Obeying the Gospel

WHAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES (OCTOBER 24)

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"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:46-48).

THIS STATEMENT WAS MADE BY JESUS TO A GROUP OF HIS DISCIPLES ON THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY ON WHICH HE HAD BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD. As He appeared to them in the room in Jerusalem where they were gathered, the disciples were frightened, but Jesus assured them they were not seeing a ghost and asked if they had anything to eat. Then He began to talk to them about the momentous events of His death and resurrection.

He said, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). Not one detail of what had happened in the previous week should have been surprising to the disciples. All of it was a part of what had been written about the Messiah in the three divisions of the Tanakh (the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings). And then “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (v.45).

Now we come to our text in vv.46-48. Specifically, what Jesus showed His disciples from the Hebrew Scriptures is that (a) the Messiah would suffer, (b) He would rise from the dead, and (c) repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And when the apostles themselves began their work, they preached from the Hebrew Scriptures, showing that what the prophets had foretold about the Messiah was perfectly fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 3:22-26; 9:22; 10:43; 17:2,3; 18:5; 24:14; 26:22,23; 28:23,24; etc.).

There is no greater study for us than to immerse ourselves in the Hebrew Scriptures, reverently looking there for every detail which God revealed about the coming of His Messiah. The Messiah was to be a King, obviously, but as it turned out, He was a very different King than anyone expected. In particular, His horrible death and victorious resurrection caught everyone by surprise. But that is the way it often is with events that shake the world.

"What happened on that day [of Jesus' resurrection] became, was, and remained the center around which everything else moves" (Karl Barth).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WE MUST ALL APPEAR (OCTOBER 23)

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"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil" (2 Corinthians 5:10).

IT IS A VERY SERIOUS THING THAT PAUL SAYS HERE. There is not a single one of us who will not have to account for himself or herself before Christ at the judgment. That accounting will be an absolutely accurate assessment of our life-choices, whether good or evil. There will be no favoritism and no miscarriage of justice. Each one will “receive what is due for what he has done.” An equally honest picture of the judgment is found in Romans 2:5-11.

In v.9, the verse preceding our text in 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul had spoken of his desire to please Christ: “we make it our aim to please him.” The wonder of the gospel is that this is possible. Outside of Christ, our sins would doom us and judgment would hold nothing but fear, but thanks to Christ’s sacrifice and our having died with Him in obedience to the gospel, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The apostle John wrote to his brethren, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

But don’t be deceived: if our sins haven’t been forgiven by the blood of Christ and we’re not living in a faithful relationship with Him, the judgment that is coming will be an occasion of terror for us. The fact that God’s grace has provided salvation will do us no good if we have not accepted that grace on His terms, by complying with the conditions upon which we could have “passed from death to life” (John 5:24). As Christians, knowing that we will be judged, while not paralyzing us with fear, is a healthy incentive to take God seriously. But without a right relationship with God through Christ, we have good reason to fear (1 Peter 4:17,18).

In summary, then, judgment before God is inevitable for all of us. It is coming — and the only question is whether we’ll be ready. So Solomon was exactly right: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14).

"All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ" (Keith Green).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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IF FAITH DOES NOT ACT, IT DOES NOT SAVE (OCTOBER 22)

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"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26).

FAITH IS ABOUT AS BASIC A CONCEPT AS THERE IS IN THE GOSPEL. Its importance in our response to God is immense (Philippians 3:8,9). But faith, or trust, is not easy. It requires a good deal of courage. For example, it takes faith to accept whatever the Lord’s commandments are in cases where what He requires goes against our preferences and preconceived notions. But if we do not trust the Lord enough to comply with His instructions, it is vain for us to think that He will save us anyway. Think about it: if the attitude that led us into sin initially was “I don’t think I really have to do what God commanded,” what possible hope of salvation do we have if we exhibit the same attitude about what the gospel requires of us? Like it or not, distrust of God is at the root of sin — and deciding to trust Him again is at the heart of how we must respond to the gospel.

Genuine faith will always show up in action, often at great risk. We see this in each of the amazing examples in Hebrews 11 of people in the Old Testament who did what they did because they trusted God. We do not earn our salvation by our works, but the fact remains, if faith does not obey God, it is not real faith. James put it unmistakably: “Faith apart from works is dead” (2:26).

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” may be a crude saying, but it is true. Many a good-intentioned person knows what he should do, but not many make the choice to carry out their intentions. And this failure to act on our best impulses is a serious matter; it compounds our sin. “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). So I would suggest that the gospel calls us to do not one but two things: we must think rightly and then do what our thinking tells us is right.

If you’re not a Christian, it may be you don’t yet agree that the gospel is true. If so, I hope you’ll keep studying. But if you are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and you know what the gospel requires for your salvation in Him, my prayer is that your newfound faith will move you to humble, obedient action.

"Faith and works are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God; and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works; and he that is without works is without faith" (Charles Spurgeon).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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CHRIST IN US, THE HOPE OF GLORY (OCTOBER 21)

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"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

ALTHOUGH THE GOSPEL WAS FORESHADOWED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, IT WAS A “MYSTERY” UNTIL GOD FULLY REVEALED IT IN THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. It was not mysterious in the sense of being weird or arcane, but it was a “mystery” in that it could not have been known until God disclosed it. In Colossians 1:27, the mystery was not just God’s plan in general but a specific part of the plan: that it would be for the whole world and not just Israel (compare Ephesians 3:4-6). In our text above, Paul said that God chose “to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.”

WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU. In the New Testament, Christians are spoken of as being in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 5:14) — and likewise, He is said to be in them (John 14:20; Romans 8:10). The surprise, to some at least, was that the expression “Christ in you” would ever be applied to Christians who were not Jewish.

THE HOPE OF GLORY. If the remission of sins is found only in Christ, then our hope of sharing God’s glory in eternity is tied to Him. But that is precisely what the gospel offers: the hope of a glory beyond the boundaries of this world. “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

As the unveiled mystery now shows, the “hope of glory” in Christ is for all of mankind, the Gentile no less than the Jew. The inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s redemptive plan had been hinted at in prophecies about the Messiah (Isaiah 56:6-8; Amos 9:11,12), but no one could have known how it would happen until God revealed it in the gospel of Christ. Now that we know, however, we stand amazed at “how vast a wealth of glory for the Gentile world” (Weymouth) is stored up in the hope of the gospel.

In Christ, then, is the very summation of all that we need and aspire to. There is nothing about our broken relationship with God that He is not able to repair, no void in our hearts He cannot fill. He is God, who came from heaven to save us. And the rest of our lives would not be time enough to praise Him sufficiently.

Jesus, Lord God Almighty, Wonderful Couns’lor, Light of the world,
The Prince of Peace, Hope of glory, Man of Sorrows, Lamb of God.
(Dane K. Shepard)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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IMMANUEL (OCTOBER 20)

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"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).

ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL IS THE INCARNATION. From the Latin for “flesh,” the Incarnation means that God took fleshly form. In order to deal with human sin at its deepest level, God allowed Himself to be born into the world as a human being. In the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God was both true God and true man. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

In Isaiah 7:14, the birth of One who could rightly be called Immanuel (“God with us”) was foretold. This is one of the many “messianic” prophecies in the Old Testament, predictions that anticipated the coming of a great king (Messiah means “Anointed One”) who would inaugurate the kingdom of God and rule with divine sovereignty. In addition to Isaiah 7:14, we think of other texts like Psalm 2:1-12; 110:1-7; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; and dozens more.

One of the solid evidences of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah is the fulfillment in His life and death of every one of these messianic prophecies. They are fulfilled in such minute detail, and so many centuries after the prophecies were made, no one person could have arranged his life in such a way as to fulfill them all. How could Jesus have decided to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), be of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), be a descendant of David (Isaiah 9:6,7; 11:1), be put to death in such a gruesome manner (Psalm 22:1-18), and then be brought back from the grave (Psalm 16:10)? No one merely pretending to be the Messiah could have done all these things.

But in regard to “God with us” in Isaiah 7:14, it is an important part of the gospel that God did, in fact, enter our world and live among us as He did. He loved us and saved us, not from a distance but by becoming one of us. Jesus, as God in the flesh, is our Lord, but He is also our Brother and Friend. We worship and adore Him knowing that He knows what it is like to be “us.” How could such a thing as this be possible? We do not know; we simply give thanks that our salvation has been wrought by “God with us.”

Jesus, name above all names: Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord,
Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed Redeemer, Living Word.
(Naida Hearn)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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HIS WONDERFUL PASSION AND PURITY (OCTOBER 19)

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"When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things" (Mark 6:34).

ONE OF OUR GREAT ENDOWMENTS AS HUMAN BEINGS IS THE CAPACITY TO FEEL THINGS EMOTIONALLY. Whatever “emotions” any of the lower creatures may seem to have, these are far below the emotional abilities of human beings. And we are able to feel things the way we do because we are made in the image of a personal Creator. Emotions are the unique province of personal beings, and we are personal because God is personal.

The word “passion” simply means strong feeling. It may be good or bad, depending on what the feeling is about and what is done with that feeling. But the world would be a poorer place if there were no passionate people. All of us can feel, but some people seem to feel things more deeply and vividly. In the case of Jesus, who was God our Creator in the form of a human being, He felt things perfectly — which meant that at times He felt them very strongly. In the passage in Mark 6:34, for example, we see Him being moved with compassion for the multitudes who followed Him. He did not find their needs merely “interesting”; He was passionately moved by them. He cared, and He cared deeply.

Yet Jesus’ passion was never anything less than pure. It was always governed by eternally valid principles. Even when we see Him demonstrating anger, as in John 2:13-17, His anger was never out of control. I believe that both the purity of His passion and the passion of His purity would have caused many to think, “Here is a person unlike any who has ever appeared in the world.”

When we study Jesus, is it not His combination of passion and purity that is so powerful? As with all His other characteristics, the blend of these two in such a harmonious way is what allowed Him to have the influence that He did. And does this not remind us that we were created to be whole persons, not people with our various traits at war with each other? This wholeness was the beauty of Jesus, and my prayer must be: let this beauty be seen in me.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wonderful passion and purity.
May His Spirit divine all my being refine;
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
(Albert W. T. Orsborn)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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JESUS IS FAIRER, JESUS IS PURER (OCTOBER 18)

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"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15).

DARKNESS CAN HAVE A DARKENING EFFECT ON US MENTALLY. If you were to live underground long enough, you would almost forget that there is such a thing as sunshine, and when you finally saw it again, you would be exhilarated. In a similar way, those who heard Jesus Christ might have had a hard time putting it into words, but they would have felt somewhat as a person feels who comes into the light after a long stay in the darkness. In fact, Peter, writing to his fellow Christians, spoke of God as “him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Marvelous light is exactly what it is. Those who have long endured the darkness and then experienced the beauty of what Jesus makes possible know very well what Peter was talking about.

I recently bought a little oil lamp that I light each night after I’ve turned off all the other lights in my apartment. It has come to mean a great deal to me because of what it reminds me of when I look at it in the dark hours. Its little flame is a comforting reminder that the darkness in this world will not last always, and even while it does, there is a Savior who is now reigning in a realm of light. He is my Beautiful Friend, the One who will one day come for me and take me to that wonderful place (John 14:2,3).

In Colossians 1:15, Paul affirms that Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The point is not that He was the first thing to be created but that He is the unrivaled Ruler over all that was made through Him (vv.16,17). And if He is, as Weymouth translates it, “the visible representation of the invisible God,” it is a most beautiful God that He represents to us. As the Lord of all creation, He rules over a cosmos that reveals the glory of its Creator (Psalm 19:1). What touches our hearts so deeply is that He is even more fair and pure than the creation which He has made. And the grandest truth of all is that the One who created the beauty around us is able to fix our broken hearts and create a beauty within us — a beauty that is nothing less than His own beauty.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in all the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.
(German Folk Hymn)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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ACCEPT FORGIVENESS, GROW IN GODLINESS (OCTOBER 17)

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"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).

IF WE ARE OUTSIDE OF JESUS CHRIST, IN A LOST CONDITION BECAUSE WE’VE NEVER OBEYED THE GOSPEL, GOD WOULD SAY TWO THINGS TO US. He would say, first, that we need to accept His forgiveness by obeying the gospel. But He would also say that, having been forgiven, we need to start growing in godliness each day.

The first is the most immediate need, obviously. If a person is lost in sin, the most pressing question he or she must ask is, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). If that is our situation, the passages in the New Testament we need to be focusing on are those that tell us what is required in order to pass from death to life, spiritually speaking. What are the initial things a person must do? What is required by God in order to come into a saved, forgiven, and reconciled relationship with Him? If we’re honest in our search, we will let passages like Acts 2:37,38 and Romans 10:9,10 speak to our need. Without letting our own opinions intervene, we will let the Scriptures tell us what God’s conditions for salvation are.

But growing in godliness is no less important than our initial obedience to the gospel. Peter was speaking to Christians when he said, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). The point of becoming a Christian is not just to receive the forgiveness of our past sins; it is to enter the process of having the damage of sin repaired. It is to start becoming less like the old person who died when we were baptized (Romans 6:1-4) and more like the new person Christ will enable us to be (Ephesians 4:22-24).

It is regrettable that so many seem to view salvation as nothing more than being saved from their past sins. In reality, however, it is also being saved from the person we used to be. Outgrowing that old person is a process — one that takes time to be completed.

So, spiritual growth must be established as our priority, and the earlier we establish it, the better off we’ll be. Neglecting this is not just undesirable; it is dangerous. As Christians, there is no safe plateau where we may complacently sing “Just As I Am.” Either we grow toward God’s likeness, or we go back to being dead.

"All growth that is not toward God is growing to decay" (George MacDonald).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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APOSTASY WAS FORETOLD (OCTOBER 16)

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"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1).

PREDICTIONS OF APOSTASY, LIKE THE ONE ABOVE, ARE FOUND THROUGHOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT. It was a matter of great concern to all of the apostles. The fact that there would occur a departure from the foundational teachings of the gospel was not something they could think about except with a broken heart.

Here are some other texts that reveal the concern of the New Testament writers about the crisis that was coming (and I hope you’ll take the time to look these up and think about them): Acts 20:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5; 1 Timothy 6:20,21; 2 Timothy 3:1-7; 4:3,4; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 3:1-4; 1 John 2:18,19; 4:1; and Jude 3,4.

Today, it is not hard to see that the apostles were right to be concerned. A great apostasy did, in fact, take place. And it is sobering to realize that most of what goes on in the modern world under the name of “Christianity” is a result of that apostasy.

Martin Luther, of course, is known for having sparked the Protestant Reformation. But although he saw that Catholicism was a departure from the Scriptures, Luther’s work did not result in a complete return to the apostolic faith, and the Protestantism of today is just as much a part of the apostasy foretold by the apostles as the Catholicism against which the Protestants protested.

Clearly, we need to be warned just as strongly as the brethren to whom the apostles wrote in the first century. We need constant reminders and admonitions. Given the human propensity for drifting (Galatians 1:6), there is no hope for us if restoration is not an ongoing priority — and not just congregationally but individually.

Apostasy can be dealt with only by the testing of everything by God’s standard (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and monitoring ourselves with great honesty (1 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Hebrews 2:1). The key is constant recourse to the teachings of Christ and His apostles, coupled with a love that simply refuses to let go of our Savior. If we wish to be God’s people, in this or any other age, we must radically respect His plan for our salvation — and the Scriptures are our only means of knowing what that plan is.

"There is no broader way to apostasy than to reject God’s sovereignty in all things concerning the revelation of himself and our obedience" (John Owen).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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RESTORATION AS AN ONGOING WORK (OCTOBER 15)

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"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Revelation 2:5).

IN YESTERDAY’S READING, WE TALKED ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF RESTORING THE FAITH AND PRACTICE THAT WE FIND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. Today, let’s reemphasize the fact that restoration must be an ongoing work. There will never come a time when we can say, “What is taught in the New Testament has been restored, so we won’t have to work on that any more; we can relax and enjoy it.”

The church in Ephesus is a good example of what can happen. The brethren there had been zealous in defending the apostolic faith against corrupters and compromisers (Revelation 2:2,3). But toward the end of the first century, they themselves were in need of returning to the standard. They didn’t love the Lord as they used to (v.4), and the problem was deeper than just not “feeling it” anymore (as this text is sometimes taught). They weren’t doing what they once did, and the Lord said, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (v.5). This church needed to come back to Christ!

Both individually and congregationally, restoration requires constant vigilance. We must reassess and return. Reassess and return. Reassess and return. If our forebears did this, we are blessed to have their example. But like them, we need to reassess and return.

It is uncomfortable to have it brought to our attention (either individually or congregationally) that we stand in need of restoration — just as what your cardiologist tells you may not be fun to hear. But God forbid that we should react as Isaiah’s people who, when they heard calls for restoration, said, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions” (Isaiah 30:10). Granted, the preacher who frequently emphasizes returning to the standard may be more of an irritant than a comforter, but any preacher worth his salt will have the attitude that Peter had: “It seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory” (2 Peter 1:13 BBE).

"Better the discomfort that leads to repentance and restoration than temporal comfort and eternal damnation" (Francine Rivers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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