Abide in Christ Daily Devotional

Partakers of Christ

Thu, 8 May 2008 20:40:17 -0500

How clearly and sweetly God speaks to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. He is the word incarnate who died in our place on the cross.

Our hearts become soft and tender when we receive God's word into our heart, acknowledging our sin and the blood of Jesus Christ washes away all our sins.

How tragic when our hearts reject the grace of God and become hardened in unbelief. We are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ; we are lost through unbelief. Our heart is purified by faith in Christ, but it is hardened by unbelief. Faith in Christ brings us near to God, but unbelief separates us from him.

There is no sin that cannot be pardoned if the sinner believes on Christ.

A Tender Compassionate High Priest

Wed, 7 May 2008 21:58:06 -0500

The second greatest truth in the Bible is God became flesh and dwelt among men. The greatest is that God became man because he loved us so much that he would go to the cross and personally die for our sins.

Jesus Christ became like you and me. He sanctified life by assuming a full human nature without sin by means of his incarnation. He was fully human and fully God. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is man. The Bible puts these two great truths of full deity and full humanity together. He was the God-man. When we look to Jesus we see God himself. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” What makes Jesus so unique is he is the only one in whom you and I may see God.

Jesus fully experienced what it means to be a man. He experienced all that we experience with the one exception that he never sinned in thought or deed. This is why he can be our great high priest and intercessor.

What Does God See?

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:44:35 -0500

The apostle Paul gives us an excellent summary of the salvation God provides in Philippians 3:9. Here is the very heart of the Good News in Jesus Christ.

That I may “be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness” (NET).

In this summary the apostle tells us there are two kinds of righteousness. There is man’s self-righteousness, and there is the righteousness God provides in Jesus Christ.

"Christ Much and Christ More"

Mon, 5 May 2008 21:11:45 -0500

Have you ever thought what it would be like if you could not die? How terrible it would be if your body had wasted away with a terrible disease and you could not die. I have conducted many funerals when loved ones have reluctantly said the deceased was better off because he was no longer suffering.

On the other hand, Francis Bacon echoed the attitude of many when he said, “men fear death as children fear the dark.” Apart from an intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ no man is prepared for his encounter with death.

Moreover, death for the believer in Christ is presented in the Bible as an improvement over the very best in this life. How wonderful it would be if Jesus came for us on the very best day this life could offer when everything is going great. It would not be a terrible tragedy. The apostle Paul’s life was full and he could write, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 2:21 NET

Bad News – Good News

Sun, 4 May 2008 20:19:25 -0500

One of the basic principles of sharing Christ with your friends is that you have to present some bad news before you can share the good news.

The Bible contains both bad news and good news. The bad news is that we have a very serious problem. The Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NET).

The word that catches our eye is “sinned.” “All have sinned.” You can ask grammar school students what sin is and they can tell you in the flash of an eye what sin is. We sin when we lie, cheat, steal, lust, hate, gossip, murder, etc. But it is more than that; it is anything that does not glorify a holy and righteous God in our lives.

However, there is some good news in God's Word for us.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ died for us. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8 NET).

A Life Worthy of the Gospel

Sun, 4 May 2008 00:07:12 -0500

The Bible always stresses a balance between the content of one's beliefs and the resulting conduct in one’s life. A good example is found in Ephesians 4:1-3. “I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (NET).

Paul admonishes us to “live worthily of the calling with which you have been called.” He means that we must live a life worthy of our high calling in Christ Jesus. Our practice should equal the teachings of our doctrine. We should take great pains to see that our lives are lived in perfect balance.

The Biblical principle for living the Christian life is quite simply stated: The believer puts into daily practice the principles of the Word of God by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

How Bad Is It?

Fri, 2 May 2008 18:01:56 -0500

When I go to my medical doctor with a physical complaint he will usually ask, “How bad is it?”

Romans chapter three summarizes the spiritual condition of every individual apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul states clearly: “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11 NET).

What does that statement mean in practical terms? Every individual is unable to do a single thing to please, understand or seek after a righteous God. We may even be very religious, but you and I cannot in any way merit or earn a right relationship with God. If sinful man can be saved it must be according to God’s free, unmerited, unearned grace and mercy alone. This is what Bible scholars correctly call “total depravity.” It simply means you and I cannot in any way influence God in a positive manner to obtain a right relationship with him.

Acceptable to God

Thu, 1 May 2008 20:53:55 -0500

How can a sinful person ever be acceptable to a holy God?

God takes sin seriously; it will be severely punished unless atonement is acceptable according to God's standard.

Sin is a barrier that separates a person from God. In the Old Testament God dealt with man's sin by substitution (Lev. 1:4; 4:20; 7:7; Lev. 16).

In the New Testament sin is still a serious problem because everyone has sinned and come short of God's expectation (Rom. 3:23).

It is the will of God that everyone come to repentance and be saved from the wrath of God (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 2 Pet. 3:9-10). Salvation is accomplished by what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).

No More Walls

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:33:26 -0500

The Jewish temple had a “no trespassing” sign that prevented all non-Jewish persons from going beyond a certain area. It was enforced on the punishment of death. The non-Jews could go only so far as the Court of the Gentiles, and the Jewish women could go only so far as the Court of the Women.

The temple was surrounded by courts that formed layers of separation from the inner shrine of the Holy of Holies. The innermost court was the Court of the Priests who constantly attended the daily sacrifices and led in the worship of Yahweh or the LORD God. Next was the Court of Israel into which only Jewish men could enter and worship. After this was the Court of the Women, which indicated, that Jewish women could go no further into the temple. The outer perimeter was the Court of the Gentiles with a five-foot barricade that went around the entire temple enclosure. At intervals on the wall separating the Jewish from the non-Jewish people were inscriptions warning that no non-Jewish persons were ever permitted to enter the Jewish enclosure upon the punishment of death.

Carefully Read the Warning Label

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:34:50 -0500

Depravity.

That is not a beautiful word. It means that the corruption of sin has extended to all aspects of our nature, including our entire being. Because of that corruption there is nothing man can do to merit or influence in any way a saving relationship with a holy God.

The fallen person's relation to a holy God has been radically affected. Because of the effects of the fall, man’s original relationship with God was broken and our entire nature was polluted. As a result of the Fall of man, no individual can do anything, even religious things, that will merit salvation, or eternal life, in God's sight. There is nothing an individual can do to influence in a positive way a right relationship with God. No action that man does, no matter how good or religious can gain favor with God for salvation.

Unanswered Prayers

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:27:29 -0500

Paul prayed that God would take the “thorn in the flesh” away permanently. He prayed earnestly. He prayed repeatedly.

“Concerning this,” Paul says, “I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (v. 8). “Three times” is a Hebrew figure of speech indicating ceaselessly, continuously, over and over again praying, “that it might depart from me.”

Have you had that kind of experience? Paul was praying for the right thing; he was praying in the right manner, and to the right person. Why didn’t God answer it the way Paul desired?

Love is Extravagant!

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:49:15 -0500

Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, absolute faith, philanthropy, martyrdom without God’s love in Christ results in nothing—absolute zero.

Go back and read again the greatest essay ever written on love. First Corinthians 13 always reminds me of the highest priority in the Christian's life. “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).

Why is this chapter so important for the growing Christian? It is an awesome portrait of Jesus Christ. Read through this chapter again substituting the name Jesus Christ in place of the word “love” or “charity.” It is marvelous portrait of Christ who models for us perfect love.

Justified or Condemned

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:24:11 -0500

You are loved by God as He loved His own Son.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:8-9).

Because of the atoning death of Christ for our sins, there can be justification instead of condemnation for the guilty sinner. There is justification “through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (3:24).

The Lord Jesus Christ makes it emphatically clear that death is not the end of personal existence. Your relationship to Him determines the kind of existence you enter into when you die physically. There are two forms of existence beyond death—one good and one horrible. You cannot avoid your eternal destiny; however, what you do with Jesus Christ determines where you will spend eternity

The Perfect Righteousness of Christ

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:24:23 -0500

God has provided a perfect divine righteousness for the sinner who believes what God has revealed in His Word.

The believing sinner stands before God, not in his own self-righteousness which in reality is no righteousness, but in the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is utterly holy and without sin because He is God. He is intrinsically righteous. Jesus always did what was pleasing to the Father (John 8:29b; 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). No one could ever prove Him guilty of unrighteousness (Jn. 8:46a). He is the one exception in history; He was absolutely sinless (Matt. 17:5; Jn. 12:28; 1 Pet. 2:22-23).

Moreover, Jesus is also perfectly righteous by His obedience to the law of God. He “fulfilled all righteousness” (Matt. 3:14-15).

God's Saving Gospel

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:14:24 -0500

It is God’s gospel! It is His good news to sinners that we have the privilege of proclaiming. It is God’s good news because it is something He alone planned, announced beforehand and accomplished in His own perfect timing. It is His blessing to sinful men.

Those who were saved before Christ came in the flesh were saved by faith looking forward to His coming; just as we today are saved by faith as we look back upon His substitutionary death for our sins.

All of the prior revelations of God during the Old Testament times led up to and focused on the coming of His Son to redeem sinful man.

The Conquering Love of Christ

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:36:29 -0500

Upon close examination there is only one way to explain the dramatic changes and resultant attitudes and motivations of the Jewish rabbi, Saul of Tarsus. He was a conquered man. He was in his own words, “a servant of Christ Jesus . . . and set apart for the gospel of God.” The most powerful, transforming force in his life was an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

He was in love with the risen Lord Jesus Christ whom he had met on the road to Damascus. He was a changed man. No longer was he striving to please God and earn salvation by striving to do good works. He was now resting in the finished saving work of God in Christ on the cross.

Paul wrote, “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

Jesus Is Yahweh (Jehovah)

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:58:24 -0500

Jesus is Jehovah. Thomas confessed to the resurrected Christ, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Jesus accepted that confession of faith in Him.

“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). In deed, no one can become a Christian unless he confesses “with his mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believes in his heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9).

In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), the word kurios is the regular word used to translate the Hebrew name for God: Yahweh, Jehovah, or LORD. The word Lord (kurios) was the equivalent of the name of God. At least 150 times in the New Testament it is used of God. The Old and New Testaments alike constantly use kurios for God. This is why most of our English Bibles do not use the name Yahweh or Jehovah but have the LORD or Lord instead. The disciples and the early church knew that great name of God and therefore did not hesitate to declare that Jesus is Jehovah, Yahweh or Lord.

Do You See What I See?

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:30:41 -0500

"Christ in you the hope of glory," wrote the apostle Paul. It is one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life that we share the image of Jesus Christ and go "from glory to glory."

"We all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18 NET).

Every believer has the privilege of entering into the holy of holies and enjoying an intimate communion with God.

Our Unlimited Resources in Christ

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:29:09 -0500

William Carey, the father of the modern missionary movement said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

Carey's motto is similar to D. L. Moody's, who listened to the challenge of a pastor who said, “The world has yet to see what God will do through one man fully surrendered to Him.” Moody's response was, “By the grace of God I will be that man.”

Jesus is the only bread that satisfies men spiritually. But there must always be a recognition of need before He can meet it.

Jesus Christ is all-sufficient. He gives spiritual food in abundance.

God-Breathed Scriptures

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:53:42 -0500

The Holy Spirit initiated and controlled the process of giving us the written revelation of God.

The Scriptures were not merely man’s own thoughts, nor divine thoughts in their own words, but “the words of God,” as the writers were impelled or “born along” by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit enlightened the mind and superintended for both the spoken and the written word (2 Peter 3:15; 1 Peter 1:3-25). Even the very language is “God breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). It “breathes out the Spirit.” It is the product of God’s creative breath. God breathed through man the words that make up the Scriptures.

Biblical Authority and Jesus

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:57:15 -0500

The apostle Paul accepted the fact that the Word of God was inspired, incorruptible, indestructible and indispensable.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Since “all Scripture is inspired by God,” then no scripture is uninspired.

It is God-breathed, breathed into by God, or inspired.

The Purpose of the Scriptures

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:43:28 -0500

The primary purpose of the Scriptures is to point people to Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27, 32, 44-48).

“The Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me . . . . These are the Scriptures that testify about Me . . .” (John 5:37-39).

We can trust the Bible as the Word of God because God is the divine author. Yes, men wrote, but God stood behind the written word. Men used their own vocabulary and style of writing, but God guided over them in their choice of words. Men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Peter expressed this clearly, “No prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). It was not thought up by the prophets, but rather inspired by God.

The Purpose of Miracles

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:28:30 -0500

The more you know about Jesus and the longer you live with Him the more you know that no human category can contain Him. He is God with us.

Jesus said, “The very work that the Father has given Me to finish and which I am doing testifies that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36).

The apostle John called miracles “signs” because they signified something. For example, the “sign of Jonah” was a token of the death and resurrection of Christ. They pointed to the presence and the work of God in Christ. Everything Jesus did was done to reveal the person and character of God. The miracles show us the nature of Christ. They demonstrate that God is with us.

All of Grace

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:03:34 -0500

Grace—what a sweet fragrance. It is the greatest theme in the Bible.

Abounding grace, wondrous grace, boundless grace, fountain of grace, unfailing grace, unmeasurable grace, electing grace, matchless grace, overflowing grace, redeeming grace, pardoning grace, plenteous grace, unfailing grace, fullness of grace, efficacious grace, magnified grace, refreshing grace, sovereign grace, salvation by grace, grace rich and free!

“Oh to grace, how great a debtor.”

God is exceedingly gracious to sinful man. Grace is the unmerited and undeserved favor of a holy God upon sinful depraved human beings. It is His kindness, love and nature to be gracious to humanity.

Behold the Glory of God

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:24:00 -0500

Have you beheld the glory of God?

The experience of all believers in Christ is expressed in the words of the apostle Paul, “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Jesus Christ came that men might see His glory and believe on Him (Jn. 20:31). At the miracle in Cana of Galilee, Jesus “revealed His glory, and His disciples put their faith in Him” (John 2:11). The disciples saw His glory during the day of His flesh, and believed that God had visited them.

“We beheld His glory.” What was it they saw? John testified, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).

Charge it to My Account

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:35:01 -0500

“Charge it.” “Charge it to my account.” Those are words we hear every day in the business world.

But did you know that those words have eternal significance, too?

“Imputation” (logizomai) is a word the apostle Paul used meaning, “to reckon,” “to charge to one's account.”

In Philemon 18 the apostle asked Philemon to have Onesimus' debts transferred to Paul. “If he has wronged you,” Paul said, “charge that to my account.” One who has something imputed to him is accountable under the law.

Jesus said charge it to My account. The apostle Paul wrote, “He [God] made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Where Will You Spend Eternity

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:21:37 -0500

Jesus Christ made it very clear that a person’s relationship with God in this present life will determine his destiny in the life to come (Matthew 19:16-26; 7:13-23).

In a parable on the last judgment in Matthew 25:31ff, Jesus brought out this truth clearly. He concluded His parable saying, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (v. 46).

Jesus has power over life and death because He rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:4). “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9). He is the very embodiment of God’s living power, conquering death and raising the dead (2 Cor. 13:4). Jesus alone gives eternal life.

Eternal Life -- the Gift

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:04:35 -0500

The beauty of this new life in Christ is that Christ has so joined Himself to us that we are to go on receiving this life He gives in increasing abundance throughout eternity. The Scriptures tell us that God has promised to enlarge our spiritual capacities until the full life of the infinite Christ is reproduced in us. We are gradually being conformed to His image and likeness.

The life God gives us the moment we believe in Christ is the same life that we will be living with Him in eternity. God has already imparted to the believer in Christ the life of the age to come. Eternal life is already a present blessing available to everyone who submits to Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). The new life is life “in the Spirit,” or “in Christ.” Jesus used metaphors to describe this new life He gives (Jn. 4:14; 6:35-40; 11:25-26; 15:5, etc).

Eternal life or spiritual life is a state of regeneration and fellowship with God (Jn. 3:15-16, 36; 5:24; 6:47)

Perfect Atonement for Personal Sin

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:42:06 -0500

The most important day in the Jewish religious calendar is the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). It is to this day central to Judaism even though the sacrificial system came to an end with the destruction of the temple in A. D. 70. It is the highest holy day in Judaism.

On the day of Atonement the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle of the wilderness, and later the temple in Jerusalem, to make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel.

The word atonement means, “to cover” the sin, and thus to “wipe out,” “to erase,” “to cover.” In doing so the sacrifice “removed” the guilt of man's sin before God. The removal of the sin accomplished reconciliation between men and God. Perhaps this is why the Jewish rabbis called it the “Day,” or the “Great Day.”

It was a “type” along with all of the other Jewish sacrifices of the atonement that God would one day provide by the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Our great high priest, Jesus Christ, offered up Himself in the shedding of His own blood on Calvary to atone for the world's sins.

How do You Handle Tribulation?

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:49:41 -0500

Most believers in Christ throughout history of Christianity have suffered tribulation. For most it has been an ever-present reality (1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Tim. 3:12-13).

The New Testament describes tribulation as the inevitable conflict between the good news of Jesus Christ and a sinful hostile world dominated by Satan (John 16:33; 2 Cor. 1:8).

What should the Christian's response be to the ever present reality of tribulations and persecutions in life?

Because we are suffering with Him in these tribulations, we shall also be glorified together with Him (Rom. 12:12, 14, 17-21; 8:17, 37; 2 Cor. 1:4-5; 4:17).

Blesses Assurance

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 18:32:56 -0500

God does not intend for His saved child to live the Christian life without the blessed assurance of eternal life.

The apostle Paul had a profound conviction that nothing will be able to separate the believer from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:31-39).

Jesus spoke of double assurance or security for the believer when He said to His disciples: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand . . . and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).

Saving Faith

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 21:58:43 -0500

C. H. Spurgeon said faith has three essential ingredients: knowledge, belief and trust.

There must be “a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us.” We must have certain knowledge in which to anchor our faith. It is God's revealed Word that gives us the essential knowledge of eternal life. What we need to know God has unveiled to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ.

What we need to know is that we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), and that salvation is not of works (v. 9). It is by grace that you are saved (v. 8). We have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (6:23). Because we are sinners, we are the objects of God's wrath.

However, there is some good news because God loves us, and He wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven (Jn. 3:16). Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to come to the earth and live a perfect life without sin and then go to the cross and die in our place as our substitute (Rom. 5:6, 8; 2 Cor. 5:21).

The Perfect Place of Mercy

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 21:00:07 -0500

The most important piece of furniture in the Tabernacle of Meeting in the wilderness and later the Jerusalem Temple was the Ark of the Covenant, and the lid of gold called the mercy seat or place of mercy (Exodus 25:10-22).

The ark was also called “the ark of the testimony” because it contained God's testimony to the people of His covenant. In the ark chest were a pot of manna, Aaron's budded rod, and the two stone tablets on which was written the Law of Moses (25:16, 33; Num. 17:10; Heb. 9:4).

The “mercy seat” was a slab of gold fitting over the top of the ark chest. Once a year the High Priest would enter into the Most Holy Place and make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel by sprinkling blood of bulls and goats on the mercy seat (Lev. 16:2-16).

The full significance and fulfillment of the meaning of the Ark of the Covenant and its mercy seat is found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Ascension of Christ

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 22:45:19 -0500

The Gospel of Luke describes the transference of the resurrected body of Jesus from the earth to heaven in Acts 1:9-11.

“And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

The location of the ascension was east of Jerusalem near Bethany. Forty days after His physical resurrection Jesus “was taken up” and disappeared into a cloud.

Adopted Children of God

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 20:44:20 -0500

The term “Son of God” refers preeminently to Jesus Christ's deity (Matt. 11:25-27; 16:16-17). He alone is one in substance and glory with God the Father. Believers in Christ, although “adopted” are never on a par with the uncreated, divine Son of God.

“Adoption” is the term the apostle Paul uses to describe the act of the Holy Spirit whereby the believing sinner becomes a member of God's family, with all the privileges and obligations of family members.

We were “children of wrath” by nature (Eph. 2:3). However, those upon whom God bestows His saving grace become the “children of God.”

Our new standing before the LORD God. He accepts us into His family, who by nature do not belong to it, and places those who are not His sons originally into a right relationship with Him with all the privileges of that new family relationship.

The Supremacy of Jesus Christ

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 20:45:09 -0500

Jesus Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe.

Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Everyone who saw Christ, the visible manifestation of the invisible God, has thereby "seen" God indirectly. The apostle John who saw Jesus face to face wrote, “No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son . . . has made Him known” (v. 18). Jesus Christ is the perfect visible representation and manifestation of the “invisible” God (1 Tim. 1:17). Jesus is the perfect image, likeness and glory of His Father. He is “the exact representation” of the Father's being (Heb. 1:3). The Son is in the “exact likeness” of His Father.

All that Jesus Continues to Do

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 20:37:02 -0500

"All that Jesus began to do and teach” He continues to do and teach today.

In Acts 1:1 the words “all that Jesus began to do and teach” are in the linear action. It is action still going on. The verb “began” is present infinitive, linear action. It is as if to say that Jesus is still carrying on from heaven the work and teachings which He started while on earth before His ascension.

Luke does not say “all that Jesus did and taught,” but “all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” The Gospel of Luke tells us what Jesus began to do and teach, while Acts of the Apostles tells what He continues to do and teach by His Spirit through His special Body.

Good Works for God's Glory

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 08:40:47 -0500

Why should the believing sinner do good works?

Do we do good works so we can atone for our “temporal” sins after we were baptized? Are we to do good religious works in order to make satisfaction for our sins? Do we contribute to our salvation in some measure by good works? Are we to believe that one day we will stand before God listening to the judgment as He decides if we have had enough good works to outweigh our sins and condemnation?

The essential question is what is your motive for doing good works? Are these done in order to be saved, or are they done because we have been saved by grace through faith? The Bible is clear that we are not justified by faith plus good works, but works do follow justification by faith.

Before and After

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:19:28 -0500

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Whenever any person becomes a new creature in union with Christ, he or she becomes a new person altogether. There is a whole new creation whenever a person comes to be in Christ. The effect is the old life is passed away and a new life has begun. Everything becomes new in Christ. The person who is in Christ and has experienced the new birth is a part of the new creation.

We are new creatures in Christ Jesus. There has been a re-creation in which God has given us a new set of senses, values, and spiritual principles.

Before we were spiritually blind, now we see with spiritual eyes, and we see all things new.

Free Salvation

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:42:07 -0500

Free, but not cheap!

Your salvation is a gift freely given and received from God, but it is not cheap. It is the most expensive gift you will ever receive.

God comes and offers us free salvation. But He does not change His standard. He remains a righteous and holy God.

How could it be possible that Jesus Christ could die as a substitute for my penalty as a sinner? It is because He is the infinite God, not a sinful man, that He could die for an infinite number of sinners. Because He is God He could pay the eternal punishment for all of our sins.

Sweet Sovereign Saving Grace

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:52:18 -0500

Do you find the topic of grace boring?

Someone asked me, “Don’t you ever get tired of preaching on grace?” My response was “no,” because every other doctrine in the Christian faith is build upon and related to God’s sovereign grace.

Grace is something that is charming and beautiful. Once you have come under the strong grip of God's saving grace you can never be the same person again. And neither can you ever be a base ingrate, either.

Dressed for the New Life

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:29:31 -0500

Are you dressed in grave clothes or wedding garments?

Now that we have been saved by grace how then shall we live? How are we to walk in this new life?

The apostle Paul uses an illustration in terms of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another in Colossians 3:9-10. “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”

A New Standard of Living

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:12:26 -0500

“Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another” (v. 25). Let it be a habitual action to tell the truth. Let it characterize your lifestyle.

Make a commitment to yourself and God to speak the whole truth without mixture of error in your family, business and life relationships. How much easier life is when you live an honest, open, transparent life style. Cultivate truthfulness in your life everyday. Don’t be careless with your words.

Put off anger (vv. 26-27). One of the best ways to give the devil an opportunity to gain a place in your life is to be an angry person. Paul does not give an opposite behavior in this example. In one aspect anger is not sin. It is an emotion. He stresses, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity (lit. a place).” Paul is emphasizing a controlled or righteous anger as opposed to and uncontrolled, selfish, or sinful anger.

Living Sacrifices

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:18:12 -0500

The apostle Paul gives an urgent plea to believers in Christ “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). Paul makes such a plea based upon “the mercies of God.”

We are objects of His saving grace; therefore we are to put our lives at His disposal. Paul uses the sacrificial word for the Jewish Levitical offering of sacrifices. The body of the believer is to be a “living sacrifice.”

How do you become a “living sacrifice”?

It begins in a once and for all being set apart to God. The Christian is set apart for God’s use in the sense of being for pure and righteous purposes.

God's Kind of Life

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:04:12 -0500

Do you experience the life He gives with a sense in which you are content with a knowledge of God’s grace that is more than sufficient for your personal needs, that nothing in this life can suppress it, and that God’s favor toward you is unending? Do you live in the reality of your unending unchanging eternal position in Christ Jesus?

Our life in Christ is a life with a surplus. We have it in Christ in superabundance. Jesus said, “I am come that you might keep on having life, and might keep on having it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10b).

How do you characterize this life that overflows in Christ?

Abundant Life

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:59:43 -0500

Abundant life as Jesus described it is the life of God Himself.

God places the new spiritual life within the individual the moment he responds to God’s grace and believes on Christ as his personal Savior.

That is the beginning of a new life for one who was spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.

Jesus said, “I am come that you may have life, and keep on having it in abundance” (John 10:10b). The abundant life is a growing thing. It is the increasingly abundant present life of the believer that is emphasized.

Finished

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:51:56 -0500

The apostle John saw what was happening at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ death. A few moments before His death Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). It is one word in the Greek and can be translated, “Done!” “Finished!” or “Completed!” The entire redemptive work of Jesus Christ was finished. The Son gave His report to the Father in a loud voice so all mankind could hear it, and then He went home to the Father having completed the Father’s will.

Jesus did not say, “I am finished.” In essence He said, “It was finished and as a result it is forever done.” “It stands finished.” “Done.” The idea is that of perfection, accomplishment, relief, satisfaction, and victory.

All the accumulated sin, and guilt, of all men, of all time, guilt of all time, including the combined hells of all who have offended God, was paid in full by His death.

Under God's Watchful Eye

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:53:55 -0500

What do you say to yourself when you are pressed in on every side by dangerous situations? What do you do when you face troubles?

Many times I have turned to Psalm 121 where I find a marvelous spirit of deep peace as the Psalmist turns his eyes to heaven and expresses his confidence in the LORD God. The weary pilgrim experiences God’s protection under His constant watchful eye.

Ancient roads in the Middle East consisted of only well-trodden paths across the valleys, along rivers and the mountain passes. Many a traveler sang this song to give himself hope and courage along his journey. Have you ever whistled or sang a hymn in the dark to remind yourself of God’s sustaining grace? I have rested in deep peace as I listened to the machine guns and mortar fire in the distance in the middle of the night. On other occasions I have gone to sleep knowing there were 35,000 leftist militias surrounding the place where I slept.

God Is Able

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:02:11 -0500

What is your favorite doxology in the Bible? Mine is found in Ephesians 3:20-21.

The context is a prayer for God’s high purposes for His redeemed people. Paul’s prayer is that every believer “be filled up to all the fullness of God” (v. 19).

No Christian ever has to worry about having inadequate resources to live the Christian life. God wants us to experience His fullness. The means of this fullness is the Holy Spirit.

His prayer is that every believer may be strengthened internally through the Holy Spirit every day and in every circumstance (v. 16). He is our Comforter, Helper or Encourager, who is called along side to help in time of need. He helps us to do the right thing at the right time under all circumstances. He is our competence to live the Christian life.

From Despair to Hope

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:42:40 -0500

t is almost uncanny how the poet describes the abandonment of the sufferer by God to the scorn of evil people who mocked Him. The Hebrew poet-king wrote,

But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
“Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him” (Psalm 22:6-8).

King David writes using gestures of helplessness, frailty, and hopelessness in these verses. It is another vivid picture of the events at Calvary put in writing a thousand years before they actually took place in history (Matt. 27:39-43).

The Forsaken and the Forgiven

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:20:05 -0500

How could one of the members of the Godhead turn His back on another member of the Trinity?

“God forsaken of God” was the price of our atonement. When Jesus Christ bore our sin on the cross He was forsaken of God the Father. He paid the full price for our atonement on the cross when He bore the penalty of the wrath of God against sin for us. This sacrificial act reveals how much God loves us.

Psalm 22 has been described as the “Psalm of the Cross” because it is the best description in the entire Bible of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The amazing thing is King David wrote it a thousand years before the event described actually took place in history. Moreover, execution by crucifixion was never practiced by the Jewish people and was unknown for centuries until developed by the Carthaginians and later refined by the Romans. David paints a prophetic picture of the anguish of the Suffering Servant of God to pay the penalty for our sins. Psalm 22 is entirely messianic and prophetic. David foresaw and spoke of the suffering of the Anointed of God.

Jesus Christ is the Great I AM

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:44:45 -0500

Jesus Christ claimed to be the “I AM.” It is the personal name of the God of the Old Testament (Exodus 3:13-14). On several occasions it is recorded that Jesus used the “I AM” formula in attesting to His deity. He claimed to be the LORD God, Jehovah, Yahweh.

The greatest of all the names for the Lord Jesus Christ is the “I AM.”

This is why the apostle Paul wrote: “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus is Lord. The name that is above all other names is “Lord,” and it is equivalent to “Jehovah” or Yahweh. This is the exact equivalent to the words, “I AM.”

Feasting on the Lamb

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:55:18 -0500

The same Passover lamb that was slain and its blood smeared on the doorpost and the lintel in the Jewish home was the lamb that the people ate for the journey out of Egypt (Ex. 12:11, 46).

Everything the people needed for life that night was provided by the substitutionary lamb. The blood of the lamb covered their sins. The lamb gave his blood to redeem them, and he gave his life for them to eat and be nourished for the journey (Ex. 12:1-14). They lived their redeemed life out of the life of the lamb. They lived in the strength provided by the lamb. The Passover lamb became their nourishment for the journey in the night.

The Christian life is lived on the life of the Lamb of God.

Lamb of God

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:09:40 -0500

The focus of the life and work of Jesus Christ is found in His death and resurrection. It is the fulfillment of the great message of the coming redeemer in the Old Testament.

The innocence and gentleness of the sacrificial lamb is featured in descriptions in the Old Testament. As a symbol, the sacrificial lamb prefigured the character and suffering of the Lamb of God (Acts 8:32; Isa. 53:7). Jesus is introduced in the Gospel of John as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19; Isa. 53:7).

In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Jesus is identified as the Passover lamb. He is also seen as the suffering lamb of God in Isaiah 53, and the fulfillment of all the lambs of sacrifice in the Jewish rituals.

Jesus Christ Is God

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:32:40 -0500

The eminent British professor and scholar C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come away with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Jesus Christ is Lord because He is God.

Christ Our Redeemer

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:56:20 -0500

The most significant word that describes the death of Christ for sinful man is redemption. It means, “buying again,” or “buying back.” In the Bible it is used especially of purchasing a slave with a view of setting him free. It signifies a release procured by the payment of a ransom price.

The Roman slave could purchase his own freedom if he could come up with enough money. The owner could also sell his slave to someone else who would pay the price and set him free.

The word “ransom” signifies the price paid for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him.

Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Christ Our Reconciliation

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:48:37 -0500

Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God before he disobeyed Him in the Garden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God that fellowship was broken, and Adam tried to hide himself from God (Genesis 3:8-11).

That broken relationship with God needed to be restored or man would be eternally separated from God’s holy presence.

The apostle Paul tells us God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

Christ Our Propitiation

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:23:18 -0500

Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word.

Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a propitiatory sacrifice. It refers to what Christ did on our behalf before God.

We are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:24-25).

Christ Our Sacrifice

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:02:25 -0500

Every Easter is a vivid reminder of our sinfulness, and the penalty of our sins was laid on Christ.

God conducted the first ever sacrifice for sin. He chose the animals to sacrifice for Adam and Eve, and then He clothed them with the skins of the animals (Gen 3:21). Adam and Eve saw the first death anyone had ever witnessed. God slay the animals and in that event taught man that he deserved to die for His disobedience, and that it was possible for another to die in his place. The animals that were shed for their clothing paid the price of their sin debt. Those coats of animal skins were a constant testimony of the price of sin.

The greatest substitutionary sacrifice ever paid for sin was carried out at Calvary when Jesus died on behalf of another. Why Jesus?

Who Am I?

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:29:09 -0500

Every born again believer in Jesus Christ has a new standing before the Lord God. This eternal position never changes. It does not depend upon changes, chances or our circumstances.

Romans chapters three through seven tells us who we are in Christ.

* We have a new standing with God. By God's grace we have complete acceptance with God in Christ. We are at peace with God; God is at peace with us! "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God" (5:1–2). We have a new relationship in which we are reconciled with God, and as a result is we experience His peace.

The Power of the Resurrection Life

Sun, 9 Mar 2008 20:52:54 -0500

We know this is true because the resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is God. His resurrection proves that He is equal to God and that God would raise Him from the dead three days after He died. The resurrection was God’s way of authenticating Jesus’ claim to deity. The resurrection of Jesus is the Father’s seal on the Son’s claims. Jesus was “declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4). Jesus demonstrated God’s perfect love for us by dying on the cross and rising again (John 3:14-16).

Moreover, the resurrection proves that God has justified the believing sinner by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Jesus gave His life as a ransom for us. He was the sinless One who died for sinners. Because He rose from the dead we know that God is true to His divine will to save sinners. The resurrection proves that Jesus was our sinless substitute who made atonement for our sins and God has justified us by faith in Christ.

The resurrection of Christ also proves that the believer enjoys a vital union with his Savior (Galatians 2:20). R. A. Torrey explains: “When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He rose, He rose as my representative, and I rose in Him; when He ascended as my representative and I ascended in Him, and today I am seated in Christ with God in the heavenlies. I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins have been” (The Bible and It’s Christ, p. 108).

Infallibly Convincing Proofs

Sat, 8 Mar 2008 19:08:14 -0500

Jesus foretold His own death and resurrection (Luke 9:22; Mark 12:40).

After He rose from the dead Jesus appeared to a wide variety of people in numerous circumstances, through out the land. He showed Himself alive as “demonstrative proofs,” or “evidences manifest to the senses.” Luke uses a word that is not used in the sense of a vision, but the idea “to let oneself be seen.” Let me summarize briefly the testimony of eyewitnesses to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Mary Magdalene was the first witness who saw Jesus alive after His resurrection (John 20:11-18). She was standing outside the tomb when Jesus startled her into recognizing Him when He called her name, “Mary!” Surprised by joy, she grabbed hold of Him, and then rushed away to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” (v. 18).

Several women went to the tomb early that first Easter morning and an angel told them that Jesus had “risen from the dead” (Matthew 28:9-10). A few moments later they saw Jesus and “held Him by the feet and worshipped Him” (v. 9). Jesus told these women to go and tell the disciples to meet Him in Galilee.

Evidences of the Death of Christ

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 18:49:52 -0500

The eyewitness John keenly observed two unusual things that happen at the crucifixion of Jesus. These facts made a deep impression on him as he watched the crucifixion taking place.

The crucifixion took place on the day of preparation for the Passover festival that would begin at 6 p.m. The Jewish authorities felt an urgency to get the bodies off the crosses and buried before the sun went down.

“So that the bodies might not remain on the crosses on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31; cf. Deut. 21:22-23).

God Removed the Body

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 20:30:35 -0500

When Peter and John heard Mary Magdalene say, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him,” they took off running to the tomb of Jesus leaving Mary far behind (John 20:2-3).

They ran together for a distance and then John outran Peter and came to the tomb first (v. 4). The huge stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away. John did not enter the tomb, but just stood there outside the entranceway. He was stooping and looking in, and “he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself” (vv. 5-8).

John bent over to get a better look inside the tomb. When Peter arrived a little later, he did not hesitate, but went straight into the tomb.

Limiting Christ

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 19:01:05 -0500

Do you have trouble making the transition between the historical Christ of the New Testament and the living Christ of today?

In reality He is the same person. He changes not. The one whom we worship and serve today is the same one who walked the dusty roads of Galilee, was crucified and rose again.

We limit Christ when we say that He is able to do all that He said He would do in our lives, but we do not appropriate Him by faith today. The promises of Jesus are absolutely trustworthy. Do you believe all that is written in His Book?

The Lord of the Living and the Dead

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 20:45:26 -0500

Jesus Christ is “Lord of both the dead and the living,” declares the apostle Paul. Those who belong to Him now will still belong to Him in the future, even beyond death. They will belong to Him forever. This is true because Jesus died for us and purchased us with His own blood (1 Cor. 6:20; Acts 20:28). Jesus Christ owns us. If we have believed on Christ as our Savior He is our sovereign Lord.

There is a special lordship over us as His saved people. He has become our Lord by dying for us and rising again. He delivered us from our death penalty. He has set us free from the power of sin and its consequences. By His resurrection He has established an on going relationship with us until He calls us home to be with Him in heaven.

This extensive sovereign Lordship is expressed by Paul in these words: “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:8-9)

Satisfied Faith

Mon, 3 Mar 2008 20:59:47 -0500

Faith is simply taking God at His word and then acting on it.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b). These words are for you and me because we have not seen Him in the days of His incarnation.

Jesus is not suggesting faith without the facts, but “a satisfied faith.” It is a faith that is satisfied with God’s provisions and does not plead for visions, miracles or strange experiences as evidence of God’s blessings.

Jesus is saying that a faith without these evidences is superior because it is a mature faith.

Our Resurrection Hope

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 20:27:40 -0500

The resurrection of Jesus Christ answers the question “with what body do they come?” We look at the resurrected body of Jesus in the Scriptures and we see in Him a living mirror of our own future resurrected bodies.

We will have holiness and righteousness perfectly restored to us in Christ. The apostle John declares, “When He shall appear we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). Christ shall return as He went up. We shall receive back our bodies perfected in Christ. Our bodies shall be “fashioned like His glorious body.” That removes all the foolish vain imaginations and arrogant nonsense the world proposes about Christianity.

The present body of the flesh with its limitations cannot inherit the kingdom of God. However, our transformed and glorified state will inherit His kingdom. Only the glorified body is capable of eternal life.

From Doubt to Faith

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 19:55:04 -0500

Would you consider it a compliment if someone called you a “doubting Thomas”?

Doubting is a vital ingredient in all mature critical thinking. No one really respects a gullible person. The mature person weighs the facts and draws his conclusions based upon solid information.

Christ drew even closer to His disciples when they found it hard to believe. He did not push them away, or give up on them; He gave them space to think, ponder and meditate on the reality of spiritual truths.

His disciple Thomas doubted the witness of his fellow disciples when they sought him out and told him that Jesus was risen from the dead. Jesus did not jump in with a quick revelation. He let Thomas sweat it out for eight days (John 20:24-29).

Abiding in Christ

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:18:51 -0500

Jesus Christ offers every believer His life. It is like the life of a vine whereby the branches draw their life from the trailing plant. The believer shares in the life of the Vine.

The soul of the believer is in Christ and through our vital union with Him we receive spiritual nourishment. The Christian life is like the entwined vine with every fiber “like the ivy in an ancient wall.”

The Christian is permitted to enjoy “such ravishing tastes of heavenly joys” in Christ.

What Must I Do To Be Saved

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:42:00 -0500

Salvation is the work of God alone. It is from Him, by Him and to Him. It is God's gift to man. Man’s responsibility is only to receive it by faith.

The salvation of man is the display of the power of God for His glory alone. No part of our salvation is dependent even in the slightest degree on human effort.

Only God can perform what He requires of man to be saved. We are blind to spiritual truths (2 Cor. 4:3-4). He requires a new creation because man is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-2). God requires a spiritual birth, which only He can perform (Jn. 3:3). We are powerless to bring about such a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

Wisdom for Trials

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:04:46 -0500

James tells us trials come from many sources. Sometimes we bring trials on ourselves by making foolish decisions and pursuing selfish objectives.

They come when we are persecuted for the cause of Christ. Satan is the one behind these trials because God has invaded his territory. He cannot take away our salvation, but he can sure eat away at our joy and fellowship in the Lord.

We live in a fallen world that has been severely affected by the results of Adam’s disobedience. Therefore, hardships in this world cannot be prevented and will be with us until the day of its redemption when Christ comes.

Sanctified in Christ

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:48:23 -0500

How can we go on to perfection if we have already been perfected?

As a gift of grace, sanctification is conferred on each Christian as soon as he believes. But there is the sense that it is “hid with Christ in God.” It is “held on deposit.” We appropriate it through daily communion and gradual apprehension of Christ.

Does that mean we are already sinless? No. We have not reached a state of practical and realized sanctification in our personal lives. On the daily practical side what has been crucified must be mortified. We die daily to sin and what has been buried must be kept buried. It is still true that “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We simply have not reached holy perfection as long as we dwell in this body. We will be without sin only when we appear with Him in glory. Only then shall we be fully conformed to Christ. All our holiness is in Christ and from Him. It is only in the open vision of His face and in His light that our likeness to Him will be rendered perfect.

Appropriating Christ Daily

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:22:32 -0500

Just as it was the supreme mission of Jesus to give eternal life, so it is the supreme responsibility of the believer to appropriate that life.

God contemplates the believer even now in the image of Christ. We can rejoice as those who are already justified.

Our pardon is full and it is secure. God put the terms of salvation so high that we could never measure up to them, and therefore has saved us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore, the “title-deed” to our salvation is so high that we can never void it because “we are hidden with Christ in God.” God keeps the original copy of His eternal covenant with us in heaven with Himself. The Lord Jesus’ atoning sacrifice is our only reason for acceptance with God. Nothing can remove us from our standing with Him because the righteousness of Christ is upon us by our vital union with Him.

Accepted in the Beloved

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:59:02 -0500

There is always the tension in the Christian life between the “now” and the “yet to be.” However, what we are now in the eyes of God is what we shall be in practice when we stand before Him in complete, perfect sanctification in glory.

Even now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). He has made us acceptable in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). In deed, we are complete in Him (Col. 2:10).

How do we explain this tension in our daily lives between our practical sanctification and our eternal position and standing before God?

Born Crucified, Yet Alive in Christ

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:30:26 -0500

The believer has not only died, but is to “die daily” with Christ as long as we live in this present life because we are in “an irreconcilable enmity” between the flesh and the spirit (Gal. 5:17). We have no option but to take up the cross daily in following Christ. The flesh can only reproduce itself. It holds no possibility of a divine life. This dying to self and sin is something we do daily.

Our life-long growth in Christ-likeness is a determination to deliver us to death for Christ’s sake all that is kin to our old life before we gave our lives to Christ. It is also a commitment to put on Christ daily.

It is each believer’s responsibility to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in mortifying the flesh and therefore bring our body under the dominion of the cross of Christ.

Moreover, the Christian life is not just a life of crucifixion; it is also a new life in Christ Jesus.

Baptized into Christ

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:21:52 -0500

The word Baptizo in Romans six means "the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or into union with something else so as to alter its condition or its relationship to its previous environment or condition."

Paul is referring to the act of God when He introduces a believing sinner into a vital union with Jesus Christ. In this vital relationship the power of his sinful nature is broken and the divine nature implanted through his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The believer's relation to his previous state and environment is changed and he now has a new environment which is defined as being "in Christ."

God placed us in Christ when He died so that we might share His death and thus come into the benefits of that identification with Him. We were placed in a new environment, Christ. We have a vital union with Christ. Paul declares we re "in Christ." In our new environment in Christ we have righteousness and life. Our condition is changed from that of a sinner to that of a saint.

Believer's Baptism

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:21:33 -0500

The “wet” baptism is the ordinance that Christ gave to the church. It is a believer’s baptism by immersion in water which presents in symbolism the Christian’s vital union with Jesus Christ. Take away the Biblical mode of baptism and you loose the vital theological message of baptism.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4).

The ordinance of baptism is a constant reminder of how we were redeemed. It is an outward symbol of an inward, silent and real experience.

Risen with Christ

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:10:02 -0500

The apostle Paul declared, “if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, you are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). Christ was so identified with our sins as our representative that God had to condemn Him to death. “For the wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sins will surely die.” “God made Him sin who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf . . .”

If Jesus Christ still lies in a cold, dark grave in Jerusalem then you are still in your sins and you must pay your own death penalty as a sinner. The wages of sin must be paid in full. You will pay it or your divine Substitute will pay it for you. “If Christ be not raised your faith is in vain . . . ,” and you are still dead in your transgressions and sins.

Since Christ has risen from the dead and we are risen with Him, we are not in our sins. We “shall never perish.” Jesus said, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

Dead to Sin

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:20:12 -0500

Our fallen nature was not changed at conversion. It was not annihilated, but it was “rendered inactive, made of no effect” (Rom. 6:6). Our physical body is not sinful. It is neutral and can be controlled by sin or by the Holy Spirit. It was controlled by sin before we trusted Christ for salvation.

“In Jesus Christ we died to sin, and the old nature was crucified so that the old life is rendered inoperative.” This is a great fact for the believer to rely upon. Now that we have died with Christ the power of controlling sin is broken and is rendered powerless or ineffective (Rom. 6:3-5).

There is a change in relationship with God and sin. Because of this new living union with Christ the believer now has a new relationship with God and different attitudes toward sin. Sin is no longer his master. Christ is the new master. We no longer want to continue in sin. Now because we are in Christ we have a choicer whether we choose to sin, or choose to obey our new Master.

I Died

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:56:17 -0500

“I have been crucified with Christ.” “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).

What was true of Paul is true of every believer because we are “in Christ.” Our spiritual union with Christ is entirely independent of all conditions of time and space. And in depth of intimacy there can be no difference between the believer of today and those who knew our Lord on earth, since "by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13).

Paul writes, “As many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6:3). The water baptism by immersion is a symbolic picture of an even greater spiritual baptism when we were placed in the body of Christ when we first believed on Him as our Savior.

“In Christ.” “I am crucified with Christ.”

Christ Died for Me

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:33:38 -0500

Salvation is entirely apart from any self-help. We are not saved by imitation of the crucifixion or by Christ’s example, but as Luther concluded, “that high crucifying whereby sin, the devil, and death, are crucified in Christ and not in me.”

The Bible says, “The soul that sins will surely die.” Christ died that we may live. He paid our debt to the righteousness of God. Two thousand years ago Christ paid a moral debt that belonged to you and me. His death secured our freedom from the debt and stamped the receipt “paid in full.” His death released us from all obligation to pay our spiritual debt.

The death of Christ is a historical fact at a time and place, but Christ crucified is also an eternal fact touching all time with equal nearness. The crucifixion of Christ is an ever-present reality in the mind and heart of God. Our reconciliation to God depends entirely upon that central fact of the ages.

Yes, But God

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:04:14 -0500

It is the sad state of every person outside of Christ. We have each failed in the eyes of a holy and righteous God. We are sinners. Our lives do not bring glory to God. Because we are sinners, we cannot please Him with our self-righteousness and religious works, no matter how good our motives or our works.

Yes, “But God.” How beautiful are those words to the depraved sinner.

Yes, “but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (v. 4).

That same holy and righteous God had “mercy” on us. The word means loving kindness, help in the time of need. It is God’s active intervention to help. He is the Helper of the helpless.

He treats us in mercy because He loves us.

In Christ

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:57:39 -0500

The world is waiting to see what God is doing in your life. That is the only way it will ever be convinced that He is real. Sinlessly perfect, no. Saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, yes.

All that we are as Christians is found “in Christ.” We are dependent “in Him.” We receive our strength “in Him.” “Of Him you are in Christ,” says the apostle Paul. Christ in taking man up into Himself, takes all that belongs to him.

Christ in bringing us into a vital union with Himself brings us into a relationship with all that belongs to Him, in His divine life. We enter into a partnership with His divine work.

Are You in Adam Or in Christ?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:28:52 -0500

Charles Hodge asked a crucial question: “If God requires one thing, and we present another, how can we be saved? If He has revealed a method in which He can be just and yet justify the sinner, and if we reject that method and insist upon pursuing a different way, how can we hope to be accepted?”

The safest answer, of course, is in the Scriptures. What has God revealed?

The first man sinned, but not just once; Adam sinned many times. Before he sinned the first time he was righteous. His righteousness was of his own doing, as a created being. It was the righteousness of a man. However, Adam never had the righteousness of Jesus Christ upon him. What he lost was his own self righteousness.

The Imputed Righteousness of God

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:21:50 -0500

The judgment of God rests upon all men outside of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ because of imputed sin, our inherited sin nature and our own personal sins.

We stand guilty before God and deserve the death penalty until we come to Christ alone for a right standing before God (Rom. 6:23).

Moreover, in a similar way, the sin of man is imputed to Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Jehovah, the LORD God, laid on His Son, the Lamb of God, the iniquities of us all (Isa. 53:5; Jn. 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). There was a judicial transfer of the sins of man to Jesus Christ, God’s Sin-Bearer.

Dying Daily and Our Life in Christ

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:06:54 -0500

Spiritual growth is making real in our daily experience what is already true for us in Christ.

Our progressive sanctification is an ever putting off all that belongs to the old man, and putting on all that belongs to the new man in Christ.

The old nature of man in Adam has not evolved better over the last two thousand years. Has the carnal mind with its urges become so good to the Holy Spirit that we no longer need to subject it to the Holy Spirit? Undisciplined self-gratification has never been compatible with strong, vibrant, mature spiritual growth. You cannot be a mature believer and live anyway you choose. You cannot give nature all that it desires without defrauding the grace of God.

Because Christ Lives

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:01:02 -0500

God supplies all of our spiritual needs through His infinite resources. The Holy Spirit indwells us with His power; therefore, as we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. As we are occupied with Christ, we are kept from sin and thus “saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).

“He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). This permanent priesthood of Jesus gives Him the capacity to carry His saving work to completion. He can see them through every trial and difficulty right to the end of the road “because He always lives to intercede for them.” In saying this, the author reverted again to a truth he had already enunciated (4:14-16) where he had invited the readers to avail themselves boldly of the mercy and grace accessible to them through Jesus’ priesthood.

Saved by His Life

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:58:55 -0500

We shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).

These words give us encouragement for difficult days when tempted by forces beyond ourselves, but let’s be clear as to what these words of the apostle Paul do not mean. “Saved by His life” does not imply that salvation comes from imitating the principles and godly character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Following or imitating the Lord Jesus Christ will not save anyone. No one has ever been saved by imitating the life of Christ. He alone lived a perfectly holy life. No one else can ever measure up.

The apostle wrote, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).

Righteousness for the Ungodly

Sat, 9 Feb 2008 17:17:10 -0500

It is an ugly picture and it is one that most of us do not want to view about ourselves.

All are sinners. All have turned away from God. All are ungodly. All are helpless to safe themselves. All are unrighteous. “There is none that does good.”

That is the way the apostle Paul began the greatest book written on a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Now believe it or not, that is good news! We need to hear the bad news before we can receive the good news.

God Justifies The Ungodly

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 17:14:41 -0500

All men by nature are ungodly. The very thought strikes against our sinful heart. It smites our conscience. To be ungodly is to be unlike God. This is the kind of person God justifies. It is a fact that no individual can do anything to deserve a right relationship with a perfectly holy God.

It is perfectly clear in God’s Word that every person is a sinner. No one lives up to the “light” that he has been given, even about God from nature (Rom. 1:18-23). We all stand guilty in His eyes.

“There is none that seeks after God.” The truth is we seek after our own selfish ways. We follow the desires of our selfish hearts (1:24-32). We always follow our sinful will until God in His sovereign grace intervenes.

This knowledge of God makes the sinner

The Unchanging Christ: The Same Forever

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 17:12:21 -0500

“When our Savior comes again,” wrote H. A. Ironside, “God is coming to take control of things in this world and the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in council in the past eternity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit working out our salvation here on earth; Father, Son and Holy Spirit bringing in the glory by and by when the long period of man’s trial is over, when the kingdom is fully established, and the Lord Jesus Christ abides forever the One in whom the Father and Spirit as well as the Son are fully displayed—for He is the image of the invisible God.”

The writer of Hebrews simply said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

In His awesome prayer the night before His death by crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (Jn. 17:5).

The Unchanging Christ: The Same Today

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 17:10:13 -0500

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

The pre-incarnate Christ changes not.

It is said that Plato, the Greek philosopher proposed to his students one day, “It may be that some day there will come forth from God a Word, a Logos, who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.”

The Lord God answered Plato when He came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Logos was made flesh and dwelt among men, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:1, 14, 18).

The Unchanging Christ: The Same Yesterday

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 17:07:11 -0500

All of my life I have heard the plea for a relevant “new Christ for a new age.”

The truth is Jesus Christ is God’s final word to men in all ages. He is relevant for every age. He is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

The same Jesus sits today “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). He is the same person as He was when here on the earth.

When we read the words, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday” we are carried back to the long ages before He became flesh. I can point to a date, time, and place when I was born. However, Jesus did not begin to live when He was born in the flesh of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He simply changed His robes.

"Put on Christ"

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 17:04:30 -0500

Every Christian is in an all out war with Satan. God has equipped us with unsurpassed and incomparable spiritual armor for this battle. It is our responsibility to resist the devil. When you reject him with the power of the indwelling Christ, “he will flee from you.”

Christ gives us His mighty strength (kratei) to resist Satan’s strategies (Phil. 4:13). It is not I, but Christ in me that I have this overwhelming conquering power.

Our responsibility in this spiritual warfare is to “put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11). You will never win in the spiritual war without it. By using the armor God has provided we “stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (v. 11). In this spiritual war (v. 12) we must “take up the full armor of God” so we can “resist” Satan and “stand firm” (v. 13). The apostle Paul makes an urgent appeal for the believer to take his “stand.”

Sanctified by the Word of God

Sun, 3 Feb 2008 17:01:31 -0500

The Holy Spirit uses the Word to do His work within the believer. Let’s distinguish between the sanctification by the Holy Spirit within us at the beginning of God’s work of salvation in our souls, and the everyday application of God’s word in the Christian’s life. We are in the need of daily sanctification by the truth of God’s Word. This is a progressive work that will go on in our lives until we are presented perfect in Christ at His second coming.

Sanctification is not the eradication of our sinful nature, or of the “old man” in a once and for all experience.

Our Eternal Sanctification by the Blood of Jesus

Sat, 2 Feb 2008 16:58:37 -0500

ne of the most precious and beautiful themes in the Bible is our positional or absolute sanctification by the blood of Jesus Christ. This sanctification is an unchanging and unchangeable eternal position with God.

It is the result of the finished work of atonement Jesus accomplished to take away our sins on the cross. We are accepted in the Beloved. As He is, so are we. We are reckoned by God to be as Christ is in our new standing or position in Christ.

Have You Received The First Blessing?

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 16:51:15 -0500

The Holy Spirit does a work within the believer whereby He sanctifies us. This is an experience within the Christian.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “ . . . you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).

The context tells us all the sins of these saints that were covered by the blood of Jesus. God chose the believer unto “salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13; cf. 4:7; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 15:16). Paul has in mind the ultimate goal, our final salvation.

Our Absolute and Progressive Santification

31Jan 2008 16:48:09

Can you imagine how chaotic the Christian life would be like if we believed on Christ to save us, but we had to keep ourselves saved by our own sinless life?

Because of false teachings most non-believers have the misunderstanding that Christians are to be “perfect” once they believe on Christ as their Savior. They are led to think that all Christians are hypocrites because they are not “perfect” in their daily life and practice. The truth is Christians are “saved sinners” who by the grace of God are striving to live a life that is pleasing to their Savior. Our goal is perfection, but it will not be reached in this life. We will be presented “complete,” “mature,” “perfect” before our heavenly Father in heaven at the end of this life on earth. Only then will we experience sinless perfection.

I thank God that the same grace that saved me, also keeps me saved.

Living the Christian Life

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:45:56 -0500

There is only one person who can live the Christian life. Yes, it can be lived, but only by the Lord Jesus Christ.

To live the Christian life you must have the right one living it. The Christian life can be lived by Christ. It is His life, and it is exclusively His to be lived only by Him.

Have you found yourself ever trying to live the Christian life and feeling like a failure? The reason is it can only be lived in complete dependence upon Christ.

The Lord Over Death

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:40:47 -0500

For the believer in Christ, death is not the end of life; it is only the beginning of a deeper, richer life in Christ. Death is not the end of our personhood. This perishable body as an empty shell is left behind, but in His triumph over the grave Jesus gives us another body that is made for heaven and eternity (1 Cor. 15:35-38; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Jesus Christ is Lord over death and the grave. Death is swallowed up in His victory. Therefore, my death is also swallowed up in victory at death because Jesus Christ is Lord over death. That is not just a play on words. It is a statement of fact. Because Jesus Christ is Lord over death, my life does not end at death; it continues as long as Jesus lives and He is eternal. Death is no match for the triumphant resurrection power of God.

The Lord of History

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:18:30 -0500

History moves toward a steady goal because God is in control of history. Jesus Christ is Lord of all including time, kings and kingdoms. He is the Lord of history.

The lordship of Jesus Christ includes every area of life. “The blessed hope” of history is the triumphant, visible return of Jesus Christ. It will be a “glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus Christ will return in triumph to fulfill God’s eternal purpose with all of creation. Creation begins and ends with Christ. The Creator is the Beginning and the Finisher of His creation. We need to remind ourselves of this truth that man is not the creator; he is the created.

Only the Father in heaven knows when that triu

Lordship of Christ and Our Santification

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:13:31 -0500

Christ-likeness in our daily life begins when we put our faith in Christ. It is true, we will never reach sinless perfection in this life, but we strive for it because we love Him and respond to His love. God conforms us to His likeness as we yield ourselves to Him.

As we grow spiritually, we strive to make Christ lord of every area of our lives. This is where spiritual growth takes place. We learn to trust every area of our lives to Christ. Sadly, no one has given God all of themselves except Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit works within us revealing our true self and the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Do we really want Christ to control the deepest recesses of our hearts?

Jesus Is Both Lord and Messiah

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:29:45 -0500

Jesus Christ is my Lord. That is the greatest confession of faith you can ever make. “Jesus is Lord.” He is not one of a variety of ways to get to heaven; He is the only way because He is the risen Lord. When we confess faith in Jesus we are saying Jesus is Lord because God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9-10).

Why do followers of Jesus Christ believe He is Lord? The resurrection of Jesus demonstrated beyond any doubt that He is Lord of all. Our faith is based on the clear historical evidence of His resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus proved the validity and reality of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross and His sovereign Lordship. Because Jesus is alive He is our Lord, and He invites us to join Him in the resurrection life.

The apostle Peter gave four evidences of the resurrection of Jesus in Acts 2:22-36.

The Problem of Evil and Suffering

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:15:37 -0500

The greatest theological challenge Christians face is the problem of evil and suffering. Never have we had a greater demand to think biblically. We must speak the truth with integrity when people are desperate to hear it and no one else seems to know where to look for honest answers.

There is not a day that goes by that we are constantly called upon to minister at senseless accidents, terrible disasters, crimes against innocence, or someone suffering from a devastating disease. People demand some enlightenment. Perhaps the most difficult situations are those when the innocent suffer at the sinful hands of others.

In times of tragedy and crisis pastors are called upon to speak words of comfort and encouragement when no one else has any idea what to say. We are supposed to know what to say when nothing seems appropriate to say. Where do you go for such wisdom and guidance?

God Brings Good Out of Evil

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:30:28 -0500

You must acknowledge that good exists for evil to exist. There can be no evil without there being good. God’s providence extends over both good and evil. Moreover, His will is absolutely good and perfect because His is a righteous God.

God has good reason for evil to exist, even though He did not create it. Evil cannot exist unless God willed it, therefore He can use it for His glory and for our good.

A false premise commonly heard in our day is because evil exists in the world there is no God. The reasoning is if God is all-powerful, sovereign, and totally good, He will not allow evil to take place.

Why Pain and Suffering

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:13:50 -0500

The Greek philosopher Epicures asked if there is a God, and if that God is good, why is there evil in our world? Epicures reasoned: “God either wishes to take away evil, and is unable; or He is able and unwitting; or He is neither willing nor able; or He is both willing and able.”

His reasoning raises other questions. Is He weak and feeble because He wishes to take away evil, but unable to do so? However, that does not answer to the real character of God.

Is He wicked because He is able and willing, but will not?

New Life in Christ

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:23:37 -0500

The central truth of Christianity is that a person must be “born . . . of God.” God regenerates, not man. God is the Agent who brings spiritual life to the soul of the sinner. God the Holy Spirit communicates the new life through a spiritual birth. It is a mystery that cannot be explained. You cannot put it in a test tube, or a mathematical formula or a computer chip. It is a miracle that can only be experienced when God does it. This spiritual life is a new quality, a radically different kind of life that is communicated to the soul.

The new birth is the communication to the soul of the believing sinner the very life of Christ. It comes directly from God. The believing sinner can now have fellowship with God. He is “a partaker of the divine nature.” It does not come from our heredity, our intellectual abilities, human efforts, etc. It comes directly and only from God.

A Good and Perfect Father

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:36:59 -0500

God the Father loves us just as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ.

Since that is a true statement can we ever have another anxious thought or rebellious attitude toward Him? Because our heavenly Father loves us with such love as He has for His Son He will not let us want for anything good in His divine will. He will take care of us in the very best possible manner (Psa. 23:1; Eph. 1:3). It is absolutely safe to put our trust in a perfect Father.

“Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).

Finish Your Work, Lord

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:24:49 -0500

We are loved by God and have been born again; we are now His children. But even now, it has not been revealed clearly to us what we shall be. However, we know absolutely that whenever He comes we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope continually set on Him is constantly purifying himself just as He is pure.

The present reality is we are God’s children because of the new birth and adoption into the family of God. He wants us to spend eternity with Him. Only a person who knows God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ knows what it means to be a child of God.

When Jesus Christ comes a second time all true believers in Him will become like Him (Phil. 3:20-21). They will have new, glorified, resurrected bodies adapted for heaven. Such a hope in His coming leads to a life of personal integrity. We want to live lives that are pleasing to Him.

Seated with Christ in Heaven

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:32:17 -0500

“We were made alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5).

The newness of life we received, as Christians is a spiritual life imparted through our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. This identification with Him in His death broke the power of indwelling sin. Moreover, our identification with Christ in His resurrection resulted in the impartation of divine life (Romans 6:34).

You have been completely saved by grace and the present result is that you are in a saved state of being.

Our One Supreme Passion

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:32:24 -0500

Authentic Christianity is God-centered because it loves the Lord God with all the heart, mind soul and strength. Evidence of a true knowledge of God is an obsession with the glory of God manifest in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The one consuming passion of the believer is the glory of God because he has witnessed the grandeur, majesty and excellence of the Lord God through the eyes of the Lord Jesus and he can never remain the same thereafter.

The glory of God is the sum weight of all the attributes of God. It sums up all that He is in the awesome beauty of His divine perfections. He is perfectly and infinitely glorious

What Will You Do With Jesus Christ?

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:33:42 -0500

t does not matter who we are, what we have been, or what we have done in our past, because our eternal destiny deals with one question alone, what was our personal response to the demands of Jesus Christ?

There is only one basis upon which an individual can be declared right with God, and that basis is the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross. When any person believes on Christ as his personal Savior, accepting the fact that He bore our sins in His body on the cross, God declares us acquitted. In that moment all of our sins are forgiven and we experience peace with God.

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

How Do You Know When You Are Spirit Filled?

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:34:05 -0500

The supreme mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of His person and atoning work.

The work of the Spirit is Christocentric. He will glorify Christ and will never draw attention to Himself. He always declares the work of Christ.

The work of the Holy Spirit is always to glorify Christ. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He shall glorify Me” (John 16:14). When the Spirit came upon the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost they immediately began to proclaim, not the Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ is Lord. And they never ceased doing that.

God Knows Me

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:32:46 -0500

God knows me, and He still wants to pursue a personal relationship with me. That is truly amazing. He knows everything about me, and still wants to enjoy my fellowship with Him.

What does it mean to know God? How do you come to an intimate personal knowledge of Him?

I am not thinking of intellectual knowledge or facts about Him, but the importance of knowing a close friend.

Do The Impossible

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:06:16 -0500

Jesus saw a thirty-eight year old man lying on his mat at the pool of water at Bethesda and approached him asking, “Do you wish to get well?” (John 5:5-6).

Christ told the man to do the impossible. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

The apostle John tells us “And immediately the man became well, and took up his pallet and began to walk” (v. 9).

This man could not help himself. Only the divine power of Jesus Christ enabled the man to rise and walk. It was a miracle that Jesus performed at the pool of Bethesda.

Do You Have Eternal Life?

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:48:07 -0500

Jesus Christ said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). How do you obtain eternal life? Have you experienced the real thing? What is this knowledge of eternal life?

Life eternal is God's life in us produced by His Holy Spirit. It issues in a personal encounter with a holy God who in His grace forgives us of our sins based on the atoning death of Jesus Christ. No one can have His life and not be changed. God is holy and His Spirit makes us aware of our sinfulness and of our deep personal need of His grace. It is by His grace that we are turned to Christ who is our Savior. This knowledge occurs only where God’s Holy Spirit is at work beforehand to make it possible, and it always changes us, issuing in a heart response and true devotion to Him.

Are You One of the Elect of God?

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:10:44 -0500

When Jesus was praying to the Father the night before His sacrificial death on the cross He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life” (John 17:1-2).

Jesus is referring to the covenant between God the Father and God the Son when God gave to Jesus in salvation that great company for whom He would go to the cross and die.

His death provided the objective and judicial basis whereby the elect would be saved.

Have You Seen The Face of God?

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:02:35 -0500

The disciples of Jesus saw His glory. They gazed into His character, which is the character of God. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

When we see Jesus we see the Father. He “is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (v. 18).

The Old Testament speaks of the glory of God being so bright in radiance like the display of light that no man could approach it. The LORD is clothed with splendor and majesty. The face of Moses glowed with an irradiation or illumination in a strange and wonderful way when he came down from the mountain after speaking with God (Ex. 34:29-35). His whole personal being was mastered, captured, and illuminated by fellowship with God. There was a supreme consciousness of God’s presence.

The Glory Of God In Jesus Christ

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 18:05:35 -0500

What do you think God the Son would say to God the Father during the night before He would lay down His life as atonement for the sin of the world?

Imagine for a moment with me what the divine communication between God the Father and God the Son must be like. I wonder what deep conversations must take place between the members of the Trinity. The communiqué between the Godhead must be too profound and unfathomable for us to comprehend. The LORD said to Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9).

Saved by Grace!

Tue, 8 Jan 2008 19:45:54 -0500

Saved by grace! There is no greater majestic theme for the Christian. It eliminates all grounds of boasting.

Salvation by God’s sovereign grace gives a wonderful assurance. We have security in salvation because our sovereign God elected us in eternity, adopted us into His family, regenerated us, and sealed us with His Spirit.

To appreciate so great salvation we must understand our great need.

Behold, What Manner of Love

Mon, 7 Jan 2008 16:38:17 -0500

Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. The Jewish people who saw Him responded to one another, "Behold, how He loved him" (John 11:35-36).

C. H. Spurgeon said to his congregation in London, "Most of us here, I trust, are not mere onlookers, but we have a share in the special love of Jesus. We see evidences of that love, not in the tears, but in the precious blood that He so freely shed for us. . . . Behold how He loves us!"

Have you ever asked yourself where or when He first loved you? With fullness of heart we can say, "See, how He loves me!" Is the beginning of that great love when we first believed? Could it have begun when He died for us? As we reflect back on our lives and His love for us there is no time when He did not love us.

Christ our Redeemer

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 14:12:32 -0500

We have been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He paid an infinite price for our salvation. The price of redemption is the death of Jesus Christ. That is the inescapable fact in the Old and New Testament.

The idea of redemption comes from the ancient Greek marketplace. The word agorazo means "to buy," or "to buy in the marketplace." In the New Testament the word places the emphasis on the price Jesus paid to redeem us.

Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?

Fri, 4 Jan 2008 20:12:12 -0500

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17).

A good friend asked me, “Do you fell you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?” That is a probing question every Christian should pause and consider.

I firmly believe that every born again believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but not every believer is yielded to His control. Our experience of His divine presence depends upon our yielding to Him moment by moment. If the Holy Spirit is to have a larger part of our lives we must make a deliberate choice and allow Him to take control.

Are You a Saint?

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:37:22 -0500

In His great priestly prayer Jesus was praying for His disciples, present and future. He said to His Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19).

Did Jesus mean that He wished to become holier? Was He praying for sinless perfection? Of course, not, that would have been impossible for the infinitely holy One to become holier. He was already perfectly holy.

Jesus was using the correct definition of the word saint. Jesus was setting Himself apart to the task of making atonement for our sins on the cross so we could become set apart for God. A saint is one who is “set apart” for God’s unique possession and purposes. The setting apart as a saint is something God does apart from human endeavor.

Always in Abundant Supply

Wed, 2 Jan 2008 14:34:42 -0500

Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet our every need, but if He is going to meet our needs we must be wiling to recognize our needs and call upon Him. There must be a turning to Him for help. He can supply every spiritual need we face in life if we respond to His abiding presence.

At the feeding of the five thousand Jesus provided food in abundance, and it is always that way with God (Matt. 14:15-21; Mk. 6:33-44; Lk. 9:12-17; Jn. 6:1-15). The interesting thing is Jesus initiated the feeding of the people. He knew in advance that He was going to meet their need. He was interested in their welfare. He was able to do it.

The Lord Will Provide

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 18:10:59 -0500

Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

Jesus made a startling statement stressing the fact that the ancient Jewish patriarch Abraham placed his ultimate hope in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and he rejoiced in the thought of Christ’s coming.

Jesus points to the event as “My day”—the life of Jesus Christ. That is the event that Abraham was reflecting upon and rejoicing about.

Always in Abundant Supply

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 17:47:47 -0500