Obeying the Gospel

THE RESURRECTION OF THE MESSIAH (FEBRUARY 28)

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"For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption" (Psalm 16:10).

SPEAKING IN THE SYNAGOGUE IN PISIDIAN ANTIOCH, PAUL ALLUDED TO THREE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES THAT POINTED TO THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. To his fellow Jews, he said, “We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption’” (Acts 13:32-35). The first of Paul’s Old Testament references is Psalm 2:7, the second is Isaiah 55:3, and the third is Psalm 16:10.

In Psalm 16:10, David had portrayed the Messiah as saying to Yahweh, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” In context, the one speaking is talking about resurrection rather than a mere preservation from death — and that is exactly how Peter understood Psalm 16:10 in his sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2:25-31).

The One whom David foresaw in Psalm 16:10 is the only person in the world who, having been killed, did not “see corruption.” His resurrection proved Him to be the Son of God (Romans 1:2-4). It proved everything about the gospel to be true — and therein lies our hope. Had Jesus been no more than what David was (a great ruler over the kingdom of Israel, a prophet, and a man after God’s own heart), He would have died, as David did, and His body would have decayed, as David’s did. But he was not David, and He did not remain dead. He rose from the grave, just as David knew the Messiah would. He now reigns at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1) where He makes intercession for His faithful people (Romans 8:34). What this means is that our hope of salvation is no idle dream.

"The king described in Psalm 16:10 . . . [is] one who is laid in the grave and does not experience decay. The description of this ideal king leads us to the same conclusion the apostle Peter came to in his first post-Pentecost sermon to the people of Israel: David cannot be speaking about himself!" (Seth D. Postell).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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PERFECTION, CORRUPTION, RESTORATION (FEBRUARY 27)

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"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Romans 8:18,19).

IF THE GOSPEL IS THE “GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD,” IT’S IMPORTANT TO SEE THAT THE STORY HAS A PLOT OR STORY LINE. In essence, the gospel is about something being repaired that had been ruined. What makes it the greatest of all stories is that God is the Repairer, and we, His creatures, are those being repaired.

PERFECTION. When He had finished creating the world, God “saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). It was a perfect creation, and human beings were the pinnacle of its perfection. They were personal beings, made in God’s image and blessed with abilities far beyond any other creatures in this world (Genesis 1:26,27). We can only imagine the joy of Adam and Eve’s perfection — unspoiled by any disobedience, rebellion, alienation, or estrangement. With everything perfectly connected, Creator and creation were a symphony of goodness.

CORRUPTION. Tragically, the creation was broken when Adam and Eve yielded to the tempter (Genesis 3:1-24). Disregarding the will of God, their Creator, they went against what they knew He had commanded them — and when they did, they discovered the horrors of “death” and separation from God. What had been beautiful was now ugly. What had been joyful was now dreadful. What had been perfect was now corrupt. And like Paul many centuries later, Adam might have cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

RESTORATION. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the story of God continuing to write the story of the human race. Although He might have let justice run its course, God was not willing to leave us in our hopeless condition. If we had ruined the perfection He had created us to enjoy, He would allow us to come back to Him — even if it meant taking upon Himself the punishment for our sin. For those willing to accept this restoration, the “glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18) is a hope beyond all hopes. For those reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, the best is yet to come.

Jesus is risen! he shall the world restore!
Awake, ye dead! dull sinners, sleep no more!
(John Wesley)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST (FEBRUARY 26)

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"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).

WE ALL KNOW ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ASPECT OF LIFE AND DEATH, BUT SPIRITUAL LIFE AND DEATH ARE NO LESS REAL. In today’s text, for example, Paul speaks of Christians as being “alive together with Christ.” What does this expression mean?

If we’ve obeyed the gospel, we are not any more alive physically than we were before, but we certainly possess a spiritual life we didn’t used to have. When we were “dead in our trespasses,” we were baptized for the remission of our sins and God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” In another passage, Paul wrote to the church in Colossae that “having been buried with him in baptism . . . you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12).

It needs to be emphasized that the word “dead” is the right word to describe our condition as people who have disobeyed what we knew to be the will of our Creator. The “wages of sin is death,” as Paul described it in Romans 6:23. As long as our sins stand between us and God, we are alienated from Him in the very worst way, and “dead” is exactly what we are. If there is another word that comes close, it is the word “lost” (Luke 19:10).

But the life that is possible in Christ has two dimensions: one we can enjoy right now (the lesser) and another that is waiting for us in eternity (the greater). Writing to his fellow Christians, Peter said God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). So before our opportunity runs out, may we obey the commands of the gospel and be brought back to life spiritually — so that when Christ returns we’ll be resurrected to live with Him eternally.

"The same power that brought Christ back from the dead is operative within those who are Christ’s. The Resurrection is an ongoing thing" (Leon Morris).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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ADAM’S HELPLESS RACE (FEBRUARY 25)

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"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6 NASB).

TO SAY THE VERY LEAST, WE DID NOT DESERVE WHAT CHRIST DID FOR US WHEN HE DIED FOR OUR SINS. But not only were we undeserving; we were helpless. His death provided a salvation we could never have achieved by any ability that we possessed. We were, as the Amplified Bible renders it, “powerless to help ourselves.”

Unfortunately, there is a concept in many people’s minds that I call the “balance-sheet plan of salvation.” According to this view, we will be saved if our good deeds outnumber our bad ones. We may acknowledge that we used to be sinful people, but we believe that (if we have enough time left) we may be able to do enough good deeds that we’ll end up with a positive credit balance.

But here is the problem: if we had only ever committed just one sin, a lifetime of perfection after that would not be enough to atone for that one sin. The “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sin — any sin — separates us from God (Genesis 2:16,17), and no amount of goodness after that can bridge the gap our sin has put between us and God. Sin is not a problem we can work our own way out of.

We are all, of course, guilty of a good many more sins than one. We have repeatedly chosen our own will over God’s, and “ungodly” is what we are. We are not good people who just need a little polishing up; we are proud, self-willed people who have alienated ourselves from God. And when we put ourselves in that predicament, what we needed was not merely a better moral example; we needed a sinless Savior who would die on our behalf.

The good news is that Jesus Christ is that Savior. He rescued us when there was no other way we could have escaped being banished from God. Lying in the dust, dead in our sins, we were lifted up to life — vibrant, glorious life — by the One who loved us even when we were lost. And Peter was not exaggerating when he said, “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 4:12).

He left his Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite his grace!
Emptied himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
(Charles Wesley)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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OUT OF ZION SHALL GO FORTH THE LAW (FEBRUARY 24)

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"And many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.' For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3 NASB).

IN THIS TEXT FROM ISAIAH, A DAY IS ENVISIONED WHEN GOD’S TEACHING WOULD GO FORTH FROM “ZION” AND BE EAGERLY RECEIVED BY “MANY PEOPLES.” These honest souls would gladly listen to the law of “the God of Jacob,” seeking Him diligently “that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.”

Zion was more or less the same as Jerusalem, as we see in the parallel clauses at the end of this verse. And the prophet foresees a day when the “law” or “word of the Lord” will go forth from this ancient city. But has this prophecy been fulfilled? And if it has, what is the law, or word, that has gone out from Zion?

Anyone familiar with the Book of Acts in the New Testament can’t help being struck by the detailed fulfillment of Isaiah 2 in the events of Acts 2. In Acts 2, the gospel of Christ was first preached in its complete fullness by Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem on the first Day of Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection. From that beginning, the message spread out from Jerusalem to encompass the whole world, shaking the foundations of humanity. This unfolding of events was exactly as Jesus had said it would be. After His resurrection, but before His ascension back to heaven, He had told His apostles not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit had empowered them to begin preaching the gospel (Acts 1:4,5), assuring them, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

But let’s ask the most penetrating question of all. On that day and in that place, what was it that began to “go forth”? In other words, what was it that began in Jerusalem on Pentecost? It was not a civil government. It was not even a religious institution. It was the preaching of the full and final truth about God’s means of saving the world. Since then, anyone who has heard that message — and obeyed it — has come into a forgiven relationship with God. This truth was first proclaimed in Jerusalem . . . but it did not end there.

"There is nothing so powerful as truth — and often nothing so strange" (Daniel Webster).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME (FEBRUARY 23)

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"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34).

HERE WE HAVE ONE OF THE MOST OBVIOUS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW COVENANTS. The difference pertains to “knowing” God; so we need to think for a moment about what that means. Surely, it is impossible for a human being to know God completely, but even when the word “know” is used in reference to God, it denotes a very special interaction between personal beings. To “know” someone is to have more than just a formal acquaintance; it is to have entered deeply into an understanding of them: their way of thinking, their character, their will, their instructions, and much more. When God created us in His image, He desired to have beings who were capable of knowing Him — and He revealed Himself to them so they could know Him in truth.

In Israel, a person’s birth put him into the covenant automatically and then, as he grew older, he came to know God. But the new covenant is different. Our physical birth does not put us into that covenant, but rather a spiritual birth does (John 3:3-5), and that birth can’t take place until we’re old enough to understand sin and obey the gospel “from the heart” (Romans 6:17). No one is in the new covenant who has not come to know God. “No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me,” God predicted through Jeremiah. So one way we might define those who are God’s people in this new age is that they are those who know God. And don’t misunderstand: they are those whom God knows to be those who know Him. “The Lord knows those who are his” (2 Timothy 2:19).

When God entered the world in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, one of His purposes was to allow mankind to know Him more perfectly than had been possible before. In the words of John, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). And in Christ, the day will come when we “will see his face” (Revelation 22:4).

"By faith we are led, not against reason but beyond reason, to the knowledge of God in himself" (Gerald Yann).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WRITTEN ON THEIR HEARTS (FEBRUARY 22)

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"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).

ALL OF THE PROPHETS EMPHASIZED HOPE. We tend to view them as doomsayers (especially Jeremiah), but the word of God’s judgment upon sin was always accompanied by a message of great hope for those who would come back to Him. In our examination of the “new covenant” in Jeremiah 31, let’s look today at what was said about the “hearts” of those living within this new covenant.

I WILL PUT MY LAW WITHIN THEM. God has always wanted people to internalize His teaching and not let it go “in one ear and out the other” (as my mother used to say). In the new covenant, God’s law would be “within them” — not just heard but truly appropriated.

I WILL WRITE IT ON THEIR HEARTS. To say that it would be within them, is to say God’s law would be written “on their hearts.” They would possess the character that God was looking for, rather than just going through the outward observances required by God.

I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. There is a sense, obviously, in which physical Israel was God’s special people (Romans 9:4,5), but Jeremiah foresaw a day when God would have an even greater people. To be one of God’s people, then and now, entails both blessings and responsibilities. To respond rightly to God requires as much reverence as it does gratitude.

As we know, Adam and Eve went astray — and all the rest of us have done the same thing (Romans 5:12). So God is seeking people who will return to Him. When He made mankind, He was wanting beings who would reflect His glory and reciprocate His love. Sin broke that picture, but even before that tragedy, God had a plan to build a new people. In Jesus Christ, that plan is now complete, and all individuals are invited to take part in this work of “re-creation.” Obeying the gospel, we can be forgiven and begin to have our hearts remade in God’s image (2 Peter 1:3,4). We can be “a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9) — those for whom God’s torah (His teaching) is “written on their hearts.”

"[God’s] stringent requirements of a faithful life on the part of mankind are aimed at making a “people” who would (a) seek after and find Him, (b) worship and recognize dependence upon Him, and (c) reciprocate His love — in a word, glorify God" (Robert F. Turner).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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A NEW COVENANT (FEBRUARY 21)

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"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 31:31,32).

THESE ARE WORDS THAT ARREST OUR ATTENTION. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. This expression, “the days are coming,” echoes many similar phrases throughout the prophetic writings, such as “in that day,” “in those days,” and “in the latter days.” These refer to the arrival of a new age, one to be inaugurated when the Messiah (or “Christ”) came. Familiar with the great texts like Jeremiah 31, the Jews in the time of the Roman Empire were stirred by fervent expectations — and when John the Baptist began preaching, matters grew even more intense (Luke 3:15).

But notice in Jeremiah 31 that God said He would make “a new covenant” (v.31). It would be new in two senses: first, it would replace the agreement at Sinai, and second, it would be “not like” (v.32) the previous covenant. By God’s design, it would be different in kind, a covenant differing in its basic nature from the older one.

Tragically, God had to point out that the people of Israel had not kept their part of the old covenant: “they broke [it], though I was their husband” (v.32). Their breaking of the covenant was not the only reason for its replacement, for even had Israel kept it, the Mosaic law was an interim arrangement, one that played a preparatory role in God’s plan to provide salvation for all (Galatians 3:24-26). But even so, Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Mosaic covenant is sad — and the warning to us today should be clear (Romans 11:22).

When the time came for the new covenant to become a reality, it was offered first to the Jewish people. Only later were the Gentiles included, when the final dimension of God’s eternal plan was ready to be put into place. But it was a distinct privilege for Israel — as the family of Abraham, the physical vessel God used to bring the Messiah into the world — to be the first in line to receive the new covenant, the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16). But thanks be to God, the invitation is now for all of us. May we accept it obediently, gratefully, and faithfully — trusting God as our Savior.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
(Augustus M. Toplady)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE EXACT IMPRINT OF GOD’S NATURE (FEBRUARY 20)

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"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:1-3).

GOD’S REVELATION OF HIMSELF TO MANKIND HAS BEEN PROGRESSIVE. As the writer of Hebrews points out, God disclosed bits and pieces of the truth to the prophets over a long period of time, and we have the record of many of these revelations in the Hebrew Scriptures. But it was in His Son, Jesus Christ, that God made the perfect and complete disclosure of Himself. Christ is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

What we have in Jesus Christ is a truly amazing phenomenon: in Him the “invisible” God has been made “visible.” That which could never have been known about God, it is now possible for us to know. Of course, Jesus did not by His bodily characteristics show us what God looks like. Rather, it was the character of God — and God’s will for us — that Christ revealed. In other words, He “interpreted” God to mankind. As the NASB renders John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

It would have been a marvelous thing to interact with Jesus personally while He was on the earth. When Philip, one of His disciples, said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (John 14:8), Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (v.9). But the record of Jesus’ revelation of God is exactly what has been entrusted to us in the documents of the New Testament — and that is what we need to be seeking when we study: Jesus’ revelation of God.

Since He was one with the Father (John 10:30; 12:44,45), He was not merely an approximate representation of God; He was the exact representation of Him. May we never diminish the importance of this great fact. The knowledge of God having been lost, misrepresented, and suppressed, it can now be regained! In His Son, we can come to know our beloved Creator and Redeemer.

"As the print of the seal on the wax is the express image of the seal itself, so Christ is the express image — the perfect representation — of God" (Ambrose).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD (FEBRUARY 19)

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"For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

THE CHURCH IN COLOSSAE WAS BEING THREATENED BY A DESTRUCTIVE TEACHING THAT CALLED INTO QUESTION THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST FOR THE SALVATION OF MANKIND. Paul, however, emphasized that Christ is absolutely supreme, not needing to be supplemented in any way. In fact, He is the full embodiment of God Himself. It is in Christ that “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

Listen to Paul as he wrote about Jesus Christ: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (1:15-18).

It is beyond the limits of our finite understanding, but Jesus was God in the flesh. Somehow, God took upon Himself the form of humanity with the result that Jesus was both God and man (John 1:1-3,14,18). The ultimate proof of this, of course, was the resurrection. If that event took place, then Jesus was telling the truth in everything He said, including what He said about Himself.

And what did He say about Himself? He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). So it is a colossal, towering truth that Paul presents to us when he says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” But nothing less than this will suffice for our salvation. If God’s Son died for us, then He is the One “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).

Finally, here is a practical truth that should strengthen us: if it is in Christ that our sins can be forgiven, it is also in Him that our every need can be met as we live from day to day. He is not only our Creator and Savior; He is our Sustainer. We will never have a problem that is beyond His ability to help us overcome. Indeed, His power overflows the banks of our need — as does His love.

"Just because the fullness of deity dwells in Christ, therefore believers, by abiding in him, receive the fullness of their spiritual life. In him every want is supplied . . . in Christ they have a source from which flows all needed grace and courage and wisdom and strength" (Charles R. Erdman).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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