stand up in the face of adversity and proclaim with faith, “No weapon fashioned against me will prosper.” They don’t just say it; they believe it. They live it.

It is not mere “Prosperity Theology” to say, “God will work things out for my good” or “no weapon fashioned against me will prosper.” Our problem isn’t that we expect too much of God; it’s that we often expect so little. It’s not mere positive thinking when we declare God’s promises for our life. That’s called faith.

Today, God is calling out to us. He is saying, “You are my son, my daughter. You aren’t just making it. You are more than a conqueror.” Listen to His words, let them seep into the deepest parts of your soul, your mind, your hurts, your embarrassments, and your struggles. And say, “Yes Lord, I am not defined by society, my failures, or my accomplishments. I am who you say I am, for You are the Great I AM.”

Put yourself in Mary’s shoes for a moment. An angel tells you, a virgin, that you’re going to have a baby. You’re a young woman (probably 15 years old), engaged to a respectable man, and you live in a society where virginity is valued and expected until marriage. What would you do?

We can only imagine the turmoil that Mary, Jesus’ mother, must have felt. Unlike all the other women of Jesus’ genealogy, Mary is the only Jewish woman listed. The rest, surprisingly, were Gentiles. Like all the other women, there is some question about her sexual propriety. Tamar slept with her father-in-law Judah. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth visited Boaz in the night and laid at his feet. Bathsheba had an affair with King David. Mary became pregnant outside of wedlock.

Sexual impropriety, especially for women, in ancient Palestine was no casual matter. At the very least, it was grounds to break off the marriage along with public humiliation, and it was a crime that could be punishable by death.

Matthew gives us a little insight about Joseph’s struggle with Mary’s pregnancy, revealing that he planned to quietly annul the engagement without disgracing her or calling for her execution. But he recants after being visited by an angel who reveals God’s plan to her.

Still, we are not told how Mary handled this with her parents or with her community. Imagine the struggle she felt. Did she try to explain what happened, or would that just be laughable? Did she feel like she had to defend herself or apologize for the rest of her life? Was Jesus ever discounted because some in his community considered him the son of a harlot?

When Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she had found favor with God, and explained how everything was to happen, her reply was simply, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Who knew that such favor with God or such faithful obedience was going to cost Mary so much? Her statement was a tremendous act of self-denial.

In his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” Deitrich Bonhoeffer writes, “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.’”

But within the story of Mary is the story of God’s faithfulness. He intervened so that Joseph didn’t break off the relationship, and He protected Mary so that she was not expelled from or executed by her community. Instead of a life scorned with shame like we may think of a woman such as Bathsheba, Mary is the most celebrated woman in all of history. God pulled through. The angel Gabriel said it best when he told her, “No word from God will ever fail.”

Mary’s life emulates Jesus’ in so many ways. Jesus submitted to the Father’s plan just as His mother Mary did. “Thy will be done,” led him to suffering and execution, but God pulled through. Instead of ending in death, Jesus rose to new life. Just as we remember and celebrate Mary, Paul tells us that Jesus’ humility will bring everyone in heaven and earth and under the earth to one day bow and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This is a promise that pertains to us. When we obey God, even though we may indeed encounter difficulties, the glory is much greater than the trial. We will test the faithfulness of God, and He will, as He always does, prove faithful. God’s promise to us in Isaiah 61 is that we will be oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord, for the display of His splendor. We can now begin to understand why Mary insisted to the men at the wedding at Cana to listen to Jesus and do exactly as He says. Keeping close to Jesus, like Deitrich Bonhoeffer said, is where we find the beauty and joy of the new wine of life.