Church jottings 2022-10-02

 

 Today's sermon from WSFC: living in step with the Gospel

Galatians 2:11–16 

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)

•  Cyndi opened service this morning, and I really appreciate how she spoken about the Lord's Table as the "best meal" in our lives. In other traditions it's called the Eucharist, which comes from the word "to celebrate", and that seems very fitting. Should there be some somber reflection on the death of our Lord? Yes, but moreover it is right that we rejoice in such love as we proclaim his sacrifice for us.
  

•  I'm thankful the heaven won't be overly repetitive, but that we have so many myriad ways now and forever to worship and enjoy our God. He created (and allows us to use as tools in worship) multi-part musical harmony, and physical symbols like the Lord's supper, and poetic use of words in lyrics and oratory to convey beauty and power, and bodily movement like dancing and upraised hands and weeping, and...
  

•  The sermon continues Galatians and the point that we are set free from the law to live in grace, yet that doesn't mean that our actions don't matter. We cannot be saved by our actions or morality (Trent did a great job of defining "works of the law"), but our lives should be in step with the Gospel. Not only should we not deny the Gospel in word or deed, but we should live in such a way that positively affirms it.
• As an aside, the division of the OT law into ceremonial/civil/moral is, in my opinion, forced onto the Bible from an outside thought and not something we see anywhere related in the Scriptures themselves. We don't have to obey any sort of law, even the "moral" ones, to be right with God. Rather, if God has made us new and given us hearts to love him, etc., we do these things because that's how we love our Father and walk with Him, not because of any legal obligation whatsoever. I think I have an older post about that, or I'll write one in the future; comment if interested.
  

• The opening of this text shows both the need for loving confrontation and the grounds for it. 
• We should work things out, even sometimes heatedly, with our brothers and sisters (cf. Matt 18), wherever possible. The prohibition on gossip is good, if sadly and infuriatingly abused by some who call gossip what is not. I have a whole essay on this I'll share another time; comment if interested.
  
• On the other side, Paul isn't eagerly seeking confrontation over trivialities. He addresses Peter's problem "because he stood condemned." And if I stand condemned, is it not loving (to me and to those affected by me) to point that out and call me back to the Way?
  
  
•   One of Trent's, and Paul's, main points is how ethnocentrism has no place in Gospel community. As I mentioned last week, this should really be gutted out of any American by the simple fact that as Paul is writing, we are the Gentiles, the outsiders, the ἔθνη (ethne), those far distant in culture and time and geography.
• I also appreciate how Trent mentioned the importance of sharing a meal. This wasn't some obscure or ancillary "who cares who you choose to eat with" thing. Think about it: what does it mean for you to take time to share a meal with someone? Who do you generally eat with? It's a source and sign of community, and fracturing the community by segregating our meal-mates is a huge problem if the Gospel bigger than these distinctions.
   
• The "road map" of tracing the Biblical themes of marriage and ethnicity and how they magnify the power and grace of God throughout redemptive history was glorious; go back to that part and listen to it, because a summary won't do it justice. A brief highlight or two:
• Marriage showing God's nature as unity in diversity is not something wholly new, but they way Trent articulated it hit me afresh.
• I wish time had permitted a bit more, especially because a (probably unintentional) gloss was made that seemed to imply that the "Christ as husband, Church as bride" was new to the NT. That imagery of marriage between God and His people (especially Israel as an unfaithful wife) is throughout the OT, too.
• The point about how at Pentecost, God didn't make everyone understand one language, but allowed everyone to hear in their own as an endorsement of diversity, was new to me and a point very well made.
  
  
• I mentioned last week about how "God shows no partiality" is both immensely important and really good news. Referencing 1 Tim. 5:21, Trent mentioned how prejudging and partiality are linked. The most clear-cut way of putting it for me is that partiality and prejudice have at their root a problem with assuming from a generality ("all X people are Y, and you're part of X, therefore you're Y") and of including irrelevancies (what difference does your nationality make about baking, or your gender about coding, or your ethnicity about the Gospel?).
• That last bit is I think where many of us can go astray. We make distinctions between people all the time, and their ought to be in many ways. I don't want a neurosurgeon who knows nothing of plumbing to install my sink, or a farmer to teach theoretical physics, or an atheist to help my marriage better reflect Christ and the church. But we should only include those things that are relevant, that directly impact the matter at hand, to be part of any decision-making and judgment.
  

• Trent mentioned the trap of "the fear of man" and well described it. 
• Because the Gospel is chiefly about the glory of God in the salvation of His people, we can't try to save people from sin by giving into ungodly opinions and beliefs.
• Trent's practical note seemed profound and wise: to get over people-pleasing, the best method may be disappointing someone for Jesus's sake (not for your own), surviving the damaged relationship, and realizing that you're still OK because Christ is with you.
  
• I prefer the old-school term vanity, and could (have?) written about the distinction between vanity and pride and true humility; comment if interested.
  
  
•  In dealing with hypocrisy (which iirc the Greek word is rooted/used for actors on a stage), the Gospel frees us from play-acting by separating our acceptance from our actions. If I don't have to act like I have it all together for God to accept me, then I can live in authenticity, neither hiding my struggles nor trapped by them.
•  God is glorified in our goodness and the transformation He brings in our lives toward righteous: this is absolutely true. But Christ is also glorified in our honest admission of our not-yet-fully-sanctified selves, our dependence on His grace for our remaining sins, and His abundant provision of mercy and help for us. We are out of step with the Gospel when we act like we have it all together, even if we attribute that to the Lord. We need not be afraid of showing our faults, because He is glorified in our weakness. We affirm the Gospel by living a life of constant returning to the cross and receiving the forgiveness and the new life that was bought costly and provided freely by our Savior, and doing so publicly.
  
  
•  During communion, I have a habit of taking the piece of bread I receive and breaking it, because its purpose is to remind me of the broken body of Christ. The bread breaks, never to be made whole, outside my power to fix, and only further to be broken as I eat of it. This is what Christ chose to do, to save even me. What struck me today was how, even though Jesus is fully capable of having a healed body, He chooses to maintain the ignoble scars of His crucifixion even unto eternity. When I consider the scars I have and those I've inflicted, I often shudder at the inescapable permanence of my sins, even beyond the power of forgiveness to completely wipe from the face of history and reality. But if the Son of God chooses to keep His scars for His greater glory and joy as my Savior, then perhaps He likewise plans the indelible mistakes of my story to bring a fuller weight of glory that surpasses the shame and reproach of them. Soli Deo gloria!
  

"out of darkness, into His light"

my sermon from youth sunday (10/31):



good morning, family, and happy reformation day. in paul’s first letter to timothy, he commands the young pastor to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” and that’s what we plan on doing today. in a few moments, a few of us will be reading through the first letter from john, because it’s a lot better than what you’d hear from me (though that may be an unfair comparison). but before we do, a little background.
when we were planning for this morning, the youth decided today’s theme should be light. now light is a prominent theme in the Scriptures. in the beginning, God said “let there be light,” and it was so. during the exodus, God led the israelites as a pillar of fire by night, giving them light. in the psalms, God’s Word is called “a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.” in Isaiah and the Gospel according to john, Jesus is often called the Light. we see this theme all the way to the last chapter of Revelation, where we are told that in the new jerusalem the people of God will “need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.” so from beginning to end, the Bible is filled with light, especially as a metaphor for God and His glory.
as we talked about this, my mind was immediately taken to 1 John. the apostle john, who wrote this letter toward the end of the first century, wrote it to various churches in the middle east, many of which had been long-established by this point. but as the case has been throughout every age, certain people were trying to lead the church astray through false teaching, and some of the followers of the Way (as Christians were called back then) had their faith shaken by these men. so john is writing for three main reasons. first, at the beginning of the letter, he says he is writing “so that our joy may be complete,” that is, so that he may rejoice in Christ in us. at the beginning of chapter 2, he states his purpose as “so that you may not sin.” then toward the end of the letter he says, “i write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” the original recipients would have first heard these words, as most of them couldn’t read. so as this letter is read to you, as it was to them, keep the apostle’s purpose in mind.
there are a few ancient traditions in the church that i’d like us to follow today, done out of respect for the Scriptures. first, when the last reader is done, she will say “this is the Word of the Lord,” and we will respond, “thanks be to God,” because this is truly God-breathed, and because we are grateful for it. second, if you are able stand a while, please stand with us for the reading of God’s Word.


you may be seated. now if none of you had any plans for the next few weeks, then perhaps i could treat this letter as it deserves. unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time, so i’ll summarize, and leave the rest to the Spirit and your own study. this letter constantly splits the world into two groups, and i think of all the ways that it describes these two, the best is in the middle of chapter 1, where they’re called darkness and light. john defines light for us: “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Who God is, His nature and character, are the definition of spiritual light.
darkness is also pretty easy to point out: it’s where light isn’t. in this letter, john often describes it as the absence of something; that those in darkness do not have the truth, are not of God, do not know God, do not love Him or have His love, and have no life in them. these are not pleasant things. and yet this is the world around us, and indeed, it is even in parts of us, where the light of God has not yet shined. i don’t know how much you follow pop culture, but have you noticed that it’s become cool to be “dark” and “edgy”? have you seen how many movies come out that are praised for their dark tone and their themes of darkness and death? our world seems to love darkness, to promote it. and this is fitting, for it says in john’s Gospel, “the Light [that is, Jesus] has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, because their works were evil.”
now if i took a poll, i imagine most of you would be with me in feeling some conviction as this letter was read. every time i’ve read through it, the Holy Spirit presses upon me how i’m not living up to the fullness of our calling. it makes statements like “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” and, “whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” now i must admit, i’ve failed at these things, regularly. i find myself at times looking like the rest of the world, loving the things of this world. i’ve done things, in secret and in public, that are neither righteous, nor loving to my brothers and sisters, and ultimately not honoring or loving to God. i’ve acted out of pride and lust and jealousy and greed. and now i’m reading this letter, which is supposed to assure me that i have been born of God and know Him, and i’m feeling ripped apart by it! and if we could be honest, i don’t think i’m alone here. i know there are those of you sitting out there who feel like i do in the reading of this letter. so has john failed? has the Spirit missed His mark in writing this?
the answer, brothers and sisters, is a resounding “no”. this book holds us to a high standard indeed. but don’t lose its main thrust. this letter, like the rest of the Bible is about one thing: the glory of the saving work of God in Christ on the cross, and all that that means for us. that’s why it says in chapter 1, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” and in chapter 2, “i am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” yes, he’s writing and instructing and exhorting so that we may not sin, for God will have no part with sinners. but that’s why Christ came! as john says in chapter 4, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” that is, Jesus is the wrath-bearing, righteousness-providing, God-appeasing sacrifice for where we’ve fallen short.
again, i say to you, that john writes these things to give us assurance of salvation, and for our joy to be full, and so we may not sin. and these three ends are one for the Christian. if you continue in sin, if you walk in darkness, then you will not have fullness of joy, which can be found only in God, and you will not be saved from judgment but prove that you are not of God. you will fall away from God, for sin is powerful in darkness, and like mold or germs it kills and spreads. so too sin, when left unconfessed, unrepented, will slowly kill you from the inside out. and “little” sins, hidden sins, will lead to “bigger” and public ones, ‘til one day the person you see in the mirror will reflect the devil more than Jesus. c.s. lewis said it better than i could, that each of us “may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree [moving to and] helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.” in every little act and thought, you are either growing in godliness, or feeding your sinful nature; becoming more like Jesus or like satan.
but Christ, the true light of the world, has come. in Him is the power to kill sin. so we are urged, and so i plead with you now, come into the light. walk with God. take the areas of your life that you’ve left in darkness, the ones that you’ve refused to let God in, and bring them into His wonderful light.
i’m not saying this is going to be easy. it’s going to hurt. there have been times, in confession to both God and man, where i have felt agony over the guilt and shame of what i’ve done. but Christ took away our guilt by nailing it to the cross. and we can’t let our shame win out over our pursuit of joy in God. we must imitate Jesus, “who…endured the cross, despising the shame,” as Hebrews tells us. why did He do it, and why should we? “for the joy set before Him.” Christ looked ahead to the new creation, with the throngs of the saved rejoicing around Him, and He said “that is worth this.” so we must say to shame, “i despise you. i will not obey you. i will confess and repent in spite of you, because my joy in God will be greater than anything you can do to me.”
i’m not expecting you to walk out of here perfect, never to sin again. God isn’t either. that’s why chapter three doesn’t say “no one born of God sins,” because even a good tree will bear a few bad apples. but what does it say? “no one born of God makes a practice of sinning.” it’s not talking about one time, even though that one instance would be enough to condemn us. it’s talking about those who sin over and over without remorse, without regret, without confession or apology. those who have not been born of God do not love Him, indeed they cannot, and so they make no effort to live for Him. but we who do love God seek to do as He commands, to trust Him and love our brothers. this is not only out of a sense of duty or obligation, but out of delighting in Him, wanting to know Him more. and when we fail, we feel awful, because we have offended Him about Whom we care most.
as i said earlier, today is reformation day. almost 500 years ago today, a young monk named martin luther nailed into a church door 95 statements about the Christian faith and our walk with Jesus. and the first of them is this: the whole of the Christian life is one of repentance. this means that until we see Jesus face to face, until He comes back or calls us home, we strive against sin. even the apostle paul confessed “not that i … am already perfect, but … one thing i do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, i press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” paul, and luther, and untold numbers of our brothers and sisters who have come before us got this: that in this life we fight, we make war on sin, that we may increase our joy in God and have closer fellowship with Him, now and into eternity.
so i invite you, come into the light. as james wrote, “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.” if you want to talk to someone afterward, look around you: we are brothers and sisters in Christ, here to love and do life with one another. it may be difficult, but it’s worth it.
one last thought: most of you are familiar with Christ’s saying, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” i would argue that one of the clearest ways to reflect the light of Christ in your life is to be open and honest about your sins, your failures, your screw-ups. i encourage you to ask for forgiveness from those you’ve wronged, and give it to those who have wronged you, and to let people see your sorrow and witness your turning from your mistakes and to Jesus. that’s part of walking in the light, and reflecting it to the world. let us encourage each other in these things, that God may smile upon us, and work among us, and that the world may know we follow King Jesus.

of first importance

below is my first sermon, preached today at plainfield first church of God, plainfield, pa.

---------------------------------

“now i would remind you, brothers, of the gospel i preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word i preached to you – unless you believed in vain. for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to cephas, then to the twelve. then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. then He appeared to james, then to all the apostles. last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.” ~1Cor. 15:1-8

---------------------------------

today i want to speak to you about something hopefully most of you know. today’s sermon should have little new for you, though perhaps it might clarify some things in your mind. the purpose of today’s message is not so that you will come away with some new knowledge, or with a new way to apply what you know, but that your hearts would be filled anew with love for our Savior, and that your affections would be stirred once more by His gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

as this is my first time preaching to you, i figured i’d start with what’s most important. the text that is the “launch pad” for today’s sermon has in it an important phrase: “of first importance”. the apostle paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls what we’re going to be looking at this morning the matter of first importance. so i figure i’ll start at the top, so if, God forbid, i only get one chance, i’ve preached to you on the best thing i could.

now what is this gospel that God places such emphasis on? paul starts it off with a person: Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became a man, who lived like we do yet without sin. this is the Guy who the whole Bible is about. paul then states a historical fact: Christ died. while the Gospel narratives in our Bibles speak much about Jesus’ life and earthly public ministry, in the summary here paul skips straight to the point of the matter. many of you have heard this countless times in your life, but let me remind you that this is not some fairytale or bedtime story, not some parable or fable to be learned from. Christ’s crucifixion is a historical event, in a place and a time and with witnesses, as are all the other events that paul mentions here. and for sake of time, i won’t go into how absolutely brutal Jesus’ death was at the hands of the roman executioners, but think on this: our word “excruciating” was invented because they needed a new word to describe the agony of death on a cross. he says later in this chapter that if these things are not true, if they are only nice ideas and not historical, physical reality, then everything we believe is in vain.

paul goes on to give not only the historical event but its theological meaning. he says, “Christ died for our sins.” now sin is a word we use a lot in the church, but it’s rarely used outside spiritual or ‘God-talk’ conversations. we tend to think about sin as a list of things we’re not supposed to do. you might think of the ten commandments: don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, and so forth. or we might think of sin as the reverse: not doing things we’re supposed to do. so if we don’t pray or we don’t act nicely to other people, we’re sinning. and all of that is pretty much true. but that falls short of what the Bible means by sin, because it’s not just about what you do, it’s about who you are. it’s not just our actions that can be sinful; it’s also our thoughts, our motives, our emotions, down to the very core of us.

you see, sin is rooted in this simple idea: we want something other than God. we see this in the words of the prophet jeremiah: “be appalled, o heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” the people of israel, instead of enjoying God and drinking deeply from Him and His glory- they sought out other things to satisfy themselves. they went after other things, to honor them and praise them. we also see this in chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans, where it is written that the people of the world, “although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but ...exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” or as paul summarizes it a few chapters later, “all have sinned and fallen short (or ‘lack’) the glory of God.” the basis of sin is that we trade away God as the object of our worship, the thing that we treasure and praise and seek after, and take instead something else as our ‘god.’ this goes back to the first commandment, “you shall have no other gods besides Me.” the essence of sin is idolatry: that we take something other than God as our highest treasure, what we are devoted to, in which we most delight, what we honor and prize above all else. as luther says, you’ll never break any other commandment if you keep the first one, because in order to sin in any way you must put something before God in your life.

now think with me a moment. most of us aren’t bowing down before some carving of a bird or cow or something. we’re not slaughtering farm animals to statues of wood or metal. our idolatry tends to be more ‘sophisticated’ and ‘civilized’ than that, but we still sacrifice for things other than God, we give offerings to them and make them our source of meaning and satisfaction in life. and some of you, as i’m saying this, will think of what most church folk tend to think of as the “big sins”: sex, drugs, money, and things along those lines; and those are definitely idols for many. but as calvin says, “our hearts are idol factories”, they keep producing new ones. for some, our tv or computer is a big idol: it’s where we escape to, it’s what we long for after a hard day at work, and we’ll sit staring at the screen for hours on end, numbing our minds and our hearts. for others, we make sports our idol. i know some african Christians who view the stadiums we build to our sports teams as modern-day temples, with mascots as the symbolic idol, and the team as our object of devotion. some make popularity an idol, or academic achievement. and we mentioned last week in sunday school that for some of us, our families are our idols. and some even make an idol out of external goodness and religiosity. we do all the right things, and check off all the boxes, either out of pride or for the praise of men.

one last example: one of the things we want for our kids is sexual purity, and that’s not a bad desire. but the guy who never slept around, who never looked at porn, who was abstinent ‘til marriage and completely faithful to his wife until the day he died: if that guy did not do so for the glory of God, he sinned in keeping sexually pure. because if he didn’t do it out of a love for God and a desire to know and honor Him, then he’s acting either out of self-righteous pride, or worldly fear, or people-pleasing vanity. Scripture says that “everything that is not from faith is sin.” so even our good works that are not born out of faith in God are disgusting in God’s sight; He tells isaiah that they are to Him as “dirty menstrual rags.”

now hear me out: most of these are good things. it’s not bad to love your wife, or your kids. and it’s not wrong to enjoy a sports game, or a tv show. the problem is that we make these good things into ultimate things. instead of being a means to honor and enjoy God, we make these things an end in and of themselves. instead of seeing God through the gifts, instead of being in awe of the display of God’s character and nature in the gift, we stop at the thing itself, and make it the source of our meaning and purpose and satisfaction.

the reason i need you to get this, to get what sin really is, and how pervasive it is, is because if you don’t get this, you won’t love Jesus much. Christ said that “the one who has been forgiven much, loves much, but the one who has been forgiven little, loves little.” the reason i’m praying to God that you get this is that if you don’t understand how great a debt you owed God outside of Christ, you won’t be in awe of the gospel, and the heart that once sang out “amazing grace! how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” will start to think of what we don’t have, and what we’re entitled to, and become puffed up like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.

but get this, please get this: Jesus died for your sins. and i know we say that all the time, and as the old saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” that’s why if you look at church history, you’ll see that one generation believes and loves the gospel, the next generation assumes the gospel, and the third generation ends up denying the gospel.

so hear this and let it impact your hearts: Christ died for your sins. and if you don’t know what that means, let me walk you through how the Scriptures unpack that.

• in Isaiah 53, we’re told that Jesus “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”
• in Acts 10 we’re told “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
• in Romans 3 we’re told that we “are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation [that is, a wrath-absorbing sacrifice] by His blood.”
• in Galatians 3 we read that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
• in Hebrews 2 God says that “through death [Jesus] destroy[ed] the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
• in 2 Corinthians 5 we read, “God made Him Who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• in Colossians 1 we read that “He has now reconciled [you] in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.”
• we read earlier that Revelation 5 declares of Jesus that “You were slaughtered, and by Your blood You ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.”
• 1 John 4 declares that “in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
• 1 Peter 3 says that “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.”
• in Ephesians God tells us that “in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.”

so because of the death of Christ, we get all this: our sins are forgiven, the wrath of God against us is removed, we are freed from the curse of the law, we are free from the power of death and the devil, we have the righteousness of Jesus counted as our own, we are considered holy and blameless before Him, we have been made a kingdom and priests of God, we have everlasting life, we know the love of God, we are brought back to God, we are adopted as sons, and we are free to praise His glorious grace forever.

think about this: how many of your sins were future sins when Christ died? all of them. Christ knows we’re unrighteous, we’re messed up, we’re broken, we’re evil. Romans says that before God got a hold of us, we were His enemies. but He loves us through all of that, not based on anything in us or anything we do, but because that’s the kind of God He is. we can’t earn it, and we can’t pay Him back. He doesn’t want us to! that’s the point of it being a gift! you don’t try to repay someone for a gift: it’s almost insulting, and it goes against the idea of giving.

so what do we do with a great gift? we enjoy it. we delight in it. we praise it to other people. i mean, if you get something really good for your birthday, within a few days all your friends know about it, right? we love the giver more because of the gift, because the gift reveals the character of the one who gives it. and we respond in thanksgiving.

and so, as Christ has saved us by His death, we receive all these wonderful blessings by grace, for free. we rejoice in this great gift of salvation, because now we have what we most need, and what is our highest joy, namely, we have God. through Christ, we get God, as our King, as our Father, as our Friend, and as our Treasure.

i wish i had time to really unpack the rest of this morning’s text for you. briefly, paul tells us that Christ’s death, burial and resurrection all happened, and they all happened according to the Scriptures. if you look through the Old Testament, the details of the gospel are laid out in dozens of prophecies, all from hundreds of years before Christ came. and because Jesus was resurrected, we know that God accepted His sacrifice on our behalf, and now He is interceding for us before the Father. and we know that we too will one day be raised, and live on the new earth with Him forever. and finally paul backs this all up by naming a bunch of witnesses to the whole thing, so if anyone had any doubts, they could go ask these guys.

so this is the gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. this is the good news “which [we] received, in which [we] stand, and by which [we] are being saved.” i hope your affections for God have been stirred, that your spirits have been re-awakened to these glorious truths, and that your passion for the gospel has been fanned into flame once more. this morning i’m not going to go through practical applications of this, because the entire Christian life is the application of this message, of the gospel, to our lives. but this morning, being reminded of the great gift we have received, i invite you to respond to God. in a moment, we’ll respond in song, praising our God together. we’ll respond in giving, because our God is a giver, and He declares that “it is more blessed to give than receive.” we’ll respond in praising God for all the things He’s been doing in our lives: blessings purchased for us by the blood of Christ. we’ll respond in pouring our hearts out to God, asking Him to make His grace more evident in our lives: as peter says, “casting our cares before Him, because He cares for us.” we’ll respond by recognizing God’s work in the lives of our children, and dedicate their teachers to His work. and then leaving this place, we’ll respond with the rest of our lives, loving and enjoying God, “to the praise of His glorious grace.” amen.

repentance

a just had a renewed experience of this, and i thank God for it, as the giver of the grace of repentance. i find that often of late, i have been repenting before i act on certain sinful thoughts. i'm not sure if that makes much sense to some, but if the inclination in my heart to sin is sin (at least in some sense), then i'm repenting of that by not letting it follow through into action that leads to death.

last summer, at the advance09 conference, matt chandler spoke on the need for a culture of confession and repentance and dependence on the Holy Spirit. he said about how one falls into sin (in this case, so as to disqualify oneself from ministry) "it's easy, here's how it happens. it takes time, but there's a thought that goes rogue, the Holy Spirit says, 'uh-uh', and the person goes, 'leave me alone'."

i've found that to be true in me, so if i don't act on a leading of the Spirit in repentance at the moment i feel the temptation, if i don't run from it right then into the arms of God and into the ways He provides for the mortification of that unholy urge, then i will inevitably do something i will regret later. so i have to run, and obey quickly, for time is against me. God, help me. thank you for already answering for Jesus sake.

thoughts between the cross and the empty tomb

"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

a few things that came to mind today, of how great the glory of our God in His gospel is.

it is true that Christ died the death we deserved, but it is not true that He died the death we now deserve, because we are counted righteous in Him, and we are new creatures, and that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. so we no longer deserve that death, because it was paid for at calvary.

i would highly recommend that anyone with a free hour over the next few days listen to session 11 of the resolved conference last summer, in which c.j. mahaney addresses Christ's cry, the scream of the damned, from the cross. it is powerful.

i think i've mentioned this before, but i love some of the paradoxes of the Christian faith. some frustrate me, most confuse me, but there are some that make my heart leap for joy. the fact that we celebrate the wondrous cross on which our Savior died on a day we call good friday is further proof of great our God is, to take the awful and make it wonderful.

all this has pointed me to the idea that, though we ought to take time to look at the seriousness of our sin and the depth of our depravity, especially on good friday, we ought to celebrate it all the more because of the love of God poured out in it. we ought not get so caught up in our sin that we miss the love and grace of God which is displayed in the cross. though it is dark and gory and awful, at the same time the cross is wonderful, joyful, and glorious. and so let us celebrate the cross, rejoicing in it, because it truly is good news.

"in this the love of God was made manifest among us, tha God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. in this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10)