Obeying the Gospel

GRIEVING OUR SINS (JANUARY 9)

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"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10 NKJV).

IN AN AGE WHEN “FEELING GOOD” OUTRANKS EVERY OTHER VALUE, IT IS HARD FOR MANY TO SEE THAT OUR FIRST RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL MUST BE GRIEF. Yet if the gospel is about redemption from our sins, we are not ready for what the gospel offers until we see our sins for what they are and grieve them in a godly way.

Nowadays, the purpose of the gospel is often perverted. No longer do people understand it to be about the remission of sins and the restoration of a right relationship with God. It is no wonder, then, that godly sorrow and repentance are minimized in modern preaching. Nevertheless, the gospel is about sin. Godly sorrow grieves the treachery we have committed against God. And it alone produces the repentance that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10).

In the life of Christ, it is interesting to note who the people were whom Jesus welcomed. It was not the poor, the underprivileged, or the oppressed per se. These social statuses meant little to Jesus unless people in these conditions came penitently — seeking His forgiveness with godly sorrow. If they came with this attitude, they were welcomed, but no more than people from any other status who came with the same penitence. Jesus was looking for those who saw their need for His forgiveness, regardless of their external circumstances. So if we ask which people would be “blessed,” Jesus said it was “the poor in spirit . . . those who mourn . . . those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:3-6). To those whose hearts were not broken by sorrow for their own sins, Jesus had nothing to offer of any unique or lasting value.

But if the first thing the gospel produces is sorrow, doesn’t that “negative” message turn people away? For some, it certainly does. It did in Jesus’ day, and it does now. But let’s not misunderstand. The gospel is the most positive “good news” the world has ever heard. But it produces the joy of forgiveness only when a person has first gone through the process of godly sorrow. It gives us a new beginning, nothing short of a “new birth.” But the new life comes only after a conversion that is bathed in bitter tears.

"Repentance is not a fatal day when tears are shed, but a natal day when, as a result of tears, a new life begins" (Ilion T. Jones).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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HEARING THE TRUTH (JANUARY 8)

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"Take care then how you hear" (Luke 8:18).

IF THE GOSPEL HAS A PREREQUISITE, IT IS THAT WE MUST BE WILLING TO HEAR IT. The process that the gospel was meant to initiate can go no further if there is anything that filters it out of our thinking. Whatever else it may be, the gospel is a message, and like any message, the gospel requires not just a hearing but a fair hearing.

First, we must be open to being persuaded. No amount of evidence will be enough if, deep down, we are simply unpersuadable. The adage is true: there are none so deaf as those who will not hear. So we must be “easy to be entreated” (James 3:17 ASV) or “open to reason” (ESV). The gospel won’t have a chance if we don’t give it a chance. So how open are we? Will prejudicial filters block the gospel out of our hearts? Are there any up-front limits on how far we would follow Jesus if the gospel is true?

Truth demands from us two qualities of character: honesty and courage. The question “What is true?” has to do with the facts. Getting the right answer to that question requires honesty. But the more important question is “What are we going to do with the truth?” Responding to truth takes courage, and here is where we stumble. When the truth calls for a difficult response, we hide from it, as Adam and Eve did following their sin (Genesis 3:8-10).

There are two different truths we must hear: the sinful truth about ourselves (the gospel’s diagnosis of our malady) and the saving truth about God (the gospel’s plan for our restoration). The second will mean little to those who have rejected the first, and the first is extremely uncomfortable. Confronting our sinfulness is painful, but the truth can’t save us if we’re unwilling to face the problem. Without the bad news, the good news will not be good.

Above all, we must guard against defining truth in terms of what we want the truth to be. Without recognizing it or admitting it to ourselves, we often reject ideas as untrue when there is no objective reason to do so. We simply don’t prefer them to be true. But the truth is what it is — regardless of our preferences. And the more painful a truth may be to accept (at least in the short term), the more we must be adventurers — going wherever the truth leads us.

"The truth is not always what we want to hear" (Jewish Proverb).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL (JANUARY 7)

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". . . if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven" (Colossians 1:23).

HOPE IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL TRAITS WE CAN POSSESS. Without it, we languish, but with hope, almost no obstacle can keep us from our goal. And one reason the gospel of Christ is the greatest of all messages is that it offers the greatest of all hopes. In Christ there is the prospect of a perfect, eternal relationship with God when our lives right now have run their course.

Unfortunately, the hope of the gospel is often misrepresented in modern evangelism. Rather than the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of a right relationship with God, the point of the gospel is often said to be the diminishing of injustice and suffering in the world. Even worse, some say the gospel is about “health, wealth, and happiness” — as if God’s primary intent in the sacrifice of His Son was to provide us a path to prosperity and earthly comfort.

Make no mistake, the Christian will help anyone who is suffering, if he can. In the words of C. S. Lewis, “[The gospel] does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.”

But the gospel is not about our secondary problems; it’s about our sin. Fixing that problem, the gospel offers the thing we need more than anything else: eternal fellowship with the God who made us.

In an age like ours, we need to grasp anew the grandeur of the gospel’s hope. We must cherish it for the treasure it is, maintain it at all costs, and reach forward to it every day. Our beloved brother Paul had his priorities straight: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13,14). May heaven mean no less to us than it did to him.

"God speaks to the crowd, but his call comes to individuals, and through their personal obedience he acts. He does not promise them success, or even final victory in this life. The goal of the adventure to which he commits them is in heaven. God does not promise that he will protect them from trials, from material cares, from sickness, from physical or moral suffering. He promises only that he will be with them in all these trials, and that he will sustain them if they remain faithful to him" (Paul Tournier).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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CONTINUING TO OBEY THE GOSPEL (JANUARY 6)

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"You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Galatians 5:7).

PAUL’S QUESTION “WHO HINDERED YOU FROM OBEYING THE TRUTH?” WAS ADDRESSED TO A GROUP OF CHRISTIANS. He was concerned about some in Galatia who, having been baptized into Christ, were turning away from the truth. They were no longer obeying the gospel, and Paul was worried about their salvation.

Beginning with the initial response to the gospel that brings one into a forgiven relationship with God, the Christian embarks on a lifetime of obedience. It is not too much to say that “obeying the gospel” defines everything the Christian does. Every obedient thought, word, and deed is a grateful response to the good news of what God has done in Christ to save us.

But if it is possible to obey the gospel, it is also possible to quit obeying it. Faithfulness to God and gratitude for His grace are not automatic; we have to choose to live this way. And the Scriptures are clear: if we quit living in obedience to the gospel, we will go back to being under condemnation for our sins. The Letter to the Hebrews, for example, is a powerful warning against apostasy and a plea to remain true to Christ. It was written to some in the first century who were becoming unfaithful and were in danger of losing their hope of heaven, just as many in Israel left Egypt in the Exodus but failed to reach Canaan because of unfaithfulness (Hebrews 3:12-4:11).

So becoming a Christian involves making a commitment. To “confess” Christ is not merely a statement that we believe the truth of the gospel — it is a promise of obedience to His will for the rest of our lives. That is a serious commitment, obviously, and Jesus urged us to “count the cost” (Luke 14:25-33) before we make it.

Reading the New Testament even briefly, we can see there are two phases or stages in obeying the gospel: first, we accept God’s forgiveness on His terms, and second, we live the rest of our lives under the lordship of Christ. To do the first but not the second is to deny Christ. Paul put it succinctly: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Colossians 2:6). So the question is not just whether we’ve accepted Christ at some point in the past — it’s also whether the gospel is what we’re obeying right now.

"There are two things to do about the gospel — believe it and behave it" (Susanna Wesley).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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OBEYING THE GOSPEL (JANUARY 5)

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". . . in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS THE “GOOD NEWS” OF GOD’S SALVATION. But at this point, we encounter a misconception that is firmly lodged in the minds of many people: the notion that the gospel is unconditional and requires no response on our part.

Now certainly, anything we might do would be no more than a response to what God has done. Having cut ourselves off from God by our sins, there is absolutely nothing we could do to work our way back to Him. Paul says that “while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6 NASB).

That, however, does not mean the gospel requires no response. It is a message, but it is a message that must be responded to. In the absence of the response required by God, the benefits of the message should not be expected. As I remember hearing preachers say when I was a child, “The gospel contains facts which must be believed and commands which must be obeyed.” If we leave out either the facts or the commands, the gospel is no longer good news.

The expression “obey the gospel” should not be scoffed at or minimized. It is biblical language. More is involved than just our initial obedience (see tomorrow’s reading), but if we’re lost in sin, our initial obedience is our most urgent concern. We are wanting to enter the realm of God’s grace, so in the New Testament, what does the gospel say we must do? First, we must believe the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 8:24; 11:27). Then, we must repent of our sins (Acts 3:19), confess our faith (Romans 10:9,10), and be baptized in order to receive God’s forgiveness (Acts 22:16).

The gospel confronts us with a decision that is nothing less than life’s biggest decision. If we refuse God’s terms of pardon, we will have condemned ourselves by the stand we’ve taken. Jesus said, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day” (John 12:48). The gospel is a gracious invitation from God, and it is open to every person. But the invitation has to be accepted, and God has not left it to us to decide what the conditions of that acceptance will be.

"No one is excluded from the gospel. But many are excluded by the gospel" (Karl Barth).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST (JANUARY 4)

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"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1).

WHEN THE TIME CAME AND GOD BROUGHT TO COMPLETION HIS PLAN TO PROVIDE SALVATION, THE PLAN WAS COMMUNICATED IN WORDS. In the Scriptures, this announcement of the deliverance from sin that God made possible is called the “gospel.”

It is an interesting fact that God chose to use the medium of human language as He did. Crucial to His rescue plan was its communication by means of words from one person to another. In 2 Corinthians 5:18,19, Paul refers to the work of the apostles as the “ministry of reconciliation,” and he calls the gospel the “message of reconciliation.” The NIrV aptly paraphrases this as “the message that people may be brought back” to God. And in Ephesians 1:13, Paul said the joys of salvation came to his readers only after they heard “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” The gospel, then, is not a magical or mysterious feeling — it is a message.

But here is the important (and indispensable) point: the message is about Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that God is offering salvation. In 2 Corinthians 5, we hear Paul affirming that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (v.19). And concerning Christ, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v.21).

The message that God has opened up the way for us to be forgiven — and that Jesus is the Messiah (or Christ) through whom this was accomplished — is “good news.” Indeed, it is the best news the world has ever heard. In the familiar story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke, we hear the angel saying to the shepherds in the field, watching their flocks at night, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2:10,11). These are wonderful words.

“Though you do not now see him, you believe in him,” Peter wrote, “and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). What could make our hearts sing with greater joy than knowing God has made it possible for us to come back to Him?

"Euangelion (which we call gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that makes a man’s heart glad, and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy" (William Tyndale).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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SALVATION (JANUARY 3)

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"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

EVEN BEFORE SIN BROKE THE PERFECTION OF GOD’S CREATION, GOD HAD FORMULATED A RESCUE PLAN. A descendant of Adam and Eve would crush Satan, the one who had lied to them, enticing them to sin: “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” As it turned out, this One would live a perfect life and then die a sacrificial death. Not deserving death, He would die anyway, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14,15).

To hear that God has provided a way for us to be rescued is “good news” indeed. The New Testament uses the word “gospel” (“glad tidings”) to refer to this plan. But it will not seem like particularly good news until we have understood the seriousness of the problem it proposes to solve. Unless we see what it means to have rebelled against God, to be separated from Him, and to be under the penalty of death both now and forever, we will not be receptive to the message of salvation. The terribleness of the problem is what makes the solution so amazing. We must hear the fearful news of our doom before we can rejoice at the good news of our deliverance.

But once we face the eternal tragedy — and utter agony — of being lost, the fatherly love that moved God to provide for our deliverance will bring us tears of joy. He could have abandoned us to the consequences of our choice, but He was not willing to do so. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We can’t fathom the kind of love that would prompt such a sacrifice — we can only respond to it thankfully.

But let us be clear: it is from sin that God proposes to save us. Sin is the root from which all the lesser problems in the world grow, and sin is what the gospel is about. In the gospel, salvation is not about the amelioration of social ills or earthly maladies. It’s about the forgiveness of our sins, and after that, learning to live again in reverence and gratitude toward the Creator who loves us.

"Salvation is bringing back to normal the Creator-creature relation" (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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SIN (JANUARY 2)

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"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'" (Genesis 2:16,17).

ADAM AND EVE WERE FREE, BUT THEY USED THEIR FREEDOM TO REJECT GOD RATHER THAN HONOR HIM AS THEIR MAKER. We must not underestimate the seriousness of their decision to do what God had said they must not do. Their choice amounted to open rebellion. They wanted a knowledge they had been forbidden to have, and they refused to submit to their Creator’s authority in the matter.

Long ago, Augustine of Hippo said, “I enquired what iniquity was and found it to be no substance but the perversion of the will, turned aside from thee, O God.” More recently, Charles Colson put it this way, “Sin is essentially rebellion against the rule of God.” God, to whom we owe our existence, has the right to rule over us. He is absolutely sovereign. So disobedience should be seen for what it is: an act of defiance. When Adam and Eve grew discontent with God’s restrictions, they refused to obey Him, as if to say, “We know what the laws of Your love are, but we will do as we please.”

But as soon as they sinned, the promised penalty began to operate. They were alienated from God spiritually. Their face-to-face access to Him was revoked. Expelled from Eden, they were sent away to have their hearts broken in a difficult, unpredictable world now under the limitations of “futility” (Romans 8:20). They would live out their years in a world dreadfully unlike the one they were made for. In all of its terrible implications, the word "death" began to define human existence. The perfect world of Eden was gone.

And today, the law of sin and death still operates. Who among us can say we’ve never done what Adam and Eve did? Who can say he has never in his lifetime done anything he knew to be disobedient to God? If we’re honest, we have to plead guilty to the charge of sin. We know ourselves to be rebellious subjects who have committed treason against the King — our Father and our Sovereign.

Perhaps we think some of God’s laws are trivial. But God is not trivial, and disobedience is deadly. When we turn against the Creator of life, we die. It’s that simple. And in our rebellious condition, our conscience tells us this: we’re dead already, even while we live.

"No sin is small. No grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch" (Jeremy Taylor).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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IN THE BEGINNING (JANUARY 1)

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"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

LONG AGO, GOD MADE THE WORLD, AND WHEN IT WAS NEWLY MADE, IT WAS PERFECT. In its original state, as yet unmarred by any rebellion on the part of its inhabitants, the world reflected the perfection and glory of its Creator, ideally and supremely.

God is the only uncreated being. As Meister Eckhart wrote, “Outside of God, there is nothing but nothing.” Yet God was moved by His wisdom and love to bring into being other entities, created things that would be external to Himself.

The heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1 were created as the habitat for a special class of personal beings — spiritual souls clothed in physical bodies. At the climax of His creative work, the triune God (having three personalities within Himself) said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26). So, according to the earliest record, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

“Man is heaven’s masterpiece” (Francis Quarles). Each part of the earthly creation shows God’s glory, but it is only human beings that bear His image. Endowed with intellect, emotion, and a free will, Adam and Eve, our most ancient ancestors, had a relationship with God that the lower creatures were not capable of. We can only imagine God’s reasons. Did He deem the possibility of love — as a choice rather than a robotic response — worth the damage that would ensue if these creatures chose rebellion over love? Apparently so, especially if He could rescue some of them from the wreckage.

But Adam and Eve’s creation in God’s image meant they were subject to Him in unique ways. Brought into being by God, they had God as their King. He possessed the sovereign right to set the rules and bar them from any conduct He knew would harm them.

"Every soul belongs to God and exists by his pleasure. God being who and what he is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relationship between us is one of full lordship on his part and complete submission on ours. We owe him every honor that it is in our power to give him" (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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WHAT HINDERS YOU? (DECEMBER 31)

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"And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16).

WHEN ANANIAS FOUND SAUL OF TARSUS, THE NOTORIOUS PERSECUTOR OF THE CHURCH, SAUL HAD BEEN FASTING AND PRAYING SORROWFULLY FOR THREE DAYS. “And now why do you wait?” Ananias asked. “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Saul did as he was instructed, received the forgiveness of his sins, and served Jesus Christ fervently for the rest of his life. We know him today as the apostle Paul.

“Why do you wait?” is a question that touches the conscience of us all. And it’s a question that is exceedingly hard to answer. Even searching our hearts deeply, we don’t always have the honesty to admit why we delay doing what we know we ought to do.

One thing, however, is certain: there is no good reason to wait. Once we see what we must do to be reconciled to God, waiting only worsens our problem. As Corrie ten Boom said, “An unrepented sin is a continued sin.” Whatever the reason, it is never worth the loss of our souls. Nothing is worth that. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

In the New Testament, as soon as people saw the seriousness of their sins and the joy of forgiveness that could be theirs in Christ, they wanted to be baptized immediately. In Acts 16:25-34, there is even the story of a group of people being baptized in the middle of the night. Waiting was not something they wanted to do.

Hindrances to the gospel come in many shapes and sizes. The world is full of obstacles, and some of them are fearful. God knows about all of these. He knows how hard it can be for us. But there is no hindrance He won’t help us overcome, if we’re willing.

So as we come to the end of our meditations on obeying the gospel, there is nothing left but the question of choice. What will we do — each of us — with the gospel? God has given His Son to save us from our sins, but He will not compel us. If we reject what our Father has done, we will have made the decision to be lost. So may we not wait. May we do exactly what Saul of Tarsus did: obey.

"He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent" (Augustine of Hippo).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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