Obeying the Gospel

EACH MUST CHOOSE (OCTOBER 27)

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"Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:14,15).

THE LONGER I LIVE, THE MORE I SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF DECISIVENESS. If we don’t train ourselves to make decisive choices, we will self-destruct. So Joshua could not have challenged Israel more profitably than by saying, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” He knew they would serve one god or another; he just hoped it would be the true God they chose — deliberately and decisively.

What are we to make of Joshua’s saying, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”? Did Joshua have the power to choose for his family that they would serve God? No, at least not in the strictest sense. I believe he was saying, “As the leader of my clan, I am making the choice to serve the Lord, and to the best of my ability I will influence each member of the family to do likewise.” In his day, Joshua would have had the authority to enforce certain rules in his clan (at least externally). But in truth, Joshua could not make this, the greatest decision of life, for anyone but himself. Then, as now, we cannot compel; we can only influence.

As important as choice is, then, it must be exercised individually. This powerful gift of freedom that God has given us is perhaps the most private of all our gifts. We can influence other human beings and they can influence us, but no human being can enter the secret chambers of another’s heart and make even the slightest decision for him. Even if I say to you, “I can’t make up my mind; you decide,” you are not really making my decision. I have simply made the decision to follow your lead. And as we all know, “not making a decision” is a misnomer. Not to decide is really just one kind of decision: the decision to do nothing and hope for the best.

In regard to God, we must say a decisive Yes! — or we’ll not like where we end up. As I heard someone say, “God lives upstream from us, and we’re not going to get to where He is by just drifting.” The most disastrous thing we can do is “not decide.”

"There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drift of events will make the decision" (Herbert V. Prochnow).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE GOOD CONFESSION (OCTOBER 26)

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"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:12).

OPENNESS, TRANSPARENCY, DISCLOSURE. These are words with a very high social value these days. We tend to view them positively (at least as far as other people’s conduct is concerned).

But what about openness with regard to our religious convictions, especially those that might get us into trouble if they were publicly known? When we might be persecuted for our beliefs, we often find it convenient to be quiet about them. And perhaps even more than persecution, we fear social disapproval and ostracism. As the world becomes increasingly secular, religious beliefs of any kind will come to be viewed as contemptible. Whatever other religious people may do, how is a Christian to deal with this pressure?

Well, the gospel is clear on this point. Jesus 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). Openly acknowledging that we are the Lord’s people is a part of our faith in Him. We cannot hide our identity and still expect that He will acknowledge us on the Judgment Day.

In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul reminded Timothy that he had made “the good confession.” Surely the verbal confession that Jesus is Lord is a good confession — the best of all possible acknowledgements that a person could make. And it is a required part of becoming a Christian. “With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10).

But to confess Christ goes beyond merely saying the words “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” We must truly believe those words — and they must be confessed in our deeds as well as our words. We can’t have Jesus as our “Savior” without obeying Him as our “Lord.” And in the end, doing that may require the greatest courage of all: confessing by our actions that we have accepted His lordship — both when it is convenient and when it is not.

"One of the greatest errors in the church today is the artificial distinction we have created between accepting Christ as Savior and confessing Him as Lord. We have made two experiences of it, but the New Testament makes them one" (Vance Havner).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WHY SAUL, THE RABBI, OBEYED THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST (OCTOBER 25)

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". . . in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith -- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:8-11).

FOR THE TASK OF TAKING THE GOSPEL TO THE GENTILES, GOD SELECTED A MOST UNLIKELY CANDIDATE. Saul of Tarsus was a firebrand. He was a strict and conscientious Pharisee, a protégé of Gamaliel, one of the leading rabbis in Jerusalem with an influential seat on the Sanhedrin. Before his conversion to Christ, Saul was an ardent persecutor of the fledgling church, traveling even to distant cities to imprison those of “the Way” (Acts 9:1,2).

Saul, later known as Paul, was on track to become one of the leading scholars and defenders of the Jewish faith of his generation. He had a great deal to give up. When he became convinced that he had to become a Christian, it was not as if he had nothing to lose. And the life he had as a Christian, at least in this world, was a life so hard that most of us can hardly imagine it (just read 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 if you think Paul made his life more comfortable when he obeyed the gospel). When he was baptized for the remission of his sins (Acts 22:16), Paul was not switching his “religious affiliation” — he was moving from condemnation to salvation, from death to life, from Satan to the Savior of the world.

After turning to Christ, Paul was as fiery a preacher as he had been a persecutor, which goes to show that the Lord is not looking for timid people without any intensity but for those who, when they finally see the truth, will take a bold and passionate stand for it. And why will people take such a stand, even going so far as to die for Christ? Because of how good the good news really is. So today, our motivation needs to be just as passionate. My own prayer is that I obeyed the gospel in order “that I may gain Christ and be found in him . . . becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

"The best news of the Christian gospel is that the supremely glorious Creator of the universe has acted in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection to remove every obstacle between us and himself so that we may find everlasting joy in seeing and savoring his infinite beauty" (John Piper).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

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

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

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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