“Don’t focus on the problem. Instead, just seek God’s face.”
It was a cryptic piece of advice from a treasured brother in the Lord, who knew some of the agony of prayer I had been going through. My first reaction was simple frustration with these words. I thought, “Right. Easy for you to say ‘Don’t focus on the problem,’ since you aren't dealing with it all day, every day.”
So, I figured I’d just ignore the advice until I heard something more in line with what I wanted to hear. After all, what I was looking for was a solution to the problem, and how was I supposed to find the solution if I didn’t think about the problem?
However, though I tried to ignore this piece of advice, it apparently wouldn’t ignore me. Every time I bowed my head to pray, every time I opened the Word for some time with the Lord, there it was, running through my mind again. Could this be the Lord speaking to me? Did God really want me to quit focusing on the problem and simply seek His face instead?
Well, two weeks later, I have begun to think that, yes, it is the Lord speaking to me. Almost every verse of Scripture I’ve read has said the same thing to me: seek the Lord’s face. That’s where the solution lies: not in human ability or ingenuity. Not in better organization, increased skill or improved work. Only in the presence of God, as I seek His face, will His solution to this or any problem ever be found.
Indeed, God seems to have set before me a challenge for Lent: that the focus of all my praying would be to seek His face, intently and intentionally. The difficulty with that is that I’m not so certain I know how to do that. Generally, when I come to God in prayer and quiet time, I’m seeking His advice, or seeking His blessing, or even seeking His power. Seeking His face: what’s that mean? I mean, really.
So . . . I’ve been asking God to show me how I should go about this. Two passages have come to me with a sense of urgency.
First, Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
The words “in Your presence” are literally “before Your face,” in the original language. In other words, as we come before God simply to behold His glory, and praise Him for the grandeur of His grace, there is available to us in that moment “fullness of joy.” The word translated “fullness” literally means “enough to satisfy:” this means that your desire for joy is fulfilled before the face of God. Since He is full of joy, we find our need for joy met simply by being intentionally with Him, focusing on Him.
Second, Psalm 27:8: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘O LORD, I will seek Your face’."
This verse is simple. God wants us to seek His face. Our proper response is not to say, “But what does that mean?” or, “I don’t know how to do that.” Our proper response is simply to come before God in prayer and say to Him something like this:
“Lord here I am. You told me to seek Your face: and so, I am seeking Your face. I don’t know what it means, but I ask You to reveal Yourself to me. I need to know You personally, face-to-face: the real You, not some image I may already have in my mind. So, here I am. Show me Yourself, because when it’s all said and done, I need You desperately. More than solutions, I need You. More than answers, more than guidance, more than blessing, more than anything, I need You. Just You. Here I am. Please, show me Yourself.”
Do you have the courage to set aside a few minutes each day to join me in praying a prayer like this? Could you? Would you?
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 3: Responding to Biblical Truth
Last week we looked at the three biblical truths that comprise an outline of the gospel. Let’s review briefly.
Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. God also has many other attributes, but what always comes first in Scripture is His holiness. And since that’s where God’s Word starts with God, it’s also where we ought to start.
Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we realize that God is holy, our sinfulness becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God reveals Himself to people, the first thing these people do is acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they’re sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God’s holiness.
These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.
Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient to solve our sin problem. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness. Then He died under God’s wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.
Scripture is very clear that once we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. And that response is as simple as A – B – C.
A stands for “Admit.” Specifically, you and I need to admit we are sinners who need a Savior. It is sheer folly to suppose that we could establish our own righteousness before God by our own effort. Even if we lived perfectly for the rest of our lives, it’s already too late. Admit it: we’re sinners, and we need a Savior.
B stands for “Believe.” Scripture is very clear that salvation is given to us when we believe something, not when we try to do something. And the thing Scripture instructs us to believe is that Christ’s finished work is all we need. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Sadly, our culture has hijacked the term “believe,” and rendered it captive to broad misunderstanding. We need to refresh our understanding of what “believe” means in Scripture. That’s where the “C” comes in.
C stands for “Commit.” Scripture unambiguously declares that if we believe in Jesus, our believing necessarily includes committing our very lives to Him. In other words, so-called believing that does not include submitting your life to Christ, so that He may exercise His rightful Lordship in you, is not biblical belief at all.
So, where do you stand? Have you made an A – B – C response to the gospel? If not, I pray that you will do so today.
Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. God also has many other attributes, but what always comes first in Scripture is His holiness. And since that’s where God’s Word starts with God, it’s also where we ought to start.
Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we realize that God is holy, our sinfulness becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God reveals Himself to people, the first thing these people do is acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they’re sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God’s holiness.
These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.
Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient to solve our sin problem. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness. Then He died under God’s wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.
Scripture is very clear that once we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. And that response is as simple as A – B – C.
A stands for “Admit.” Specifically, you and I need to admit we are sinners who need a Savior. It is sheer folly to suppose that we could establish our own righteousness before God by our own effort. Even if we lived perfectly for the rest of our lives, it’s already too late. Admit it: we’re sinners, and we need a Savior.
B stands for “Believe.” Scripture is very clear that salvation is given to us when we believe something, not when we try to do something. And the thing Scripture instructs us to believe is that Christ’s finished work is all we need. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Sadly, our culture has hijacked the term “believe,” and rendered it captive to broad misunderstanding. We need to refresh our understanding of what “believe” means in Scripture. That’s where the “C” comes in.
C stands for “Commit.” Scripture unambiguously declares that if we believe in Jesus, our believing necessarily includes committing our very lives to Him. In other words, so-called believing that does not include submitting your life to Christ, so that He may exercise His rightful Lordship in you, is not biblical belief at all.
So, where do you stand? Have you made an A – B – C response to the gospel? If not, I pray that you will do so today.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 2
Last week I pointed out that, among everything else that it is and does, a church must have two key components to be true to Scripture. As authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis put it in their rich little book called "Total Church," these two essential elements are the gospel and community. In other words, the primary "content" of the church is the gospel, and the primary "context" of the church is community.
Two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community? Last week we saw that "community" means the sharing of life together in genuine Christ-centered love, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It's what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us in John 13:34 to love one another.
Now to the other question: what is the gospel?
The best I can encapsulate it, the gospel involves three biblical truths, to which we must each make three biblical responses.
Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. While God also has many other attributes, in Scripture, what always comes first is His holiness. Every glimpse of God given to us in Scripture shows us that He is holy. And since that's where God's Word starts with God, it's also where we ought to start.
Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we catch a glimpse of God's holiness, the sinfulness of humanity becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God's holiness is revealed, the first response of the people is to know and acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they're sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God's holiness.
These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.
Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient. In His incarnation, He did everything necessary to solve the sin problem that separates us from God, a problem we could not solve ourselves. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness; and He died under God's wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.
Scripture is very clear that when we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. Just knowing these truths is not enough. It's like this. Since I studied Physics in college, I know one of the main reasons airplanes can fly: it's called Bernoulli's Principle of Fluid Dynamics. However, just knowing Bernoulli's Principle (even if I know a lot about it) wouldn't fly me to Florida: I would actually have to get on an airplane! Similarly, just being acquainted with these three Biblical truths doesn't save you. The truths call for a response.
And, as everyone in my church can tell you, that response is as simple as A - B - C. We'll look at that next week.
Two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community? Last week we saw that "community" means the sharing of life together in genuine Christ-centered love, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It's what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us in John 13:34 to love one another.
Now to the other question: what is the gospel?
The best I can encapsulate it, the gospel involves three biblical truths, to which we must each make three biblical responses.
Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. While God also has many other attributes, in Scripture, what always comes first is His holiness. Every glimpse of God given to us in Scripture shows us that He is holy. And since that's where God's Word starts with God, it's also where we ought to start.
Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we catch a glimpse of God's holiness, the sinfulness of humanity becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God's holiness is revealed, the first response of the people is to know and acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they're sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God's holiness.
These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.
Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient. In His incarnation, He did everything necessary to solve the sin problem that separates us from God, a problem we could not solve ourselves. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness; and He died under God's wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.
Scripture is very clear that when we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. Just knowing these truths is not enough. It's like this. Since I studied Physics in college, I know one of the main reasons airplanes can fly: it's called Bernoulli's Principle of Fluid Dynamics. However, just knowing Bernoulli's Principle (even if I know a lot about it) wouldn't fly me to Florida: I would actually have to get on an airplane! Similarly, just being acquainted with these three Biblical truths doesn't save you. The truths call for a response.
And, as everyone in my church can tell you, that response is as simple as A - B - C. We'll look at that next week.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 1
Okay, I know I’m likely about to come in for some hot water, because what I’m going to write about (as promised last week) is what defines a biblical church. Actually, it’s pretty simple. Indeed, as Thom Rainer wrote in his book with the fascinating title of “Simple Church,” it’s really far more simple than most Americans think.
So . . . here it is, what defines a biblical church. Two things:
1. gospel; and
2. community.
Actually, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their rich little book called “Total Church” speak much more eloquently to these two defining aspects of what makes a biblical church, so let me have you listen to them.
“Two key principles should shape the way we ‘do church’: gospel and community. Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community. Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship, or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel, and the context is consistently the Christian community.
“Being gospel-centered actually involves two things. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word – the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered, because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed – the gospel is good news, a missionary message.”
Throughout the rest of the book, Timmis and Chester make a resounding and air-tight case that Scripture requires the church to determine its identity, purpose and ministries around these two simple priorities: gospel, the content of the church’s message; and community, the context of the church’s mission. It’s a very good book. Very good.
However, two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community?
Let’s take those questions one at a time, starting with the simple one: what is meant by community?
“Community” is our English word for the New Testament Greek term “koinonia,” which Scripture uses to describe the way the first Christians related to each other — with genuine love, fellowship, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It’s what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us to love one another.
It’s certainly more than what we do on Sunday mornings over coffee in the fellowship hall. It’s living a shared life centered on the gospel. It means we actually live out – in practical terms! – the fact that we are connected to each other by a shared salvation wrought in us by God’s sovereign grace revealed in the gospel. We help each other. We share with each other. We pray for each other. We obey the 57 “one-another” commands in the New Testament, commands we can’t possibly keep if we live life in isolation from each other except when we meet in a big room on Sundays.
In other words, if there’s no community happening, the church is squeezing itself out from under its own biblical definition. To be a biblical church, there must be community
There must also be the gospel. And we’ll look into that next week.
So . . . here it is, what defines a biblical church. Two things:
1. gospel; and
2. community.
Actually, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their rich little book called “Total Church” speak much more eloquently to these two defining aspects of what makes a biblical church, so let me have you listen to them.
“Two key principles should shape the way we ‘do church’: gospel and community. Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community. Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship, or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel, and the context is consistently the Christian community.
“Being gospel-centered actually involves two things. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word – the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered, because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed – the gospel is good news, a missionary message.”
Throughout the rest of the book, Timmis and Chester make a resounding and air-tight case that Scripture requires the church to determine its identity, purpose and ministries around these two simple priorities: gospel, the content of the church’s message; and community, the context of the church’s mission. It’s a very good book. Very good.
However, two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community?
Let’s take those questions one at a time, starting with the simple one: what is meant by community?
“Community” is our English word for the New Testament Greek term “koinonia,” which Scripture uses to describe the way the first Christians related to each other — with genuine love, fellowship, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It’s what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us to love one another.
It’s certainly more than what we do on Sunday mornings over coffee in the fellowship hall. It’s living a shared life centered on the gospel. It means we actually live out – in practical terms! – the fact that we are connected to each other by a shared salvation wrought in us by God’s sovereign grace revealed in the gospel. We help each other. We share with each other. We pray for each other. We obey the 57 “one-another” commands in the New Testament, commands we can’t possibly keep if we live life in isolation from each other except when we meet in a big room on Sundays.
In other words, if there’s no community happening, the church is squeezing itself out from under its own biblical definition. To be a biblical church, there must be community
There must also be the gospel. And we’ll look into that next week.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
THE DOCTRINE OF SNOW
I had a very interesting encounter after the second worship service here at First Baptist Church a while back. A personable young man I have known for some time, who was a guest of some of his friends in worship, approached me with a serious look on his face. He shook my hand and told me how much he had enjoyed the service, and that he always loved it when he got to worship with the folks at First Baptist.
Then he said, “And you know, I agree with almost all of the doctrines you teach here. All except one doctrine.” Here he paused, and I immediately began to wonder what I had said that would make him raise a doctrinal issue in the lobby after worship.
“What doctrine is that?” I asked.
With apparent earnestness he said, “Well, Pastor, I hate to say it, but it’s your doctrine of snow. I just can’t agree with your position.” Then he broke into a smile and we both had a good laugh as he explained his mock concern.
He pointed out that during prayer time, I had voiced our gratitude to God for the wonderful moisture we had received over recent weeks, but went on to ask God if He might arrange for the temperature to be warmer the next time we get some precipitation. You see, I’m not personally all that crazy about snow. And yet, I know it’s a wonderful blessing to have the wheat lay under a blanket of the white stuff, which is just what we had experienced for the previous several weeks. As a result, as my people know, I struggle with how to pray for precipitation in the winter. I recall mentioning in my prayer that we were giving “reluctant though heart-felt thanks” to God for the snow: reluctant, because I hate snow; heart-felt thanks, because we always need the moisture.
This young man said that he, by contrast, loves snow, everything about it, and wishes it would snow more often. And so, with what turned out to be simulated seriousness, he indicated he could never sit under my teaching or be a part of any church whose “doctrine of snow” was so out of line with his. We laughed and laughed. It was hilarious. Simply hilarious. I continue to chuckle as I think about our conversation!
And yet, there’s a serious side to this young man’s remark. Every pastor in town knows that some people leave churches over matters no more consequential than a “doctrine of snow,” as our worship guest called it. Matters such as who gets to pass the offering plates or the color a room gets painted (or who gets hired to paint it) have actually split churches. The “doctrine of snow” is a genuine heavyweight by contrast!
The challenge for each of us is to do a well-prayed-through inventory of what really matters in a church. If you go to the Word of God, and read what it says, you may be surprised at the brevity of the list of truths that define a biblical church. More on that, next week.
Then he said, “And you know, I agree with almost all of the doctrines you teach here. All except one doctrine.” Here he paused, and I immediately began to wonder what I had said that would make him raise a doctrinal issue in the lobby after worship.
“What doctrine is that?” I asked.
With apparent earnestness he said, “Well, Pastor, I hate to say it, but it’s your doctrine of snow. I just can’t agree with your position.” Then he broke into a smile and we both had a good laugh as he explained his mock concern.
He pointed out that during prayer time, I had voiced our gratitude to God for the wonderful moisture we had received over recent weeks, but went on to ask God if He might arrange for the temperature to be warmer the next time we get some precipitation. You see, I’m not personally all that crazy about snow. And yet, I know it’s a wonderful blessing to have the wheat lay under a blanket of the white stuff, which is just what we had experienced for the previous several weeks. As a result, as my people know, I struggle with how to pray for precipitation in the winter. I recall mentioning in my prayer that we were giving “reluctant though heart-felt thanks” to God for the snow: reluctant, because I hate snow; heart-felt thanks, because we always need the moisture.
This young man said that he, by contrast, loves snow, everything about it, and wishes it would snow more often. And so, with what turned out to be simulated seriousness, he indicated he could never sit under my teaching or be a part of any church whose “doctrine of snow” was so out of line with his. We laughed and laughed. It was hilarious. Simply hilarious. I continue to chuckle as I think about our conversation!
And yet, there’s a serious side to this young man’s remark. Every pastor in town knows that some people leave churches over matters no more consequential than a “doctrine of snow,” as our worship guest called it. Matters such as who gets to pass the offering plates or the color a room gets painted (or who gets hired to paint it) have actually split churches. The “doctrine of snow” is a genuine heavyweight by contrast!
The challenge for each of us is to do a well-prayed-through inventory of what really matters in a church. If you go to the Word of God, and read what it says, you may be surprised at the brevity of the list of truths that define a biblical church. More on that, next week.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
SERVING GOD IN A BROKEN WORLD
They were so sure of themselves, this little band of Jesus-followers. The miracles they had seen and the wonders He had performed apparently gave them a sense of importance, as if He had chosen them by virtue of some special character or assets they possessed.
So it was that as they left the temple precincts one day, Jesus came upon a man blind from birth, and His followers decided it was time for an explanation. “Teacher,” they asked Him, “why was this man born blind? On account of his parents’ sin, or his own sin?”
They were like so many in the church today, anxious to conjecture about the cause of things, even to find fault and place blame. They seemed to have forgotten that they were living in a broken world, and that in a broken world unexplainable tragedies take place. Babies die. Earthquakes strike. Children are born blind.
Jesus reminded them of this truth even as He rebuked them. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,” He said (an explanation they probably didn’t like very much), “but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” In other words, the issue was not so much who to blame, but rather, how God might be glorified in the situation. Not “Why?” but rather, “What now?”
“We must work the works of Him Who sent me,” Jesus continued, and immediately began to do so. He got down on the ground, made mud out of dust and spit, placed it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool called Siloam. He went and washed, and came back miraculously able to see.
When the earth shakes and people die, it’s natural to look for reasons why. But Christ commands us not to let our curiosity paralyze us. When once we’ve asked the “Why?” question, and received whatever explanation God’s word affords (even if we don’t like it very much), it’s time to move on quickly to “What now?” What can we do now that the works of God might be displayed? How can we point to God’s goodness and mercy, and draw the wounded to their only all-sufficient Healer?
The extraordinary tragedy in Haiti should remind us of the more common tragedies among which we are called to work the works of God. Every month in America, 100,000 unborn children are killed, matching the Haitian earthquake’s toll once a month, twelve months a year. And what question do you ask? Why? Or what now?
Every hour in sub-Saharan Africa, a hundred children become orphans. Why? Or what now?
Every day on this broken world, 500,000 souls slip from this life into eternity, most of them due to old age, natural causes, the silent horrific incursion of the last enemy, death. Why? Or what now?
And every moment, all around you, marriages fail, children hurt, and people struggle and sin and suffer. It’s a broken world we live in; and what are you doing about it, for the glory of God?
So it was that as they left the temple precincts one day, Jesus came upon a man blind from birth, and His followers decided it was time for an explanation. “Teacher,” they asked Him, “why was this man born blind? On account of his parents’ sin, or his own sin?”
They were like so many in the church today, anxious to conjecture about the cause of things, even to find fault and place blame. They seemed to have forgotten that they were living in a broken world, and that in a broken world unexplainable tragedies take place. Babies die. Earthquakes strike. Children are born blind.
Jesus reminded them of this truth even as He rebuked them. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,” He said (an explanation they probably didn’t like very much), “but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” In other words, the issue was not so much who to blame, but rather, how God might be glorified in the situation. Not “Why?” but rather, “What now?”
“We must work the works of Him Who sent me,” Jesus continued, and immediately began to do so. He got down on the ground, made mud out of dust and spit, placed it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool called Siloam. He went and washed, and came back miraculously able to see.
When the earth shakes and people die, it’s natural to look for reasons why. But Christ commands us not to let our curiosity paralyze us. When once we’ve asked the “Why?” question, and received whatever explanation God’s word affords (even if we don’t like it very much), it’s time to move on quickly to “What now?” What can we do now that the works of God might be displayed? How can we point to God’s goodness and mercy, and draw the wounded to their only all-sufficient Healer?
The extraordinary tragedy in Haiti should remind us of the more common tragedies among which we are called to work the works of God. Every month in America, 100,000 unborn children are killed, matching the Haitian earthquake’s toll once a month, twelve months a year. And what question do you ask? Why? Or what now?
Every hour in sub-Saharan Africa, a hundred children become orphans. Why? Or what now?
Every day on this broken world, 500,000 souls slip from this life into eternity, most of them due to old age, natural causes, the silent horrific incursion of the last enemy, death. Why? Or what now?
And every moment, all around you, marriages fail, children hurt, and people struggle and sin and suffer. It’s a broken world we live in; and what are you doing about it, for the glory of God?
Friday, January 15, 2010
Al Mohler Says It Better Than I Did
Just go to his blog and read it for yourself. It's the article for January 14, 2010.
http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/14/does-god-hate-haiti/
What he said.
http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/14/does-god-hate-haiti/
What he said.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
LIFE IN A BROKEN WORLD
It's been a very long time since I posted anything here, and so probably nobody is looking in on my blog any more. Anyway, with the events of the last week in Haiti, I thought I'd enter the fray. Here's my article for the January 15 edition of the Sterling Journal-Advocate, our daily newspaper here in Sterling, Colorado. May it get you thinking.
We’ve all seen bits and pieces of the horrifying tragedy that has taken place in Haiti. Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, this island nation is reeling under a blow from which it may never fully recover. The depths of heartbreak and hardship are beyond the capacity of most to even imagine.
Just before the earthquake happened, I began reading a new book by Randy Alcorn, called “If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.” Alcorn does a spectacular job of wrestling with the truly difficult questions about what C. S. Lewis called “the problem of pain.” He dedicates a whole section to issues surrounding the occurrence of so-called “natural disasters,” including Hurricane Katrina and the December 2004 Asian tsunami. He doesn’t evade the knotty subjects, but faces them head-on with a firm conviction that God’s Word is true.
I strongly recommend the book to you, because Alcorn tackles the problems most Christian authors simply gloss over. As we think about what happened Tuesday afternoon in Haiti, let me lift up some of what Alcorn wrote.
“Many people blame God for natural disasters. ‘How could he allow this?’ they ask. But what if the Architect and Builder crafted a beautiful and perfect home for Earth’s inhabitants, who despite his warnings carelessly cracked its foundation, punched holes in the walls, and trashed the house? Why blame the builder when the occupants took a sledgehammer to their own home?”
Alcorn isn’t saying that the Haitian earthquake was the specific fault of some certain group of people, but rather that when God turned the earth over to the human race so that we could “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28), the planet was still in perfect condition. There were no earthquakes in Eden.
So . . . what happened?
Alcorn explains: “God placed a curse on the earth due to Adam’s sin (see Genesis 3:17). That curse extends to everything in the natural world and makes it harder for people to live productively. Paul says that ‘the creation was subjected to frustration’ by God’s curse, until that day when ‘the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay’ (Romans 8:20-21). The next verse says, ‘The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth.’ Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis reflect the frustration, bondage and decay of an earth groaning under sin’s curse.”
We live in a broken world. In a broken world, unexplainable tragedies take place. Babies die. Planes crash. Earthquakes strike. And when the world’s brokenness inflicts enough pain, thinking people start asking reasonable questions. As we seek answers to our profound uncertainties, it is important to remember who broke the world we live in. It wasn’t God. For thousands of years, He has called to humanity to follow His plans and submit to His order for creation. And since Eden, we have defied Him.
No, it wasn’t God who broke the world.
It was us.
We’ve all seen bits and pieces of the horrifying tragedy that has taken place in Haiti. Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, this island nation is reeling under a blow from which it may never fully recover. The depths of heartbreak and hardship are beyond the capacity of most to even imagine.
Just before the earthquake happened, I began reading a new book by Randy Alcorn, called “If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.” Alcorn does a spectacular job of wrestling with the truly difficult questions about what C. S. Lewis called “the problem of pain.” He dedicates a whole section to issues surrounding the occurrence of so-called “natural disasters,” including Hurricane Katrina and the December 2004 Asian tsunami. He doesn’t evade the knotty subjects, but faces them head-on with a firm conviction that God’s Word is true.
I strongly recommend the book to you, because Alcorn tackles the problems most Christian authors simply gloss over. As we think about what happened Tuesday afternoon in Haiti, let me lift up some of what Alcorn wrote.
“Many people blame God for natural disasters. ‘How could he allow this?’ they ask. But what if the Architect and Builder crafted a beautiful and perfect home for Earth’s inhabitants, who despite his warnings carelessly cracked its foundation, punched holes in the walls, and trashed the house? Why blame the builder when the occupants took a sledgehammer to their own home?”
Alcorn isn’t saying that the Haitian earthquake was the specific fault of some certain group of people, but rather that when God turned the earth over to the human race so that we could “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28), the planet was still in perfect condition. There were no earthquakes in Eden.
So . . . what happened?
Alcorn explains: “God placed a curse on the earth due to Adam’s sin (see Genesis 3:17). That curse extends to everything in the natural world and makes it harder for people to live productively. Paul says that ‘the creation was subjected to frustration’ by God’s curse, until that day when ‘the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay’ (Romans 8:20-21). The next verse says, ‘The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth.’ Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis reflect the frustration, bondage and decay of an earth groaning under sin’s curse.”
We live in a broken world. In a broken world, unexplainable tragedies take place. Babies die. Planes crash. Earthquakes strike. And when the world’s brokenness inflicts enough pain, thinking people start asking reasonable questions. As we seek answers to our profound uncertainties, it is important to remember who broke the world we live in. It wasn’t God. For thousands of years, He has called to humanity to follow His plans and submit to His order for creation. And since Eden, we have defied Him.
No, it wasn’t God who broke the world.
It was us.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Why Are You Alive?
Former Secretary of Education William Bennett quoted George Orwell as saying, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.” I intend to restate for you a truth so obvious that many Christians seem entirely to neglect it.
When you became a Christian, God might well have taken you directly to your eternal home with Him. Consider the blessings that would currently be yours if He had done so. You would now be in the presence of Christ, beholding His glory and enjoying His splendor. You would be in the assembly of the redeemed, delighting in the never-ending fellowship of the Bride of Christ. You would be experiencing all that your heart has ever longed for.
However, God did not take you immediately into His glory when you, by His grace, first repented of your sin and put your trust in His Son. He left you here. In fact, He did more than merely “leave” you here: He commissioned you to be here; and He had a well-defined purpose for doing so.
The Apostle Paul understood this purpose, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he made it quite plain. In Romans 14:7-8, he wrote, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”
First, God’s Word states in negative term why you are alive: “none of us lives to himself.” In other words, you are not the reason you are alive. The purpose of your existence emphatically does not focus on you. In the words of a song we often sing here at First Baptist, “It’s not about me, Jesus, as if You should do things my way.”
Can you say with conviction, “It’s not about me”? How much more complete and joyous your life would be if you could finally renounce your need to be at the center of all things and cease evaluating everything on the basis of how it effects your comfort!
“None of us lives to himself.”
Then there is the positive and straightforward declaration, “If we live, we live to the Lord.” That means He must be the center of your life, the focus of your thoughts, your daily preoccupation, your delight, the axis around which your life revolves. To “live to the Lord” is to dedicate your life to do his will and to promote his glory. Indeed, that is the definition of the truly Christian life.
Other people live to please themselves. Christians live to please the Lord.
At the moment you trusted Christ, God commissioned you to spend the rest of your life focused on Him and pointing to Him, so that others would see His glory and come to Him as well. Are you living up to your purpose for being?
When you became a Christian, God might well have taken you directly to your eternal home with Him. Consider the blessings that would currently be yours if He had done so. You would now be in the presence of Christ, beholding His glory and enjoying His splendor. You would be in the assembly of the redeemed, delighting in the never-ending fellowship of the Bride of Christ. You would be experiencing all that your heart has ever longed for.
However, God did not take you immediately into His glory when you, by His grace, first repented of your sin and put your trust in His Son. He left you here. In fact, He did more than merely “leave” you here: He commissioned you to be here; and He had a well-defined purpose for doing so.
The Apostle Paul understood this purpose, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he made it quite plain. In Romans 14:7-8, he wrote, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”
First, God’s Word states in negative term why you are alive: “none of us lives to himself.” In other words, you are not the reason you are alive. The purpose of your existence emphatically does not focus on you. In the words of a song we often sing here at First Baptist, “It’s not about me, Jesus, as if You should do things my way.”
Can you say with conviction, “It’s not about me”? How much more complete and joyous your life would be if you could finally renounce your need to be at the center of all things and cease evaluating everything on the basis of how it effects your comfort!
“None of us lives to himself.”
Then there is the positive and straightforward declaration, “If we live, we live to the Lord.” That means He must be the center of your life, the focus of your thoughts, your daily preoccupation, your delight, the axis around which your life revolves. To “live to the Lord” is to dedicate your life to do his will and to promote his glory. Indeed, that is the definition of the truly Christian life.
Other people live to please themselves. Christians live to please the Lord.
At the moment you trusted Christ, God commissioned you to spend the rest of your life focused on Him and pointing to Him, so that others would see His glory and come to Him as well. Are you living up to your purpose for being?
Monday, May 25, 2009
THE GLORY OF RECONCILIATION WITH GOD
As we saw last Friday, though God made us in His image and for His glory, humanity in general and each of us in particular have broken God’s image in us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives and have set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated rebellion against His glory and rightful authority. His wrath against His rebel creatures is therefore just and right.
Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. Indeed, rather than destroying us, He has made provision for our salvation. This salvation is so miraculous and comprehensive that an eternity in God’s presence will no exhaust our reasons to praise Him. Among the millions of evidences of God’s grace, consider just these three that demonstrate the wonders of redemption.
First, is it not astonishing that God gathered His righteous wrath upon our sin and placed it fully on His own Son?! What wondrous love is this, that He “did not spare His Son, but offered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32)! Though Christ was utterly sinless, “yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:10). Indeed, “He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Second, by pouring out upon Jesus His wrath against our sin, God affected for us a just forgiveness, meaning that when God forgives sin, He doesn’t simply overlook sin. The sin has actually been propitiated by the suffering and death of Christ. The penalty has been paid by Christ, and the punishment has been absorbed by Him so fully that there is no longer any sin-guilt between God and the redeemed. Therefore, in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
Third, perhaps the most glorious aspect of salvation is this: after pouring out His wrath upon Christ, and pardoning our sin in a grand act of forgiveness, God then graciously chose to transform His former enemies into His own beloved children. Speaking of Christ, John wrote, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). He reconciled us to Himself! He drew us into a relationship with Himself and injected into us Christ’s own resurrection life, thus making us new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). No wonder Christ explained this to Nicodemus as being born again (John 3:3-16)! It is new life, eternal life, God’s own life; and it makes us eternally His own dear children, “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
By His own choosing, and at His own expense, God has called the rebels not only into His forgiveness, but into His family. For those who say yes to His call, it will take us the rest of eternity to thank Him for this reconciling salvation. It’s time we got started.
Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. Indeed, rather than destroying us, He has made provision for our salvation. This salvation is so miraculous and comprehensive that an eternity in God’s presence will no exhaust our reasons to praise Him. Among the millions of evidences of God’s grace, consider just these three that demonstrate the wonders of redemption.
First, is it not astonishing that God gathered His righteous wrath upon our sin and placed it fully on His own Son?! What wondrous love is this, that He “did not spare His Son, but offered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32)! Though Christ was utterly sinless, “yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:10). Indeed, “He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Second, by pouring out upon Jesus His wrath against our sin, God affected for us a just forgiveness, meaning that when God forgives sin, He doesn’t simply overlook sin. The sin has actually been propitiated by the suffering and death of Christ. The penalty has been paid by Christ, and the punishment has been absorbed by Him so fully that there is no longer any sin-guilt between God and the redeemed. Therefore, in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
Third, perhaps the most glorious aspect of salvation is this: after pouring out His wrath upon Christ, and pardoning our sin in a grand act of forgiveness, God then graciously chose to transform His former enemies into His own beloved children. Speaking of Christ, John wrote, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). He reconciled us to Himself! He drew us into a relationship with Himself and injected into us Christ’s own resurrection life, thus making us new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). No wonder Christ explained this to Nicodemus as being born again (John 3:3-16)! It is new life, eternal life, God’s own life; and it makes us eternally His own dear children, “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
By His own choosing, and at His own expense, God has called the rebels not only into His forgiveness, but into His family. For those who say yes to His call, it will take us the rest of eternity to thank Him for this reconciling salvation. It’s time we got started.
THE BROKEN IMAGE OF GOD
Last Friday we took a second look at the biblical truth that humanity is made in the image of God. As Scripture declares, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This makes humanity entirely unlike the rest of creation: far from being highly-evolved animals, we are distinct and unique, the exclusive and personal product of God’s own creative genius.
As God’s image, our reason to exist is to reflect God’s nature and glory. In relationship to the rest of creation, this involves displaying and living out the truth about God. We are called to be stewards of creation under the authority of God, demonstrating His grace and holiness, His kindness and love to everything else that exists. In relationship to God Himself, being made in His image means that we reflect Who He is back to Him in worship, in love and in joyous obedience.
Thus, our very being should focus on Almighty God, as we seek to live into our purpose for being by glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. Made in His image and for His glory, we are wondrously designed to find unfathomable joy simply by knowing Him and showing Him to the world around us.
However, we have refused this joy He offers us. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have shouted a firm and rebellious, “No!” to God’s generous offer to enjoy the promotion of His glory. We, each and all of us, have chosen rather to seek our own glory by making ourselves the center of the universe. Though we were made to mirror His glory, we’ve willfully broken His image in us.
Since Eden, the cry of the human spirit has echoed the lie of Satan, who, in his temptation of Eve, made the false promise, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Following the devil’s prideful lead, humanity now boasts, “We are our own masters, accountable to none! We exist for ourselves, and no one may tell us otherwise!”
Seen in its true light, our sin is obviously no trivial matter. We have broken God’s image in us, and turned from Him Who made us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives, and sought to set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated mutiny against His glory and rightful authority.
His wrath against His rebel creatures is just and right. Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. However, rather than destroying us, He has made provision not only for the forgiveness of our sin, but also for the restoration of our relationship with Him as His image on earth. By virtue of His amazing grace, and at His own expense, He has chosen to reconcile the rebels to Himself, making His former enemies nor merely His chattel, but His own beloved children. The glory of this reconciliation is the most astonishing fact in the entire universe, and the elect will spend eternity praising Him for it.
Next week: The Glory of Reconciliation With God
As God’s image, our reason to exist is to reflect God’s nature and glory. In relationship to the rest of creation, this involves displaying and living out the truth about God. We are called to be stewards of creation under the authority of God, demonstrating His grace and holiness, His kindness and love to everything else that exists. In relationship to God Himself, being made in His image means that we reflect Who He is back to Him in worship, in love and in joyous obedience.
Thus, our very being should focus on Almighty God, as we seek to live into our purpose for being by glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. Made in His image and for His glory, we are wondrously designed to find unfathomable joy simply by knowing Him and showing Him to the world around us.
However, we have refused this joy He offers us. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have shouted a firm and rebellious, “No!” to God’s generous offer to enjoy the promotion of His glory. We, each and all of us, have chosen rather to seek our own glory by making ourselves the center of the universe. Though we were made to mirror His glory, we’ve willfully broken His image in us.
Since Eden, the cry of the human spirit has echoed the lie of Satan, who, in his temptation of Eve, made the false promise, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Following the devil’s prideful lead, humanity now boasts, “We are our own masters, accountable to none! We exist for ourselves, and no one may tell us otherwise!”
Seen in its true light, our sin is obviously no trivial matter. We have broken God’s image in us, and turned from Him Who made us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives, and sought to set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated mutiny against His glory and rightful authority.
His wrath against His rebel creatures is just and right. Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. However, rather than destroying us, He has made provision not only for the forgiveness of our sin, but also for the restoration of our relationship with Him as His image on earth. By virtue of His amazing grace, and at His own expense, He has chosen to reconcile the rebels to Himself, making His former enemies nor merely His chattel, but His own beloved children. The glory of this reconciliation is the most astonishing fact in the entire universe, and the elect will spend eternity praising Him for it.
Next week: The Glory of Reconciliation With God
IN HIS IMAGE FOR HIS GLORY
Over 3,000 years ago, King David asked some questions about the nature of humanity. His inspired ponderings are very much on point in contemporary war of worldviews.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
Through David (and through the rest of Holy Scripture), God revealed Himself to us as our creator, the source of our being and reason we exist.
As we saw last Friday, God made us with two primary purposes. First, as with the rest of creation, we exist for the glory of God. However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist.
Second – and this is what makes humanity utterly unique in the created universe!– we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The following chapter in Genesis goes on to indicate that unlike the rest of creation, which was made by God’s speaking it into existence, humanity was created by God’s shaping and molding. His personal touch is upon us.
It is astonishing to consider what this means for us.
Made in God’s image, we possess a moral similarity to God. This means that we are created to make decisions based not on personal preferences and trained responses, as animals do, but based rather on considerations of moral right and wrong. We have the capacity to understand good and evil as objective categories that are beyond ourselves, not simply the projection of personal wants and wishes.
One implication of our moral similarity to God is that attempts to redefine morality as if it were something determined by culture really amount to redefining humanity. Think with me about this. To say, “Right and wrong is what I want it to be for me” is a rejection of one’s personal accountability to the God Who created us and gave us the capacity to know Him as the source of all moral truth. Moreover, this kind of moral relativism dehumanizes us, by asserting that we are just like other animals, who do what they want without reference to an objective moral standard.
This means that submitting our wills to God’s revealed moral truth is a primary way we achieve our reason for being. We were created to glorify God by learning to enjoy obedience to Him, as we reflect to Him our complete reliance upon His love and grace.
We are not self-existing: we exist from Him, by Him and for Him. Indeed, we are made in the image of God for the glory of God.
Next week: The Broken Image of God
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
Through David (and through the rest of Holy Scripture), God revealed Himself to us as our creator, the source of our being and reason we exist.
As we saw last Friday, God made us with two primary purposes. First, as with the rest of creation, we exist for the glory of God. However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist.
Second – and this is what makes humanity utterly unique in the created universe!– we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The following chapter in Genesis goes on to indicate that unlike the rest of creation, which was made by God’s speaking it into existence, humanity was created by God’s shaping and molding. His personal touch is upon us.
It is astonishing to consider what this means for us.
Made in God’s image, we possess a moral similarity to God. This means that we are created to make decisions based not on personal preferences and trained responses, as animals do, but based rather on considerations of moral right and wrong. We have the capacity to understand good and evil as objective categories that are beyond ourselves, not simply the projection of personal wants and wishes.
One implication of our moral similarity to God is that attempts to redefine morality as if it were something determined by culture really amount to redefining humanity. Think with me about this. To say, “Right and wrong is what I want it to be for me” is a rejection of one’s personal accountability to the God Who created us and gave us the capacity to know Him as the source of all moral truth. Moreover, this kind of moral relativism dehumanizes us, by asserting that we are just like other animals, who do what they want without reference to an objective moral standard.
This means that submitting our wills to God’s revealed moral truth is a primary way we achieve our reason for being. We were created to glorify God by learning to enjoy obedience to Him, as we reflect to Him our complete reliance upon His love and grace.
We are not self-existing: we exist from Him, by Him and for Him. Indeed, we are made in the image of God for the glory of God.
Next week: The Broken Image of God
DEFINING HUMANITY
Point: a New Jersey couple sued their doctor for allowing the “wrongful birth” of their Down Syndrome child. Sadly, they are not the only ones: over 300 such cases have been filed in recent years.
Point: in Louisiana, embryos conceived “in vitro” (i.e., by joining sperm and egg in a laboratory, rather than in the womb) are protected by law. However, as soon as an “in vitro” embryo is successfully implanted into a human uterus, it can be aborted legally until the moment of birth.
Point: a pregnant Indianapolis woman was charged with attempted murder because she shot herself in the abdomen trying to kill her unborn child. Ironically, she lived not far from an abortion “clinic” where she could have had the child killed legally.
These three points typify our society’s efforts to redefine humanity. Because we seem incapable of determining what a human being is, we are at a loss to state when real human life begins. “What is humanity?” we ask, but we just can’t seem to find the answer.
King David asked the same question over 3,000 years ago. Listen to his inspired ponderings about human existence and meaning.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
The basis for understanding humanity is right there. Did you see it?
“Thou hast made him . . .” There’s the key: we are created. We are not independent beings. We owe our existence to our Creator.
Because we are not self-made, we are therefore not self-defining. Only He Who made us has the right to define our existence. He has, in fact, already done so in Holy Scripture. He has told us two basic truths about why we exist.
First, we are created for His glory. We hold this purpose in common with the rest of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God plainly declares His intention for those He formed and made, stating, “I have created [them] for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to live up to their created purpose: “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist. Our uniqueness is founded upon the fact that we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). Nothing else in the entire universe can claim this attribute. Only humanity has this distinction.
We are creations of God uniquely designed to reflect His image back to Him in worship and to the rest of creation in stewardship. Once we understand that, it changes everything about our lives, from conception to death. We’ll look at this in more detail next Friday.
Next week: In His Image for His Glory
Point: in Louisiana, embryos conceived “in vitro” (i.e., by joining sperm and egg in a laboratory, rather than in the womb) are protected by law. However, as soon as an “in vitro” embryo is successfully implanted into a human uterus, it can be aborted legally until the moment of birth.
Point: a pregnant Indianapolis woman was charged with attempted murder because she shot herself in the abdomen trying to kill her unborn child. Ironically, she lived not far from an abortion “clinic” where she could have had the child killed legally.
These three points typify our society’s efforts to redefine humanity. Because we seem incapable of determining what a human being is, we are at a loss to state when real human life begins. “What is humanity?” we ask, but we just can’t seem to find the answer.
King David asked the same question over 3,000 years ago. Listen to his inspired ponderings about human existence and meaning.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
The basis for understanding humanity is right there. Did you see it?
“Thou hast made him . . .” There’s the key: we are created. We are not independent beings. We owe our existence to our Creator.
Because we are not self-made, we are therefore not self-defining. Only He Who made us has the right to define our existence. He has, in fact, already done so in Holy Scripture. He has told us two basic truths about why we exist.
First, we are created for His glory. We hold this purpose in common with the rest of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God plainly declares His intention for those He formed and made, stating, “I have created [them] for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to live up to their created purpose: “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist. Our uniqueness is founded upon the fact that we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). Nothing else in the entire universe can claim this attribute. Only humanity has this distinction.
We are creations of God uniquely designed to reflect His image back to Him in worship and to the rest of creation in stewardship. Once we understand that, it changes everything about our lives, from conception to death. We’ll look at this in more detail next Friday.
Next week: In His Image for His Glory
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Spectacular Opportunity of Hardship
At the community Lenten Tryst (an inter-church worship service each Wednesday noon in Lent, here in Sterling, CO) Pastor Gene Zeller of Peace Lutheran Church used the words of Thomas Paine to characterize our nation’s current difficulties: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Paine penned those words in 1776 in the first of a series of 16 pamphlets titled “The American Crisis.”
Many consider that our current situation would warrant a similar description.
I, however, choose to see it as a spectacular opportunity.
Christians are given the privilege of seeing our situation as God sees it. The fact is, God has either allowed or designed the circumstances in which we are now living, and His purpose in these trying times is what we must discover and pursue.
That discovery and pursuit is not as difficult as we might imagine. It involves asking God three basic questions in these tough days. The first question is, “God, where are You in these circumstances?”
Sadly, hardly anyone ever listens to God’s Word for the answer. Where is God in trials? Right in the midst of these trials with us. God’s Word says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Jesus promised His disciples, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). In the midst of hardship, God is with His people. Do we pay attention to His presence?
Another question to ask God is this one: “God, what are You doing in this hardship?” While the specifics may vary, one thing you may be sure of: God wants to use the hardship to make you more like Jesus. Indeed, that’s His plan in everything that happens in your life, good or bad. He is intent on producing Christ-like character in you, so that you can live for His glory just as His only-begotten Son did.
The third question to ask God is, “How can I live out the Gospel in this circumstance?” The answer to this one is simple: by giving glory to the Father for salvation! After all the joys and trials of this life are over, there is waiting for us a place of wholly-undeserved splendor, in which we will praise forever the Lamb Who was slain! Hardship demonstrates to Christians the astonishing privilege we have of being heirs to this miraculous promise!
What a spectacular opportunity hardship affords us! Jesus said to His followers, “You are the light of the world . . . people do not light a lamp and put it under a basket . . . In the same way, let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:14). How much more visible is the light when the world is dark, and how much more attractive it is to those in the gloom.
Get your faith out from under the basket! Stop hiding the Gospel as if it were something to be ashamed of. Point to Jesus. Take these circumstances and point to Jesus in them!
Many consider that our current situation would warrant a similar description.
I, however, choose to see it as a spectacular opportunity.
Christians are given the privilege of seeing our situation as God sees it. The fact is, God has either allowed or designed the circumstances in which we are now living, and His purpose in these trying times is what we must discover and pursue.
That discovery and pursuit is not as difficult as we might imagine. It involves asking God three basic questions in these tough days. The first question is, “God, where are You in these circumstances?”
Sadly, hardly anyone ever listens to God’s Word for the answer. Where is God in trials? Right in the midst of these trials with us. God’s Word says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Jesus promised His disciples, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). In the midst of hardship, God is with His people. Do we pay attention to His presence?
Another question to ask God is this one: “God, what are You doing in this hardship?” While the specifics may vary, one thing you may be sure of: God wants to use the hardship to make you more like Jesus. Indeed, that’s His plan in everything that happens in your life, good or bad. He is intent on producing Christ-like character in you, so that you can live for His glory just as His only-begotten Son did.
The third question to ask God is, “How can I live out the Gospel in this circumstance?” The answer to this one is simple: by giving glory to the Father for salvation! After all the joys and trials of this life are over, there is waiting for us a place of wholly-undeserved splendor, in which we will praise forever the Lamb Who was slain! Hardship demonstrates to Christians the astonishing privilege we have of being heirs to this miraculous promise!
What a spectacular opportunity hardship affords us! Jesus said to His followers, “You are the light of the world . . . people do not light a lamp and put it under a basket . . . In the same way, let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:14). How much more visible is the light when the world is dark, and how much more attractive it is to those in the gloom.
Get your faith out from under the basket! Stop hiding the Gospel as if it were something to be ashamed of. Point to Jesus. Take these circumstances and point to Jesus in them!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Jesus Saves By His Victorious Resurrection
For the last few weeks we’ve been considering the three atoning aspects of Christ’s work of redemption: that Jesus saves by virtue of His perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law, His substitutionary death under God’s wrath, and His victorious resurrection over the powers of hell and death.
As we noted last Friday, Jesus came to earth not only to die on our behalf under the righteous wrath of God for our sins, but also to obey God’s righteous requirements on our behalf. Thus, those who trust in Christ are given the same right standing with the Father that the Son obtained by His obedience.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the first two aspects of Christ’s atoning work (His righteous life and substitutionary death) that we forget the ultimate reason for His coming to earth. It was, like everything God does, primarily for the sake of His own glory. The resurrection is the clearest evidence of this: after dying in our place under the Father’s wrath, Christ rose from the dead to declare God’s victory over all the powers of death and hell (Romans 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 54-57).
Now Christ is alive forever, to live His life in union with all who trust in Him. One goal of His coming to earth is that you would be united to Him and He would be united to you, with the result that His life flows through you and produces His character in you.
The central text that teaches about union with Christ is John 15, where He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4). The life of Christ flows in and through the believer, so that His life “takes over,” and bears the fruit of Christ’s life. (This process of “taking over” the believer’s life is how Christ accomplishes the believer’s sanctification; but that’s another series of articles!)
Because Christ rose from dead to live His life out in His followers, Christians are blessed to enjoy all of the blessings that are in Christ (Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 1:20). God loves the Son, and so He loves us, because we are united with Christ. Because Christ lives in believers, everything He accomplished for us is counted as ours: we died with Him, we were raised with Him, and we have a place in heaven with Him (Ephesians 2:5-6; John 14:1-6). Because Christ was resurrected and lives in His followers, His presence with us is not temporary or transient, but permanent and constant (Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 13:5).
If you are a believer, Christ is not somewhere “out there.” He came out of the tomb to come into your life and live His life out in you and through you. As the song puts it, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!” It is my earnest prayer that those words are more than song lyrics to you, but rather that they are the genuine testimony of your salvation!
As we noted last Friday, Jesus came to earth not only to die on our behalf under the righteous wrath of God for our sins, but also to obey God’s righteous requirements on our behalf. Thus, those who trust in Christ are given the same right standing with the Father that the Son obtained by His obedience.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the first two aspects of Christ’s atoning work (His righteous life and substitutionary death) that we forget the ultimate reason for His coming to earth. It was, like everything God does, primarily for the sake of His own glory. The resurrection is the clearest evidence of this: after dying in our place under the Father’s wrath, Christ rose from the dead to declare God’s victory over all the powers of death and hell (Romans 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 54-57).
Now Christ is alive forever, to live His life in union with all who trust in Him. One goal of His coming to earth is that you would be united to Him and He would be united to you, with the result that His life flows through you and produces His character in you.
The central text that teaches about union with Christ is John 15, where He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4). The life of Christ flows in and through the believer, so that His life “takes over,” and bears the fruit of Christ’s life. (This process of “taking over” the believer’s life is how Christ accomplishes the believer’s sanctification; but that’s another series of articles!)
Because Christ rose from dead to live His life out in His followers, Christians are blessed to enjoy all of the blessings that are in Christ (Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 1:20). God loves the Son, and so He loves us, because we are united with Christ. Because Christ lives in believers, everything He accomplished for us is counted as ours: we died with Him, we were raised with Him, and we have a place in heaven with Him (Ephesians 2:5-6; John 14:1-6). Because Christ was resurrected and lives in His followers, His presence with us is not temporary or transient, but permanent and constant (Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 13:5).
If you are a believer, Christ is not somewhere “out there.” He came out of the tomb to come into your life and live His life out in you and through you. As the song puts it, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!” It is my earnest prayer that those words are more than song lyrics to you, but rather that they are the genuine testimony of your salvation!
Jesus Saves By His Righteous Life
For the last couple of weeks we’ve been considering the three atoning aspects of Christ’s work of redemption: that Jesus is able to save us by virtue of His perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law, His substitutionary death under God’s wrath, and His victorious resurrection over all the powers of hell and death.
As we noted last Friday, the most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. The New Testament clearly presents Christ’s death as the key to our salvation: He died under the Father’s holy wrath, which is His just and rightful response to the rebellion of humanity.
Somewhat less widely understood is how Jesus’ perfect life plays a role in saving people. If the death of Christ for our sin were the only aspect of His saving work, it would not have been necessary for Him to have lived among humanity for over thirty years: He could simply have appeared as a full-grown man and died a short time later. We get a hint as to the purpose of His living when He is standing in the Jordan River about to be baptized: when John protests that Jesus does not need baptism, Jesus replies, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
Clearly, Jesus came to earth not only to die on our behalf under the righteous wrath of God for our sins. He also came to obey God’s righteous requirements, or as He put it, “to fulfill all righteousness.” The glorious thing in which we can rejoice is that Christ did this for us. He was already righteous before the Father, so His fulfillment of the law was not something He did for Himself: instead, He did it on our behalf.
The wonder of grace is that for all who trust Christ, His righteous life and fulfillment of God’s law is credited to us. Because of His life of sinlessness and perfect obedience on this earth, God legally credits believers with the righteous acts that Christ performed on our behalf. Thus, those who trust in Christ are given by God the same position or standing with the Father that the Son obtained by His obedience.
This position of “right standing” before the Father is the source of tremendous benefits to the believer. Because God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, we can come boldly before God in prayer, knowing that He accepts us as He accepts His Son (Hebrews 4:14-16); we are assured of peace with God because Christ’s perfection earned our peace (Romans 5:1-3); we have the child-blessings of God’s family established for us by Christ (Romans 8:16-17); and we are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1-4).
And how do you receive this righteousness of Christ? Only by the instrument of faith alone, plus nothing; and even this faith is a gift of God, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-10). Trust in Christ’s atoning work, and His righteousness is given to you.
Next Week: By His Victorious Resurrection
As we noted last Friday, the most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. The New Testament clearly presents Christ’s death as the key to our salvation: He died under the Father’s holy wrath, which is His just and rightful response to the rebellion of humanity.
Somewhat less widely understood is how Jesus’ perfect life plays a role in saving people. If the death of Christ for our sin were the only aspect of His saving work, it would not have been necessary for Him to have lived among humanity for over thirty years: He could simply have appeared as a full-grown man and died a short time later. We get a hint as to the purpose of His living when He is standing in the Jordan River about to be baptized: when John protests that Jesus does not need baptism, Jesus replies, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
Clearly, Jesus came to earth not only to die on our behalf under the righteous wrath of God for our sins. He also came to obey God’s righteous requirements, or as He put it, “to fulfill all righteousness.” The glorious thing in which we can rejoice is that Christ did this for us. He was already righteous before the Father, so His fulfillment of the law was not something He did for Himself: instead, He did it on our behalf.
The wonder of grace is that for all who trust Christ, His righteous life and fulfillment of God’s law is credited to us. Because of His life of sinlessness and perfect obedience on this earth, God legally credits believers with the righteous acts that Christ performed on our behalf. Thus, those who trust in Christ are given by God the same position or standing with the Father that the Son obtained by His obedience.
This position of “right standing” before the Father is the source of tremendous benefits to the believer. Because God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, we can come boldly before God in prayer, knowing that He accepts us as He accepts His Son (Hebrews 4:14-16); we are assured of peace with God because Christ’s perfection earned our peace (Romans 5:1-3); we have the child-blessings of God’s family established for us by Christ (Romans 8:16-17); and we are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1-4).
And how do you receive this righteousness of Christ? Only by the instrument of faith alone, plus nothing; and even this faith is a gift of God, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-10). Trust in Christ’s atoning work, and His righteousness is given to you.
Next Week: By His Victorious Resurrection
Jesus Saves By His Substitutionary Death!
Last Friday we took an overview of the three atoning aspects of Christ’s work of redemption. We were reminded of the classic orthodox understanding of His redemptive ministry: that Jesus is able to save us by virtue of His perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law, His substitutionary death under God’s wrath, and His victorious resurrection over all the powers of hell and death.
As we noted last Friday, the most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. The New Testament clearly presents Christ’s death as the key to our salvation.
To understand how Christ’s death works for us, we first need an accurate view of sin. From the account of our first parents’ sin in the Garden of Eden, until the New Testament, Scripture teaches that sin is intentional rebellion against God’s will as well as against His right to rule our lives.
The depravity of this rebellion is measured not merely by the act itself, but also by the nature of Him against Whom it is committed: because God is eternal and infinite, the rebellion is eternal and infinite as well. Let me illustrate.
If you were to punch a friend, your punishment might be as simple as losing that friendship. If you were to punch a police officer, you would spend some time in jail. If you punched the United States President, you would spend the rest of your life in a mental institution. In each case, the same act is committed: a punch. But the punishment varies with the authority of and respect due to the person you punch: the greater their position, the greater your punishment.
When we sin, we are actively rebelling against the highest Authority in the universe, One Whose nature rightly demands infinite and eternal respect. Our sin, therefore, dishonors God infinitely and eternally, and rightly places us under His righteous wrath.
It is this eternal and infinite rebellion that Jesus came to remedy, this wrath He came to suffer. In His death, Christ willingly submitted Himself to the just penalty which we deserved. He received it on our behalf and in our place so that we will not have to bear it ourselves. The penalty for our sins was removed from us and placed upon Christ, our substitute.
The benefit of this substitution is that we are no longer under God’s wrath. Irish poet Charitie Lees Bancroft wrote of this miracle of grace in 1863:
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
God’s righteous wrath was poured out on the Son, Who, because He is also infinite and eternal, could receive the infinite and eternal measure of that wrath. Our pardon is made possible by His punishment.
Or, as Peter put it, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Aren’t you glad He died in your place, to take God’s punishment for your sin?
Next Week: By His Righteous Life
As we noted last Friday, the most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. The New Testament clearly presents Christ’s death as the key to our salvation.
To understand how Christ’s death works for us, we first need an accurate view of sin. From the account of our first parents’ sin in the Garden of Eden, until the New Testament, Scripture teaches that sin is intentional rebellion against God’s will as well as against His right to rule our lives.
The depravity of this rebellion is measured not merely by the act itself, but also by the nature of Him against Whom it is committed: because God is eternal and infinite, the rebellion is eternal and infinite as well. Let me illustrate.
If you were to punch a friend, your punishment might be as simple as losing that friendship. If you were to punch a police officer, you would spend some time in jail. If you punched the United States President, you would spend the rest of your life in a mental institution. In each case, the same act is committed: a punch. But the punishment varies with the authority of and respect due to the person you punch: the greater their position, the greater your punishment.
When we sin, we are actively rebelling against the highest Authority in the universe, One Whose nature rightly demands infinite and eternal respect. Our sin, therefore, dishonors God infinitely and eternally, and rightly places us under His righteous wrath.
It is this eternal and infinite rebellion that Jesus came to remedy, this wrath He came to suffer. In His death, Christ willingly submitted Himself to the just penalty which we deserved. He received it on our behalf and in our place so that we will not have to bear it ourselves. The penalty for our sins was removed from us and placed upon Christ, our substitute.
The benefit of this substitution is that we are no longer under God’s wrath. Irish poet Charitie Lees Bancroft wrote of this miracle of grace in 1863:
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
God’s righteous wrath was poured out on the Son, Who, because He is also infinite and eternal, could receive the infinite and eternal measure of that wrath. Our pardon is made possible by His punishment.
Or, as Peter put it, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Aren’t you glad He died in your place, to take God’s punishment for your sin?
Next Week: By His Righteous Life
Jesus Saves! But HOW?
How glorious it is to know that God, the One against Whom humanity has steadily rebelled since Eden, has chosen to make peace with us rebels through His Son! His grace truly is amazing: that the offended would take upon Himself the responsibility of forgiving and reconciling the offenders is more wonderful than we can imagine.
And yet, it is true! Jesus saves us from our sins and restores us to relationship with God.
But how? How is it possible that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago and 5,000 miles away would save you, here, today?
The orthodox understanding of Christ’s saving work presents His redemptive ministry in three basic parts. For the next three Fridays, we’ll look more closely at each of these three parts of Christ’s atoning work. For today, here’s an overview of how Jesus saves.
The most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. As the incarnate second person of the Triune God – and thus both fully God and fully human – Jesus was able as a man to die, and as God to do so perfectly. In His death, He took our place under the righteous wrath of His Father. Indeed, as Isaiah prophesied in the famous text about the suffering Messiah, “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . the Lord was pleased to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:6, 10). Those who trust Jesus are no longer under the Father’s wrath, because that wrath was fully poured out on the Son. Forgiveness is accomplished because the God’s wrath upon human sin has been satisfied.
But if Jesus came only to die, why would He spend over three decades living among sinful humanity before dying for our sins? Jesus Himself told us why: “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Because humanity’s sin rendered us incapable of meeting God’s righteous requirements, Christ lived a perfect and sinless life on our behalf. As our representative, He lived before God flawlessly and fulfilled all the Law. Those who trust Christ are given His righteousness, as God sees us in Christ, clothed in His perfection. Thus, not only are we forgiven by Christ’s death, but we are also reconciled to God by Christ’s righteousness given to us.
However, Christ’s atoning work would be incomplete if, after having lived a sinless life for us and died under God’s wrath for our sins, He then remained dead. His resurrection not only vindicates all His claims, but also guarantees our eternal life, as He lives His life out in us. Jesus came out of the tomb to come into your life and live in you. Thus, as He lives in you, His life flows through you, and by the union of His life with your life, you are able to bear the fruit of Christ-like living, and draw others to Him. (See John 15:1-11.)
So, here is how Jesus saves us. We are forgiven by Christ’s substitutionary death. We are reconciled to God by His righteous life. And we live in union with Him for God’s glory.
It’s really amazing, isn’t it?
Next Week: By His Substitutionary Death
And yet, it is true! Jesus saves us from our sins and restores us to relationship with God.
But how? How is it possible that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago and 5,000 miles away would save you, here, today?
The orthodox understanding of Christ’s saving work presents His redemptive ministry in three basic parts. For the next three Fridays, we’ll look more closely at each of these three parts of Christ’s atoning work. For today, here’s an overview of how Jesus saves.
The most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. As the incarnate second person of the Triune God – and thus both fully God and fully human – Jesus was able as a man to die, and as God to do so perfectly. In His death, He took our place under the righteous wrath of His Father. Indeed, as Isaiah prophesied in the famous text about the suffering Messiah, “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . the Lord was pleased to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:6, 10). Those who trust Jesus are no longer under the Father’s wrath, because that wrath was fully poured out on the Son. Forgiveness is accomplished because the God’s wrath upon human sin has been satisfied.
But if Jesus came only to die, why would He spend over three decades living among sinful humanity before dying for our sins? Jesus Himself told us why: “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Because humanity’s sin rendered us incapable of meeting God’s righteous requirements, Christ lived a perfect and sinless life on our behalf. As our representative, He lived before God flawlessly and fulfilled all the Law. Those who trust Christ are given His righteousness, as God sees us in Christ, clothed in His perfection. Thus, not only are we forgiven by Christ’s death, but we are also reconciled to God by Christ’s righteousness given to us.
However, Christ’s atoning work would be incomplete if, after having lived a sinless life for us and died under God’s wrath for our sins, He then remained dead. His resurrection not only vindicates all His claims, but also guarantees our eternal life, as He lives His life out in us. Jesus came out of the tomb to come into your life and live in you. Thus, as He lives in you, His life flows through you, and by the union of His life with your life, you are able to bear the fruit of Christ-like living, and draw others to Him. (See John 15:1-11.)
So, here is how Jesus saves us. We are forgiven by Christ’s substitutionary death. We are reconciled to God by His righteous life. And we live in union with Him for God’s glory.
It’s really amazing, isn’t it?
Next Week: By His Substitutionary Death
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
GRACE AND GLORY
One of my few good habits is to read Charles Spurgeon’s classical daily devotional book, “Morning and Evening.” Wednesday evening’s message struck a note I want to share with you.
Quoting part of Psalm 84:11, in which God’s Word declares, “the Lord gives grace and glory,” Spurgeon simply unpacked this brief phrase. Let me try to follow the example of the “prince of preachers.”
Note first that the Lord gives. His generosity is extravagant. There is nothing good in all the world that He has not given. The Apostle James wrote, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). In other words, every moment of laughter you have ever enjoyed, each morsel of food, every hug, every kind thought, and all the blessings of friendship and family, have issued, each and all, from the generous heart of God. There is nothing good in all of life that did not originate with God.
It is, in fact, the very nature of God to give. In Himself, He is so completely satisfied and overflowing, that God would have to stop being God in order to stop giving.
Chief among God’s gifts is grace. If it weren’t for His grace, not a soul could survive the withering fury of His righteous wrath. It is grace that sent Christ to earth to live a holy life in fulfillment of God’s righteous requirements. It was grace that moved the Father to place upon His Son all His holy wrath for your sins. It was grace that taught you to see your need of a Savior and place your faith in Christ. By His grace God draws to Himself His insurgent creatures, not to make them His slaves, but to bring them into His family and re-create in them His image which they previously rejected by their aggravated rebellion.
It is the everlasting steadiness of God’s grace that gives His children a resilience which marks them with the family resemblance. Whether the economy is booming or busting, He gives grace. Whether you are well or ill, He gives grace. In both plenty and want, He gives grace. In living and in dying, He gives all the grace required for both. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
With grace comes glory. Mark that little conjunction, “and,” which Spurgeon called “a diamond rivet binding the present with the future.” The gift of grace is God’s guarantee that those who receive it will surely spend eternity with Him in the glory of His presence. If we live in His grace, we will certainly die in His grace, and in His grace enter into the fullness of His glory. The Apostle John declared that there in the city of
So, believer, are you living by the grace of God into the glory of God? If not, you’re living below your privilege. Step up into His grace and glory!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
What Is the Church?
We see them all around town: buildings with signs out front that have the name of a church on them. It’s quite common, and partly because of that, we rarely think deeply about the nature of the church. So today, get your brain in gear and let’s dig deep.
After being started in the pastor’s house in 1883, the church I pastor has met in three different buildings. The first was built in 1889, where the Post Office now stands. The second is now the home of Delgado’s Dugout. The current structure was erected in 1969. Yet, none of these buildings, nor any of the other similar edifices in town, should be called a “church.” “Church-building,” “meeting-house,” and even “gathering-place” are good terms for these facilities. A “church,” however, is not made of brick, stones and wood, but of people.
The word “church” is used in English-language Bibles to translate the New Testament Greek term “ekklesia.” (The New Testament was originally written in Greek.) This word is used 112 times in the New Testament to refer to the body of Christ.
Some background on the term helps us understand what the church is. “Ekklesia” literally means “called out ones,” or “chosen ones.” In secular society during New Testament times, “ekklesia” was used for the gathered body of those chosen by the people to be their leaders: in other words, the assembly of the called out and chosen ones.
Since Christians are those who are chosen by God (1 Peter 2:9), called out by Him (1 Corinthians 1:9), and commanded to assemble regularly (Hebrews 10:24-25), it made sense for Christians to be called the “ekklesia:” those chosen by God and gathered by God.
The church, of course, did not start in a vacuum. Early Christians were mostly Jews, who met weekly or more often in “synagogues,” a term that simply means “congregation” or “gathering place.” The early church developed most of its forms and government from the practices of the synagogue, practices in which Jesus Himself readily participated throughout His life and ministry.
In the New Testament, “ekklesia” is used 18 times to mean the universal church: everyone, everywhere who has ever been saved. But it’s used most often – 94 times, to be precise – to mean a local band of folks committed to one another, meeting weekly or more often to worship and pray; to make disciples and evangelize the lost; and to share each other’s lives in fellowship and service.
And the point of all this? Let me quote the old children’s song:
The church is not a building.
The church is not a steeple.
The church is not a resting place.
The church is the people.
Christians ARE the church. If you are saved, you are united with all Christians everywhere. That mystical union finds its functional expression in a local body of believers committed to Christ and one another. Something extraordinary happens when that group gathers in His name: Jesus shows up in a way He won’t at any other time. And that’s beautiful!
So, go be with the church this Sunday! Jesus will be meeting with His people! Don’t miss the gathering. It’s great!
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