gospel

Gospel Transformation

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“The gospel transforms us in heart, mind, will, and actions precisely because it is not itself a message about our transformation. Nothing that I am or that I feel, choose, or do qualifies as Good News. On my best days, my experience of transformation is weak, but the gospel is an announcement of a certain state of affairs that exists because of something in God, not something in me; something that God has done, not something that I have done; the love in God’s heart which he has shown in his Son, not the love in my heart that I exhibit in my relationships. Precisely as the Good News of a completed, sufficient, and perfect work of God in Christ accomplished for me and outside of me in history, the gospel is ‘the power of God unto salvation’ not only at the beginning but throughout the Christian life. In fact, our sanctification is simply a lifelong process of letting that Good News sink in and responding appropriately; becoming the people whom God says that we already are in Christ.”

— Michael Horton

Was There Any Jesus in Church?

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If a Jewish rabbi could have preached the sermon you heard this past Sunday, you didn’t hear from God.

A biblical sermon is always about Christ and the gospel. It’s not about world affairs, personal stories, the latest movie, a list of helps, or a feel-good message.

It’s not, “Do this and live.”

“I don’t know about you, but if a person’s understanding of the gospel isn’t scandalous to my natural way of thinking, if it doesn’t call into question everything I think I know, if it doesn’t subvert the wisdom of this age, then when you preach it I can barely muster the energy to yawn.” — Jason Stellman

As Jesus said in Luke 24 to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the entire Old Testament is about him. The entire New Testament is about him. That means the entire bible points to him. He’s the protagonist of the story.

So not everything you hear in church in kosher.

Listen well.

How Content Are You?

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Q: What is real contentment?

A: An inner poise, a deep seated joy that can handle anything life throws at you.

It’s not detachment or resignation. It’s not a personality trait. It’s not rooted in your circumstances.

Paul had to learn to be content. (See Philippians 4: 10-23) So do you. It’s a life-long lesson, which is not learned overnight. (How wonderful because I’m a failure at it.)

Can your contentment deal with the highs and lows of life? Both the failures and the successes? (My kind takes me on a roller coaster ride every time.)

You try to change your circumstances or fix yourself believing that will make you  content. (A better spouse, a modern kitchen, a new body, flashier clothes, whiter teeth.)

Ask yourself next time you are unhappy: who or what has seized the title to your heart? Mark that as an idol and smash it.

Here’s what true about idols: Idols can’t deliver. They lie. They trap and enslave you. Idols don’t handle the weight of life.

Who is your God? Who are you trusting?

Only Jesus Christ delivers what he promises. He gives you the meaning to the details of your life, even your suffering.

Q: What are the marks of contentment?

A: Gratitude to God for rescuing you from sin and death and giving you new life in his Son, and generosity toward your neighbor.

Contentment is found only in the gospel.

Can You Say This?

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We can put it this way: the man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking to himself. He has ceased to say, “Ah yes, I have committed terrible sins but I have done this and that…” He stops saying that. If he goes on saying that, he has not got faith…Faith speaks in an entirely different manner and makes a man say, “Yes, I have sinned grievously, I have lived a life of sin…yet I know that I am a child of God because I am not resting on any righteousness of my own, my righteousness is in Jesus Christ, and God has put that to my account.”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

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Q: What is a Christian?

A: A Christian is someone who has shredded his religious resume.

In Paul’s experience, in Philippians chapter three, he had a sterling resume: he was born a Jew, studied under the best rabbis, obeyed God’s laws, and was religiously zealous to the point of persecuting Christians.

Today, a religious resume might include: faithful church attendance, a daily devotional time, running a good Christian home, serving the community or the church, being a good neighbor, and loving your family.

Everybody is building a resume. This world exists on resumes. You need one for a job, to get into a prestigious school, to become a professional sports player, to join an exclusive club. It’s a way of presenting your best qualities for the utmost impact in order to be accepted.

Paul, whose pedigree outshone most people of his day, declared his resume worthless in comparison to what he gained in Christ. He said that he had only one thing on his resume: Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Everything else was spiritual bankruptcy, dung.

Stop trying to be a good Christian!

If you’re counting on your best traits, your sterling character, and your amazing accomplishments to make God accept you, you’re trusting in the dung pile. These are the very things that hinder you from embracing the all-sufficient righteousness that is yours in Christ.

Conversely, if you think you’re so depraved and worthless that God could never accept you, you’re also trusting in the dung pile. You’re unworthiness is no match for God’s grace. Christ came to save sinners just like you.

The truth is there is no righteousness outside of Christ, even if you were perfect in yourself (which you are not) or unworthy in yourself (which you are).

As a Christian, your resume is an alien resume. God gives it to you as a free gift. It’s 100% acceptable in God’s sight. You didn’t earn it. Christ did. And you don’t maintain it. Christ does.

Tell somebody!

 

Get Over Yourself

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Quit looking  at your sanctification to prove to yourself (and to others) that you are a Christian.

You are a Christian because of the gospel. God found you. God saved you. God changed you.

You are united to Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Everything that Jesus is you now are, too. Since Jesus is holy, so are you by virtue of your union in him. And it’s the Holy Spirit in you that continues to make you holy.

What did you do to accomplish that? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing now to sustain this? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing to insure your safe arrival in heaven? Nothing. It’s a gift.

You’re probably thinking by now, “But wait a minute, what about obedience?”

What about it?

Are you obeying God because you think it’s your way of working toward holiness? Are you obeying God because if you don’t you feel guilty? Are you obeying God because it’s your duty to do so, otherwise how can you call yourself a Christian?

You are a Christian because of what God has done to you. You are a Christian because you are in Christ. God put you there. And you are holy for the same reasons.

It’s out of this new relationship in Christ that we live out our holiness. How? By living a life of gratitude to God and loving our neighbor.

And lo and behold, we are obeying the two greatest commandments!

Quit taking your spiritual temperature. Look to Jesus who has done it all.

And relax.

Gripped by Grace

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What does it look like to be gripped by grace? According to the book of Philippians, chapter two, it begins with thinking of yourself less and thinking of others with more honor. Jesus didn’t hog his rightful place in heaven with God. Instead he left heaven willingly and came to earth as a servant and to die as a criminal. Jesus rejected the honors right, and poured himself out for wicked, selfish and rebellious people who hated him.

What does this tell you?  That the greatest communication about God is being a servant. Jesus spent his capital for the sake of his enemies, men and women who should have been his friends, but instead were traitors. He was the ultimate promiscuous giver of his grace, his life and his death.

Without him, we’d continue in our sins and be stranded without hope.

With him, we are made new in his death, burial and resurrection. We are the only people on earth with hope and a future.

Tell somebody!

Nice!

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A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world – and might even be more difficult to save. – C.S. Lewis

We live in a world of nice. Nice people, nice houses, nice cars, nice vacations. We tell our children to be nice to other children. We tell our teens to be nice to the relatives. Books on marriage give advice on being nice to one’s spouse. And don’t forget to be nice to your boss.

What does nice mean? For most people it’s pleasant behavior, an agreeable personality, caring and…well…being nice.

Do nice people need to be saved? Most people would say no. They’re nice and nice people go to heaven, don’t they? Isn’t that what the golden rule is about? The Good Samaritan. Now he was nice. How about Jesus who refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery? Wasn’t that nice?

Nice is not a fruit of the Spirit. Nor is it a beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount. God never said, “Be nice as I am nice.” Christ didn’t die on the cross to make people nice.

Nice is cultural. It is meant to help us get along with one another. Nice gives you friends, it even might get you a job, or a girlfriend. But nice will never score any points with God and it will not be your ticket to heaven.

The nice people of the world need to know that they are sinners in need of the saving work of Christ. They need to trade in their niceness for a new life. What they need is holiness and a changed heart. Then and only then will they understand their niceness was filthy rags in the sight of God.

How Do We Live?

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According to 1 Peter 1, our futures are secure. We have an inheritance to end all inheritances. It’s in heaven, reserved for each one of us, and nobody can rob us of it. Not only that, but God guarantees our safe arrival so we can receive it. He preserves us by his power while we live out our lives here one earth. So knowing we are heirs to his kingdom, how do we live? You would think Peter would tell us to get out there and become missionaries, or get busy feeding the poor, or dedicate ourselves to endless hours of prayer or serving the church. He does none of that. Instead he says we are to intentionally live holy lives that reflect the character of God. How do we do that? It means a renewed mind in God’s Word, and a knowledge of Christ and his gospel, and an understanding of our justification and sanctification in Christ. It’s believing and rejoicing in the answer to question 60 from the Heidelberg Catechism (see below). Armed with those truths, we can refuse to conform to the culture of the day, we can struggle against sin and unbelief, and we can rouse ourselves in the Holy Spirit to be conscientious about our lives as Christians.

The Gospel Is Scandalous!

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Q. 60. How are you righteous before God?

A. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

–From the Heidelberg Catechism