Deeper Longing
THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
(EPHESIANS 6:10)
Before we can learn the sufficiency of God's grace, we must learn the insufficiency of ourselves. As I have said, the more we see our sinfulness, the more we appreciate grace in its basic meaning of God's undeserved favor. In a similar manner, the more we see our frailty, weakness, and dependence, the more we appreciate God's grace in its dimension of His divine assistance. Just as grace shines more brilliantly against the dark background of our sin, so it also shines more brilliantly against the background of our human weakness.
Paul said in Romans 5:20: "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." In 2 Corinthians 12, he could have just as aptly said, "But where human weakness increased, grace abounded all the more." That is essentially what he said in different words in verse 9: "But he said to me, `My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." On this Philip Hughes wrote, "Indeed, the abject weakness of the human instrument serves to magnify and throw into relief the perfection of the divine power in a way that any suggestion of human adequacy could never do. The greater the servant's weakness, the more conspicuous is the power of his Master's all-sufficient grace."76
God's power infusing our weakness is a concrete expression of His grace, coming to our aid through the ministry of His Spirit in our lives. This is the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit on our human spirit through which He strengthens us and enables us to meet in a godly fashion whatever circumstances we encounter.
Transforming Grace
Week 40 / TUESDAY
WHEN SATAN ACCUSES
The LORD rebuke you, 0 Satan!
(ZECHARIAH 3:2)
Satan is our accuser; in fact, that seems to be his primary strategy toward sincere believers. This is vividly illustrated in his accusation of the high priest, Joshua, recorded in Zechariah 3:1-4. Joshua stands before the angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. But God rebukes Satan, takes away Joshua's filthy clothes (depicting his sin), and clothes him with rich garments (symbolizing the robe of Christ's righteousness). Perhaps Paul had this passage in mind when he wrote, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33, NIV). God no longer allows Satan to accuse us before Him. In fact, we might say God has thrown Satan out of His heavenly courtroom.
However, though Satan can no longer accuse us before God, he accuses us to ourselves. He plants thoughts in our minds: How could a Christian struggle with sin as much as you do? What is our defense in such instances? It isn't to ignore or minimize sin's seriousness. Rather it's to look at the cross of Christ and see Him bearing those sins in all their severity and ugliness in His body. It's to believe that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1, NIV), because Jesus was condemned in our place as our substitute.
When you're troubled with uncertainty about your salvation, ask yourself, "Have I called on the name of the Lord? Have I come to Jesus as one who is thirsty but has no money? Have I renounced any confidence in my own goodness and relied entirely on Jesus' blood and righteousness?" If you answer yes to those questions, rely on the promises of God.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 40 / WEDNESDAY
GRACE FOR GLORY
My grace is sufficient for you.
(2 CORINTHIANS 12:9)
God's grace is not given to make us feel better but to glorify Him. Modern society's subtle, underlying agenda is good feelings. We want the pain to go away. We want to feel better in difficult situations. But God wants us to glorify Him in those circumstances. Good feelings may or may not come, but that's not the issue. The issue is whether we honor God by the way we respond to our circumstances. God's grace - the enabling power of the Holy Spirit - is given to help us respond in such a way.
God's grace is sufficient. The Greek verb for is sufficient in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is translated "will be content" in 1 Timothy 6:8: "If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content" (NIV). This helps us understand what sufficient means. Food and clothing refer to life's necessities, not luxuries. If we have the necessities, we're to be content, realizing they're sufficient.
So it is with God's grace in the spiritual realm. God always gives us what we need, perhaps sometimes more, but never less. The spiritual equivalent of food and clothing is simply the strength to endure in a way that honors God. Receiving that strength, we're to be content. We would like the "luxury" of having our particular thorn removed, but God often says, "Be content with the strength to endure that thorn." We can be confident He always gives that.
John Blanchard said, "So he [God] supplies perfectly measured grace to meet the needs of the godly. For daily needs there is daily grace; for sudden needs, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace. God's grace is given wonderfully, but not wastefully; freely but not foolishly; bountifully but not blindly.""
Transforming Grace
Week 40 / THURSDAY
THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS
You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.
ROMANS 8:15)
God knows our tendencies to sometimes doubt whether His promises are true for us. Therefore, He has given us another strong means of assurance, the witness of His Spirit: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).
How the Holy Spirit interacts with our human spirit to give us assurance is a mystery, going beyond our investigative abilities. However, though I cannot explain it, I've certainly experienced it.
I still remember the night more than fifty years ago when I asked Jesus to be my Savior. I was a teenage church member, but had no peace about my relationship with God. The moment I asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior, my heart was flooded with peace. I had peace with God as a result of Jesus' work on the cross. And I had the peace of God - the inner witness of His Spirit that I now had eternal life.
This inner witness of the Spirit is highly personal. The Spirit tailors His witness to our particular temperament and circumstances. Each of us comes to the point of trusting in Christ from different experiences. For someone from a flagrantly sinful life, there may be a deep, penetrating assurance that his sins are forgiven, that he has been washed clean and has a new life in Christ. For the moral or religious person, there may be a sense of relief that he or she no longer has to try to earn God's favor. For me, it was a quiet sense of peace; my five-year struggle with God was over. In every case, though, it's the Spirit's application of the gospel to our lives that produces this inner witness.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 40 / FRIDAY
Two ARE BETTER THAN ONE
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
PROVERBS 27:17)
Because mortifying sins is difficult, we need the help of one or two friends to engage in the struggle with us. These friends should be believers who share our commitment to pursuing holiness and who are also willing to be mutually open with us about their own struggles. This principle is well expressed in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!"
In the battle of putting sin to death, we need the mutual support of one another. In the New Testament we're taught to admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2), and pray for one another (James 5:16).
Although this principle applies to every aspect of the Christian life, it's particularly helpful in the pursuit of holiness. We need at least one other person of like heart to pray with us, encourage us, and if necessary, admonish us. This person must be someone who's also personally involved in the struggle to mortify sin, so that he or she can enter into our struggles and not be scandalized by the nature of our deepest sins. It's said that the Puritans used to ask God for one "bosom friend" with whom they could share absolutely everything. This is the type of friend we should also pray for and seek out to help us in our struggle to mortify sin in our lives. Remember, however, it's a mutual effort. Each one should be committed to both helping and receiving help.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 40 / WEEKEND
LEARNING TO TRUST
Trust in him at all times.
(PSALM 62:8)
It's difficult to believe God is in control when we're in the midst of heartache or grief. I've struggled with this many times myself. Each time I've had to decide if I would trust Him, even when my heart ached. I realized anew that we must learn to trust God one circumstance at a time.
It's not a matter of my feelings but of my will. I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes, but I can choose to do so anyway. That act of the will must be based on belief, and belief must be based on the truth that God is sovereign. He carries out His own good purposes without ever being thwarted, and nothing is outside of His sovereign will. We must cling to this in the face of adversity and tragedy, if we're to glorify God by trusting Him.
I'll say this as gently and compassionately as I know how: Our first priority in adversity is to honor and glorify God by trusting Him. Gaining relief from our feelings of heartache or disappointment or frustration is a natural desire, and God has promised to give us grace sufficient for our trials and peace for our anxieties (2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:6-7). But just as God's will is to take precedence over our will ("Yet not as I will, but as you will" - Matthew 26:39), so God's honor is to take precedence over our feelings. We honor God by choosing to trust Him when we don't understand what He is doing or why He has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur. As we seek God's glory, we may be sure He has purposed our good and that He won't be frustrated in fulfilling that purpose.
Trusting God
Week 41 / MONDAY
DAILY GRACE
And he humbled you ... and fed you with manna.
(DEUTERONOMY 8:3)
There's a lesson about grace in the way God distributed the manna to the Israelites in the desert:
"This is what the LORD has commanded: `Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat....' And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, `Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.' But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted" (Exodus 16:16-21).
Three times the text mentions that each person could gather as much as he needed. There was an ample supply for everyone; no one need go hungry. And God in some mysterious way saw that no one had an overabundance: Someone gathering much did not have too much; someone gathering little did not have too little. Furthermore, the gathering was to be a daily activity; they were not allowed to store up for the future.
This illustrates the way God distributes grace. There's always an ample supply; no one ever need go without. But there's only as much as we need - and even that is on a day-to-day basis. God doesn't permit us to "store up" grace. We must look to Him anew each day for a new supply. Sometimes we must look for a new supply each hour!
Transforming Grace
Week 41 / TUESDAY
EMBOLDENED
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
(JOHN 6:37)
We need the inner witness of the Spirit, not only at the time we come to Christ, but throughout our Christian lives, especially in times of severe temptation and failure. Once I was on my way to speak at a conference on the pursuit of holiness. The trip itself had been one of those stressful experiences when I did not exhibit the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, and peace to airline personnel. I felt like an utter failure (which was true). How could I possibly speak to others about pursuing holiness when I had been so unholy myself?
Arriving at my hotel room late at night, I opened my Bible to try to find some encouragement. Soon I came to a short phrase in Colossians 2:13: "He forgave us all our sins" (NIV). My heart was flooded with joy. The Spirit bore witness with my spirit that my sins of that very day were forgiven, washed away by the blood of Christ. I was emboldened with courage to speak at that conference, not because I was good enough, but because the Holy Spirit bore witness with my spirit that my sins were forgiven.
Once in a while I get discouraged about my Christian life when God gives me a glimpse of the sinfulness in my heart. At those times I'm tempted to ask, "Am I really a Christian?" When those rare occasions do occur, I go back to these promises, especially John 6:37. I know that I have come to Jesus and that He has promised me that He will not drive me away. Thus I regain and strengthen my assurance.
We have to let the promises of God drive away our doubts.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 41 / WEDNESDAY
OUR WEAKNESSES
When I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 CORINTHIANS 12:10)
Paul's attitude toward his weakness was vastly different from our usual response. We abhor weakness and glory in self-sufficiency and manmade accomplishments. Even Christians flock to hear a testimony from the sports superstar or the popular entertainer simply because of that person's fame and status. How many of us would make any effort to hear a man who said, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses.... I am content with weaknesses.... When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)?
I think of how I've struggled with my own weaknesses instead of delighting in them. I think of the disappointment of failing to reach important goals, of humiliations suffered that were too painful to ever share with anyone, of somewhat minor but very annoying lifetime physical infirmities. Only in the last few years have I realized what a significant contribution these have made on my walk with God and my service for Him, especially in their cumulative effect. I think I'm only beginning to understand a little the validity of Paul's statement, "When I am weak, then I am strong."
Sometimes when I'm introduced as a speaker, I cringe inwardly as the person introducing me waxes eloquent about my accomplishments. I think, What if they knew the other side of the story? Would they all get up and leave? Yet ironically, it is the other side of the story, the humiliations and heartaches, the failures and frustrations - not the successes and accomplishments - that have qualified me to be there to speak. Those difficult times have driven me to the Lord. I'll be honest. It wasn't that I wanted to lean on God; I had no other choice. But I'm finally learning that in weakness I find strength - His strength.
Transforming Grace
Week 41 / THURSDAY
OUR NORMAL PRACTICE
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.
(1 JOHN 3:9)
The apostle John gave us another indicator for knowing we have eternal life: "You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him" (1 John 2:29).
This test can be a tricky one. We might understand John to say that only those who always do what is right are born of God. Though that's certainly God's standard for us, obviously none of us measures up to it. Even John himself said, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
When John spoke of "everyone who practices righteousness," he was thinking of our normal practice, of the dominant direction of our lives.
Sometimes our obedience is marked more by desire than by performance. So we have to ask ourselves: Is my life characterized by an earnest desire and a sincere effort to obey God in all that He commands? What is my attitude toward God's Law? Do I find it to be holy, just, and good? And do I delight in it in my inner being, even though I find my sinful nature struggling against it? (See Romans 7:12,22-23.)
Accompanying our sincere desire to obey God will be a heightened sensitivity to our indwelling sin. Often it's our increased awareness of sin that causes us to doubt our salvation or to give Satan an inroad into our minds to suggest that "a Christian wouldn't sin like you do." But Satan would certainly not suggest such a thought to an unbeliever. Rather, he wants unbelievers to be complacent about their sin. So turn the tables on Satan and your own internal doubts. Ask yourself if those accusations or doubts are not really a sign that you do trust Christ.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 41 / FRIDAY
Do WE LOVE EACH OTHER?
Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
(1 JOHN 4:7)
The apostle John gave us yet another indicator of the Spirit's work within us in 1 John 3:14: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers." Do you love other believers? Do you enjoy gathering with them to worship God?
I once became baffled while seeking to help another believer struggling with assurance. Nothing I suggested seemed to work. Then one day he told me his struggle was over. He'd come across 1 John 3:14. As he thought about that verse, he said, "I do love other believers. I rejoice to be around them and fellowship with them. I must truly be a Christian." The Holy Spirit had used that Scripture to give him assurance that he was indeed God's child.
We should ask ourselves if our love for other believers is the kind described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Are we patient, kind, gracious, slow to anger, and ready to forgive? None of us can completely measure up to this standard, but do you want to? Do you grieve over your failures in these areas? If so, you love your brothers.
Of course, this indicator (like others) can cut both ways. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5).
We should never be afraid to examine ourselves. But when doubts arise, the solution is not to try harder to prove to ourselves that we are believers. The solution is to flee to the cross and to the righteousness of Christ, which is our only hope.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 41 / WEEKEND
FROM RAW EXPERIENCE
I know how to be brought low.
(PHILIPPIANS 4:12)
Philip Hughes said, "Every believer must learn that human weakness and divine grace go hand in hand together."78 Paul had learned that lesson well. He said, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Paul had learned that God's grace is indeed sufficient; His divine enabling through the power of the Holy Spirit would sustain him in the midst of the torments of his thorn, and in the depths of other "weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities" (verse 10).
When Paul wrote these words to the Corinthians, it had been fourteen years since Paul received those surpassingly great revelations. If we assume the thorn was given to him at about the same time, and that the three instances when he pleaded for its removal occurred soon afterward, we can say that Paul had had almost fourteen years to prove the sufficiency of God's grace. Hardships, troubles, and dangers would continue unabated (2 Corinthians 11:25-28).
Paul was no ivory tower theologian. He did not write from the comfortable confines of a minister's study or a counselor's office (nor, for that matter, does any competent pastor or counselor today). Paul wrote from raw experience because he "had been there." The anguish he experienced was real anguish, and the grace he received was real grace. It was not theoretical, nor make-believe, nor merely "whistling in the dark" to keep up his courage. No, Paul experienced a very concrete expression of God's love and power as the Holy Spirit ministered comfort and encouragement to him in the midst of affliction.
Transforming Grace
Week 42 / MONDAY
BEING LIKE HIM
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.
ROMANS 8:29)
The Spirit's work within us is as much a gift of God's grace as is our justification and adoption as sons. But whereas justification and adoption are instantaneous and complete at once, our growth in Christlikeness is a lifelong process. Therefore, we should never look solely to our love and obedience for our assurance of salvation. At most they can demonstrate our salvation, never prove it. Ultimately our assurance must rest on the gospel and on the promises of God.
Meanwhile, we can grow in realizing how those promises point to both a glorious present and an even more glorious future. John spoke of our glorious present when he wrote, "Beloved, we are God's children now" (1 John 3:2). In the same verse he went on to speak of our even more glorious future: "We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." Likeness to Christ is God's ultimate purpose for us and the hope we look forward to.
What does it mean to be like Jesus?
First, it means to be like Him in spirit, in our true inner being. This is a process that begins at conversion and will reach its ultimate fulfillment when we enter the Lord's presence at death. Paul calls this process transformation. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). God has predestined us to be conformed to the likeness or image of His Son, and He's now at work in us through His Spirit to bring that to pass.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 42 / TUESDAY
THE UNWORTHY APOSTLE
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints ... grace was given.
(EPHESIANS 3:8)
Paul freely acknowledged that he received his apostleship purely as a result of God's undeserved favor. God used Paul's testimony to encourage me at a time when I most keenly felt my complete unworthiness to write on the subject of personal holiness.
So is all ministry -whether teaching a children's Sunday school class, witnessing to inmates at the local prison, or preaching to thousands of people each Sunday - performed by the grace of God by people who are unworthy to be doing it?
Harry Blamires had an incisive answer to that question: "In the upshot there is only one answer for the preacher who wonders whether he is worthy to preach the sermon he has composed or for the writer who wonders whether he is worthy to write the religious book he is working on. The answer is: Of course not. To ask yourself: Am I worthy to perform this Christian task? is really the peak of pride and presumption. For the very question carries the implication that we spend most of our time doing things we are worthy to do. We simply do not have that kind of worth .1171
In Romans 12:6, Paul described us as "having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us." He was referring to spiritual gifts enabling believers to fulfill God-appointed ministry or service in the body of Christ. But note that Paul said these spiritual gifts are given according to God's grace, not according to what we deserve. The Greek word for a spiritual gift is charisma, which means "a gift of God's grace," whether it is the gift of eternal life as in Romans 6:23 or the gift of a spiritual ability for use in the body.
Transforming Grace
Week 42 / WEDNESDAY
SOMETIMES FAILURE
God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
ROMANS 2:4)
As we begin to mortify a particular sin, we'll often fail more than we succeed. Then we must realize that we stand before God on the basis of His grace rather than our performance.
I realize there's a fine line between using grace as an excuse for our sin and using grace as a remedy for it. John Owen had keen insight on this: "Here then is where the deceit of sin intervenes.... It persuades us to dwell upon the notion of grace and diverts our attention from the influence that grace gives to achieve its proper application in holy lives. From the doctrine of assured pardon of sin, it insinuates a carelessness for sin.... the soul - needing frequently to return to gospel grace because of guilt - allows grace to become commonplace and ordinary. Having found a good medicine for its wound, it then takes it for granted."8°
The way to stay on the right side of the fine line between using and abusing grace is repentance. The road to repentance is godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10, NIV). Godly sorrow is developed when we focus on the true nature of sin as an offense against God rather than something that makes us feel guilty. Sin is an affront to God's holiness, it grieves His Holy Spirit, and it wounds afresh the Lord Jesus Christ. It also gratifies Satan, the archenemy of God. Dwelling on the true nature of sin leads us to godly sorrow, which in turn leads us to repentance.
Having come to repentance, we must by faith lay hold of the cleansing blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse our consciences. In fact, it is faith in Christ and the assurance of the efficacy of His cleansing blood that leads us to repentance.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 42 / THURSDAY
WHEN OTHERS ABUSE
[Love] ... is not easily angered.
(1 CORINTHIANS 13:5, NIV).
I certainly don't advocate "doormat" Christianity, letting people continually run over us or abuse us. There are times when we must stand up for what is right and just. But we should not sin in the process. We must face the fact that much, if not most, of our anger is sinful, even though it may arise from the sinful actions of others. In emphasizing our sin of anger, I do not mean to minimize the sin of those other people. But there's an old saying, "Two wrongs never make a right." The other person's sin does not make our sin of anger "right" or justifiable. Or as James wrote, "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires" (1:20).
Furthermore, I suspect that much of our anger is not a result of significant injustices or wrongs against us but is the manifestation of our own pride and selfishness. I've been embarrassed or inconvenienced or frustrated by the actions (or even the inactions) of other people, so I get angry. While there is plenty of injustice that deserves a response of righteous anger, we should not use that as an excuse to evade the reality of the sinful anger that so often arises in our hearts and may be expressed by our words or actions.
So I commend to you three principles or practices that I find so helpful: a firm belief in the sovereignty of God; a diligent pursuit of brotherly love that covers a multitude of sins and does not keep a record of wrongs; and a humble realization that, in comparison to my brother's sin against me, I am the ten-thousand-talent debtor to God (Matthew 18:21-35).
Respectable Sins
Week 42 / FRIDAY
GRACE AND GIFTS
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.
(1 CORINTHIANS 1:4)
In his comments on 1 Corinthians 1:4, Dr. Gordon Fee has helpful insight on the connection of grace and gifts: "The specific basis of Paul's thanksgiving in their case is God's `grace given you in Christ Jesus.' Commonly this is viewed as a thanksgiving for grace as such, i.e., the gracious outpouring of God's mercy in Christ toward the undeserving. However, for Paul charis ('grace') very often is closely associated with charisma/ charismata (`gift/ gifts') and in such instances refers to concrete expressions of God's gracious activity in his people. Indeed, the word `grace' itself sometimes denoted these concrete manifestations, the `graces' (gifts), of God's grace."81
Peter wrote, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace" (1 Peter 4:10). Peter and Paul are saying the same thing. Our spiritual gifts and the ministries we perform are gifts of God's grace. None of us deserves the gifts he or she has been given by God's undeserved favor to us through Christ.
This means that both the most "worthy" and the most "unworthy" of Christians receive their gifts and their ministries on the same basis. The "unworthy" person surely doesn't deserve his gift, but neither does the most "worthy." They both receive them as unmerited favors from God.
In reality there is no such distinction in God's sight between "worthy" and "unworthy." In His sight, we're all totally and permanently bankrupt spiritually. Paul's statement is just as true for believers as for unbelievers: "There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22-23).
Transforming Grace
Week 42 / WEEKEND
MADE PERFECT
You have come ... to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
(HEBREWS 12:22-23)
Although the Spirit is at work in us to transform us, our sinful nature opposes Him every step of the way. We find we still struggle with indwelling sin. "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" (Galatians 5:17, NIV). A continuous conflict wages between two opposing forces in our hearts. When we want to do good, evil is right there with us (Romans 7:21). We struggle with pride, selfishness, impatience, a critical spirit, a sharp tongue, a lack of love, and countless expressions of our sinful natures.
We'll have this struggle as long as we live in these bodies. It's painful because we're at war within ourselves, and continually we have to say no to sinful desires. It's sometimes humiliating as sinful traits reveal themselves to our consciousness. Sometimes we soar into the heavenlies with Christ in our morning devotions, only to come crashing down with a thud before nine o'clock through some conflict with another person.
We long to be released from this warfare, and one day we will be. In Hebrews 12:22-24, a quick preview of heaven as it is now, we read of "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (verse 23). This is a reference to believers of all ages whose spirits are now with Christ in heaven, and who are now "made perfect." The sinful nature that now clings to our spirits like dirty, wet clothes will be done away with, and our spirits will be completely conformed to the likeness of Christ. This happens immediately at death when we go directly into the presence of the Lord.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 43 / MONDAY
FROM REPENTANCE TO BLESSING
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
ROMANS 4:7)
David's experience is very helpful to us in the relationship of repentance and grace: "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, `I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:1-5).
Here David first stated his conclusion, as he spoke of the blessedness of being forgiven. Then he explained that blessedness by acknowledging his own guilt and his miserable condition before he repented. But with genuine repentance came the deep assurance that he was forgiven. In sequence of time, the blessedness actually came after his repentance and assurance of forgiveness. But just as we often do, David gave the "bottom line" before explaining how he got there.
We must do as David did if we want to experience God's grace in our failures at mortifying sin. It's not that repentance earns God's forgiveness. Only the blood of Christ does that. God, however, does deal with us as a loving but firm father deals with his children. He accepts us unconditionally because we are His sons and daughters in Christ, but He disciplines us for our good. And in the administering of His discipline He withholds the assurance of His forgiveness until we, through repentance, are ready to receive it.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 43 / TUESDAY
SERVING BY GRACE
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.
(1 PETER 4:10)
We're so accustomed to thinking of spiritual gifts as ministry abilities that we lose sight of the ordinary meaning of the word. Agift is something given to us; something we don't earn. But even that fails to adequately convey the biblical sense. We tend to give gifts to people who in some sense deserve them because of their relationship to us or because they've done us a favor of some kind. But God gives spiritual gifts to people who don't deserve them. None of us deserves to be in God's service, whether teaching a children's Sunday school class or serving on some faraway mission field.
It's an awesome thing to attempt to speak on behalf of God. Yet that's exactly what we do when we teach or preach or write. It matters not whether our audience is one person or fifty thousand, whether they are kindergarten pupils or graduate theological students. Any time we say or write something that we hold out to be biblical truth, we're putting ourselves in the position of being God's spokesman.
Peter said, "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God" (1 Peter 4:11, NIV). When we teach the Scriptures, do we appreciate the awesomeness of our responsibility, to be speaking on God's behalf? Do we consider the accountability that comes with being entrusted with the divine message?
Paul himself was keenly conscious of his immense responsibility: "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:17). He knew God not only sent him, but observed him.
Transforming Grace
Week 43 / WEDNESDAY
FAR BETTER
In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(PSALM 16:11)
The period between our death and the still-future resurrection of our bodies is usually called the intermediate state. The Bible actually tells us little about this period, but what it does say is very encouraging. In 2 Corinthians 5:8 Paul said that he "would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (NIV), and in Philippians 1:23 he said, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."
Taking Paul's statements along with Hebrews 12:22-24, we can say that in the intermediate state we'll be with Christ; we'll be in the presence of thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly (perhaps still hearing those seraphs of Isaiah 6:1-3 who call out antiphonally, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty"); we'll be with all believers of all ages; we'll be perfectly conformed to Christ in our spirits; and we'll be in a state that is far better than anything we can imagine.
It's difficult for us to visualize an existence in heaven without the benefit of our physical senses; or, for that matter, a physical brain. Yet we need to remember that God has existed eternally without a physical body. And even the angels apparently exist only in spirit (though some have assumed a physical body at times for specific purposes). Though we cannot understand how these things will be, we need to submit our minds to the teaching of Scripture and look forward to the time when we also will be with Christ, when our spirits will be made perfect, and when we'll be in a state that's far better than our best conditions on earth.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 43 / THURSDAY
THE INADEQUATE APOSTLE
By the grace of God I am what I am.
(1 CORINTHIANS 15:10)
Paul was conscious throughout his entire ministry of his utter unworthiness to be a servant of Christ. We see him expressing it again to the Corinthians: "For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
Paul freely admitted he didn't deserve his ministry; he was an apostle only by the grace of God - by God's unmerited favor. However, in the expression "by the grace of God I am what I am," the word grace can be taken in the context to mean either God's unmerited favor or God's enabling power. Considering his prior acknowledgment of unworthiness, his statement would appear to mean, "I am unworthy to be an apostle, but by God's unmerited favor I am one." But looking forward in this passage, to where Paul speaks about the effects of God's grace on his ministry, it would appear to mean, "By God's enabling power I am an effective apostle."
I believe both these meanings of grace are incorporated in Paul's statement. He wasn't giving us a technical treatise on grace and distinguishing its finer shades of meaning. Rather, Paul was speaking from his heart, saying that God's grace was sufficient for both his unworthiness and his inadequacy. He was saying, "I'm an apostle as a result of God's unmerited favor shown to me and as a result of God's enabling power at work in me."
Transforming Grace
Week 43 / FRIDAY
A RICH WELCOME
I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, .. . says the Lord Almighty.
(2 CORINTHIANS 6:17-18)
What will it be like when we enter the presence of the Lord? The apostle Peter gave us an inspired perspective on this in 2 Peter 1:11, where he said, "There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." This is a picture of a grand and glorious homecoming.
At the end of World War II thousands of servicemen returned home from Europe and the Far East. As the various ships on which they returned arrived in ports here in the United States, they were greeted by cheering crowds and lively bands. And if relatives were able to be present, there was the added excitement of tearful hugs and joyful kisses. These servicemen received a rich welcome back home. This is the way it will be with us, only on a much grander scale.
Peter prefaced his words about this rich welcome with this instruction: "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall" (2 Peter 1:10). It might appear, upon a casual reading of this Scripture, that our rich welcome is actually dependent on our practicing these "qualities" mentioned in verses 5 through 7. However, the practice of these qualities - that is, pursuing the particular Christian virtues presented in verses 5 through 7 - is not the basis of the rich welcome. Rather, it's one of the means whereby we make our calling and election sure. It's a way we assure ourselves that we've been made new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and that we do indeed have the hope of eternal life.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 43 / WEEKEND
GRACE THAT WORKS HARDER
Our sufficiency is from God.
(2 CORINTHIANS 3:5)
If you feel incompetent in God's service you are in good company. Paul felt that way also: "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5).
If there's anyone in the history of the church who could have relied on his own God-given endowments, surely it would have been Paul. He was a brilliant theologian, a gifted evangelist, a tireless church planter, and a sound missionary strategist. He was also adept at cross-cultural ministry- "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.... To those outside the law I became as one outside the law" (1 Corinthians 9:20-21). Yet Paul, with all his abilities, acknowledged that we aren't competent in ourselves.
We are not competent, but God makes us competent. That's what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 15:10: "His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them." God's grace in its concrete expression of divine power was effective in Paul- so effective that Paul could say he worked harder than all the other apostles. At first glance, that statement seems to put Paul in a position of unconscionable boasting, and I used to be troubled by it. It seemed quite out of character with Paul's obviously genuine humility. But I've come to realize Paul wasn't boasting. He was exalting the grace of God. He was saying that God's grace at work in him was so effective it caused him to work harder than all of them. The grace of God motivated him, enabled him, and then blessed the fruits of his labors.
Transforming Grace
Week 44 / MONDAY
A PRECIOUS SIGHT
Gather to me my faithful ones.
(PSALM 50:5)
Sometimes when I focus too much on my own shortcomings - how often I've sinned, how little I've availed myself of all the blessings of God and opportunities that have come my way - I think I would like to somehow just slip in heaven's side door unnoticed. But that's because I focus too much on myself and try to anticipate my welcome on the basis of my performance.
There will be no slipping in the side door of heaven with our head hanging down and our tail between our legs. No, no, a thousand times no! Everyone who has been the object of God's calling and election will receive a rich welcome into Christ's eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:10-11) - not because we deserve it, but because we've been clothed with the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. Because we are united to Him who is the object of the Father's everlasting love and delight, we also will be received as objects of His love and delight.
We see something of God's perspective on our entrance into His eternal kingdom in Psalm 116:15: "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." Why is this true? We think of death as a parting. We think of "losing a loved one" through death. But from God's perspective, the death of a believer is just the opposite. It's a homecoming. It is precious in His sight.
Think of a World War II ship steaming into the harbor at war's end with servicemen lining the rails. That sight was precious in the eyes of the relatives eagerly watching. And this is just a pale picture of how God anticipates the arrival "home" of His sons and daughters from our own spiritual war of this life.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 44 / TUESDAY
ENLARGING OUR HORIZONS
He does according to his will ... among the inhabitants of the earth.
(DANIEL 4:35)
Most Christians tend to think of the sovereignty of God only in terms of its immediate effect upon us, or our families or friends. We're not too interested in the sovereignty of God over the nations and over history unless we're consciously and personally affected by that history.
But we must remember that God promised to Abraham and to his seed that all nations will be blessed through Christ (see Genesis 12:3; 22:18; Galatians 3:8). Someday that promise will be fulfilled for, as recorded in Revelation 7:9, John saw "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb" (NIV). God has a plan to redeem people from all nations and to bless all nations through Christ.
As we look around the world today, we see over half of the world's population living in countries whose governments are hostile to the gospel, where missionaries are not allowed, and where national Christians are hindered from proclaiming Christ. How do we trust God for the fulfillment of His promises when the current events and conditions of the day seem so directly contrary to their fulfillment?
We must also look at the sovereignty of God and at His promises. He has promised to redeem people from every nation, and He has commanded us to make disciples of all nations. We must trust God by praying. We must learn to trust God for the spread of the gospel, even in those areas where it is severely restricted.
God is sovereign over the nations. He is sovereign even where every attempt is made to stamp out true Christianity. In all of these areas, we can and must trust God.
Trusting God
Week 44 / WEDNESDAY
A HEART WARMED FOR WORK
I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
(PSALM 119:32)
We must keep going back to His grace. Only the grace of God revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ will give us the courage to get up again and keep on going even after we have failed for the umpteenth time. Only grace will allow us to be as honest about our sin as David was about his.
The desire to engage in the discipline of mortification comes only from the gratitude and joy of knowing that, however miserably I've failed, God's grace is greater than my sin.
The godly Scottish pastor Horatius Bonar expressed it this way: "It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin being pardoned makes him long more for its entire removal than ever he did before. An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains.... A forgiven man is the true worker, the true Law-keeper. He can, he will, he must work for God. He has come into contact with that part of God's character which warms his cold heart. Forgiving love constrains him. He cannot but work for Him who has removed his sins from him as far as the east is from the west. Forgiveness has made him a free man, and given him a new and most loving Master. Forgiveness, received freely from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, acts as a spring, an impulse, a stimulus of divine potency. It is more irresistible than law, or terror, or threat."82
The Discipline of Grace
Week 44 / THURSDAY
WILLING TO BE A WORM
Fear not, you worm Jacob.... Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge.
(IsAIAH 41:14-15)
Years ago when God opened up for me a wider Bible teaching and writing ministry, I felt drawn to Isaiah 41:14-15. Though the promise was given to Israel, I sensed God allowing me to make a personal application - that He would indeed make me into a threshing sledge, a harvesting instrument in His hand. I also sensed that God required, as a condition of the promise, that I accept the description of "worm Jacob," not in a denigrating sense, but as a realization of my own personal weakness and helplessness.
I go back to that condition and promise almost every time I teach the Word of God or sit down to write, to acknowledge my own inability to accomplish anything for God and to lay hold of His promise to give me the power to minister for Him. God seems to keep saying, "As long as you're willing to acknowledge you're as weak and helpless as a worm, I'll make you strong and powerful like a threshing sledge with new, sharp teeth."
The gracious paradox of divine strength working through human weakness as taught in Scripture has been recognized through the centuries by the great teachers of the church. John Owen said, "Yet the duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is a law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment. But alas, this is a secret we often fail to discover."83
Transforming Grace
Week 44 / FRIDAY
LIKE HIM IN BODY
This mortal body must put on immortality.
(1 CORINTHIANS 15:53)
As glorious as will be our "homecoming" at death, there will be an even more glorious time at the resurrection when our perfected spirits are united with our resurrection bodies. John refered to this in 1 John 3:2: "When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (Niv). At the resurrection we'll be like Jesus not only in spirit, but also in body.
Paul told us, "The Lord Jesus Christ ... will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:20-21). Note the contrast Paul drew between our present lowly bodies and our future bodies that will be like His glorious body.
In this present life our bodies are subject to suffering, sickness, disabilities, decay, ugliness, aging, and finally death. It's not a pretty picture. The fact is, in this life, because of the curse of sin, our bodies are lowly bodies.
That's why Paul also wrote, "But we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23). We groan. Between the internal conflict with our sinful nature and the external struggles with our lowly bodies, as well as the frustrations of adverse circumstances that so frequently beset us, we groan. But this groaning is not without purpose. Instead it causes us, or should cause us, to wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies.
Paul said it's in this hope that we're saved (Romans 8:24). God intends that the struggles of this life wean us from our attachments to this present world. Generally speaking, believers who have the least benefits of this life have the most vigorous hopes of heaven.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 44 / WEEKEND
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
(MATTHEW 26:41)
If we're going to watch against temptation, we need to be aware of its sources and behavior. To again use an analogy from warfare - and we are indeed engaged in spiritual warfare - we need some intelligence information about the enemy. The Bible speaks of three different sources of temptation waging war against the children of God: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We need to know how they operate and how they tempt us.
The world, or the sinful society in which we live, is characterized by the subtle and relentless pressure it brings to bear upon us to conform to its values and practices. It creeps up on us little by little. What was once unthinkable becomes thinkable, then doable, and finally acceptable to society at large. The Devil, or Satan, is the god of this world and the ultimate mastermind and strategist behind all the temptations that come to us from society. Beyond that, however, he often tempts us directly. He "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8, NIV).
As dangerous as the world and the devil are, neither is our greatest problem. Our greatest source of temptation dwells within us. It's what the apostle Paul called the flesh. It's the principle of sin that still remains within us, though it no longer exercises dominion. Paul called indwelling sin a law, or as we would say, a principle, that's at work within us constantly seeking to draw us into sin (Romans 7:21-25). Indwelling sin now wages guerrilla warfare against us, and as any military person will attest, that's the most difficult warfare to defend against.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 45 / MONDAY
SACRIFICIAL GRACE
They gave ... beyond their means.
(2 CORINTHIANS 8:3)
When Paul wanted to challenge the Corinthian Christians to give generously toward the need of poorer believers in Jerusalem, he held up as an example the Macedonian churches: "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints" (2 Corinthians 8:1-4).
The generosity of the Macedonians was indeed remarkable. They gave out of poverty; they gave beyond their ability, in disregard of their own needs. What was the secret of such an outpouring of generosity? Paul said the secret was the grace of God (verse 1). Here Paul used grace to mean a working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers - as a concrete expression of God's unmerited favor.
Charles Hodge commented on this work of grace: "The liberality of the Corinthians was due to the operation of the grace of God. The sacred writers constantly recognize the fact that the freest and most spontaneous acts of men, their inward states and the outward manifestations of those states, when good, are due to the secret influence of the Spirit of God, which eludes our consciousness."84
So it was the grace of God, not the superiority of their own character, that caused such an abundant outpouring of generosity from the Macedonians. God intervened in their hearts by the power of His Spirit to create this amazing generosity.
Transforming Grace
Week 45 / TUESDAY
WHAT WILL OUR NEW BODY BE LIKE?
But God gives it a body as he has chosen.
(1 CORINTHIANS 15:38)
It is difficult for us to know what New Testament writers mean by saying we'll become like Christ in His glorious body. On this subject, we do well to stick to the wording of Scripture.
Paul wrote, "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
And later in the same chapter: "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: `Death is swallowed up in victory"' (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).
Paul emphasized the strong difference between the natural, mortal body and the spiritual, immortal body. But both are bodies. Our perfected spirits will be at home in our immortal bodies. What exactly this spiritual body looks like or how it functions, we do not know. We only know it will be like the Lord's glorious body, and in that we put our hope and expectations.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 45 / WEDNESDAY
KNOW YOURSELF
Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
(GENESIS 4:7)
The evil desire within us constantly searches for occasions to express itself. It's like a radar system whose antenna is constantly scanning the environment for temptations to which it can respond. Some years ago, when I was continually indulging my desire for ice cream (which I don't do anymore), my eyes would automatically be drawn to an ice-cream store. It was uncanny. I could pass the signs of a score of stores without consciously seeing them, but I never failed to see the sign of an ice-cream store.
Recently I became interested in a certain model car. It was the same make as the one I drive, but a nicer, more expensive model. As soon as I became interested in that particular car, I noticed every one I passed on the street. I began to think of reasons why I needed that nicer model. It was roomier, more comfortable on a long trip, and had a better transmission. I finally concluded, rather reluctantly, that I really didn't need that car. But the point is, during that time my antenna was "tuned" for that model car.
Perhaps the indulgence with ice cream and the fixation on a nicer model car seem rather benign compared to temptations you've faced. You may be thinking, Come on, let's talk about some real sins - covetousness, lust, envy, resentment, lying to customers, or cheating on exams. Well, first of all, the indulgence in ice cream and the preoccupation with a nicer car may not be so benign, but either way, those issues demonstrate the principle: Our flesh is always searching out opportunities to gratify itself according to the particular sinful desires each of us has.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 45 / THURSDAY
WITH HIM FOREVER
Where I am, there will my servant be also.
(JOHN 12:26)
While Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 emphasized the reality of an immortal, spiritual body, John in Revelation called our attention to the reality of our eternal presence with God: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, `Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away"' (Revelation 21:3-4).
In the next chapter we read, "No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 22:3-5).
The day will come when our perfected spirits and immortal bodies are forever united. And in that glorious condition "we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:17, N1v). Hallelujah! At that time we will experience the full reality of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Before we experience that glorious reality, we still live in this life. We're not just to wait for our hope of heaven, but to be actively and vigorously engaged in becoming more like Christ (the process called sanctification) and of extending the rule of His kingdom (the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13).
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 45 / FRIDAY
THE REWARD OF GRACE
Who has given agift to him that he might be repaid?
(ROMANS 11:35)
Every aspect of our ministry is by the grace of God. We're unworthy to minister, but God considers us worthy through Christ. We're inadequate to minister, but God makes us adequate through the powerful working of His Holy Spirit. We're not naturally given to self-sacrifice, but God gives us that spirit by His grace. All is of grace. No human worthiness or adequacy is required or accepted.
Such a strong, biblical emphasis on God's grace apart from human worth or adequacy leads to the question of the relationship of grace and rewards. Doesn't God promise rewards to His faithful servants? Didn't Paul himself teach that we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive what is due us?
God does promise rewards, and we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (see Matthew 25:21; 2 Corinthians 5:10). But these rewards are rewards of grace, not of merit. We never by our hard work or sacrificial service obligate God to reward us.
If all our service to God is made possible by His undeserved favor and made effective by the Spirit's power, we've really brought nothing to Him that we didn't first receive from Him. The Puritan Samuel Bolton said, "If there was anything of man's bringing, which was not of God's bestowing, though it were never so small, it would overturn the nature of grace, and make that of works which is of grace."85 But every thought, word, or deed emanating from us that is in any way pleasing to God and glorifying to Him has its ultimate origin in God, because apart from Him, there's nothing good in us (Romans 7:18).
Transforming Grace
Week 45 / WEEKEND
ASSUMING GODS ROLE
Judge not, that you be not judged.
(MATTHEW 7:1)
It's easy to become judgmental toward anyone whose opinions are different from ours, then to hide our judgmentalism under the cloak of Christian convictions. Paul wrote, "Stop judging one another regardless of which position you take." Then he added, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make Him stand" (Romans 14:4). Basically, Paul was saying, "Stop trying to play God toward your fellow believers in Christ. God is the judge, not you."
That's what we're doing when we judge others whose preferences and practices are different from ours. We're arrogating to ourselves a role God has reserved for Himself. Perhaps this is what Jesus had in mind in the well-known words of Matthew 7:3 when He said, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" Could that log in our eye be the log of judgmentalism, arrogating to ourselves the role of God?
Here we see Jesus using hyperbole to make His point. Physically, it's impossible to have a log in one's eye. But the log in one's own eye may well represent God's verdict on our sin of judgmentalism. If I'm correct, then the seriousness of the sin of judgmentalism is not so much that I judge my brother as that in so doing I assume the role of God.
We sin if we condemn the obviously flagrant sins of others without at the same time acknowledging that we ourselves are still sinners before God. One of the major objectives of this book is to help us stop doing that.
Respectable Sins
Week 46 / MONDAY
DEAD TO SINS GUILT AND DOMINION
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
ROMANS 6:7)
"What shall we say then?" the apostle Paul asked in Romans 6:1. "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" If we're justified freely by God's grace through the work of Christ, doesn't more sin increasingly magnify God's grace?
"By no means!" responded Paul. "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:2).
Paul's response is not an impatient "How could you think such a thing?" Rather, as he demonstrated in the verses that follow, such a practice cannot occur because a fundamental change has occurred in our relationship to sin. The expression Paul uses for this decisive change is, "We died to sin."
What does Paul mean by that? It's fairly obvious he doesn't mean we died to the daily committal of sin. If that were true, no honest person could claim to be justified, because we all sin daily. Nor does it mean we died in the sense of being no longer responsive to sin's temptations, or else Peter's admonition to abstain from sinful desires (1 Peter 2:11) would be pointless. So what does Paul mean?
Conservative evangelical commentators have generally taken one of two positions in answering this question. Several have held that Paul refers exclusively to the guilt of sin. That is, through our union with Christ in His death, we died to sin's guilt. Other commentators say that Paul means we died to sin's reign and dominion in our lives. Because sin no longer exercises absolute dominion over us, we no longer can continue in sin as a predominant way of life. We struggle with sin, and we do sin, but sin no longer is our master.
I believe both views should be brought together.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 46 / TUESDAY
THE BEST DEFENSE
Be watchful.
(1 CORINTHIANS 16:13)
With all the enemies from the world and from Satan arrayed against us, and a guerrilla army of flesh within our own hearts, how can we effectively watch against the temptations that constantly beset us? The old adage "The best defense is a good offense" is good advice for watching against temptation. The best offense is meditation on the Word of God and prayer. It's surely no coincidence that they're the only two spiritual exercises that we are encouraged to do continually. We're to meditate on God's Word "day and night" (Psalm 1:2), and Paul exhorted us to "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV).
There is power in the Word of God to keep us from sin: "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11). For every temptation that you face, there are specific passages of Scripture that address that issue. If you're not aware of some, ask your pastor or another mature Christian to help you find them. Then memorize those verses, meditate on them, and pray over them every day, asking the Holy Spirit to bring them to your mind in times of need. Ask, also, that He will strengthen your will to enable you to obey the word that He brings to your mind. All of us are being influenced by sinful society, so we want to do all we can to continually bring the Word of God to bear upon our thinking.
Also remember that Jesus told us to watch and pray against temptation (Matthew 26:41). We aren't capable of watching by ourselves. "Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Even with our best diligence, we need the extra dimension of the Lord watching for us.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 46 / WEDNESDAY
DELIVERANCE FROM SIN
Consider yourselves dead to sin.
ROMANS 6:11)
The guilt of our sin in Adam resulted in our being given over to sin's dominion as a penal consequence. When a judge sentences a convicted criminal to five years in prison, that sentence is the penal consequence of his crime - analogous to what God did to Adam and all his posterity. Part of the penal consequence of Adam's sin was being delivered into sin's bondage.
When the prisoner has served his five years, his penal consequences are over. The broken law no longer has a claim against him. In that sense he has ended his relationship to the law and its penal consequences. He must continue to obey the law in the future, but the particular offense that sent him to prison has been dealt with forever. To use Paul's expression, he has died to the law and its penal consequences.
How does this apply to us? Let me paraphrase from the comments of John Brown, a nineteenth-century Scottish pastor, theologian, and author of several commentaries: "The wages of sin is death. Until the condemning sentence is executed, a person is subject to sin, both in its power to condemn and its power to deprave [or exert dominion]. But let the penal consequences be fully endured, let the law's penalty be fully paid, and the person is at once delivered from sin's condemning power and its depraving influence or dominion. It's in this way that all that are in Christ Jesus, all that have been justified by His grace, have died, not in their own persons, but in the person of their Surety. They are therefore delivered from the reign of sin - from its power to condemn, and therefore, also from its power to rule in the heart and life."86
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 46 / THURSDAY
ACCEPTED THROUGH CHRIST
It is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
(2 CORINTHIANS 1:20)
Even the good works we bring to God are in themselves defective, both in motive and performance. It is virtually impossible to purge our motives completely of pride and self-gratification. And we can never perfectly perform those good works. The best we can do falls short of what God requires, but the truth is, we never actually do the best we can, let alone what would meet God's perfect standard.
That is why Peter wrote, "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). Our best works are acceptable to God only because they are made acceptable by the merit of Jesus Christ. But God does accept them through Christ; He accepts them on the basis of His grace.
Ernest Kevan quoted one of the Puritans on the imperfection of our works as follows: "We do not do all that is commanded but come short of our duty, and that which we do is imperfect and defective in respect of manner and measure; and therefore in justice deserves punishment, rather than reward: and consequently the reward, when it is given, is to be ascribed to God's undeserved mercy and not to our merit .1187
So the entire Christian life is a life lived under grace from first to last, from beginning to end, all "to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves" (Ephesians 1:6).
Transforming Grace
Week 46 / FRIDAY
DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION
You were sanctified.
(1 CORINTHIANS 6:11)
Our slavery to the dominion of sin was the result of our guilt incurred by Adam's sin, further aggravated by our own personal sin. Through our union with Christ in His death, however, our guilt, both from Adam's and from our own sins, was forever dealt with. Having then died with Christ to the guilt of sin, we died to, or were delivered from, the dominion of sin.
Whether we say we died to the dominion of sin, or we were delivered from the dominion of sin through our death to the guilt of sin, the result is the same. We no longer continue in sin as a dominant lifestyle. Sin no longer has dominion over us.
This death to, or deliverance from, sin's dominion is often called definitive sanctification. You're probably more or less familiar with the word sanctification, which historically has been used as a shorthand expression for Christian growth. Its basic meaning, however, is "separation," and in using the term definitive sanctification we're speaking of a decisive break- a decisive separation from sin as a ruling power in the believer's life. It's a point-in-time event occurring simultaneously with justification. It's a change wrought in us by the monergistic action of the Holy Spirit as He removes us from the kingdom of darkness and brings us into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13).
That's why Paul could write to the Corinthian believers as those who had already been sanctified, even though they were still quite immature in their Christian walk (see 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; 6:11). This definitive break with the dominion of sin, which is solely the work of the Holy Spirit, occurs in the life of everyone who trusts in Christ as Savior. There's no such thing as justification without definitive sanctification.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 46 / WEEKEND
PRAYING AGAINST TEMPTATION
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
(1 CORINTHIANS 10:13)
Jesus taught us to pray, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13).
Here we see two requests: that we not be led into temptation, and that we be delivered from the Evil One. Because we know from James 1:13 that God does not tempt anyone, the first part must be understood as a request that God will not providentially bring us into the way of temptation. It is the prayer of the believer who sees his or her weaknesses and prays to not even encounter those temptations.
Of course, if we're praying not to be led into temptation, we should take steps ourselves to see that we do not walk into the way of temptation. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:22, "Abstain from every form of evil." He exhorted the Corinthian church, "Flee from sexual immorality" and he told Timothy, "Flee youthful passions" (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22). Flee, of course, denotes a stronger response than abstain, but both are necessary. We can abstain from certain temptations by not turning on the television or picking up certain magazines. But sometimes a temptation presents itself, and then we must flee. This is all part of watching.
The second request Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:13 is "deliver us from evil," or, in some translations, "from the evil one" -meaning, of course, Satan. We need to pray defensively against the attacks of Satan. Christ did defeat him on the cross (Colossians 2:15), and we must by faith lay hold of that victory as we pray that we will be delivered from his attacks.88
The Discipline of Grace
Week 47 / MONDAY
SOMETHING TO BELIEVE
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
ROMANS 4:8)
We're free from both the guilt and the reigning power or dominion of sin in our lives. But of what use is this information to us? How can it help when we're struggling with persistent sin patterns and see ourselves giving in to sinful desires? Here's where Paul's instructions in Romans 6:11 can help us: "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Niv).
Paul isn't telling us to do something but to believe something. We're to count on, or believe, that we're dead to sin.
We're dead to its guilt. God no longer counts it against us. We're no longer under condemnation (Romans 4:8; 8:1). This is not make-believe. You are indeed guilty in yourself, but God no longer regards you as guilty, because the guilt has already been borne by Christ as your substitute. The sentence has been served. The penalty has been paid. To use Paul's expression, you have died to sin's guilt.
When we're painfully conscious of sin in our lives, it's difficult to count on the fact that we're dead to its guilt. All the more reason to hold steadfast to the promise of God. Just as it seemed incredible to Abraham that he could have a son when he was nearly a hundred years old and Sarah's womb was dead, so it often seems incredible to us to believe that we've died to sin's guilt when it appears so ugly in our own sight. But just as Abraham did not weaken in faith, but believed the promise of God, so we must believe what God says to us. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have died to sin's guilt.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 47 / TUESDAY
HUNDREDFOLD REWARD, BY GRACE
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters ... for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold.
(MATTHEW 19:29)
In the verses immediately preceding the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20, Jesus promised a "hundredfold" reward, or ten thousand percent, to "everyone" who has sacrificed for Jesus' sake. God's rewards to us will not only be of grace, but will indeed be gracious - that is, generous beyond all measure.
So the grace of God in our service to Him does not negate rewards but rather makes them possible. As R. C. Sproul said, "But the blessing Christ promised, the blessing of great reward, is a reward of grace. The blessing is promised even though it is not earned. Augustine said it this way: Our rewards in heaven are a result of God's crowning His own gifts."89
This is the amazing story of God's grace. God saves us by His grace and transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son by His grace. In all our trials and afflictions, He sustains and strengthens us by His grace. He calls us by grace to perform our own unique function within the body of Christ. Then, again by grace, He gives to each of us the spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill our calling. As we serve Him, He makes that service acceptable to Himself by grace, and then rewards us a hundredfold by grace.
In Romans 1:17, Paul spoke of the gospel as revealing "a righteousness that is by faith from first to last" - that is, from beginning to end. This is also an appropriate term for grace, for faith is no more than the response to and appropriation of the grace of God.
Transforming Grace
Week 47 / WEDNESDAY
Do NOT LET SIN REIGN
If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
(ROMANS 8:13)
We have died not only to sin's guilt but also to its reigning power in our lives. Although sin as an active principle is still with us, it can no longer reign supreme in our lives. We're united to Christ, and His Spirit has come to reside in us. We've been delivered from Satan's power and given a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26; Acts 26:18). However, as believers we experience a tension that's like a tug-of-war. Paul described it in Galatians 5:17: "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."
We must acknowledge this tension if we're to make progress in the Christian life. Indwelling sin is like a disease that we can't begin to deal with until we acknowledge its presence. But in the case of sin, we must also count on the fact that, though it still resides in us, it no longer has dominion over us. As Paul said, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Because we have the assurance that sin shall not be our master, we are not to let it reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its evil desires (Romans 6:12). Rather we are, by the enabling power of the Spirit, to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Romans 8:13) and to abstain from sinful desires, which war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). We're called to an active, vigorous warfare against the principle of sin that remains in us.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 47 / THURSDAY
UNQUESTIONABLE LOVE
The LORD is ... kind in all his works.
(PSALM 145:17)
The apostle John said, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). This succinct statement, along with its parallel one, "God is light" (1 John 1:5; that is, God is holy), sums up the essential character of God, as revealed to us in the Scriptures. Just as it is impossible in the very nature of God for Him to be anything but perfectly holy, so it is impossible for Him to be anything but perfectly good.
Because God is love, an essential part of His nature is to do good and show mercy to His creatures. Psalm 145 speaks of His "abundant goodness," of His "abounding in steadfast love" and being "good to all," of how "his mercy is over all that he has made" (verses 7-9). Even in His role of Judge of rebellious men, He declares, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11, NIV).
When calamity after calamity seems to surge in upon us, we'll be tempted to doubt God's love. Not only do we struggle with our own doubts, but Satan seizes these occasions to whisper accusations against God: "If He loved you, He wouldn't have allowed this to happen." My own experience suggests that Satan attacks us far more in the area of God's love than either His sovereignty or His wisdom.
If we're to honor God by trusting Him, we must not allow such thoughts to lodge in our minds. As Philip Hughes said, "To question the goodness of God is, in essence, to imply that man is more concerned about goodness than is God.... To suggest that man is kinder than God is to subvert the very nature of God.... It is to deny God; and this is precisely the thrust of the temptation to question the goodness of God."90
Trusting God
Week 47 / FRIDAY
MAKING LIGHT OF GODS DISCIPLINE
Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.
(HEBREWS 12:5)
We're warned in Hebrews 12:5 not to regard lightly the Lord's discipline. It may be difficult for us to conceive of doing this, but one way is when we count His discipline of little value - as something only to be endured rather than as something for our profit.
We also despise God's discipline of adversity when we fail to see God's hand in the hardships we encounter. Instead of acknowledging them as from God, we tend to view adversities as chance occurrences; we don't seek God's purpose in the discipline, but instead focus entirely on finding relief.
The Scriptures tell us, however, that adversities are not chance occurrences; like our so-called blessings, they all come from the hand of God. This truth is scattered throughout the Bible. "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:14). "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things" (Isaiah 45:7). "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?" (Lamentations 3:38). "Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?" (Amos 3:6).
Some Christians have difficulty with this truth and even deny it, because they cannot believe that a "God of love" is responsible for either the individual or public disasters that come to us. But the clear testimony of Scripture stands against all our protestations. So we need to recognize the hand of God in all the adversities we encounter and not make light of His discipline.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 47 / WEEKEND
THE ONLY OBJECTIVE AUTHORITY
The Lord ... bore witness to the word of his grace.
(ACTS 14:3)
We don't understand just how the Holy Spirit interacts with our human spirit, but we do know He most often uses His Word. He brings to our mind some Scripture particularly appropriate to the situation. He may do this through a sermon, a Christian book, the encouraging words of a friend, or our own reading or study of Scripture. In my case, since I've memorized so many Scriptures over the years, He often brings to my mind a memorized verse.
In Acts 20:32, Paul said to the Ephesian elders, "Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified" (Acts 20:32). Earlier in verse 24, Paul had referred to "the gospel of the grace of God," the good news of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. In verse 32, however, as he speaks of "the word of his grace, which is able to build you up," the reference is to the ongoing use of Scripture in our daily lives to build us up in the Christian faith. Paul specifically called this "the word of his grace," the Word through which we come to understand and appropri ate God's grace in our daily lives.
The Bible is not merely a book about God; it is a book from God. "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Timothy 3:16, Niv). The Bible is God's self-revelation to us all. He wants us to know about Himself and His provision for our salvation and our spiritual growth. It is God's only objective, authoritative communication to us.
Transforming Grace
Week 48 / MONDAY
LIKE ARMIES IN BATTLE
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
MATTHEW 26:41)
William Romaine (born 1714) was one of the leaders of the eighteenthcentury revival in England, along with George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers. In his classic work on faith he wrote, "No sin can be crucified either in heart or life, unless it be first pardoned in conscience, because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power."9'
What Romaine was saying is that if you do not believe you are dead to sin's guilt, you cannot trust Christ for the strength to subdue its power in your life. So the place to begin in dealing with sin in your life is to count on the fact that you died to its guilt through your union with Christ in His death. This is an important truth you need to ponder and pray over until the Holy Spirit convinces you of it in both your head and heart.
Meanwhile, to make progress in the Christian life, we must acknowledge the continuing tension between our sinful nature and the Spirit of God within us.
Observing this "internal conflict," George Smeaton noted, "And the strange thing is, that in this conflict the power and faculties of the Christian seem to be occupied at one time by the one, and at another time by the other. The same intellect, will, and affections come under different influences, like two conflicting armies occupying the ground, and in turn driven from the field."92
With any two opposing forces, the direction of movement often goes back and forth until one eventually prevails. This is the way it will be with us until the Holy Spirit finally prevails.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 48 / TUESDAY
DISCOURAGED BY HIS DISCIPLINE
Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
(HEBREWS 12:5)
Another improper response to God's discipline is to "be weary" when He reproves us. We tend to lose heart when we think God is disciplining us out of anger instead of out of love. Hebrews 12:6, however, explicitly states that "the Lord disciplines the one he loves." I acknowledge it's often difficult to sense God's love when we are undergoing His discipline, but we must by faith accept the testimony of Scripture.
The Puritan Samuel Bolton (1606-1654) wrote, "God has thoughts of love in all He does to His people. The ground of His dealings with us is love (though the occasion may be sin), the manner of His dealings is love, and the purpose of His dealings is love. He has regard, in all, to our good here, to make us partakers of His holiness, and to our glory hereafter, to make us partakers of His glory."93
When the writer of Hebrews told us not to lightly regard the Lord's discipline or be wearied by His reproof, his purpose was to encourage us. A good part of that encouragement must come from the realization that the hardships we encounter come from a God who is not only in sovereign control of every circumstance of our lives, but who also loves us, and who deals with us only on the basis of love. He's not only the sovereign ruler of His universe, but also our heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So in times of adversity, don't lose heart under it by failing to see His love in it.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 48 / WEDNESDAY
CHRIST'S POWER, NOT OURS
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
(2 PETER 1:3)
We are not to wage this warfare against sin in the strength of our own willpower. Instead, just as we by faith look to Christ for our righteous standing before God, so by faith we're to look to Him for the enabling power to live the Christian life. This power comes as a result of our vital or living union with Him. Jesus referred to this union in John 15:1-5 when He called Himself the vine and us the branches. Just as the branches derive their life and nourishment from the vine, so we are to receive our spiritual life and power from Him.
All believers are spiritually united to Christ in such a way that our spiritual life comes from Him. We're not completely passive, however, in this relationship. Rather, we're to abide or remain in Him by faith. We're to actively rely on Christ for the enabling power we need to wage war against the sin that remains in us, to put on the positive virtues of Christlike character (called "the fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23), and to serve Christ effectively in all that He calls us to do.
The apostle Paul had in mind our union with Christ and the power that comes from Him in such Scriptures as Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (NIV), and Colossians 1:29, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me" (NIV). Paul waged war against indwelling sin, and he worked hard in ministry, but he did both in dependence on Christ and the power that comes through a living union with Him.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 48 / THURSDAY
WORD OF His GRACE
I commend you ... to the word of his grace.
(ACTS 20:32)
We need to get beyond the "how-tos" of Scripture -how to raise children, manage finances, witness to unbelievers - and all other such utilitarian approaches to Scripture. Such practical instruction is indeed valuable, but we need to go beyond that. Our practical age has come to disparage a firm doctrinal understanding of Scripture as being of no practical value. But there's nothing more practical for our daily lives than knowing God. Only in Scripture has God revealed to us the truths about His person and His character.
But the Bible is more than merely objective truth; it's actually lifegiving and life-sustaining. "It is no empty word for you, but your very life" (Deuteronomy 32:47). Growth in the grace of God requires growth in our assimilation of the Word of God. In the biological realm, assimilation is the process by which nourishment is changed into living tissue. In the spiritual realm, it's the process by which the written Word of God is absorbed into our hearts and becomes, figuratively speaking, living spiritual tissue.
How do we know God's grace is sufficient for our particular "thorns"? How do we rightly understand what it means to live "by the grace of God"? How do we learn about the "throne of grace" where we receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need? Where do we discover that God is the gracious landowner who gives us far, far more than we deserve? The answer to all these questions is the Scriptures. That's why Scripture is called the Word of His grace. God uses Scripture to mediate His grace to us. R. C. H. Lenski said, "God and the Word of his grace always go together; God lets his grace flow out through that Word."94
Transforming Grace
Week 48 / FRIDAY
PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION
As you received from us how you ought to live, and to please God... do so more and more.
(1 THESSALONIANS 4:1)
Warring against the sin that remains in us and putting on Christlike character is usually called sanctification. But because the term definitive sanctification is used to describe the point-in-time decisive deliverance from sin's dominion, it's helpful to speak of Christian growth as progressive sanctification. The word progressive indicates positive change. To use the tug-of-war analogy, it assumes that though the rope may move back and forth, over time it moves in the right direction until finally at the end of our lives we win the tug-of-war against sin.
There's no doubt this rope must move in the right direction. The New Testament writers assume our growth and continually urge us to pursue it. We're to pursue holiness "more and more," and to love each other "more and more" (1 Thessalonians 4:1,9-10). We're to possess the qualities of Christian character "in increasing measure" (2 Peter 1:8, NIV). However, we can always expect resistance. To stay with the tug-of-war analogy, although the Spirit who dwells within us is stronger than the sinful nature, that nature continues to "dig in its heels" every step of the way. And sometimes it will pull the rope in the wrong direction.
What is it then that will keep us going in the face of this internal conflict? The answer is the gospel. What will motivate us and keep us going- even in the midst of the tension between the Spirit and the sinful nature - is the assurance in the gospel that we have indeed died to the guilt of sin, that there's no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus, that the Lord will never count our sins against us, and that we're truly delivered from the reigning power of sin.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 48 / WEEKEND
His LOVING DISCIPLINE
The Lord. . . chastises every son whom he receives.
(HEBREWS 12:6)
In addition to disciplining those He loves, the Lord also, as our Father, "chastises" or punishes us. Punishment may serve one of two purposes: the execution of justice or the correction of character. When a person convicted of a crime is sent to prison, that's punishment in the execution of justice. When a loving parent punishes a child, it's for the correction of the child's character.
Although today we usually equate discipline with punishment, the biblical use of the word discipline had a broader meaning. Punishment would have been one aspect of the overall program of child-training. But all of God's discipline, including punishment for disobedience that He sends to us in the form of adversity, is administered in love and for our welfare. We must never equate His punishment of us with the negative emotions we often see in a human parent.
God does punish in the execution of justice. The Scriptures say, "God is just" (2 Thessalonians 1:6, Niv) and "`It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord" (Romans 12:19, NIV). But as far as believers are concerned, God has already executed the justice we should have received on His Son on the cross. Christ fully satisfied the justice of God and turned away His wrath from us. Therefore, God's punishment of us is always corrective and always administered in love and for our welfare.
In times of adversity Satan will seek to plant the thought in our mind that God is angry with us and is disciplining us out of wrath. Here is another instance when we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. The gospel will reassure us that the penalty for our sins has been paid, that God's justice has been fully satisfied.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 49 / MONDAY
HEALTHY EXPOSURE TO GOD'S WORD
All Scripture is ... profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
(2 TIMOTHY 3:16)
The close connection between God and the Word of His grace is illustrated in Romans 15:4-5: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus" (Romans 15:4-5).
Paul tells us here that we receive endurance and encouragement from Scripture. Then he names God as the source of endurance and encouragement. Endurance and encouragement are provisions of God's grace "to help us in our time of need." As we go to the throne of grace asking for it, God does provide. But He usually provides through Scripture.
If we are to appropriate the grace of God, we must regularly expose ourselves directly to the Word of God. It is not enough to only hear it preached or taught in our churches on Sundays, as important as those avenues are. We need a regular plan of reading, study, and yes, even memorization. Bible study and Scripture memorization earn no merit with God. We never earn God's blessing by doing these things, any more than we earn His blessing by eating nutritious food. But as the eating of proper food is necessary to sustain a healthy physical life, so the regular intake of God's Word is necessary to sustain a healthy spiritual life and to regularly appropriate His grace.
If we're to appropriate the grace of God, we must become intimate friends with the Bible. We must seek to know and understand Scripture's great truths about God and His character, and about man and his desperate need of God's grace.
Transforming Grace
Week 49 / TUESDAY
SINS OF THE TONGUE
The tongue is afire, a world of unrighteousness.
(JAMES 3:6)
The Bible is replete with warnings against sins of the tongue. The book of Proverbs alone contains about sixty such warnings. Jesus warned that we'll give account for every careless word we speak (Matthew 12:36). And then there is that well-known passage in James 3 where he speaks of the tongue's sinful effects, likening them to the spark that sets a forest ablaze.
The Scripture passage that has helped me most to deal with the sins of the tongue is Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." This is an application of Paul's "put off / put on" principle that he set forth in Ephesians 4:22-24. The principle is that we're to put off the sinful traits of the old self and, at the same time, give diligence to putting on the gracious traits of the new self created in Christ.
As we look at Ephesians 4:29, we see that we're not to let any corrupting talk come out of our mouths. Corrupting talk is not limited to profanity or obscene speech. It includes all the various types of negative speech - including lying, slander, critical speech (even when true), harsh words, insults, sarcasm, and ridicule. Note Paul's absolute prohibition: No corrupting talk. None whatsoever. This means no gossip, no sarcasm, no critical speech, no harsh words. All these sinful words that tend to tear down another person must be put out of our speech. Think about what the church of Jesus Christ would look like if we all sought to apply Paul's words.
Respectable Sins
Week 49 / WEDNESDAY
THE SECRET
The love of Christ controls us.
(2 CORINTHIANS 5:14)
We must always keep focused on the gospel. Horatius Bonar, nineteenthcentury Scottish pastor and author, wrote: "The secret of a believer's holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the Surety, and his daily [communion] with a crucified and risen Lord. All divine life, and all precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness, spring from the cross. All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Pharisaism. If we would be holy, we must get to the cross, and dwell there; else, notwithstanding all our labour, diligence, fasting, praying and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross.
"False ideas of holiness are common, not only among those who profess false religions, but among those who profess the true. The love of God to us, and our love to Him, work together for producing holiness. Terror accomplishes no real obedience. Suspense brings forth no fruit unto holiness. No gloomy uncertainty as to God's favour can subdue one lust, or correct our crookedness of will. But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this....
"Free and warm reception into the divine favour is the strongest of all motives in leading a man to seek conformity to Him who has thus freely forgiven him all trespasses."95
Paul said the same thing very succinctly: "For Christ's love compels us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, Niv). To be compelled is to be highly motivated. We're to be motivated by Christ's love for us. And where do we learn of His love? Where do we hear Him say, "I love you"? In the gospel.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 49 / THURSDAY
ALL HARDSHIP IS DISCIPLINE
It is for discipline that you have to endure.
(HEBREWS 12:7)
All hardship of whatever kind has a disciplinary purpose for us. There's no such thing as pain without a purpose in the life of a believer. Every expression of discipline has as its intended end conformity to the likeness of Christ.
Can we tell if a particular adversity is related to some specific sin in our lives? Not with certainty, but my belief is that the Holy Spirit will bring such a connection to our attention if we need to know in order to deal with a particular sin. If nothing comes to mind, we can ask God if there's something He wants us to consciously learn. Beyond that, it's vain to speculate as to why God has brought a particular hardship into our lives. Part of the sanctifying process of adversity is its mystery -our inability to make any sense out of it.
Although all pain has a purpose in the mind of God, that purpose is usually hidden from us. As Paul wrote, "How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33). The Williams New Testament expresses Paul's thought in an even more forceful way: "How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods!"96 God's ways, being infinitely higher than our ways, will usually remain a mystery to us.
When we're unable to make any sense of our circumstances, we need to come back to the assurance in Hebrews 12:7: "God is treating you as sons." He is the one in charge of sanctification in our lives. He knows exactly what and how much adversity will develop more Christlikeness in us and He will not bring, nor allow to come into our lives, any more than is needful for His purpose.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 49 / FRIDAY
THE WORD STORED UP
The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.
(PSALM 37:31)
I strongly advocate Scripture memorization. In our warfare against Satan and his emissaries, we're told to take "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). Charles Hodge commented on this statement: "In opposition ... to all the suggestions of the devil, the safe, simple, and sufficient answer is the word of God. This puts to flight all the powers of darkness. The Christian finds this to be true in his individual experience. It dissipates his doubts; it drives away his fears; it delivers him from the power of Satan."97
To take up this sword, we must have it at hand, in our hearts. We must be like the psalmist who said, "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11). This principle of storing up God's Word has a much wider application than only keeping us from sin. The Word, stored in the heart, provides a mental depository for the Holy Spirit to use to mediate His grace to us, whatever our need for grace might be.
I recently received a phone call with disturbing news, and I went to bed that night feeling as if I'd just received an emotional kick in the stomach. The next morning, however, I awakened with 1 Peter 5:7 going through my mind: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" (NIV). I was given grace by God's Spirit to believe that He did care in this specific situation. That is only one in a series of incidents occurring frequently in my life - and I'm sure in the lives of all other believers who store up God's Word in their hearts.
Transforming Grace
Week 49 / WEEKEND
A BLESSING TO ALL
I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
(IsAIAH 49:6)
To explore what the apostle Paul called "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8) - the gospel - we rightly examine our need of the gospel, the work of Christ in meeting that need, and the application of His work to our individual lives in justification, adoption, glorification, and sanctification. But if we stopped at that point, it could seem as if the gospel promotes only an attitude of pure self-interest on our part: What will the gospel do for me? Or at most, the gospel would be about God and me.
But the gospel is not about God and me. The gospel is about God and the world: "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19).
We're not to be a terminus point for the gospel, but rather a way station in its progress to the ends of the earth. God intends that everyone who has embraced the gospel become a part of the great enterprise of spreading the gospel. What our particular part may be will vary from person to person, but all of us should be involved.
The same Scriptures that in centuries past motivated the pioneers in world missions should motivate us today. A good starting point is Genesis 12:3, where God promises Abraham that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (NIV). God repeats this promise in Genesis 22:18, where He more specifically says, "through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed" (NIV). In Galatians 3:16 the apostle Paul identified this "offspring" as Christ. God's promise to Abraham, then, is that all nations will be blessed through Christ-that is, through His atoning work for us.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 50 / MONDAY
SUBMISSION TO OUR FATHER'S DISCIPLINE
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
(JAMES 4:7)
To gain the most profit from the discipline of hardship, we need to submit to it. The author of Hebrews said that if we respected our fathers' discipline, how much more should we submit to God's discipline: "We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?" (12:9). Our fathers' discipline was at best imperfect, both in motive and in application. But God's discipline is perfect, exactly suited to our needs.
How do we submit to God's discipline? Negatively, it means that we don't become angry at God, or charge Him with injustice, when difficult circumstances come into our lives. I believe even short-term anger toward God is sin, for which we need to repent. Though the anger may be an emotional response, it's still a charge of injustice against God. Surely that is sin. It's even more serious when someone allows anger toward God to continue over months or even years. Such an attitude amounts to a grudge against God and is actually rebellion. It is certainly not submitting to our heavenly Father.
Positively, we submit to God's discipline when we accept all hardship as coming from His loving hand for our good. This means that our primary response would be one of humble submission and trust. As Peter wrote, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time" (1 Peter 5:6). We should submit to God's providential dealings with us, knowing there's still much in our characters that needs improving. We should trust Him, believing that He's infinite in His wisdom and knows exactly the kind and extent of adversity we need to accomplish His purpose.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 50 / TUESDAY
THE SPIRIT'S SWORD
Take. . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
(EPHESIANS 6:17)
If you desire to appropriate God's grace, you must have the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God - available in your mind for the Spirit to use. In fact the structure of Ephesians 6:17 provides a very instructive insight into the interaction between the Holy Spirit and the believer. Paul said we're to take the sword of the Spirit. That's something we must do. And yet it is the Spirit's sword, not ours. He must make it effective. The bare quoting of Scripture does not make it effective in our hearts; only the Spirit can do that. But He will not make His sword effective unless we take it up.
Often God's Word is not made effective immediately. In fact, there are many times when I struggle over an issue for a period of days, mulling over several pertinent passages of Scripture and crying out for grace, before the Holy Spirit finally makes them effective and gives His grace, helping in time of need. The Spirit of God is sovereign in His working, and we cannot squeeze Him into the mold of our spiritual formulas: "Pray for grace, quote some verses, and receive a guaranteed answer."
God also has His own timetable. Sometimes He grants grace to help almost immediately. At other times, He allows us to struggle for days, perhaps even weeks or months, before we receive the grace to help. Regardless of the delays He may impose, we must continue to come to the throne of grace believing His promise to grant grace to help, and we must continue to resort to appropriate Scripture until He makes it effective in our hearts. Our responsibility is to take up the sword of the Spirit; His prerogative is to make it effective.
Transforming Grace
Week 50 / WEDNESDAY
THE REIGN OF CHRIST
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
MATTHEW 11:27)
The concept of Christ's reign is stated most explicitly in the words of Jesus commonly known as the Great Commission: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20).
Here Jesus first asserts His universal authority, then commands His disciples to go and make disciples - to bring people of all nations under the sway of His authority. Whatever other meanings we may include in the word disciple, it must capture this idea of coming under the reign and rule of Jesus Christ.
The reign of Christ among all nations is a parallel goal to that of bringing the blessing of Christ to all nations. The goal of Christ's universal blessing focuses on people's needs. They desperately need to be rescued from God's coming wrath, and to be redeemed from their futile, destructive ways of life.
The goal of Christ's reign focuses on His authority in the hearts of those people. Jesus came "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). This speaks of the rule and reign of Christ in the heart of every individual believer.
Both these goals - the blessing and the reign of Christ - are accomplished through the successful proclamation of the gospel among all nations, or to the ends of the earth.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 50 / THURSDAY
SUBMITTING TO HIS DISCIPLINE
Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
(HEBREWS 12:9)
John Owen said that to submit to the Father of our spirits denotes "an acquiescence in His sovereign right to do what He will with us as His own; a renunciation of self-will; an acknowledgment of His righteousness and wisdom in all His dealings with us; a sense of His care and love, with a due apprehension of the end of His chastisements; a diligent application of ourselves unto His mind and will, or to what He calls us to in an especial manner at that season; a keeping of our souls by persevering faith from weariness and despondency; a full resignation of ourselves to His will, as to the matter, manner, times, and continuance of our afflictions.""
Owen's quote is a mouthful, but I've used it because it's such a complete description of the attitude and response toward adversity we need to develop. I encourage you to go back over it several times until you fully grasp what he said.
Submitting to God's discipline doesn't mean we shouldn't pray for relief from the difficulty or seek legitimate means to gain relief. Sometimes the end God has in mind is to exercise our faith, so He brings us into straitened circumstances so that we might look up to Him and see His deliverance. But strengthening our faith is an important aspect of discipline.
The main thing is our attitude. We can pray earnestly to God for relief and still be submissive to Him regarding the outcome. Jesus is our supreme example in this as He prayed the night before His crucifixion, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39, NIV).
The Discipline of Grace
Week 50 / FRIDAY
SEEING GODS HAND
Humble yourselves ... under the mighty hand of God.
(1 PETER 5:6)
Job and Joseph are examples of those who saw God's hand in their circumstances. In one day, Job's oxen were stolen, his camels carried off, his servants murdered. Lightning burned up his sheep, and a mighty wind struck the house of his oldest son, killing all his children. Later Job himself was afflicted with painful sores from head to feet. He responded, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away" (Job 1:21). With respect to his own affliction he said, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (2:10).
Note that job ascribed his sufferings to the hand of God. He saw beyond the actions of evil men and the disasters of nature to the sovereign God who controlled those events. At the close of job's story, we read that his relatives and friends "showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him" (Job 42:11). Though the writer had himself reported the malicious activity of Satan in job's life at the beginning of the narrative, he still ultimately ascribed job's troubles to the Lord.
Joseph, when he finally revealed his identity to his wicked brothers who had sold him into slavery, saw beyond their evil acts and said, "It was not you who sent me here, but God" (Genesis 45:8). He recognized that God in His sovereignty used even the heinous sins of his brothers to accomplish His purpose.
If you and I are to appropriate God's grace in our times of need, we must see His sovereignty ultimately ruling in all the circumstances of our lives. And when those circumstances are difficult, disappointing, or humiliating, we must humble ourselves under His mighty hand.
Transforming Grace
Week 50 / WEEKEND
MADE PERSONALLY
Blessed be the LORD. . . who alone does wondrous things.
(PSALM 72:18)
David said, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14, NIV). We might say, "That's well enough for David; he was handsome, athletic, skilled in war, and a gifted musician. But look at me. I'm very ordinary physically and mentally." In fact, some people feel they don't even measure up to ordinary.
I understand people who feel that way. In addition to having hearing and vision disabilities, I've never been excited about my physical appearance. But God didn't give His own Son handsome features in His human body: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2, NIV). Jesus, at best, was apparently nondescript in His physical appearance. This never bothered Him nor interfered with His carrying out His Father's will.
David praised God not because he was handsome but because God made him. Dwell on that thought: The eternal God, infinite in His wisdom and perfect in His love, personally made you and me. He gave you your body, your mental abilities, and your basic personality because that's the way He wanted you to be - and He loves you and wants to glorify Himself through you.
This is our foundation for self-acceptance. God sovereignly and directly created us to be who we are, disabilities or physical flaws and all. We need to learn to think like George MacDonald, who said, "I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking."99
Trusting God
Week 51 / MONDAY
OUR TASK
May he have dominion ... to the ends of the earth!
(PSALM 72:8)
As people believe the gospel and are saved, the reign of Christ is established in principle in their hearts. They're delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). God's will is that this process be carried out among every nation on earth.
This, then, is our task: proclaiming the gospel in each nation so that people there will trust in Christ and be brought under His authority in their lives. We cannot quantify what it means for a nation to be "blessed," nor what is meant by "all the families of the nations will bow down before him" (Psalm 22:27, NIV), but surely these expressions signify more than just a token few from each nation. Surely they promise a significant penetration of the gospel among every nation, tribe, people, and language.
Vast numbers of people still live in spiritual darkness. There is yet much spiritual ground to be possessed. We find ourselves in a situation similar to the Israelites after conquering much of Canaan, when God said to Joshua, "There are still very large areas of land to be taken over" (Joshua 12:24-13:1, NIV). While we rejoice in the gospel's progress in many parts of the world, we acknowledge that there's more work to do before we can say every nation has been blessed.
When Jesus commissioned us to make disciples of all nations, He clearly intended that we meet this objective. Furthermore, He has the power to ensure that we do. He's not like a helpless football coach standing on the sidelines watching his vastly inferior team take a sound beating. While we don't know the final score, we do know that Jesus' "team" will eventually win. God will not be defeated by the powers of darkness.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 51 / TUESDAY
ADVERSITY'S GOAL
The LORD your God ... led you through the great and terrifying wilderness ... to do you good in the end.
(DEUTERONOMY 8:14-16)
The writer of Hebrews contrasted the finite wisdom of human parents in disciplining children with the infinite, infallible wisdom of God. Even the best human parents can only discipline as they think best. Their judgment is fallible, their actions are sometimes inconsistent and are often guided by the impulse of the moment. As is often observed, they have to learn by doing. Anyone who has tried to rear children in a godly, responsible manner knows there are times when parents simply do not know what is the appropriate manner or degree of discipline for a child.
God, however, always disciplines us for our good. He knows what is best for each one of us. He doesn't have to debate with Himself over what is most suitable for us. He knows intuitively and perfectly the nature, intensity, and duration of adversity that will best serve His purpose to make us partakers of His holiness. He never brings more pain than is needed to accomplish His purpose. Lamentations 3:33 expresses that sentiment this way: "For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men" (Niv).
Returning to Hebrews 12:10: "God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Niv). Observe how the writer equated our good with becoming more holy. Paul wrote in a similar manner when he said, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.... For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son" (Romans 8:28-29, Niv). To be conformed to the likeness of Christ and to share in God's holiness are equivalent expressions. That is the highest good to which the believer can aspire.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 51 / WEDNESDAY
SUBMITTING TO HIS DISCIPLINE
God ... gives grace to the humble.
(JAMES 4:6)
It's not enough to see God's mighty hand behind our adversities, nor to view Him as a loving Father disciplining His children. I've seen the doctrine of God's sovereignty in the Scriptures for so many years that I instinctively see His hand behind every circumstance. I regularly acknowledge, almost reluctantly sometimes, that all hardship is God's discipline, either corrective or remedial. The rub comes in submitting to it. Sometimes we resist it. But if we're to appropriate God's grace in our trial, we must first submit to His hand, which brought the trial.
God gives grace only to the humble, to those who are not only humble toward other people, but are humble, or submissive, under His mighty hand. John Lillie expressed this idea well: "`Humble yourselves, therefore,' receiving in silent, meek submission whatever humiliation it [God's hand] may now lay upon you. For this is your time of trial, and, when paternal rod meets thus with the child-like spirit, will be surely followed by another time of healing and joy." Then Dr. Lillie added this word of exhortation: "See that you do not frustrate the gracious purpose of God and lose the blessing of sorrow. Rather make that purpose yours also.""'
After the death of my first wife, a friend sent me a sympathy card on which she had copied the following verse, apparently from an ancient hymn, which I've now put in my notebook to meditate on frequently when I pray: "Lord, I am willing to receive what You give, to lack what You withhold, to relinquish what You take, to suffer what You inflict, to be what You require."
We must have that spirit if we are to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand and receive the grace He has promised to give.
Transforming Grace
Week 51 / THURSDAY
OUR RESPONSE
May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!
(PSALM 72:17)
If God has promised that all nations will be blessed and that "all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD" (Psalm 22:27), how should we respond? I maintain that our response should begin with prayer. We should boldly and persistently plead in prayer the promises of God.
Daniel, one of the Bible's great men, is our example. He lived during the Babylonian captivity of Judah. He understood, from reading Jeremiah 29:10, that the captivity would last seventy years. So he took God at His word and began to pray that He would fulfill His promise to restore the Jews to their home (Daniel 9:1-19). He pleaded the promise of God. This is what we should do in response to God's promises of the success of the gospel. We should earnestly pray over such Scriptures as Genesis 22:18 and Psalm 22:27-28, asking God to fulfill His promises.
I'm dismayed at how little we Christians pray for the success of the gospel among the nations. If we honestly examine our prayers, we find that we give the greatest priority to our own earthly needs. Perhaps we even pray about our own or our loved ones' spiritual needs. But how many are praying about the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth? How many are pleading the promises of God?
As a personal application of this challenge, I keep a small world map with my morning devotional material. I try to pray "around the world" over the course of a week, putting my finger on specific countries, especially those more resistant to Christianity, and asking God to bless them with a significant penetration of the gospel, so His name will be glorified among them.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 51 / FRIDAY
HARDSHIP'S HARVEST
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
(HEBREWS 12:11)
I once knew a person who would recount some of the adversities her family was facing and would then put on a forced smile and say, "But we are victorious." She apparently thought believers should not admit pain. But the writer of Hebrews was honest. He said the discipline of hardship is painful.
"But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11). This "fruit of righteousness" is essentially equivalent to sharing in His holiness. Discipline, then, is one of the chief means God uses to make us holy.
The discipline of hardship also produces peace for those who have been trained by it. This, wrote Philip Hughes, "bespeaks the rest and relaxation enjoyed by the victorious contestant once the conflict is over.""' Hughes was speaking of the rest that comes to the believer when we go to be with the Lord. But there's also a peace to be enjoyed in this life for those who have learned to endure adversity as the evidence of God's fatherly hand upon them to make them more holy.
F. F. Bruce captured this thought well when he wrote, "The person who accepts discipline at the hand of God as something designed by his heavenly Father for his good will cease to feel resentful and rebellious; he has `calmed and quieted' his soul [Psalm 131:2], which thus provides fertile soil for the cultivation of a righteous life, responsive to the will of God."°2
The road to holiness is paved with adversity. If we want to be holy, we must expect the discipline of God through the heartaches and disappointments He brings or allows to come into our lives.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 51 / WEEKEND
A BROADER HORIZON
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
(MATTHEW 6:9-10)
Consider the prayer Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:9-13. It seems evidently intended as an example to be followed. Notice the sequence of the requests. The first three are that His name be hallowed, His kingdom come, and His will be done. There's a certain degree of overlap here: God's name will be hallowed as His kingdom comes in the hearts of people; God's will shall be done as people acknowledge the kingship of Christ in their lives and in their societies. All these requests will be answered through the successful advance of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
In seeking to stimulate us to lift up our eyes to God's great objective for all nations, I don't intend to minimize the importance of evangelism and disciple-making at home. What I'm seeking to do is to broaden our spiritual horizon, to get on our hearts what, according to Scripture, is on God's heart: The gospel is not just about God and me, or even about God and the people among whom I live and work. The gospel is about God and the world.
Obviously, there's more to carrying out the Great Commission than prayer. People must go to the ends of the earth. As I write this chapter, our son, daughter-in-law, and one-year-old grandson are preparing to go to one of the more difficult areas of the world. Is it hard to see them go to a people who are so resistant to the gospel? Absolutely! But if we're praying for the penetration of the gospel among those people, we must be prepared for God to use us or our loved ones to help answer those prayers.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 52 / MONDAY
DESTINED FOR GLORY
This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
(2 CORINTHIANS 4:17)
Paul wrote that our sufferings produce perseverance, which in turn produces character (Romans 5:3-4), and James said that the testing of our faith develops perseverance, which leads to maturity (James 1:2-5). Our ultimate hope, though, is not in maturity of character in this life, as valuable as that is, but in the perfection of character in eternity. John wrote, "When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2, Niv). The often painful process of being transformed into His likeness will be over. We shall be completely conformed to the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18, NIV). I visualize in my mind a pair of old-fashioned balance scales. Paul first puts all our sufferings, heartaches, disappointments - all our adversities of whatever kind from whatever source - onto one side of the balance scales. Then he puts on the other side the glory that will be revealed in us. As we watch, the scales do not balance, but completely bottom out on the side of the glory that will be revealed in us.
This is not to say that our present hardships are not painful. We see from Hebrews 12:11 that they are indeed painful, and we all know this to some degree from experience. But we need to learn to look by faith beyond the present pain to the eternal glory that will be revealed in us.
The God who disciplines us will also glorify us.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 52 / TUESDAY
GRACE TO EACH OTHER
God has so composed the body ... that the members may have the same care for one another.
(1 CORINTHIANS 12:24-25)
Ministering grace is a two-way street. We're to pray for one another, encourage one another, teach and admonish one another, spur one another on, carry each other's burdens, share with one another, and so on. Truly the body of Christ should be constantly alive with this reciprocal ministry to one another.
Ministering grace to one another means being an agent available for the Holy Spirit to use to convey His grace to someone else. Allowing others to be ministers of grace to us takes some grace in itself, and we may need to pray, "Lord, help me to be transparent and open to my friend, even though doing so seems humiliating to me right now. And make my friend a minister of Your grace to me."
All of us, if we're exploiting this avenue of God's grace, should find ourselves at various times on both the receiving and the giving end. To borrow a principle of reciprocity from Paul's teaching on giving, "Your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need" (2 Corinthians 8:14).
How can we be ministers of grace to others? In the same three basic ways that they can be ministers to us: prayer, the Word of God, and help in submitting to God's providence. But there's a crucial difference between receiving and giving. In receiving we must give permission to the other person to share Scripture with us and to help us submit to God's providence. In giving, we must receive permission. Usually this means we must first earn the right to minister to the person through a relationship of mutual sharing, openness, and trust that we have already established.
Transforming Grace
Week 52 / WEDNESDAY
MORE THAN ABLE
With God all things are possible.
(MATTHEW 19:26)
To take Christ's blessing and reign to the ends of the earth, not only must people go, but we must provide financial support for them or for modern communication means to reach places where people cannot go. Some of us must literally go, and all of us should participate in financial support. But the going is impotent and the financial support is futile if God doesn't go before us to open the eyes of the blind and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. And God does this as we plead His promises in prayer.
The scope of the Great Commission is vast, and the obstacles to its fulfillment are formidable. But as we pray let us remember the words of Paul: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). God is more than able. The Great Commission will be fulfilled. Will you be a part of it? Will you help others discover the unsearchable riches of Christ that you now enjoy?
Meanwhile, I pray that you continue becoming more aware of those unsearchable riches you possess through your union with Christ. I pray you'll realize the abundant riches of your inheritance in Christ and will not rest content with the spiritual equivalent of "fifty cents to buy a sack of cornmeal." And I pray just as fervently that you will be challenged to get on board with God's great plan to bless all nations, so that the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord.
The Gospel for Real Life
Week 52 / THURSDAY
GIVING FIRST TO GOD
See that you excel in this act of grace also.
(2 CORINTHIANS 8:7)
Some Christians think they cannot afford giving 10 percent of their income to God's work. I understand. When I left industry to become a staff trainee with The Navigators years ago, I took a 75 percent salary cut. I was financially shell-shocked. So I thought, "I can't afford to tithe. Surely, God accepts my sacrificial service as my giving." But God didn't let me get away with that. So I decided I would tithe my meager income and trust God to provide.
Later I was drawn to the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8-16). She was down to her last bit of flour and oil. She planned to prepare her last meal for her son and herself, and then die. Yet Elijah said to her in effect, "Feed me first, for God will provide for you." She did as Elijah instructed, and God did provide: "The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah" (verse 16). I began to pray over that verse, and I can tell you that throughout more than fifty years of ministry, God has always provided.
Giving back to God at least 10 percent of what He has given us is a tangible expression of our recognition that everything we have and our ability to earn comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Remember the infinite generosity of our Lord in giving Himself for our salvation: "Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Our giving should reflect the value we place on His gift to us.
Respectable Sins
Week 52 / FRIDAY
LIVE BY GRACE
My grace is sufficient for you.
(2 CORINTHIANS 12:9)
Learning to live by grace instead of by performance helps us accept the discipline of adversity. We realize that God is not disciplining us because of our bad performance but because of His love for us. We also learn to accept that whatever our situation, it's far better than we deserve. So we learn not to ask, "Why did this happen to me?" (meaning, What did I do to deserve such bad treatment from God?). We also learn, as Paul did with his thorn in the flesh, that God's grace is sufficient for us, however difficult and frustrating our circumstances might be. God's enabling grace will give us the inner spiritual strength we need to bear the pain and endure the hardship until the time when we see the harvest of righteousness and peace produced by it.
Far from being opposed to each other, grace and discipline - both God's discipline of us and our discipline of ourselves - are inextricably united together in God's program of sanctification. There's no question that God bases His discipline on grace. We are the ones who have problems with the relationship of grace and discipline, and who need to work at cultivating a proper relationship.
That work includes learning to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. We base the "duty" of discipleship on the gospel, resulting in the practice of a Christ-based acceptance with God and a Spirit-energized approach to the pursuit of holiness. In the joy and strength of knowing our sins are forgiven and sin's dominion is broken, we press on to become holy as He is holy. The so-called duty of discipleship then becomes a joy and a delight even though it requires vigorous effort.
The Discipline of Grace
Week 52 / WEEKEND
DEEPER LONGING
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
(PHILIPPIANS 3:10)
As we concentrate on growing in our reverence and awe for God and in our understanding of His love for us, we will find that our desire for Him will grow. As we gaze upon His beauty, we'll desire to seek Him even more. And as we become progressively more aware of His redeeming love, we'll want to know Him in a progressively deeper way. But we can also pray that God will deepen our desire for Him. I recall reading Philippians 3:10 a number of years ago and realizing a little bit of the depth of Paul's desire to know Christ more intimately. As I read I prayed, "0 God, I cannot identify with Paul's longing, but I would like to." Over the years God has begun to answer that prayer. By His grace I know experientially to some degree Isaiah's words, "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you" (Isaiah 26:9, NIV). I'm grateful for what God has done, but I pray I will continue to grow in this desire for Him.
In his book Desiring God, John Piper wrote, "[God] loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings."03One of the wonderful things about God is that He's infinite in all His glorious attributes, so never in our desire for Him will we exhaust the revelation of His person to us. The more we come to know Him, the more we'll desire Him. And the more we desire Him, the more we'll want to fellowship with Him and experience His presence. And the more we desire Him and His fellowship, the more we'll desire to be like Him.
The Fruitful Life