The Mountain Path has moved! As I am beginning to get more serious about blogging, I am finding that I also need to be more efficient. I have been unhappy for some time now with blogger because of formatting errors that occur whenever I bring something I've written in Microsoft Word into Blogger. So I have moved my blog over to wordpress.com. They offer me a better quality blog for free. So The Mountain Path can now be located at:
http://joshuawinters.wordpress.com
Don't forget to bookmark the new address. This old site will close down as soon as I get all my previous posts moved over.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Beware of Idolatry! God hates and punishes!
Reading through the prophet Hosea it amazes me just how much God hates idolatry. A. W. Tozer says this about idolatry:
“let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no over act of worship has taken place…Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear…” (The Knowledge of the Holy, 5-6).
In this post I’d like to address one of the perverted and idolatrous notions that seems to be just as prevalent today as it was in Tozer’s day. Many today have been worshipping a god that is “so loving” that he could never punish or hate anyone – not even the wickedest of wicked. This concept of God is gross and perverse idolatry. It is grossly unbiblical, which we’ll look at in a minute. It demeans God’s holiness. It makes rebellion against God a light and trivial thing to him; and it makes the true God of the Bible to look like an evil and murderous tyrant who butchers people who don’t deserve it.
First of all, I’d like to silence the idea that God doesn’t hate people. The true God of the Bible hates wicked people:
Hosea 9:15 says, “because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of all their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them…” Also, take a look at Psalm 11:5-7 which says, “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur…For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice…” God hates wicked people and promises to pour out his fierce wrath upon them because he loves justice.
Next, take a look at the fierceness of God’s wrath-filled heart towards the wicked in these two passages:
Hosea 5:14 says, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off with no one to rescue them.”
Hosea 7:12, 16 say, “Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one…Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
These descriptions are shocking! Like a lion rips an animal to shreds, so God promises to rip the people of the tribe of Ephraim to shreds. Even more shocking is God’s promise to slay the children born to the men and women in the tribe of Ephraim. How could a loving God ever do this to anyone? The answer is simple. God loves what is good; therefore, he must hate what is evil. If I love children, I am obligated to hate abortion. If I love men and women, I am obligated to hate murder. Here’s the problem: people are evil, and God, because he loves what is good, must hate them because they are evil.Romans 3:11-12 says, “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Turning away from God is a sin that everyone is guilty of since he has commanded us to love him and seek him and treasure him above all else. So God already has just cause for punishing us. But God is also a jealous God. God, being the most glorious, valuable, precious, and worthy being in the universe has the right to be loved, adored, cherished, and worshipped above all. He created us to be his people and love and adore and cherish him much like a wife loves and adores and cherishes her husband. Just like a husband would be indignant and angry with his wife for committing adultery, God has every right to be angry and indignant when his people turn away from his glorious beauty, breaking covenant with him, and give themselves to another in gross perversion. This is what the book of Hosea is all about: how God’s people have committed adultery and idolatry against God, and how God is very upset because what they have done is intensely offensive to him.
So when we see the intensity of God’s fierce anger and the graphic descriptions of his wrath against people, we shouldn’t dare conclude that God is an evil tyrant! We should assume that God, as the just judge of all he has made, has chosen a punishment that fits the crime. Whenever God punishes anyone, they get exactly what they deserve. Check out these verses in Hosea:
Hosea 7:13 – “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me!”
Hosea 9:9 – “God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”
Hosea 9:17 – “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him…”
Rejection and destruction?! These are harsh, absolutely! But these punishments are just, absolutely! The harshness of these punishments should never make us question the kindness of God, rather they should make us wonder at the offensiveness of our own sin against a holy God!
Beware of idolatry! Worship, love, and live for God as he has said he is.
“let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no over act of worship has taken place…Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear…” (The Knowledge of the Holy, 5-6).
In this post I’d like to address one of the perverted and idolatrous notions that seems to be just as prevalent today as it was in Tozer’s day. Many today have been worshipping a god that is “so loving” that he could never punish or hate anyone – not even the wickedest of wicked. This concept of God is gross and perverse idolatry. It is grossly unbiblical, which we’ll look at in a minute. It demeans God’s holiness. It makes rebellion against God a light and trivial thing to him; and it makes the true God of the Bible to look like an evil and murderous tyrant who butchers people who don’t deserve it.
First of all, I’d like to silence the idea that God doesn’t hate people. The true God of the Bible hates wicked people:
Hosea 9:15 says, “because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of all their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them…” Also, take a look at Psalm 11:5-7 which says, “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur…For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice…” God hates wicked people and promises to pour out his fierce wrath upon them because he loves justice.
Next, take a look at the fierceness of God’s wrath-filled heart towards the wicked in these two passages:
Hosea 5:14 says, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off with no one to rescue them.”
Hosea 7:12, 16 say, “Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one…Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
These descriptions are shocking! Like a lion rips an animal to shreds, so God promises to rip the people of the tribe of Ephraim to shreds. Even more shocking is God’s promise to slay the children born to the men and women in the tribe of Ephraim. How could a loving God ever do this to anyone? The answer is simple. God loves what is good; therefore, he must hate what is evil. If I love children, I am obligated to hate abortion. If I love men and women, I am obligated to hate murder. Here’s the problem: people are evil, and God, because he loves what is good, must hate them because they are evil.Romans 3:11-12 says, “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Turning away from God is a sin that everyone is guilty of since he has commanded us to love him and seek him and treasure him above all else. So God already has just cause for punishing us. But God is also a jealous God. God, being the most glorious, valuable, precious, and worthy being in the universe has the right to be loved, adored, cherished, and worshipped above all. He created us to be his people and love and adore and cherish him much like a wife loves and adores and cherishes her husband. Just like a husband would be indignant and angry with his wife for committing adultery, God has every right to be angry and indignant when his people turn away from his glorious beauty, breaking covenant with him, and give themselves to another in gross perversion. This is what the book of Hosea is all about: how God’s people have committed adultery and idolatry against God, and how God is very upset because what they have done is intensely offensive to him.
So when we see the intensity of God’s fierce anger and the graphic descriptions of his wrath against people, we shouldn’t dare conclude that God is an evil tyrant! We should assume that God, as the just judge of all he has made, has chosen a punishment that fits the crime. Whenever God punishes anyone, they get exactly what they deserve. Check out these verses in Hosea:
Hosea 7:13 – “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me!”
Hosea 9:9 – “God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”
Hosea 9:17 – “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him…”
Rejection and destruction?! These are harsh, absolutely! But these punishments are just, absolutely! The harshness of these punishments should never make us question the kindness of God, rather they should make us wonder at the offensiveness of our own sin against a holy God!
Beware of idolatry! Worship, love, and live for God as he has said he is.
Friday, June 26, 2009
How Can a Loving God...
Probably the main argument given by “Christian Universalists” for why everyone will be saved goes like this: How can a truly loving God send people to hell?! As of late I have been reading through the Old Testament. So here are 10 responses to those who make the argument: How can a loving God send people to hell?!
HoHow could a loving God anoint Jehu as king over Israel and command him to “destroy the house of Ahab?!” Immediately after commanding Jehu to kill Ahab, God says, “I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel – slave or free” (1 Kings 9:6-10). How could a loving God want vengeance?!
HoHow could a loving God respond to Elisha’s cursing 42 teenagers?! Elisha was just walking down the road when a group of 42 youths started calling him a baldy. Elisha curses them and God answers the curse by sending two bears out of the forest to maul these kids. How could a loving God maul 42 teenagers for calling someone a baldy?! (2 Kings 2:23-25).
HoHow could a loving God throw fire down from heaven to destroy a captain and his men when all they were doing was obeying the orders of their king?! (2 Kings 1:9-10).
4. How could a loving God send a lion to maul a man for refusing to wound a prophet?! (1 Kings 20:36).
5. How could a loving God give his own prophet over to a lion to be killed because he listened to another prophet who insisted that he was speaking from God?! (1 Kings 13:26). He just made an “honest mistake,” didn’t he?!
HoHow could a loving God command his people to kill a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day?! (Num. 15:32-36).
HoHow could a loving God destroy those who disobey him?! (Deut. 30:17-18; Deut. 8:19-20)
HoHow could a loving God kill every firstborn in Egypt?! (Ex. 13:15).
HoHow could a loving God harden someone’s heart towards himself?! (Ex. 9:12).
HoHow could a loving God let Satan incite him against his own dearly loved, Job, without any reason?! (Job 2:3).
A loving God can send people to hell because he is also a just God, and disobedience is an offensive crime against him. If you struggle with the question of how a loving God send people to hell, you’re asking the wrong question. The questions you should be asking are:
HoHow could a just God not destroy king Ahab for his wickedness?! How could a just God not avenge the atrocities committed against his beloved prophets?!
HoHow could a just God let a bunch of rebellious and disrespectful teenagers get away scot-free with harassing his chosen servant?!
HoHow could a just God not oppose those who oppose his chosen prophet?!
HoHow could a just God not kill someone who directly disobeyed his command?!
HoHow could a just God not destroy his prophet when he directly disobeyed the Lord and listening to a mere man instead?
HoHow could a just God allow someone who directly violates his Sabbath to prove to everyone else that breaking God’s commands is ok?!
HoHow could a just God let anyone get away with breaking his perfect law?!
HoHow could a just God allow any nation to blatantly defy his commands and brutally oppress and mistreat his people with no consequence?!
HoHow could a just God not harden the heart of a man who mocked the Almighty saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go?!”
HoHow could a just God give a second chance to the wicked Ninevites?! (Jonah).
And here is the question that should leave you in awe and wonder every day:
Why didn’t God kill you in your sleep last night? You deserved it.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).
You should wonder that you’re still alive after how you have defied, spurned, and treated the Lord Almighty with contempt!
Behold the mercy of God: that a man can be pardoned for reviling the glorious Creator and Sustainer of the universe by faith in Jesus Christ!
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…he did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – [God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement] to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).
Did you catch that? God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice…so as to be just. In other words, God had to punish Christ in order to vindicate his own just character for all of the sins that he didn’t punish in the Old Testament.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Will Everyone Be Saved?
"Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ "But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ "Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ "But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out" (Lk. 13:22-28).
Christian Universalism is not a new idea. Very generally, Christian Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved. There are many different shades of Christian Universalism which makes it difficult to explain exactly how they think this works. Some believe that everyone will come to saving faith in Jesus in this lifetime before they die. Others believe that you could die shaking a hateful fist at God and yet come to faith and repentance in eternity. The whole issue of whether some or all will be saved has been around since Jesus’ day.
While deep down in our hearts we long for it to be true that all will be saved, Jesus has made it crystal clear that this will not be the case. Again and again my attention comes back to Jesus’ call to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” I think the NASB and ESV translate the Greek better. They say: “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (emphasis mine). Really what Jesus has in mind is that we fight, struggle, strive, and make every effort to enter through the narrow door. I get a picture in my head of a small opening in a wall that is surrounded by a whole mob of people trying to jostle and squeeze and pull themselves through the opening.
This life is not a game. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Before all of us is a narrow opening that we must continually fight and struggle to get through, not giving up until we know for sure that we are safe inside and the opening has been closed. Do you live your days with this kind of seriousness? When confronted with the plethora of options as to how you spend your time, does this reality steer your course through the day?
Here’s the solemn warning of Jesus. Not everyone will be saved. There will be those who tried to enter the door and were not able to or strong enough to. They didn’t fight, struggle, and strive to enter and now it’s too late. There will be people who are left standing outside the door knocking and pleading with Jesus to open up the door and let them in. And Jesus will tell them straight up: “I do not know you or where you are from. Away from me, all you evildoers.” Accordingly, a true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is right now fighting and struggling and striving to enter through the narrow door.
Have you been fighting to have real, deep, and vibrant faith in Jesus? Or are you just taking it easy? Have you been working out your salvation with fear and trembling? (Phil. 2:12). Or are you feeling pretty comfortable and ok that everything will be fine in the end if you just sit back, relax, and enjoy life?
Here’s the scary part to me. The people who are left outside knocking and pleading are the people who expect to be inside. ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Come on Jesus! You know us! We know you! We heard your teaching in church every Sunday morning! To which Jesus replies again saying, I do not know you. “Away from me, all you evildoers!”
Notice Jesus’ evaluation of all the people that were left out who expected to be included. He calls them evildoers. Hypocrisy is deadly. The door of salvation is narrow and only few will enter it. Many many people think they are good people who believe in Jesus, but the way they live falsifies their claim. They are deceived. They are the people that Jesus calls evildoers and they don’t even realize it.
If you haven’t been fighting, struggling, and striving with all your might to enter through the narrow door, you could be one of those people! The final fate of the people who Jesus refuses to open up to is terrible. They are thrown out of the kingdom of God and experience weeping and gnashing of teeth (28). All over the place in the Gospels, Jesus uses this same language to refer to hell, the place of eternal punishment reserved for those who refuse to acknowledge, submit to, receive, believe, and obey Jesus Christ.
So my question for you is how’s the battle going? How goes the fight? Can you tell me about your striving and your struggling and how you are making every effort to be found secure in the glorious salvation of Jesus Christ?
Christian Universalism is not a new idea. Very generally, Christian Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved. There are many different shades of Christian Universalism which makes it difficult to explain exactly how they think this works. Some believe that everyone will come to saving faith in Jesus in this lifetime before they die. Others believe that you could die shaking a hateful fist at God and yet come to faith and repentance in eternity. The whole issue of whether some or all will be saved has been around since Jesus’ day.
While deep down in our hearts we long for it to be true that all will be saved, Jesus has made it crystal clear that this will not be the case. Again and again my attention comes back to Jesus’ call to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” I think the NASB and ESV translate the Greek better. They say: “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (emphasis mine). Really what Jesus has in mind is that we fight, struggle, strive, and make every effort to enter through the narrow door. I get a picture in my head of a small opening in a wall that is surrounded by a whole mob of people trying to jostle and squeeze and pull themselves through the opening.
This life is not a game. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Before all of us is a narrow opening that we must continually fight and struggle to get through, not giving up until we know for sure that we are safe inside and the opening has been closed. Do you live your days with this kind of seriousness? When confronted with the plethora of options as to how you spend your time, does this reality steer your course through the day?
Here’s the solemn warning of Jesus. Not everyone will be saved. There will be those who tried to enter the door and were not able to or strong enough to. They didn’t fight, struggle, and strive to enter and now it’s too late. There will be people who are left standing outside the door knocking and pleading with Jesus to open up the door and let them in. And Jesus will tell them straight up: “I do not know you or where you are from. Away from me, all you evildoers.” Accordingly, a true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is right now fighting and struggling and striving to enter through the narrow door.
Have you been fighting to have real, deep, and vibrant faith in Jesus? Or are you just taking it easy? Have you been working out your salvation with fear and trembling? (Phil. 2:12). Or are you feeling pretty comfortable and ok that everything will be fine in the end if you just sit back, relax, and enjoy life?
Here’s the scary part to me. The people who are left outside knocking and pleading are the people who expect to be inside. ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Come on Jesus! You know us! We know you! We heard your teaching in church every Sunday morning! To which Jesus replies again saying, I do not know you. “Away from me, all you evildoers!”
Notice Jesus’ evaluation of all the people that were left out who expected to be included. He calls them evildoers. Hypocrisy is deadly. The door of salvation is narrow and only few will enter it. Many many people think they are good people who believe in Jesus, but the way they live falsifies their claim. They are deceived. They are the people that Jesus calls evildoers and they don’t even realize it.
If you haven’t been fighting, struggling, and striving with all your might to enter through the narrow door, you could be one of those people! The final fate of the people who Jesus refuses to open up to is terrible. They are thrown out of the kingdom of God and experience weeping and gnashing of teeth (28). All over the place in the Gospels, Jesus uses this same language to refer to hell, the place of eternal punishment reserved for those who refuse to acknowledge, submit to, receive, believe, and obey Jesus Christ.
So my question for you is how’s the battle going? How goes the fight? Can you tell me about your striving and your struggling and how you are making every effort to be found secure in the glorious salvation of Jesus Christ?
Friday, June 05, 2009
Journal, Journal, Journal
“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception”
(Pr. 14:8).
If you’re like most people, you don’t have time for journaling. You might also say that it’s not your love language or style or thing or whatever. But I would like to ask you to reconsider. We all know that we live in a fast -paced culture characterized by getting what you want immediately and doing what you want as soon as possible. And we do it! We reap all the benefits of instant access to everything and we get a lot done. But if we are not careful with how we live in this cultural climate, we can greatly stunt our spiritual growth.
Along with immediate access comes incessant busyness. We learn to go from one thing to the next so fast because we want to accomplish more, more, more, and suddenly we get spiritually sick. So what do we do? We dive into entertainment, leisure, relationships, even sin and then we go to sleep and do it all over again. But even good things like entertainment, leisure, and relationships can become band-aids, escapes, drugs which we choose to get our minds off of things and ease our feelings.
The main problem with a high-octane-go-go-go lifestyle is that it leaves little to no room for a person “to give thought to their ways” (Pr. 14:8). The busyness of our days because of our readily available panorama of options for entertainment after a long day at work chokes out any time to ponder and wonder about how we are even living from one activity to the next. Are we keeping God-glorifying priorities or are we just letting our pleasure-gauges drive us from one activity to the next? Or do we even know?
Often the only place left for reflection on your day is the moments when you lie awake in bed at night before you fall asleep. Maybe we are able to give thought to our ways during this time, and make a few resolutions to do better tomorrow or next week, but then we wind up in our bed again having been carried by the brisk current of the day’s activities and surprise surprise – we’re in the same place we were the day before and nothing’s changed. Or it’s worse! Then we begin to struggle to keep even the time before bed from becoming an anxious or lust-filled swirl of thinking that carries us off to sleep.
“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception” (Pr. 14:8). What is the wisdom of the wise? They give thought to their ways. Now try keeping even a half an hour per day just to be sitting and thinking about your life – without worry, without lust, without distraction. It’s pretty hard. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve tried to do that or just sit and pray and either fallen asleep or just failed at it. Then I say to everyone who mentions the word “journal” that I just couldn’t do that because I have a hard enough time just stopping to pray for 30 minutes.
But journaling is one of the most important disciplines I have ever cultivated. In fact, there is no equal, and nothing so practical as journaling to help you give thought to your ways when you’re immersed in a fast paced culture like ours. Try it! Sit down and write out a prayer and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to concentrate and focus your thoughts because you have a pen in your hand. Journaling makes contemplation, thinking, and reflecting 100 times easier, not harder! Not only that, but journaling trains your mind to think better. It also teaches you how to communicate more clearly and coherently.
Now, some of you may be thinking that journaling is boring because you have nothing exciting in your day to write about. Don’t use your journal to keep an orderly history of the happenings of the day. That’ll drive you nuts and be a waste of time if as much happens in the minutes of your day as it does in mine. Only journal about what you want to think, pray, or reflect about. You want to talk to God? Grab a pen and paper. You want to think about how you conducted yourself today? Grab a pen and paper. Once you get going on something that you care to contemplate, just let the thoughts of your head flow onto the page whatever they may be. As a rule of thumb, be completely honest with your journal. No secrets allowed! Journaling is a great way for you to be honest with yourself and with God.
Remember “the folly of fools is deceit” (Pr. 14:8 NASB). It’s really easy to deceive yourself when you don’t give careful thought to your ways. We need that time to be honest with ourselves about how we are really doing spiritually.
The most important benefit of journaling is that it facilitates personal spiritual growth. Why are the wise wise? Because they think very carefully about their ways. Thinking carefully about your ways not only means that you are wise, it makes you wise. You grow and learn when you think about your life. Generally we come away from things with some kind of impression, but we don’t make sense of that impression and learn the lessons and grow and cultivate wisdom until we give thought to it. That’s what journaling is all about. It’s about mentally and emotionally processing life so that you continue to grow in wisdom and understanding of God and of yourself and of how you ought to be living your life. Writing your thoughts down helps you sustain and direct your thinking keeping it free from distractions and worry.
So if after all I’ve said, you still aren’t sold on journaling…I have one more question for you: How else will you ensure that you give regular and proper “thought to your ways” in the midst of your busy life?
“Get wisdom, get understanding…Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost you all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor” (Pr. 4:5-9).
Friday, May 15, 2009
God Never Just Forgives Sinners
About how often do you think about or remember the gospel? How often do think of the significance of those moments where Jesus hung on the cross? Once a month during the Lord’s Supper at church? Once a week? Only after you talk with non-Christian co-workers? How about after you sin?
I’ve been noticing that the gospel message often sits in the passenger seat of my life, when it should be in the driver’s seat. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy spending time with God everyday, getting to know Him better. God’s grace is very precious to me and His holiness awesome to me. But the other day I realized that I am a Christ-follower who often forgets and takes for granted the means by which I am even able to follow Christ.
This last week I came face to face with my own sin again. I blew it. What is more, I realized that there were still depths and recesses of sin in my own life that had not yet come to the surface. So what did I do? I started confessing my sin and asking God for forgiveness, grace, and mercy. I tried to call some passages to mind that speak of God’s grace towards sinners. Despite confessing and refreshing my mind with God’s grace, I still didn’t feel right. My heart just wasn’t getting it. So I started contemplating God’s holiness and just how badly I fall short of his standard, with the hopes that this would awaken my heart to joy of God’s grace.
Even after all this I still didn’t feel right. I was praying and filling my mind with the truth, but something was missing. So as I was calling out to God to impact my heart and make me feel the weight of his holiness and his grace, it finally hit me. All of this time I had been looking for the grace of God and the assurance of his forgiveness, but I was missing the most important piece – Christ!
It dawned on me that in my mindset for the last little while, I had been treating Jesus as merely the door through which I came to salvation, and not the continuing foundation for my daily battle against sin. I was looking to experience the grace of God and longing to take my sin seriously as God does but forgetting that both of those things cannot be had except through the Jesus Christ, specifically.
Jesus on the cross is the only place where the holiness, justice, anger, and fierce wrath of God meet together with the sweet mercy and grace of God for sinners. As Christians we often do one of two things to try and kill the gross feeling of our sin. One, we interpret God’s grace to mean that he overlooks our sin completely and says it’s ok. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger. It makes it cheaper, and it minimizes his holiness. Two, we accept that God is absolutely holy and disgusted by our sin and then flounder around trying to confess and repent properly so that we can experience his grace again. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger either. It too makes it cheaper because it’s no longer free and must be earned through a polished and detailed confession, and a legalistically performed repentance.
How do we uphold in our hearts the fierceness of God’s hatred of sin and sinful people and the infinite and endless power of his grace to save sinners? By focusing on Jesus Christ crucified. You see, grace though freely offered to us cost God infinitely. He poured out the fierce anger and righteous indignation he had stored up for us, as sinners, upon Christ, his holy and beloved Son. He crushed him with his wrath for our sin! God never overlooks sin; someone must receive the punishment. God never just forgives sin; someone must be hit with his holy fury because he is just and righteous. That someone was Christ, in our place!
Two questions should help us see the incredible impact this truth has on our daily lives. One, how often do you sin? Two, how often do you remember the gospel? The two should be inextricably linked together. Every time you sin, your longing for grace from a holy God should drive you back to Christ crucified. We should be plunged heart, soul, and mind back into the gospel no less than every time we sin and hopefully more! Hopefully every time we do what’s right, or enjoy fellowship with God and others, or eat food or have water to drink, or even breathe clean air – all of these are things we do not deserve because of our sin yet enjoy because of God’s grace through Christ crucified.
So join with me in this! The next time we find ourselves in that place of realizing our sin or having disobeyed God again, pick up your Bible and open it to 1 John 2:1-2. In those moments we will read it, and meditate on it and chew on it in our hearts.
“But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Preach it to your soul everyday! Rejoice and give thanks! And spread the good news!
I’ve been noticing that the gospel message often sits in the passenger seat of my life, when it should be in the driver’s seat. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy spending time with God everyday, getting to know Him better. God’s grace is very precious to me and His holiness awesome to me. But the other day I realized that I am a Christ-follower who often forgets and takes for granted the means by which I am even able to follow Christ.
This last week I came face to face with my own sin again. I blew it. What is more, I realized that there were still depths and recesses of sin in my own life that had not yet come to the surface. So what did I do? I started confessing my sin and asking God for forgiveness, grace, and mercy. I tried to call some passages to mind that speak of God’s grace towards sinners. Despite confessing and refreshing my mind with God’s grace, I still didn’t feel right. My heart just wasn’t getting it. So I started contemplating God’s holiness and just how badly I fall short of his standard, with the hopes that this would awaken my heart to joy of God’s grace.
Even after all this I still didn’t feel right. I was praying and filling my mind with the truth, but something was missing. So as I was calling out to God to impact my heart and make me feel the weight of his holiness and his grace, it finally hit me. All of this time I had been looking for the grace of God and the assurance of his forgiveness, but I was missing the most important piece – Christ!
It dawned on me that in my mindset for the last little while, I had been treating Jesus as merely the door through which I came to salvation, and not the continuing foundation for my daily battle against sin. I was looking to experience the grace of God and longing to take my sin seriously as God does but forgetting that both of those things cannot be had except through the Jesus Christ, specifically.
Jesus on the cross is the only place where the holiness, justice, anger, and fierce wrath of God meet together with the sweet mercy and grace of God for sinners. As Christians we often do one of two things to try and kill the gross feeling of our sin. One, we interpret God’s grace to mean that he overlooks our sin completely and says it’s ok. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger. It makes it cheaper, and it minimizes his holiness. Two, we accept that God is absolutely holy and disgusted by our sin and then flounder around trying to confess and repent properly so that we can experience his grace again. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger either. It too makes it cheaper because it’s no longer free and must be earned through a polished and detailed confession, and a legalistically performed repentance.
How do we uphold in our hearts the fierceness of God’s hatred of sin and sinful people and the infinite and endless power of his grace to save sinners? By focusing on Jesus Christ crucified. You see, grace though freely offered to us cost God infinitely. He poured out the fierce anger and righteous indignation he had stored up for us, as sinners, upon Christ, his holy and beloved Son. He crushed him with his wrath for our sin! God never overlooks sin; someone must receive the punishment. God never just forgives sin; someone must be hit with his holy fury because he is just and righteous. That someone was Christ, in our place!
Two questions should help us see the incredible impact this truth has on our daily lives. One, how often do you sin? Two, how often do you remember the gospel? The two should be inextricably linked together. Every time you sin, your longing for grace from a holy God should drive you back to Christ crucified. We should be plunged heart, soul, and mind back into the gospel no less than every time we sin and hopefully more! Hopefully every time we do what’s right, or enjoy fellowship with God and others, or eat food or have water to drink, or even breathe clean air – all of these are things we do not deserve because of our sin yet enjoy because of God’s grace through Christ crucified.
So join with me in this! The next time we find ourselves in that place of realizing our sin or having disobeyed God again, pick up your Bible and open it to 1 John 2:1-2. In those moments we will read it, and meditate on it and chew on it in our hearts.
“But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Preach it to your soul everyday! Rejoice and give thanks! And spread the good news!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Has Culture Handicapped Our Enjoyment of God?
DISCLAIMER: If you don't have a good 30-45 minutes to dig into this post, then save it for a rainy day. This blog entry is not for those who are looking for a quick read. If you just want to get the gist of this post, don't bother reading...However, if you have time to carefully read this post, it is my prayer that the contents will awaken within you a deep relentless longing for intimacy with God. Not only so, but also to help you see outside yourself, just how steeped you are in our fast-paced, high-speed-information, constantly-distracted culture.
The following is an excerpt from Lain H. Murray's biography of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from the 1700's. It is mostly quotation from Jonathan Edwards himself about his experience in coming to know God.
""The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words in [1 Tim. 1.17] 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.' As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before. Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him forever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection. But it never came into my thought, that there was any thing spiritual, or of saving nature in this.
From about that time, I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in the pleasant views and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him. I found no books so delightful to me as those that treated of these subjects. Those words Cant 2.1, used to be abundantly with me, 'I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys'. The words seemed to me sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ. The whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to me, and I used to be much in reading it, about that time; and found, from time to time, an inward sweetness that would carry me away, in my contemplations...The sense I had of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to express."
Of his [Edwards'] joyful homecoming that summer he speaks as follows:
"Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express - I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjuction; majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness."
We conclude this chapter with the remainder of Edwards' words about the beginning of his new life as a Christian:
"After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be , as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind.
I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance; and in the day, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly, nothing had bee so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural to me to sing, or chant for my meditations; or, to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice.
I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist [Psa. 119.20] 'My soul breaketh for the longing it hath'. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in [spontaneous] prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which i now felt in those things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when I was a boy; and what I then had no more notion of than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul-animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul-satisfying and life-giving good there is in them (I.xiii).""(35-37).
Such a testimony seems quite foreign to our everyday Christian experience. But it doesn't have to be, nor should it be. The kind of delightful and wonderful relationship that Jonathan Edwards felt with God is completely possible in our day and age as well. However, consider for a moment another article which explains one reason why we have so little capacity for contemplation, prayer, and emotional expression everyday:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed...The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray...Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7; 5:8).
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).
"He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9).
Murray, Lain H. Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987.
The following is an excerpt from Lain H. Murray's biography of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from the 1700's. It is mostly quotation from Jonathan Edwards himself about his experience in coming to know God.
""The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words in [1 Tim. 1.17] 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.' As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before. Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him forever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection. But it never came into my thought, that there was any thing spiritual, or of saving nature in this.
From about that time, I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in the pleasant views and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him. I found no books so delightful to me as those that treated of these subjects. Those words Cant 2.1, used to be abundantly with me, 'I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys'. The words seemed to me sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ. The whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to me, and I used to be much in reading it, about that time; and found, from time to time, an inward sweetness that would carry me away, in my contemplations...The sense I had of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to express."
Of his [Edwards'] joyful homecoming that summer he speaks as follows:
"Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express - I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjuction; majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness."
We conclude this chapter with the remainder of Edwards' words about the beginning of his new life as a Christian:
"After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be , as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind.
I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance; and in the day, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly, nothing had bee so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural to me to sing, or chant for my meditations; or, to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice.I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist [Psa. 119.20] 'My soul breaketh for the longing it hath'. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in [spontaneous] prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which i now felt in those things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when I was a boy; and what I then had no more notion of than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul-animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul-satisfying and life-giving good there is in them (I.xiii).""(35-37).
Such a testimony seems quite foreign to our everyday Christian experience. But it doesn't have to be, nor should it be. The kind of delightful and wonderful relationship that Jonathan Edwards felt with God is completely possible in our day and age as well. However, consider for a moment another article which explains one reason why we have so little capacity for contemplation, prayer, and emotional expression everyday:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed...The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray...Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7; 5:8).
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).
"He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9).
Murray, Lain H. Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Meditations in Luke – December 22, 2008
Luke 2:1-20
I can hardly believe what I read. Luke goes on to tell us about how Mary and Joseph went to
I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor.
What an amazing explanation of what is going on here in Luke. Celebrating the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who has a feeding trough in a barn for his crib is much like worshipping the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who was murdered on a cross like a criminal. This, I think, is one of the lowly and despised things that God has chosen to display his wisdom to those who will be shamed by its seeming foolishness. Notice in the passage above the reason Paul gives for God displaying his wisdom like this: “so that no one may boast before him” and so that we might be left with nothing to boast in except the Lord. Incredible.
This is exactly what happens after Jesus is born in Luke’s story. God in his wisdom sends angels not to the houses of the most influential people in town or the mayor or the effective communicators or the teachers and rabbis; but he sends the angels to tell the shepherds sitting out in the fields watching their sheep. He heralds the good news to what society would consider a bunch of dirty fleabags who probably weren’t educated or skilled at communicating, teaching, etc. He sends the angels with the good news to the lowly and despised! Think about this! You’re a shepherd sitting on a hill or in a field and an angel comes to you and says: the Savior, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the king who will resume David’s throne has been born tonight; he’s over there in so-and-so’s barn lying in a feeding trough. Even the shepherds must have wondered about this…the Messiah is lying in a feeding trough?!
So they go and find it just as the angels told them! And there is no way they can be prideful about this! There is no sense in which they can say, “I have seen the Messiah and you haven’t, nana nana boo boo!” There is no room for boasting in this. Have you ever thought about this, that the shepherds are going door to door late at night telling people that the new King and Savior of Israel is over in so-and-so’s barn lying in his feeding trough!? You shepherds must be out of your minds! You must be mad!...The good news is simultaneously the powerful wisdom of God and the utter foolishness of society! As a result the shepherds have nothing of themselves to boast about; they are left with no one else to magnify but God. So as soon as they finish waking the whole town with this ridiculous message, they return to the barn “glorifying and praising God for the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told” (20).
I remember a time in my life where I was hesitant in my faith. I was slow to believe all that God has said because I held the opinions and perceptions of my friends in high regard. I remember trying to show my non-Christian friends how “attractive” Christianity was in that I could be a Christian and have the same fun that they can have. I was careful not to step on their toes in sharing my faith because I didn’t want to offend them. The gospel I lived was my highly refined and polished version of the story that left out all of the silly and ridiculous parts. I was sub-consciously ashamed of the message because I had too much invested in the approval and acceptance of my peers. What a foul compromise! I had exchanged the glory, wisdom, and power of the good news for being liked by my friends.
I remember myself waiting for the “opportunity” to share the truth about Christ with my non-Christian friends. What that really meant in my heart was waiting for the moment in which the foolishness of the message seemed palatable to my friends. But God has not called us to judge when the soil is ready and when it is not. He has called us to proclaim the gospel, to go out into the harvest field, to sow and to water and to leave the growth and the results up to him. It seems like we sometimes expect God to save our non-Christian friends before we tell them the gospel. But have we forgotten this word? “How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’” (Rom.
Father, please be gracious to us in
Monday, August 04, 2008
My First Sermon - Preached on Aug. 3rd in Midale Baptist Church, SK
Today I am speaking from, the book of Ephesians. So if you have your Bibles here with you this morning, you can turn there with me. Before we begin reading, let me just give you a brief background on where our passage comes from.
As the gospel spread in the book of Acts, Paul traveled through Asia Minor, which is called Turkey today. One of the cities which he traveled to was called Ephesus. We read in Acts that Paul entered the synagogue in Ephesus and spoke boldly there…arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8). Paul stayed in Ephesus for over 2 years teaching the followers of Christ. Later on his missionary journey, Paul, as he was passing by the city of Ephesus, met with the elders of the church. During this encounter Paul says, I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God (Acts 20:27).
From this point forward, Paul moves over to Jerusalem where he is imprisoned and he remains a prisoner for the rest of his life eventually ending up in Rome where he dies. During Paul’s years in prison, he spends countless hours praying to God, and praising God, and thanking God for the church in Ephesus. Finally, Paul writes a letter to the church in Ephesus to encourage them and teach them as they continue to follow Jesus.
Our passage today comes from that letter which Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. So let’s read the passage! I’m going to read it for you, and you can follow along in your Bibles.
Ephesians 2:1-5
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
So I am just going to work my way through this passage one verse at a time.
Paul begins this section of his letter by reminding his audience of their former condition: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. It’s important at this point to remember who Paul is talking to. Who’s the you that Paul is writing to? It’s the members of the church in Ephesus – the very people of God. That’s going to shape the way we read this passage, because Paul’s not talking to unbelievers or to worldly people, he’s talking to the saints. As for you, yes, you the members of the church at Ephesus, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
I still remember the day that the full force of Paul’s statement hit me. Paul is very careful about the words that he chooses, especially in these first few verses. He says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
I know for myself that for a good chunk of my life as a Christian I had no idea what that meant. I was raised in a Christian home and I was a pretty good little boy, or at least I thought I was, (my parents might tell you different). As a young person I thought I was doing pretty well compared to my peers.
I think sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that we were pretty good people before we were saved. And maybe even subconsciously we believe that God’s getting someone really special by saving us.
But look at what Paul says in verse 1! He says, You were dead in your transgressions and sins. He doesn’t say you were pretty good, or you were ok, or even you were bad. He says, You were dead! There’s no spiritual life in you at all because of your sin and disobedience to God’s law!
As for you, Who? You, the members of the church in Ephesus, notice Paul’s careful choice of words, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. They were dead and they used to follow the way of this world and of the devil but they no longer do. Something changed. In fact something big changed if they are no longer dead in their sin! And we'll talk about what it was that changed in a few minutes because Paul’s not finished talking about their former condition.
Moving on to verse 3, Paul says, All of us also lived among them at one time. And skipping down to the end of verse 3, Like the rest, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath. In case we were hoping that it was only the members of the church in Ephesus who were dead in their sins and transgressions, Paul now includes everyone. It’s no longer you, the church in Ephesus, were dead; now it’s all of us also and like the rest, we.
So let’s walk through this verse and see what Paul is getting at. All of us also lived among them at one time. Lived among who? We look back up to verse 2 and read, those who are disobedient, the people who follow the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the ways of this world and are dead in their transgressions and sins.
That means that you and I are not excluded from Paul’s reminder to the Ephesians of their former condition. Just as they were dead in their transgressions and sins, you and I were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
Back to verse 3. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Please note that Paul is not simply talking about a moment in our lives where we caved in to temptation to our sinful nature. In the original language the words gratifying and following express that this was a continuous gratifying and a continuous following. Paul’s not just saying that we gratified the cravings of our sinful nature and followed its desires and thoughts, he’s saying that the continual pattern of our lives was gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and the continual pattern of our lives was following the desires and thoughts of our sinful nature.
Paul teaches this very clearly in Romans 8:
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires…The mind of sinful man is death; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
So, All of us, also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts continually as the pattern of our lives.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. What does it mean that we were by nature objects of wrath? It means that our very essence and being – who we were deep down inside – made God angry! We were dead in our sins, followed the ways of this world and of the devil; we were disobedient and rebellious, continually gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts and all of this goes to show how we were hostile enemies of God, fit for punishment. It wasn’t just that we did sinful things; we were by nature of objects of wrath. Our whole being was consumed with sin and God’s natural reaction was to destroy us with his fierce wrath!
Even hearing about God’s wrath makes us uncomfortable. But I want us to get a good look at what it is to be an object of God’s wrath. Let me read for you a couple verses from other places in the Bible.
Job 20:23-26 - This is Zophar’s description of how God’s reacts towards the wicked and godless.
When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows upon him.
Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.
Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.
Reading that sends chills up my spine! God is a holy God and just judge and he cannot and will not let the wicked go unpunished!
In Mark 9, Jesus tells us about the fierce wrath of God in judgment:
If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
The book of Revelation talks about the how the wicked will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath, and they will be tormented with burning sulfur…and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever!
When we look at the intensity of how God reacts towards sin and wickedness – when we see how fierce his wrath is for the wicked, we get a better picture of just how detestable and sick sin really is. But it gets worse for us! Paul quotes the Psalms and the Prophets in Romans 3 to show that everyone is wicked and everyone is locked up under the power of sin! He says,
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
So when you read the places in Scripture that tell you how God feels about the wicked and their sinfulness. And when you read the verses that describe God’s fury and fierce anger and how he pours out his wrath on the wicked. We need to see that that is how God felt about us and that same wrath and judgment was in store for us. When Zophar describes how God sweeps away the wicked man with his fierce wrath, he was talking about you. When Jesus warns about hell and how awful it will be and when we read in John’s revelation about torment and burning sulfur in the lake of fire, we need to see that those passages are talking about us before we were saved.
That’s why Paul writes to the Ephesians and to us saying,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature object of wrath.
BUT because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
We were hopelessly lost in sin; we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but God made us alive because of his grace and mercy and love toward us. And now we know why Paul has gone to such great lengths in all of his letters to remind his readers of how they were dead in their sin and slaves to sin. Because through understanding our sinfulness and depravity before we were saved, we see just how great God’s love for us really is, just how rich God’s mercy toward us really is, and just how magnificent God’s grace towards us really is! God looked down upon a world of disobedient, corrupted, depraved, and rebellious, God-haters and he loved them and he had mercy on them and he gave grace to them. That’s how great the love of God is! It can look upon the sickest of sinners and save them from their impossible condition. In Romans 5 Paul says this,
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man some one might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. We see the depth of God’s love for us because of who we used to be when God stepped into our lives and saved us. We see the depth of God’s mercy in what he did for us – he made us alive with Christ.
God stepped into our lives in a powerful way, and resurrected us from the dead. Now we are no longer dead in our transgressions and sin, we are alive in Christ. We’ve been changed on the inside. We are no longer by nature objects of God’s wrath because all the fierce wrath of God that we deserved was poured out, full strength, on Jesus. Jesus traded places with us. He became an object of wrath, so we could become sons and daughters of God. What incredible mercy! What amazing love! What awesome grace! We are now alive spiritually. We’ve been made new on the inside. We have a new nature. This is the good news – the gospel.
Now I want to remind all of you, that this passage was written to the saints in Ephesus – to the church – to the people of God – to those who have been saved and made alive by God. And it’s my hope and prayer that all of you here this morning are saved and have been made alive by God. But some of you may still be dead in your sin. I want to show you a how you can test yourself by our passage this morning to know whether you are still dead in your sins or have been made alive.
Paul says, as I mentioned earlier, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air…All of us also lived (past tense) among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. As we said before, all of these things used to be the way that disciples in Ephesus lived, but something changed. God made them alive and at the time of this writing these things are no longer true of them. They no longer follow the ways of this world, now they follow the ways of God. Their lives are no longer characterized by disobedience and rebellion, now they are obedient to things that God has commanded them. Their lifestyle is no longer characterized by gratifying the cravings of their sinful nature and by following its desires and thoughts, now they live to please God and their minds are set on what the Spirit desires. Why? Because God has made them alive; they are resurrected people; new creatures with new life. The old has gone and the new has come. They have been changed from the inside out.
So you can test yourself against the Scriptures to see if you are truly alive. Ask yourself: Am I still following the ways of this world and the ways of the devil or am I following the ways of God as revealed in Scripture? Am I living in disobedience or am I living in obedience? Am I living to gratify the cravings of my sinful nature or am I living to please God according to the commands set forth by God in Scripture? These are the indicators of whether you are still dead in your sin or have been made alive with Christ by God.
If you find that in light of the Scripture you are still dead in your sins. Then there is good news for you. God is loving and merciful, forgiving and gracious and he sent Jesus to earth to die under his wrath so that your sin could be pardoned and so that you can be made alive! All that you have to do is repent of your sin, which means to acknowledge before God that you are dead in your sins and that all of these things that we talked about in the first 3 verses of our passage are true of you, and now you must turn away from your sin and turn to God and his ways. Ask him for forgiveness and mercy – ask him to make you alive. And secondly you must believe that Jesus Christ has accomplished this for you and that he will save you!
But I trust and pray that most of you who are here this morning have done this and have been made alive and are the very people of God, the church. And for you, I have three applications of this passage.
The first application is this: As the people of God, we NEVER outgrow the gospel. Sometimes as Christians we believe that the gospel is the message by which we were saved, and then from that point forward in our walk with God, we move on to bigger and better things in the Word of God. This attitude is absolutely wrong. The people in the church of Ephesus, were deeply familiar with the gospel, it was the message through which they were saved and made alive; yet Paul still took the time to remind them of the gospel by which they were saved. Personally, I don’t think the disciples in Ephesus had forgotten the gospel. Rather, the nature and importance of the gospel is such that Paul reminded them of it again! As we grow to understand more and more the depths of the gospel which saved us, we grow to understand more and more how deep the Father’s love for us and how rich the Father’s mercy toward us and how AMAZING the Father’s grace for us. Paul understood the power of the gospel and the depth of the gospel and so he preached it not only to the lost, but to the found!
But we lose sight of the gospel so easy. We so easily lose focus on what God has done for us when we were still hopeless! Even as quickly as when we take a day off from reading our Bible, the wonder and power of the gospel fades from our view. We need to daily be coming to the words of God and reminding ourselves of the gospel, meditating on the gospel, growing in the gospel, living in the wonder and power of the gospel! And so I challenge you, to preach the gospel straight from this passage to yourselves regularly.
Application #2 goes like this: One of the ways that we grow in our understanding of God’s love is by growing in our understanding of our condition before we were saved. Because, part of understanding God’s love is understanding what kind of people he loved before he changed them and made them alive. This is probably one of the most neglected truths in the church of North America. We spend so much time in the New Testament reading about Jesus and how he has saved us and we hardly have a clue of what he has saved us from. That’s why some one can hear the gospel, and not be impacted! Jesus is the hope that we have for salvation, but if people don’t realize that they are dead and that they so desperately need to be saved, then it’s not good news to them. It’s foolishness. There’s an evangelist in the States who likens it to walking up to a person and offering them the cure to some obscure disease that they’ve never heard of. The person would say, what on earth are you talking about? I don’t need that. People must realize that they are sick with the sin disease to ever appreciate the gospel. We need to get into the Old Testament and get others into the Old Testament. The Old Testament shows us the holy and just character of God. It shows us God’s law which in turn shows us our sin. The Old Testament is the story of Israel, God’s chosen people, who reject the law and live wickedly because of their sinful nature, and whose disobedience is really a pattern for all of humanity. The Old Testament shows us the desperation and the longing for the Promised One, the Messiah, the one would fulfill all righteousness and usher in the kingdom of God and make possible the atonement of their sins. If all we needed to know about was Jesus, God would have only given us the New Testament, but he gave us the Old Testament too so that we would know how people lived under the curse for thousands of years until the Deliverer and Redeemer finally came. When is the last time you read the prophets? Over and over again, God tells people through the prophets what they really look like and act like under the strain and slavery of sin. And that’s who we were before we were saved. Let’s get into the Old Testament and into the prophets and grow in our theology of sin, so we can grasp more of the how great God’s love for us in our salvation.
And my last application, #3: When we read this passage and hear again of the great love of God and rich mercy of God and amazing grace of God that has saved us and made us alive – we ought to be moved to thanksgiving and devotion. When we realize a new depth of God’s love for us and gain a greater understanding of how wonderful our salvation really is we should be moved inside with deep emotion. Our lips should be exploding with the praise and worship of God. Because when the depth of this good news washes over you in the Spirit, you can’t keep your mouth shut! Praise and adoration and thanksgiving will be ringing off your lips! And suddenly it’s no longer a burden to be obedient or to do the things that God commands. You obey out of a deep affection in your heart for the God who saved you, even when it’s hard. You give him your everything, you devote your life to him and to his service, to his work, because you want to see him glorified.
As the gospel spread in the book of Acts, Paul traveled through Asia Minor, which is called Turkey today. One of the cities which he traveled to was called Ephesus. We read in Acts that Paul entered the synagogue in Ephesus and spoke boldly there…arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8). Paul stayed in Ephesus for over 2 years teaching the followers of Christ. Later on his missionary journey, Paul, as he was passing by the city of Ephesus, met with the elders of the church. During this encounter Paul says, I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God (Acts 20:27).
From this point forward, Paul moves over to Jerusalem where he is imprisoned and he remains a prisoner for the rest of his life eventually ending up in Rome where he dies. During Paul’s years in prison, he spends countless hours praying to God, and praising God, and thanking God for the church in Ephesus. Finally, Paul writes a letter to the church in Ephesus to encourage them and teach them as they continue to follow Jesus.
Our passage today comes from that letter which Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. So let’s read the passage! I’m going to read it for you, and you can follow along in your Bibles.
Ephesians 2:1-5
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
So I am just going to work my way through this passage one verse at a time.
Paul begins this section of his letter by reminding his audience of their former condition: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. It’s important at this point to remember who Paul is talking to. Who’s the you that Paul is writing to? It’s the members of the church in Ephesus – the very people of God. That’s going to shape the way we read this passage, because Paul’s not talking to unbelievers or to worldly people, he’s talking to the saints. As for you, yes, you the members of the church at Ephesus, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
I still remember the day that the full force of Paul’s statement hit me. Paul is very careful about the words that he chooses, especially in these first few verses. He says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
I know for myself that for a good chunk of my life as a Christian I had no idea what that meant. I was raised in a Christian home and I was a pretty good little boy, or at least I thought I was, (my parents might tell you different). As a young person I thought I was doing pretty well compared to my peers.
I think sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that we were pretty good people before we were saved. And maybe even subconsciously we believe that God’s getting someone really special by saving us.
But look at what Paul says in verse 1! He says, You were dead in your transgressions and sins. He doesn’t say you were pretty good, or you were ok, or even you were bad. He says, You were dead! There’s no spiritual life in you at all because of your sin and disobedience to God’s law!
As for you, Who? You, the members of the church in Ephesus, notice Paul’s careful choice of words, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. They were dead and they used to follow the way of this world and of the devil but they no longer do. Something changed. In fact something big changed if they are no longer dead in their sin! And we'll talk about what it was that changed in a few minutes because Paul’s not finished talking about their former condition.
Moving on to verse 3, Paul says, All of us also lived among them at one time. And skipping down to the end of verse 3, Like the rest, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath. In case we were hoping that it was only the members of the church in Ephesus who were dead in their sins and transgressions, Paul now includes everyone. It’s no longer you, the church in Ephesus, were dead; now it’s all of us also and like the rest, we.
So let’s walk through this verse and see what Paul is getting at. All of us also lived among them at one time. Lived among who? We look back up to verse 2 and read, those who are disobedient, the people who follow the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the ways of this world and are dead in their transgressions and sins.
That means that you and I are not excluded from Paul’s reminder to the Ephesians of their former condition. Just as they were dead in their transgressions and sins, you and I were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
Back to verse 3. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Please note that Paul is not simply talking about a moment in our lives where we caved in to temptation to our sinful nature. In the original language the words gratifying and following express that this was a continuous gratifying and a continuous following. Paul’s not just saying that we gratified the cravings of our sinful nature and followed its desires and thoughts, he’s saying that the continual pattern of our lives was gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and the continual pattern of our lives was following the desires and thoughts of our sinful nature.
Paul teaches this very clearly in Romans 8:
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires…The mind of sinful man is death; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
So, All of us, also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts continually as the pattern of our lives.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. What does it mean that we were by nature objects of wrath? It means that our very essence and being – who we were deep down inside – made God angry! We were dead in our sins, followed the ways of this world and of the devil; we were disobedient and rebellious, continually gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts and all of this goes to show how we were hostile enemies of God, fit for punishment. It wasn’t just that we did sinful things; we were by nature of objects of wrath. Our whole being was consumed with sin and God’s natural reaction was to destroy us with his fierce wrath!
Even hearing about God’s wrath makes us uncomfortable. But I want us to get a good look at what it is to be an object of God’s wrath. Let me read for you a couple verses from other places in the Bible.
Job 20:23-26 - This is Zophar’s description of how God’s reacts towards the wicked and godless.
When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows upon him.
Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.
Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.
Reading that sends chills up my spine! God is a holy God and just judge and he cannot and will not let the wicked go unpunished!
In Mark 9, Jesus tells us about the fierce wrath of God in judgment:
If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
The book of Revelation talks about the how the wicked will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath, and they will be tormented with burning sulfur…and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever!
When we look at the intensity of how God reacts towards sin and wickedness – when we see how fierce his wrath is for the wicked, we get a better picture of just how detestable and sick sin really is. But it gets worse for us! Paul quotes the Psalms and the Prophets in Romans 3 to show that everyone is wicked and everyone is locked up under the power of sin! He says,
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
So when you read the places in Scripture that tell you how God feels about the wicked and their sinfulness. And when you read the verses that describe God’s fury and fierce anger and how he pours out his wrath on the wicked. We need to see that that is how God felt about us and that same wrath and judgment was in store for us. When Zophar describes how God sweeps away the wicked man with his fierce wrath, he was talking about you. When Jesus warns about hell and how awful it will be and when we read in John’s revelation about torment and burning sulfur in the lake of fire, we need to see that those passages are talking about us before we were saved.
That’s why Paul writes to the Ephesians and to us saying,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature object of wrath.
BUT because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
We were hopelessly lost in sin; we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but God made us alive because of his grace and mercy and love toward us. And now we know why Paul has gone to such great lengths in all of his letters to remind his readers of how they were dead in their sin and slaves to sin. Because through understanding our sinfulness and depravity before we were saved, we see just how great God’s love for us really is, just how rich God’s mercy toward us really is, and just how magnificent God’s grace towards us really is! God looked down upon a world of disobedient, corrupted, depraved, and rebellious, God-haters and he loved them and he had mercy on them and he gave grace to them. That’s how great the love of God is! It can look upon the sickest of sinners and save them from their impossible condition. In Romans 5 Paul says this,
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man some one might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. We see the depth of God’s love for us because of who we used to be when God stepped into our lives and saved us. We see the depth of God’s mercy in what he did for us – he made us alive with Christ.
God stepped into our lives in a powerful way, and resurrected us from the dead. Now we are no longer dead in our transgressions and sin, we are alive in Christ. We’ve been changed on the inside. We are no longer by nature objects of God’s wrath because all the fierce wrath of God that we deserved was poured out, full strength, on Jesus. Jesus traded places with us. He became an object of wrath, so we could become sons and daughters of God. What incredible mercy! What amazing love! What awesome grace! We are now alive spiritually. We’ve been made new on the inside. We have a new nature. This is the good news – the gospel.
Now I want to remind all of you, that this passage was written to the saints in Ephesus – to the church – to the people of God – to those who have been saved and made alive by God. And it’s my hope and prayer that all of you here this morning are saved and have been made alive by God. But some of you may still be dead in your sin. I want to show you a how you can test yourself by our passage this morning to know whether you are still dead in your sins or have been made alive.
Paul says, as I mentioned earlier, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air…All of us also lived (past tense) among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. As we said before, all of these things used to be the way that disciples in Ephesus lived, but something changed. God made them alive and at the time of this writing these things are no longer true of them. They no longer follow the ways of this world, now they follow the ways of God. Their lives are no longer characterized by disobedience and rebellion, now they are obedient to things that God has commanded them. Their lifestyle is no longer characterized by gratifying the cravings of their sinful nature and by following its desires and thoughts, now they live to please God and their minds are set on what the Spirit desires. Why? Because God has made them alive; they are resurrected people; new creatures with new life. The old has gone and the new has come. They have been changed from the inside out.
So you can test yourself against the Scriptures to see if you are truly alive. Ask yourself: Am I still following the ways of this world and the ways of the devil or am I following the ways of God as revealed in Scripture? Am I living in disobedience or am I living in obedience? Am I living to gratify the cravings of my sinful nature or am I living to please God according to the commands set forth by God in Scripture? These are the indicators of whether you are still dead in your sin or have been made alive with Christ by God.
If you find that in light of the Scripture you are still dead in your sins. Then there is good news for you. God is loving and merciful, forgiving and gracious and he sent Jesus to earth to die under his wrath so that your sin could be pardoned and so that you can be made alive! All that you have to do is repent of your sin, which means to acknowledge before God that you are dead in your sins and that all of these things that we talked about in the first 3 verses of our passage are true of you, and now you must turn away from your sin and turn to God and his ways. Ask him for forgiveness and mercy – ask him to make you alive. And secondly you must believe that Jesus Christ has accomplished this for you and that he will save you!
But I trust and pray that most of you who are here this morning have done this and have been made alive and are the very people of God, the church. And for you, I have three applications of this passage.
The first application is this: As the people of God, we NEVER outgrow the gospel. Sometimes as Christians we believe that the gospel is the message by which we were saved, and then from that point forward in our walk with God, we move on to bigger and better things in the Word of God. This attitude is absolutely wrong. The people in the church of Ephesus, were deeply familiar with the gospel, it was the message through which they were saved and made alive; yet Paul still took the time to remind them of the gospel by which they were saved. Personally, I don’t think the disciples in Ephesus had forgotten the gospel. Rather, the nature and importance of the gospel is such that Paul reminded them of it again! As we grow to understand more and more the depths of the gospel which saved us, we grow to understand more and more how deep the Father’s love for us and how rich the Father’s mercy toward us and how AMAZING the Father’s grace for us. Paul understood the power of the gospel and the depth of the gospel and so he preached it not only to the lost, but to the found!
But we lose sight of the gospel so easy. We so easily lose focus on what God has done for us when we were still hopeless! Even as quickly as when we take a day off from reading our Bible, the wonder and power of the gospel fades from our view. We need to daily be coming to the words of God and reminding ourselves of the gospel, meditating on the gospel, growing in the gospel, living in the wonder and power of the gospel! And so I challenge you, to preach the gospel straight from this passage to yourselves regularly.
Application #2 goes like this: One of the ways that we grow in our understanding of God’s love is by growing in our understanding of our condition before we were saved. Because, part of understanding God’s love is understanding what kind of people he loved before he changed them and made them alive. This is probably one of the most neglected truths in the church of North America. We spend so much time in the New Testament reading about Jesus and how he has saved us and we hardly have a clue of what he has saved us from. That’s why some one can hear the gospel, and not be impacted! Jesus is the hope that we have for salvation, but if people don’t realize that they are dead and that they so desperately need to be saved, then it’s not good news to them. It’s foolishness. There’s an evangelist in the States who likens it to walking up to a person and offering them the cure to some obscure disease that they’ve never heard of. The person would say, what on earth are you talking about? I don’t need that. People must realize that they are sick with the sin disease to ever appreciate the gospel. We need to get into the Old Testament and get others into the Old Testament. The Old Testament shows us the holy and just character of God. It shows us God’s law which in turn shows us our sin. The Old Testament is the story of Israel, God’s chosen people, who reject the law and live wickedly because of their sinful nature, and whose disobedience is really a pattern for all of humanity. The Old Testament shows us the desperation and the longing for the Promised One, the Messiah, the one would fulfill all righteousness and usher in the kingdom of God and make possible the atonement of their sins. If all we needed to know about was Jesus, God would have only given us the New Testament, but he gave us the Old Testament too so that we would know how people lived under the curse for thousands of years until the Deliverer and Redeemer finally came. When is the last time you read the prophets? Over and over again, God tells people through the prophets what they really look like and act like under the strain and slavery of sin. And that’s who we were before we were saved. Let’s get into the Old Testament and into the prophets and grow in our theology of sin, so we can grasp more of the how great God’s love for us in our salvation.
And my last application, #3: When we read this passage and hear again of the great love of God and rich mercy of God and amazing grace of God that has saved us and made us alive – we ought to be moved to thanksgiving and devotion. When we realize a new depth of God’s love for us and gain a greater understanding of how wonderful our salvation really is we should be moved inside with deep emotion. Our lips should be exploding with the praise and worship of God. Because when the depth of this good news washes over you in the Spirit, you can’t keep your mouth shut! Praise and adoration and thanksgiving will be ringing off your lips! And suddenly it’s no longer a burden to be obedient or to do the things that God commands. You obey out of a deep affection in your heart for the God who saved you, even when it’s hard. You give him your everything, you devote your life to him and to his service, to his work, because you want to see him glorified.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Eternal Perspective – Infrared Goggles [Revised]
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians 3:17-21
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
1 Corinthians 4:16-18
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
1 Peter 4:7
Beloved, we are citizens of heaven, and not of this world. We belong to a heavenly kingdom, not the kingdom of this world.
As of late I’ve been feeling quite convicted regarding these passages. It seems as though we, the church in
Do we believe what God has said about our time and our purpose here on earth? If we did, would we spend countless hours sitting in front of an electricity powered piece of plastic and glass? Would we spend these precious hours in life reading empty and worthless pieces of tree with ink on them? Would we pump our ears full of empty and meaningless waves of sound? Would we waste our time rolling plastic cubes and moving little figurines around a piece of cardboard? Would we invest countless hours in our week in order to attain pieces of paper that will help us improve our “quality of life”? Consider what Peter wrote in his second letter to the churches in
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
2 Peter 3:10-12
All of our pieces of paper and plastic and cardboard are going to be destroyed. What have I done with all of the time that I’ve spent staring at a piece of plastic and glass?! All that time is irredeemable. It’s gone! And it will probably amount to nothing in eternity.
Did you notice the reason that Peter gives for why the Lord appears to be slow in returning? He is patient, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. One reason why all our TVs and RVs and cars and boats and houses and patios and cell phones and computers are still around is because God is waiting for the salvation of lost people. Isn’t it ironic that we, the church in
How we have missed these critical verses which say, “Since everything will be destroyed this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
Beloved, our lives ought to be focused on two things and two things alone: God and people. Everything else destined to destruction; All of God’s law is summed up in two commands: Love God and love your neighbor (Matt.
Several times I’ve heard the reasoning, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with spending my time in this particular activity.” Where did we ever get the idea that we should decide how to spend our time by whether it’s wrong or not? We’ve been asking the wrong question! We should not be asking “is this wrong for me to spend my time on?” (negative); we should be asking, “is this the best way to spend my time?” and “is this the right way to spend my time?” (positive). This is a wide application of what Paul is talking about when he says, “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor.
There are two things that are eternal to which we are called to give our lives to: God and people. Jesus life is the perfect example; His whole life, ministry, and mission were centered on his Father and the people he came to save. And his parables tell us to keep watch and to be at work for when he returns.
There’s a subtle lie that has crept into the church’s thinking and it’s called “You need to take time for yourself.” No you don’t. You were called to die to yourself (Mk.
One of the most dangerous statements there is with regard to how we spend our time is this: “God has given us these things for our enjoyment.” It’s true that everything that has been given to us has been given by God. But none of these things was ever meant to distract us from the One who gave them and his purpose for our lives. God hasn’t called us to live a life void of pleasure. But with regards to our time, we, the church in North America, daily trade the greatest pleasure of knowing and living in relationship with God and working for him in people’s lives, for the infinitely inferior things of this world (which by implication are not of the world to come).
Some may suggest that we have been given these things as the means by which we can rest in God. Again, we need to be cautious. Are we satisfied to rest in God alone? Do we expect these things in order to rest? Have we fallen in love with the gifts? Are they distracting us from more meaningful communion with the Giver?
The practical outworking of this truth is far less cut and dry which is probably a reason that we struggle to accept it and live it. This is how I challenge you to apply it:
Spend your life on God and people. Orient everything else in your life around these two. Then what are the temporary things and the means you must use to accomplish God’s purposes for your life? Every waking moment of your life ought to be focused on bringing glory to God by living in relationship with him and with people. It is my conviction that a life lived like this will bring deeper joy and satisfaction than any of the temporary pleasures of the world ever could.
Beloved, endeavor to see the world as God sees it. Just like infrared goggles (used in military) are programmed to let you see only things that give off heat. Put on your eternal perspectacles which enable you to see what emanates with eternal value and what is entirely void of it.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Come, Follow me!
When for the fifth or sixth time I found myself glued to chess tactics server online, chess set set in front of me, chess books opened all around me, scribbling furiously in my chess notebook; not having said much to God and having spent little time with him in several days; I knew I had a problem. For those of you who know me from high school or PRBI, you know how much enjoy playing chess. But these last few days there have been several moments where I have gone off the deep end!
Coming to this realization started with a concert believe it or not. David Nasser spoke at the Starfield concert here in Regina and his message could hardly have been more pointed at me. He preached on the rich young ruler in a way that I had never heard before! The thought process began in my mind when David asked the question, "Why did Jesus ask the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions?" I had always thought the answer was simply "because he struggled with the love of money."
But David challenged that flat out for me. Jesus actually asked two things of the rich young ruler, but we often miss the second one because the first one seems so important. He asked him to sell all that he owned and to come follow him.
This wasn't just some helpful advice to inherit eternal life! This was a call to be Jesus' disciple! Jesus answer to the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life was not simply, "overcome your struggle with wealth"...it was "come be my disciple! Come follow me!"
And here is where it hit home for me...all this talk about being rich and the wealth of the rich man and selling his possessions is all there to illustrate one thing: the cost of discipleship.
What does it cost be a disciple of Jesus? What does it cost to inherit eternal life?
Everything...
Go and sell all you have (aka. give up everything; all that stuff that is now your life) and follow me. As David put it so well, Jesus doesn't just want to be another thing on your shelf or even the thing on the top shelf of your life...he wants to be your everything. That's the cost of following Jesus.
With this stewing in my mind over the last few days, it became very obvious to me that I had set up chess as an idol in my life and it was stealing what God is jealous to have in my life. When I began to think of taking a break from chess or giving it up, I met all sorts of opposition within. That's when I realized it has to go!
Now I realize that chess is not inherently evil. I realize that is something that God has given me for my enjoyment. But God hates it when we fall so in love with the gift that we forget about Him who gave it to us. I don't know when I will play chess again. But I am willing to give it up in the meantime until I can play it with confidence that I am doing out of a pure heart.
Already I felt more freedom than before. My time with God is where it should be again, uncontested! And I am more satisfied in this than any moment I had before with the chess.
I strongly encourage you (the reader) to ask yourself some of these questions. Is there anything that I am not willing to give up to have Jesus as my everything? Am I willing to pay the price of true life?
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. Mk. 8:35-36
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