Obeying the Gospel

IS JESUS THE ONLY WAY? (MARCH 30)

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"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

WHEN JESUS WAS BORN, THE CHILD WAS NOT MERELY ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. He was God in the flesh, come into the world to “save his people from their sins.” This is an astonishing claim.

Several years later, after Jesus had ascended back to the Father following His death and resurrection, His apostles were directed by the governing authorities in Jerusalem not to preach anymore in His name. Respectfully, they refused to comply with this order. “This Jesus,” they said, “is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11,12).

The idea of Jesus being the only way makes a good deal more sense when we consider the nature of the problem that has to be fixed. If all we needed was a little moral instruction or the example of a noble life, there might be many teachers and many paths to the goal. But if the problem is actually sin, then we have a very different situation: this problem will have only one solution.

GOD. If we have, in fact, alienated ourselves from our Creator by rebellion against His rule, only He has the right to set the terms of our return to Him. Reality is an objective fact, and facts are stubborn things. We need not expect that the path to reconciliation with God will involve anything less than the real truth about God — and that truth will inevitably exclude everything except itself.

SIN. A part of our problem is our insistence on writing our own rules. But if sin is the objective violation of the will of a God who truly does exist, the rectification of that problem will require letting God define exactly where we have gone wrong.

SALVATION. If the gospel is about sin, that means “salvation” must be seen from a different perspective. Various proposals by the world’s greatest teachers will not be enough. What we need is a grace that only our God can supply, and it is God who has said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35).

"Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are his enemies, can go to heaven" (Lewis Sperry Chafer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

NO TURNING BACK, NO TURNING BACK (MARCH 29)

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"But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:39).

IF WE DECIDE TO FOLLOW CHRIST, WE WILL MOVE IN A FORWARD DIRECTION AS LONG AS WE FOLLOW HIM. But having decided to follow Him, we must never change our minds and revert to going backward, the way we used to live. As the writer of Hebrews put it, we must not be among those who “shrink back and are destroyed.”

Whether we ever turn back or not, one thing is certain: we will be tempted to do so. It is nothing but naive to think the Christian will never be discouraged or have second thoughts. Our enemy, the devil, will do all he can to get us back. And make no mistake, if we do return to his bondage, we will once again be in a lost condition, just as Peter wrote, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first” (2 Peter 2:20).

Surrounded by difficulties and distractions every day, there is little chance we’ll hold out if we haven’t made a commitment to hold out. Becoming a Christian is more than a mood or a whim — it comes from (1) a sober assessment of the evidence, and (2) a commitment to take a stand that is lifelong and binding. Looking at it more personally, obeying the gospel involves a commitment of love for Christ Himself. Since we love Him, we will never betray Him. He can count on the faithfulness and obedience of our love.

Such a great commitment is more than a one-time act. As our lives unfold, we will find it needful to get a fresh grip on our commitment from time to time, meditating and reminding ourselves of the evidence that our decision rests upon and vowing anew that we will never be a traitor to our Lord. Every Lord’s Day, we will make new promises of faithfulness to Him when the church gathers and we remember His death in the Lord’s Supper.

So the Christian life is a long sequence of stronger and stronger commitments. But it all begins very simply. Whether we say it out loud or not, at baptism our hearts are entering into this pledge: From this day forward, I will follow Jesus faithfully, so help me God.

I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, no turning back.
(Old Gospel Song)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

WHAT KIND OF HEART IS THE LORD LOOKING FOR? (MARCH 28)

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"[Samuel] looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.' But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart'" (1 Samuel 16:6,7).

WE CAN BE GLAD THAT THE LORD IS MORE CONCERNED WITH OUR HEART THAN WITH OUR EXTERNAL APPEARANCE. He knows things about us that others can’t see. That is a comforting thought (and to tell the truth, it is also sobering). When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint Israel’s new king, he naturally thought that Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, would be the Lord’s choice. But no, God wanted David, the youngest son. Below the surface, God could see that David had the character that was needed.

Today, the Lord is not looking for the next king of Israel; He is looking for those who will be “a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9) — those who will respond gratefully to the gospel and be eager to live in a reconciled, joyful relationship with Him. But if He is to have a people who are uniquely His possession, what will their character be like? What kind of heart is the Lord looking for?

PENITENT HEARTS. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Are we humble individuals who know what the tears of godly sorrow taste like?

COMMITTED TO THE LORD’S WAYS. Of King Jehoshaphat, it was said that “his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 17:6). God has always looked for hearts like that.

LOYAL TO THE LORD. God said of Solomon, “His heart was not loyal to the Lord his God” (1 Kings 11:4,6 NKJV). Of the traits that God desires, few, if any, are more important than loyalty and reliability.

When we obey the gospel, we begin to grow in these qualities. But there is a sense in which these are the traits that make a person responsive to the gospel in the first place. And lest we make excuses, let’s admit this fact: we ourselves choose whether we will have such hearts or not. So let’s choose wisely. With His help, let’s learn to have the kind of heart the Lord is looking for.

"O Lord, let me not henceforth desire health or life, except to spend them for thee, with thee, and in thee. Thou alone knowest what is good for me; do, therefore, what seemeth to thee best. Give to me, or take from me; conform my will to thine" (Blaise Pascal).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

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

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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