Tag: righteousness

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Philippians Devotionals

Working out our salvation

Walking with God

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling… (Philippians 2:12)

I was thinking today on what it means to work out our salvation.

I think Paul explains his meaning more clearly in chapter 3.

He’s not talking about trying to become righteous by his own efforts to keep the law. His righteousness came by faith in Christ’s work on the cross for him. (Philippians 3:9)

So what does he mean by working out his salvation?

  1. Pursuing his relationship with Jesus. Knowing Christ became his ultimate pursuit in life above all other things.
  2. Becoming more and more like Jesus. Paul wanted to experience Jesus’ resurrection power in his life, becoming like his Lord.

    But before he could be raised with Jesus, he had to die with Jesus. Just as Jesus suffered and died to sin once for all time, Paul needed to learn to die to sin once and for all so that he could live for God (Romans 6:10-11).

    And by Paul joining in Christ’s sufferings, he showed that he was through with sin, no longer living for himself, but for God’s will. (1 Peter 4:1-2)

That’s what it means to work out our salvation. And it’s an ongoing process. A process that Paul admitted he had not fully completed yet.

He still fell short. He still hadn’t arrived.

But Jesus in his grace had taken hold of him. And so Paul strove to take full hold of the salvation he had received, working out his salvation with fear and trembling.

I marvel at the fact that this same Jesus that took hold of Paul has taken hold of me. And so like Paul, I’m striving to take full hold of the salvation I have received, working out that salvation with fear and trembling.

I still fall short. I still haven’t arrived. But with full confidence in the grace and love God has given me, I say with Paul,

Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

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Ephesians Devotionals

To be like you

God's image

But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off, your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on, the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. (Ephesians 4:20-24)

Father, we were originally made in your image. (Genesis 1:26-27)

But that image has been distorted and corrupted by our sin.

Your image in my life has been distorted and corrupted by my sin.

And yet you loved me, and by your grace you saved me, desiring that I become like your Son. (Ephesians 4:13)

So help me to put on the new self, one created according to your likeness.

May I be characterized by your righteousness. By your truth. By your love. By your grace. By your kindness. By your compassion.

When others see me, let them see you. I want to be like you.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Psalms Devotionals

Marked by Christ’s character

Psalms

In verse 1, the psalmist says,

“Happy is the person who fears the LORD,
taking great delight in his commands. (Psalm 112:1)

But what does that kind of person look like?

The Pharisees claimed to be such people. And yet while you could say they had a form of righteousness, you could not say they were marked by graciousness or compassion.

A person who truly fears the Lord, who truly takes great delight in his commands, are marked by all three things: graciousness, compassion, and righteousness.

That’s what Jesus was like.

Too many Christians embrace the commands of God, and yet throw out graciousness and compassion.

On the other hand, other Christians embrace graciousness and compassion at the expense of God’s righteousness.

“Oh, those commands aren’t for today. God does not really expect you to live that way.”

As Christians, we need to be marked by all three.

May we all be marked by Christ’s character.

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Proverbs Devotionals

How God sees us

As I was reading today’s passage, I was thinking about the kind of relationship we have with God.

Solomon wrote,

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere,
observing the wicked and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)

And again,

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord—
how much more, human hearts. (11)

I think for a lot of people, those are kind of scary words. Our hearts, our lives are open books to God. We can hide nothing from him. He knows all the ugliness that is there and which we try so desperately to hide.

But because of Jesus, we don’t need to be afraid of God’s searching eyes. We welcome them. We rejoice in them.

Why? Because we are God’s beloved children. Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sin on the cross.

We are not “the righteous” because we are perfect people.

We are not “the righteous” because we are better than others.

We are “the righteous” because the Father clothes us with Jesus’ righteousness.

And because of Jesus’ righteousness, the Father accepts us and delights in us. (8)

So with hearts filled with joy, let us pray with David,

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.

See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:23-24)

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Psalms Devotionals

His name is Yahweh

Psalms

In the Bible, we find that God’s name is Yahweh. (Exodus 3:15)

Unfortunately, most translations obscure that name by translating it as “LORD” in all capital letters. But whenever you see “LORD” in your Bibles, know that it is the divine name “Yahweh.”

But many times, other words are added to that name, and we see even more clearly what kind of God he is.

In Psalm 23, we find that God is “Yahweh Raah,” Yahweh, our shepherd.

But in our times of need, we also find that he is “Yahweh Yireh” (Genesis 22:13-14), Yahweh, our provider. (Psalm 23:1)

When we are lost and hurting, he is “Yahweh Rapha” (Exodus 15:26), Yahweh, our healer. (Psalm 23:3)

When Satan accuses us, God is “Yahweh Tsidkenu” (Jeremiah 23:6), Yahweh, our righteousness. (Psalm 23:3)

In our darkest times when we are fearful, he is “Yahweh Shalom” (Judges 6:24), Yahweh, our peace.

In those times, he is also “Yahweh Shammah” (Ezekiel 48:35), Yahweh, ever-present. (Psalm 23:4)

And in the face of our enemies, he is “Yahweh Nissi” (Exodus 17:8-15), Yahweh, our banner. (Psalm 23:5)

So as we face different situations in our lives, let us never forget who God is.

He is our shepherd, but he is much more than that. He is also our provider, healer, righteousness, our peace, our ever-present one, and our banner.

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2 Peter Devotionals

By his righteousness, by his power, by his promises

2 Peter

The more I read this chapter, the more Peter’s words strike me.

He says in verse 2,

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:2)

How many of us know that grace in our lives? How many of us know God’s peace in our lives?

These are things that many Christians struggle to truly grasp in their lives.

Perhaps part of the reason is sections in the Bible like verses 5-10 where it almost sounds like, “It’s all up to you! Do your best to be a good Christian!”

But to pull those words out of their context is to lose sight of the grace and peace that God intends us to walk in.

Peter prays in this letter that grace and peace be multiplied to us through the knowledge of God and Jesus.

What knowledge is he talking about. Many things, I suspect, but we see some key things right here in this chapter.

First, we stand before God, not because of our own righteousness, but because of Jesus’.

That is why Peter can tell us that we have received a faith equal to the apostles themselves.

The apostles didn’t stand before God because they were somehow more godly than anyone else.

They had faults. They sinned. They failed.

But they stood because Jesus caused them to stand (Romans 14:4).

They stood in his righteousness, not their own. And so do we. That’s why we don’t have to worry about trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. We already have peace with him.

Second, God has given us the power we need in order to live as he has called us to. Peter tells us that God called us because of his own glory and goodness, not our own.

He knows we are weak in ourselves. And so he empowers us, giving us everything we need for life and godliness.

He doesn’t just say, “Good luck. You’re on your own.” Rather, he stands by us to help us every step of the way. All we have to do is ask.

More than that, he has given us his great and precious promises.

Promises that our sins are forgiven because of the cross.

Promises that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Promises that in the meantime, the Holy Spirit will dwell in us, leading us, guiding us, and empowering us to become more like Jesus.

These are the things we need to understand. And if we do, we will walk in grace and the peace of God.

And with that assurance and joy in our hearts, and by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, we start adding to our faith things like goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

So let us meditate on Christ’s righteousness by which we stand, the power he provides, and his promises that make all these things possible.

And as you do, you will know the grace and peace of God in your life.

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1 Thessalonians Devotionals

Children of light

1 Thessalonians

One small note. Yesterday, I said I was talking about chapters 2-3; actually, it was 3-4.

(And thus we can see that there are benefits to having chapter and verse divisions after all. It keeps us on the same page. 🙂 )

Anyway, I had a couple of thoughts as I read this passage.

First, Paul calls us to live as what we truly are: children of light. He says, “You are children of light. So live like it!”

But what does that look like, to live as children of light?

Paul tells us to, “put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

Faith, hope, and love. That triad is something you often see in Paul’s writings, and we see it here again.

A child of light has the hope of salvation. The hope that, as we saw yesterday, when Jesus appears, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (I John 3:2)

That hope helps us take our eyes off of the temporal pleasures that sin offers to the One who truly satisfies. And as we look at him, and we see what we will be, we desire even now to become more and more like him.

I find it also interesting that in Ephesians, Paul talks about the breastplate of righteousness. Here, he talks about the breastplate of faith and love.

I don’t know if he meant this connection, but when you look at his writings, there is a connection between righteousness, faith, and love.

Our righteousness comes not from our own efforts to be good. It comes from putting our faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. And when we do, God counts us as righteous in his eyes (thus leading to our hope of salvation).

But faith always works itself out in love. And because of the love we ourselves have received from God, we start to love him and those around us.

Does this sound familiar? It should. All of God’s law is summed up in those two commands.

And so not only are we declared righteous by God, but we start to change and live righteously as God intended from the beginning. That’s what a child of God looks like.

But one more thing. Paul wrote,

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)

Here, Paul isn’t talking about being awake or asleep in regards to our normal sleeping patterns. (See I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Rather, Christ died for us that whether we live here on earth, or die and depart from this earth, we will forever be with him.

Again, that’s the hope that we have. So with that hope in mind, let us live each day as children of light.

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Philippians Devotionals

Rejoicing in Jesus

PhilippiansHope

“So on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your walk with God this week?”

I used to hear this question a lot when I was in high school in the discipleship group I was in.

A ten might be a week where you read your Bible and prayed every day, you went to church on Sunday, you shared your faith with someone, and you had victory over sin.

A one would be where you did none of that. Typically, people in our group would fall somewhere between 3 and 7.

But looking back, I think it is a bad question.

Why?

I think it tends to make us feel like our acceptance by God is performance-based. And that question can get us into trouble in two ways.

If we’re doing “well,” it’s easy to fall into pride.

“Yes, I was a pretty good Christian this week. God must be really pleased with me. Oh, you didn’t read your Bible this week? You didn’t pray? Well, you better get with it.”

If on the other hand we had a bad week, we either think, “I gotta do better! I will do better!” putting pressure on ourselves to “perform” as Christians (usually by picking ourselves up by our own bootstraps).

Or we get discouraged because no matter how hard we try, we never seem to get better.

But God is not constantly putting us on a scale and weighing our performance. He’s not saying, “Oh, you really messed up this week. You’re only a 3 this week.” Nor does he say, “Hey, you shared your faith this week! That’s a 10 for you!”

Instead, Jesus tells us, “I have chosen you, taken hold of you, and made you my own.

“You don’t need to strive to make yourself righteous in my sight. The righteousness you have is not something that comes from your own striving and efforts. You are righteous in the Father’s eyes because of what I have done for you on the cross.

“So forget the scales. Forget how you failed this week. I know you have sinned. But I have already paid the price for your failure. So get up and press forward.”

Why can we rejoice in Jesus?

Because we are already righteous in God’s eyes through Jesus’ work.

Because Jesus has already called us and made us his own.

And because one day, we will be transformed into his image, with all our sins and failures completely washed away, and filled with his glory.

So rejoice in Jesus!

Understand the surpassing worth of knowing him as your Lord.

Rejoice in his work on the cross!

Rejoice that you are his!

And stand firm, not in your own efforts to be righteous, but in him and his love for you.

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1 John

The mark of a child of God

child of God

How can we know we are truly children of God? That we are truly saved? I remember having that question when I was a kid. I had received Jesus when I was about 7 years old, but for a long time, I was never quite sure if I was truly saved.

Here in this passage, we find the answer.

John says,

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (1 John 2:29)

The ESV puts it,

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

In other words, if you are truly saved, righteousness will mark your life. This is not to say that you will ever be perfect, but when people look at you, they will see someone who makes a practice of doing what is right.

This is in sharp contrast to how the rest of the world lives. And so John says,

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

When we live as children of God, practicing righteousness, the world has a hard time figuring us out. They can’t understand why we don’t live like they do. Why? Because they don’t know God. And if they don’t know him, they won’t understand us.

John then tells us,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as [Jesus] is pure. (3:2)

What is our motivation for righteousness as children of God? Is it that we are trying to earn our way into heaven? Is it that we’re trying to impress other people?

Not at all. Rather John tells us that our motivation is our love for God. He has lavished his great love upon us and called us his children.

Not only that, we have the hope that we will one day be like the One we love. When Jesus returns, we will receive new bodies that will reflect the glory of Jesus himself and we will be like him, perfectly righteous in every way.

Some people think, “Why bother fighting sin? I will never overcome it.”

But if you are a Christian, that’s not true. The day will come when we will be made perfect. There is hope. And John tells us that because true believers have that hope, they desire even now to be pure as Jesus is pure.

So all true Christians long to be pure as the Lord they love.

If you don’t have that longing, can you truly call yourself a Christian?

John tells us that Jesus came to take away our sins. That in Jesus himself there is no sin (3:5)

More, Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work. (3:8)

How then can anyone who claims to be a Christian just sin without conscience, promoting the very work that Jesus came to destroy? They can’t. If anyone does, you have to seriously question if they are saved or not.

Do you think I’m being judgmental? Look at what John says.

No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (3:6-8)

And again,

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (9)

Again, this is not to say that true Christians will never sin. This is saying a true Christian cannot just sin and feel no remorse over it. They will repent and seek to turn from that sin.

So John concludes,

This is how we know who the children of God are, and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

Whose child are you?

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2 Peter

A faith that puts us on equal standing

It’s rare that I ever get stopped by a verse such that I just have to write about it and it alone. Particularly when it comes in a greeting. But this one stopped me.

Peter writes,

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours. (2 Peter 1:1)

I’ve read that verse many times in the NIV, and I’ve always liked it, but as I read the ESV today, that last part struck me. The ESV puts it this way:

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.

Think about that a minute. Here is Simon Peter, one of the 12 original apostles of Christ, and one of the inner circle to boot. And he tells a bunch of people who had never even seen Jesus before, “Your faith is of equal standing with ours.”

Perhaps as he said that, he recalled Jesus’ words to Thomas,

Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20:29)

“Yes,” Peter is saying, “I have actually seen him. I saw his glory on the mountain when he was tranfigured before my very eyes, and I heard the very voice of God. I saw Christ’s resurrection.

But your faith is just as precious and of equal standing as mine in the eyes of God. For though you have not seen, yet you have believed.”

So often, we think of ourselves as second-class citizens as Christians. We put ourselves on a lower scale than others. Than the pastors in our churches. Than our Christian friends in the church.

But if our faith is of equal standing with Peter in the eyes of God, then isn’t our faith of equal standing with the other believers around us as well?

That’s also a humbling message for those who have been Christians for a long time. It can be tempting to look down on others for their lack of Biblical knowledge or maturity.

And certainly God calls us all to grow. It is in fact one of the key themes of this book, that we would all grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, becoming more and more like him each day.

But remember, you are no better than anyone else.

Nor are you inferior to anyone else.

We are all saved by grace alone. We weren’t saved because we were any better than the others around us. Rather we were saved by the righteousness of Christ, who lived a perfect life on this earth and then paid the penalty for our sin on the cross.

And now, through him, we are all declared righteous in God’s sight if we will only put our trust in him.

How do you see yourself? As better than other believers? As inferior?

Remember how God sees you. As people who are on equal standing. As people with a faith that is truly precious in the eyes of God.

So let us stop comparing ourselves to others. Rather, let us rest in his love and grace each day.

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Hebrews

King of righteousness, King of peace, our Priest forever

Hebrews

Merry Christmas from Japan, everyone.

As we remember Christ today, I suppose it’s only appropriate to read this passage and remember just who he is. And he is far more than a baby in a manger.

The writer of Hebrews calls him a king and priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was a character who “mysteriously” appears and disappears in Genesis 14.

I say this not in a supernatural way, but unlike most characters we see in the Bible, we see nothing of his genealogy.

We don’t know who his parents or children were. We see nothing recorded of his birth or death. He just appears in the story of Abraham, and then we never see him again.

As far as we know, he could still be living (although he most certainly isn’t).

And in Melchizedek, the writer of Hebrews sees a picture of Christ.

Melchizedek’s name meant, “King of Righteousness.”

He was also the king of Salem, a city whose name means “peace.” (It would later become Jerusalem).

And of course, in Jesus we see him who is the true king of righteousness and peace.

More, just as Melchizedek’s genealogy  and very death is unknown, Jesus himself, though he had an earthly genealogy, lived much further back in eternity before the world even began.

And having been raised from the dead, he will live forever, never to die again.

Why is this important? Because he has also become our priest forever.

Back in the Old Testament under Mosaic law, there were many priests that came from the tribe of Levi. They served under a covenant that God made with the people, that if they would keep his commandments, he would be their God and they would be his people.

Why then do we need another priest if God’s law had already provided one, and not just one, but many throughout the years?

Because the covenant was imperfect.

In what way was it imperfect?

It was imperfect in that nobody could keep it perfectly, and could thus only bring judgment on those who were under it.

The priests themselves were imperfect. Day after day, they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins before they could offer sins for the people.

And even the sacrifices they offered were imperfect. As the writer will point out later, if they had been perfect, we would have had no more need for sacrifices. One would have been enough.

But the priests needed to offer the sacrifices day by day because they were insufficient to cover our sins.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us that we needed a better way to have a relationship with God and a better priest.

And both are found in Jesus. He was greater than all the other priests in several ways.

First, his “lineage.” He was of the spiritual line of Melchizedek, who blessed Abraham himself.

The writer of Hebrews points out that the greater is always the one that blesses the lesser, and so the priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than that which comes through Abraham’s descendant Levi. (4-10)

But more, God made an oath to Jesus that he made to no other priest. He said,

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’ (21)

In that promise we see a third reason. Jesus was made a priest, not simply based on some law that said he had to be a descendant of Levi, but he was made a priest based on “indestructible life.” (16)

And so the writer of Hebrews tells us that now,

a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (19)

In what way do we have a better hope?

Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The writer of Hebrews explains.

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest meets our need–one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. (Hebrews 7:23-26)

Jesus offered one sacrifice for all time by dying on the cross for our sins. And because it was a perfect sacrifice, our salvation is complete. All we need to do now is put our trust in Him. (27)

That’s the hope we have.

So this Christmas, let us praise the King who makes us righteous before God because of his sacrifice, who brings us peace with God, and who remains our priest forever.

Merry Christmas!

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Hebrews

What true maturity is

Hebrews

There are some Christians that long to grow deeper in the faith. To learn the deep things of scripture that go beyond the simple gospel message. The question is, “Are they ready for it?”

The audience that was reading this letter to the Hebrews apparently wasn’t.

The writer tells them,

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Hebrews 5:11-12)

What does he mean by milk? He tells us in chapter 6.

It’s things like repentance from sin, the importance of faith, Christian baptism in contrast perhaps to Jewish washing rituals, the laying on of hands, perhaps in reference to receiving the Holy Spirit, and to resurrection and judgment.

All these things our basic to our Christian faith. We need to know them. But they are just a starting point.

A starting point to what? A starting point to being made complete and whole.

And that means going beyond hearing the message and having it become practical in your life.

To truly trusting that God loves you and that his way is best.

To believing we are really dead to sin now, and are called to live a new life in Jesus as new creations.

To loving God so much for what he has done, that our actions, our thoughts, and our very lives are colored by that love.

In short, we put away sin by the power of the Spirit who works in us, and put on righteousness becoming more and more like Christ each day.

That’s what maturity is. It isn’t simply knowing the Bible. It’s not simply knowing about the deep things of God. Maturity is becoming Christlike in every aspect of our lives.

Put another way, maturity is becoming whole as people. It’s becoming the people that God intended us to be from the very beginning.

But immature people are still very much incomplete in their character. They still don’t even know what it means to be whole as people. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way,

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. (Hebrews 5:13)

In contrast, he says about the mature,

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (5:14)

A truly mature person hears the Word of God and puts it into practice. And through that experience of putting the Word of God into practice, they learn what it means to be whole. They learn what things are truly good and what things are evil.

But many Christians are still slow to learn. The ESV puts it,

You have become dull of hearing. (5:11)

How does that happen? We hear God’s word, he pricks our heart to action, but we choose to do nothing. And in so doing we harden our hearts to him. But the more we do that, the less effect God’s Word has on our heart.

The result? We remain broken, incomplete, and immature.

How about you? Are you a doer of the Word? Or do you merely a hearer of it?

God wants us to be whole and complete. But that will never happen as long as we continue to harden our hearts to him.

How mature are you?

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Philippians

Where our focus lies

PhilippiansHope

As we live the Christian life, it’s so easy to get off-focus.

Of course, some people can get off-focus in terms of focusing on their jobs, their love life, their possessions, and their money. All these things can get Christians’ minds off of what is really important.

But we can also get off-focus by focusing on rules and how to be the “good” Christian. And by doing that, we forget what our Christian lives are to be all about.

That’s what Paul warns against here. He tells the Philippians,

Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. (Philippians 3:2)

What is he talking about? He’s probably talking about the Judaizers that were so prevalent during that time. These were the people that said you need to be circumcised and follow all the Mosaic law in order to truly be saved.

He ironically calls them dogs. Dogs were not looked upon fondly in Jewish culture, and many times, non-Jews like the Philippians were referred to as dogs. But Paul says, “You are not the dogs. They are.”

He says,

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. (3)

God had told the Jews in the Old Testament, that more importantly than being physically circumcised, he wanted their hearts to be circumcised for him (Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4).

And when we become Christians, that’s exactly what happens. Our hearts become truly his through the work of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 2:28-29)

As Ezekiel put it,

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  (Ezekiel 36:26)

But the Judaizers were convinced that all Christians had to be circumcised and keep all the laws of Moses. Because of this, all their focus was on who they were as Jews and what they did to achieve righteousness before God.

Paul, however, tells the Philippians that these Judaizer’s focus was all wrong. He himself could boast of all the things that these Judaizers tried to boast in and more (4-6).

But instead, Paul says,

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (7-11)

In short, Paul said, “My focus isn’t on myself. It isn’t on all my efforts to become righteous in God’s sight. It isn’t on the rules and regulations of religion. These are all rubbish to me now. Worthless.

My focus is on one thing and one thing alone: Jesus Christ.

I want to know Him.

I want to be united with Him.

I want His true righteousness, not my “righteousness” that falls far short of God’s standard.

I want to know His power, not my own.

I want to know Him so much that I want to share in His suffering.

I want to die with Him, putting to death my sinful nature by the power of the Spirit.

I want to be resurrected with Him, raised in new life, again by the power of the Spirit.

Him, him, him, him, him, him.

The problem with so many Christians today is that they are not focused on Him, but themselves.

And because of that they get tired. Christianity become a drag, filled with their own futile self-efforts. And their love for Christ wanes.

For how can you have a love relationship with Jesus when you are focused on everything else but him?

How about you? Where is your focus?

Categories
Galatians

Abolishing the offense of the cross

Galatians

I mentioned not too long ago that many people find Christianity narrow-minded. They take offense at the idea that it is only through Christ’s work on the cross that we can be saved. Paul calls this, “the offense of the cross.”

And it was this offense of the cross that the Judaizers were trying to abolish, though perhaps for different reasons than the people who try to do so today.

It seems the Judaizers were most concerned with how the other Jews perceived them.

The other Jews were offended by the message of the cross because it welcomed anyone into God’s kingdom who came to Jesus by faith. No longer was circumcision or rigid obedience to the law required.

These Jews were probably offended for a couple of reasons. First, they took the Mosaic covenant and all its laws very seriously. It set them apart as God’s people.

But now, Paul was saying that through faith in Christ, and totally apart from trying to keep the law,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

In short, the law they took such great pride in no longer set them apart as God’s special people. Rather anyone who came to God through Christ would now be declared as God’s people.

This was something the Jews simply could not accept, particularly because of their pride.

And that was the second reason they took offense at the cross: the Jews took pride in their identity as God’s chosen people.

They were proud of how much more “righteous” they were in the eyes of God than the other nations because of the law God had given to them. This despite the fact that they never could keep it perfectly.

In the same way, pride is the great barrier to people coming to Christ today. Pride in their own religion. Pride in their own “righteousness” before God.

And so for Christians to say, “Your religion is not sufficient. Your ‘righteousness’ is not sufficient,” is offensive to them.

But by clinging to these things, they don’t draw closer to God, they actually cut themselves off from God. Paul said of those who taught the need for circumcision,

The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.

As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! (Galatians 5:10,12)

Paul had said earlier that those who taught a false gospel were under God’s divine curse. (Galatians 1:8-9)

Here he repeats that, and then he gets very sarcastic and says, “If you’re going to get circumcised, you might as well go all the way and castrate yourself.”

That would have been shocking to the Judaizers because getting castrated would get them cut off from the Jewish congregation. (Deuteronomy 23:1)

But Paul was saying, that’s exactly what you’re doing if you let yourself be circumcised, you’re cutting yourself from God’s people.

That’s true of anyone that rejects the cross of Christ and tries to obtain salvation through their own religion and own righteousness. You’re cutting yourself off from God and his people.

And if you dilute the cross of Christ to please them as the Judaizers did, you risk cutting yourself off as well.

The cross is offensive to many people. But we cannot be concerned about trying to please them. We need to preach the gospel, no matter what flack we catch from people because of it.

The question you need to ask is, “Who am I trying to please? God or people?”

Remember the words of Paul who said,

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10)

Categories
Romans

Why can’t there be another way to God?

Romans

One of the things that bothers people about Christianity is that Christ claims he is the only way to God. That there is no other way. And they say, “Why can’t there be another way?”

There are many ways to answer that question, but Paul gives one answer here, as he talks about the Jews.

As I look at this passage, it strikes me that everything Paul says about the Jews, he could be saying about every other religious person in the world.

He says,

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. (Romans 9:30-31)

Let’s rephrase that into the modern world.

What then shall we say? That the Christians, who did not pursue righteousness through religious rules, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the rest of the world, who pursued righteousness through the laws of their own religion, has not attained it.

How can we say that? How can we just dismiss the efforts of all the religious people of the world?

Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. (Romans 9:32)

In other words, their whole idea of how to be made righteous before God is wrong. It’s not by works. It’s by faith.

Let’s put it this way. There’s a famous book called the “Five Love Languages.” And in it, the author makes clear that people feel love in different ways.

Some people feel love by receiving gifts, others feel love by being served, others feel love by the words they hear, and so on. And there can be conflict in a marriage when a person doesn’t know their partner’s love language.

For example, a husband tries very hard to please his wife by giving her gifts.

But though he tries very hard to give her the perfect gift, though he spends tons of money on it, he gets frustrated because she’s not responding as he expects. After all, he feels most loved when he receives gifts.

What he doesn’t know is that she doesn’t want gifts; she wants his time.

And so though he tries very hard to please his wife, because he’s going about it in the wrong way, he can never achieve his aim.

In the same way, most people approach God by thinking they have to do a lot of good works to be accepted by him.

But what they don’t realize is that while the good works are nice, that’s not what he really wants. What he really wants is for people to trust him. To have faith in him.

You see that from the very beginning in the garden of Eden.

He told Adam and Eve, “Trust me. Don’t eat from that tree. It’ll lead to your destruction.”

But they didn’t trust him, and the result was a broken relationship with God.

You see this all the way through the Bible, God telling his people, “Trust me,” and them refusing to do so.

To this day, the pattern continues.

God tells people, “Trust me. Put your faith in Jesus. He did all the work necessary for you to be saved.”

But instead, they try to pursue righteousness through their own efforts.

And so, Paul says,

They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” (That is, Jesus). As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 9:32-33)

How about you? Are you trying to pursue God through your own efforts?

It won’t work. God isn’t looking at your efforts. He’s looking at one thing: Do you trust him? Are you putting your faith in Jesus?

If you don’t you will fall before him. But if you do, he will accept you and you will never be put to shame.

Categories
Romans

Righteousness by faith: a new idea?

Romans

It would be easy to think that this idea of being made righteous by our faith is a new thing. That it was an invention of Paul and the other apostles.

It was, in fact, a contention that Paul probably dealt with back in his day.

“What is this ‘righteousness by faith’ thing? I’ve never read anything about this in scripture before!”

And so in this chapter, he shows what Jesus revealed to him and the other disciples after his resurrection. (Luke 24:27, 44-47; Galatians 1:11-12).

We already have seen him quote the prophet Habakkuk in chapter 1, where he said,

The righteous will live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4)

Now he writes what Moses said about Abraham in Genesis.

This was important to the Jews because they considered Abraham the father of their nation, and their example.

So Paul writes,

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?

If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about–but not before God. What does the Scripture say?

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3)

He then asks,

Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before?

It was not after, but before! (Romans 4:10)

Conclusion?

So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.

And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:11-12)

He also points out what David wrote in Psalm 32.

Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. (Romans 4:7-8)

Why was David forgiven? Because he did a lot of good things to make up for the bad things he had done?

No. Because he had simply thrown himself upon the mercy of God and put his trust in him. (Psalm 32:5, 10)

Paul writes much more on this in the chapter, and we’ll get to that in the following blogs. But he concludes by writing,

The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness–for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:23-24)

That’s the good news for all of us.

Not that we somehow make ourselves righteous before God.

Not that we somehow have to work to clean ourselves up before God and then he accepts us.

But that right here, right now, if we put our faith in him and the work that Jesus did for us on the cross, he accepts us.

It’s the truth that sets Christianity apart from all other religions. It’s the truth that sets us free to have a relationship with God without fear.

How about you? Do you have that kind of relationship with God? Or do you live with that little doubt in your heart, “Does God accept me?”

May you truly come to know the grace of God in your life today and every day.

Categories
Romans

To be accepted by God

Sitting at the cross

Our deepest need, whether felt or not, is to be accepted. And not just by anyone. But to be accepted by God.

When we are accepted by God, and we understand this in our souls, our life changes. We find contentment, joy, and peace. We find life.

But how can we be accepted by God? One thing Paul makes clear: it won’t come from following the law. In verse 23, he writes,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

The word for sin in Greek is a very interesting one. It’s an archery term that means “to miss the mark.”

But it’s not just a picture of missing the bullseye. It’s a picture of completely missing the target.

In other words, we’re not even close to perfection. We fall far short of God’s holiness.

Let’s put it this way. Imagine you sin three times a day. That’s not too bad right?

But multiply that by 365 days in a year. Then multiply that by your age. Suddenly, depending on your age, you’re talking about the tens of thousands.

God can literally read off a list against you that would take hours to complete. And that’s if you’re relatively “good.”

Because of this, we all stand condemned. None of us can stand before God and say, “I’m good enough to be accepted by you. I’ve kept all your laws perfectly.”

The good news? In verse 21, Paul tells us,

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. (Romans 3:21)

How do we get this righteousness? Paul tells us in verses 22-25.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (Romans 3:22-25)

What is Paul saying? We have a lot of what I call Christianese here.

First he talks about redemption. What is redemption?

Redemption is the buying of someone’s freedom out of slavery. All of us were in slavery to sin and the kingdom of Satan. But Jesus bought us out from all that. That’s redemption.

How did he buy us? Through his blood on the cross.

Paul says that God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement.

Atonement simply means a covering. That through Christ’s death on the cross, he covers over our sin and forgives it, drawing us to himself.

Perhaps a better translation of atonement would be another 50-cent word, “propitiation.”

The idea is that God poured his wrath for our sins on Jesus, and now that wrath toward us is appeased.

However you translate it, the point is clear. It is through Christ’s work on the cross we are accepted, not by our works.

And through his death we have now been justified. That simply means that with our sins paid for, God no longer looks upon us as sinners.

You can look at it this way. “God sees me just as if I’d never sinned.”

So now, we are accepted by grace.

Grace is simply the receiving of something that we don’t deserve. We deserved wrath because we turned our backs on God. But instead, God accepts us as his sons and daughters.

All we have to do is have faith, putting our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

Have you done so?

Categories
Romans

The gospel

Gospel and the Bible

In this passage, Paul talks about his longing to come to Rome that he might share the gospel with them as he had in so many other places.

Not to say that they didn’t know the gospel, as they had already come to faith. But all of us need reminders of what the gospel is, and not only that, to get grounded deeper into it and all its implications.

And that’s what Romans is really all about. Getting rooted deeper into the gospel.

Verses 14-15 strike me where Paul said,

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. (Romans 1:14-15)

Obviously, Paul as an apostle called by Christ, had this obligation to share the gospel. But for him, it went beyond obligation. It wasn’t a drudgery that he had to force himself into. He was eager to do so.

The same should be said of us. We shouldn’t have to force ourselves into sharing the gospel with others. We should be eager to do so. Why so eager?

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

I wonder sometimes if we truly understand what this means.

The gospel is God’s power to change lives. Not just so that people can go to heaven.

Salvation doesn’t simply mean a one-way ticket to heaven. It also means that people’s lives can be made whole here on earth.

Salvation means that their lives which have been broken by sin, can be made whole. That their hearts that have been wounded by the hurts of this world can be made whole.

It means that their marriages and relationships with others that have been torn apart can be made whole.

And most importantly, salvation means that their relationship with God which was broken by sin can be made whole.

That’s salvation. And the gospel is God’s power to bring that salvation.

More, the good news is for everyone. It was first brought to the Jew because God had originally chosen them to be his special people.

But after Jesus died on the cross and was raised again, it became possible for all people to approach God, both Jew and non-Jew. We who believe are all now accepted as God’s children.

How is this possible?

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

“Righteousness” has several nuances in scripture, but the idea here is that the gospel shows us how to come into a right relationship with God.

Our relationship with God was broken because of sin. How then do we come into a right relationship with God? Through faith.

When you think about it, it totally makes sense, because our relationship with God was broken.

How?

By not trusting God. By not believing that he is looking out for our best. By distrusting his motives. And as a result, we turned our backs on God and started living our own way.

How then does that relationship get repaired? By turning back to God and saying, “I will trust you.”

That starts with trusting in Jesus’ work on the cross to make us accepted by God. To say, “Jesus I believe that when you died, you took the punishment for my sin.”

When we do that, God not only forgives us, but gives us a new heart that can trust him, not only for salvation, but for everything in life.

And as we learn to trust him more each day, and as God works in our lives empowering us to do the things he asks, our actions start to change and we start becoming more like Jesus in everything we do.

The result? Our lives are totally transformed, and we are made whole. That’s salvation.

Do you know that salvation in your own life? And do you understand it so deeply that you are eager to share it with those around you?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Fulfilling the law

Matthew

I think it’s significant that Jesus probably said these things after the controversies with the Pharisees over the Sabbath had begun (although you wouldn’t guess this by looking at the book of Matthew alone).

Jesus had probably already done multiple healings on the Sabbath earning the criticism of the Pharisees.

But Jesus makes it clear here that,

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

How did Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? Primarily in three ways.

First, he fulfilled the prophesies of the Messiah to come.

Second, he was the only man to ever perfectly obey the law. Because of that, he was able to take the punishment for our sin on the cross.

As Paul wrote,

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

Third, he fulfilled in his death all the sacrifices that God had required of the Jews.

As the writer of Hebrews points out, while God required them, they in themselves could not cleanse us from our sins. What they did do was paint a picture of what Jesus would do for us on the cross.

Now in Jesus, all our sins have been cleansed, and so these sacrifices are no longer required. They are, as Jesus puts it, accomplished in him. (Hebrews 10:1-18)

But while some things in the law were accomplished in Jesus Christ, as was our justification before God, nevertheless, the law still points to the holiness of God and what kind of people God desires us to be.

And so each day, we are to strive to be holy as he is holy. Not in order to earn our salvation, but because now the Holy Spirit lives inside us to help us live it.

Before we were powerless to do what God commanded. But now God himself dwells in us and gives us the power to become the people he originally designed us to be.

And Jesus warns us,

I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

That probably stunned the people who heard it because the Pharisees and teachers of the law were considered the strongest preservers of God’s law. They had made rule upon rule in order to make sure they kept God’s law.

But righteousness goes far beyond keeping the letter of the law. Righteousness is a thing of the heart. And if your heart is not right before God, nothing you do is right before Him.

Three points that Jesus would lambast the Pharisees and teachers of the law for were lack of justice, mercy, and faithfulness in their lives. (Matthew 23:23)

We’ll see more of what he means by that as we continue through his sermon.

For now, the question is, how is your heart? You may be doing all the right things, but is your heart right before God? What would he say about your heart today?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Hungering and thirsting for righteousness

Matthew

I suppose as you look at this passage, you can read it two ways, both equally valid in my mind.

First, Jesus could be talking about having a hunger for holiness in your life. To want to live a life that’s pure and pleasing to God out of your love for him.

Yet so often we struggle. Paul talked about that struggle in Romans 7. Yet in that struggle, we see his desire for righteousness in his life.

In short, he says, “I want to do what’s right, but somehow I can’t. I just keep falling time and again. What a total mess I am!”

I know I feel the same way. I desire holiness and purity, and yet so often I fall. And it’s easy to become discouraged. To just throw in the towel and say, “Forget it. Why keep fighting? I’m just going to fall anyway.”

But Jesus encourages us here to not give up. To keep on hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Because the day will come when those desires will be fulfilled.

Ultimately that will happen in heaven. But even here on earth, God is continuing to work in us, “to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

And until that day when perfection comes, the grace of God reigns. For as Paul writes in those passages in Romans,

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)

Because of this,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

But I think there’s another sense in which our hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.

So often we look at the world around us, and we see all the injustice and sin that is so prevalent.

We see the failings of the court systems. The laws that are being passed by politicians that are contrary to the word of God. The way moral values are changing so that what was once considered detestable and wrong are considered right.

And we wonder, “When will righteousness and justice come to our land again? Are we beyond hope?”

To be honest, I don’t think things will get better. Paul gives a pretty bleak picture of what the last days will be like. (II Timothy 3:1-5). And I do believe we are in those last days.

I personally put no hope in the politicians, the justice system, or anything else we have set up in order to make things right.

Yet I have hope. Why? Because the day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11).

So I refuse to despair at all the evil I see. Justice and righteousness will come. Our hunger and thirst for these things will be satisfied.

So until that day, I will wait and hope, not on the things of this world or the governments and institutions people have set up, but on God.

May we never lose our hunger and thirst for righteousness in our lives or in the world around us. For Jesus promises that we will be satisfied.