Obeying the Gospel

IS THE GOSPEL UNLIKELY? IS THE GOSPEL TRUE? (MAY 26)

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"Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see'" (John 1:45,46).

WHETHER SOMETHING SEEMS “LIKELY” IS USUALLY DETERMINED BY OUR CULTURE AND OUR CONDITIONING. If you had asked somebody two thousand years ago whether it was likely that people would ever travel to Mars, they would have said no. Today, however, that feat does not seem as unlikely as it did back then.

But we should not be so arrogant as to think that we’ve broken free from the limitations of culture and conditioning. We may be freer to see the likelihood of some things than ancient people were, but in all honesty, we are less free than they were to see the likelihood of other things —including the truth of the gospel.

The inherent likelihood of the resurrection of Christ (and therefore of the truth of the gospel) has not changed since the first century. If it seems more improbable today, it is only because we approach the question with a set of prejudices that ancient people were not bound by. Before even considering the historical evidence, we’ve already made up our minds that there is no God who could have caused the event, so we dismiss it out of hand.

But if you have ever sat on a jury in a courtroom and had to evaluate evidence, you know how wrong you can be when you start thinking, “It just doesn’t seem possible that this could have happened.” If the evidence is sufficient, you have to revise your opinion of what is possible and go with the evidence. The operative question is not “Is this likely?” but “Is this true?”

And so it is with the gospel. However unlikely, implausible, or even impossible it may seem, the gospel story must be judged on the basis of the evidence, even if we don’t want it to be true. As C. S. Lewis once said, “I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable; but when I was an atheist, I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.” Fortunately, C. S. Lewis did not let his moods determine his beliefs one way or the other.

So if our sense of likelihood tells us that “nothing good can come out of Nazareth,” the gospel simply says, “Come and see.”

"The gospel is wildly improbable -- except that it happened" (Michael Horton).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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CHRIST JESUS, OUR HOPE (MAY 25)

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"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command  of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope . . ." (1 Timothy 1:1).

IN OUR WORLD TODAY, HOPE OFTEN SEEMS IN SHORT SUPPLY. Despite the prodigious efforts of humanism and secularism to convince us that things are getting better, we all know that there is great cause for concern. For every specific problem that our science and philosophy seem to improve, there are always unintended consequences that, in the greater scheme of things, make matters worse. We can only be optimistic if we ignore many of the obvious facts.

The gospel of Christ is nothing if not a message of hope. But the hope it offers is different from what most people are looking for. Ironically, it tells us that things are going to get better by telling us that things are not going to get better (at least in this world). By remedying the cause of the problem — our sin — the gospel offers a hope that is unaffected by the worsening condition of the world.

GOD OUR SAVIOR. Any honest look at our plight tells us that we were lost. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:4,5).

CHRIST JESUS OUR HOPE. Look closely at how God has saved us. Paul says that it was “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). These are powerful phrases. They reflect the truth that is on every page of the New Testament: it is in Jesus Christ that God is providing protection from the condemnation that we have brought upon ourselves.

If Christ is our hope, however, we ought to invest our hope in Him, not only in our words but in the way we live — and we ought not to hedge our bets by putting some of our hope in worldly sources of confidence (just to be on the safe side). It is, in fact, only when we give up on the hope that we can correct our problems that Jesus Christ is able to save us. But oh, what a Savior! He is waiting to bless us more abundantly than we can imagine.

"All we want in Christ, we shall find in Christ. If we want little, we shall find little. If we want much, we shall find much; but if, in utter helplessness, we cast our all on Christ, he will be to us the whole treasury of God" (Henry Benjamin Whipple).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WE PREFER (MAY 24)

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"[Jeroboam] went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings" (1 Kings 12:33).

WHEN JEROBOAM DECIDED TO SET UP AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE WORSHIP IN JERUSALEM, A WORSHIP THAT HAD BEEN DIVINELY AUTHORIZED, HE MADE A NUMBER OF CHANGES. As a substitute for the Feast of Booths in the seventh month, he organized a feast in the eighth month, “the month that he had devised from his own heart.” Having dispensed with any loyalty to what God had prescribed, he saw no reason not to do whatever he pleased.

Unfortunately, this has always been the tendency of human beings. Refusing to admit that God has laid down any real norms or requirements that we must adhere to, we feel free to simply choose what we prefer, somewhat like customers at a delicatessen.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. Are there those who disbelieve because it would suit them better if there were no God and others who believe just because they find belief more comfortable? Probably. But either way, it really doesn’t matter what we prefer. The truth is what it is.

THE NATURE OF GOD. If there is a God, most of us would like Him to be a certain kind of God. But what is congenial to us really doesn’t matter. The only question is: what are the facts?

THE MEANING OF THE SCRIPTURES. Do we twist the Scriptures to make them mean what we like them to mean? If so, we are no more honest than those who prefer to reject them entirely.

THE CONTENTS OF OUR OWN CONSCIENCE. When we listen to our conscience, do we hear only what suits us? Can we tell when what sounds like “ought to” is nothing more than the voice of “want to”?

It takes a person of uncommon honesty to say simply, “What is the truth? That’s what I want.” But that is the very essence of faith and humility, the willingness to trust God and lean upon His wisdom when what He wants is different from what we prefer.

O Lord, help each one of us to learn to bow more humbly before You and to seek Your will more simply and truly. Help us to have the courage to go wherever the truth takes us. At whatever cost, may we follow the path that leads us to see Your shining face throughout eternity.

"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true" (Francis Bacon).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE CHURCHES IN ASIA (MAY 23)

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"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:7).

WHAT MUST IT HAVE BEEN LIKE TO GET A LETTER LIKE THOSE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCHES OF ASIA? Toward the end of the first century, Christ sent a letter to each of the seven churches in Asia. (Contained in the second and third chapters of Revelation, which went to all of the churches, each of the letters were read, it seems, by all seven of the churches.) Each message depicted the condition of that congregation as the Lord saw it, providing a personal diagnosis of their health from the Great Physician Himself. Some of these groups were in better shape than others, but every letter ended the same way: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” It would do little good for a church to get a diagnosis from the Lord if it paid no attention and made no changes.

Churches (by which we mean congregations or local assemblies of Christians) can depart from the Lord just as individual Christians can (Galatians 1:1-7). So there is a need, both congregationally and individually, for us to make frequent mid-course corrections and realign ourselves with the intentions of Christ.

Today, the Lord is not going to send a personalized letter to a congregation, but in a sense, that is what the entire New Testament is. When we read what was happening in that era, when the affairs of the churches were being guided by the authority of Christ’s apostles, we are wasting our time if we don’t apply what we read to our own congregations today. Christ would say the same thing to us that He said to those churches: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

A diagnosis can be painful news to hear, of course, whether it is from a medical doctor or from Jesus Christ. But if we are truly committed to being saved, we will want the truth and nothing but the truth — in order to act on it and change our practices.

The ability to “hear” is an endowment with some serious responsibilities attached to it. Given our tendency to drift away from Christ, our only hope is in our willingness to be warned. Christ loves us too much not to call us back to the right way, but His call will not help us if we don’t see that it applies to us very personally.

"Before the service speak to God. During the service let God speak to you. After the service speak with your neighbor" (Old Saying).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS (MAY 22)

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"Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war . . . From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:11-16).

WHOSE AUTHORITY IS THE HIGHEST? In the affairs of this world, that question never has any permanent answer. One person may be the most powerful figure in the world at a particular moment, but that individual is always subject to being surpassed by a more powerful person in the future. Only in Jesus Christ do we encounter a King who is above all kings — both now and forever.

Read the description of Jesus Christ in Revelation 19:11-16 and let its vivid imagery sink in. If the claim of absolute sovereignty embedded in these words is false, the New Testament should be rejected decisively. But what if this claim is true? Here is a figure whose power and authority are not only supreme but unconquerable, a leader who can be followed without the slightest fear that He will ever be defeated. Here is One in whom our faith can rest.

It is crucial, however, for us to understand the sort of King Jesus is. He did not liberate His fellow Jews from the Roman government in the first century, and He does not promise to break the shackles of any particular tyranny today. To be sure, all of the kingdoms of men — every last one of them — will be destroyed eventually, but the gospel of Christ is primarily about deliverance from our own sins. “You will know the truth,” He said, “and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). It is from the bondage of untruth that Jesus wants to liberate us, and if we don’t let Him set us free from the untruth in our own hearts, it won’t matter whether our political situation in this world is one of freedom or slavery.

Against the destructive lies with which the devil has done his work, Jesus came into the world to overcome falsehood and repair its damage. For the time being, it often looks as if the enemy is still winning, and frankly, the appearance of that can be discouraging. But the war has already been won. The outcome of history is now a foregone conclusion. And to keep resisting this King (as the kingdoms of men always do) is to fight a losing battle.

"God will have the last word, and it will be good" (Robert Harold Schuller).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE MESSIAH'S RULE (MAY 21)

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"Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Psalm 2:8,9).

POWER CORRUPTS. And if this is true of individuals, it is even more true of groups. Consider governments, for example. Can it be denied that governments tend toward corruption, that they always move in the direction of greater self-will? “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us’” (Psalm 2:2,3).

But God cannot successfully be ignored. From His perspective, the presumption of human rulers that they can do as they please is so out of touch with reality that it is laughable. “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill’” (vv.4-6).

In God’s Son, the Messiah (“Anointed” or “Commissioned One”), a kingdom has been set up that is above all the kingdoms of men. To Him, the nations have been granted as a gift: “I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (v.8). And God leaves no doubt as to what the Messiah will do in dealing with the nations: “You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (v.9).

Jesus, the “Christ” or Messiah, said after His resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). But has He broken the kingdoms of men, dashing them in pieces? If so, the kingdoms seem not to have gotten the announcement. They pay no attention to the Messiah whatsoever.

But the rule of the Messiah does not come about by physical revolution (or democratic voting). He breaks the nations not by dismantling them (for now, at least) but by reestablishing the truthful ideas and words they have denied. “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations” (Revelation 19:15). When the nations have come and gone, this truth will still be true.

"God did not abolish the fact of evil; he transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion; he rose from the dead" (Dorothy L. Sayers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE SIN OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY (MAY 20)

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"Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention" (2 Chronicles 24:19).

THE GOSPEL IS POWERFUL, BUT IT CAN’T OVERCOME THE WILL OF A PERSON WHO DOESN’T SEE THAT HE NEEDS TO BE SAVED. And for this reason, the gospel will not be of much interest to people today. Living in an age when the concept of “sin” is no longer taken seriously, we should not expect the gospel to be widely received. It is only the penitent who will come to Jesus Christ.

Actually, that last statement is not true. It is a fact that many today do “come to Christ” without any consciousness of the sins they need to have forgiven. They come seeking relief from a wide range of temporal troubles: poverty, social oppression, physical ailments, psychological disorders, and emotional distress, to name just a few. Yet when people “become interested in Christianity” for these reasons, they are seeking something other than what Jesus went to the cross to provide. Jesus is not unconcerned about the lesser problems that we have, but He was very clear what His mission was: “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Jesus, then, is our Savior. But is that what we want Him to be? We might prefer Him to be our surgeon, psychologist, or social worker, but the fact remains, He came to be our Savior. And the sooner we acknowledge that we are lost, the sooner His message will make sense to us. Not only are we lost, but we cannot save ourselves. In a helpless spiritual condition, we are doomed to die in eternity if we do not let Him redeem us from our rebellion.

But our self-sufficiency is not easy to give up. These days, science and technology seem to be a better hope. If there is a problem the scientific method can’t solve, that is a problem we need not worry about. And as long as we believe that, we will view the gospel of Christ as little more than a relic of pre-modern superstition.

Indeed, until we humble ourselves before the painful recognition of our sin, we will find Jesus Christ to be insulting and offensive. We will not only be uninterested; we will be angry. How dare this ignorant peasant from ancient Galilee tell us, “Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (John 8:24)?

"There's nothing more irritating than a Savior when you aren’t ready to be saved" (D. Sutten).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WE CAN’T EXCLUDE GOD AND STILL HAVE HIM (MAY 19)

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"For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:11-13).

RATIONALISM ARGUES THAT WE SHOULD REJECT (OR AT LEAST DE-EMPHASIZE) ALL SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE EXCEPT HUMAN REASON. If knowing a thing requires the operation of something in addition to human reason, that thing should not be classified as “knowledge.” In particular, “faith” is distinguished from “knowledge.” If God exists at all, we cannot “know” that He exists or what His nature is; we can only “believe” . . . and hope for the best.

It is a fact that we could not know much about God if we had nothing but our reason to work with. Paul makes the point that God’s existence and His power can be inferred from the world around us: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). But if reason had no outside help, God’s existence and power would be about as far as we could go. We would have no way of knowing what God’s nature is or what His will for us might be.

But God has revealed Himself so that we can know a good deal more about Him. (Go back and ponder 1 Corinthians 2:11-13.) And don’t forget this: God’s revealing of Himself culminates in Jesus Christ. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory . . . No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:14,18).

Do you see the dilemma of rationalism? It wants to disallow any knowledge that might come from revelation, yet there are many rationalists who still want to believe in some kind of God. But we can’t have it both ways. If we rule out the possibility of God revealing Himself, then we should get used to the idea of having no God at all. The only God that unaided human reason can believe in is a God who is little more than a question mark. There is no room within rationalism for a God who can save us.

"The failure of rationalism is that it tries to find a place for God in its picture of the world" (William Ralph Inge).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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OBTAINED WITH CHRIST’S BLOOD (MAY 18)

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"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).

WHAT COULD MAKE US VALUE THE LORD’S CHURCH ANY MORE HIGHLY THAN KNOWING IT WAS OBTAINED AT THE COST OF HIS BLOOD? No higher purchase price is imaginable. And if we think we can appreciate the Lord without valuing the church for which He died, we are deluded. John wrote, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him” (1 John 5:1).

Going back to Acts 20:28, Paul’s statement about the church was made to the elders of the church at Ephesus as he said farewell and exhorted them to care for the saints under their oversight. Paul was speaking of the congregation in Ephesus when he said that the elders should “care for the church,” for in the New Testament elders never had oversight over any Christians except those in the local congregation. But what a charge! If those for whom the elders were to care were people who belonged to the Lord — having been paid for with His blood — well might Paul say, “Pay careful attention.” No duty ever deserved an attention more careful.

But if the reference in Acts 20:28 is to the local church, it is no less true that the universal church (the saved in all places) is comprised of blood-bought individuals. In the great throne scene in Revelation, the Lamb, who is Christ, is triumphantly praised: “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). That is one reason the Lord loves His church so much. They are His ransomed ones, the people whom He has saved by His blood.

Each of these thoughts points us emphatically to Jesus Christ — His love, His authority, His majesty. If He bought the church with His blood, it is not our church to do with as we wish. It is His church: the Lord’s church. May we never quit calling it what it is. The church of God. The church which He bought with His blood. The church that belongs to Christ. The Lord’s church.

The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the word;
From heav’n He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.
(E. E. Hewitt)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE BODY OF CHRIST (MAY 17)

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"And [Christ] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent" (Colossians 1:18).

STRICTLY SPEAKING, THERE IS NO ONE OVER WHOM CHRIST IS NOT HEAD. But there is a special sense in which He is the head of His body, the church. After having refused His rule, these individuals have returned to their rightful King, sought His forgiveness, and sworn allegiance to Him from now on. Christ is truly their head — not just legally or theoretically, but in the way they live.

We could spend a lifetime unfolding different aspects of the truth that the people of Christ are His “body.” It is a fascinating metaphor, to say the least. All of us have bodies, governed (at least in our best moments) by our heads, so when the Scriptures say we are related to Christ in ways that resemble the link between our own head and body, that is an analogy that resonates with us.

For one thing, the fact that Christ is the head of His body should never become so commonplace that we forget how important that truth is. His rule over the church does not require our permission, nor are His instructions for the church subject to our preferences. We serve Christ, and we do not serve Him in an advisory capacity. To repeat: He is the head of the church.

He is the head of the church because He was made the head of it by God. Paul affirmed this when he wrote, “[God] put all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22,23). And Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). When this world comes to an end, the kingdom will be turned back to God (1 Corinthians 15:24), but for now, God has put all things under the feet of Christ, the Son who rules from the right hand of His Father (Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:3) until the last enemy has been defeated.

Every Sunday when Christians observe the Lord’s Supper, they remember that their inclusion in the spiritual body of Christ is possible only because His physical body was sacrificed for them. By submitting to the agonizing limitations of a “body,” He gained a “body” of saved people whose own bodies are no longer prisons.

From his imprisonment my freedoms grow, find wings.
Part of his body, I transcend this flesh.
(Luci Shaw)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com