What a wonderful word is this term, ‘confess.’  In John’s language the idea meant, “to say the same thing.”  Confession means that we acknowledge our sin and lay it before God—but more than that; it means to side with God against our sin.  “I speak with God in condemnation of this action or attitude or inclination of my heart” . . . “O God, here it is—you have declared that you hate this thing in me, and I hate it too.”

The age of celebrity:

Truth takes a backseat to results.

The church grotesquely mutates from a serving community into a gathering of spectators.

And even for those churches unwilling to follow the showmen and turn a blind eye to the heretical, there is still a price to be paid in all of this.

There is, perhaps, no more succinct statement of the Christmas story: “Christ Jesus came into the world.” The version of Christmas popular in our culture and celebrated by the faithful and faithless alike is satisfied with that statement. To many, this event is all about the birth of a baby. But that is only the beginning of the story. Paul completes the story with the words, “to save sinners.”

Mercy is when you are given something other than, better than what you deserve.  What do you and I deserve?  Anything that we receive in this life better than hell is more than we deserve.  We have offended a holy God, and yet in His mercy He has not given us what we deserve, but He has dealt with us in kind favor.  In mercy He saved us and in mercy He gives us the privilege of serving Him, ministering His gospel.  There’s the glory of it: we who deserve hell are now made His ambassadors!

If sinners, depraved and blind, shall ever see the glory of the gospel, glory that radiates from a humble, curs-ed cross, the Spirit of God must unveil our hearts so that we may truly see.

Paul talked about the blindness and heart-heartedness of his fellow Jews, but what he says of them is true of all the sons and daughters of Adam. We all enter this world with the same congenital heart defect. And there is nothing that we can do to change it. Another must do it for us.

The Law of Moses explained the rules by which the people of Israel would be governed. It included instructions and consequences for violations. The problem was that the Law had nothing in it that would enable a person to become a law-keeper. It was designed only to manage law-breakers.

Whatever you understand your purpose to be, that will determine the methods you choose to achieve it and the standards you employ to evaluate it. And if your understanding of your purpose is wrong, then likely your methods and metrics for evaluation will be wrong as well.

The gospel turns things inside out. Paul learned that victory comes in defeat, glory in humiliation, and joy in suffering. And so it is with us . . . . Martin Luther put it this way: “God creates out of nothing. Therefore until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”