Obeying the Gospel

AN INDESTRUCTIBLE KINGDOM (MARCH 17)

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"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).

THIS TEXT IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL GIVES US THE MAIN POINT OF A DREAM THAT DANIEL INTERPRETED FOR NEBUCHADNEZZAR, THE KING OF BABYLON. It speaks of a kingdom that God would establish in the days of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that would be unlike any other kingdom that had ever been known to mankind.

A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. If people thought the kingdom prophesied here was going to be just a more powerful type of earthly government, they were disappointed. When the King finally came, He did not set up a worldly regime: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting . . . But my kingdom is not from the world” (John 18:36).

A KINGDOM WHOSE RULE WOULD NOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SUCCEEDING RULERS. Unlike earthly kingdoms in which rulers are always replaced by other rulers, there would be no line of succession in this kingdom — “nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people” (RSV).

AN INDESTRUCTIBLE KINGDOM. The stability of this kingdom would be such that it “shall stand forever.” The ups and downs of history would not faze it, and no enemy could conquer it. With the Son of God as its King, this kingdom would be impossible to overthrow.

This kingdom, we now know, is the rule of God in Jesus Christ, inaugurated on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection. In Christ, we submit to this rule and are saved (Colossians 1:13,14).

When we consider the majesty of God’s plan to bring us back under the benevolence of His rule, we are struck with awe. And it is our privilege to honor Jesus Christ, “the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5,6).

"Only when God hath brought to light all the hidden things of darkness, whosoever were the actors therein, will it be seen that wise and good were all his ways, that he saw through the thick cloud, and governed all things by the wise counsels of his own will, that nothing was left to chance, or the caprice of men, but God disposed all strongly and sweetly, and wrought all into one connected chain of justice, mercy, and truth" (John Wesley).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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GOD’S PROMISE TO DAVID (MARCH 16)

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"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

THIS TEXT IS ONE OF A HANDFUL OF OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Much that is said in the New Testament about Jesus Christ would be incomprehensible without an understanding of what it was that God was promising to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.

OFFSPRING. On the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death, Simon Peter, a pious Jew, affirmed that he and others were eyewitnesses of the fact that Jesus had been resurrected. And Jesus’ resurrection, he argued, fulfilled what the Scriptures had foretold about the much-anticipated Messiah. To make his point, he quoted Psalm 16:10, where David had said, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:25-28).

Now follow very carefully what Peter said next: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses . . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:29-36).

KINGDOM. God said to David, “Your throne shall be established forever.” Just as “offspring” meant more than David’s son Solomon, there would be more to David’s “throne” than the government of Israel. The kingdom of which God spoke to David would not be geographical but spiritual (John 18:36) — and this is the very kingdom over which Jesus Christ, the Messiah, now reigns. So if we’ve obeyed the gospel, we may gladly say that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14).

"The kingdom of God does not exist because of your effort or mine. It exists because God reigns. Our part is to enter this kingdom and bring our life under his sovereign will" (T. Z. Koo).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE SORROW THAT SEEKS SALVATION (MARCH 15)

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"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24).

SORROWFUL. PENITENT. CONTRITE. These don’t sound like positive words. But if we’re looking at life from the perspective of the Scriptures, they are some of the most positive words in the dictionary — not because they are comfortable but because they are conducive to our salvation. Ponder with me their importance.

There are a handful of texts in the Bible (I call them “fundamental” texts) that describe the heart of the person who is truly turned in God’s direction. We might think, for example, of Micah 6:8 or Deuteronomy 6:4,5. Out of all the texts like these, none is more helpful to us than David’s cry in Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” I believe this basic truth would have been the background of Jesus’ statement of blessing in Matthew 5:3,4: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Godly sorrow is not an end in itself; it is a part of the path that leads us back to God (2 Corinthians 7:8-11). Without sorrow for our sins, we will not seek salvation with any deep passion or fervent desire. And in the end, it is this sort of seeker who will be rewarded. It is not the one interested in intellectual information or theoretical philosophy, but the seeker of salvation who will find the object of his desire. And as often as not, it is our tears that show what is most important to us in regard to God (Luke 7:36-50).

If we’re seeking salvation, we will naturally be eager to experience the joy God has promised to us. We long to be reconciled to Him. There is, however, no shortcut to salvation. The path to heaven passes through the territory of repentance, and as anyone knows who has been there, it is a painful place to be. But the horror of our sins has to become real to us. If that does not happen, the Promised Land will not seem much better than the wilderness. “Until sin be bitter — Christ will not be sweet” (Thomas Watson).

Ah! happy they whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May the Lord Christ enter in?
(Oscar Wilde)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

WHERE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED (MARCH 14)

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"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:17).

PAUL WANTED IT UNDERSTOOD THAT HE WAS NOT RELUCTANT TO COME TO ROME. Rome might have been the most powerful and prestigious city in the world of that day, but Paul was just as willing to preach the gospel of Christ there as he was anywhere else. “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” he wrote to the church in Rome, “for it is the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).

And then, still speaking of the gospel, Paul said, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (v.17). It is in the gospel that the righteousness of God is revealed. That sounds important, obviously, but we need to know what Paul meant by “the righteousness of God.”

In the context of Paul’s letter to the Romans, the phrase does not refer to God’s personal righteousness but rather His way of making sinful man righteous — that is, God’s chosen means of reconciling us to Himself, as opposed to any system of righteousness or plan of salvation by which we might try to save ourselves. 

This contrast is clearly seen in Romans 10:3: “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Paul was speaking here of the Jews who had rejected the gospel. It grieved him, as a former rabbi, to point out that by preferring a Jewish system of moral credits to achieve their own salvation, his Jewish brethren had turned away from God’s salvation: the plan that He had provided for all mankind, one based on faith rather than Jewishness.

God, as the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, has the right to set the criterion separating those who will be saved from those who will not, and it is in the gospel that He has revealed His choice. The righteousness that He is willing to provide is based upon faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. We might have devised some other plan, but God’s plan is what it is — and it is in the gospel that He makes it known. The “good news” is that, because of Christ’s death, the door of forgiveness is open to the entire world. Only God could have opened this door. The wonder is that He did so.

"Christ died that we might live — but live as he lives, by dying as he died who died to himself" (George MacDonald).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

FAITH: THE MAINSPRING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (MARCH 13)

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". . . but the righteous shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).

IN THE WHOLE BIBLE THERE ARE FEW TEXTS MORE BASIC THAN THIS ONE. The principle embedded in this passage from Habakkuk is fundamental and far-reaching. And it illustrates an interesting fact about the Scriptures: the more basic the principle found in a passage, the more different ways it may be applied in other passages.

In its original context in Habakkuk, “the righteous shall live by his faith” was a part of God’s answer to the prophet’s perplexity at God’s use of a nation like Babylon to accomplish His purposes. Based on a human being’s limited information, such may seem puzzling, but God has always proven Himself trustworthy, so those who are committed to justice will trust Him. Their trust in God will guide them through life’s apparent contradictions.

In the New Testament, Paul quoted the familiar words of Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:16,17 to emphasize one of the most basic truths of the gospel: it is faith (rather than race, social status, or any other criterion) that is the basis of righteousness before God. No one is excluded; the gospel is open to any person who will make the choice to trust God obediently. And no congregation needed to hear this more than the group in Rome, where the mixed Jewish and Gentile membership needed to keep in mind that they had all been accepted in Christ on the very same basis.

So here we have one of the key elements of the truth about our relationship to God. Beginning with Adam and Eve and coming all the way down to our own day, sin has always been a refusal to trust God enough to obey Him, and salvation has always required coming back to a trust that will obey Him. In the gospel, faith is required for our initial reconciliation to God and also our continuing lives in Christ. It is the mainspring of the watch (to use an antiquated illustration), the source of the energy that drives the mechanism. Yet real faith involves a good deal more than just accepting the facts of the gospel intellectually. That may be the starting point, since faith is based on what our minds recognize to be true. But as it grows to maturity, faith turns into trust — a trust that will risk everything in order to act on what God says about Himself and His will for us.

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you cannot understand at the time" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

ABRAHAM, THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL (MARCH 12)

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"And [Abraham] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).

ABRAHAM WAS AN OLD MAN AND CHILDLESS WHEN GOD TOLD HIM HIS DESCENDANTS WOULD BE AS MANY AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN. Sarah, his wife, was well past the age of childbearing. Yet he knew enough of God’s track record to believe that whatever God promised, that’s what would happen. So he trusted God’s promise, and the text says that God “counted it to him as righteousness.”

The operative element in Abraham’s faith was an obedient confidence — a trustful willingness to yield to God’s word. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). And James wrote, “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ — and he was called a friend of God” (James 2:22,23).

Abraham is the person most often cited in the Scriptures as an example of faith’s role in God’s plan of salvation. “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9).

Abraham’s faithfulness was the product of his decision to trust that God always tells the truth. Today, we very much need to get back to Abraham’s kind of faith. Far from mere gullibility or blind faith, his faith was a reasoned choice to believe the promises he knew God had made. And unlike those who think that feelings of faith are sufficient, Abraham was obedient to God, even in situations that required great courage. Whether it was in the operation of his intellect, his emotions, or his will, Abraham’s point of departure was always this: what has God said? And all these years later, he continues to be the spiritual forefather of those who take bold, sacrificial steps based on the dependability of what God has said.

"Faith does not begin with what the human intellect has discovered . . . [but] with what God has revealed" (William Barclay).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

BORN AGAIN (MARCH 11)

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"Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God'" (John 3:3).

OBEYING THE GOSPEL INVOLVES THE DEEPEST CHANGE POSSIBLE IN A HUMAN BEING’S HEART. Dying to sin and living “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4) is more than adopting a different religious affiliation, accepting a different set of beliefs, or attending services at a different church. It is becoming a different person. Jesus said, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In John 3:5, Jesus was more specific: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” What does this mean? It means, first, that the act of baptism (immersion in water) precedes our entrance into God’s kingdom. But born of water, we are also born of the Spirit. At baptism, the Christian begins learning to lay aside his self-will and yield himself to the direction of God’s Spirit. This guidance is available for us today in the Scriptures that were revealed by the Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Paul wrote that God has saved us “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Again we see the “water” and the “Spirit” of which Jesus spoke in John 3:5. Beginning with the remission of our sins at baptism, a strong renewal takes place. As we learn more of God’s will, we begin to be led, directed, and governed by God’s Spirit. And as we obey God’s command to “walk in the Spirit,” the “works of the flesh” begin to be replaced by the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-26).

As you can see, being born again involves something that happens to us (the remission of our sins) and also something we do (live a new life). By His grace God has forgiven us, and He will help us obey Him, but to remain in the kingdom we must accept the rule of the King. As Paul said, “The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives” (Galatians 5:25 Good News Bible).

If the problem of sin is to be corrected, radical surgery must be done. The gospel does not deal in superficial solutions. According to Jesus, it is not just our dysfunctional behavior that needs fixing — it is us. It is in the deepest depths of our hearts that we need to change. We must, in fact, die and become new people altogether.

"[Being born again] is a foundational fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE SINNER’S PRAYER (MARCH 10)

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"And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.' So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:40,41).

IN OUR DAY, WHEN PEOPLE ASK “WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?” THEY ARE COMMONLY TOLD TO PRAY THE “SINNER’S PRAYER.” According to its advocates, this prayer is how one “accepts” Christ, based on the premise that “faith only” is the requirement for the forgiveness of sins. There are many versions of the prayer, but they all run something like this: “Dear God, I know I’m a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died for my sins and that you raised Him to life. I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

A couple of remarks are in order. First, our conversion to Christ should certainly be accompanied by fervent prayer. If there is ever a time when prayer is appropriate, would it not be on the crucial occasion of our turning to Christ as our Savior?

But it is simply not true to the Scriptures to say that a prayer like the Sinner’s Prayer is sufficient. We do not find in any of the conversions to Christ in the Scriptures anyone being instructed to pray such a prayer, as if that were all they needed to do to be saved.

But if we do not find in the Scriptures people being told to pray the Sinner’s Prayer, what do we find? As in our beginning text in Acts 2:40,41, the gospel called for a response, and those who responded did not merely pray; they were baptized. Beginning on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem, when the gospel was first preached in its completeness, those who sought God’s forgiveness submitted gladly to the gospel’s command to be baptized into Christ. Their baptism was preceded by faith (John 8:24), repentance (Acts 2:38), and the confession of their faith (Romans 10:9,10). All of these were motivated by trust in God’s power to save them (Colossians 2:12) and backed up by a very serious commitment (Luke 9:62). To tell the sinner to do anything less than these things is to share something less than the gospel with him.

"In the New Testament, it was not by prayer that people became Christians but by receiving God’s forgiveness as they died with Christ in baptism" (Dee Bowman).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS (MARCH 9)

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"And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that [Jesus Christ] is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:42,43).

THE GOSPEL MAY BE DEFINED AS THE PREACHING OF JESUS CHRIST. And it is in two different senses that it is “of” Jesus Christ. First, it is the good news or glad tidings preached by Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14,15). But also, it is the message about Jesus. In the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and the first Gentile convert to Christ, Peter said that God “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”

It is a fact that the judgment of the world has been given into the hands of Jesus Christ, and we will give account of ourselves to Him. Speaking to a group of philosophers in Athens, Paul said that God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

But if Jesus is our Judge, He is also the Savior of those who accept Him. That is why the gospel is good news. As Peter announced in Acts 10:43, “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” And the consequence is that when God’s wrath falls upon the world, those who are forgiven will be spared. Paul put it vividly when he described Jesus as the one “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

What makes Jesus so disliked, however, is the gospel’s claim that forgiveness is only in Christ. To many, there is no more objectionable statement of Jesus than His saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Yet that is what He said, and we must decide whether He was telling the truth. Great outcomes depend on our decision.

May we not quibble, but rather be grateful. For where else can we go but to Christ? As Peter said when Jesus asked him if he and the other disciples were going to turn away from Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

"By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade" (Desiderius Erasmus).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE WORST WORDS WE CAN IMAGINE (MARCH 8)

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"And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:23).

HAVING BEEN MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE, OUR DEEPEST NEED IS FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM. He created us as personal beings, and one of the characteristics of personal beings is their need for relationship with other persons, above all with their Creator. If it is hard for us to be alienated from other human beings, it is even harder to do without our Heavenly Father, although when we’re alienated from Him we often misdiagnose the problem and try to fill the void in our hearts with other things besides God.

As Adam and Eve found out, sin cuts us off from the God whose fellowship we need so deeply. Outside of Eden, it may have taken them a while to realize just how much they had lost, but they lived a very long time after their separation from God and we can only imagine the emptiness and sorrow of their experience.

But God had a plan ready by which He would bring His Son into the world to die for mankind’s sins and open up the door to forgiveness. Having been forgiven, those who accepted God’s plan would have a partial fellowship with God restored to them in this world, but that blessing would only be a “down payment” on the perfectly restored fellowship they would have with God in eternity. This, in a nutshell, is the message of the gospel of Christ, and it centers on the restored fellowship with God we can have when He has brought the history of this sin-damaged world to its end.

Only by God’s grace could such a thing be possible. Yet God has made receiving the benefits of His grace contingent on our accepting the terms or conditions which He has set. But what if we say no to God’s plan? What if we reject the good news of the gospel?

The answer is that the saddest thing in the whole creation will happen: we will have rejected the very thing we were created for. Fellowship with God — lost by our sin but offered back to us in the gospel — will be forever out of our reach when we hear Him say, “Depart from me.” But for the time being, that horror is still an “if.” We will hear those words if . . . we say no to our Savior.

"The pain of punishment will be without the fruit of penitence; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too late they will believe in eternal punishment who would not believe in eternal life" (Cyprian).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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