justification

Was There Any Jesus in Church?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 6 Comments

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.

Can You Say This?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

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

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 6 Comments

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

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

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.

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