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Daily devotions for contemporary Christian living.
Why do most Christians remain spiritual babies? The author of Hebrews tells us it is because they choose not to go on to maturity in Christ Jesus.
The capacity for entering into deeper spiritual truths depends on the faithfulness with which the soul has been obedient in discerning good and evil in our daily lives.
Our fellowship with God depends upon our obedience to His Word, and our obedience determines how much spiritual maturity takes place in our lives.
The greatest crisis in the church today is the lack of moral and spiritual discernment. The power of moral discrimination is the mark of spiritual maturity in contrast to childhood. Poor judgment is exercised and lives are destroyed and testimonies ruined.
Every study reveals the same disparity between everyday life and Christian teaching. There is little difference between the professing Christian and the world. Talk to any spiritually mature pastor, and you hear the same lament. One pastor said recently, “One morning I am going to stand up and shout, “Grow up!”
Hebrews 5:11-14 deals with the same problem. "Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Everything in the Christian life depends on the heart. It is with the heart that man believes unto salvation (Rom. 10:9-10). “The heart of every problem is a problem of the heart.” A “hard heart” results from an erring heart and a disbelieving heart. The “heart” is the center and seat of all spiritual life. It is the soul or mind, the fountain seat of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors; the seat of our intelligence, will and character” (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon).
The writer of Hebrews admonishes his readers to gaze upon Jesus and contemplate Him, therefore increasing our knowledge, devotion, and faith in Him. What does he wish for us to “consider?”
He wants us to see the significance and thoroughly weigh the evidence of Christ’s superiority over the prophets, angels, and the patriarchs of Israel. Because of the greatness of His person, the effectiveness of His redemptive work will be pleasing to God the Father.
The writer of Hebrews is addressing Christians calling them “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling” (v.1).
Believers in Jesus Christ are saints. We are “holy brethren” in our standing with God because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ....
What shall be our response to the LORD God who knows everything about us all the time? How should we respond to His abiding presence that never leaves us? Because He is all-powerful, how then should we live our lives? Knowing that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent should make us want to please Him in everything we do.
The Psalmist David did not want to be influenced by evil persons. He did not love the sinner’s life-style. “O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies” (Psalm 139:19-22).
The Psalmist David observed that the LORD God “formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). Our Creator not only created the first man Adam, but He continues to create. There is not another person on the face of this earth with the same genes, DNA, and chromosomes. I am a unique person, custom made by God for a specific purpose in history. No one else can fulfill that purpose in history; no one else can fulfill my purpose.
God’s dealings with you and me are not a duplicate of His dealings with anyone else in time and space. It is unique to me because I am unique. There is no one else like me. A person who wants to be something different from God’s purpose for him is like a cancer cell. We become like cancer cells in the body of Christ when we want to be like someone else and not what God wants us to be...
The final words of Jesus just before He ascended into heaven are a constant encouragement in my ministry and should be for every Christian.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
It is great reassurance to remind ourselves, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (v.20).
A. W. Tozer wrote in Knowledge of the Holy, "God knows instantly and effortlessly all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every uttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell…"
The apostle Paul said, "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!" (Rom 11:33)
Do you long for an intimate love relationship with the LORD God? Here is a good place to begin. The Psalmist calls us to respond personally to an all-knowing, ever present, and all-powerful sovereign God who loves us intimately.
You might find it frightening, but I am deeply encouraged that the great God of the universe sees and knows everything exhaustively and perfectly. He definitely did not wind up the universe and walk away from His design. He is intimately involved in the details of His creation.
“O LORD, Thou has searched me and know me. Thou hast known when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thoughts from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways.
The LORD God is an infinite person. We can come to know Him only as He has chosen to reveal Himself in nature and in His own Word. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse declaring the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1). God has chosen to reveal Himself in His creation (Col. 1:16-17; John 1:3; Rev. 4:11; Rom. 2:14-15). The Creator did not leave Himself without a witness to His grace and mercy. He reveals Himself to the world by His common grace (Acts 14:17; 17:24-29).
God has revealed Himself in His personal name. In Exodus 3:14 He revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush as “I AM WHO I AM.” “I AM” is the LORD, “the God of you fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (v.16).
This is the “four letter” name of God, called the Tetragrammaton. It has four consonants commonly spelled YHWH, YHVH or JHVH. The vowels are supplied and hence the spelling “Yahweh.” Several English translations of the Bible use the word LORD in all capital letters to signify Yahweh. Others use the name “Jehovah.” All of these are attempts to communicate the unpronounceable Name.
What is your name?
“May I have your identification, please?”
Moses asked God His name as he stood before the burning bush. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He is the eternal “I AM,” the same yesterday, today, and forever who makes His covenant with His people. He is the God of salvation. As the God of grace, He becomes whatever is required to meet the needs of His people. He is “the Becoming One.”
Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus, was told that Mary “will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His name means, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Jehovah saves.”
What is your name? How does the world identify you as a follower of Jesus Christ?
God owes us nothing.
God owes us nothing, yet He has poured out His blessings on every man and woman.
The two aspects of grace are available to all humanity in general and special or saving grace.
Common grace is available to all human beings without discrimination. The first mention of grace is found in Genesis 6:8. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." God extended His grace 120 years while Noah preached righteousness.
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The Scriptures are very clear that the wrath of God is visited upon sinners or else that the Son of God dies for them. Either sinners are punished for their sins or else there takes place a substitution. Either the sinner dies or the substitute dies.
When Jesus Christ became “a curse for us” according to Galatians 3:13-14, He bore the full consequences of our sin. When God made Him sin that we might become “the righteousness of God,” then in some way He took upon Himself our sin and we bear it no more (2 Corinthians 5:21).
God made Jesus die as our substitute that death which is the wages of sin.
Christ died for us; He died that death of ours which is the wages of sin. In the death of Christ, God condemned our sins once and for all.
The theologian Karl Barth was asked what was the most important word in the Bible. The great thinker replied, “Hyper.”
You might have thought he would have said, “love,” or agape, but he didn’t. He chose a Greek preposition used in the New Testament meaning “on behalf of,” or “in place of” another.
This is the most important word because it signifies that the death of Jesus was in our place and for us. He died so that we might not have to die spiritually and be eternally separated from God in hell.
Why is this word so important, and why should we remind ourselves of it often?
Jesus Christ died for me. He died on “behalf of” or “in place of” the believer.
Satan is a very dangerous enemy.
We are engaged in the spiritual battle of our lives.
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
The odds in such a spiritual battle are not very good if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
There can never be an armistice or truce in our spiritual warfare. From the moment we became believers in Christ Jesus we were made targets of the world, the flesh and the devil. There is never a moment when that is not true.
Why does the apostle Paul consider the believers “more than conquerors” in the spiritual battles? “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
The greatest lesson a Christian can learn is that nothing nor anyone can ever separate him from the love of Christ.
I have a missionary friend who had been in prison frequently. He was flogged severely, exposed to death again and again for the cause of Christ. He had been unmercifully beaten with a whip five times. Three times he had been beaten with rods, stoned once, shipwrecked three times and spent a night and day in the open sea before getting to shore. He had been is danger of swollen rivers, bandits along roads, in danger of both Jewish and non-Jewish government leaders, and traveled in dangerous areas in foreign countries. One day he said, “I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked” (2 Cor. 11:23-29).
That amazing Christian also wrote, “Who shall separated us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecutions, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8: 35) In effect he says, “None of the above or all of them together can separate us from the love of Christ.”
“Who is the one who condemns?” (Romans 8:34)
We know that Jesus Christ is pleading the case of the believing sinner in heaven. “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
Who condemns us? Quite often our own conscience accuses us. Our own thoughts and memories haunt us at times. People reinforce their own condemnation by trying to dull the conscience by the use of drugs and immoral behavior. But the truth is that one-day we will stand before God as Judge.
Satan accuses the Christian before God day and night (Rev. 12:10). Some of us really keep him busy. He just loves to rub God in the face with our sins. Every time we sin, he accuses us before God.
If you have never put your faith in the death of Jesus Christ to save you, you stand guilty before God (John 3:18-20).
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Romans 8:33)
This is one of the most important questions a person can ask. It is important that we get God's answer to this “unanswerable question.”
Since God has justified us, no charge can be brought against those whom God has chosen. The reason is because the Supreme Judge of the universe has acquitted the believing sinner, and He has also clothed him with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
“Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:33-34).
Because God has done for our good the greatest that is conceivable, will He not therefore provide all the other blessings we need?
The apostle Paul enjoys arguing from the greater to the lesser in Romans 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
“He who did not spare His own Son.” God gave His very best for us while we were yet depraved sinners (Romans 5:8).
God the Father is the One who gave up His Son for sinners. “His own Son” means that there is no other person who stands in this same relationship to the Father. Jesus called “God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18; cf. 14:10).
Since God is for us, who then can possibly stand against us?
The Psalmist wrote, "In God I will trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalms 56:11)
The prophet Elisha demonstrated to his companion that God is for us and can be depended upon to take care of His people. The enemy sent an army with horses, and chariots circling the city. The servant was filled with panic. "What shall we do?" Elisha counseled, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Elisha prayed, "'O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' And the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17-18). God blinded the enemy and provided deliverance (v. 19).
The question that haunts many people I meet is not the fact that God is able, but is God really for us? Does He really care? Would He do the same thing for us? How can we know that the great sovereign God of the universe is actually on our side today?
“Who can be against us?”
This is the first of several unanswerable questions the apostle Paul asked in Romans 8:31-39.
To be very honest there are days when I don’t have to look very far over my shoulders to give you the answer. The Apostle Paul suggests a most violent opposition: tribulations, distress, persecutions, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, principalities, etc.
The devil himself, Satan, is a powerful enemy of every Christian. He is “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). At times, like in the Garden of Eden, he calls God a liar, and at other times he is like an angel of light with beautiful wisdom. He would even deceive the elect if he were permitted.
The Christian's glorification describes their ultimate and complete conformity to the image of Christ Jesus.
It is the final link in the great golden chain of salvation and it is so certain that it is going to happen that the apostle Paul refers to it as having already happened (Romans 8:30).
Another great promise is given to us in Philippians 1:6. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
God makes us like His Son. To be glorified is another way of saying the believer will be "conformed" to the character of Christ which is God’s ultimate purpose for the Christian. No longer will the Christian "fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
The salvation of the true believer is so certain that God sees it as already done. The apostle Paul uses five verbs to outline what God has done in fulfilling His saving purpose. It is a golden chain of salvation that stretches from eternity past to eternity future.
God’s foreknowledge of the saved in Romans 8:29-30 is probably a reference to the election of the saved person. Believers are those God foreknew. Divine foreknowledge is a meaningful relation with a person based on God’s choice (Amos 3:2; Jer. 1:4-5). “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).
This eternal choice and foreknowledge involves the goal or final end of that relationship. The Bible says those whom God foreknew, those He also “predestinated to be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Romans 8:29). God determined beforehand the destiny of the believer. We will be conformed to the image of Christ (1 John 3:2). When all believers are made like Christ, our ultimate and complete sanctification, Christ will be “the Firstborn among many brothers.” As the ‘Firstborn’ He is in the highest position among others (cf. Col. 1:18).”
Have you responded to the effectual call of God to salvation?
In his effort to encourage suffering Christians, the apostle Paul wrote, “For whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestinated to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and whom He predestinated, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).
This beautiful golden five-link chain of salvation demonstrates the awesome love and grace of God reaching down to poor, lost, depraved sinners and gives the assurance of eternal life.
The effectual call of God in salvation brings about regeneration, or spiritual birth in the person who is called. The effectual or specific call to salvation comes through the general call by means of the preaching of the good news in Jesus Christ to a lost world. It is through the preaching of the gospel that God calls sinners. As the Word of God is preached some seed falls on stony, shallow ground, and some on good soil. God prepares the soil and gives life. The seed that sprouts and takes up root in the good soil results in a spiritual harvest and people are saved.
The second golden link in the chain of salvation is predestination.
Like foreknowledge, predestination is one of those Biblical doctrines that provokes many a discussion, but when accepted becomes a great source of assurance of salvation.
It may not seem like all things are working together when we look at our circumstances, but when we get eternity into the picture it all comes together and we see God at work. He is behind the scenes accomplishing His eternal purpose.
Charles Hodge said, “Believers are called in accordance with a settled plan and purpose of God, for whom He calls He had previously predestinated.” God is at work causing all things to work together for good to those who love God, for the plan of God cannot fail.
God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our lives to accomplish His eternal purpose.
How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are five to begin our quest. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).
That is what God does for us out of His infinite love and grace. God foreknew. God predestined. God called. God justified. God glorified. God saves!
How does God cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose? The chain of divine action demonstrates how He accomplishes this “good.” What is this good purpose of God? God is saving a body of people who will be made like Jesus Christ.
Where is God at work in your life? Are you going through some deep hurt, pain or suffering? Could God perhaps be doing a special work through your present circumstances?
One of the greatest promises in the Bible is found in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes” (New International Version). The New American Standard Bible reads: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
There have been many times in my life when I have paused and stood back in amazement and reflected on how God works in all things of our good and His glory.
“I am convinced that nothing in this world happens outside the will of God—literally nothing. There are no failures, and there are no loose ends in the ultimate plan of God.” Do you agree or disagree with that statement? Why?
Someone correctly said, “God is too kind to do anything cruel . . . Too wise to make a mistake, . . . too deep to explain Himself. When we know the Who we can stop asking, 'Why?’”
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:27-28, “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
The indwelling Spirit of God works in us in pray to cry out “Abba,” “Father, Daddy.” He helps us to endure sufferings so that we may patiently look forward to the final redemption of our bodies when we will see Jesus “with glory that is burst upon us” at His coming.
We are commanded in the Scriptures to “pray continually” (1 Thess. 5:17). When we pray we are petitioning the sovereign Creator of the universe and speaking to Him personally as we present our adoration, confessions, thanksgivings, and supplications to Him. He patiently listens to us and responds to us consistently out of His infinite wisdom.
Since that is true why is it so hard to pray? Why is prayer a problem even for mature Christians? The apostle Paul says it is because of “our weakness.” Phillips translates Romans 8:26, “The Spirit of God not only maintains this hope within us, but helps us in our present limitations.” The wonderful thing is His intercessions for the saints are always in harmony with God's will. He comes to our aid in our infirmities.
True Christianity "sets its affection on things which are above, not on things which are on the earth."
True Christianity is filled with hope. The second coming is “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), and “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). It is a “sure and certain hope” because of its specific content concerns the return of Jesus Christ.
God promises the Christian believer the resurrection of the body, the adoption of God’\'s children, and gathering of God's harvest at the end of time. The Christian's hope is confidence and security grounded on the sure Word of God, the Bible. Since God says this is coming about we can rest secure and confidently on His Word.
Life is full of pain, suffering and death. Each of us has our share of heartaches and hurts. Sometimes we groan under the load of suffering. In my daily ministry I see hundreds of poor people facing pain, poverty and suffering in Latin America.
The word for groaning is found only six times in the New Testament. In Romans 8:22, 23, 26 the word stenazo and its variants refer to three different things: creation groans (vv. 18-22), believers groan (vv. 23-25), and the Holy Spirit groans (vv. 25-30).
The apostle Paul tells us that creation groans (Romans 8:18-22). He is referring to the “non-rational creation, animate and inanimate.” Angels are not included because they were not subjected to the bondage of corruption. Satan and his demons are not included because they will not share in the freedom of glory of the children of God. The children of God are distinguished from the creation in vv. 19-23. The unbelievers are not included because they are not characterized by an earnest expectation of hope in the coming of Christ. Rational creation is excluded in this passage. Paul tells us the “non-rational creation, animate and inanimate” creation “waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God” (v. 19). It “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now” (v. 22).
Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, absolute faith, philanthropy, martyrdom without God’s love in Christ results in nothing—absolute zero.
Go back and read again the greatest essay ever written on love. First Corinthians 13 always reminds me of the highest priority in the Christian's life. “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).
Why is this chapter so important for the growing Christian? It is an awesome portrait of Jesus Christ. Read through this chapter again substituting the name Jesus Christ in place of the word “love” or “charity.” It is marvelous portrait of Christ who models for us perfect love.
Our hope as Christians is our future glory. We will have a new body patterned after the glorified body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21). Our “hope of glory” is guaranteed by the present dwelling of Christ within the believer (Col. 1:27).
At the parousia, the second coming of Christ, those who died in Christ and the living believers will be given the final and full “redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). That body will be prepared for and suited to the final state of the Christian believer (1 Cor. 15:23, 26, 54). “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).
The apostle Paul tells us that we shall be included in the radiance of the coming glory, which will put into perspective the present sufferings we experience. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
The witness of the Holy Spirit gives evidence that if we are God’s “children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17).
The blessings of this great inheritance are reserved for us in heaven. It is being prepared for us now in heaven (John 14:1-3). It is a special place in the presence of God. There we will no longer be in a spiritual warfare with sin and the devil. We will be in the likeness of Jesus (1 John 3:1-3).
We belong to the Father as His heirs. He has loved us, redeemed us, adopted us and made us heirs by His grace. It is something He has done entirely for us of His own free sovereign will. But we also have God as our inheritance. The Psalmist said He is “my portion forever.” The LORD God is our inheritance.
The King of kings was on a cross.
Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross.
The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11).
A harmony of the Gospels shows that Pilate tried four times to set Jesus free. First, he sent Jesus to Herod when he realized Jesus was from Galilee and under his political jurisdiction (Lk. 22.6-12). Second, Pilate offered to punish Jesus without putting Him to death (Lk. 23:16, 22). Third, he desperately asked the people to choose Barabbas, the insurrectionist and revolutionary in the place of Jesus (Matt. 27:20-26; Mk. 15:6-15; Jn. 18:38-40), and finally, he tried to stir the crowd's pity by reducing Jesus to a bloody pulp by scourging Him (Jn. 19:1-5).
Our possession of the Holy Spirit is the very essence of what it means to be a Christian. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). Those who belong to Christ have the Holy Spirit living within them. Moreover, if you have Him indwelling you, you will live like Him (vv. 10-13).
We know that we are true Christians because of the Holy Spirit's presence in us, and because our lives have been changed by His indwelling presence.
Moreover, we have a new status and relationship with God. “All those who being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (v. 14). We have a new relationship to God; we are members of His family. Paul speaks of our being “sons,” “sonship,” “children,” “heirs,” and “co-heirs with Christ” (vv. 15-23).
“Who is a Christian?” I am asked that question often? “What is the gospel?” is another question often asked. Here is the answer the apostle Paul gives to these questions.
“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:9-11).
These verses should cause us to ask am I a Christian? Mere profession of faith is not enough. Am I really a Christian deep down in my soul? Where is the evidence? Has the Holy Spirit made me alive? Have I come to an intimate love relationship with Christ?
“The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7).
It is impossible for a person who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior to please God.
Two different mindsets have two entirely different end results. One produces peace with God and the other hostility toward God. Everyone needs to ask a critical question of ourselves: Is my mind dominated by “sinful nature,” or is it under the control of the Holy Spirit?
The sinful mind is hostile toward God. That is the result of total radical depravity. There is no way it can possibly please God.
The apostle Paul said, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God” (v. 8). “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God” (v. 8). It is hostile toward God. It hates God. It is impossible for anyone who is dominated by the flesh to gain divine approval.
Being a Christian is more than saying you agree with certain Christian teachings about sin and salvation. One is a Christian because he has been “born again.” Those who have received this spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit have their minds set on what God desires. Being a Christian is not having arrived at a certain standard of conduct for Christians. Again, it is to have a change in one’s thinking that affected the way we live.
The born again believer in Christ has an internal transformation by the Spirit of God. This dynamic change has affected his way of thinking. The born again Christian has his mind habitually set on the things of God and is pleasing Him. The unbeliever is set on the things of this sinful, selfish flesh.
The “law of the Spirit of life” (Romans 8:2) regulates and controls the Christian (v. 4). The Christian lives under a new controlling principle of his life. The Holy Spirit applies the finished work of Christ to our lives. We are not under the law because Paul tells us, “we have been put to death to the law through the body of Christ” and “have been discharged from the law” (7:7, 6).
“We are not justified by the manner of our walk, but by our being in Christ Jesus,” observed Spurgeon.
The most important question to ask ourselves is, “Am I in Christ?” If the answer is yes, then “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
The individual who is “in Christ Jesus” does not walk after the flesh, but after and in step with the Holy Spirit. He walks according to the guidance of the Spirit. To be “filled with the Spirit” is to be under the control of the Spirit. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to be yielded to Him. He has the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The result of our justification through faith in Christ is a new creation, no longer under the control of the flesh, but in the spirit, a spiritual person.
No, God does not eradicate the flesh. It is still there striving and warring against the spirit, and it will be there until the Christian is taken up into heaven to be with God.
The message of salvation becomes distorted and confused when we are told to “clean up your act and then God will save you.”
Justification is not sanctification. However, justification always leads to sanctification. We are not saved because we are good. We are saved because we are lost sinners who are not good. Jesus declares “no condemnation,” and then He sends us out to live a holy life. No one can clean up their life and then come to Jesus. It is always the other way around. He saves us, and then the Holy Spirit does a progressive work of sanctification in us for the rest of our lives.
The law was not able to produce righteousness in people in order for them to be saved. Jesus went to the cross and accomplished that for those whom He came to save. God saved us apart from good works so that we might be able to produce good works.
The death of Jesus dealt with our penalty for sin, the power of sin was broken, and then when He comes we will be removed from the presence of sin.
The Spirit of life is the life-giving Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the author and giver of life, and the life He gives is free of condemnation. There is now no condemnation for the believer in Christ because of the saving work of Christ which sets His people free from the law that condemns.
The principle on which the Holy Spirit works in the Christian’s life operates in power. He can do what the law could never do.
It is interesting the word Holy Spirit is found more often in chapter eight of Romans than in any other chapter in the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit is the “distinguishing mark” of the believer. His very presence in the Christian means defeat of the power of sin in the believer’s life. The Holy Spirit rules within the heart.
The Bible is very clear in its declaration that individuals who are not “in Christ” are lost and under condemnation. If you are not “in Christ Jesus” you have not escaped the condemnation and the wrath of God.
The apostle John wrote, “He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not judged” (John 3:18a). Paul wrote “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). John goes on to say, “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (v. 18b). The person who does not believe is already condemned and that condemnation of unbelievers is now in the present time.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
It is very unfortunate that there is a chapter division separating Romans 7:25 and 8:1. C. H. Spurgeon observes correctly: “We once heard a friend say, ‘I have gone out of seventh of Romans into the eighth.’ Nonsense! There is no getting out of one into the other, for they are one. I thank God with all my heart that since my conversion I have never known what it is to be out of the seventh of Romans, nor out of the eighth of Romans either. The whole passage has been solid truth to my experience. I have struggled against inward sin, and rejoiced in complete justification at the same time” (Sermons Preached in 1886 by C. H. Spurgeon, vol. xvii, p. 274).
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 7:25-8:1, NASB 1995).
There is no break in what the apostle says to the mature believer in this passage. To force a division is artificial.
The very heart of the Gospel can be stated in the words of the apostle Paul, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
As sinners we justly deserve condemnation in our unregenerate state. Our trespasses and sins condemn us. However, God in His grace declares, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It is a declaration of acquittal based on the substitutionary death of Christ. Our eternal security and safety is found in the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
“No condemnation” (katakrima) refers to the punishment following the sentence, i.e., the punishment, doom. Christ bore our punishment on our behalf on the cross. He paid it all in full for us. The verdict was guilty and the punishment was death. “The wages of sin is death.” No punishment is inflicted upon us because of what Christ did on our behalf as our substitute.
Romans chapter eight gives a resounding triumphant song that comes forth from the anguishing question, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Paul shouts “No condemnation”! “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
The opposite of condemnation is justification. There is now not even one bit of condemnation for the person who is “in Christ Jesus.” There is “no condemnation” now, and there never will be condemnation for those who are “in Christ.”
The apostle boldly declares with a powerful statement the believer's perfect eternal security in Jesus Christ. The chapter begins with “no condemnation,” and ends with “no separation,” and in between is “no defeat.” Nothing, and no one “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).
Great saints down through history of Christianity have never bragged, “How good I am,” but “Get away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). That is the authentic lament of the true Christian.
The apostle Paul shares with us in Romans seven the intimacy of his own struggle. The emotion reveals personal involvement. I love the personal honesty of the apostle Paul. I wish more of us preachers in our day were as honest.
What happens to the believer when he sins? What we see in Romans seven is the mature believer and how he responds to the sin that dwells within him.
I have never met a completely sinless Christian, and neither had the apostle John (1 John 1:7-10).
Now that we have come to know Jesus Christ personally we must live differently (2 Cor. 5:17). God is at work in us, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure,” so we must allow Him the freedom to work within us.
In Romans chapter seven the apostle Paul is sharing with us his own experience as a mature Christian. I know who the man in Romans seven is; I deal with him every day! It is the Christian's continuing conflict with sin which he shares, and he reminds us that there is no victory in our struggles apart from the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. The mature Christian is always in Romans 7, and apart from the daily work of the Holy Spirit in the believer he cannot live the Christian life (Rom. 8).
Victory comes only as we make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit. There is the continuing presence of sin in us through our bodies and we will struggle with it all the days of our life on this earth. We cannot win the battle with sin in our own strength. The mature Christian believer continually struggles against indwelling sin, and he will do so until he is done with this present life.
The fascination of the forbidden is the greatest lure of sin.
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 7:11 that sin deceives the sinner. The end result of course is death.
Sin deceives in such a way that it causes the sinner to completely lose the way. It gives a false impression, whether by appearance, statement or influence that everything is ok. No one ever receives the full satisfaction that the lure of sin promises.
Sin tricks us into thinking that so long as we have not sinned outwardly and visibly everything is right between us and God. The Word of God informs us differently because God discerns the thoughts, attitudes and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12-13). Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). Our thoughts and attitudes are radically depraved and these lead us to sinful behaviors.
The apostle Paul makes it very clear, if we are saved, we are “in Christ.” If we are “in Christ,” He is in us and His life within us will inevitably turn us from sin to a life of righteousness.
God loved us and Jesus died for us so that we might be holy. “God saved us that we who believed on Christ, once lost in sin, might live a holy life.” This new union of the believer with Christ produces holiness.
There is no higher privilege in life than to bear the name of Jesus Christ and be known as a Christian. Therefore, because of this new relationship with Him we must strive constantly to live a holy life. We are sons and daughters of the King of the universe. God the Father claims us as His children because of the atoning death of Jesus Christ. There is no status greater than this on earth. How then do we dare act like the children of the devil? We are now “members of God's household” (Ephesians 2:19).
How many of my sins are covered by the atoning death of Jesus Christ? Is His death on the cross sufficient to cleanse me of every sin? Can His death alone be trusted to bring us to God?
The apostle Peter wrote of Jesus who “died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
The very thought should cause us to break forth with shouts of praise to the LORD God. When we focus our faith on Christ who suffered for our sins on the cross it should cause us to worship with all our personal being.
The blood of Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to accomplish all that God purposed to achieve for our eternal salvation. The death of Christ shall never fail to fulfill the eternal purpose for which God proposed for our redemption.
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
A just God must deal with sin, and this He did in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins. Any system of religion that fails to take this Bible doctrine seriously or that denies it is inadequate to justly deal with our sins. God saves and maintains His justice by the atoning death of Jesus Christ. How can there be full justice and mercy at the same time? Only at the cross of Jesus Christ is it possible.
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
Paul used a simple illustration of marriage law to show how Christians have been freed from law in order to be married to Jesus Christ. His antagonists had raised question, “But what about the law?” “Doesn’t salvation by grace through faith lead to immorality?” Legalists still argue the same point, “Doesn’t the gospel you are preaching annul the law or set it aside?”
Paul's argument is that the law is fully honored and satisfied in the good news of God's free justification of the sinner based on the atoning death of Christ. The very salvation God provides in Christ fulfills the law. Moreover, it liberates those who have been held in its bondage so they can produce righteousness.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is revolutionary. It changes people's lives for the good, and it delivers them from the wrath of God.
We were slaves to sin. None of us was born in righteousness. We were born slaves in a miserable condition in which we could never deliver ourselves.
The individual who has put his trust in Christ has died to sin, and been made alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:1-23).
One of the greatest summaries of the good news in Jesus Christ is found in Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Holiness. The word frightens most people. Even Christians fear the word. Perhaps that is because religious people have abused the word.
Holiness is mandatory in the life of a true Christian. I am not pretending that we can be perfect in this lifetime or reach a point in our lives where we will no longer sin (Phil. 3:12-14). The Bible does not teach sinless perfection in this life time (1 John 1:8-10; 2:1-2). Moreover, the Bible clearly teaches that we must walk in the Holy Spirit (Gal. 4:6-7; 5:16-26). It is the work of the Spirit to conform us to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. The third person of the Godhead's very name is “Holy.”
God's goal in saving us is to make us holy unto the Lord. God saves us so that we who were dead in trespasses and sins might live a holy life.
The word “salvation” is an all-embracing term. It testifies that God is good. The greatest thing God can do for the sinner is to change his estate from one of condemnation, being dead in sins, to being “in Christ” and “conformed to the image of His Son.”
God has done something about our sin problem, and does not want us to perish even though we fully deserve His eternal condemnation. However, God loves us and wants to give us eternal life.
He took the initiative in our salvation. All of salvation is the work of God. It is not man made. All that the sinner can do is receive from the hand of God His free gift.
A number of things in the divine work of salvation were accomplished in the moment you confessed your sins and placed your trust in the saving work of Christ Jesus.
Free to serve God sounds like a paradox.
Only God is totally free. There is no such thing as absolute freedom for anyone other than God. No human being is absolutely free to do anything and everything he may want to do. Every individual is limited by or enslaved by someone or something. No one is autonomous.
We are either slaves in bondage to sin or servants of Jesus Christ. However, to be a slave of Jesus Christ is to enjoy true freedom.
Everything in the Christian life depends upon what Christ has done for us on the cross, and what He continues to do in and through us as He lives His life in us. Not only has He died for us, but also through a mystical union of the believer with Him we are “in Christ,” and He is “in you.”
The most important principle of sanctification is counting as true what God Himself has already done for us. We are to count as true what is, according to God's Word, true.
The key to our progressive sanctification is in knowing that God has taken us out of Adam and has joined us to Jesus Christ. We are no longer subject to the reign of sin and death, but are now transferred to the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul says our responsibility is to “consider [reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
Proof that a person knows Christ as his Savior is not found in sinless perfection. The Bible does, however demand a changed life as evidence that a person has received new spiritual life from God.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
There is the constant tension between the lust of the flesh and the desire to be under the control of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17). From the moment we are saved by grace through faith we are made a new creation in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The old nature is not eradicated when we believe on Christ, but we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and grow in Christ-likeness (3:26-29; 4:6; 5:22-26; 6:14).
The very same all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ that enabled God to save us is sufficient to keep us saved for all eternity.
Does sin have the power to set at naught the saving power of God? Is it possible for the power of sin to be more powerful than the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God?
The LORD God has effectively dealt with every sin that has ever been committed (Heb. 9:11-12; 10:10-14). The Son of God is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He was not just any person dying on a cross, but the sinless Son of God who was giving Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for all who would call upon His name.
God takes sin seriously. Sin is a terrible thing in the Christian's life. That is why God did not overlook sin, but dealt with it in one complete stroke of judgment by sending Christ to die for us on the cross.
Now that we have been saved by grace can we live any way we so please? Can we sin it up now that our fire insurance has been paid in full?
The apostle Paul responded to that arrogant attitude saying, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2).
We died to sin. “Died” is in aorist past tense, indicating a once for all death in a judicial sense. We legally died (vv. 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 18). It refers to a single action that has taken place and has been completed in the past.
Can we lose our salvation by sinning? Does God withhold His grace because of sin? Do we forfeit grace when we sin? Is it reduced because of our inability to keep from sinning?
Those are serious questions if we truly believe that God saves us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
“The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). “Where sin thus multiplied, grace immediately exceeded it” (NEB). “Though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God His grace is wider and deeper still” (Phillips). The flood of grace surpassed the flood of sin. No matter how great human sin becomes, God’s grace overflows beyond it and abundantly exceeds it.
“Grace is neither withheld nor reduced because of sin.”
I have been asked many times if a born again believer can fall from the grace of God since Galatians 5:4 says, “you have fallen from grace.”
The context of that statement is Jewish teachers who emphasized that a person had to keep the Law of Moses to be saved had confuse the Christians in the church at Galatia. They were insisting that all non-Jews must be circumcised and become Jews first. The apostle Paul had taught them clearly that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ (Gal. 1:10; 2:16-21; 3:1-14, 22-29; 5:5-6). Paul wrote his letter to the church admonishing the believers to stand firm against the bondage of legalism. The immediate context states Paul's conviction clearly, “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:2-4).
Saved by grace. Those are the most beautiful words to a sinner's ears.
Grace is the sweet sovereign favor shown to someone who does not deserve any favor, but the exactly the very opposite.
It is in grace that God has worked to deliver us from eternal punishment and give us His very best in life.
God's Sovereign Choice in Grace teaches us that God is sovereign in His election of sinful man. It demonstrates that man is a depraved sinner and there is nothing in man to merit or earn a right relationship with God.
The King of kings was on a cross.
Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross.
The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11).
A harmony of the Gospels shows that Pilate tried four times to set Jesus free. First, he sent Jesus to Herod when he realized Jesus was from Galilee and under his political jurisdiction (Lk. 22.6-12). Second, Pilate offered to punish Jesus without putting Him to death (Lk. 23:16, 22). Third, he desperately asked the people to choose Barabbas, the insurrectionist and revolutionary in the place of Jesus (Matt. 27:20-26; Mk. 15:6-15; Jn. 18:38-40), and finally, he tried to stir the crowd’s pity by reducing Jesus to a bloody pulp by scourging Him (Jn. 19:1-5).
Both Peter and Judas committed the same sin. They both denied their Lord and Master.
But why did one go to heaven, and one go to hell?
The Gospel writer Matthew is careful to compare and contrast the fall of Peter and Judas. Both men failed badly. The fall of Peter was temporary, while the fall of Judas was permanent. One is in heaven, and the other is in hell.
Both men confessed their sin and failure, but only one repented and put his faith in Christ.
At the Jewish trial of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas found himself in a dilemma. He was losing his case before the Roman governor Pilate. The evidence did not add up. The false witnesses did not agree with one another (Mark 14:59; Matt. 26:59-62).
The star witness did not show. According to Jewish law, Judas who arranged for the arrest of the offender had to be the person to make the formal legal accusation. Because Judas realized he had betrayed innocent blood he did not arrive at the hastily arranged trials and the Sanhedrine lost valuable time trying to come up with witnesses to sustain their accusations. By not being at the trial Judas was actually testifying the opposite that Jesus was innocent.
Can a person once saved ever be lost again?
Our question relates only to the person who is saved in the true Biblical sense.
Eternal life is the gift of God. If one has it, he has it for eternity.
The true child of God has received eternal life and is already a citizen of heaven. From the moment he is saved, he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by Christ. He has been regenerated and sealed by the Spirit. He is a new creature by the recreative power of God.
At the heart of the question is the eternal purpose of God. In the eternal past the believer was in the thought and purpose of God. The born again believer was “chosen in Him before the foundation of the earth.” God the Father elects the believer
Was the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross all-sufficient for God to save the sinner? Was His sacrifice sufficient for God to justly keep the sinner saved? Is God lacking in wisdom and power to fulfill His eternal purpose for the saved sinner?
Ultimately the question of eternal security is reduced to a question of the all-sufficiency of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross.
If the person who has received eternal life by believing on Christ is ultimately lost then we must conclude that God is impotent and the sacrifice of Christ is not sufficient to save the depraved sinner. One would have to conclude that the Sovereign LORD God would have to submit to a power greater than Himself that He has created.
The eternal purpose of God for the sinner is that we be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 3:10; 1 Jn. 3:2). Could our great God and Savior be so careless as to what becomes of the person He has so loved and sent His Son to die for on the cross?
Jesus said to His disciples, “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:19-20).
Jesus was speaking of His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1-3). God the Father sent the Spirit so that the members of the body would be joined to their Head in a living union. The indwelling Holy Spirit today unites believers to Christ.
The greatest possible incentive to live the Christian life is to realize that you have a perfect standing with God in Christ Jesus. We no longer strive vainly to make ourselves acceptable to God. We have been “made acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” We are already “accepted in the Beloved” because of His death for us on the cross. We are now made the righteousness of God in Christ, and that right relationship with God will abide without change throughout eternity. Relying upon that great Biblical truth gives peace that is beyond all comprehension.
Salvation is the work of God alone. It is comes from Him as a free gift. Salvation is of God, and man’s responsibility is only to receive it freely as a gift from His hand.
The salvation of man is the display of the power of God for His glory alone. No part of our salvation is dependent even in the slightest degree on human effort.
Only God can perform what He requires of man to be saved. We are blind to spiritual truths (2 Cor. 4:3-4). He requires a new creation because man is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-2). God requires a spiritual birth, which only He can perform (Jn. 3:3). We are powerless to bring about such a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
It is an age-old question, but perhaps more important now than ever before.
The heart of the apostle Paul can be expressed with the words: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Jesus Christ was the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” “He bore our sins in His body on the tree.” “He was made sin for us.” “Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “He is the propitiation for our sins.” “He tasted death for every man.”
All of these statements from the Scriptures describe the substitutionary nature of the death of Jesus Christ. Because of His death, the believing sinner is placed in God's estimation beyond his own execution, and the ground of condemnation is forever past (John 3:17-21). God sees us as having been punished for our sins in Christ's death.
The greatest message God has ever delivered to sinful man is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the declaration of the righteousness of God, and a demonstration that God is both “just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
The proof of the steadfast righteousness of God was made in the cross of Jesus Christ. God had declared that He is righteous and holy (Isa. 6:3). He cannot and will not tolerate sin in His presence (Ezek. 18:4, 17-18, 20, 30, 32).
The greatest divine problem is how can God be just and at the same time love a sinner and allow him into His holy presence? The cross reveals God’s holiness, righteousness and hatred of sin. It also demonstrates the depth of His love and integrity.
The Lord God has chosen to fully reveal Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has done it in such a way that a finite mind might grasp the essential truth of God's infinite being (Rom. 1:19-20).
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). We have come to know God's love “because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
God declared His love in the cross of Jesus Christ, and we need never question it ever aga
How does God view the individual who has never put his faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior?
The Bible describes the estate of the unsaved person as a “children of disobedience,” “dead in trespasses and sins,” “lost,” “perishing,” “condemned,” “under the wrath of God,” “blind,” “in the powers of darkness,” “loves spiritual darkness,” “under the control of Satan,” “disobedient to God,” etc. (John 3:18-20, 36; 8:44; Eph. 2:1-2; Mk. 7:21-33; Rom. 5:19; 1:29-32; 3:10-18; Gal. 5:19-21).
The lost person is spiritually blind to the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3-4; Jn. 3:3). Therefore, he sees little value in the demand of the Bible to have a personal faith in the saving power of God in Christ.
Old Bishop John Ryle said truthfully: “It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, and the desire to keep in touch with the world. This is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck. They do not object to any article of the Christian faith. They do not deliberately choose evil and openly rebel against God. They hope somehow to get to heaven at last, and they think it proper to have some religion. But they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world. And so after running well and bidding fair for heaven while boys and girls, they turn aside when they become men and women and go down the broad way which leads to destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses and end with Demas and Lot's wife.”
Jesus Christ came to redeem man from his self-centered life, and to bring us back to a right relationship with God that we may serve Him “for whom are all things and through whom are all things.” The Creator is also the Redeemer. God's plan was to bring “many sons to glory,” i.e., to bring many to a saving relationship with Himself through the atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ who is the Leader in bringing “many sons” to God.
The last petition in the Model Prayer looks to the future when we pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
That is a prayer that every believer should pray daily because we are all vulnerable to succumb to temptation. One wag said truthfully, “If a man wakes up and finds his house on fire, he does not sit in a chair and write or read a treatise on the origin of fires in a private house; he sets to try to extinguish the fire and to save his house.”
Where is the fire in your house? Each one of us has a different spot of vulnerability. What is a brutal temptation for one person, may leave another one unmoved, and vice versa. Every person has a weak spot which if he is not careful can ruin his life.
Why is it so hard to forgive?
Only a person committed to Christ dare pray this prayer. "Forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12 NET).
These are the most frightening words in Christianity.
This part of the prayer wakes us up spiritually and make us think about what we are saying.
Do we have an unforgiving spirit? If things are not right with other people, how can they be right with a holy God?
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
Jesus takes our physical needs seriously. In the Model Prayer He teaches us to look to our heavenly Father to supply our immediate needs. Jesus encourages us to continually depend on God for all the essentials in our daily life. Whatever is necessary to sustain life is what we are to request.
The second half of the prayer moves from God's holy name, God's kingdom and God's will to the provision of our personal needs in vv. 11-13. Jesus tells us to pray for life's necessities, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from temptation and evil.
“Give us today our daily bread” (v. 11). God wants us to pray for whatever we need to sustain our physical lives including food.
You Kingdom Come
The “Lord’s Prayer” is found in John 17; Matthew 6:9-13 is properly called “The Model Prayer” because it teaches us how to pray. Jesus did not say, “Pray in these words,” but “Pray after this manner.” Use it as a pattern for sincere prayers.
Jesus instructs us on how to use God's name in prayer, to pray for His kingdom and His will be done in our lives. If we learn to pray in this manner we will live this way daily.
Our prayers should always honor God's holy name and character. They should always be in submission to His will. Our one supreme passion should be to bring honor and glory to His name.
Augustine said, “Prayer calms and purifies the heart and makes it more capacious for receiving the Divine gifts. God is always ready to give us His light, but we are not always ready to receive it. By prayer we open channels through which blessings, which are always ready, may flow.”
Have you ever caught yourself trying to impress others by the way you pray or what you say to God?
Prayer is not a means of impressing other people. What a tragedy when communion with God is reduced to carnal religious egotism.
Jesus declared the highest possible standard for His followers: they must be “perfect.” “You be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The righteousness that Jesus demanded is nothing less than complete conformity to God’s perfect law in everything a person is and does (22:34-40). Jesus is concerned, not only with our behavior, but with the righteousness of the heart, also. The scribes and Pharisees considered only the outward compliance (5:20). With Jesus’ standard who would ever claim to have reached it?
The very nature of the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount drives us to despair of ourselves in living this kind of life so that we will turn in faith to Jesus Christ and find new life in Him to live as He lived.
The Holy Spirit produces this kind of life in the believer as we make ourselves available to His indwelling presence. God produces in us by His power what we cannot do ourselves.
No one can live up to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Many have tried to, but it exposes our spiritual depravity.
A proper view of the Sermon on the Mount always points to God’s grace, and then tells us how we are to live as God’s redeemed people. When we examine the nature of the kingdom of God we realize our depravity, and our need for the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This sermon of Jesus forces us to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, and then demonstrates how we are to live as believers. When we study it we realize that we cannot possibly live up to its demands without God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.
Here is a description of the person who has received the special favor of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This person lives above the chances, changes and circumstances of life. What are the spiritual characteristics of someone who is blessed by God?
“Follow Me!”
Those two words together form a command found thirteen times in the Gospels. Jesus used those two simple words when He called Peter, Andrew, James and John to be His disciples (Matthew 4:19). “And immediately they left their nets, and followed Him” (v. 20). Jesus called the tax collector Matthew in a similar manner. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me!” “And he arose, and followed Him” (9:9).
The words mean immediate detachment from personal interests and attachment to Christ. Implied in the call of Jesus was a turning from sin to Him in order to be saved.
Even after Jesus had risen from the dead, while the disciples were on a fishing trip, Jesus told Peter, “Follow Me!” (John 21:19). There are many references to individuals following Jesus.
There is no other way to say it. Christianity is Christ.
Christianity is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. If the focus is on anything else it is not Christianity. That great truth is stated throughout the New Testament. In fact, everything in the Old Testament leads up to that great truth regarding His person and work.
The apostle Peter was one of the first individuals to accept that great fact. Jesus asked the question, who do the people say that I am? (Matthew 16:13). The disciples had been with the people and they told Jesus what they had heard. Some said He was John the Baptist risen from the dead, others that He was the prophet Elijah, some said He was the prophet Jeremiah.
Then Jesus asked the real question. “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). Peter spoke up for the whole group saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).
How are individuals made alive spiritually?
Jesus said, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3 NET).
The Bible teaches us that we become a child of God only through the new birth. Those who believe on Jesus Christ become God’s children. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
By whose authority do we become the children of God? “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right . . .” It is the authority of Jesus Christ. Those who believe on Him have the right to become the children of God.
How do I know that God has fully accepted the death of Jesus Christ as payment for my sins?
“When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He rose, He rose as my representative, and I rose in Him. . . . I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know that the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins may have been. My sins may have been as high as the mountains, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that covers them is as high as heaven. My sins may have been as deep as the ocean, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that swallows them up is as deep as eternity” (R. A. Torrey, The Bible and Its Cross, pp. 107-08).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof that the LORD God has accepted the full payment for our sins in the death of His Son. God is fully and completely satisfied with the atoning work Jesus did on the cross for my sins because He raised Him from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that every believer in Christ is justified by faith, and cleansed by His blood of all their sins (Heb. 12:1-2; Phil. 2:8-11). It is the evidence from God Himself that the penalty for our sins has been paid in full by the death of Jesus Christ. By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God declared that He has accepted the death of Jesus as an atonement for our sins.
The gospel of grace does not nullify God’s Law; it fulfills it. In fact, it is the only way the Law of God could possibly be fulfilled.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? . . . . It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. . . . For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Romans 6:1; Galatians 5:1, 13).
The highest motivation for living the Christian life is the result of God’s sacrificial love for us. If we love Him we will keep His commandments (Jn. 14:15).
Just like in the vows of a wedding we can express our faith to Christ who died for us, demonstrating His great love for us. We love Him because He first loved us.
One of the best illustrations of this commitment I have ever read was by C. H. Spurgeon. He said Christ Jesus vows to us: “I, Jesus, take you [whoever you may be; put your own name in the space], to be my wedded wife; and I do promise and covenant before God the Father and these witnesses gathered here, to be your loving and faithful Savior and Bridegroom: in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, in this life and for all eternity.”
With a true conversion experience we vow to Him in a similar manner: “I, [whoever you are; add your own name], take You, Jesus, to be my loving Savior and Lord; and I do promise and covenant, before God the Father and these assembled witnesses, to be your loving and faithful wife: in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, for this life and for all eternity.”
The Bible is God’s perfectly inspired word. The written Word testifies to God’s self-revelation in His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. All Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is a clear testimony to Jesus Christ. The Bible is not just a record of revelation of God, but it is revelation itself, and it is an infallible witness of God to men.
"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever" (Isa. 40:8). There is nothing like the abiding Word of God.
This is why it is so important for us to examine God’s Word and seek to understand it and its authority in the believer’s life.
I often hear people say, “I am afraid I don’t know if I have enough faith.” How much faith do you need in order to be saved?
The Bible does not teach that you are justified because of your faith. Faith is not works.
Faith is nothing more than the instrument to receive our salvation. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified on account of our faith. The Scripture says that we are justified by faith or through faith. Faith is nothing but the the channel by which this righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. It is not our faith that saves us.
What saves us is the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect saving work. It is the death of Christ upon Calvary's Cross that saves us. It is God putting Christ's righteousness to our account that saves. Faith is only the channel and the instrument by which His righteousness becomes mine (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 4:24). The righteousness that saves is entirely Christ's. My faith is not my righteousness and I must never define or think of faith as righteousness. Faith is nothing but that which connects us to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
The most precious title of Christ is Redeemer.
It helps us to understand what it cost Him to get this salvation for us. It is the name specifically of the Christ of the cross. He is Christ our Redeemer.
Whenever we say "redeemer," the cross is flashed before our eyes and our hearts are filled with loving remembrance not only that Christ has given us salvation but the mighty price He paid for it.
During the first century slaves could be purchased out of the market place by payment of a price. It was also necessary to pay a price to free a prisoner.
According to the Bible we are slaves to sin, and we cannot escape from this slavery...
Because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, God gets all the glory.
Salvation is a free gift because it is a receiving of God’s righteousness apart from any human doing. Since we are saved by grace as a gift of God, all the glory goes to God alone. There will be no human praise in heaven.
Christianity is a unique religion because it is not man made. It is the revelation of God.
“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe” (Romans 3:21-22). The reason God does it that way is because it is impossible for sinners to save themselves, “for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (vv. 23-24).
What is the most important thing you have ever learned?
The issues of eternity hang on the great truth that salvation is received by grace alone, through faith alone in the saving work of Jesus Christ alone. God has provided His own righteousness for sinful men and women. The righteousness of God is all that God demands and approves. This righteousness of God is ultimately found in Christ alone because Christ met and fulfilled in our place every requirement of the Law. Christ has become our righteousness, and the righteousness of all who believe on Him.
The righteousness of God has been revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and God has made it available to us sinners. The righteousness that we need comes from God, and it is accounted to us by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
We need His righteousness in order to be saved because we cannot live up to His perfect standard. The perfect righteousness that God requires is the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and it comes to us from God and is received as a free gift. If God did not give us His righteousness, as a gift there is no way we could ever possibly be saved. It is His gift to those who will humble themselves, confess their need and call upon His name alone to be saved. No one can satisfy God's perfect standard by his self-righteousness.
Let’s suppose for a moment that you died today and stood before the Lord God and He asked you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say? What do you think you would say?
That is one of the most important questions you can ask a person regarding their salvation. James Kennedy got the idea from Donald Grey Barnhouse who asked the same questions in a slightly different wording. “What right do you have to come into God’s heaven? What would be your answer?”
I like those questions because they force us to clarify our thoughts about salvation.
We are saved by unmerited grace. "For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9 NET).
Saving grace of God is a gift that is received only through faith in Jesus, apart from any human merit. We do not deserve grace, for if we did it would not be grace. The only thing we deserve is the full outpouring of God’s just wrath upon us for eternity. If it is not apart from good works and human merit, it is not saving grace because God does not owe us anything.
Grace makes sinners humble in their own eyes, and as sinners we hate being humbled.
Grace puts everyone on the same level in the eyes of a holy God.
Jesus is God.
Therefore, he is uniquely unrepeatable.
We often say that a person is unique; there is no one in the world like so and so. There will never be another person like that person because of their talents, personality, creativity, etc. We say when God made so and so he threw away the mold.
But Jesus Christ is uniquely different from any other person who has ever lived.
No one else can know God as God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1-2).
There are no secrets with God. Adam and Eve learned that the hard way. The apostle Paul reminds us, “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16). The writer of Hebrews says, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13).
God in His infinite wisdom and grace gave Adam and Eve a grand opportunity to have dominion over all of His creation (Genesis 2:15). And in love He “commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you shall surely die” (vv. 16-17).
The gospel of your salvation is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Acts 3:26; 16:31; Rom. 1:16). The excellency in this so great salvation is in the person who saves the lost sinner. Jesus, the Son of God, is the salvation of Yahweh.
What is it from which we are saved? It is the wrath of God that every sinner deserves. The most frightful conception comes infinitely short of the most dreadful reality, observes A. W. Pink.
What are the benefits of so great salvation? It is the blessed fact of a full, free, and everlasting forgiveness of our sins, a perfect purity, and perfect relationship forever in the eternal presence of the LORD God (1 John 1:9).
Christians are to live in constant, conscious communion with Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ literally lives within you if you have put your faith in Him as your personal Savior.
The heart of Christian living is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Christ lives in you (Colossians 1:27). That is a fact that is true of every believer.
The uniqueness of Jesus Christ as God's Son is fully taught throughout the New Testament (John 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9; Hebrews 1:1-2). Christ is eternal and He is God (John 1:1; Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8). He existed before He was born because He existed from all eternity past (John 1:1-2; Phil. 2:6).
Jesus Himself both explicitly (Mark 12:1-12; 13:32; Matthew 11:25-27) and implicitly (John 20:17) taught His unique relationship with the Father as God's Son. He was recognized as the unique Son of God by demons (Mark 5:7), Satan (Matt 4:3, 6), and most importantly by His Father at His baptism and transfiguration (Mark 1:11; 9:7).
Jesus acted as one who possessed a unique authority over the temple by cleansing it (Mark 11:15-19, 27-33; John 2:13-21), over demons and Satan by His exorcisms, over disease by His healing people, over the Sabbath regulations by His actions on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28), over death by His raising the dead and at times even over the Law by His teachings (Matt 5:21-48; Mark 7:18-19).
In the New Testament backsliding is viewed as an individual problem, although it is possible for churches to become backslidden, too.
Why do Christians become backslidden? We all still possess the old nature that is “corrupt through deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22; Rom. 7:13-24; 1 Cor. 3:1-3). Lack of continuous fellowship by “abiding” in Christ results in a lack of spiritual vitality and ineffective Christian service (Jn. 15:4-8). There is no other way to live the Christian life except by maintaining an intimate fellowship with our Lord. If we do not maintain that vital contact with Him we cannot sustain spiritual growth and effectively minister in His name.
When Christ died on the cross the work of salvation was completed and Christ provided access for all believers into God’s holy presence. Therefore, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
God is a real person and our relationship with Him can be cultivated as with any other relationship. We have been saved to live in fellowship with Him. We can enjoy the riches of the Christian life only as we grow in intimacy with Christ. The presence of our Lord in our lives brings this intimacy and these riches in glory with Him.
The main argument of the Epistle of Hebrews is that “we have a great High Priest” (Heb. 4:14; 1:3; 2:17f; 3:1; 4:14-12:3). Jesus has passed through the upper heavens to the throne of God (1:3). The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that Aaron was a “high priest,” but Jesus Christ is “the great High Priest.” No Old Testament priest could ever assume that awesome title