e170 Your Resolution Is What Christ Will Raise You Toward. (three questions for your 2026 resolution)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 3 Episode 170 Your Resolution Is What Christ Will Raise You Toward. (three questions for your 2026 resolution)

Here’s the gist, human. Does your resolution reflect the resolve of Christ?

Go ahead. Take a run at this. Barrage yourself with questions and considerations:  is this a resolution Christ would entertain? Does he want to spend his time in your life this way? Is your resolution short-sighted, selfish, in pursuit of earthly favor? Does your resolution reflect the sacrifice he made for you, and does he want to sustain it for you? Ask him. Pray about it. Scrap a thousand resolutions for the one that Christ puts on your heart.

I understand that many of you are making resolutions and rallying your spiritual fortitude to greet 2026 head on. With a full heart for Christ. I want to be with you for that. I feel the energy of it. How about deeper consideration of three questions about your resolution?

Because we follow the Master of Resolution.

E170. A good episode to join.

I quit making resolutions driven by the calendar about five years ago. I was standing at a spiritual crossroads, the “where” of it all, when I became far more interested in the rhythm of God’s voice in my life than the pace of the world.

He quieted me. Now he teaches me about the power of his timeless presence that hushes the urgent voices coming from crowded platforms of nonbelievers waiting for their glory train. My heart no longer listens for it.

Three years ago I came to a permanent resolution. So much so I am writing a book about it. On some days I wish I wasn’t. It’s a hard topic. A stranger to how this world thinks.

My permanent resolution is this: becoming poor like Christ. Philippians 2. That I live this earthly life by laying down my advantage, to claim his presence, his nature, his sacrifice, his righteousness as my own. It speaks to the deepest part of my relationship with God because of what his Son did for me. It never flounders or fails me. It never dulls within my heart. Being poor in spirit rights every wrong, centers me in his peace, and fuels my abiding Jesus-spirit through all the earthly things.

That’s my journey. I understand that many of you are making resolutions and rallying your spiritual fortitude to greet 2026 head on. With a full heart for Christ. I want to be with you for that. I feel the energy of it.

So when we are done today, we will have asked three questions about our resolution.

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

Question #1:  What was Jesus’ Resolution?

Question #1:  What was Jesus’ resolution?

I came across a sermon titled The Resolve of Jesus Christ, delivered by Pastor tom Pennington at Countryside Baptist Church in 2020. Two days away from 6 years ago. I’ll say this. All we have to do is submit to what has come before us to know the enduring nature of God’s Word. This sermon endures as he speaks about the prophecy of Jesus, about Jesus as a prophet. It merits a full read when you have time.

I was dropped into the middle of it, a beautiful place for us to start.

The Resolve of Jesus Christ, Tom Pennington • Mark 10:32-34

https://countrysidebible.org/sermons/20200517a-108037

Pastor Pennington says:

“There’s a second purpose for the prophecy and that is it turns the spotlight on the priority of Jesus’ life. If Jesus’ death and resurrection were the reason that He came, if in fact they were the priority of His life then you would expect them to play a prominent role in the records of His life and specifically in Mark’s record of His life. Well, think about this. Mark devotes absolutely zero verses to the first 30 years of Jesus’ life. He devotes 10 chapters, chapters 1 to 10 to Jesus’ three and a half year ministry. And then he devotes six chapters, chapters 11 to 16 to one week of Jesus’ life – the Passion Week. This was the priority of His life. He came to die and to give Himself as a sacrifice for sins and to be raised from the dead to conquer sin and death on behalf of those whom He loved. Listen. Jesus’ death and resurrection was the center point of His life and ministry and it should be of your life Christian as well. Jesus death and resurrection should be central in your faith and in your worship and in your thoughts.”

Mark 10:32-34

Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

This pastor’s work landed here, on the threshold of 2026 with such grace and power. Thankyou Pastor Pennington. We should pursue this in making our resolution, that we build our resolution on the resolve of Jesus.

Question #2: How are You Building Your Resolution on the Resolve of Jesus?

Question #2: How are you building your resolution on the resolve of Jesus? Consider how your resolution embraces the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Spoiler alert here. This is the theological section. It’s the only way to dig deeper. Other than prayer. According to Strong’s Concordance, the Greek word for resolution, hypostasis (hypostasis) (5287), denotes the underlying reality that gives something its concrete existence. In Scripture the term reaches beyond philosophical abstraction and speaks to what is solid, reliable, and enduring—whether the very being of God or the settled confidence of believers.

That’s how we get our footing here. The essence of Christ. And our substantive, enduring character.

Consider.

Hebrews 1:3

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, upholding all things by his powerful word…”

Strong tells us that “Hebrews 1:3 is foundational for Trinitarian theology. By calling the Son the “exact representation” (charaktēr) of the Father’s hypostasis, the writer affirms two truths: ontological unity – the Son shares the same divine essence; personal distinction – the hypostasis of the Father is made manifest without being conflated with the Person of the Son.”

I guess I think all theological roads lead to essence. The nature of God the Father, his Son and the Holy Spirit.

Now consider this.

Hebrews 3:14

“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Strong tells us that “Hebrews 3:14 shows that saving faith possesses a substantive character. Believers do not merely cling to ideas; they participate in a present reality that will culminate in sight. The call to “hold firmly” underscores personal responsibility, yet the object of faith—Christ Himself—remains the unchanging foundation.”

I should repeat: “yet the object of faith—Christ Himself—remains the unchanging foundation.”

Strong tells us that “although hypostasis itself is rare in the Septuagint, its concept aligns with Hebrew ideas of firmness (’āmēn) and substance (ʿeṣem). The prophets frequently contrast fleeting human assurances with the steadfast character of God.”

Isaiah 40:6-8

6 A voice says, “Cry out.”

    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

    Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    but the word of our God endures forever.”

Strong concludes that “Hypostasis in Hebrews brings the essence of Christ together with the confidence we have as believers.”

We began today with the resolve of Christ, his life resolution, played out in the gospel of Mark. His essence was nailed to the cross, his essence walked among his disciples before he ascended, his essence sits at the right hand of God. A distinct position on the heavenly throne, yet an exact representation of his Heavenly Father.

The resolve of Jesus endures forever. And our resolution should be built on Christ’s character and held steadfast by confidence in a faithful God. Which brings me to a final question.

Question #3: Does Your Resolution Reflect the Enduring Character of Christ?

Question #3: Does your resolution reflect the enduring character of Christ?

Go ahead. Take a run at this. Barrage yourself with questions and considerations:  is this a resolution Christ would entertain? Does he want to spend his time in your life this way? Is your resolution short-sighted, selfish, in pursuit of earthly favor? Does your resolution reflect the sacrifice he made for you, and does he want to sustain it for you?

Ask him. Pray about it. Scrap a thousand resolutions for the one that Christ puts on your heart.

Seek A Resolution That Is Sustainable

This process is why I have permanently landed on becoming poor like Christ. Because this is how he landed on the throne. Reigning in the presence of the God who sent him. So we could be with them too.

We are good at making fleeting human resolutions. So, here is your call to action to test your resolution. I’ll use my permanent resolution to demonstrate.

Align your resolution with God’s word. Be specific.

My permanent resolution:  Becoming poor in Christ.

Philippians 2:5-8

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

 

If you are feeling like your resolution doesn’t do justice to the character of Christ, I urge you to pursue the deeper meaning. For instance, if your resolution is something like, losing weight, or conquering an addiction of any kind, turn to his Word about your body as a “living sacrifice.” What is a resolution for what will happen when Jesus helps you do this? What spiritual growth?

The answer is your resolution.

Maybe you have decided on something like “read my Bible more.” I urge you to go deeper into that why. A why that is specifically for you. God has much to say about what happens when you do.

That will be your resolution, not the act of reading.

All of God’s Word runs so deep. Anything you identify as something you want to take a stand on this year, align it with the resolve of our Savior who died for us. Does it align? Is it something you will die to, some earthly vanity, some human gain of things, and let Jesus raise you to a new level that brings his presence closer to you?

Your resolution is what Christ will raise you toward. Not what you died to.

Isaiah told us, when humans make resolutions we are often just planting grass. It immediately begins to wither. But when we base our resolutions on the character of Jesus, it is his character that will get us there. Happy new year, human.