An Everyday Delight

An Everyday Delight

PRAY OR WORK?

For we are God's fellow workers.

(1 CORINTHIANS 3:9)

Nehemiah understood well the principle that we're both dependent and responsible. In rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, he faced great opposition from certain enemies of the Jews. When the Jews had rebuilt the wall to half its height, these enemies "all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night" (Nehemiah 4:8-9).

Note Nehemiah's response to the threatened attack. His people prayed and posted a guard. He recognized his dependence on God, but he also accepted his responsibility to work- to stand guard.

Today, we would tend to divide into two camps. The more "spiritual" people would call an all-night prayer meeting. To them, posting a guard would be depending on human effort instead of God. The "practical" ones among us would do a fine job organizing the guard and assigning everyone to various watches, but they would be too busy to pray.

Nehemiah and his people did both. They recognized their dependence on God, but they also understood they were depending on Him to enable and help them, not to do their work for them.

There are instances in the Old Testament where God miraculously intervened and actually fought the battle for Israel (such as 2 Chronicles 20). But these are the exception, not the rule. However- and this is an important statement - there is not a single instance in New Testament teaching on holiness where we are taught to depend on the Holy Spirit without a corresponding exercise of discipline on our part.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 14 / MONDAY

GIVING TO GOD

What do you have that you did not receive?

(1 CORINTHIANS 4:7)

We actually cannot give God anything that He has not first given to us. David recognized this fact when the leaders of Israel gave so generously for the building of the temple. In his prayer of praise to God he said, "Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 0 LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own" (1 Chronicles 29:14,16).

David knew he and his people had not given anything to God that wasn't His already. Even our service to God comes from His hand. As the prophet Isaiah said, "LORD.... all that we have accomplished you have done for us" (Isaiah 26:12, NIV). Paul summed it up rather conclusively when he said of God, "Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25). When our every breath is a gift from God, there's really nothing left to give that hasn't been first given to us.

Where does that leave us? It leaves us in the blessed position of being eleventh-hour workers in God's kingdom (Matthew 20:1-16). It leaves us going home at the end of the day from God's vineyard profoundly grateful, knowing that the gracious landowner has been generous beyond all measure. In a word, it leaves us content, and "there is great gain in godliness with contentment" (1 Timothy 6:6).

Transforming Grace

Week 14 / TUESDAY

THE SIN OF ANXIETY

He cares for you.

(1 PETER 5:7)

When we tell someone, "Don't be anxious," we're simply trying to encourage or admonish that person in a helpful way. But when God in His Word tells us, "Don't be anxious," it has the force of a moral command. It's His moral will that we not be anxious. Or to say it more explicitly, anxiety is sin.

Anxiety is sin for two reasons. First, it's a distrust of God. In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus said that if our heavenly Father takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, will He not much more take care of our temporal needs? When I give way to anxiety, I'm in effect believing that God won't take care of me.

Anxiety is also a lack of acceptance of God's providence - His orchestrating all circumstances and events in His universe for His glory and the good of His people. Some believers have difficulty accepting the fact that God does in fact do this, and even those who believe this glorious truth often lose sight of it. Instead we focus on immediate causes of our anxiety rather than remembering that those causes are under God's control.

Anxiety is one of my most persistent temptations. If you're frequently tempted to anxiety as I am, can you recognize the types of circumstances that tend to make you anxious? Do you identify with me in chafing under God's providential will for you when it differs from your own agenda? If so, I encourage you to ask God to give you faith to believe that His providential will for you in these circumstances flows from His infinite wisdom and goodness and is ultimately intended for your good. Ask Him to give you a heart that is submissive to His providential will.

Respectable Sins

Week 14 / WEDNESDAY

THIS IS LOVE

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.

(JOHN 3:16)

Jesus' propitiatory work was initiated by the Father because of His great love for us. "In this the love of God was made manifest among us," the apostle John wrote, "that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).

Sometimes the work of Christ is erroneously depicted as a kind and gentle Jesus placating the wrath of a vengeful God, as if Jesus needed to persuade the Father not to pour out His wrath on us. Nothing could be further from the truth. God the Father sent His Son on this great errand of mercy and grace. Though Jesus came voluntarily and gladly, He was sent by the Father.

Scripture consistently affirms the Father's love as the compelling cause of Jesus' great work of atonement. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, NIV). Though we all "were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind," God saved us "because of the great love with which he loved us" (Ephesians 2:3-4).

Herein lies the glory of the cross. Justice and mercy are reconciled; wrath and love are both given full expression - and all so that we might experience the unsearchable riches of Christ.

What great humility and gratitude this should produce in us: humility that we were the cause of our Savior's unimaginable suffering, and gratitude that He so willingly and lovingly experienced God's wrath that we might not suffer it ourselves.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 14 / THURSDAY

WORK OR TRUST?

Trust in him at all times.

(PSALM 62:8)

We often speak of "letting the Lord live His life through me." I'm personally uncomfortable with this expression because it suggests a passivity on our part. He doesn't live His life through me. Rather, as I depend on Him, He enables me to live a life pleasing to Him.

Some years ago when I was following this more passive approach, which seemed more spiritual to me at the time, I was struggling to love a Christian brother. One evening God really dealt with me about my lack of love, and I sensed God saying to me, "If I love him, can you?" I responded, "Lord, I can't, but I'm willing for You to love him through me."

What happened? Over time my attitude toward this brother did change. In fact, we became good friends. Did Jesus then love him through me? No, He enabled me to love the man. We are not passive in the pursuit of holiness. We are the ones who love. We are the ones who clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12). But we do this in utter dependence on Him who gives us strength.

Some would say that God's part is to work, man's part is to trust, and that the believer can do nothing but trust. But this idea that we can do nothing but trust is particularly troubling to me. I believe the psalmist and Nehemiah and Paul would say, "Man's part is to trust and work. God's part is to enable the man or woman to do the work." Or perhaps it's more helpful to say, "Our part is to work, but to do so in reliance upon God to enable us to work."

The Discipline of Grace

Week 14 / FRIDAY

SOME THINGS DON'T CHANGE

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

(PHILIPPIANS 4:11)

Contentment with what we have is worth far more than all the things we don't have. The person living on the basis of merit is never content. One day he thinks he isn't being rewarded fairly by God; the next day he's afraid he has forfeited all hope for any reward. Far better to adopt the biblical attitude that grace doesn't depend on merit at all, but on the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God. I would much rather entrust my expectations of blessings and answers to prayer to the infinite goodness of God and His sovereign purpose for my life than rely on all the merit points I could ever accumulate.

With this emphasis on contentment, I'm not suggesting we should always be satisfied with the status quo in every area of our lives and not pray for or seek improvement. Remember, God by His nature is graciously disposed to give us all good things (Romans 8:32). But for all of us, there are certain things that simply aren't going to change. In those areas, we must learn to be content, always accepting the fact that God doesn't owe us something different.

Frankly, I've had to struggle to learn this myself. God has given me a physical body that, in a number of ways, is less than average. He has given me spiritual gifts that lie largely outside the mainstream ministry of the organization I'm called to serve with. Neither of these circumstances is going to change, so I've had to learn to be content with what God has given me. I've learned this by focusing on two facts: He doesn't owe me anything, and what He has given me was given by His grace alone.

Transforming Grace

Week 14 / WEEKEND

THE SCAPEGOAT

The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area.

(LEVITICUS 16:22)

The greatest scapegoat in all of history is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word is never used of Him in the Bible, but it is used of a male goat in the Old Testament sacrificial system which pictured the one great sacrifice of Jesus in His death. Each year this elaborate system of sacrifices reached its climax on the great Day of Atonement, when two male goats were selected.

One was to be killed and its blood sprinkled on and before the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place where God symbolically dwelt (Leviticus 16:15-19). This goat's death as a sacrifice to God symbolized our Lord's propitiatory sacrifice for us on the cross.

The priest would lay his hands on the head of the second goat "and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins." Then the goat would be led "away into the wilderness," never to be seen again. This goat was called the scapegoat because all the guilt of the people was symbolically transferred to it, and their sins carried away into the desert (verses 20-22).

The death of the first goat symbolized the means of propitiating the wrath of God through the death of an innocent victim substituted in the sinner's place. The sending away of the second goat set forth the effect of this propitiation, the complete removal of the sins from the presence of the Holy God and from His people.

Since both goats represented Christ, we may say Christ became our scapegoat, bearing the guilt of our sins in His propitiatory sacrifice and by that act bearing them away from the presence of His holy Father.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 15 / MONDAY

PATIENCE WITH OTHERS' SHORTCOMINGS

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

(GALATIANS 6:2)

In the Scriptures, forbearance, or tolerance, is associated with love, the unity of the believers, and the forgiveness of Christ. In Ephesians 4:2-3, Paul said that we're to live "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Peter told us that "love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8); love for the other person causes us to overlook or tolerate his shortcomings.

I recall an instance when a friend of mine forgot an appointment we had together. Rather than being peeved, I simply shrugged it off. Later I tried to determine why I'd had such a tolerant reaction to his failure. I concluded it was because I deeply loved and appreciated this person, and the principle that "love covers a multitude of sins" was at work.

Paul said we're to bear with one another "to maintain the unity of the Spirit" - the unity applied by the Spirit to the body of Christ. We're to consider the unity of the body far more important than the petty irritants or disappointments of others. Here, Romans 12:5 is very helpful: "Each member belongs to all the others" (Niv). When I'm tempted to become irritated with my brother in Christ, remembering that he belongs to me and Ito him helps quell that exasperation.

In Colossians 3:13, Paul equated forbearance with forgiveness: "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another" (Niv). Instead of letting others' actions irritate us, we're to use them as an opportunity to forgive as the Lord forgave us.

The Fruitful Life

Week 15 / TUESDAY

GRACE OR DUTY?

Trust in him, and he will act.

(PSALM 37:5)

There's no question that we're responsible to pursue holiness with all the intensity the word pursue implies. Every moral imperative in the Bible addresses itself to our responsibility to discipline ourselves unto godliness. We aren't just to "turn it all over to the Lord" and let Him live His life through us. Rather, we're to love one another, to put to death the misdeeds of the body, and to put off the old man and put on the new man.

If we're to make any progress in the pursuit of holiness, we must assume our responsibility to discipline or train ourselves. But we're to do all this in total dependence on the Holy Spirit to work in us and strengthen us with the strength that is in Christ.

Sometimes we don't sense that we're experiencing His strength. Instead we experience deep, agonizing failure. We may even weep over our sins and wonder why the Holy Spirit doesn't come to our aid and strengthen us against the onslaught of temptation. We identify with Paul when he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Romans 7:15, NIV).

Why doesn't the Spirit always strengthen us? There are several possible reasons. He may be letting us see the sinfulness of our own hearts. He may be causing us to realize how weak we are in ourselves and how dependent on Him we really are. Perhaps He is curbing a tendency toward spiritual pride and causing us to grow in humility. Whatever the reason, which we may never know, our responsibility is to utterly depend on Him. Sovereignly and with infinite wisdom, He determines how best to respond to our dependence.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 15 / WEDNESDAY

THE PERIL OF COMPARING

When they ... compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

(2 CORINTHIANS 10:12)

We constantly see believers around us who seem more blessed by God than we are. Some are more gifted in spiritual abilities; others always succeed with little effort; others seem to have few problems or concerns. Probably none of us is exempt from the temptation to envy someone else's blessings and secretly grumble at God, or even charge Him with rank injustice, for giving another person more in some way than He has given us.

Yet God in His sovereignty has the right to bless each of us as He chooses. Consider these words from the apostle Paul: "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, `Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" (Romans 9:20-21).

Regardless of how we understand the particular application of Paul's teaching, we cannot escape its basic principle: God is sovereign. And He's sovereign in every area of life. Our Creator has the right to endow each of us at birth with different physical and mental abilities, different temperament characteristics, and different natural talents. He also has the right to give each of us different spiritual gifts. And it's obvious God exercises those rights. We're not created equal nor given equal opportunities throughout life. Each of us has his or her own unique set of circumstances, some appearing much more favorable than others. Since God is under no obligation to any of us, He's free to bless some more than others as He chooses. He has the right to do what He wants with His blessings.

Transforming Grace

Week 15 / THURSDAY

BEHIND GODS BACK

I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake.

(IsAIAH 43:25)

God uses several metaphors and colorful expressions to assure us that our sins have been literally carried away by our Lord Jesus Christ. One of them is in Psalm 103:12: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Niv). Here was an infinite distance, as great as human vocabulary could express.

Jesus not only bore our sins on the cross, He carried them away an infinite distance. He removed them from the presence of God and from us forever. They can no longer bar our access to God's holy presence. Now "we have confidence" - or "boldness" as the King James Version more strikingly puts it - to enter God's presence (Hebrews 10:19).

Reinforcing this message is Isaiah 38:17, where King Hezekiah said to God, "You have cast all my sins behind your back." When something's behind your back, you can't see it anymore. It's out of sight. This is how He has completely dealt with our sin and put it away.

There's an emphatic ring to Hezekiah's words. They suggest a deliberate, decisive action on God's part. God Himself has cast our sins behind His back, and He is not hesitant or reluctant in doing this. He has taken the initiative, and He did so joyfully and gladly. God takes pleasure in putting our sins behind His back because He takes pleasure in the work of His Son.

Do we believe this? Do we believe the testimony of Scripture, or do we believe our guilty feelings? Only to the extent we believe God has indeed put our sins behind His back will we be motivated and enabled to effectively deal with those sins in our daily lives.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 15 / FRIDAY

THE SELF-DISCIPLINE APPROACH

Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

(1 CORINTHIANS 3:7)

There's no doubt that disciplined people, both believers and unbelievers, can effect change in themselves. But in the self-discipline approach to holiness, a major temptation is to rely on a regimen of spiritual disciplines instead of on the Holy Spirit.

I believe in spiritual disciplines, and I seek to practice them. But those disciplines are not the source of our spiritual strength. The Lord Jesus Christ is, and the Spirit's ministry is to apply His strength in our lives. To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 3:7, we can plant and water, but we cannot make things grow. Only the Spirit can do that. We must plant and water if we're to make progress in holiness, but only the Spirit can change us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

Jonathan Edwards compiled a series of seventy resolutions to govern his own spiritual disciplines and conduct. Talk about spiritual discipline! His resolutions would make most of our present-day disciplines look like spiritual kindergarten. But at the beginning of his list he wrote these words: "Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God's help, I do humbly entreat him, by his grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ's sake .1130 Edwards was disciplined, but he was also dependent.

I'm sure those of us who tend toward the self-discipline school of holiness agree that we must depend on the enabling power of the Spirit. We give lip service to it, but do we practice it? Do we each day and throughout the day acknowledge our dependence on Him? Or do we in fact seek to pursue holiness in the strength of our own willpower?

The Discipline of Grace

Week 15 / WEEKEND

NOT AN OPTION

Strive ... for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

(HEBREWS 12:14)

Scripture speaks of both a holiness which we have in Christ before God and a holiness which we are to strive after. These two aspects of holiness complement one another, for our salvation is a salvation to holiness: "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life" (1 Thessalonians 4:7, NIV). To the Corinthians Paul wrote: "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy" (1 Corinthians 1:2, Niv). The word sanctified here means "made holy." We are, through Christ, made holy in our standing before God and called to be holy in our daily lives.

In Hebrews 12:14 we're told to take seriously the necessity of personal, practical holiness. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at our salvation, He comes to make us holy in practice. If there is not, then, at least a yearning in our hearts to live a holy life pleasing to God, we need to seriously question whether our faith in Christ is genuine.

This desire for holiness may be only a spark at the beginning. But that spark should grow till it becomes a flame - a desire to live a life wholly pleasing to God. When God saves us through Christ, He not only saves us from the penalty of sin but also from its dominion. Bishop Ryle said, "I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means."31

The Pursuit of Holiness

Week 16 / MONDAY

GRACE FOR THE UNWORTHY

We are unworthy servants.

(LUKE 17:10)

God often blesses those who, in our opinion, seem most unworthy. We see this demonstrated forcefully in Jesus' words in Luke 4:25-27: "But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

Luke then recorded, "When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath" (verse 28). Why were these Jews so enraged that they wanted to kill Jesus (verse 29)? The widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian were despised Gentiles - and therefore unworthy, in the Jews' opinion. How could God bless those Gentile dogs instead of more deserving Jews?

God blessed those two Gentiles while passing right by His own chosen people. Were the widow and Naaman more "deserving" than anyone in Israel? Not at all. Naaman, by his anger and haughtiness, was very undeserving. God often blesses people who seem unworthy to us. But that's what grace is all about, because we're all unworthy.

We rejoice in God's generosity as long as it's directed toward us or our family or friends. But how do we feel when God blesses someone we view as undeserving? Are we envious? Do we feel, as did the workers in the parable of Matthew 20, that we "have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (verse 12), yet someone else has been blessed more than we have?

Transforming Grace

Week 16 / TUESDAY

NEVER AGAIN REMEMBERED

I will not remember your sins.

(IsAIAH 43:25)

Not only has God blotted out our sins, He has further promised never to remember our sins, never to bring them to His mind again.

What an overwhelming thought! What joy this should bring to our hearts. Think of one of your more recent sins, of which you're now ashamed. It may have been an unkind word, a resentful attitude, or a lustful thought. Whatever it might be, God says He has put it out of His mind; He remembers it no more.

To remember no more is God's way of expressing absolute forgiveness. In Hebrews 8:12 (which quotes Jeremiah 31:34), God said, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" (NIV). And again in Hebrews 10:17-18, He said, "`Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more: And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin" (NIV). Note that in both passages "remembering no more" is equated with forgiveness.

Psalm 130:3-4 states that same truth in a somewhat different way: "If you, 0 LORD, should mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." Here the psalmist considered the prospect that God does remember our sins, that He does keep a record of them. If such were true, it would be a terrifying thought. The psalmist said, "Who could stand?" It's a rhetorical question. None of us could successfully stand before God's bar of judgment. But then the psalmist went on to exclaim, "But with you there is forgiveness."

God does not keep a record of our sins. Instead He forgives. This, of course, anticipates the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, for "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22).

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 16 / WEDNESDAY

THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER

Give me life according to your word!

(PSALM 119:25)

How can we grow in a conscious sense of dependence on Christ? Through the discipline of prayer. Prayer is the tangible expression of our dependence. We may think we're dependent on Christ, but if our prayer life is meager or perfunctory, we thereby deny it. We're in effect saying we can handle our spiritual life through self-discipline and our innate goodness. Or perhaps we're not even committed to the pursuit of holiness.

The writer of Psalm 119 teaches us about the discipline of prayer in pursuing holiness. We usually think of it as the psalm about the Word of God, but more accurately it's an expression of the psalmist's ardent desire and commitment in pursuing holiness. Twenty-two times the psalmist pleaded for God's help in obeying His law, as in these words of prayer: "Teach me, 0 LORD, the way of your statutes.... Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments.... Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" (Psalm 119:33-36).

But notice also the psalmist's exercise of spiritual discipline with regard to God's Word: "I have stored up your word in my heart.... With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.... I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word" (119:11,13,15-16).

Here was both a man of discipline and a man of prayer. His discipline did not cause him to neglect prayer for God to work nor did his prayer cause him to neglect his own work. He practiced discipline and dependence.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 16 / THURSDAY

THE FIRST LAST, THE LAST FIRST

Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

(MATTHEW 20:13)

The parable of the generous landowner in Matthew 20 is sandwiched between two almost identical statements from Jesus: "But many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Matthew 19:30). "So the last will be first, and the first last" (Matthew 20:16). How should we understand these words?

I believe Jesus is asserting the sovereign prerogative of God to dispense His favors as He pleases. I don't think His words are meant to be taken in an absolute sense, as if this would always be the case; rather, there's often no apparent correlation between what one seemingly deserves and what he or she receives. The whole point of the parable was to respond to the attitude Peter expressed to Jesus in Matthew 19:27: "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" R. C. H. Lenski summarized Peter's assumption with this statement: "The more we do, the more we earn, and the more God owes us."32

If we're to succeed in living by grace, we must come to terms with the fact that God is sovereign in dispensing His gracious favors, and He owes us no explanation when His actions don't correspond with our system of merits. Indeed, as Paul said, "How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods! For who has ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, or has ever been His advisor?" (Romans 11:33-34, wMs).

We're left without any grounds for grumbling about the treatment we receive from God. At the same time, God reserves the right to treat each of us differently, bestowing blessings as He sovereignly chooses.

Transforming Grace

Week 16 / FRIDAY

KIND AND GOOD

Jesus. . . went about doing good.

(ACTS 10:38)

Kindness is a sincere desire for the happiness of others; goodness is the activity calculated to advance that happiness. Kindness is the inner disposition, created by the Holy Spirit, that causes us to be sensitive to the needs of others, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. Goodness is kindness in action - words and deeds.

I tend to think of kindness in terms of our awareness of those around us and the thoughtfulness we can express to them, almost incidentally. Kindness may be as simple as a smile, a thank-you, or a word of encouragement or recognition. None of these expressions is costly in time or money. But they do require a sincere interest in the happiness of those around us. Apart from God's grace, most of us naturally tend to be concerned about our responsibilities, our problems, our plans. But the person who has grown in the grace of kindness has expanded his thinking outside himself and developed a genuine interest in those around him.

Goodness, on the other hand, involves deliberate deeds that are helpful to others. Although the Bible uses the word good to refer to what is upright, honorable, and noble about our ethical or moral character, it also uses it to describe actions that are not only good in themselves but also beneficial to others.

George W. Bethune well observed, "The best practical definition of goodness is given in the life and character of Jesus Christ: `Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good.' So far as we resemble Jesus, in his devotion to the welfare of men, do we possess the grace of goodness."33

Do we aspire to be Christlike? Then we must be continually sensitive to how we might meet the needs of those around us.

The Fruitful Life

Week 16 / WEEKEND

OUR SINS HURLED AWAY

For sin will have no dominion over you.

(ROMANS 6:14)

In Micah 7:19 we find another powerful metaphor of how God deals with our sin through Jesus Christ: "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

The picture is of God vigorously disposing of our sins by hurling them overboard. He doesn't just drop them over the side; He hurls them as something to be rid of and forgotten.

God is eager to cast away our sins. Because the sacrifice of His Son is of such infinite value, He delights to apply it to sinful men and women. God is not a reluctant forgiver, but a joyous one. His justice having been satisfied and His wrath having been exhausted, He's now eager to extend His forgiveness to all who trust in His Son as their propitiatory sacrifice.

What a picture of the way God treats our sins - He hurls them overboard. "And then," as Corrie ten Boom, a dear saint of the last century, used to say, "God put up a sign saying, `No fishing allowed."' She knew that we tend to drag up our old sins, that we tend to live under a vague sense of guilt. She knew we aren't nearly as vigorous in appropriating God's forgiveness as He is in extending it. Consequently, instead of living in the sunshine of God's forgiveness through Christ, we tend to live under an overcast sky of guilt most of the time.

This is why God gave the Jews the picture of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16:20-22, symbolically bearing away their sins. In addition to being a picture of what Jesus would do at the cross, it was an assurance to the Israelites that God had indeed honored the sacrifice of the slain goat and had put away their sins.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 17 / MONDAY

NEHEMIAH'S EXAMPLE

I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

(NEHEMIAH 1:4)

Our prayers of dependence should be of two types: planned periods of prayer and unplanned, spontaneous prayer. We see both beautifully illustrated for us in the life of Nehemiah, who was one of the Jews in exile and was cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes. The book begins with Nehemiah learning of the sad state of affairs of the Jews back in Judah and the fact that the wall of Jerusalem was in ruins. Hearing this, Nehemiah sat down and wept, then fasted and prayed for a period of several months.

We can assume Nehemiah set aside a certain time or times of the day during which he earnestly besought God for the welfare of Jerusalem. Most likely he would have had to schedule his times of prayer around his daily duties, just as we have to do. Because he prayed over a period of several months, we can describe this part of Nehemiah's prayer life as planned, protracted, persevering prayer.

Then one day, when Nehemiah brought the king his wine, the king noticed Nehemiah's sadness and inquired about the cause. After Nehemiah explained his concern for Jerusalem, King Artaxerxes asked, "What are you requesting?" (Nehemiah 2:4). At this crucial moment, before Nehemiah replied, he "prayed to the God of heaven." This quick, silent prayer was probably something like "Lord, help me to speak. Give me favor in the king's heart." It was unplanned, short, and spontaneous -in contrast to his planned, protracted, persevering prayer over the previous few months.

Both types of prayer were needed in Nehemiah's situation. Each gave validity to the other. And each reflected Nehemiah's consciousness of his total dependence on God. We can learn from his example how to pray for ourselves in the pursuit of holiness.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 17 / TUESDAY

THE PROMISES OF GOD

Through him ... we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

(2 CORINTHIANS 1:20)

The Bible is full of God's promises - to provide for us spiritually and materially, to never forsake us, to give us peace in times of difficult circumstances, to cause all circumstances to work together for our good, and to bring us safely home to glory. Not one of those promises is dependent upon our performance. They're all dependent on the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him" (2 Corinthians 1:20). What did Paul mean by this?

First of all, Christ in His messianic mission is the personal fulfillment of all the promises in the Old Testament regarding a Savior and coming King. As Philip Hughes wrote, "In Christ is the yes, the grand consummating affirmative, to all God's promises.... In Him all things `which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms' achieve their fulfillment (Lk. 24:44)."34

Beyond the actual fulfillment of all the promises made about Him, Christ is also the meritorious basis upon which all of God's other promises depend. John Calvin wrote in his comments on 2 Corinthians 1:20, "All God's promises depend upon Christ alone. This is a notable assertion and one of the main articles of our faith. It depends in turn upon another principle - that it is only in Christ that God the Father is graciously inclined towards us. His promises are the testimonies of His fatherly goodwill towards us. Thus it follows that they are fulfilled only in Christ.... Secondly, we are incapable of possessing God's promises till we have received the remission of our sins and that comes to us through Christ."35

Transforming Grace

Week 17 / WEDNESDAY

ATONEMENT DAY

I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.

(PSALM 32:5)

Put yourself in the shoes of a devout Jew on the Day of Atonement. He sees the high priest slay a goat as a propitiatory sacrifice. He watches as the priest disappears into the Tent of Meeting, to enter the Most Holy Place and to sprinkle the blood of the slain goat on and before the mercy seat. Only the high priest is allowed to enter that room (after ceremonial cleansing), and even then only once a year and only with the blood of the sacrificial animal.

The devout Jew waits with some degree of anxiety for the high priest to return, very conscious that atonement for his sins is conditioned on God's acceptance of the high priest's ministry.

Finally, the high priest comes out. He lays his hands on a live goat's head and confesses over it all the sins of the people, symbolically transferring those sins to the goat. He solemnly confesses, perhaps with weeping, the people's wickedness and rebellion. Then the goat is led away, bearing their sins into the desert.

Two things were necessary for this ritual to be meaningful to an individual Jew. First, he must identify with the sins the high priest was confessing. He must acknowledge them as his own personal sins. Then he must by faith believe that the goat did indeed carry those sins away. He probably didn't understand how a goat could do this, but he believed God had ordained this rite, and somehow his sins were removed from God's presence and no longer counted against him. His faith was not in the goat but in God, who had ordained this ritual.

The same attitudes of penitence and faith are necessary for all of us today- all who trust in Jesus as our scapegoat.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 17 / THURSDAY

PRAY, BECAUSE GOD IS SOVEREIGN

I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

(PSALM 57:2)

Prayer assumes the sovereignty of God. If God is not sovereign, we have no assurance that He's able to answer our prayers. Our prayers would become nothing more than wishes. But while God's sovereignty, along with His wisdom and love, is the foundation of our trust in Him, prayer is the expression of that trust.

The Puritan preacher Thomas Lye wrote, "As prayer without faith is but a beating of the air, so trust without prayer [is] but a presumptuous bravado. He that promises to give, and bids us trust his promises, commands us to pray, and expects obedience to his commands. He will give, but not without our asking."36

While imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote to his friend Philemon, "Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers" (Philemon 22, NIV). Paul hoped to be restored but didn't presume to know God's secret will. He didn't say, "I will be restored." But he did know God in His sovereignty was well able to effect his release, so he asked Philemon to pray. Prayer was the expression of his confidence in the sovereignty of God.

John Flavel, another Puritan preacher, wrote a classic treatise titled The Mystery of Providence, first published in 1678.37 He began this treatise on God's sovereign providence with a discourse on Psalm 57:2: "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me." Flavel was saying that because God is sovereign, we should pray. God's sovereignty does not negate our responsibility to pray, but rather makes it possible to pray with confidence.

Is God Really in Control?

Week 17 / FRIDAY

OUR HANDS ON CHRIST'S HEAD

He himself bore our sins in his body.

(1 PETER 2:24)

To subjectively benefit from the work of the high priest in the scapegoat ritual on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:20-22), the individual Israelite had to exercise both penitence and faith. Penitence is a sincere and humble acknowledgment of one's sins. Faith, in this instance, is believing God's testimony that his sins were transferred to the goat and that the guilt of them no longer hung over his head.

Of course, the scapegoat could not itself carry away the sins of the people. It was only symbolic of the true scapegoat to come, Jesus Christ. Today we see the reality of the symbol. We see Jesus as the One who not only propitiated the wrath of God, symbolized by the sacrifice of the first goat, but who also removed our sins from God's presence, symbolized by the second goat led away into the desert, bearing the sins of the people.

Those same two attitudes, penitence and faith, are necessary for all of us today who rely on Christ for salvation. We must acknowledge ourselves as sinners before a holy God. We must, so to speak, lay our hands on Christ's head and confess over Him all our transgression and rebellion. We acknowledge ourselves as sinners before a holy God, and we face up to particular sins we're aware of.

This heartfelt penitence and faith should characterize our lives throughout every day. We not only come to God through faith in Christ as both our propitiation and our scapegoat, we must live in His presence every day on the same basis. We must believe that just as the Old Testament scapegoat symbolically carried away the sins of the Jews from the presence of God, so Jesus actually carried away our sins.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 17 / WEEKEND

PLANNED PRAYER

I give myself to prayer.

(PSALM 109:4)

We need to set aside time each day for planned, protracted, persevering prayer. We need to lay before the Lord any areas of persistent sin in our lives such as gossip, irritability, impatience, lack of love, and impure thoughts. These sins need to be the object of earnest prayer that God would work in us and enable us to deal with them. We are the ones who must deal with these sins, but the Holy Spirit must enable us to do it.

Note the dependent discipline Paul teaches in Romans 8:13: "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." There's the discipline of putting to death the sins of the body, but we do this "by the Spirit." This means continual, fervent prayer for the Spirit to enable us to do our duty. As John Murray said, "The believer is not endowed with a reservoir of strength from which he draws. It is always `by the Spirit' that each sanctified and sanctifying activity is exercised."38

It's precisely because we aren't endowed with a reservoir of strength that we need to pray daily for the Spirit's enabling work in us. Holiness requires continual effort on our part and continual nourishing and strengthening by the Spirit. Unless you plan to pray, however, and set aside a specific time to do it, you'll find that you won't carry out your good intentions. If you don't already have this practice, why not stop and make your plan now? I also find it helpful to write down on paper (for my eyes only) the specific sins I need help to deal with and the specific virtues of Christian character in which, as far as I can tell, I most need to grow.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 18 / MONDAY

GOOD NEWS THAT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH?

Proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

(MARK 16:15)

We've loaded down the gospel of the grace of God in Christ with a lot of "oughts": I ought to be more committed, more disciplined, more obedient. When we think or teach this way, we're substituting duty and obligation for a loving response to God's grace.

As one pastor expressed it, we often don't make the gospel "good enough." 39 We preach grace to the non-Christian and duty to the Christian. As Richard Gilbert has written, "It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace for you if you are not a Christian, but when you become a Christian then there are all sorts of laws you must obey and you feel like you were better off before you were converted."" Even our terminology betrays the way we dichotomize the Christian life into "grace" and "works" compartments. We speak of the gift of salvation and the cost of discipleship. The "cost of discipleship" isn't necessarily an unbiblical expression, but the connotation we build into it is. We often convey the idea that God's grace barely gets us inside the kingdom's door; after that, it's all our own blood, sweat, and tears.

I firmly believe in and seek to practice commitment, discipline, and obedience. I'm thoroughly committed to submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of life. And I believe in and seek to practice other commitments that flow out of that basic commitment. I'm committed to my wife "until death do us part." I'm committed to integrity and fairness in business relationships. I'm committed to seek to act in love toward everyone. But I'm committed in these areas out of a grateful response to God's grace, not to try to earn God's blessings.

Transforming Grace

Week 18 / TUESDAY

CLEAN CONSCIENCE

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

ROMANS 4:8)

God has given each of us a conscience, a moral compass within our hearts, bearing witness to His Law. In sinful or self-righteous people (those whose dominant characteristics are either obvious sin or obvious self-righteousness), the conscience is to some degree "hardened." But in a growing Christian the conscience becomes more and more sensitive to violations of God's Law. As a result, our consciences continually indict us, accusing us not only of particular sins, but, more important, of our overall sinfulness. We recognize that specific sins are simply the expressions of our still-wicked hearts. Our sinfulness is very real to us, and we find it difficult to believe God would no longer remember each offense.

It's here that I find it helpful to visualize the Old Testament scapegoat carrying away the people's sins that have been laid on its head. This is an accurate picture of what Jesus did with my sin.

In fact, Christ's work on my behalf is greater still. "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:14). Only the blood of Christ can cleanse our consciences and quiet their accusations against us. To experience this cleansing subjectively we must agree with our consciences in true penitence, then by faith appropriate the reality of His cleansing blood. The burden of uncanceled guilt ceases.

Do you believe that the sin you're now so painfully and shamefully aware of will never be counted against you? If by faith you see Jesus as your scapegoat, you'll subjectively experience the reality of that wonderful truth and be freed from a guilty conscience to serve the living God.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 18 / WEDNESDAY

How HONEST?

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD.

(PROVERBS 12:22)

On Christmas Eve, our doorbell rang. Answering it, I found a little fouryear-old neighbor girl holding out a plate of cookies. "My mommy sent you some cookies," she said with a big smile. I thanked her and put them down someplace - and promptly forgot about them for we were just leaving for a church service. A few days later as I was walking out to my car, the little girl came down the sidewalk on her tricycle and asked how I liked the cookies. "Oh, they were fine," I said, though I hadn't even tasted them.

As I drove away, I began thinking about this. I had lied. Why? Because it was expedient; it saved me embarrassment and the little girl's disappointment (though mostly I was concerned about myself). Sure, it was of little or no consequence. But God says without qualification that He detests lying.

Thinking further, I realized this wasn't an isolated instance. The Holy Spirit reminded me of other occasions of exaggeration or manipulating a story's facts just a bit. I had to face the fact that I wasn't quite as honest as I'd considered myself to be. God taught me a valuable, though humbling, lesson.

As I've told the story of the cookies to some audiences, I've gotten a troubled reaction from a few people. Some sincere Christians think I may be nit-picking. But consider Daniel. The record states that his enemies could find no corruption in him (Daniel 6:4). It seems clear they would have seized upon any inconsistency, regardless of how small or insignificant, to bring Daniel into disrepute. But they could find none. Daniel had evidently mastered this matter of absolute integrity. We should have the same goal.

The Fruitful Life

Week 18 / THURSDAY

THE SIN OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY

My mighty rock, my refuge is God.

(PSALM 62:7)

I believe one of the chief characteristics of our sinful nature is an attitude of independence toward God. Even when we know and agree that we're dependent on Him, we tend out of habit to act independently. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons God allows us to fall before temptation so often is to teach us experientially that we really are dependent on Him to enable us to grow in holiness.

One of the best ways, apart from those painful experiences of failure, to learn dependence is to develop the discipline of prayer. This forces us in a tangible way to acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit. Whatever else we may say about prayer, it is a recognition of our own helplessness and absolute dependence on God.

It's this admission of helplessness and dependence that is so repugnant to our sinful spirit of self-sufficiency. If we're prone by temperament to be disciplined, it's more difficult to acknowledge that we're dependent on Christ and His Spirit instead of on our self-discipline.

To become holy is to become like the Lord Jesus, and He Himself said, "By myself I can do nothing" (John 5:30, Niv). He was completely dependent on the Father, and He freely and willingly acknowledged it. His dependence was not reluctant, but wholehearted - even enthusiastic - because He knew that we're created to be dependent on God.

Dependence is not simply one of a list of several disciplines. Rather, it gives life and vitality to all of them. Just as the principle of life that makes the seed grow gives fruition to all of the farmers' efforts, so the enabling of the Holy Spirit within us gives fruition to our disciplines. Dependence on the Holy Spirit should permeate them all.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 18 / FRIDAY

A PRAYER ON A BASEMENT FLOOR

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

ROMANS 12:1)

Most of my understanding of scriptural truths has come gradually through personal study and the teaching of pastors and other capable teachers. On a few rare occasions the Lord has been pleased to enlighten my understanding of some aspect of His truth in a rather sudden fashion. This was the case in my understanding of the sovereign grace of God. I'd been a confirmed legalist, and I dutifully sought to live the Christian life that way. But suddenly one day, I understood God's grace in an entirely new way.

I was spending a half day with God, seated in a basement room with a cold, hard tile floor. As my understanding of God's grace was enlightened, Romans 12:1 came to mind: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship" (NIV). I fell on my knees on that cold, hard floor and said something like this to God: "Lord, I have presented my body to You as a living sacrifice before, but I've never understood as I do now Your mercy and Your grace. And in view of my deeper understanding of Your grace, I now present myself to You in a new and deeper way. I give myself wholly to You without any reservation."

Now, more than thirty years later, I still build on the commitment I made in the basement room that morning. But more than that, I still seek to grow in my understanding of God's grace because I know that only my growing understanding of His grace will make the commitment stick through thick and thin.

Transforming Grace

Week 18 / WEEKEND

REMOVED

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

(JOHN 1:29)

Expiation is another seldom-used and little-understood theological word. You can readily see its spelling similarity to propitiation. In fact, the two words are often confused, though significantly different in meaning.

Propitiation addresses God's wrath. It is the work of Christ saving us from that wrath by absorbing it in His own person as our substitute. Expiation, which basically means "removal," accompanies propitiation and speaks of Christ's work in removing or putting away our sin. Such is the symbolism of the two goats used on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:20-22). The first goat represented Christ's work of propitiation as it was killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. The second goat represented Christ's work of expiation in removing or blotting out the sins that were against us. The object of propitiation is God's wrath; the object of expiation is our sin, which must be removed from His presence.

The two goats together constituted one offering, and both represent the work of Christ on our behalf. It would have been a blasphemous affront to a holy God to send one goat away into the desert without first sacrificing the goat whose blood symbolized the blood of Christ that alone propitiates the wrath of God.

Do you see how the work of Christ is infinitely greater than the greatest depth of your sin? The work of Christ is finished. Nothing more remains to be done. God's wrath has been propitiated. Our sins have been removed. The question is, will we appreciate it, not only at our initial moment of salvation but for our day-to-day acceptance with God? Only as we do this will we truly begin to appreciate the glory of the cross and the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 19 / MONDAY

COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD

Commit your way to the LORD.

(PSALM 37:5)

When Paul turned his attention from his masterful exposition of the gospel in Romans chapters 1-11 to practical issues of Christian living, the first thing he did was call for commitment: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship" (Romans 12:1, NIV).

As we look at Paul's call to commitment, we can see one obvious difference between the commitment of the devoted athlete and the commitment Paul called for. The athlete's commitment is to himself or herself or perhaps to the team. The commitment Paul urged upon us is to God. Commit yourself to God. Offer your body to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him.

When we commit ourselves to the pursuit of holiness, we need to ensure that our commitment is actually to God, not simply to a holy lifestyle or a set of moral values. The people of my parent's generation were generally honest, chaste, sober, and thrifty. They were committed to those values, but they were not necessarily committed to God. Many of them were outstanding moralists and even church people, but they were not committed to God. They were committed to their values, not to God.

As believers we need to be careful that we don't make a similar mistake. We can be committed to a set of Christian values or to a lifestyle of discipleship without being committed to God Himself. But Paul said to offer yourselves to God, and in doing that commit yourselves to the pursuit of holiness in order to please Him.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 19 / TUESDAY

HOLY AND ASSURED

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

(ROMANS 8:14)

Holiness is necessary for our assurance of salvation - not at the moment of salvation, but over the course of our lives. True faith will always show itself by its fruits. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I recall a young man, a fairly new Christian, whose father was visiting him. He hadn't seen his father for several years and not since he'd become a Christian. He was eager to share his newfound faith with his dad, and we prayed together that he might be an effective witness to his father.

Afterward I asked him how it had gone with his witness. He told me his dad claimed to have trusted Christ as his Savior when he "went forward" at age ten in an evangelistic meeting. I asked the young man, "In all the years you were growing up, did you ever see any evidence your father was a Christian?" His answer was "No." What reason have we to put confidence in that man's salvation? He was almost sixty and had never once given his son any evidence that he was a Christian.

The only safe evidence that we're in Christ is a holy life. John said everyone who has within him the hope of eternal life purifies himself just as Christ is pure (1 John 3:3). If we know nothing of holiness, we may flatter ourselves that we're Christians, but we don't have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

Everyone who professes to be a Christian should ask himself, "Is there evidence of practical holiness in my life? Do I desire and strive after holiness? Do I grieve over my lack of it and earnestly seek God's help to be holy?"

The Pursuit of Holiness

Week 19 / WEDNESDAY

DECISIVE DEDICATION

Present yourselves to God.

(ROMANS 6:13)

How did the apostle Paul approach the subject of commitment and discipline? Paul's letter to the Romans is the foundation for the Bible's teaching on salvation; in it, the teaching of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone is set forth most cogently and completely. However, Paul wrote the letter to people who were already believers. He referred to them as those "who are loved by God and called to be saints." He thanked God that their "faith is proclaimed in all the world," and he longed "that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith" (Romans 1:7-8,12). Clearly he was writing to believers.

He wrote to help them understand more fully the salvation they already possessed. He spent eleven chapters going through the gospel, showing that salvation is entirely by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, then dealing with various questions his teaching on the grace of God would raise.

Then he asked for their response: a total commitment of themselves to God. He urged them, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (12:1).

Paul made a strong appeal. Charles B. Williams' translation interprets the phrase "offer your bodies" as "make a decisive dedication [footnote: once-for-all offer] of your bodies." The phrase "living sacrifice" connotes the idea of a "perpetual sacrifice never to be neglected or recalled"" and a "constant dedication."" So Paul called for a decisive, once-for-all dedication that is to be constantly reaffirmed and kindled afresh. You cannot ask for any higher level of commitment than that.

Transforming Grace

Week 19 / THURSDAY

SET FREE

You were ransomed.

(1 PETER 1:18)

We associate the word ransom with kidnapping, but this hasn't always been its primary association. Centuries ago, ransom was the payment given an enemy country to secure the release of prisoners of war. In Bible times a ransom was the price paid to gain freedom for a slave. To pay a ransom was to purchase back someone from captivity or slavery.

Jesus said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, Niv). To fully understand His meaning we must examine the related word redeem, which means to buy back or release someone from slavery or captivity by paying a ransom. Redemption, then, is the action to secure release; while ransom is the price paid to effect the action.

Jesus said He would give His life as "a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Clearly His life was considered as a ransom payment. Just what was the captivity from which the "many" are ransomed? Hebrews 9:15 tells us that Jesus "died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant" (NIV). And what does it mean to be set free from sins committed under the first covenant?

Paul's answer: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). To be set free from the sins committed under the first covenant and to be redeemed from the curse of the Law are essentially synonymous expressions. Christ shed His blood and gave His life as a ransom to redeem us from this curse. As a captive held in chains is set free when the ransom is paid, so all who trust in Christ are set free from the condemnation and curse of the Law.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 19 / FRIDAY

SIN AND SELF-ESTEEM

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue.

(2 PETER 1:5)

We should not seek holiness in order to feel good about ourselves, to blend in with our Christian peer group, or to avoid the sense of shame and guilt that follows the committing of persistent sin. Far too often our concern with sin arises from how it makes us feel. Sinful habits, sometimes called "besetting sins," cause us to feel defeated, and we don't like to be defeated in anything, whether it's a game of Ping-Pong or our struggle with sin.

I once spoke at a retreat on the importance of putting on Christlike character while at the same time seeking to put off sinful habits. After my message, four or five people came to me asking for personal help in dealing with some particular sin in their lives, but no one came asking for help in putting on any Christlike virtues. As I pondered the possible reason for this, I realized that sinful habits make us feel guilty and defeated. The absence of Christlike character usually doesn't have a similar effect, so there's less motivation to seek change in our lives.

We need to work at ensuring that our commitment to holiness is a commitment to God, not to our own self-esteem. Frederick W. Faber, a nineteenth-century British writer, showed great insight into this tendency (I've paraphrased his words for clarity): "When we sin we are more vexed at the lowering of our self-esteem than we are grieved at God's dishonor. We are surprised and irritated at our own lack of self-control in subjecting ourselves to unworthy habits.... The first cause of this is self-love, which is unable to stand the disappointment of not seeing ourselves in time of trial come out beautiful, erect, and admirable."43

The Discipline of Grace

Week 19 / WEEKEND

THE LURE OF GRACE

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

ROMANS 12:1)

What consideration did Paul bring forward as the basis or motivation for making the total commitment he asked for in Romans 12:1? He did not appeal to a sense of duty but to the mercy of God ("by the mercies of God"). He asked for a response based not on obligation but on heartfelt gratitude.

Now, the fact is, we do have a duty and obligation to God. He's the Sovereign Ruler of this world, and in that capacity He has laid down "precepts to be kept diligently" (Psalm 119:4). He motivates us to obedience, not on the basis of His sovereign rule but on the basis of His mercy to us in Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther wrote on Romans 12:1, "A lawdriver insists with threats and penalties; a preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to us; for he wants no unwilling works and reluctant services, he wants joyful and delightful services of God."'

I was asked to speak on the Lordship of Jesus Christ at a conference. I knew the intended objective was to challenge the audience to submit to Christ's lordship in the affairs of their everyday lives. But I began the message by speaking on God's goodness. After I'd spent fifteen or twenty minutes on the goodness of God, then I began to talk about the lordship of Christ in our lives. Why did I develop the message in that fashion? Because submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ should be in response to the love and mercy of God. In view of God's mercy, Paul urged the Roman believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices. We must respond with a similar motivation to His lordship in our lives today.

Transforming Grace

Week 20 / MONDAY

UNSWERVING LOYALTY

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

(PROVERBS 17:17)

The faithful person is not only honest and dependable but also loyal. The issue of loyalty arises most often in connection with our friends. The word has come to have a connotation of sticking with someone through thick and thin. There's no such person as a fair-weather friend. If a person's loyalty doesn't ensure his faithfulness to another in times of stress, he really isn't a friend - he's simply using the other person to satisfy his own social needs.

Jonathan provides probably the Bible's best illustration of loyalty. His friendship with David almost cost him his life at the hands of his own father. Amazingly, Jonathan realized that his loyalty to David would, in the end, cost him the throne of Israel. Such faithfulness is frequently a costly virtue. Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to pay that price.

We must avoid, however, a so-called "blind loyalty" that refuses to admit a friend's mistakes or faults. Proverbs 27:6 tells us, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy." Only the truly faithful friend cares enough about us to undertake the often thankless task of pointing out where we're wrong. None of us enjoys being confronted with our faults, so we often make it difficult for our friends to do so. As a result, most of us are more concerned about speaking agreeableness to each other than about speaking the truth. This is not loyalty. Loyalty speaks the truth in faithfulness but also in love. Loyalty says, "I care enough about you that I will not allow you to continue unchecked in your wrong action or sinful attitude that will ultimately be harmful to you."

The Fruitful Life

Week 20 / TUESDAY

WHY THE CURSE?

Be careful to obey all these words that I command you.

(DEUTERONOMY 12:28)

Why was it necessary for Christ to give His life as a ransom to redeem us from the curse of the Law? Why are we under a curse from which we need to be redeemed? In Galatians 3:10, Paul wrote, "All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, `Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them."' Mankind was under a curse because we had not perfectly obeyed the Law of God - either in Adam or as individuals.

The curse falls on everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Law. This is an impossibly exacting standard. No college demands a perfect 4.0 GPA for graduation. If it did, only a scant few would graduate. But Paul tells us this is what the Law of God demands.

Some may react strongly to the rigorous demand of the Law for absolutely perfect obedience. Why isn't 90 or 95 percent obedience good enough? Why does God insist on 100 percent? After all, even highway patrolmen usually allow a five- to ten-mile-per-hour violation of the speed limit before ticketing us.

In the final analysis, we should seek no justification from God for the exactness of His Law. After all, God is God. He is the Creator who brought the whole universe into existence by His spoken command. He is the One on whom each of us depends for life and breath. He is the One who has the absolute right to establish the rules of the game, the laws by which we are to live. And He's the One who has the right to attach sanctions to those laws for breaking them.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 20 / WEDNESDAY

LOSING GOD

Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

(DEUTERONOMY 28:19)

What are the effects of the curse? According to George Smeaton, the worst effect "is the loss of God, or the absence and complete withdrawal of God from a human soul."" I'm sure many people think they would be happy to lose Him. But remember that as Jesus hung on the cross bearing the curse in our place, He cried in anguish, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

In Deuteronomy 28, Moses listed God's promised blessings for Israel's obedience of God's Law (verses 1-14) and His curses for disobedience (verses 15-68). The threatened curses were horrible beyond anything imaginable. For example, it includes a siege so severe that women would be driven to cannibalize their own children.

These promised blessings and threatened curses were only temporal in nature, having to do with the nation of Israel in the Promised Land. Then consider that the severity of these threatened curses only begins to picture the unimaginable agony of being under God's curse for all eternity.

Above all, when we think the curse for violating God's Law is too severe, it's because we don't understand God or the nature of sin. God is transcendent in His majesty and sovereign in His authority. Every sin, be it ever so small in our eyes, is an assault on that authority. In effect we're saying, "I don't care what You say; I'll do as I please." Furthermore, God has commanded us to be holy as He is holy. Therefore, each sin is an insult to His character. It's as if we're telling God, "I don't want to be like You." Think what a rebellious affront it would be for a child to say that to his parent.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 20 / THURSDAY

No EXCEPTIONS

You, 0 God, have heard my vows.

(PSALM 61:5)

Commitment to the pursuit of holiness is, first of all, a commitment to God to pursue a way of life that is pleasing to Him. It is commitment to a life of obedience. Such a commitment must allow for no exceptions, no secret sins we want to hold onto, no sinful habits we're unwilling to give up. We must make it our aim not to sin.

This doesn't mean we can arrive at sinless perfection in this life, for even our best deeds are stained with sin. But it does mean that our firm intention must be not to sin willfully. Commitment to a life of holiness without exception is a requirement for consistently making the right choices. There's no point in praying for God's help in the face of temptation if we haven't made a commitment to obedience without exception.

The psalmist said, "I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules" (Psalm 119:106). He felt so strongly about his commitment to obedience that he took an oath that he would follow God's righteous laws. An oath, in this context, is a solemn calling on God to witness that the person sincerely intends to do what he or she says. It's a declaration or promise to fulfill a pledge, a commitment of the highest level. The psalmist not only took an oath but confirmed it. He wanted to make his commitment as strong as he possibly could.

The Puritan pastor and writer Stephen Charnock commented on this verse: "Frequently renew settled and holy resolutions. A soldier unresolved to fight may easily be defeated.... The weakness of our graces, the strength of our temptations, and the diligence of our spiritual enemies, require strong resolutions." 46

The Discipline of Grace

Week 20 / FRIDAY

KNOWING OUR MOTIVES

The LORD looks on the heart.

(1 SAMUEL 16:7)

Our motivation for commitment, discipline, and obedience is as important to God as our performance, perhaps even more so. As Ernest F. Kevan wrote, "The Law's demands are inward, touching motive and desire, and are not concerned solely with outward action." 47

David said, "The LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought" (1 Chronicles 28:9). The apostle Paul echoed the importance of motives when he wrote that, at the Lord's coming, He "will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart" (1 Corinthians 4:5).

To be acceptable to God, our motives must spring from a love for Him and a desire to glorify Him. Obedience performed from a legalistic motive - from fear of consequences or to gain favor with God - is not pleasing to Him. Abraham Booth (1734-1806), an English pastor and author, wrote, "To constitute a work truly good, it must be done from a right principle, performed by a right rule, and intended for a right end." 48 Booth defined a right principle as our love for God. He defined the right rule as God's revealed will in Scripture. The right end - the right goal - is the glory of God.

Our good works are not truly good unless they're motivated by a love for God and a desire to glorify Him. But we cannot have such a Godward motivation if we think we must earn God's favor by our obedience or if we fear we may forfeit His favor by disobedience. Such a works-oriented motivation is essentially self-serving, prompted more by what we think we gain or lose than by a grateful response to the grace He has already given us through Jesus Christ.

Transforming Grace

Week 20 / WEEKEND

CONTENTMENT

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

(PHILIPPIANS 4:11)

There's a place for legitimate discontentment. All of us should, to some degree, be discontent with our spiritual growth. If we aren't, we will stop growing. There's also what we might call a prophetic discontentment with injustice and other evils in society, coupled with a desire to see positive change. But there's also a sinful discontentment that negatively affects our relationship with God. It can easily lead to resentment or bitterness toward God or other people.

Whatever situation tempts us to be discontent, and however severe it may be, we need to recognize that discontentment is sin. We're so used to responding to difficult circumstances with anxiety, frustration, or discontentment that we consider them normal reactions to the varying vicissitudes of life. But that just points out the subtleness and acceptability of these sins. When we fail to recognize these responses to our circumstances as sin, we're responding no differently from unbelievers who never factor God into their situations. We're back to our ungodliness as the root cause of our sins.

The truth of David's words in Psalm 139:16 - "In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" - can help us (and does help me) deal with the circumstances that tempt us to be discontent.

Whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that God has ordained all our days - with all their ups and downs, blessings and disappointments - as part of His overall plan for your life. God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good.

Respectable Sins

Week 21 / MONDAY

FROM CURSE TO CHRIST

The law was our guardian until Christ came.

(GALATIANS 3:24)

The primary purpose of the Law is not to curse us but to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). Rather, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). The language is emphatic. Christ literally became a curse in our place as our substitute. He experienced the full fury of the curse that we should have experienced. It's true He did it for us, but He did so by doing it in our place as our appointed substitute.

Here we see the importance of our legal union with Christ. As our God-appointed legal representative, He was legally qualified to endure the curse in our place as our substitute. There's no adequate analogy for this union in human experience. One person may pay a financial debt for someone else, but no one can serve a prison sentence as a substitute for another. In human jurisprudence, a moral debt such as a prison sentence can be served only by the person who incurred it.

Many people who deny the substitutionary nature of Christ's atonement claim that it's unjust for an innocent person to suffer in place of the guilty. That's true in a human legal system, but it's God who established the curse for breaking His Law and who ordained the remedy for the curse. Human analogies and principles, though often helpful in illustrating scriptural truths, should never be used to refute Scripture.

Above all, we should accept this wonderful truth that Jesus bore the curse in our place and paid our ransom price, not because it seems reasonable by any human standards but because God in His Word has declared it to be so.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 21 / TUESDAY

WHAT IS YOUR INTENTION?

I appeal to you ... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

ROMANS 12:1)

How do we respond to the challenge to commitment - to present our bodies as living sacrifices; to, as it were, take an oath to obey God's righteous laws; to resolve to allow no exceptions to our obedience? I suspect all of us think first of the impossibility of totally keeping such a commitment. And we're reluctant to make a commitment we know we won't keep. But the question still persists: Are we willing to make that our aim, our goal in life? Are we willing to commit ourselves to a goal of obedience without exception? Such a commitment is necessary if we are to make progress in the pursuit of holiness.

In his classic work A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law commented on why a particular sin was so common: "Now the reason ... is this, it is because men have not so much as the intention to please God in all their actions."49 How about us today? Is it our intention to please God in all our actions? That's the commitment Paul called on us to make when he urged us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

The intention to please God in all our actions is the key to commitment to a life of holiness. If we don't make such a commitment to obedience without exception, we'll constantly find ourselves making exceptions. We'll have a "just one more time" syndrome in our lives. But the truth is, the "one more time" manner of thinking undermines our commitment. Every time we give in to a temptation, even though it may seem small and insignificant to us, we make it easier to give in the next time.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 21 / WEDNESDAY

GRACE AND A GRATEFUL HEART

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(2 CORINTHIANS 8:9)

Living under the grace of God instead of under a sense of duty frees us from a self-serving motivation. It frees us to obey God and serve Him as a loving and thankful response to Him for our salvation and for blessings already guaranteed to us by His grace. Consequently, a heartfelt grasp of God's grace -far from creating an indifferent or careless attitude in us - will actually provide us the only motivation that is pleasing to Him. Only when we're thoroughly convinced that the Christian life is entirely of grace are we able to serve Him out of a grateful and loving heart.

I knew a man who was a strict tither, giving exactly 10 percent of his income to God's work: never one penny less and, as far as I know, never one penny more. I asked him why he did this. He replied, "I'd be afraid not to." I knew this man fairly well, and I suspect his motivation was mixed. He did somewhat enjoy giving his 10 percent, but his basic motivation was a fear of the consequences if he did not tithe. He was not motivated to tithe from a joyful and grateful heart.

By contrast, the apostle Paul appealed to Christ's grace as a motivation to give: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Paul wasn't "laying a guilt trip" on the Corinthian believers. Rather, he wanted them not only to give generously but to give from a sense of gratitude for God's grace - as a cheerful, loving response to what God had already given them in Christ.

Transforming Grace

Week 21 / THURSDAY

WHO WAS PAID?

Christ Jesus ... gave himself as a ransom for all.

(i TIMOTHY 2:5-6)

If Christ paid our ransom price, to whom was it paid? Some have thought it was paid to Satan, who holds unbelievers captive, but this cannot possibly be true. If it were, there would be a sense in which Satan was victorious over Christ. If we think of the ransom in terms of money, Satan would be "laughing all the way to the bank." The better answer is obviously that the ransom was paid to God acting in His capacity as judge. It was God's justice that Jesus satisfied, His cup of wrath that Jesus emptied, and His curse that Jesus bore as He paid our ransom price.

Once again, a human analogy of biblical truth ultimately breaks down when pressed to every detail. In human experience a ransom is paid to an adversary- a kidnapper, an opposing army, or a slaveholder. But God both demanded the ransom price and paid it in the death of His Son. In human experience we also recognize a distinction between the ransom price paid and the redeemer who pays it. Jesus, however, was both redeemer and ransom as He laid down His life in our place.

We should never cease to be amazed that the One who established the Law and determined its curse should Himself ransom us from it by bearing that curse in our place.

0, what wondrous love; 0, what infinite wisdom! Our glorious God devised such a plan that satisfies His justice and upholds His Law while at the same time providing a complete redemption for us from the curse of His Law. Surely we need to say often the words of Jonah when he cried out from the belly of the fish, "Salvation comes from the LORD" (Jonah 2:9, NIV).

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 21 / FRIDAY

GROWING IN FAITHFULNESS

Be faithful unto death.

(REVELATION 2:10)

For growing in faithfulness, the first step is to acknowledge the biblical standard. Faithfulness entails absolute honesty, utter dependability, and unswerving loyalty. It's to be like Daniel: neither corrupt nor negligent. Develop convictions consistent with this standard based on the Word of God, and plan to memorize one or more verses on the topic of faithfulness.

Second, evaluate your life with the aid of the Holy Spirit and perhaps a spouse or close friend. Do you seek to be scrupulously honest? Can others depend on you even when it's costly? Will you stick by your friend when he's in difficulty, and confront him in love when he's wrong?

Where you see a specific need in your life for faithfulness, make that both a matter of prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit and the object of concrete actions on your part. Remember that your working and His working are coextensive. You cannot become a faithful person merely by trying. There's a divine dimension. But it's also true that you won't become a faithful person without trying. This is something we must do, even though it's at the same time the fruit of the Spirit.

Consider the reward for faithfulness. In the parable of the talents, the master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" (Matthew 25:21, NIV). The faithfulness here is in our relation to God - but faithfulness to God includes faithfulness to one another. God requires that we be faithful in all our earthly relationships. Only if we seek to grow in the grace of faithfulness toward one another will we have any hope of hearing Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

The Fruitful Life

Week 21 / WEEKEND

THE INCREASING PULL

The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.

(GALATIANS 6:8)

Sin has a tendency to exert an ever-increasing power on us if it isn't resisted on every occasion. Paul wrote in Romans 6:19, "Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification." Notice the phrase "lawlessness leading to more lawlessness." Paul was referring to sin's tendency to exert a greater and greater pull on us as we give in to each temptation.

It doesn't matter whether the sin to which we're tempted is seemingly small or large. In either case, the principle works: Saying yes to any temptation weakens our commitment to resist sin.

Just as we need to make a commitment not to sin willfully, so we need to make a commitment to put on or clothe ourselves with the positive virtues of Christian character. Remember that Paul said, "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (Colossians 3:12, NIV). There are many of these positive character traits that we're to seek after. What is our intention regarding them? If we want to be like Christ in His character, we must commit ourselves to putting on His virtues.

It's not enough to stop cheating on our income tax returns; we must also learn to share with those in need. It's not enough to avoid being bitter against those who have wronged us; we need to forgive as God has forgiven us. It's not enough to pray that God will enable us to deal with a volatile temper; we must also ask Him to help us put on compassion and kindness.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 22 / MONDAY

COMPELLED BY CHRIST'S LOVE

The love of Christ controls us.

(2 CORINTHIANS 5:14)

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Paul said, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (Niv).

Christ's love compels us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died for us and was raised again. We're to live no longer for ourselves but for Him. We make His will the rule of our lives and His glory the goal for which we live. But what is the wellspring of this commitment? What motivating principle will cause a person to live no longer for himself but for God?

Paul said the love of Christ compels us to make this kind of commitment and to carry it out daily. Compel is a strong word and often has a negative association with force or coercion. But here its meaning is positive. Charles Hodge wrote that the love of Christ "coerces, or presses, and therefore impels. It is the governing influence which controls the life."50 It's not a fear of consequences or expectation of reward that motivates Paul. Rather, the love of Christ manifested in dying for him is the driving force of his life.

The Williams New Testament translates the first phrase of 2 Corinthians 5:14 in this manner: "For the love of Christ continuously constrains me." Christ's love is the constant wellspring of Paul's motivation every day. Paul never lost sight of, never forgot, never took for granted the death of Christ for him. And as he reflected on this infinite love manifested in Christ's death, he was compelled to live for the One who died for him and rose again.

Transforming Grace

Week 22 / TUESDAY

RELEASED AND ADOPTED

Sin reigned in death.

ROMANS 5:21)

Think of a man sitting on death row, convicted of heinous crimes. All legal appeals to spare him have been exhausted. His impending execution looms nearer every day.

Suddenly the cell door is flung open. The judge who sentenced this man to die stands there with a full pardon in his hand. Moreover, the judge has now adopted him into his family as his own son, to be taken in and provided with all the love and care the judge lavishes on his own children.

We truly did live on God's eternal "death row." "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) - physical and eternal death. As believers we know that we have been delivered from eternal death. That's not the final word, however, for "we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23). Our redemption and our adoption into God's family will reach ultimate fulfillment at the Resurrection, when we receive our immortal bodies and dwell forever in the immediate presence of the Lord.

But think again of the pardoned and adopted murderer. Would you want to be a member of that family as they brought this killer into their home? Would you lie fearfully in your bed at night, wondering if you might be his next victim?

Again we reach the limitations of human illustrations. The judge who pardoned and adopted this murderer cannot change this man's heart. But God can and does change our hearts. He promises to take away our hearts of stone that are spiritually dead and unresponsive to Him and give us hearts of flesh that are spiritually alive and responsive to Him (Ezekiel 36:26). We no longer have the heart of a criminal. This, too, is part of our redemption that Jesus secured for us.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 22 / WEDNESDAY

IN EVERYTHING

Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.

(COLOSSIANS 1:10)

We should commit ourselves to doing everything we do, not in the way that might seem to best accomplish our personal objective, but in the way that will be most pleasing to God.

This principle applies to the way a student approaches his or her studies, to the way we do our shopping and buying, to the way we compete in games and athletics, to the way we decorate our houses and keep our lawns, and even to the way we drive.

The city where I live attracts a lot of visitors in the summer, and the road I used to drive to our office is frequently crowded at that time with tourists. Being unfamiliar with the city and sometimes unsure of their directions, tourists often tend to drive more slowly than we locals. It's easy in such a situation to become impatient with them and to show that impatience in the way we drive. Sometimes, after I'd "whipped around" someone while driving to work, I found myself hoping that person didn't see me turning into the driveway of a Christian organization.

But God knows I'm a Christian and that I work for a Christian organization. If I would be ashamed to have a tourist identify my impatient driving with a Christian, how much more should I be ashamed before God. After all, He's the one I've committed myself to, to seek to please in all my thoughts and words and actions. So our commitment to pursue holiness must embrace every area of life and must include both the significant and the seemingly insignificant things we do. It must be a commitment both to put off the way of life of the old self and to put on the virtues of the new self.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 22 / THURSDAY

THE HOLY EXAMPLE OF CHRIST

He committed no sin.

(1 PETER 2:22)

Christ's life is meant to be an example of holiness for us. Peter told us that Christ left an example for us to follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21); he spoke particularly of Christ's suffering without retaliation, but in the following verse he said also that Christ committed no sin. Paul urged us to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1) and also said, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV).

Clearly, the sinless, holy life of Jesus Christ is meant to be an example for us. Consider then His statement, "I always do what pleases Him." Do we dare take that as our personal goal in life? Are we truly willing to scrutinize all our activities, all our goals and plans, and all our impulsive actions in light of this statement: "I'm doing this to please God"? If we ask that honestly, we'll begin to squirm a bit.

In the words of nineteenth-century Scottish theologian John Brown, "Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."" Neither does holiness mean, as is so often thought, adhering to a list of "dos and don'ts," mostly don'ts. When Christ came into the world, He said, "I have come to do your will, 0 God" (Hebrews 10:7). This is the example we're to follow. In all our thoughts, actions, in every part of our character, the ruling principle that motivates and guides us should be the desire to follow Christ in doing the will of the Father. This is the high road we must follow in the pursuit of holiness.

The Pursuit of Holiness

Week 22 / FRIDAY

MOTIVATING REVERENCE

The fear of the LORD is clean.

(PSALM 19:9)

I find myself motivated to obedience by a deep sense of reverence for God. When Joseph was tempted to immorality by Potiphar's wife, his response was, "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9, NIV). He didn't calculate the possible wrath of Potiphar or the forfeiture of God's blessing, but was motivated by reverence for God. He obeyed a sovereign, holy God, even though God had allowed him to be sold into slavery by his own brothers.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:1, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God" (NIV). These promises he mentioned were God's promises to be our Father and to make us His sons and daughters (6:18). Philip Hughes commented on this passage, "The logical consequence of possessing such promises is that Christ's followers should make a complete break with every form of unhealthy compromise."52 Here again, promises come before duty, and duty flows out of a heartfelt response to the promises of God.

Paul then wrote that we should bring "holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). This fear is a sense of profound awe, respect, and devotion. It's a recognition of God's intrinsic worthiness, the infinite majesty of His being, and the infinite perfection of His character. Because of who He is and what He is, God is infinitely worthy of my most diligent and loving obedience, even if I never receive a single blessing from His hand. The fact is, of course, I've received innumerable blessings from Him. But His worthiness is intrinsic within Himself; it is not conditioned on the number of blessings you or I receive from Him.

Transforming Grace

Week 22 / WEEKEND

OUR ONLY SAFE RESPONSE

You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.

ROMANS 8:15)

Paul told us that God sent His Son "to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5, NIV).

This "full rights of sons" is a reference to the status of sons who have become full-grown young adults. We've not only been redeemed from a cell on death row but also brought into God's family as fully adopted sons, with all the privileges included in that status.

All this is set against the dark background of the curse of the Law for any disobedience, which, of course, affects us all. Just as the diamonds on a jeweler's counter shine more brilliantly when set upon a dark velvet pad, so Christ's redemptive work shines more brilliantly when contrasted with our sin and the consequent curse that was upon us.

The fact is, however, that even as believers we continue to sin even though we are no longer under its dominion. And when we sin - and even our best deeds are stained with sin - we do that which apart from Christ would call down God's curse upon us. Our consciences know that, and they will continually bring accusations against us. Our only safe response is to plead guilty to those accusations without trying to minimize them.

Having done that, we must go back to the gospel and remind ourselves that the curse of the Law no longer has a claim against us. And then in grateful response to what God has done for us in Christ, we set ourselves to put to death by the power of the Spirit those very sins of which our consciences condemn us. Only in this way can we continually glory in the cross and enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 23 / MONDAY

SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS

Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself.

DANIEL 1:8)

In addition to an overall commitment to pursue holiness in every area of life, I find it helpful to make specific commitments in areas where we're particularly vulnerable to sin. There's great value in identifying those areas - either in what we do (for example, gossip) or in what we fail to do (such as loving our wives as Christ loved the church) - and then making specific commitments of obedience to God in those areas.

I urge you to list any areas of temptation wherein you need to make this specific commitment. Do you need to make a covenant with your eyes about what you look at (Job 31:1), or with your mouth about what you say, or with your mind about what you think? Is there a particular temptation or sinful practice that arises in your work environment that needs a commitment to fortify you against it? Write these commitments down on paper, for your eyes only, so you can review them and pray over them daily.

Perhaps there's a particular area in your marriage or in your relationship with your children, your parents, a friend, or an associate at work where you aren't demonstrating the Spirit's fruit of love, patience, or kindness. Do you need to make a commitment that, in dependence on the Holy Spirit to enable you, you'll seek to display that particular "fruit" toward that individual? If so, I urge you to make such a commitment. You may find the need to make several commitments - sins to put off or avoid and Christlike traits to put on. If you don't commit yourself to the pursuit of holiness in these specific areas of your life, you'll find a tendency to vacillate in the face of these temptations.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 23 / TUESDAY

GROWING IN GRACE

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 PETER 3:18)

The term growing in grace is most often used to indicate growth in Christian character. While I think that usage has merit, a more accurate meaning is to continually grow in our understanding of God's grace, especially as it applies to us personally, to become progressively more aware of our own continued spiritual bankruptcy and the unmerited, unearned, and undeserved favor of God. May we all grow in grace in this sense.

As we grow in grace this way, we will grow in our motivation to obey God out of a sense of gratitude and reverence to Him. Our obedience will always be imperfect in performance in this life. We will never perfectly obey Him until we are made perfect by Him. In the same way, our motives will never be consistently pure; there will frequently be some "merit points" mentality mixed in with our genuine love and reverence for God.

So don't be discouraged if you realize your motives have been largely merit-oriented. Just begin now to move toward grace motives. Begin to think daily about the implications of the grace of God in your life. Memorize and meditate frequently on such Scripture passages as Romans 12:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. Pray about the aspects of truth in those passages and ask God to motivate you by His mercy and love. When you recognize merit-oriented motives at work in you, renounce them and cast yourself completely on the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ. As you grow in grace in this way, you will indeed discover that His love compels you to live - not for yourself, but for Him who died for you and was raised again.

Transforming Grace

Week 23 / WEDNESDAY

TREATING OTHERS GENTLY

Learn from me, for I am gentle.

(MATTHEW 11:29)

A profile of gentleness as it should appear in our lives will first include actively seeking to make others feel at ease, or "restful," in our presence. We should not be so strongly opinionated or dogmatic that others are afraid to express their opinions in our presence. Instead, we should be sensitive to others' opinions and ideas. We should also avoid displaying our commitment to Christian discipleship in such a way as to make others feel guilty, taking care not to break the bruised reed of the hurting Christian or snuff out the smoldering wick of the immature Christian.

Second, gentleness will demonstrate respect for the personal dignity of the other person. Where necessary, it will seek to change a wrong opinion or attitude by persuasion and kindness, not by domination or intimidation. It will studiously avoid coercion by threatening, either directly or indirectly (as Paul, for example, avoided it in his appeal to the Corinthians).

Gentleness will also avoid blunt and abrupt speech, instead seeking to answer everyone with sensitivity and respect, ready to show consideration toward all. Gentle Christians do not feel they have the liberty to "say what I think and let the chips fall where they may." Instead they're sensitive to the reactions and feelings of others. When gentle Christians find it necessary to wound with words, they also seek to bind up those wounds with words of consolation and encouragement.

Finally, gentle Christians will not degrade or belittle or gossip about the brother or sister who falls into some sin. Instead they will grieve for him or her and pray for that person's repentance. If it's appropriate to become personally involved, they'll seek to restore the person gently (Galatians 6:1), aware that they too are subject to temptation.

The Fruitful Life

Week 23 / THURSDAY

FULFILLED IN THE FAMILY

You were dead.

(EPHESIANS 2:1)

In the story of redemption, deliverance from the penal curse of the Law is the major part of the story, but not the whole story. Peter told us, "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers" (1 Peter 1:18). Without Christ we lived in futility and emptiness. Regardless of whether it was a decent life or a wicked life judged on a human scale of morality, it was a vain, futile, empty life.

We find a good description of this emptiness in Ephesians 2:1-3, where Paul described us as having followed the ways of the world and of Satan, and of having continually gratified the cravings of our sinful natures. Christ's ransom, then, secured for us redemption not only from the Law's curse but also from bondage to sin. These two aspects of redemption always go together: Redemption from the curse infallibly secures redemption from the bondage.

Paul addressed this absolute connection when he wrote that Jesus Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good" (Titus 2:14, NIV). The design of Christ's redemptive work goes beyond salvation from God's everlasting curse. Its purpose is to redeem us from sin to Himself, to be a people desiring to please Him.

Regarding this absolute connection between redemption from the guilt and consequent curse of sin and the release from the dominion or reign of sin in our lives, noted New Testament scholar Leon Morris wrote, "It is wrong to separate the legal status, gained by complete discharge of the law against us, from the resultant life. The only redemption Paul knew was one in which they lived as those who had been adopted into the family of God."53

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 23 / FRIDAY

ANY ROOM FOR GRACE?

By the mercies of God. . . present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

ROMANS 12:1)

Some may ask, "Who can possibly keep a commitment to pursue holiness without exception for even some `small' sins? If there are no exceptions, is there any place for grace? Is God really this strict?"

Yes, God really is this strict because He cannot compromise His holiness the least bit. His goal is to conform us to the likeness of His Son, and Jesus was completely without sin, though tempted in every way that we are (Hebrews 4:15). No, we cannot, or perhaps will not, keep our commitments to God perfectly, but that should at least be our aim. In a battle, some soldiers will always be hit, but each one makes it his aim not to be hit. A lesser aim would be the height of folly for the soldier, and it's just as dangerous for us in our battle with sin.

Is there any place for grace? Most assuredly; in fact, in Romans 12:1, Paul based his call for such decisive commitment on God's mercy or grace. John Calvin commented on this verse as follows: "Paul's entreaty teaches us that men will never worship God with a sincere heart, or be roused to fear and obey Him with sufficient zeal, until they properly understand how much they are indebted to His mercy."54

So we see once again the relationship of grace and discipline. A loving response to God's grace and mercy is the only motive acceptable to God for the commitment Paul called for. And the continual reminding of ourselves of His grace and mercy provides the only enduring motivation to sustain such a commitment and keep it from becoming oppressive. That's why we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 23 / WEEKEND

A DANGEROUS STATEMENT

The love of Christ controls us.

(2 CORINTHIANS 5:14)

One issue believers frequently struggle with is the relationship between living by grace and obedience to God's commands. When I state that nothing you ever do or don't do will make God love you any more or any less, and that He accepts you strictly by His grace through the merit of Jesus Christ alone, such unqualified statements sound exceedingly dangerous - leaving me open to the charge of saying in effect that God doesn't care whether or not you sin.

But consider the alternative: "God loves you if you're obedient and doesn't love you if you're disobedient. Since God's love is conditioned on obedience, and you're never perfectly obedient, God never loves you perfectly or accepts you completely." Such a bald description puts the issue into focus.

Since we're saved by grace and accepted by God continuously by grace, are we to conclude that He doesn't care whether we sin? To use Paul's strong exclamation in Romans 6:2, "By no means!" Such a conclusion flies in the face of all the ethical commands in Scripture. Such a conclusion also ignores the very clear relationship Jesus insisted on between love for Him and obedience to His commands.

Our love for God, expressed through obedience to Him, is to be a response to His love, not a means of trying to earn it. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Jesus said that love for God and love for one another essentially sum up all His commands (Matthew 22:36-40). Both our love for others and our love for God are prompted by His love for us.

Transforming Grace

Week 24 / MONDAY

GODS HATRED

The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked.

(PSALM 11:5)

Reconciliation by definition assumes a previous state of alienation and hostility caused by the offensive actions of one or both parties. Our sin has separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2) and caused us to be "God's enemies" (Romans 5:10, NIV), those hated by God. Does God actually hate people? Yes, the psalmist wrote, "You hate all who do wrong" (Psalm 5:5, NIV). So when Paul described us as God's enemies, he was describing not our sinful hatred of God but rather His righteous hatred of us because of our sin.

It's difficult for us to conceive of God's holy hatred toward people. But this is simply His just and holy revulsion against sin and His holy antagonism toward those who rebel against Him.

This is why God's act of reconciling us to Himself through Christ is so amazing. We were powerless to do anything to help ourselves (Romans 5:6); nor would we even want to, left to ourselves. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:7, "The sinful mind is hostile to God" (NIV). In our natural state, not one of us would want to be reconciled to God.

The gospel's good news is that God Himself took the initiative by sending His Son to die in our place to satisfy His justice and absorb His wrath. He didn't wait for a change of heart on our part. He made the first move. Indeed, He did more: He did all that was necessary to secure our reconciliation, including our change of heart. Though He is the One offended by our sin, He is the One who makes amends to Himself through Christ's death. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19, NIV).

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 24 / TUESDAY

How THANKFUL ARE YOU?

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

(PSALM 9:1)

Most of us acknowledge that everything we have comes from God, but how often do we stop to give thanks to Him? At the end of a workday, do you take time to say, "Thank You, heavenly Father, for giving me the skill, ability, and health to do my work today"? Do you ever physically or mentally go through your house and say to God, "Everything in the house and the food in the cupboard and the car (or cars) in the driveway are gifts from You. Thank You for Your gracious and generous provision"? When you give thanks at mealtime, is it routine and perfunctory, or is it a heartfelt expression of your gratitude to God for His continual provision of all your physical needs?

Taking for granted all the temporal provisions and spiritual blessings that God has so richly bestowed on us, and so failing to continually give Him thanks, is one of our "acceptable" sins. In fact, far too many Christians wouldn't think of it as sin. Yet Paul, in his description of a Spirit-filled person, said we're to be "giving thanks always and for everything to God" (Ephesians 5:20). Note the words always and everything. That means our whole lives should be ones of continually giving thanks.

Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do - it's the moral will of God. Failure to give Him the thanks due Him is sin. It may seem like a benign sin to us because it doesn't harm anyone else. But it's an affront and insult to the One who created us and sustains us every second of our lives.

Respectable Sins

Week 24 / WEDNESDAY

GROUNDED IN MERCY

He saved us ... according to his own mercy.

(TITUS 3:5)

It was in view of God's mercy that Paul urged us to commit our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). Undoubtedly Paul had in mind the mercy of God as he had displayed it in the preceding chapters of Romans. He could have been thinking of the righteousness of God that comes to us by faith, of justification freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, or of God presenting Jesus as a propitiation for our sins that turns aside God's just and holy wrath from us.

No doubt Paul's mind would once again have dwelt on that wonderful statement in Romans 4:8: "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him" (Niv). He would have thought of how we now have peace with God, having been justified through faith, and that we now stand before Him in grace every day. He would have rejoiced in our deliverance from sin's dominion through our union with Christ in His death. He would have exulted again to know there's "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). He would have relished again the promises of future glory and the assurance that nothing can separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus.

In short, Paul would have had in mind the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its wonderfulness when he wrote of the mercy of God.

This mercy is the ground for our commitment to pursue holiness. Such a commitment as Paul called for would indeed be legalistic and oppressive if it were not grounded in love. And the only way Paul would stir up our love is to remind us of God's love for us, revealed through His mercy and His grace.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 24 / THURSDAY

TRUSTED STANDARDS

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

(JOHN 14:15)

A loving obedience to the commands of God is one clear evidence that we're living by grace. Anyone who thinks, Since God's love is not conditioned on my obedience, I'm free to live as I please, is not living by grace, nor does he understand grace. What he perceives as grace is really a caricature.

Jesus said that if we love Him, we'll obey His commands. The term command suggests clear direction. We're told what to do or not do. We are not left in doubt how we're to live. The commands in the Bible provide a clear set of moral standards.

In the popular philosophy of situation ethics, actions are morally evaluated in terms of a "loving" response to the situation at hand rather than by application of moral absolutes. Situation ethics knows no external, objective standard of behavior; it responds to what seems right at the moment. But Scripture says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:9, Niv). Anything can be made to "seem right."

Through "Christianized" situation ethics, all kinds of sinful actions have been committed in the name of "love." Christians have engaged in illicit sexual intimacy on the pretense that they were acting in love toward a lonely or hurting person. Recently I heard of a man who allegedly conspired to have his incurably ill wife murdered because "she would be happier with Jesus." This is the type of trap even Christians fall into when we don't let the commands of God give definition to love. God's commands provide us this objective standard and, when obeyed, keep us from falling into situation ethics.

Transforming Grace

Week 24 / FRIDAY

EVERYTHING NECESSARY

God ... through Christ reconciled us to himself.

(2 CORINTHIANS 5:18)

Total reconciliation demands a total effort by the offending party to make amends. When Jesus satisfied God's justice and propitiated God's wrath, He did all that was required to remove the enmity of God toward us. By His death He bridged the vast gulf of divine alienation between us and objectively restored us to a position of friendship and favor with God. But it was God, the offended party, who sent His Son to reconcile us to Himself. "When we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10, NIV).

This historical, objective work of reconciliation by Christ has to be personally received by each of us. That's why Paul wrote, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

This is a most amazing passage of Scripture. Having objectively secured reconciliation for us, Christ now appeals to us through His gospel messengers to "be reconciled to God" - to receive His work of reconciliation. We ourselves should have been on our faces before God, imploring Him to be reconciled to us. Instead, we see God reconciling us to Himself through the death of His Son, then appealing to us to receive that reconciliation. What pure grace and mercy on God's part!

To add to our amazement, we know that, left to ourselves, we would never even want to be reconciled to God. According to Paul, we were so blinded by Satan that we could not even see the light of the gospel and receive it (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore God sends His Holy Spirit to open our hearts to understand and receive the message of reconciliation (Acts 16:14). 0, what wondrous love, what matchless grace, that God would do everything necessary to reconcile us to Himself!

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 24 / WEEKEND

GRACE PROVIDED

You are ... under grace.

(ROMANS 6:14)

Romans 12:1 and 6:13 are parallel passages; in both, Paul called on us to offer our bodies to God in the pursuit of holiness. But the context of Romans 6:13 - "Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness" - is the assurance of God's enablement to carry out that commitment. In verse 11 we're urged to count ourselves dead to the dominion of sin and alive to the enabling power of God. In verse 14, Paul assured us that sin shall not be our master since we "are not under law but under grace." God not only asks us to commit ourselves to the pursuit of holiness, but provides the grace to enable us to do it.

In this setting, grace refers to God's divine enablement through the power of His Spirit. So whether it's viewed as God's undeserved favor as we would understand it in Romans 12:1, or as God's divine enablement as we should understand it in the context of Romans 6:13, grace is the basis for our commitment to the pursuit of holiness.

An all-out, unreserved, nothing-held-back commitment to the pursuit of holiness may be exhausting, but it will not be oppressive if it's grounded in grace. But to be grounded in grace, it must be continually referred back to the gospel. So don't just preach the gospel to yourself every day merely to experience the cleansing of your conscience. You certainly need to do so for that reason. But as you do, reaffirm your commitment to God as a response of love and gratitude. And do so in reliance on His Spirit that by His grace He will enable you to carry out your commitment.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 25 / MONDAY

SELF-CONTROL

God gave us a spirit ... of power and love and self-control.

(2 TIMOTHY 1:7)

Self-control is the governing of one's desires. D. G. Kehl described it as "the ability to avoid excesses, to stay within reasonable bounds."55 George Bethune called it "the healthful regulation of our desires and appetites, preventing their excess."56

But self-control involves a wider range of watchfulness than merely control of bodily appetites and desires. We also must exercise self-control of thoughts, emotions, and speech. Self-control says yes to what we should do as well as no to what we shouldn't. For example, I seldom want to study the Bible when I first begin. There are too many other things that are mentally much easier, such as reading the newspaper, a magazine, or a good Christian book. A necessary expression of self-control, then, is to set myself down with Bible and notebook and tell myself, "Get with it!" This may not sound very spiritual, but neither does Paul's exclamation, "I beat my body and make it my slave" (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Self-control is necessary because we're at war with our own sinful desires. James described those desires as dragging us away and enticing us into sin (1:14). Peter said they war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). Paul spoke of them as deceitful (Ephesians 4:22). What makes these sinful desires so dangerous is that they dwell within our own heart. External temptations wouldn't be nearly so dangerous if they did not find this ally of desire right within us.

Self-control is an essential character trait of the godly person that enables obedience to the words of the Lord Jesus, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23, NIV).

The Fruitful Life

Week 25 / TUESDAY

WORDS OF AUTHORITY

We. ..pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

(COLOSSIANS 1:9)

"Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17). This is not God's particular will for us in some issue of personal guidance but rather His moral will - as used, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality."

A few verses before Ephesians 5:17, Paul told us to "try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord" (verse 10). To understand what the Lord's will is and to find out what pleases the Lord are essentially the same; both expressions refer to the specific directions given in the ethical commands of Scripture. These verses themselves are also commands. That is, we're commanded to know and understand the commands contained in Scripture. Quite obviously, we're to seek to know God's will in order to obey it. As my first Bible study leader said many years ago, "The Bible wasn't given just to increase your knowledge, but to guide your conduct."

A command, however, is more than a set of directions. The word command carries the idea of authority. The most basic meaning of the word is "to direct with authority." A command does not just give guidance that one may accept or reject; a command implies that the one giving it has the authority to require obedience and the intention of doing so. This is true of the commands of God. As the Sovereign God of the universe, He has the authority to require obedience, and He does insist that we obey Him.

Transforming Grace

Week 25 / WEDNESDAY

A PERMANENT CHANGE

We have now received reconciliation.

ROMANS 5:11)

When a wayward youth is later reconciled with his or her parents, there's always the possibility the youth will revert to the former rebellious state. He or she would again be alienated from the parents. It would be a selfinflicted alienation, to be sure, but nevertheless a real one. In fact, the parents' displeasure might even be stronger the second time around. This points to a significant difference between a reconciliation between human beings and our reconciliation to God.

Our reconciliation to God is permanent and eternal. Because Christ accomplished it for us, there's no possibility it can ever be undone. Though we continue, even as believers, to do those things that in themselves deserve God's displeasure, we can never revert to a state of divine alienation. For the sake of Christ, God will always accept us. And even when God deems it necessary to discipline us for persistent disobedience, He always does so out of love to restore us to the way of obedience (Hebrews 12:4-11).

This reconciliation does - in fact, it must - affect the way we live. The very nature of our salvation guarantees that we will not continue in an absolute state of sin and rebellion against God. He not only saves us from sin's guilt and consequent alienation; He also delivers us from sin's reign and continues to work to progressively free us from sin's activity in our lives. However, in the midst of God's work and our struggle with indwelling sin, we must always keep in mind that our status of favor and friendship with God is always, and ever will be, based on the objective work of Christ for us as our representative and substitute. We have been forever reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 25 / THURSDAY

SANCTIFICATION BY CONSENSUS

Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

(EPHESIANS 5:17)

In many evangelical circles it seems that we have morality by consensus. We may not be doing what society around us is doing, but neither are we living according to biblical standards. Instead we live according to the standard of conduct of Christians around us. We not only have morality by consensus; we have sanctification by consensus. We expect to become holy by osmosis, by the absorption of the ethical values of our Christian peer group.

If we're going to make progress in the pursuit of holiness, we must aim to live according to the precepts of Scripture - not according to the culture, even Christian culture, around us. But how can we do this if we don't know what those precepts are? It isn't sufficient for us to hear one or two thirty-minute sermons a week. We must be exposed to the Scriptures on a daily basis if we hope to live under their authority.

To pursue holiness, one of the disciplines we must become skilled in is the development of Bible-based convictions. A conviction is a determinative belief: something you believe so strongly that it affects the way you live. Someone has observed that a belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you. You may live contrary to what you believe, but you cannot live contrary to your convictions. (This doesn't mean you never act contrary to your convictions, but that you do not consistently violate them.) So the discipline we're talking about is the development of convictions, not mere beliefs. Convictions, of course, can be good or bad, so we want to make sure our convictions are Bible-based, that they are derived from our personal interaction with the Scriptures.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 25 / FRIDAY

REQUEST OR COMMAND?

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

(JOHN 15:14)

Under the reign of grace, is the moral will of God (considered as a whole) a request or a command? The word request connotes desire; whereas the word command connotes authority to require. Response to a desire is optional; response to a command is not.

So when Jesus said we love Him by obeying His commands, was He using the word command as we ordinarily understand it, or was He using it as an expression of God's desire? In the realm of grace, does the moral will of God express the desire of God as to how He would like us to live, or does it express the requirement of God as to how we are to live?

Some people readily say God desires that we be holy, but God does not require that we be holy. They maintain that under grace we have been freed, not only from the curse and condemnation resulting from breaking the law but also from the requirements of the law as a rule of life. They believe that to insist on obedience as a requirement for a Christian is to teach legalism instead of grace. In other words, to assign the concept of requirement to the will of God is legalism, but to assign the concept of desire to it is grace.

I believe such a view is a misunderstanding of grace. God's grace does not change the fundamental character of God's moral Law. Rather, the grace of God provides for the forgiveness and acceptance of those who have broken the law. The good news of the gospel is that God has removed the guilt we incur by breaking His Law and has bestowed on us the righteousness of Christ, who perfectly kept His Law. Legalism does not consist in yielding obedience to the law. Rather, it is to seek justification and good standing with God through the merit of works done in obedience to the law-instead of by faith in Christ.

Transforming Grace

Week 25 / WEEKEND

FAITH AND HOLINESS

By faith Abraham obeyed.

(HEBREWS 11:8)

Obedience to the revealed will of God is often just as much a step of faith as claiming a promise from God. In fact, one of the more intriguing thoughts from the book of Hebrews is the way the writer appears to use obedience and faith interchangeably. He spoke of the Old Testament Hebrews who would never enter God's rest because they disobeyed (3:18). Yet they were not able to enter because of their unbelief (3:19). This interchange of unbelief and disobedience also occurs later in the book (4:2,6).

The heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 were said to be "still living by faith when they died" (11:13, Niv). But the element of obedience - responding to the will of God - was just as prominent in their lives as was claiming the promises of God. They obeyed by faith. And since obedience is the pathway to holiness - a holy life being essentially an obedient life - we may say that no one will become holy apart from a life of faith.

Faith enables us to claim the promises of God, but it also enables us to obey the commands of God. Faith enables us to obey when obedience is costly or seems unreasonable to the natural mind.

The path of obedience in the pursuit of holiness is often contrary to human reason. If we don't have conviction in the necessity of obeying the revealed will of God as well as confidence in the promises of God, we'll never persevere in this difficult pursuit. We must have conviction that seeking holiness is God's will for us - regardless of how arduous and painful the seeking may be. And we must be confident that the pursuit of holiness results in God's approval and blessing, even when circumstances make it appear otherwise.

The Pursuit of Holiness

Week 26 / MONDAY

THE PRIMARY ISSUE

Christ. . . offered himself without blemish to God.

(HEBREWS 9:14)

From different points of view, look at Christ's work for us: He perfectly obeyed the Law of God. He satisfied the justice of God. He exhausted the wrath of God. He removed our sins from the presence of God. He redeemed us from the curse of God. He reconciled us to God.

One thing is readily apparent: Every work of Christ is directed toward God. It's God's Law that was obeyed, His justice that was satisfied, His wrath that was propitiated, His holy presence from which our sins were removed, His curse from which we were redeemed, and alienation from His divine presence that has been reconciled.

This Godward focus tells us that the integrity of God's moral government and the upholding of His honor and glory are the primary issues in our salvation. It's true that God's love for sinful people such as you and me is the wellspring of our salvation, but this love could be shown only in such a way that the glory of His holiness and the honor of His Law would be magnified. Jesus in His sinless life and sin-bearing death did just that. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

As we contemplate the glory of the cross, we see that not only is our deepest need of salvation met, but it was met in the way that brings the most glory to God Himself. At the cross both God's Law and God's grace are most brilliantly displayed, and His justice and mercy both glorified. It's also at the cross where we're most humbled, where we admit to God and ourselves that absolutely nothing we do can earn or merit our salvation. As someone has well said, "We bring nothing to our salvation except our sin that made it necessary."

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 26 / TUESDAY

ONLY TWO OPTIONS

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

(PSALM 119:104)

In Romans 12:1, Paul made a strong appeal for us to commit ourselves to live holy lives pleasing to God. In the following verse, he begins telling us how to carry this out: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2).

Paul established a contrast between conforming (or being conformed) to the pattern of this world and being transformed by the renewal of one's mind. He assumed only two alternatives. Our convictions and values will come either from society around us (the world), or as our minds are renewed by the Word of God. There is no third option.

The writer of Psalm 1 stated this truth in a similar fashion: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1-2). The psalmist envisioned two groups of people. One group is drawn more and more under the controlling influence of wicked people, until at last they themselves begin to negatively influence others. The second group is those who delight in God's Law and meditate on it, thinking about it continually. The psalmist presented a contrast between two diametrically opposing influences: the pervasive influence of sinful society or the lifechanging influence of the Law of God. There's no neutral sphere of influence. We're being influenced by the forces of sinful society, or we're being influenced by the Word of God.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 26 / WEDNESDAY

THE WHITE SIGNS ARE STILL THERE

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

(JOHN 14:23)

Although God, through Christ, is our Savior and heavenly Father, He's also still the supreme Ruler and moral Governor of His creation. A king's sons and daughters, even though they're his children, are still under obligation to obey the laws of his realm. They are no more exempt from the laws than any other citizen. They're subject to these laws even though they love their father, agree with his laws, and freely and willingly obey them.

We as God's children are still subject to the laws of His realm. In response to His grace, we should obey in a loving and grateful way. And because God has written His Law on our hearts, we'll usually be in agreement with His Law written in His Word. But we're still to regard God's Law as commands to be obeyed, not merely as expressions of His desires.

Along our highways we have white speed limit signs and yellow speed advisory signs. The speed limit signs declare the law; the speed advisory signs are there to caution you. You can be fined for exceeding the posted speed limit because you've broken the law. You won't be fined for exceeding the advisory speed because you haven't broken any law.

The Law of God is like the white speed limit signs. It's the declared law of the realm. We've broken that law many times, but Christ has paid our "fine" (which is death) for us. But His payment did not abolish the Law; it did not, so to speak, change His speed limit signs to caution signs. God's Law hasn't become merely optional or advisory.

Transforming Grace

Week 26 / THURSDAY

RIGHT WITH GOD

No one does good, not even one.

(ROMANS 3:12)

In a recent runaway bestseller, the author stated, "There is only one question which really matters: Why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting." 57

Setting aside the issue of whether only one question really matters, the Bible tells us that in light of eternity, the most important question we all face is how a sinful man or woman can come into a right relationship with an infinitely holy and just God. After all, Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36, NIV). Suppose a person lives his entire life experiencing nothing but prosperity and happiness, yet dies without a right relationship with God. What has he gained? Actually, he has lost everything.

Because God Himself is perfectly righteous and cannot look with favor on any unrighteousness, the only way we can have a right relationship with Him is to be perfectly righteous, as He is. But that's our problem, for, as Paul wrote, "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10, NIV).

What are we to do? Try harder? That won't help because, as Paul observed, "No one will be declared righteous in [God's] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:20, Niv). Regardless of how hard we try, we'll never attain the perfect righteousness God will accept.

So the question remains: How may we attain a right relationship with God? Happily, Paul answered it. After describing our predicament in Romans 3:20, he announced that God has provided a solution: "The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law ... the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe" (verses 21-22).

The Gospel for Real Life

Week 26 / FRIDAY

WORSHIPPING GOD

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

(1 CHRONICLES 16:29)

Another essential part of our practice of devotion to God is worship. By worship I mean the specific act of ascribing to God the glory, majesty, honor, and worthiness which are His. Revelation 4:8-11 and 5:9-14 give us clear illustrations of the worship that goes on in heaven and should be emulated by us here on earth. I almost always begin my daily quiet time with a period of worship. Before beginning my Bible reading for the day, I take a few minutes to reflect upon one of the attributes of God or to meditate upon a passage about His majesty and holiness, and then ascribe to Him the glory and honor due to Him.

I find it helpful to assume a kneeling position as a physical acknowledgment of my reverence, awe, and adoration of God. Worship is a matter of the heart, not of one's physical position; nevertheless, the Scriptures do frequently portray bowing the knee as a sign of homage and adoration. David said, "In reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple" (Psalm 5:7, Niv). The writer of Psalm 95 said, "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker" (verse 6, N1v). And we know that one day every knee shall bow before Jesus as a sign of homage to His Lordship (Philippians 2:10).

Obviously, it's not always possible to bow before God in our times of worship. God understands this and surely allows for it. But when we can do so, I strongly recommend bowing before God, not only as a sign of reverence to Him but also for what it does in helping us prepare our minds to worship God in a manner acceptable to Him.

The Fruitful Life

Week 26 / WEEKEND

AN EVERYDAY DELIGHT

When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies.

(PSALM 119:59)

We believers are being influenced by both society and the Word of God. We can think of these two opposing influences as representing the two extremes of a continuum - sinful society at one end and the Word of God at the other.

All believers are somewhere on that continuum, partially influenced by sinful society and partially influenced by the Word of God. What determines whether we're moving toward one end or the other? Psalm 1 gives us the answer: our attitude toward the Word of God and the time we spend thinking about it.

The person who's living toward the "God's Word" end of the continuum is described first of all as one whose "delight" is in the Law of God (Psalm 1:2). Like Paul, this person has determined that God's Law is "holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7:12). He or she sees that God's Law is not onerous or burdensome but is given to help us please God and live productive and satisfying lives - "like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers" (Psalm 1:3). One who delights in the Law of God sees the Bible not as a book of difficult rules but as the Word of our heavenly Father, the God of all grace.

This person "mediates" on God's law "day and night" (Psalm 1:2). In Scripture, the word meditate means to think about a truth with a view to its meaning and application to one's life. It includes reflection on one's own life to determine what conformity, or lack of it, there is between the scriptural truth and one's character or conduct.

The Discipline of Grace

Week 27 / MONDAY

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