Obeying the Gospel

WHAT IF WE COULD SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM BUT ONE? (FEBRUARY 9)

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"And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'" (Luke 12:18-20).

THE SUCCESSFUL, PROSPEROUS ESTATE OWNER PORTRAYED IN JESUS’ STORY IS A FIGURE WE ARE FAMILIAR WITH. We may (if we’re honest) see him when we look in the mirror, but even if we don’t, we see him in our neighborhoods and communities. Especially in the wealthier nations of the world, the population is increasingly made up of people for whom God is largely irrelevant, but their lives have still been happy, healthy, and socially well-adjusted.

Religious people may suppose that secular people are not genuinely happy, but the truth is, we live in a world where it is possible to deny the existence of God and still get through life quite comfortably. Even more so today than ever before, with the advances that have been made economically and scientifically, a person can have a life that is long and enjoyable. Psychologically, there are techniques available to overcome dysfunction and unhappiness. And if a person adopts the secular moral principles of compassion and equality, he can relate healthily to those around him and lessen the amount of suffering in the world.

But what if the God whom we have denied really does exist? What if we have solved all our problems except the biggest one? The man in Jesus’ story said, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” His life had been built on the assumption that there was no problem to which a secular solution could not be found — but now the problem he had not paid attention to confronted him in all of its terrible, deadly reality.

Eventually, we will find out whether our decisions about God were wise or foolish. If the Scriptures are correct, a day is coming that will be the greatest of all judgment days (Acts 17:30,31). Until then, the worst mistake we can make is thinking that because the sun is still shining in our lives, sin must not be a problem for us.

"Shallow natures tremble for a night after their sin, and when they find that the sun rises and men greet them as cordially as before, and that no hand lays hold of them from the past, they think little more of their sin — they do not understand that fatal calm that precedes the storm" (Marcus Dods).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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DO WE DENY THE LORD’S DIAGNOSIS? (FEBRUARY 8)

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"I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:18,19).

IF THE GOSPEL IS ABOUT GOD SAVING US FROM OUR SINS, THE FIRST REQUIREMENT IS TO SEE OUR SINFULNESS IN ITS TRUE LIGHT. This is not an easy thing to do, especially in our age when the very concept of sin is often scoffed at. We may admit to having made a few mistakes, or even having some dysfunctional habits, but we do not see ourselves as sinful people who need the forgiveness of our Creator. We think of ourselves as good people who might profit from a little improvement. We just need to “come to Christ.”

But Jesus’ diagnosis of our problem cuts deeper. Not even the best of us has a heart anywhere close to the purity that would be needed to live with God in eternity. Deep down, we know we’ve been good when it suited us, but when it didn’t suit us, we did as we pleased, often setting aside what we knew was God’s will. We know, if we’re honest, that self-will has been our master. The heart-penetrating light of truth shows us to be rebels against God.

Ironically, the more respectable our lives have been outwardly, the harder it is for us to see how rebellious we’ve been inwardly. That is why Jesus’ message of repentance was rejected by the religious folks who should have been the first to welcome Him. As they saw things, they had no significant sins to repent of.

Even as Christians (maybe especially as Christians) we are sometimes hindered by an overly optimistic assessment of how well we’re doing. To the Christians in Laodicea, who thought they were well-clothed, Jesus counseled them to buy from Him white garments so that “the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.”

What should be our response when the Lord tries to burst the bubble of our self-righteousness? We should accept the Lord’s diagnosis. Like David, we should admit that God is right and we are wrong: “so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Psalm 51:4). If we’re not willing to be honest about how sinful we’ve been, there is no hope for us to be forgiven. 

"God has nothing to say to the self-righteous" (Dwight Lyman Moody).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

WHAT SIN IS (FEBRUARY 7)

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"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4 NIV).

IF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS ABOUT SALVATION FROM OUR SINS, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO SEE CLEARLY WHAT SIN REALLY IS. If we deny the thing we need to be saved from, we are a long way from accepting God as our Rescuer. Hard as it is, sin is a fact we must face.

To begin with, we need to understand that God has authority over us. As our Creator, He has the right to govern everything about us. He happens to be a benevolent King (and we should be grateful for that), but in any case, He is our King. If we still lived in a sinless relationship to God, our every thought, word, and deed — and even every motive — would be obedient to His will.

But, of course, we have departed from God’s rule. Every last one of us has done this (at least those who are old enough to discern good and evil). Early in our lives, we began pursuing our own will, deliberately setting aside what we knew to be right. This is what sin is, and none of us can claim to be innocent.

Nowadays, we react negatively to words like “obedience” and “disobedience” (and that is one evidence of how much self-will is embedded in us), but the basic idea of obedience is essential to any realistic concept of God. In the final analysis, that is what sin comes down to: disobedience to God. It is a flouting of His law, His rule over our lives. Simply put, sin is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). As Benjamin Whichcote said, “Sin is defiance to the authority of God.”

It is important to see that God’s law is an objective standard for our behavior. The thing that is wrong when we sin is not merely that we do something that gives us subjective feelings of guilt, but that we transgress an actual standard of right and wrong, one that originates in the mind and character of God Himself.

Also, it is not just our actions that are sinful but our intentions (Hebrews 4:12,13). In fact, that is the main thing that is wrong with sin. “Sin is not wrong doing; it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God” (Oswald Chambers). Only creatures made in God’s image are capable of committing this crime.

"Sin is an affair of the will. It is not a “vestige of our animal inheritance.” That trivial notion comes from an unexamined, too-quickly swallowed doctrine of evolution. Why blame the brute creation? No self-respecting wolf would be guilty of our modern wars" (George Arthur Buttrick).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

FAITHFUL LOVE (FEBRUARY 6)

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"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).

WORDS OFTEN COME IN PAIRS. For example, consider the words “benevolent” and “malevolent.” The first means “good will” and the second, “ill will.” To be benevolently inclined toward someone is to want to help them, but if a person is malevolently inclined, that means their basic disposition is to harm.

It’s important to understand that God’s basic inclination toward us is benevolent rather than malevolent. Having given us a free will, He will not force us to obey Him, and if we refuse to do so, He will not, just for our personal benefit, suspend the laws of His creation, one of which is that the penalty of sin is death. But He loves us, and it will break His heart if we refuse His salvation.

If there is ever any alienation between us and God, there can never be but one reason: we have kept God away by insisting on continuing in our sin — and by refusing to accept His forgiveness on His terms. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1,2).

But God’s hope is that we will turn back to Him. As He said to Israel through Ezekiel, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). And much earlier, Moses had said, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

God’s faithful love is like most things about Him: it is sobering as well as encouraging. It should encourage us to know that God is always at the door of our hearts, wanting us to open up and accept His gift of life. But it should sober us to know that if we refuse, He will remain outside — and if we die in our rebellion, we will be lost forever. So with life and death set before us, let us choose life.

"Let a man go away or come back: God never leaves. He is always at hand and if he cannot get into your life, still he is never farther away than the door" (Meister Eckhart).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

THAT WE SHOULD NOT PERISH (FEBRUARY 5)

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"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16,17).

MANY PEOPLE WOULD SAY THIS TEXT IS THEIR FAVORITE. But favorite things have a way of becoming so familiar that they no longer challenge us as we need to be challenged. With a text like John 3:16,17, we need to be careful. It is a beautiful sentiment, certainly, but it was meant to do more than make us feel good.

If God had not given His Son for us, we would “perish.” That is a strong word, but it is the only word strong enough to describe what happens when we separate ourselves from our Creator. Charles Colson was right when he said that “sin is essentially rebellion against the rule of God.” It is a defiant declaration of independence against our Creator, and if sin is not remedied, its consequence is eternal banishment from the presence of God, attended by a corruption and anguish we can barely imagine right now. Of all the ways we might “perish,” this would be the worst.

Amazingly, however, God was not willing to abandon us. Although He might have justly left us to our consequences, His love moved Him to provide pardon. He did not want us to perish. But ponder with me what had to happen if He was to forgive us without violating the laws of His own justice: “he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” If we do not perish (as we surely deserve to do), it will be because of the grace of a Father who was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save us. And that grace is found in His Son, Jesus Christ.

How, then, should we respond to the truth of John 3:16,17? As I said above, it needs to be more than just a beautiful sentiment. If we are to do more than just admire its beauty, our first response should be to obey the gospel. How could we not say Yes! to a Father who has paid such a high price to bring us back home?

But second, we should respond by loving the world as God loves it: sacrificially. If He loved us enough, in our unworthy state, to save us at such great cost to Himself, is there any price too high for us to pay to help those around us with their spiritual needs?

"God loved the world. Go thou and do likewise" (Erwin W. Lutzer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

WHEN COMFORT AND CONFIDENCE ARE DANGEROUS (FEBRUARY 4)

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"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17).

AFFLUENT SOCIETIES ARE OFTEN THE LEAST OPEN TO THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. People who can get whatever they want to satisfy their temporal desires pay little attention to their spiritual needs.

The problem is that material prosperity breeds a false confidence in ourselves. When our immediate desires are fulfilled, we are deluded into thinking that we are self-sufficient. We don’t actually have what we need, of course, but wealth deceives us. Like candy which makes us think we don’t need any food, physical comfort tends to push our spiritual needs into the background.

Even after becoming Christians, affluence can hinder us. The Christians in Laodicea, for example, were prosperous financially, but when the Lord looked at their hearts, He saw that they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Doing so well on the outside made it hard for them to recognize their wretchedness on the inside. There were no doubt other congregations in those days that were just as much in need of repentance, but the less wealthy congregations would have had an easier time seeing their need.

But what about us? What should we do? Honesty and courage are always the first steps toward spiritual progress, so the first thing is to come out of hiding and bring ourselves before God’s throne. Lord, help me to see my heart as You see it. Search me and try me. Expose every idol in my heart that has kept me from You. Take away from me every comfort in this world that has blinded me to my deeper needs. Open my eyes to see how much I need You and Your forgiveness.

Whether we are rich or poor, comfortable or uncomfortable, we urgently need to understand the helplessness of our spiritual state. Our sins have put us in an absolutely lost condition before God, and we dare not let the comforts of our lives in this world distract us from our plight. What we need is more than a psychological boost to help us fill in the blanks and round out our worldly resumé — we need to be saved. The sooner we admit our woeful inability, the sooner we’ll be ready to hear the gospel.

"It is to the drowning man the Rescuer comes. To the brave swimmer who can fare well alone He comes not. And no rush of joy can be like that of a man towards his Rescuer" (A. J. Russell).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

ARE WE WILLING TO LEARN FROM OUR LIMITS? (FEBRUARY 3)

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"What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted" (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

GOD HAS MADE THE PRESENT WORLD AN UNPREDICTABLE PLACE. Lest we think figuring out which buttons to push will invariably get us what we want from the world’s vending machine, God prevents us from having this much control. He makes sure we can’t straighten out every crooked thing in our lives. Paul describes this by saying “the creation was subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20).

This means the future is frustratingly unknowable. We may push all the right buttons and life’s candy bar still not be forthcoming. “I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong . . . but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Sometimes God allows our plans to materialize, but sometimes He does not. This unpredictability is meant to disabuse us of any notion that we’re in control of what happens.

HUMAN CIVILIZATION. If we’re honest, we have to admit that conditions in the world are getting worse and worse. For every problem we’ve solved, we’ve created several new ones, each more terrible than the last. But rather than confess our powerlessness, we suppose it is just a matter of time until science solves all the riddles. This is, as David Ehrenfeld called it, the “arrogance of humanism.”

INDIVIDUAL LIVES. We may know non-religious folks who disregard God in making their plans, and we believe they will find out the hard way that human plans don’t always pan out. They should be more humble, we think. But if the “human race” and “certain individuals” need to learn the limits of human endeavor, so do all the rest of us. Godly people certainly have some advantages in life, but they are not exempt from the restraints on human activity to which God has subjected the entire world. It’s a bitter pill to swallow (and a blow to our religious pride), but not even the godliest can make things turn out the way they want them to all the time.

The truth is, none of us can figure this world out and control it — none of us. That is the message of the Book of Ecclesiastes. For that reason, Ecclesiastes is a powerful preparation for the gospel. Its purpose is to deny that we are the masters of our own destiny, and if it defeats us in that way, a great victory will have been won.

"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories" (Michel de Montaigne).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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

THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE (FEBRUARY 2)

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"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life'" (John 6:68).

IN JOHN 6, WHEN JESUS GAVE HIS DIFFICULT “BREAD OF LIFE” DISCOURSE, MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES DECIDED THEY WOULD NOT FOLLOW HIM ANYMORE. But when He asked His inner circle of disciples, the twelve apostles, if they also would turn away from Him, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter understood something about Jesus that we most certainly need to understand in our own generation.

Jesus was a teacher, but He was much more than that. He claimed that what He taught came directly from the mind of God (John 8:38; 12:49,50). In fact, He claimed to be the Son of God, sent into the world to reveal truths about God that no one could know who was not God Himself (John 3:31-36; 6:41-48).

And what was the purpose of the words that Jesus spoke? It was not to satisfy anyone’s intellectual curiosity, and it was not merely to transform this world into a better place. There was a much higher purpose. Comparing Himself to the manna given to Israel in the wilderness, which gave them physical life, Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life. To His disciples He said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

Spiritually dead because of our sins and without hope, we need “life.” Not just a better life in this world and not merely release from the fear of physical death — but the prospect of having the kind of life God has. What we lost in sin was not just physical or biological life, but the life we would have had as “sons of God.” Jesus taught that, in Him, this “eternal” kind of life can be given back to us (Romans 8:29). And His teaching is the only path to that life.

So Jesus’ utterances are more than mere words. They are the truths and the instructions necessary if we are ever going to be reconciled to our Creator. All the other words that have ever been spoken pale by comparison. To say the least, they are important. But are we paying attention to these, the most important words in the world?

"Besides belonging to eternity, Christ belonged to his times; on the outskirts of a dying civilization he spoke of dying in order to live. Today, when our civilization is likewise dying, his words have the same awe-inspiring relevance as they had then" (Malcolm Muggeridge).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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IT IS BY GOD’S GRACE THAT WE ARE SAVED (FEBRUARY 1)

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"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

IN HIS MAGNIFICENT LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS, PAUL MAKES IT CLEAR THAT ALL THE SAVED HAVE BEEN SAVED BY GOD’S GRACE. The church in Ephesus was made up primarily of Gentiles, and he wanted them to be encouraged by the fact that God’s grace had saved them, just as much as it had saved their Jewish brethren.

None of us who are in Christ deserved to be saved from our sins. It was an act of sheer grace. “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, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

Then in v.8, we have our text: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” In Acts 15:11, the apostle Peter, as a Jew, courageously admitted this: “We believe that we [the Jews] will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they [the Gentiles] will.” He was right. It took as much grace to save the Jews as it did to save the Gentiles. If any of us are pardoned and given entrance into the kingdom, it will only be by the magnitude of the King’s goodness.

As great as this truth is, many have misunderstood it. What had to happen for us to be included in God’s kingdom was the forgiveness of our sins. The means whereby God was able to do that was the death of His Son — and His grace consisted in the giving of that gift, thereby making salvation possible. That does not mean there are no conditions we must obey or that God’s “gift” will fulfill the conditions for us. To the contrary, if we believe God has offered us — by His grace — the gift of salvation, our question will be, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). And humility will move us to accept God’s answer, grateful that there is any answer at all.

"We need to better understand that God applies His grace to mankind in giving Jesus Christ as our Savior, and that He calls upon us as free moral agents to commit ourselves in submissive obedience unto Him in order to receive the promises He has conditionally placed before us" (Robert F. Turner).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE GOSPEL: THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION (JANUARY 31)

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"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).

WHEN PAUL WROTE THIS TO THE CHRISTIANS IN ROME, HE HAD NEVER BEEN THERE. And his critics seem to have been saying that he didn’t have enough courage to leave the hinterlands and come preach the gospel in Rome, the most powerful and sophisticated city in the world. But Paul was no less ready to preach there than anywhere else. “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” he said.

Paul said the gospel is powerful, and that’s an important point in itself. If it is “the power of God,” we should expect that power to be great. But it is salvation that this power of God is for. Whatever secondary blessings may flow from Christ, His mission was to save us from our sins. We will not understand Jesus Christ until we see that sin is the problem He came to correct. Speaking of Himself as the Christ (or Messiah), He said to His apostles, “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).

But while the Jewish people were privileged to be the first recipients of the gospel, it would ultimately be a universal gospel, a message of forgiveness “to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” If salvation had been limited to those under the Law of Moses, that would have restricted it to the Jews and Jewish proselytes. But all have sinned, both Jew and Gentile, and all need salvation. The gospel is God’s power to save anyone and everyone, the condition being faith and not race or ethnicity.

Since it is about sin, the gospel is not the kind of message the world wants to hear. But we dare not change it to make it attractive to those who have no interest in the forgiveness of their sins. Paul said he was not ashamed of the gospel. Are we? Would we go into the halls of power and prestige today and declare the gospel clearly — not the modernized, culturally filtered message being presented as “Christianity,” but the gospel of repentance and obedience as it was proclaimed by Jesus and His apostles?

"Humble and self-forgetting we must be always, but diffident and apologetic about the gospel, never" (James S. Stewart).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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