Obeying the Gospel

WHICH SYNAGOGUE? MESSIAH? CHURCH? (MARCH 27)

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"So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?'" (John 4:28,29).

LIFE IS FULL OF DECISIONS, AND OUR RELIGIOUS LIVES ARE ESPECIALLY SO. If we are serious about wanting to have a right relationship with God, we will have to sort through the many options presented by the world around us and determine what His will for mankind really is. But first, let’s go back two thousand years.

When the Samaritan woman in our text hurried back into town, having just talked with Jesus, she said to the people, “Can this be the Christ?” Her question illustrates two things: (1) people were in a state of expectation that the Messiah might soon appear, and (2) deciding whether a certain person actually was the Messiah was a matter that needed to be weighed carefully. If you were looking for the Messiah, Jesus wasn’t the only one making that claim. You would have to consider the different claims and choose rightly.

If you were a Jew in the Roman age, there was also another choice to make: which synagogue to attend. By some estimates, there may have been several hundred synagogues in Jerusalem, and perhaps even more in big cities like Alexandria and Rome. No two synagogues were alike in demographics, doctrine, or practice. Would you go to a liberal Hellenistic synagogue or a conservative Hebraic one? Would it be simpler to just go wherever your friends went, those who shared your traditions, your likes and dislikes?

Today, if you begin to live as a Christian, you will have to decide what relationship you will have with other Christians. Just as in the first century when many synagogues claimed to follow Moses and many persons claimed to be the Messiah, there may be many churches near you claiming to follow Christ. The question of “church” is important. If you’re serious about pleasing God, you’ll want to worship where the Scriptures are followed most closely.

Complexity turns some people into cynics; they just give up. I hope you won’t do that. Instead, I hope you’ll pray and ponder the Scriptures diligently. If you truly want to do what is right, you’ll get the information you need to make your choices. But be careful. Not all paths lead to God — and making wise choices can be hard work.

"The choices of time are binding in eternity" (Jack MacArthur).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

STUDYING “THE CHURCH” IN THE SCRIPTURES (MARCH 26)

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"And he put all things under his 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).

PAUL WROTE THAT GOD HAS MADE CHRIST “HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE CHURCH.” This is consistent with what Christ Himself said to the apostles prior to His ascension to heaven: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20).

In its widest, most universal sense, the word “church” encompasses all the saved everywhere. This is the sense in which it is used in Ephesians 1:22,23. But it can also refer to a group of the Lord’s people in a particular place. So we read, for example, about “the church of the Thessalonians” (1 Thessalonians 1:1), “the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2), and many other places. In this local sense, the Lord’s people don’t just share a saved relationship to Christ; they are able to “assemble as a congregation” (1 Corinthians 11:18 Amplified Bible) and jointly participate in the Lord’s work.

We need to recover the importance that first-century Christians saw in the Lord’s church. In the local congregation, we need to see the essential nature of that arrangement as the Lord designed it. And beyond the local churches in which we take part, we need to value our connection to “the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17; 5:9) — a relationship bigger than the affairs of our own local assembly, and one, in fact, existing in heaven as well as on the earth (Ephesians 3:14,15). We hurt ourselves spiritually — and we hurt the Lord’s work of evangelism — when we undervalue the church.

Above all, we need to emphasize the sovereignty of Christ over the church. The church is “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” God Himself made Christ “head over all things to the church.” To be a part of that body, then, is a privilege. And it means we submit to Christ’s headship lovingly, radically, and respectfully.

"Christ is the head of His church. His word is authority; all things relative to the church are at His feet. Its characteristics must, therefore, be Christ-determined. Questions must be Christ-answered; and problems must be Christ-solved . . . If it is important enough to be an issue, it is important enough to let Christ settle — that is, there must be authority for our conclusion in the New Testament" (Robert F. Turner).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

OUR FAITH MUST BE CONFESSED (MARCH 25)

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". . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10:9,10).

CONFESSING OUR FAITH IS A PART OF WHAT JESUS CHRIST REQUIRES FOR OUR SALVATION IN HIM. He said, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32,33).

To “confess” something is to acknowledge it. It means that we openly admit the thing to be true. So if we are believers in Jesus Christ and followers of His teaching, He expects us to confess our faith openly. We would not be His friends at all if we were no more than fair-weather friends, abandoning Him when it might be unpopular, or even dangerous, to be one of His people.

It is entirely appropriate for us to be asked to confess that “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9) before we are baptized. The confession of our faith is no less a prerequisite to the remission of our sins than is faith itself. But don’t forget: the confession which Paul calls “the good confession” (1 Timothy 6:12) is not just a one-time act, checked off the list as nothing more than one of the “steps of salvation.” Our confession prior to our baptism is the beginning of an entire life that will confess Christ from that point onward, in deed as well as word. And we dare not go back on the promise we made when we first began to confess Christ. “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:14).

Dag Hammarskjöld once said, “Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or conviction.” The idea is not to make trouble merely to be militant, nor does it mean being obnoxious to other people with an in-your-face kind of aggression. The confession of our faith is simply a matter of being genuine and authentic. I call it “courageous sincerity.” We are not to hide the truth about who we really are. When questioned — or even threatened — we should be able to say what Martin Luther said, “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”

"Weak persons cannot be sincere" (François de la Rochefoucauld).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

THE PATH TO DEATH DOES NOT LEAD TO LIFE (MARCH 24)

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"But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life" (Romans 6:21,22).

IF WE COULD SEE OURSELVES AS GOD SEES US, WE WOULD PROBABLY BE SHOCKED AT HOW CONTRADICTORY OUR LIVES LOOK TO HIM. We say we desire life, but so much of what we do is inconsistent with that goal, it must be sad for our Creator to observe.

If we persist in sin, hell is the only place we can get to. The path that leads away from God is never going to get us back home to Him. But foolishly, that is what we seem to believe. We don’t want to change paths, but somehow we suppose that the destination of the path might change. Yet the law of cause and effect applies to all of us. No special exceptions are going to be made. And one definition of insanity is, as we’ve been told, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Solomon observed, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12). That is the very point Paul made in the text above: “the end of those things is death.” In other words, eternal banishment from God is not an arbitrary punishment — it is the telos (a Greek word meaning “goal” or “result”) of our decision to refuse God’s rule. God is not going to force us to love Him in eternity if it has been our decision not to love Him in this life. So it is a very serious thing to refuse (or even procrastinate) reconciliation to God. And we are not in a position to dictate to God what the terms of our surrender will be. If He has chosen that it is through Jesus Christ that He will save us, then refusing that plan can’t be anything but disastrous.

As Robert Louis Stevenson famously said, “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Ultimately, there are only two paths available. Jesus counseled us to be careful. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13,14). It’s time to clear up our contradictions. Let’s choose the path that goes where we want to end up.

"The way to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem" (Old Saying).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

WITHOUT OUR SAVIOR, OUR SINS WILL KILL US (MARCH 23)

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"I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).

TO MODERN PEOPLE, PREOCCUPIED WITH WHAT WE NAIVELY CALL “REAL” LIFE, WORDS LIKE “SIN” AND “DEATH” SOUND HOPELESSLY OLD-FASHIONED. To us, “dying in our sins” is a ridiculous concept.

But Jesus really did say these things. We may have a personal distaste for it, but there is no historical reason to deny that these were the claims Jesus made. We must grapple with whether His claims were true. And frankly, there is no way around the radical nature of what Jesus taught. He said that salvation from our sins requires believing Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, and that if we do not believe in Him, we will die in our sins. In other words, Jesus taught that He was (and continues to be) the only path back to God. Without Him, there is no remedy for our sin problem.

It is hard for us to grasp the full import of Jesus’ words: “die in your sins.” For one thing, “sin” is not the serious word it used to be. It’s not how we explain misconduct. We talk of dysfunctions, diseases, and undesirable habits, but not sin. But Jesus did talk about sin. He did not diminish the seriousness of our problem. In turning away from our Father’s will, we have cut ourselves off from Him in the very worst way. And there is only one word that adequately describes the consequences of what we’ve done: “death.”

“Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” is what He said. But let us be clear: if we die in our sins and are lost eternally, our lost condition will not be the penalty for simply not having come to Jesus. It will be the penalty for our sins. In sin, the status quo is that we are lost. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). A friend of mine, Robert F. Turner, used to say that it’s like a person bitten by a rattlesnake. If he dies before he gets to the doctor, he didn’t die of “not getting to the doctor.” He died of rattlesnake venom.

But if sin is the problem and Jesus is the solution, He is the only solution. He is the only “savior” who has the power to do what has to be done. Sin is no ordinary problem, and its cure will not be ordinary either. Only Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God Himself, has the power to get rid of the condemned person we used to be and bring to life a new person, fit for eternity with God.

"Only when the axe is put to the tree does the fruit of sin wither" (Erwin W. Lutzer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD: FRIENDSHIP OR ENMITY? (MARCH 22)

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"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10).

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST CALLS ON US TO TAKE SIDES. To be more precise, it calls on us to change sides. Jesus was clear that if we have not cast our lot with Him, that amounts to a decision to stand against Him. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). If our present position (the status quo, if you will) is that we have said no to Christ, we are on the side of the enemy. But Christ invites us to change our minds and say yes. He will makes us His friends and treat us just as if we had never left the rule of God in the first place.

Having been enemies, we are urged to be reconciled to God. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:10,11). But this involves far more than simply a change in our legal status before God. To be reconciled means that we not only pass from a wrong relationship with God to one that is right — it means that our character is brought back into conformity to God’s character. God having removed the barrier and made us His friends, we learn to think — and act — as His friends.

Writing to Christians who were not living as they should, James said, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Having changed sides, we need to make sure that we don’t live like people who are still friends with the enemy!

But what if we have not yet obeyed the gospel at all? We need to see the reality of the position we’re in, without glossing it over or making it seem more innocent than it is. If the gospel is false, it should be rejected. But if it is true, indifference is not an option. If we die in our rebellion, it will not go well with us at judgment. 

"You may say you are far from hating God; but if you live in sin, you are among God’s enemies, you are under Satan’s standard and enlisted there. You may not like it, no wonder; you may wish to be elsewhere. But there you are, an enemy of God" (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

THE WAY OF GOD MORE ACCURATELY (MARCH 21)

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"[Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26).

THERE IS PERHAPS NO GREATER TEST OF OUR HONESTY AND HUMILITY THAN WHEN WE FACE THE KIND OF SITUATION THAT APOLLOS DID. Fervent and faithful, at least to the best of his previous understanding, he needed to be shown “the way of God more accurately.” And to his credit, when Priscilla and Aquila showed him where his understanding had been lacking, he changed.

Today, we face a challenging set of circumstances. In some countries, like the United States, millions of people are devout members of religious groups that call themselves “Christian” in some sense. But in very many, if not most, cases, the doctrines and practices that are being followed are not true to the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles in the New Testament.

For those committed to a return to the “Way” reflected in the New Testament (Acts 9:2; 24:14), the challenge is to get people to take a second look at their convictions. There is no harder person to convert to Christ than the one who thinks he is already following Christ. The shell of popular “Christianity” is very hard to penetrate. And there are few who will do what Apollos did: humbly admit that his previous understanding was inadequate. People do not like to be shown that they’ve been on the wrong path.

Yet there is nobody, including this writer, who does not need an “Apollos experience” now and then. Our salvation depends on our willingness to be instructed by others. But such teachability requires a humility that is hard. As Winston Churchill said, “I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.”

So what are we to do when we sit across the table discussing the Scriptures with someone whose understanding is significantly different from ours? What did Apollos do when he was lovingly confronted by Priscilla and Aquila? In the end, it doesn’t matter who is right; it only matters what is right. And the Scriptures must be our guide. Each of us must have the courage to adjust ourselves to the truth when we learn “the way of God more accurately.”

"We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed" (Charles Caleb Colton).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

DEFERRING TO GOD’S REVEALED WILL (MARCH 20)

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"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Proverbs 14:12).

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE IN PROVERBS 14:12 IS APPLICABLE TO LIFE IN GENERAL, BUT IT HAS A VERY SPECIFIC IMPORTANCE IN REGARD TO OUR ETERNAL SALVATION. Our own opinions and feelings can be dangerously wrong, despite our self-confidence about what “seems right” to us. Sincerity about our salvation is no guarantee we’re on the right track. So of all the questions in the world, this is the one where we need the most help in getting the right answers.

THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT TO A MAN. Our minds, given to us by God, are marvelous mechanisms for figuring things out. But if we were trying to figure out the way to be saved from our sins, there is no chance we would be able to do so. If God did not reveal His mind to us, we wouldn’t know the first thing about any plan that He might have for our reconciliation (1 Corinthians 2:11). What we could do, of course, is exercise our rational powers to envision how we think God would or could (or even should) set up His plan, and then suppose that because such a plan “seems right” to us subjectively, it must be true objectively, even if it conflicts with what the Scriptures teach. And not content with that, we might even go further and suppose that our subjective feelings about our salvation were, in fact, God speaking to us in our hearts. No amount of objective evidence from any source would be enough to dislodge from our minds our idea of what “seems right” to us.

ITS END IS THE WAY TO DEATH. The problem, as Solomon observed, is that what seems to a human being to be the right path is often “the way to death.” History is replete with examples of people who acted with great inner feelings of reasonableness but their feelings turned out to be disastrously wrong. In fact, as George Moore observed, “The wrong way always seems the more reasonable.”

But God has not left us to figure out the path that leads to Him. He has revealed that path in the Scriptures, objectively and for all time to come. As Paul reminded his friend Timothy, the Scriptures are able to make us “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). Whatever may seem right to us, we would do well to listen humbly to what God has said and accept His plan gratefully.

"Where God has put a period, do not change it to a question mark" (T. J. Bach).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

GOVERNED BY GOD (MARCH 19)

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"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

FREEDOM IS ONE OF THE PRIME BENEFITS OF THE GOSPEL. In a world characterized by rebellion against God, we find ourselves fettered and frustrated by sin. But we can be delivered from this slavery. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Yet freedom is often misunderstood. The very essence of sin is the attitude which says, “I do not wish to do anyone’s will but my own. I wish to be free of any limitations, so that I can do as I please.” And when we first hear about the gospel of Christ, we may see it as a ticket to this kind of freedom. No longer will we be bound by the petty rules of “legalism.” We will be free!

But ponder these words by Charles Kingsley: “There are two freedoms: the false, where man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.” True freedom is not the absence of any limits at all; it is being governed by the wisdom of God — within limits that help us to do what is right.

What Adam and Eve found was that throwing off the restrictions of God’s law did not enable them to enjoy the “good life,” as they had been led to believe. Contrary to the tempter’s lie, they discovered that God had been telling the truth in the first place: outside of His will, human life leads, in the end, to nothing but death.

After the establishment of Christ’s church in the first century, there began to be those who taught that what one does in the flesh is of no consequence to the spirit. Christians should pursue “freedom” and disregard the old-fashioned precepts of right and wrong. But these advocates of “liberty” were lying, just as the tempter had been lying back in the Garden of Eden. And Peter called them out when he said, “For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:18,19).

Eric Hoffer said, “The best test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.” If that is true politically, it’s also true spiritually. We’d do well to listen.

"Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent" (William Ralph Inge).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST (MARCH 18)

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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

NEW BEGINNINGS SHOULD BE WELCOMED INTO OUR LIVES. It is an exciting, strengthening experience to turn a corner and make a fresh start — and there is no more powerful new beginning than obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ, our starting over is so deep and complete that we are said to be a “new creation.”

Having died with Christ in baptism, we walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). And what does that mean? Paul described it in Colossians 3:1-17. We have new goals (v.1), new thoughts (v.2), and new habits (vv.5-16). With Christ as our Lord, we live under a new authority (v.17). And most important, having been forgiven of the sins that separated us from God, we live with a new hope (vv.3,4).

At baptism, we commit ourselves to actually living like what we have become: a new creation. Growing to maturity in Christ takes time. We can be encouraged by the fact that God will be patient. He will provide the help that is necessary. But if we don’t open our eyes and see what needs to change, we’ll be hindered.

Unfortunately, most of us fail to see how radical the surgery needs to be. We see ourselves as “good” people — we may stumble now and then, but basically, we think we’ve lived without any very serious errors. Yet nothing could be further from the truth (Matthew 3:7-9). We need more than a little polishing up; we need to be destroyed and completely rebuilt. There is only one word to describe what must be done: “re-creation.” If we’re going to be fit to live in God’s presence, we’re going to have to be “re-created.”

But in Christ, what needs to happen can happen. What God offers us is absolutely unique. There is nothing else like it in the world. So Peter appealed to his hearers in Jerusalem, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Act 3:19-21).

"In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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