“Adam and Eve faced temptation about a tree in a bright, sunny garden, a paradise with no pressure. But Christ faced temptation about a tree in a dark garden, a garden given the name that meant ‘oil press,’ and certainly he felt squeezed like an olive in a press on that dark night, to the point that his sweat was like drops of blood.
If Adam and Eve obeyed God about the tree, they would live. If Jesus obeyed God about the tree, he would die.
Jesus obeyed. And through his obedience he gained for us far more than Adam lost for us through his disobedience.
Adam lost for us the beautiful ‘naked and not ashamed’ of the garden. But at the cross, Christ hung naked and full of shame. It wasn’t his own shame. It was your shame and my shame. He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2) so that ‘everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’ (Rom. 10:11).”
~Nancy Guthrie, The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis
Of First Importance
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Jesus Knows
“The Good Shepherd Jesus knows you well, though you may not think it. You never shed a secret tear over your own corruption, you never breathed a single prayer for forgiveness and helping grace, you never made a single struggle against wickedness, which He did not remark and note down in the book of His remembrance.
You need not fear His not understanding your needs, you need not be afraid your prayers are too poor and unlearned to be attended to. He knows your particular necessities far better than you do yourselves, and your humble supplications are no sooner offered up than heard.
If you transgress He will grieve—but He will chasten and bring you back; if you bear good fruit, He will rejoice and give more grace; if you sorrow He will bind up your broken heart and pour in balm. He is ever watching and observing and listening. No believer is so humble and lowly, but He is acquainted with all their ways.”
~J.C. Ryle, "The Privileges of the True Christian"
Of First Importance
You need not fear His not understanding your needs, you need not be afraid your prayers are too poor and unlearned to be attended to. He knows your particular necessities far better than you do yourselves, and your humble supplications are no sooner offered up than heard.
If you transgress He will grieve—but He will chasten and bring you back; if you bear good fruit, He will rejoice and give more grace; if you sorrow He will bind up your broken heart and pour in balm. He is ever watching and observing and listening. No believer is so humble and lowly, but He is acquainted with all their ways.”
~J.C. Ryle, "The Privileges of the True Christian"
Of First Importance
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Jesus Now Defines Us
“One of the most important things to remember in the Christian life is that we must always live in light of who God is, what Jesus has done, and what has happened to us as a result. Usually we tend to define ourselves by our successes or failures, our reputation, our sin, our intelligence, beauty, and abilities (or lack of them). Moreover, we often define other people by their weaknesses, failures, and sins. Hence we are quick to gossip and condemn others. The good news calls us to view ourselves and other Christians very differently. Jesus now defines who we are. Through Jesus’ work on the cross we have been declared perfect, blameless, and without fault. We have been forgiven and made right with God. We have become the dearly loved children of the living God, and nothing can separate us from His love.”
~Neil H. Williams, Living in Light of the Gospel Story
Of First Importance
~Neil H. Williams, Living in Light of the Gospel Story
Of First Importance
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Jesus Is . . .
Jesus doesn't need our acceptance. He doesn't need you or me at all. We need Him. We desperately need Him.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Jesus Has Completed the Work
“If the Lord Jesus Christ had not literally risen physically from the grave, we could never be certain that He had ever really finished the work. If He has died for our sins, we must not only be certain that He has died, but that He has finished dying, and that there is no longer death. When God raised His Son from the dead, He was proclaiming to the whole world, 'I am satisfied in Him: I am satisfied in the work He has done. He has done everything. He has fulfilled every demand. Here He is risen—therefore I am satisfied with Him.'
Not only that. The Resurrection proved that He has conquered every enemy that was opposed to Him, to God, and to us. He has not only satisfied the law and conquered death and the grave, He has vanquished the devil and all his forces, and hell and all the principalities and powers of evil. He has triumphed over them all, and He proves it in the Resurrection. The devil cannot hold Him; death and hell cannot hold Him. He has mastered them all; He has emerged on the other side. He is the Son of God, and He has completed the work which the Father had sent Him to do.”
~Martyn Lloyd-Jones, quoted by Adrian Warnock in Raised with Christ
Of First Importance
Not only that. The Resurrection proved that He has conquered every enemy that was opposed to Him, to God, and to us. He has not only satisfied the law and conquered death and the grave, He has vanquished the devil and all his forces, and hell and all the principalities and powers of evil. He has triumphed over them all, and He proves it in the Resurrection. The devil cannot hold Him; death and hell cannot hold Him. He has mastered them all; He has emerged on the other side. He is the Son of God, and He has completed the work which the Father had sent Him to do.”
~Martyn Lloyd-Jones, quoted by Adrian Warnock in Raised with Christ
Of First Importance
Friday, October 15, 2010
Christ's Righteousness: The Eternal Rock
This is beyond excellent. You simply must read it!
“Christ’s righteousness is infinitely perfect, equal to the highest demands of the divine law—and therefore a firm, immovable ground of trust. We may safely venture the weight of our eternal all upon this rock. It will stand forever, without giving way under the heaviest pressure; without being broken by the most violent shock. Let thousands, let millions, with all the mountainous weight of guilt upon them, build upon this foundation, and they shall never be moved.
The firm foundations, the stately columns, the majestic buildings of Nineveh, Babylon and Persia, and all the magnificent structures of antiquity, though formed of the most durable stone, and promising immortality—are now shattered into ten thousand fragments, or lying in ruinous heaps.
But here in Christ is a foundation for immortal souls—a foundation that will remain the same to all eternity. His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, His strength an everlasting strength, and Himself the everlasting Father. He ever lives forever to make intercession for His people, and therefore he is able to save to the uttermost, to the uttermost point of duration, all who come unto God by Him.”
~Samuel Davies, “Jesus Christ, the Only Foundation”
Of First Importance
“Christ’s righteousness is infinitely perfect, equal to the highest demands of the divine law—and therefore a firm, immovable ground of trust. We may safely venture the weight of our eternal all upon this rock. It will stand forever, without giving way under the heaviest pressure; without being broken by the most violent shock. Let thousands, let millions, with all the mountainous weight of guilt upon them, build upon this foundation, and they shall never be moved.
The firm foundations, the stately columns, the majestic buildings of Nineveh, Babylon and Persia, and all the magnificent structures of antiquity, though formed of the most durable stone, and promising immortality—are now shattered into ten thousand fragments, or lying in ruinous heaps.
But here in Christ is a foundation for immortal souls—a foundation that will remain the same to all eternity. His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, His strength an everlasting strength, and Himself the everlasting Father. He ever lives forever to make intercession for His people, and therefore he is able to save to the uttermost, to the uttermost point of duration, all who come unto God by Him.”
~Samuel Davies, “Jesus Christ, the Only Foundation”
Of First Importance
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
From a Ransomed Sinner, With Love - Part 2
In this post, I would like to address some of the responses that I received from my first letter. I have addressed them privately already, but know that some others may have the same views, so I am addressing them here, too. The responses are in bold italics, & my answers to them follow.
"I am on my spirtiual journey, & no two are alike, so I cannot & don't want to travel anyone else's but mine." It is absolutely correct that no one's journey is exactly the same as anyone else's. That's very true. God leads all of His children through different circumstances because we all have different areas in need of sanctification. A very important question to ask ourselves here is who's leading my journey? All journeys have an ending, a destination. So, another question to ask ourselves is where's my journey leading? There are only 2 options -- heaven or hell. Only 1 way leads to heaven, & all other ways lead to hell. Think of it like this: God's Word says that the way to salvation is a narrow path that few people find. Each of God's children journey down that same path, but there are different obstacles that each person will overcome by God's grace & in His strength. Only God's children travel this path, though. Those who don't belong to God travel the other path, & the fact that it's wide is an indication that more people travel this path leading to hell than the narrow one leading to God. All paths don't lead to God; rather, each person on that one narrow path is going to God but will experience different things along that path. (Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan perfectly illustrates this, & it is such an enjoyable book!) Even with our different experiences, there are marks of true believers, characteristics that all true followers of Christ have in their lives that show them to be true followers. I spoke of these in my first letter. In our culture, in our world, it is commonly believed that there are many ways to God. My road may lead through riches & indulging in the things of this world, my neighbor's road may lead through numerous sexual relationships, & that stranger standing in front of me in the grocery store may have a road that leads to God through Buddha (or any other false religion or god), but they all eventually lead to God. It sounds lovely, that everyone can be right & no one is wrong, but that's just not true. Jesus explicitly says that no one can come to God the Father apart from Him, apart from His sacrificial death. To be perfectly straightforward here - & please know I say this in love - if your journey is not based on an accurate interpretation & application of Scripture, then it does not include, nor is it leading to, God. He says so in His Word, & we must believe what He says. If we don't, it's at our own peril.
"The rules of God are pretty basic." They are, but not in the way people mean. They are basic in that they are laid out in His Word. We keep coming back to this point, because without an acknowledgment that His Word is the basis for our understanding of Him & for how we live our lives, then both are skewed. Without this basis, we have no true understanding of Him, no true relationship with Him, & we're simply living our lives by our own rules, even if we claim to follow God. Some people do it with man-made rules in the name of Christianity, while others do it by discarding all rules in the name of tolerance. Without sounding too "hell-fire & damnation" here, this leads to nowhere but. . .well. . .hell. Here's an example of how not acknowledging God's Word in our lives plays out & hurts us in the end: "I have learned if I live by the positive things I have been taught & not so into what is expected of me & do what feels natural & right then I am living what God wants me to." But living your life this way means that you're basing your relationship with God - & therefore your standing before Him - on how you feel & what your experiences are, rather than what Scripture says. And what does Scripture say? That Jesus Christ is the only way to have a right relationship with God, that only trusting in His sacrifice for us redeems us from our sin & exhausts God's wrath toward that sin. It may seem like an acceptable way of approaching God, to just do what feels right & comes naturally, except that Scripture bears out that "what feels natural & right" to us is sin. It feels natural to have anger when someone wrongs us, but the Bible says that God sees anger as tantamount to murder. It feels good for us to look at a man's body with appreciation (lust), but the Bible says that looking at someone in lust is the same as adultery. It feels right to tell someone what they want to hear so that we don't upset them with the truth, but the Bible says that's lying. The Bible also says that it is innate (natural) in man to sin. Not here & there, but all the time. Even the things we do right are tainted with sin. The Bible says that even our "righteousness" is as filthy rags (used tampons is a modern-day comparison) before God. Bottom line here is that we can't trust what feels right to us, because it will lead us to sin.
"The world just seems to put more into [religion] & makes it seem so rigid & unfun when it's really not that way. I am having too much fun & feeling too much joy & happiness on my own journey. I am adventuresome, positive, free, & living life to the fullest." There are those who believe the focus of life is to be on having fun. Their life is supposed to be joyful, positive, & devoid of anything serious or difficult. It sounds like a wonderful way to live; the only problem is that these happy feelings aren't based on truth. Is this you? If so, in believing the lie that you are free, you have been blinded to your bondage. Again, I don't say this with malice, but in love & with an almost overwhelming sadness. A lot of people, maybe even you, believe what this world says about God, about who He is & how we can relate to Him. And this world lies about God with each & every breath. The world is not a friend of God. I understand that so many people have been scarred by those who claim Christ & behave as anything but. I know that. I've been there, too. I had to finally realize that I can't judge God by - nor can I base my understanding of Him on - the words, actions, & lives of those who misrepresent & distort Him. So, I had to learn to ignore what the world is saying about God & ignore what those who misrepresent Him in the church say. I have to take Him at His own Word. He's told us everything about Him that we need to know. Who He is, who we are, what He's done for us, what He'll do at the end of time to His enemies, how we can be set free from our sin & be His children - even how to recognize true believers. God doesn't try to squeeze you into an "unfun" & "rigid" mold. He created you with your personality. He doesn't want to change your personality, He wants to change your heart. Christianity is not about following some list of rigid rules where you can't dance or have a daiquiri or wear makeup. Some try to make it about that, but they're wrong. Christianity is about God showing mercy & undeserved love to rebellious enemies by sending His Son to die on a cross to rescue us from our sin & His wrath. In response, we love Him & joyfully serve Him. Did you catch that? Joyfully! Christianity - truly & faithfully serving God - is wonderfully freeing & infinitely joyful! Does God have expectations of His children? Doesn't every parent? He's our Father, & He lays down guidelines for how our lives work best just like any human parent does for their children. The bottom line for our lives is not about us & our fun, it's about Him & His glory. Incredibly, in loving Him & living for His glory, we are so blessed! He's glorified & we're blessed! It's amazing to think of! The thing is, God will be glorified in each person's life, whether by their salvation or by their damnation. That may sound harsh, but that's the truth. And I love you enough to tell you the truth, because I'd much rather that He be glorified in your salvation.
I want to pose a few questions to you. Give them some thought & answer them for yourself. These are questions that come from one of my favorite books, Stepping Heavenward. It's fictional, but accurate & very edifying. Every time I read it, God uses it to convict me, encourage me, & strengthen my faith. 1) Do you love God? Not the god of your own making (as is prevalent in the world, even among those who claim Christ), but the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. I laid out a thorough description of the true God in my last letter. Do you love Him? 2) Do you love to be with God? To commune with Him in prayer & Bible reading? To fondly think of Him during the day? 3) Do you love to hear others speak about Him in an honoring, praising way? Do you love to talk about Him yourself in this same way? 4) Do you love to try to please Him with your thoughts, words, & deeds? Do you love to live your life in a way that pleases & reflects well on Him? Remember, as I said in my first letter, none of us will ever do this perfectly, nor will we earn His favor in living this way. His favor was earned for us at the cross. Saying yes to these questions does not earn us our salvation. If we love God, if we pray & read our Bibles, if we adore Him with our speech, & if we live holy lives -- these are the fruits of salvation, these are the evidences of our salvation, not the way to earn our salvation.
Why have I written this? Model after model is given in Scripture of the saints earnestly defending the faith & correcting error. I want God to be glorified in the salvation of sinners; & I say that humbly, as a sinner who sees my need for Him every single day. I want you to know the truth about Him, & not just to know it, but to rejoice in it, to revel in it, to trust in it! There is such joy, freedom, & blessing to be found in Him! For years, I've seen people searching for joy & meaning. They've moved from one place to the next, from one job to the next, & from one relationship to the next in this quest. And each place, job, & relationship has left them empty & still searching. This positive-thinking, "let's just have fun" ideology that seems to be so rampant will do the same. You will not have true joy or true meaning - nor will you have a true relationship with God or true salvation - by following this path. I know it may make people angry for me to say this, but while y'all fume at me, please seriously consider what I'm saying. And think about what it takes for me to say it. I love you enough to tell you the hard truth, & I'm praying you will heed my words. I've been on the receiving end of truth that I didn't want to hear, & it can be hard to take. It's incredibly difficult to humble yourself & admit that you're wrong or misguided. It's very uncomfortable. But know this: Know that I love you. Know that I don't want to hurt or anger you. Know that I want what is best for you, what will lead to your ultimate good. That's why I had to write this. I do love you, & I've tried to be as gentle & humble as possible without watering down God's truth. As before, I pray you receive it in the spirit in which it's written, & that God may somehow use this letter to reveal Himself to you. You're in my prayers, & I'm here for you if you want to talk.
"I am on my spirtiual journey, & no two are alike, so I cannot & don't want to travel anyone else's but mine." It is absolutely correct that no one's journey is exactly the same as anyone else's. That's very true. God leads all of His children through different circumstances because we all have different areas in need of sanctification. A very important question to ask ourselves here is who's leading my journey? All journeys have an ending, a destination. So, another question to ask ourselves is where's my journey leading? There are only 2 options -- heaven or hell. Only 1 way leads to heaven, & all other ways lead to hell. Think of it like this: God's Word says that the way to salvation is a narrow path that few people find. Each of God's children journey down that same path, but there are different obstacles that each person will overcome by God's grace & in His strength. Only God's children travel this path, though. Those who don't belong to God travel the other path, & the fact that it's wide is an indication that more people travel this path leading to hell than the narrow one leading to God. All paths don't lead to God; rather, each person on that one narrow path is going to God but will experience different things along that path. (Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan perfectly illustrates this, & it is such an enjoyable book!) Even with our different experiences, there are marks of true believers, characteristics that all true followers of Christ have in their lives that show them to be true followers. I spoke of these in my first letter. In our culture, in our world, it is commonly believed that there are many ways to God. My road may lead through riches & indulging in the things of this world, my neighbor's road may lead through numerous sexual relationships, & that stranger standing in front of me in the grocery store may have a road that leads to God through Buddha (or any other false religion or god), but they all eventually lead to God. It sounds lovely, that everyone can be right & no one is wrong, but that's just not true. Jesus explicitly says that no one can come to God the Father apart from Him, apart from His sacrificial death. To be perfectly straightforward here - & please know I say this in love - if your journey is not based on an accurate interpretation & application of Scripture, then it does not include, nor is it leading to, God. He says so in His Word, & we must believe what He says. If we don't, it's at our own peril.
"The rules of God are pretty basic." They are, but not in the way people mean. They are basic in that they are laid out in His Word. We keep coming back to this point, because without an acknowledgment that His Word is the basis for our understanding of Him & for how we live our lives, then both are skewed. Without this basis, we have no true understanding of Him, no true relationship with Him, & we're simply living our lives by our own rules, even if we claim to follow God. Some people do it with man-made rules in the name of Christianity, while others do it by discarding all rules in the name of tolerance. Without sounding too "hell-fire & damnation" here, this leads to nowhere but. . .well. . .hell. Here's an example of how not acknowledging God's Word in our lives plays out & hurts us in the end: "I have learned if I live by the positive things I have been taught & not so into what is expected of me & do what feels natural & right then I am living what God wants me to." But living your life this way means that you're basing your relationship with God - & therefore your standing before Him - on how you feel & what your experiences are, rather than what Scripture says. And what does Scripture say? That Jesus Christ is the only way to have a right relationship with God, that only trusting in His sacrifice for us redeems us from our sin & exhausts God's wrath toward that sin. It may seem like an acceptable way of approaching God, to just do what feels right & comes naturally, except that Scripture bears out that "what feels natural & right" to us is sin. It feels natural to have anger when someone wrongs us, but the Bible says that God sees anger as tantamount to murder. It feels good for us to look at a man's body with appreciation (lust), but the Bible says that looking at someone in lust is the same as adultery. It feels right to tell someone what they want to hear so that we don't upset them with the truth, but the Bible says that's lying. The Bible also says that it is innate (natural) in man to sin. Not here & there, but all the time. Even the things we do right are tainted with sin. The Bible says that even our "righteousness" is as filthy rags (used tampons is a modern-day comparison) before God. Bottom line here is that we can't trust what feels right to us, because it will lead us to sin.
"The world just seems to put more into [religion] & makes it seem so rigid & unfun when it's really not that way. I am having too much fun & feeling too much joy & happiness on my own journey. I am adventuresome, positive, free, & living life to the fullest." There are those who believe the focus of life is to be on having fun. Their life is supposed to be joyful, positive, & devoid of anything serious or difficult. It sounds like a wonderful way to live; the only problem is that these happy feelings aren't based on truth. Is this you? If so, in believing the lie that you are free, you have been blinded to your bondage. Again, I don't say this with malice, but in love & with an almost overwhelming sadness. A lot of people, maybe even you, believe what this world says about God, about who He is & how we can relate to Him. And this world lies about God with each & every breath. The world is not a friend of God. I understand that so many people have been scarred by those who claim Christ & behave as anything but. I know that. I've been there, too. I had to finally realize that I can't judge God by - nor can I base my understanding of Him on - the words, actions, & lives of those who misrepresent & distort Him. So, I had to learn to ignore what the world is saying about God & ignore what those who misrepresent Him in the church say. I have to take Him at His own Word. He's told us everything about Him that we need to know. Who He is, who we are, what He's done for us, what He'll do at the end of time to His enemies, how we can be set free from our sin & be His children - even how to recognize true believers. God doesn't try to squeeze you into an "unfun" & "rigid" mold. He created you with your personality. He doesn't want to change your personality, He wants to change your heart. Christianity is not about following some list of rigid rules where you can't dance or have a daiquiri or wear makeup. Some try to make it about that, but they're wrong. Christianity is about God showing mercy & undeserved love to rebellious enemies by sending His Son to die on a cross to rescue us from our sin & His wrath. In response, we love Him & joyfully serve Him. Did you catch that? Joyfully! Christianity - truly & faithfully serving God - is wonderfully freeing & infinitely joyful! Does God have expectations of His children? Doesn't every parent? He's our Father, & He lays down guidelines for how our lives work best just like any human parent does for their children. The bottom line for our lives is not about us & our fun, it's about Him & His glory. Incredibly, in loving Him & living for His glory, we are so blessed! He's glorified & we're blessed! It's amazing to think of! The thing is, God will be glorified in each person's life, whether by their salvation or by their damnation. That may sound harsh, but that's the truth. And I love you enough to tell you the truth, because I'd much rather that He be glorified in your salvation.
I want to pose a few questions to you. Give them some thought & answer them for yourself. These are questions that come from one of my favorite books, Stepping Heavenward. It's fictional, but accurate & very edifying. Every time I read it, God uses it to convict me, encourage me, & strengthen my faith. 1) Do you love God? Not the god of your own making (as is prevalent in the world, even among those who claim Christ), but the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. I laid out a thorough description of the true God in my last letter. Do you love Him? 2) Do you love to be with God? To commune with Him in prayer & Bible reading? To fondly think of Him during the day? 3) Do you love to hear others speak about Him in an honoring, praising way? Do you love to talk about Him yourself in this same way? 4) Do you love to try to please Him with your thoughts, words, & deeds? Do you love to live your life in a way that pleases & reflects well on Him? Remember, as I said in my first letter, none of us will ever do this perfectly, nor will we earn His favor in living this way. His favor was earned for us at the cross. Saying yes to these questions does not earn us our salvation. If we love God, if we pray & read our Bibles, if we adore Him with our speech, & if we live holy lives -- these are the fruits of salvation, these are the evidences of our salvation, not the way to earn our salvation.
Why have I written this? Model after model is given in Scripture of the saints earnestly defending the faith & correcting error. I want God to be glorified in the salvation of sinners; & I say that humbly, as a sinner who sees my need for Him every single day. I want you to know the truth about Him, & not just to know it, but to rejoice in it, to revel in it, to trust in it! There is such joy, freedom, & blessing to be found in Him! For years, I've seen people searching for joy & meaning. They've moved from one place to the next, from one job to the next, & from one relationship to the next in this quest. And each place, job, & relationship has left them empty & still searching. This positive-thinking, "let's just have fun" ideology that seems to be so rampant will do the same. You will not have true joy or true meaning - nor will you have a true relationship with God or true salvation - by following this path. I know it may make people angry for me to say this, but while y'all fume at me, please seriously consider what I'm saying. And think about what it takes for me to say it. I love you enough to tell you the hard truth, & I'm praying you will heed my words. I've been on the receiving end of truth that I didn't want to hear, & it can be hard to take. It's incredibly difficult to humble yourself & admit that you're wrong or misguided. It's very uncomfortable. But know this: Know that I love you. Know that I don't want to hurt or anger you. Know that I want what is best for you, what will lead to your ultimate good. That's why I had to write this. I do love you, & I've tried to be as gentle & humble as possible without watering down God's truth. As before, I pray you receive it in the spirit in which it's written, & that God may somehow use this letter to reveal Himself to you. You're in my prayers, & I'm here for you if you want to talk.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
From a Ransomed Sinner, With Love
We are all sinners. Every single person on this planet is a sinner. All of us, including you & me, have sinned against God. We have chased after money & possessions, we have harbored anger & unforgiving attitudes, we have had sex outside of marriage, we have not been thankful to Him for His innumerable provisions, we have ignored Him, we've been prideful, & the list goes on. None of us should be self-righteous, because we're all equally guilty of these things - you, me, & everyone else in this world. The difference between true believers & the rest of the world is that we rely on Jesus Christ's righteousness as our own. I know you know the story, but please read it with fresh eyes, as though you didn't, & try to picture it in your head. God has existed from eternity past. He is holy, righteous, & just. He is our Creator. He created the earth in perfection, without sin. But, when Adam & Eve rejected His authority over them, they sinned against Him, & all of creation - including us - have been in bondage to sin ever since. And we can't get out. We are slaves to sin, dead in our sin, completely unable to free ourselves. In order for us to be free, we must have a Redeemer, someone to buy us back from the slave master that is sin. The whole Bible is the story of redemption, of God's plan to save mankind. Not because we are worthy (Scripture shows mankind's repeated rebellion against God, which we carry on today), but because He is merciful. He saves us because our salvation brings Him glory. Glory that is rightfully His, as our holy & just Creator. At just the right time, Jesus Christ became part of His creation in His incarnation. He became human, but He wasn't just any human. He was both fully God & fully man. Fully man to represent us & fully God to be a sinless sacrifice for us. Only God is sinless, & only a man can stand in the place of another man. Therefore, Jesus had to be - & was - both. He lived a perfectly sinless life. No unrighteous anger, no malice, no sexual impurity or immorality - perfectly sinless. He lived in perfect communion with God, day-in & day-out. His every word, thought, & deed was perfectly righteous & one with the Father. That's what makes His death for us so heart-wrenching & so beautiful at the same time. When He cried out in the garden for God to remove the cup from Him if it was His will, He wasn't focused on the beatings & crucifixion He was about to endure. He cried out in agony & sweat drops of blood because, for the first time in all of eternity, His oneness with the Father was about to be severed. God can have no part of sin, He can't even bear to look on it, because of His perfect holiness. Jesus was about to become sin for us. He was about to bear our sin & God's wrath toward that sin on the cross. For the first time in all of eternity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was going to be utterly alone. Why did this have to be? Why did Jesus have to die? God shows all through the Scriptures that sin requires a sacrifice. Not because He's some sadistic deity, but because He is holy. He is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is evil, & evil must be punished. We all want that, too, don't we? We all want murderers punished. We all want child molesters, rapists, & thieves punished, for things to be set right. The only time we seem to have a problem with it is when we're the guilty ones. Then, we want mercy. But just as any judge who just let a rapist or murderer go with an apology is considered corrupt & unjust, so would be God if He simply let us go when we've sinned against him. Even more so, because while sin against another human is evil, sin against the only One who is perfectly holy & righteous is infinitely more evil. Sin has to be paid for, & the only One who could pay for our sin had to be both God & man. Only Jesus could ransom us from sin & exhaust God's wrath. How do we know that He accomplished this? Because after laying in the grave for 3 days, the Father raised Him from the dead. Some people don't think this is all that significant when you realize that other people were raised from the dead - Lazarus, for instance. The difference is that each of these other people died again. Only Jesus alone was resurrected & still lives. This is how we know that His sacrifice paid for our sins, exhausting God's wrath & justifying us.
My question at this point isn't, "Do you believe this?"; after all, an awful lot of people claim to believe this & they continue in their sin. My question is, "Do you see your sin as repugnant & worthy of damnation? Do you feel sorrow & grief over your sin?" If so, repent! Repentance is not just an apology for sin, it's a deliberate turning away from sin towards righteousness. Repentance also isn't a one-time thing - "I repented of my sin when God saved me, but never since." No, our problem isn't that we sin, it's that we've never done anything but sin. So, repentance is something we do over & over throughout our lives, as God convicts us of our sin. And repentance is His gift to us. Without His Spirit's work in us, we can't feel sorrow over our sin & be led to repentance. Without that understanding, it's easy at this point to begin a works-salvation practice, where I have to white-knuckle it to be good enough. But we can never be good enough. This isn't cause for despair, though, it's cause for celebration, because for the believer, Christ has already won the victory. We can't be good enough, we can't be holy enough, but Christ already is for us! When Christ lived His perfectly sinless life in complete oneness with the Father, it's as though the believer who truly trusts in His sacrifice, lived that life. God the Father sees His Son when He looks on us. His righteousness is credited to us! That's the other side of the coin: we repent & we rely on His righteousness in our stead & His strength to enable us to turn from our sin. I'm coming to realize that this is a life-long process, & I'll never be completely rid of my sin in this life. But a believer's life is characterized by a fighting against sin. We hate the sin in our lives, & we fight against it. Not in our own strength & power, but with the Word of God & with prayer. He helps us to overcome it, & little by little, we reflect Him more & more.
If you feel this sorrow over your sin, don't despair. Yes, our sin is reviling & we can sometimes feel hopeless that we will ever be rid of it. I certainly can feel this way at times. But, if you feel sorrow, you can take heart, because it's an indication that God is working in you, that He loves you & wants to redeem you. And God always accomplishes His will! Sin won't have the victory over a believer. Christ already won that victory, & now we can live from that victory!
I'm writing this letter to you for one reason: if you are not a true believer in Christ as your Lord & Savior, I pray God uses this letter to bring about conviction & sorrow over your sin, as well as hope & freedom in His saving grace. I pray that you come to know Him, love Him, cherish Him, & rejoice in Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, & strength. What joy, freedom, & love is to be found in Him! If you are a true believer, then I pray that you will take this time to evaluate yourself & your life. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says to "examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?---unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" We are all called to hold up our lives next to Scripture & examine to see if our lives reflect God & His Word. In any area that we do, we should praise God for His sanctification in our hearts that reflects itself in our lives. In any area that we don't reflect Him, we must conform our lives to His Word through His power. We conform to Him, we don't expect Him to conform to us. He is the standard. Matthew 7:17 reminds us that "every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down & thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits." And Galatians 5:22-23 says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." These are the characteristics that we are to aspire to, out of love for God. Remember, no one is ever able to do these things perfectly. You will never look at your life & see perfection. Not this side of heaven. The important thing is to rely on Christ's righteousness & His power to overcome your sinful desires as they rear their ugly heads. And to repent when you fail to overcome them, relying on His forgiveness.
*Our most gracious heavenly Father, thank You for Your salvation. Without Your sacrifice for us in the death of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we would be under Your wrath for our sin for all eternity. Thank You for Your mercy, grace, & adoption of us as Your sons. We love You! We praise You! We worship You! Lord, for anyone reading this who is not Your child, please reveal Yourself to them & save them. And please remind all those who are truly Yours to always examine ourselves by Your Word, so that we continue in the faith. In Christ's holy name we pray, Amen.
My question at this point isn't, "Do you believe this?"; after all, an awful lot of people claim to believe this & they continue in their sin. My question is, "Do you see your sin as repugnant & worthy of damnation? Do you feel sorrow & grief over your sin?" If so, repent! Repentance is not just an apology for sin, it's a deliberate turning away from sin towards righteousness. Repentance also isn't a one-time thing - "I repented of my sin when God saved me, but never since." No, our problem isn't that we sin, it's that we've never done anything but sin. So, repentance is something we do over & over throughout our lives, as God convicts us of our sin. And repentance is His gift to us. Without His Spirit's work in us, we can't feel sorrow over our sin & be led to repentance. Without that understanding, it's easy at this point to begin a works-salvation practice, where I have to white-knuckle it to be good enough. But we can never be good enough. This isn't cause for despair, though, it's cause for celebration, because for the believer, Christ has already won the victory. We can't be good enough, we can't be holy enough, but Christ already is for us! When Christ lived His perfectly sinless life in complete oneness with the Father, it's as though the believer who truly trusts in His sacrifice, lived that life. God the Father sees His Son when He looks on us. His righteousness is credited to us! That's the other side of the coin: we repent & we rely on His righteousness in our stead & His strength to enable us to turn from our sin. I'm coming to realize that this is a life-long process, & I'll never be completely rid of my sin in this life. But a believer's life is characterized by a fighting against sin. We hate the sin in our lives, & we fight against it. Not in our own strength & power, but with the Word of God & with prayer. He helps us to overcome it, & little by little, we reflect Him more & more.
If you feel this sorrow over your sin, don't despair. Yes, our sin is reviling & we can sometimes feel hopeless that we will ever be rid of it. I certainly can feel this way at times. But, if you feel sorrow, you can take heart, because it's an indication that God is working in you, that He loves you & wants to redeem you. And God always accomplishes His will! Sin won't have the victory over a believer. Christ already won that victory, & now we can live from that victory!
I'm writing this letter to you for one reason: if you are not a true believer in Christ as your Lord & Savior, I pray God uses this letter to bring about conviction & sorrow over your sin, as well as hope & freedom in His saving grace. I pray that you come to know Him, love Him, cherish Him, & rejoice in Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, & strength. What joy, freedom, & love is to be found in Him! If you are a true believer, then I pray that you will take this time to evaluate yourself & your life. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says to "examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?---unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" We are all called to hold up our lives next to Scripture & examine to see if our lives reflect God & His Word. In any area that we do, we should praise God for His sanctification in our hearts that reflects itself in our lives. In any area that we don't reflect Him, we must conform our lives to His Word through His power. We conform to Him, we don't expect Him to conform to us. He is the standard. Matthew 7:17 reminds us that "every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down & thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits." And Galatians 5:22-23 says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." These are the characteristics that we are to aspire to, out of love for God. Remember, no one is ever able to do these things perfectly. You will never look at your life & see perfection. Not this side of heaven. The important thing is to rely on Christ's righteousness & His power to overcome your sinful desires as they rear their ugly heads. And to repent when you fail to overcome them, relying on His forgiveness.
*Our most gracious heavenly Father, thank You for Your salvation. Without Your sacrifice for us in the death of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we would be under Your wrath for our sin for all eternity. Thank You for Your mercy, grace, & adoption of us as Your sons. We love You! We praise You! We worship You! Lord, for anyone reading this who is not Your child, please reveal Yourself to them & save them. And please remind all those who are truly Yours to always examine ourselves by Your Word, so that we continue in the faith. In Christ's holy name we pray, Amen.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Jesus is the reason for the season...or is He?
"Jesus is the reason for the season". At least, that's what we say. But - like my mama always taught me - actions speak louder than words. Lately, I've been looking around - at others & at myself - & wondering how true this sentiment really is. Is Jesus really "the reason for the season"?
I've always loved Christmas, always been a bit of a fanatic, in fact. There was a time when I started playing Christmas music in July. (Seriously, you can ask my mama.) When I was growing up, I decorated my room, complete with my own little Christmas tree. Santas & snowmen, colored lights & snowglobes...the whole deal. I've always loved the idyllic Christmas. You know, the one with old-fashioned dresses, sleigh rides, church bells, snow. Of course, growing up in Louisiana, I never got that. Except the year we went to Wisconsin for Christmas, but I digress.
Do you see what's missing here? I (& I would suspect, a lot of other people, possibly even you) have thrown out the little rhyme above, along with a sprinkling of "Happy birthday, Jesus" throughout the years, but the main event involved the tree & the food & the company & the presents & looking at lights &...you get the idea. Oh, I would have never said that, but my actions did. We all, Christians & unbelievers alike, scurry around all in a flutter about what we're going to buy for our spouse & children, extended family, & friends. Where's dinner going to be? Are we going to have turkey or ham, dressing or stuffing? After Christmas, the customary query is "What did you get?" I could go on, but surely you see where I'm going. If Jesus is really "the reason for the season", then why don't we focus more on Him? Why is it that we can go even to Christian homes & see Santa & Frosty displayed prominently en masse & one little nativity scene set on the mantle or coffee table? And I'm not just pointing fingers here; I've been guilty of the very same thing for years! It seems to me that this sends a mixed message. Especially to children & unbelievers. If Christmas is about Jesus, then why does Santa have such a prominent role? How does opening presents for ourselves celebrate Jesus' birth? I mean, be honest, as you take your children to see Santa, are you thinking about how much Christ is glorified in that? As you shop for & open presents, are you thinking, "This is for You, Jesus!"? Hardly.
Christmas is not about presents or any of the other things that we, along with the world, strive so hard to make it about. Christmas is about Jesus. He came down from heaven & became incarnate for our sake. Think about this! He, the Lord of glory, chose to be born to an unwed teenage mother in a stable filled with animals...for us! So that He could live the one & only perfect life & die the one & only sin-atoning death in our place to save us from the deserved wrath of God! How could we, who claim to love Him & be His disciples, possibly make Christmas about anything less than this? Does this mean we throw out all of our Santas & snowmen, don't decorate a tree or the house, & don't buy presents? I can't answer that for you, because it's a heart issue. I think the question we need to ask ourselves is, "How does this make me focus on & glorify Christ?" If it doesn't, it should go. And again, we should ask, "How does this show others that I value Christ supremely?" As much of a kick as I get out of my "Jingle Bell Rock" Santa, for the life of me, I can't figure how he helps me glorify Christ or how he shows others that I love Christ supremely.
I guess the main question I'm asking myself this year is, what are my actions saying about my heart? What are yours?
I've always loved Christmas, always been a bit of a fanatic, in fact. There was a time when I started playing Christmas music in July. (Seriously, you can ask my mama.) When I was growing up, I decorated my room, complete with my own little Christmas tree. Santas & snowmen, colored lights & snowglobes...the whole deal. I've always loved the idyllic Christmas. You know, the one with old-fashioned dresses, sleigh rides, church bells, snow. Of course, growing up in Louisiana, I never got that. Except the year we went to Wisconsin for Christmas, but I digress.
Do you see what's missing here? I (& I would suspect, a lot of other people, possibly even you) have thrown out the little rhyme above, along with a sprinkling of "Happy birthday, Jesus" throughout the years, but the main event involved the tree & the food & the company & the presents & looking at lights &...you get the idea. Oh, I would have never said that, but my actions did. We all, Christians & unbelievers alike, scurry around all in a flutter about what we're going to buy for our spouse & children, extended family, & friends. Where's dinner going to be? Are we going to have turkey or ham, dressing or stuffing? After Christmas, the customary query is "What did you get?" I could go on, but surely you see where I'm going. If Jesus is really "the reason for the season", then why don't we focus more on Him? Why is it that we can go even to Christian homes & see Santa & Frosty displayed prominently en masse & one little nativity scene set on the mantle or coffee table? And I'm not just pointing fingers here; I've been guilty of the very same thing for years! It seems to me that this sends a mixed message. Especially to children & unbelievers. If Christmas is about Jesus, then why does Santa have such a prominent role? How does opening presents for ourselves celebrate Jesus' birth? I mean, be honest, as you take your children to see Santa, are you thinking about how much Christ is glorified in that? As you shop for & open presents, are you thinking, "This is for You, Jesus!"? Hardly.
Christmas is not about presents or any of the other things that we, along with the world, strive so hard to make it about. Christmas is about Jesus. He came down from heaven & became incarnate for our sake. Think about this! He, the Lord of glory, chose to be born to an unwed teenage mother in a stable filled with animals...for us! So that He could live the one & only perfect life & die the one & only sin-atoning death in our place to save us from the deserved wrath of God! How could we, who claim to love Him & be His disciples, possibly make Christmas about anything less than this? Does this mean we throw out all of our Santas & snowmen, don't decorate a tree or the house, & don't buy presents? I can't answer that for you, because it's a heart issue. I think the question we need to ask ourselves is, "How does this make me focus on & glorify Christ?" If it doesn't, it should go. And again, we should ask, "How does this show others that I value Christ supremely?" As much of a kick as I get out of my "Jingle Bell Rock" Santa, for the life of me, I can't figure how he helps me glorify Christ or how he shows others that I love Christ supremely.
I guess the main question I'm asking myself this year is, what are my actions saying about my heart? What are yours?
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