Tag Archives: Christ

Jul 5 2010

The Salvation of a Sinner is the Work of God


New Life

If we believe what we profess because it is what the Bible teaches we must conclude that the salvation of sinners is by God alone.

The Bible describes the state of a man without God in several ways. One of those is that a man without God is Dead.

Spiritually Dead

(Colossians 2:13, Ephesians 2:1,5) Just as surely as a man’s body is dead without his spirit (James 2:26), a man’s spirit is dead without the infusion of the life of Jesus by the means of the Holy Spirit of God.

Although this death is spiritual, it is no less true than physical death. A dead man’s greatest need is not religion, not reform, not new dedication, not church membership, no, his greatest need is life!

A dead man is powerless to do anything, and furthest from the realm of possibility is that a dead man can give himself life. Only God can give life! Here is the great overlooked and under appreciated fact of the gospel, God makes dead sinners live!

“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” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Spiritual life is beyond the scope of probability for a dead man, only a merciful and loving God can make us alive together with Christ! There is no spiritual life outside of Christ and every person who is not alive in Him is spiritually dead. He is dead to everything about God and unless God acts in mercy and love this dead sinner will only know God’s anger and fury against sin.

Just as certain as God called Lazarus to life from death he too calls spiritually dead sinners to a resurrected life in Jesus! Only God can do that.

…to be continued…

Royce


Jun 5 2010

The Secret of Christian Unity


You are probably asking, “What! Another article on unity? Why?” Yes, because I think most of the articles, blog posts, and even books miss the core meaning of Christian unity.

Parts of Ephesians 4 are usually quoted where Paul instructed the Ephesian believers to “maintain” the unity of the Spirit in verse 4 and in verse 13 he spoke of the goal of Christian ministry being to “attain” unity.

I think this definition of the English word is very accurate, and in the context of this brief study.

“Unity is defined as the state of being undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting. It is the smallest whole numeral representation. It has the quality of being united into one. Unity can denote a combining of all the parts, elements and individuals into an effective whole.” (Wikipedia)

I appreciate most this statement, “It is the smallest whole numeral representation”. That would be the word “one” used to describe the many.

So then how you worship, what church you attend, or even your conclusions on a particular Bible doctrine are not causes, or even clues of Christian unity. Many of us have a list of beliefs and practices that others must comply with before we can unify with them. That is not “unity”, that is “uniformity”. Saying the same things and doing the same things doesn’t even come close to making  believers “one”.

A careful and thoughtful reading of Jesus’ prayer for his own in John 17 shines the light on true Christian unity as well as any place in the Bible. Hear his words…

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20–24)

Here it is! Just as the Father and the Son are “one” those of us who have Christ are “one”. Unity begins and has its source in our individual relationships with Jesus Christ. If you are not one with God, through Christ, you can’t have unity with another Christian. It is this supernatural love relationship that results in “unity”, not the observable expressions of our faith like which church we attend, how we worship, what we approve or disapprove, etc., etc.

Every true Christian is one with God the Father, one with Jesus, and because of that infinite oneness, one with every other person who is in Christ. This is why Jesus would say these astonishing words about God’s love for us.

“…and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23b)

When I first understood what Jesus had said in his great prayer I could hardly take it in. God loves me like he loves Jesus! God loves you dear believer with the same unpolluted divine love he has for his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow! That is the bedrock of Christian unity. “God so loved the world…” It is that God-love that brings us together and binds us and creates the lowest number to describe God and his people, “One!”

Unity is a love gift, it is the ultimate expression of God’s matchless grace. God was in Christ who with one hand holding on to God the Father and with the other hand holding on to wicked, ungodly sinners he brought the two together making them “one”. We have been “reconciled”, “set right” with God by the doing and dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this happened outside of us without our schemes and abilities.

So you see, you don’t have the latitude to decide who you will have fellowship with, who you will love. Any place on earth where you find a person who is rightly related to Jesus, who is at peace with God, you by family relationship are united to that person.

If  you are in the family of God, rejoice and give thanks for God’s amazing grace. If you are not in the family, come on in. You will be welcome at the table.

Agape’

Royce

May 23 2010

Jeb’s Story part 3


For a few nights after the execution of Jesus I had trouble sleeping, I had nightmares reliving what I had witnessed. And, during the day I tried to press my guilt down with more work and heavier drinking. It was those words about forgiveness that dogged me night and day. Was he truly a mad man? He seemed rational enough but who would even think of forgiveness moments before he died from loss of blood? None of it made sense.

One morning I went out of my house and as I talked to a neighbor about the weather I heard a screaming voice. A man was running down the lane yelling as he went “He is alive, Jesus of Nazareth has risen from the grave! Jesus is alive!” What? was the whole world going insane?

In the next few days I kept hearing more and more talk that people had seen Jesus alive. Of course I didn’t believe it, at first that is. But I began to wonder “What if Jesus really is who he claimed to be?” I soon began to worry about my own well being. My mother complained about my late hours, too much wine, a distant look, and silence.

One day I met a friend on the road who excitedly told me that he was going to see Jesus and hear him teach. I accepted an invitation to join him and the next day I saw him. We came to a place with much grass on a sloping hillside and the crowd was perhaps 500 or more when everyone was there.

Jesus stood below facing the people and he began to speak. His words were riveting and the listeners were very quiet. He spoke of the kingdom of God and of our Father’s love for us and that we should never be fearful or doubting. He said he would be going away but that he would come back for his followers and take them to be with him.

From my vantage point I could see many faces in the crowd, listening intently to every word. And while Jesus was speaking I realized for the first time that many of those faces were familiar. The men I saw at the execution, those who were actively participating, were there listening to Jesus and nodding in agreement! How could this be? How could he let them be there, how could they be there? Then it was fresh in my memory once more, “Father forgive them they don’t know what they are doing”.

I’m not sure that ever person who participated in the execution and the events that preceded it were there but I know at least five or six were. Their faces were radiant, tears came down smiling faces. They had become followers of Jesus! They were changed, forgiven, they were in the Way!

When Jesus stopped speaking some other men spoke and explained that because of the risen Lord and his death for sinners that anyone who would could be a Christian. “Change your mind about your manner of life and take up your cross and follow Messiah. Trust Jesus the Christ and he will give you immortality.”

When it became real to me what had happened, what Jesus had done for me and the others, oh how I loved him and knew I would until I die. When the men finished speaking I joined maybe two dozen others in the water below and I was baptized. I knew at once I was a changed man, that I was Christ’s man.

To be continued….     Part 1, Part 2

Royce

May 22 2010

The Gospel, Short and Sweet.


“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18)

Three verses before this one is a verse that is quoted often. I have seen it in print and heard it quoted or read several times just in the last two or three weeks.

“always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”
(1 Peter 3:15)

I submit that the challenge of verse 15 is clearly answered in verse 18. What do you give as a defense for the hope that is in you? Here it is! The good news about what Jesus has done for sinners!

What a power packed few words is packed into this verse of Scripture!

The anointed one, the Messiah the Jews hoped for, the one prophesied that would come to save his people from their sins, the one announced by angels and called “God with us”, the one of whom John the Baptist preached saying “The kingdom of God is near!”, This One has come to bring sinners to God.

Jesus suffered “once” for “sins“. Never again would a daily offering be needed. When Christ cried from the cross the word meaning “It is finished” it was indeed finished. He had paid the awful price for my sins and yours. The indictment of sin blankets all of humanity, me and you and every man and woman. But that he died “for sins” means then that he died for everyone, because “ALL have sinned” and miss the mark of God’s righteousness. Now that is good news!

He was “the righteous for the unrighteous” in his suffering and dying. This is called in the seminary class room “penal substitution”. Jesus died “for” me and you, he died in our place. It should have been me and it should have been you. The “wages of sin is death” but Jesus died the death, the “righteous for the unrighteous”, “for sins”. Jesus paid your tab to an offended and angry God who hates sin! That is good news!

He suffered the beatings, mocking, being spit upon, having beard pulled out, and being nailed to a cross as a common criminal in shame outside the city “to bring us to God!” In our sinful condition we were apart from God with no way to get to Him. Separated from the Creator with no means to bridge the gap and our certain end was the wrath of God! But Jesus died for us, in our place, “to bring us to God”. That was his only purpose. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself”. This was his eternal plan, the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, and by that one sacrifice we are reconciled to God, brought back to God. That is good news!

Jesus suffered and was put to death, but he didn’t stay dead. He was “made alive in the Spirit“. Just as promised, after three days he came out of the tomb in a glorified body perfectly fit for heaven or earth. We are promised immortality and a body like his. The same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will give me a body like his because he died in my place, for my sins, and brought me to God!. That is good news!

When someone asks “What about this church thing? Why are you a Christian?” Here it is. It is the “Gospel”, it is the “good news” that Jesus has solved every mans two greatest problems, sin and death. Jesus has taken sin away forever and defeated death so we can be with God, sinless, forever!

Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel (good news about Jesus), for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16,17)

Here is the gracious offer, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. You can’t be good enough, we have already established that, (He was righteous, we were unrighteous). Your salvation is finished, the debt has been paid, do you believe God’s record about His Son? Then receive the gift!

Do a U Turn, change your mind about the course of your life and turn toward Christ, He is waiting for you. If you depend on Him to do what the gospel promises He will enable you to live a changed life, go public for Him by telling others and by reenacting His death, burial, and resurrection in the waters of baptism. It is the formal and symbolic way of going public for Christ. You are saying I am dying to my old way of life and I am being raised a new man who lives a life of love and service to Christ.

Perhaps you have long been a church member, maybe a preacher or teacher, but something has been missing. Have you ever put your whole trust in Jesus Christ? If not, I hope you will now. He will not always wait.

Agape’

Royce