Month: July 2012

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 35 – The Obedience that Leads to Sanctification

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Today we’re going to be encouraged in how we are to fight for faith on a daily basis.  There are some who shout “GRACE!” in church and to others, but never submit themselves to the will of God for personal righteousness in following after Christ.  These people are not believers – they don’t truly know or love Jesus, they just want something from Jesus.  They don’t want to hear anything about obedience as a mark of true faith, they want to continue in their sin.  On the other side of the spectrum, you have some people who can make obedience and “being” a Christian into such a burden the the weight of “trying to do everything you’re supposed to” is unbearable.  These people may or may not be believers, but they are definitely Pharisees, unhelpful to themselves and anyone else truly wanting to grow in their faith.  Their constant focus works and “measuring up” would contradict our Lord Jesus Christ when He said “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
There is another way to live as a Christian, that does not remove the call to obedience but also exudes peace and joy in reconciliation to Christ.  This is what we see in scripture.  2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  That’s where we find ourselves in Romans today.
Romans 6:15-19 – “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
The first part of the passage above confronts a topic that I believe needs to be preached on heavily, especially in the US – what is the gospel of Jesus Christ saving us from?  What is grace for?  Most people, if they are honest with themselves, see their sin, see that God is righteous and judges their sin, and see that Jesus died for their sin.  They embrace this gospel of salvation from the judgment of sin.  What many do not embrace is  the gospel of salvation from the power of sin.  Jesus preached one gospel – to repent and believe.  Mark 1:14-15 – “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 
The gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation from both the power of sin and the judgment of sin.  You can’t have one without the other, and you can’t want one without wanting the other and still claim to love Jesus and His salvation.  If you are identifying with the risen victorious Christ, then you must also identify with the death of Christ to sin.  Today though I want to be very practical.  My burden is not to expose false-believers or call out Pharisaical behavior.  What I want to focus in on is what it means to “present you members as slaves to righteousness” and how that leads to sanctification.  Hopefully you noticed something that was very important in that scripture – the ordering of things.  Your presenting your members as slaves to righteousness leads to your sanctification, NOT your sanctification leads you to present your members as slaves to righteousness.  This exposes the error that many Christians enter into, trying merely to “pray their way into sanctification”.  That isn’t to say we ought not ask God to continually change our heart, but we also have a role to play beyond that.  God has told us from scripture that He chooses to use the actions of men for His good purposes.  (Eph 2:10, 1 Cor 3:6, 2 Cor 5:20, and on and on). 
So in some way our actions of “presenting our members as slaves to righteousness” will lead to God accomplishing sanctification in us.  This is another example of the mystery of how man’s will (choices) and God’s sovereign plan are compatible, not contradictory.  Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” 
When you have a desire for righteousness to glorify God, rejoice, that is from God and evidence of the Spirit at work in you.  When you work towards personal righteousness, rejoice, that is God at work through you, for your good and joy. 
Now, I am confident that the great many of you reading this desire the righteousness of God in your life – how else could you manage to read through these emails all the time!  So what I want to exhort you in is how to “present your members as slaves to righteousness”.  I know I can be wordy at times, so this should a nice reprieve… I’m actually going to use bullet points below:
  1. Looking to Jesus, be continually building your understanding of the righteousness of God (Start in gospels in the life of Christ – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
  2. Be brutally honest with yourself about your current sin, including how it usually comes about
  3. Remind yourself of the weight of sin and that sin deserves (the wrath of God) 
  4. Quickly remind yourself of salvation through Jesus in the gospel from the judgment and power of sin
  5. Proactively remove those things that lead to sin from # 2 above, and replace them with things that help grow your affection for Christ and righteousness
  6. Repeat

Now the key here is being honest with yourself and not trying to see how close you can get to the edge of sin without sinning.  Meaning everyone knows that if you’re an alcoholic, going into a bar isn’t a good idea, but we need to go deeper.  If you general find your struggle with sin happening later at night, then start going to bed earlier and make it a point to redeem 30 minutes of time before you go to sleep in the Bible and prayer.  If you are struggling with anxiety/materialism with money, search for ways to start doing with less and giving more away.  Each of us have our own struggles, and the plan of attack will be slightly different for each of us.  Does this mean that we will never sin if we pursue this kind of life change to pursue righteousness?  No, but by the grace of God we might begin to grow closer in our fellowship with God, increase our joy, and grow in our sanctification.  We are all equals in this fight together and in love we need to be encouraging one another towards growth in righteousness for our joy and God’s glory.

I hope this finds you well, know you’re prayed for, and may God’s blessing be upon each of you today.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 34 – Instruments for Righteousness

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Romans 6:12-14 – “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Now whenever you see the word “therefore” in the Bible you have to ask yourself the question, “what is it there for?”  So we have to look back to the last message from Romans 6:1-11, and we have our answer.  In church or among Christians, you may have heard people talk about their “identity in Christ”.  That’s what the last message from Romans 6:1-11 was all about.  As a believer in Christ Jesus, your identity is rooted in His death, burial, and resurrection.  You have been born again by the Spirit of God.  In the book of Revelation we are told that we are even given a new name by God (Rev 6:17).  Perhaps there is no clearer explanation of how as Christians our “identity” is in Christ than what we see in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”   

Romans 6:12-14 is all about believing, trusting, hoping in, the good news of Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and manifesting your new identity in your life.  If your faith is more than words, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, there will necessarily be a disdain for sin and a yearning for Christ.  For you, Romans 6:12-14 will not be “work”, but a reminder that you are free in Christ and have the freedom to pursue joy in fellowship with Christ rather than your sin. 
My encouragement is by way of reminder that we as Christians are in the business of killing sin by pursuing joy in Christ.  Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.  There are three people I’m now talking to:
The first is the person who is actively pursuing Christ, yearning for personal obedience and righteousness for the glory of God.  Keep watch, keep going, and stay vigilant – we have an enemy that roams about seeking to destroy us. 
The second is the believer who was running well for a period of time, but now finds themselves engaging in sin, and their joy in salvation is diminished.  Stop believing the lie that joy is found in your sin and return to Christ.  Read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.  God is jealous for you and wants to restore you to Himself.  You are not alone, all Christians struggle, but each day is a new day and God is abundant in mercy and steadfast love.  Pray through Psalm 51, read your Bible, and surround yourself with some Christians to encourage you.
The third is the professing believer who loves their sin and wants to rationalize their sin rather than repent from it.  For you, this passage seems like a burden rather than delight.  It’s burdensome to you because you don’t really want Christ, you want your sin, and giving it up would seem very painful to you.  I have both a warning and an encouragement to you.  I would say as a warning that there is a mountain of scripture from God’s word in which we are told that as Christians have a battle to fight again sin and evil.  We are also told that there are some who profess belief, but their faith is not real and is evidenced by their sinfulness (Matt 7:21-23 and the entire book of 1 John).  Each of us should be on guard against our sin of immorality and self-righteousness, not because we seek to escape hell, but because we love Jesus and want more of Him in our lives.  If this is you, I would ask you to seriously consider 2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”  

As an encouragement, I would tell you that Jesus’s offer of salvation from sin and joy in fellowship with Him is for you today.  Acts 2:21 – “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.  I call upon the Lord every day, because I’m as much in need of Him today as ever.  “Today” is the day of salvation.  When tomorrow becomes “today”, it will be the day of salvation for me.  When next month becomes “today”, it will be the day of salvation for me.  We rest in the finished work of Christ “today” and everyday, “today” is the day for you to turn from your sin and enter the rest of Christ.

Hebrews 4:1-7 – “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.  For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “ As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.  For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “ And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “ They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “ Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

Wherever you are today, as you read this today, know that as followers of Christ, the infinitely love of God rests on you.  Keep running with endurance, and know that you’re prayed for.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 33 – Dying to Sin and Living for Joy in Righteousness

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After a long pause, we’re picking back up in Romans today.  We’ve gotten through Romans 5, which is probably the weightiest chapter of the Bible or at least in the top 5 or so.  To recap, Romans 5 is basically setting out how we are identified by God, with the conclusion being that we are identified either in Adam, or in the second Adam – Jesus Christ.  Everyone who is born of Adam, born from him, inherits Adam’s sin nature and the judgment due Adam (this is referred to as “Federal Headship” in theological circles by people who like to come up with confusing names for things).  Everyone who is born again through faith in Christ, inherits the righteousness of Christ and eternity with Him in a fullness of joy.  To give an analogy (a poor one sadly) you can think of this as two trees, either you are a branch in the tree of Adam, or you are broken off the tree of Adam and grafted into the tree of Christ.  One tree will be delivered up to be burned/judged for eternity, and the other will bear fruit and be glorious for all eternity.

With that as a background, we’re going to jump into Romans 6 which begins with the practical applications of Romans 5.  Meaning, if Romans 5 is true and we believe on Christ, and are identified with Christ, how will our lives bear out that belief and identification?

Romans 6:1-11 – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Now the self-righteous reader might look at the people suggesting that they continue in sin that grace may abound as foolish non-believers, but I want to be fair and offer grace to those people and assume they had a legitimate logical question.  Specifically, if as a believer, you are identified with Christ, and you are living to make much of the glory of God – then there could be a logical (but flawed) argument that sinning makes much of Christ.  Basically the logic pattern is this:  The fullness of the glory (Character and majesty) of God was displayed through Christ triumphing over sin and death on the cross.  If there was “more” sin for Christ to have triumphed over, then the glory of God would be seen as even greater.  Therefore, sinning more leads to making much of the glory of God.  This argument is flawed in many different ways, but hopefully you can at least better understand where the people were coming from as not being completely illogical.  

The answer to that argument goes to the heart of what it means to actually believe and be identified with Christ.  Basically the answer given in Romans 6:2-11 is that the glory of God is made much of by manifesting the death of and resurrection Christ (the gospel message) in our own lives, namely dying to self and sin and bringing to life righteousness.  Many people talk about being a “Christian” or a “believer”, but what does your life say about who Jesus is and what you believe?  Now from personal experience, I can tell you that no matter how tempting or alluring sin may seem, it always has horrible repercussions – not only immediate, but long-term, and eternal (for non-believers).  Each of us will make decisions today to either harden our heart against the truth of God and continue in sin, or we can trust Christ, and manifest our belief in the gospel through turning from sin to pursue joy in fellowship with Christ. 

Simply put, the offer to you from Christ is freedom from sin and eternal joy in worshipping God.  Christ came to put sin to death, that he might taste death for us, become a curse for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.  My encouragement to you today, is that if your soul is burdened by sin, look to Christ.  Isaiah 53:4-6 – “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”    If your soul hungers to be right with God, if you thirst for a joy that no sin can deliver, look to Christ.  John 6:35 – Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”   What a salvation we have in Christ!  He has the same call for each of us yesterday, today, and tomorrow – Whoever would come, come.
Grace and Peace,
Adam

Spiritual Momentum

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Brothers and Sisters,
Please forgive the drought of daily encouragement.  The good news is that over the past months I finished up my CPA.  I have no love for accounting, so it was a beating, but this was requested by my employer, so it’s done.  The bad news is that it has proven more taxing on my spiritual life than even I had imagined.  At the same time, one of the downsides to doing a good job at work is that people give you more and more work to do, so that is presenting a challenge as well.  I do have plans to get back into and finish Romans, but I wanted to take today to talk about how to talk about something that is close to my own heart today – how to rebuild and maintain spiritual momentum.
If you are like me, you see pastors week in and week out preaching the truth of God’s Word, and it may seem like they are on another level than each of us spiritually.  It may seem like the struggles and doubts that we all encounter as followers of Christ are not experienced by our spiritual leaders or other Christians around us.  That is simply not true.  We see stuggle in the heart of Paul who scribed much of the New Testament and whose missionary efforts help found much of the early (NT) Church.  We have been forgiven in Christ, but until we are with Him, we are living in a fallen world and with fleshly bodies with indwelling sin subject to temptation.  (Romans 7:16-25)
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells and then explains a parable of a man sowing seed in a field: vs 4-8 – “A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty”
vs 18-23 – “Hear then the parable of the sower:  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Many of us would not fall into the first category, although that is not to say that this message would not be helpful to that group of people.  Many of us (All of us, I would argue) will have times where we may ask ourselves if we are to be numbered among the second and third groups.  We have received the gospel, we have responded in joy at the love of Christ, we have been growing in our fellowship with Christ, and then something happens.  Maybe there is a tragic death around us, maybe someone close to us has a crippling disease or accident.  Maybe we lose our job and don’t know how we’re going to make it financially.  Maybe we allow a good desire, such as becoming a CPA to honor our employers wishes, to become an end, instead of the means of honoring Christ, evidenced by a lack of personal fellowship with Christ and ministry.  Maybe we have been growing in fellowship with Christ, but there is still some sin in our life that we haven’t let go of, and now it is threatening to choke off our growth in Christ.  Maybe there is a temptation to pursue a new job or new material possessions that ultimately we don’t need, and are unhelpful to growing fellowship with Christ.  This list could go on, but I am confident I don’t need to tell you how many different ways we can allow sin and the cares of this world to derail us from our fellowship with Christ. 
My encouragement today is that just because you may be struggling through something today, doesn’t mean you have to stay there.  God has plans for you to be fruitful in encouraging others’ faith and sharing the gospel for salvation, and even these current struggles will be used by God to that end.  What I want to say/remind you of is that what you may see in Spiritual leaders is not an absence of struggle, but people who take full advantage of every means of grace given by God to maintain their spiritual momentum; ex: meeting often with other Christians to talk about life and encouraging one another in the gospel of Jesus Christ, hearing Biblical preaching, taking communion, fellowship with God in nature, ministry, fellowship with God by reading His Word and prayer, and fasting to name a few.  Every Christian is at risk of falling away from their faith, but God uses means to call those whom He loves back to Himself continually, and their faith is even stronger for having gone through the struggle.  On a personal level, I want to remind each of you, that God loves you.  If you are really struggling in your faith, none of what you’re going through today is a surprise to God, He has known you completely – your past, present, and future, and He redeemed you fully on the cross through Christ.  He had you in mind before the foundation of the world as an object of His love – to redeem you to Himself.  
Ephesians 1:3-9 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ” 
So, if you are not where you would like to be in your fellowship with Christ, how do you start rebuilding momentum?
1)  Tell a fellow brother or sister in Christ (preferably more than 1) exactly how you feel and what is going on with you.  Remember that we are told of a spiritual gift of discernment, but not of mind reading!  One of God’s primary means of encouraging the faith of believers is through the community of saints.  Simply put, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ cannot help encourage you well if they do not know how you need to be encouraged.  If you’re worried about being judged, you’re valuing the opinion/potential judgment of a fellow sinner more than you are the opinion/fellowship of God.  That is a poor trade.
2)  Take an inventory of your life.  This can be as quick as 5 minutes or an all day introspection.  What things in your life are driving you?  How are those things helping to grow your joy in relationship with Christ?  If what’s driving you is not helping grow you fellowship with Christ, should you be allowing those things to drive you?  Our hearts can be deceitful, so I would also encourage talking this over with a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
3)  Begin to walk in step with the Spirit.  Most Christians are either trying to run in front of the Spirit of God or are standing still in the hardness of their heart/sin.  Each day is going to come with enough worry of its own – most of us don’t need to make huge changes to our life to follow Christ.  Much of following Christ is in the simple day to day choices. Should I spend time with Christ in His Word today?  Yes, but you don’t have to start reading 2 hours a day and comitting to 4 hours of prayer in the morning.  Just take a step to spend some time with Christ each day, and allow God to guide you from there.  Should you go to Church and be involved in community?  Yes, but you don’t have to be involved in every ministry or occupy yourself fully 7 days a week.  Just take a step to have people really start to know you, and meet up with them for a meal or coffee outside of church, and allow God to guide you from there. 
Each of us needs to continually breath life into our faith. (2 Tim 1:6).  Each of us needs to be encouraged daily by others. (Heb 10:24-25)  Each of us have been promised trials and sufferings as Christians (Jam 1), but in persevering we have been promised the treasure of Christ for eternity.  There will be a day where these struggles are no more, when the span of our life seems like the blink of an eye, where our joy in perfect fellowship with Christ is so great that it must be sung for all eternity.  I would encourage you to set your mind on these things (Col 3:2) that you would put other things in right perspective.  Know that you’re loved and prayed for – if you’ve read this far and have been encouraged even a little bit, I would encourage you to consider your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and seek out ways to encourage one of them today in the gospel.  Grace be with you.