Like a Child

We have come to the end of another year and tomorrow I will go back to posting blogs about the book of Hebrews. Today I want to take one more look at the Gospel.
Jesus said that unless we come as little children we will not have eternal life. What is significant about being a child?
First a child is trusting. They trust without fear because they trust the person. We need to trust our heavenly Father.
A child also has simple faith. They take what is said at face value and do not spend hours trying to interpret the meaning behind the meaning.
A child is loving. Their love is unconditional. Children love their parents because they are their parents.
However there are ways that we are not to be children. Children can be selfish, self-centred. Children need to grown up. Paul says, "Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults." 1 Corinthians 14:20 Paul is not saying that we are not to come a children but that we are not to remain as children.

The Pearl of Great Price

Jesus tells the story about a man who found a pearl of great value in a field and so he sold everything he had to purchase the field. In one way I see this as a picture of the great salvation, the gospel. The gospel is free but it is so valuable that there is nothing that we could do to purchase it. We can only accept it as a gift.

Rest

Hebrews 4 gives us a wonderful picture of our salvation and the gospel. The author of Hebrews tells us that our rest is in Christ and we rest from our labours. This is a wonderful picture of our salvation. Our salvation is in Christ alone and all we have to do is cease from our working for our salvation and rest in Him.

A God with Wounds

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them, Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands, and reach here your hand, and put it into My side, and be not unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:24-29)
Someone wrote: In the presence of the wounded God, who suffered the hell of being completely forsaken by the heavenly Father on the cross for his sake, Thomas lets his demands for proof fade away. He puts no finger where the nails and the spear went in. All of his conditions for believing dissolve in the face of the self-sacrificing God of extraordinary love whose deep wounds speak to and drown out Thomas’ own woundedness. No one can put conditions on this God who is like no other in the universe.

Augustine

"He lies in a manger but contains the world. He feeds at the breast, but also feeds the angels. He is wrapped in swaddling cloths, but vests us in immortality. He found no place in the Inn, but makes for Himself a temple in the hearts of believers. In order that weakness might become strong, strength became weak." Augustine, Sermon 190.

Immanuel

Of all the names given to Christ in the Scriptures the name Immanuel is one of my favourites. Immanuel means "God with us". That is the picture of salvation. Jesus became man and dwelt among us. Christmas is the time when we remember that He humbled Himself and became a baby, a baby so helpless that another had to carry Him, feed Him, dress Him and protect Him. That is our God. He began man so He could save man. He is Immanuel, God with us. That is the gospel.

Camel

Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to go through an eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. A number of years ago someone started the story that there was this gate in Jerusalem that was called an eye of the needle. The story goes that the gate was too low for a camel to enter except that it went on his knees. The person then said that it was the same for everyone. As nice as this story is it is not true nor does it give an accurate picture of the gospel. There is no gate like this but more than that it misses the picture of the gospel. If it was possible to enter by our own efforts even if it meant humbling ourselves and crawling through on our knees then it would not be the gospel but rather human effort. It is totally impossible for anyone to be saved except by God Himself.

Marriage

One of the pictures of salvation is marriage. Now we must remember that marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. As part of the church we are Christ's bride. He has chosen us. That is one reason why we have no right to redefine marriage to suit us or our society. God has ordained marriage because it is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His church.

Personal but not Private

In today's world we will often hear people say that our religion should be private but that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is always personal but it is never private.
There is a wonderful story in 2 Kings 5. Naaman is the king of Syria's right hand man but he was leprosy. A simple servant girl tells him that there is a prophet in Israel that can heal him. Naaman goes to Israel and is healed (you can read the story in 2 Kings 5) but then what does he do? Instead of saying my religion is private so I do not want to face those terrible pagans in Syria let me stay here or saying my religion is private so I will continue to do what I have always done but in my heart I know differently. 2 Kings 5:17, 18 "If you will not," said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this."
What is he saying? He said that when he went into the temple of Rimmon he would bow down but he would make it known that he was worshipping the One and Only true God. TO do this he took dirt and he spread it on the ground where he knelt down so everyone knew that he was worshipping the God of Israel.
Naaman was unlike Mario Cuomo the former governor of New York who said that his faith told him that abortions were wrong but as an elected official he would not allow his religion to interfere with his practice.
So where do we spread our dirt? How do we take our faith into the market place? into the place where we work, go to school, etc?

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Some people treat the Gospel as Chicken Soup for the soul. However, the Gospel is not Chicken soup to make us feel better but to change us completely from the inside out. The Gospel is not to make us feel better but to be better. This is not possible by ourselves but only through the power of the cross.

We need the Gospel everyday.

So what is the Gospel? Let me list the important points.
1. No one is righteous by observing the Law
2. You can be righteous before God apart from the Law
3. This righteousness is received through faith in Jesus Christ
4. This righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis
5. All who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God’s grace
6. We are justified through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus
7. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement
I need to hear the Gospel message everyday. Sometimes I think that I can be righteous by keeping the Law and I forget that I am righteous apart from the Law. Every day I need to live my life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His death was sufficient to meet the requirements of my judgment under the Law. Thank you for the Gospel.

Repentance

Yesterday I wrote about a couple that my wife and I were discipling. As I said yesterday, when he began the course he was not a Christian. Whenever we asked him why he told us that in order to become a Christian he needed to repent. He told us that repentance was the most difficult thing that he ever had to do because it involved changing the way he thought about everything.
One night I suggested that he read C. S. Lewis's book, Mere Christianity. That Saturday his wife was at a church yard sale and there she found a copy of the book. He immediately read the book. However this only confirmed in him the need for repentance and the difficulty in repenting.
One night we showed up for the discipling course and his wife told us that he had something to share. He told us that he had become a Christian that day. What changed his mind? He said it was a matter of letting God deal with the situation he was facing regarding his work and whatever the consequences of his decision he would leave it to the Lord. Immediately the burden was lifted, he was able to repent and God came into his life.
Once again they taught us the lesson that it is only the Holy Spirit that can bring repentance and without repentance there is no salvation.

Let the Holy Spirit do the work

My wife and I had the privilege of discipling a couple in the faith. The interesting part was when we began the discipling she was a Christian but he wasn't. However, he wanted to do the discipleship because he wanted to be a Christian. You may ask what stood in his way. That is what I will address tomorrow.
As we discipled this couple we saw many areas in their lives, especially hers as she was a believer, that needed to be addressed. Sometimes my wife and I had to bite our tongues to keep from doing the work of the Holy Spirit. If we had told her that she should stop doing this thing or that thing then she would have but there would not have been the conviction. By keeping quiet and allowing the Holy Spirit to address those issues in His time she not only overcame them but she had complete victory over them. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to do the convicting and we do the discipling.

Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts passed away on Tuesday, December 15 at the age of 92. In his early ministry he preached the gospel as well as having a healing ministry. In fact one of my godly uncles took his crippled daughter to an Oral Roberts healing service. In later years the influence of humanism seemed to take over his ministry and he became a health and wealth preacher. The health and wealth gospel is not the gospel of Jesus Christ but rather a humanistic gospel. The gospel calls us to surrender everything for Jesus Christ, not to grasp for more.

Humpty Dumpty

Ever since man fell they have been trying to put himself back together again. Only the Creator can fix what is broken. We need to quit trying and go back to the Creator, that is the Gospel message.

Self-justification

Christians have talked about works righteousness but maybe self-justification is a better term. Self-justification includes works righteousness but it also includes those who are not Christians but they still try to justify themselves through exercise, diets, clothes, cars - after all if you look good you will feel good, and if you feel good you must be good.
Works righteousness is much the same. Our works make us feel good about ourselves and therefore God must feel good about us. Besides He owes us because we have done much for Him.
Over against self-justification is Christ justification the only true Gospel.

Adoption

It is amazing that God has redeemed us, forgiven us, justified us but He has also made us members of His family through adoption.
Adoption is a legal action that makes us instantly His children with full rights as heirs. There is nothing that we do to obtain our standing, it is by grace alone. Paul writing to the Galatian Christians says, "That we might receive the full rights of sons."

That is not what I am praying for.

I have a friend whose wife left him. Everyone he meets he tells the story and says that he does not understand why she left. He asks everyone to pray for their marriage. When he told me I told him I wasn't going to pray that their marriage would be restored as much as that is my wish and his desire. He was surprised until I told him that I would pray that the joy of the Lord would be restored in his life. If we pray for his marriage to be restored and it is then he would stop short of what God wants for him. By praying that he would have the joy of the Lord renewed then when that prayer is answered everything else is bonus.

Who needs grace?

There is a tendency within the evangelical church to day to down play God's judgment and talk about love and grace. Love may be easy to talk about when you down play judgment but how do you teach grace? Grace makes no sense if there is no judgment. The Gospel is all about grace because we are deserving of the judgment of God. The law is not anti-law. People need to see why they need the gospel.

Why do we come to Christ?

There are two reasons that bring people to Christ. The first is to find fulfillment and the second is to glorify CHrist. The first can come from two totally different perspectives but the reason is the same, humanism. We hear wonderful presentation of the invitation such as "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life."
THe moralist, religionist says "Come to Christ so you can behave better." People are urged to live up to the commands. We then can point to that person and say how God has changed him or her and as proof of that we point to their behaviour.
The relativist says come to Christ and be fulfilled. People are urged to follow His example but again this is humanism. Again this is humanism.
THe Gospel says that we are to come to Christ so that He will be glorified.
I have heard people say, "Wouldn't that person make a wonderful CHristian." No one can make a wonderful Christian, only Christ can. When we say that a person would make a wonderful Christian it is true but we must be careful not to do it from a humanist point of view but that it would bring glory to Him.

Guilt

How does a relativist deal with the guilt problem? Loosen up, you decide what is right and wrong, don't be so hard on yourself. Why should you conform to those standards if they only make you feel guilty.
How does the religionist deal with the guilt problem? Tighten up, you need to repent of your guilt feelings. The only problem is that now we feel guilty for feeling guilty.
How does the Gospel deal with the guilt problem? Yes you are guilty but your guilt has been covered by the blood of Christ. He took our sins, he bore our guilt. When you feel guilty we just have to look to the cross and know that the there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
A person may say that God cannot forgive them. Their god may not forgive them as idols cannot forgive only the God of the Gospel can and has forgiven.

The Law and the Gospel

In the book, Keep In Step With The Spirit, J. I. Packer says the following:

"To be sure, the Christian keeps the law nonlegalistically, from life rather than for life, not for gain but out of gratitude. He obeys God not as a sinner trying to win salvation, but as a son of God rejoicing in the gift of salvation that is already him. He never forgets, however, that like Paul he is 'not free from God's law but ... under Christ's law."

The picture shows my son Andrew with J. I. Packer.

Children

What happens when our children mess up? Do we become angry because they brought shame upon us? Are we angry with them because we taught them better than that? Notice how quickly we are thinking about ourselves rather than the shame they feel or the shame that our Lord feels.
when one of our children messed up at first I was hurt, then I was angry, angry at the child for bringing shame upon our family but my wife taught me an important lesson. At that time we are to extend grace just as our Lord extended grace to us. When we did that the problem did not go away but the Lord took the problem and made it a blessing, a greater blessing than we ever expected.
THe moralist would react as I reacted at first but the Gospel tells us what my wife told me. THank you for that lesson.

Abraham and Isaac

For moralists or legalists suffering is a problem and when you suffer then God is in your debt. However when it is by grace alone then you are always in His debt. In the movie of the Bible Isaac asks Abraham when he is about to be sacrificed on the altar, "Is there nothing He cannot ask of you?"

Racism

Is racism against the Gospel? THe gospel never says we should not be racist. Why not? THe problem with saying racism is wrong is that we look at others who may be racist and feel superior to them. We become anti-bigot bigots. The Gospel says that we must not think of ourselves better than others. Anti-racism works on the outside while the Gospel works on the heart.

Breaking the rules

What should a Christian (or anyone) do when the break the rules? The legalist will say that you must repent. You better change your behaviour. However the problem is that we cannot change our behaviour. We can for a time but when we mess up again then we have a guilty conscience.
The relativist says, "lighten up. You are too hard on yourself. Loosen your standards. You don't love yourself enough." The problem is that it is not true. We are not too hard on ourselves, we probably love ourselves too much.
The Gospel asks us if there is anything more than Christ in our hearts. Is our sin more important than Christ? If it is not then Christ will give us the victory over sin. The gospel deals with the heart issue not behaviour or emotions.

Professing or Possessing

May professing Christians are not believers at all. They have heard so many preachers and teachers say, "immorality bad, morality good" that they think that if they are moral then they must be a Christian. Now it is not our job to seek them out but rather to keep presenting the gospel and they will soon know if they are truly saved or not. That is why it is important that our teaching and preaching must always be Christ centered and the Gospel must be presented.

When is enough enough?

If you take a works righteousness approach to salvation rather than the Gospel approach then there is only so much that God can ask of you. The legalist, moralist will question why God is doing to them what He is doing. However, when we understand that the Gospel is by grace alone and nothing that we have or can do then there is no limit to what God can ask of me or expect of me.

Propitiation

Propitiation is term that describes that God is appeased. Jesus Christ is our propitiation for our sins. There are two wrong ways of looking at this. The first is that the legalist or moralist does not think that God has been appeased while the relativist feels that there is no need for propitiation. The relativist says that "God loves everyone". The question we need to ask them is "What did it cost your God to love you?"
Christians love to talk about Grace but is there any understanding of grace if there is no judgment for sin? Why should we talk about grace unless we believe in the fact that God will judge the world.
The legalist on the other hand does not believe that Christ's death on the cross was sufficient to propitiate God's wrath against sin and therefore we must do something to help appease Him. Both of these views rob the Gospel of its truth.

Cart before the horse

Most Christians believe that their sanctification is based upon their justification but functionally we live as if we base our justification on our sanctification. Let me tell you what I mean.
We know that we are saved by grace (justification) and there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. Our sanctification is also by grace because we are justified then we are sanctified. However,we base our justification on our sanctification. We feel that we are justified because we are living right rather than knowing that we are living right because we are justified. Hope that makes sense.

Three ways to live

Most people look at life as two ways to live. You can either be relativistic or moralistic. However the Gospel is neither. It is neither religious or irreligious, moral or immoral. Both religious and irreligious, relativistic or moralistic is external while the Gospel turns everything inside out. That does not mean that Christians are irreligious or not moral but rather they know that their salvation is not dependent upon that but upon the person of Jesus Christ and His imputed righteousness. Imputed to us by grace.

The Gospel

We have taken a break from the normal Sundays at Six so I won't be writing about Hebrews until the New Year. I would like to spend time in December contemplating the Gospel. I want to really understand the Gospel so that every time I teach I can be sure that the Gospel is being taught. I have taught Adult Christian Education for over thirty years but in the past few years I have become so much more aware of the importance of Christ centred teaching.
Some would be quick to point to I Corinthians 15:3 - 4 to explain the Gospel and it is the Gospel in a nutshell. We must remember that the Gospel is about Christ. He came, He was crucified, He was buried, He was resurrected, and He was seen of mankind.
I would appreciate any insights you have regarding the Gospel. The writer of Hebrews warns us saying, "How can we escape if we neglect so great salvation."