What's in a Name?

I think I have said it myself.  I have heard it from others.  Perhaps you have said it yourself.  With some combination of amusment, bewilderment, and derision, someone has just asked, "So what religion are you?"  You reply, "It's more of a lifestyle than a religion; I'm a follower of Christ."  This need not be a undesirable statement, but let us consider it more closely.

The name “Christian” has been tainted by several unfortunate associations.  First, we see it appropriated by innumerable farcical “churches,” who have simply pinned Christ's name to their deity.  Second, it is claimed by anyone who attends either a genuine or cultish church, even if his or her profession of faith in "Chist" is as thin, and as transparent, as shrink wrap.  Tragically, the world is all too happy to affirm these definitions:  anyone who at least professes allegiance to Christ is a Christian, regardless of the truth of their devotion or the truth of their Christ.  

This does much to water down the term, to be sure.  However, I remain unconvinced that this forces us to the conclusion that the term is unsuitable.  To this end, I appeal to the historical nature of the term – not because traditions must be upheld, but because the past reminds us what it means to claim the title “Christian."

"Christian" (Χριστιανός) was the term given to believers in the cradle years of the church (Acts 11:26).  Not many years after this, having this title attributed to oneself was enough to earn persecution or martyrdom, even from the state.  "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you...if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name." (1 Peter 4:14, 15b, emphasis added)

In other words, there is cause to glorify God in your label as a Christian, even if and when that moniker invites hardship.  There is every indication that the fledgling church took this to heart; our early brothers and sisters were often obliged to stand before their accusers and stare into the black face of martyrdom, and many said nothing but, "I am a Christian."  These few words assured dire recourse from their enemies, but they would say nothing else.  J. Spencer Northcote records that when they were pressed further, they would reply in this manner:  "I have already said that I am a Christian; and he who says that has thereby named his country, his family, his profession, and all things else besides." ¹

Today, though, "Christian" has become the moral password which politicians whisper to quickly establish trust.  It is the card which cults lay down in their plays for legitimacy and trust.  It is the color which teenagers brush upon themselves to avoid close scrutiny in their lives.  How did this word lose its original force?  Why has the absolute truth behind it been displaced by ecumenical well-wishing and lies?  This can only be the result of a church which has become all but indiscernible against the backdrop of the world.

To be sure, there will always be those who desire to twist and steal the name and truth of Christ, because this remains a permanent feature of the demonic mission, but there is no sense in our adding fuel to this ancient fire.  We must stand distinct from the world, moving opposition to the world, and "preach[ing] Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." (1 Cor. 1:23b) To unbelievers who know this sort of church, the word "Christian" is usually not one that they desire to place upon themselves, lest they be blighted with the shame that they themselves attribute to believers, or the anger that righteousness stirs within them, or the scorn that they share among their comrades. 

Our lesson is clear; it has been proven out by history as well as by scripture.  As we draw closer and more uncompromisingly toward Christ, we neutralize the perceived benefits of falsely claiming Christ until they cannot outweight the hardships which the world affords (and which are to us but jewels in the crown of joy).  This is our course and our directive if we are to remake our own name into something more worthy of the one true Christ.

I am a Christian.  I belong to a worldwide, a national, and yes, a local church that has not done all it could.  I have not done all that I could, but still I am a Christian.

 

1:  Northcote, J. Spencer.  Epitaphs of the Catacombs or Christian Inscriptions in Rome During the First Four Centuries.  London: Longman, Green, & Co., 1878; repr., Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007. p. 139.  Quoted from MacArthur, John.  Slave:  The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. p. 9.

Christ Upholds the Reality of Human Responsibility

"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy."
                                                      - Romans 9:14-16

We believe these words, and many others like them, because they are contained in God's book.  The dispensation of mercy comes from God's hands in accordance with His own sovereign choices, not in accordance with our actions.  This axiomatic - mercy, by definition, is not earned.  However, this truth has been met with more than its fair share of criticism, of course, as it asserts that the choice of salvation resides with God, not with the person. 

The natural conclusion of this is the question of how then God can condemn people to hell, if their salvation is His choice?  Paul addresses this in Romans 9:20-21:  "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?' On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?"  In other words, we are to acknowledge, without fully understanding, that God can choose to graciously save, and then condemn those whom He has passed over in the same moment, and there is surely no injustice in His so doing. 

We can accept this, but if we are honest with ourselves, it seems at times difficult to content ourselves with a concept so removed from our understanding.  We cannot help but wonder how this idea can stand up.  Fortunately, we may look to the words of Christ for two points of real and true comfort:

1.  Legitimacy.  "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" (Luke 19:41-42) Here our Savior weeps and laments for the unsaved in Jerusalem.  If we sometimes struggle with feeling as though human responsibility in salvation is a merely ornamental element, we are comforted that the omniscient Christ never for a moment succumbed to this sentiment.  This was not forced emotion or sentiment for the sake of those around Him - there is no duplicity in the countenance of the Savior.

How precious and true are the tears of the Lord Jesus!  Do we give the due consequence to the lamentations of One who is beyond any form of dissembly, who understands as none of us can the utter sovereignty which is in His own very hands?  His tears fall neither lightly or inappropriately; rather, they come laden with a full understanding both of human nature and of divine nature.  If indeed the Lord Jesus can shed tears over the unfaithfulness of the unsaved, then we may rest assured that He at least considers their disbelieving choices to be of a very real substance.  Note that this lamentation is made even while sovereignly declaring that these unbelievers will not be allowed to see "the things which make for peace."

2.  Rationale.  "Then He said again to them, 'I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.'" (John 8:21) A glimmer of understanding lies within these words.  Jesus declares that the unbelieving Pharisees will die in their sins; that is, that their sins will remain upon their own heads when they die.  And so it would be for all of us, were it not for God's intervening grace.  We are each of us born in under the dark pall of sin; in condemning us, our divine Judge merely dispenses exactly what is deserved.  If He chooses to save us, He gives us what we do not deserve, but this does not affect the deservedness and personal culpability of those whom He passes over.  Human nature condemns, while divine grace saves.  Thus God is glorified for saving His people, while at the same time showing Himself to be utterly just in His righteous condemnation.  This raises other questions that are difficult, but at the least, it serves to give us a glimpse of God's justice in terms that we may appreciate.

Awash in the Sea of Compromise

At one point in the film Anatomy of a Murder, a lawyer expresses disdain for the idea of attempting to fabricate a viable but artificial excuse for a murder, even though this would be the muderer's only chance for escape from a murder conviction.  A friend of his replies quite simply, "Maybe you're too pure, Paul. Too pure for the natural impurities of the law."  In other words, one must not scruple to operate with a tinge of immorality while in an immoral system; so doing can bring about desirable, or even moral, results.

This excites no astonishment in us; the shelves of literature and cinema are saturated with this very idea:  Robin Hood's clever thievery feed the grateful poor, and Harry Callahan kills the Scorpio Killer, then wordlessly discards his badge.  Sadly, however, this travels deep beyond fiction into the very fabric of our world, the very stuff of human life, and perhaps the greatest, most tragic example of this is the final hours of Jesus before the crucifixion.

The Pharisees tried the Savior with a stunning and flagrant disregard for their own laws:  demanding that He testify against Himself, trying Him at night, trying Him before Annas, who was not the high priest that year, trying Him without the Sanhedrin present, even striking Him during His questioning (John 18:12-24).  This they did because they judged it necessary to stop the Christ by any means possible.

Later, Pontius Pilate, who never gave the slightest inkling that he supposed the Savior guilty of anything, nevertheless ordered Him to be unspeakably torn and mutilated.  He so decreed in hopes that the Pharisees would be quieted and ultimately relent in their desire to kill Him (John 19:1-4).  Were I an acquaitance of Pilate, I would ask him to not do me any favors. 

But a moment later, the chief priests would achieve the very apogee of their ecstatic blasphemy in this austere declaration:  "We have no king but Caesar." (John 19:15b) In other words, "Forget this Man, Pilate - He is not our king.  Caesar, the very one whom we hate and chafe against and seek to throw off, is our only king.  Forget even the God of Israel - we are under no rule but that of Caesar.  So do we deny the very God we claim to serve, if only it means we may be rid of this troublesome carpenter whose claims we cannot dispute."  And in doing so, they spoke far better than they knew about their own allegiances.

This is the world of sin, my friends.  Without the regenerating work and righteous wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we possess no spiritual equilibrium - we suppose that we can usher in good ends through unsavory means.  We tilt a quart of motor oil to our lips and expect it will turn to honey in our stomachs.  It is not a matter of desiring this sort of compromise, but rather, of supposing that it is the only recourse available to us. 

Praise be to God, though, that this sort of moral compromise is utterly foreign to the Christian world.  It is never called for.  We may be fraught with confusion or reluctance in our pursuit of righteousness, but we will never find ourselves needing to harness sinful means to accomplish a righteous purpose.  So Peter, in speaking to those enslaved to unkind masters, can simply tell them to bear up submissively and righteously under such treatment (1 Peter 2:18-20).  This answer from Peter is not out of touch or obtuse; he simply declares that righteousness and endurance are that which please the Lord.  There is no circumstance in which the temporal consequences of righteousness render the relinquishment of that righteousness a valid option.

Furthermore,God will never lead us into a situation demanding moral compromise.  His righteousness, His omniscience, His sovereignty, and His omnisapience (complete wisdom) all stand as insurmountable fortresses that oppose the incursions of moral compromise:  there will never come a need for us to equivocate, in either word or deed, on our dearly-held, divinely-imparted righteous principles.  More directly, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." (James 1:13)

There are certainly times when we can feel as though compromise could help the Kingdom - perhaps to grow God's church or to establish a relational context with the unsaved.  These feelings are not from the Lord.  When Christians sinfully forgo a righteous act in hopes of accomplishing a righteous end, they have forgotten that the righteous act they spurned was itself the righteous end that God desired!  Our righteous response to our circumstances is the Lord's prescription, and it is His prerogative to work through our righteous deeds as He sees fit.  Consider Jeremiah and Paul, for instance - both godly men, obedient and righteous, and yet the results of their ministries were dramatically different. 

Our righteous deeds, then, become as humble offerings to the Lord, for His own use.  To deny this by sinful compromise is to judge that the Lord does not have His own best interests at heart.  Furthermore, it assumes that a situation can have but one outcome if a righteous prescription is followed - such a mockery to God in His sovereignty!  In a word, it demonstrates our opinion of God as a weak, foolish, very human sort of deity.  May these things never be.

Instead, we joyfully hold to the truth that God sees all ends and has ordained all ends, and we may therefore rest in our resolve to tenaciously pursue His righteous principles at every turn. Moral compromise is neither a requirement nor an option for the saint whose eyes are fixed on Christ, no matter what the circumstance.  Praise Him for this beautifully rigid certainty!

Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers (Part 5 of 5)

- Still others will declare, “I can believe in your God, but only as one God among many.”  I think you say this because you see there are many so-called gods in this world, and you cannot bring yourself to discount any of them, so long as people are worshiping them.  If people are sincere, if they believe they are right, then what right have we to declare otherwise?  Thus do we divorce belief from truth, for only when we remove truth is there room for so many opposing beliefs in this world.  Put another way, if people started to believe that two plus two actually equaled five, would this make five a viable answer alongside four?  Of course not!  It is preposterous, and yet we apply this very thinking to the spiritual world.   Real truth teaches, guides, and corrects, whether we refer to mathematics or theology. 

So we must honor truth, not beliefs.  Beliefs must be made to serve truth, and the Bible gives us absolute truth (John 17:17).  God says, “And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me.  Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Is. 45:21b-22)

- And what of those who state, “I cannot believe that the world is as evil as the gospel portrays it to be.  It is filled fundamentally good people.”?  If this is so, then the world is in terrible shape for having such good people.  Turn the television to any channel, or watch any small child for a day, or look for any candid moment into your own heart.  Can you escape the selfishness, the excuses, the frustration?   Aside from this, we do tend to judge our own goodness in relativity to those around us, but the gospel calls us to examine ourselves alongside the standard of our divine Judge, God Himself, and this standard is perfection.  All have sinned, and thus stand in need of salvation from that sin.

- There will be those who maintain, “Of course I have sinned, but I will count on my good works for the Lord to save me.”   This was the folly of many people in Jesus’ time as well.  They relied upon adherence to a set of rules (some from the Bible, and some not) to achieve a righteous standing before God.  This adherence, however, was never enough to save people – remember what Jesus said to a religious leader:  “You must be born again.” (John 3:7b) Just as a baby cannot bring about birth through his or her own actions, so we cannot achieve for ourselves the spiritual rebirth needed to save us. 

A legal example illuminates – a man is caught in a murder.  He is seen carrying out the killing, his fingerprints are on the weapon, and he has confessed.  However, he declares, “I know I have committed this terrible crime, but consider also the volunteer work I have done all my life.”  Will the judge be moved to mercy?  Of course not!  Doing what is expected cannot cancel out doing what is evil.  Justice looks at evil deeds without reference to good deeds. 

Aside from this, even the deeds which we do apart from God, and which we would reckon as good works, are viewed in a different light by God, who counts our own righteousness as naught but “filthy rags.” (Is. 64:6) If it is not done for Him in obedience and love, then it simply no good, no matter what it is.

- Finally, some have tragically concluded, “I believe in this gospel, but I am afraid I have sinned too much for the Lord to extend His grace.”  May your despair turn to rejoicing, for the gospel was made – made, we declare – for such a one as you.  You need not fear that the power of your sin is somehow greater than Jesus’ omnipotent victory over sin, or that the depth of your sin is greater than His reach, or that the murk of your sin will overpower the radiance of His grace.  Christ declared in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”  He is faithful with those who come to Him.  Remember Jesus’ command for all to repent in Acts 17:30?  If the all-knowing Lord has made such a command, then He is prepared to honor and bestow grace upon those who do repent. 

What you say is true in that we cannot deserve grace.  However, this is the very definition of grace, is it not?  No one deserves it, but the Lord, who is no liar (Titus 1:2) offers it to all.  This is the humbling glory of it all, the unique glory that God desires you to see, to relish, and to respond to in repentance and humility.   To you, we say again, repent now!  Believe that God is able and willing to save you, and repentantly seek that salvation on His terms.  If you find yourself unable to believe this, honestly approach the gracious God of all and plead with Him to bless you, so undeservedly, with a true and saving belief in Him.  

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

 - Romans 10:12-13

The gospel is and will always be the most important matter of our lives, whether we are children of God or are outside His grace.  While we are here on earth, it is the matter with which we all have to do, for it can either save us and fuel us for a righteous, obedient life, or it can consign us for all time to an eternity in hell.  It is the sole point of connection which God offers to humanity that promises the riches of forgiveness and sonship with God, rather than the just and perpetual misery which our sin demands.  Praise, praise our great God for the glory that torrents through the gospel – for the grace and the wrath laid side by side, for the power that assures His purposes, for the ever-present and unassailable justice, and for the love that saves His children.  May all of our selfish objections, and all that we seek to withhold, simply give way before the wondrous gospel of Jesus Christ.

Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers (Part 4 of 5)

Simple Truth Entreated:  The Response of Unbelievers

           

If you are reading this and have not been saved from the just penalty of your sins by Jesus Christ, or if perhaps the force of biblical truth has removed you of all your certainty of your salvation, then do not barricade your heart against the saving truth of the Word  Repentance and surrender to Christ are your only rational recourse.  True, the gospel seeks to invade your sinful heart, to conquer it, and to change it as to make it utterly alien, but you must, you must throw open the gates and let it enter undisputed, or it will kill you someday, and for all eternity.  This gracious offer of the Lord, so real and substantial in this instant, will not endure even a hairsbreadth beyond your own life – what certainty have you beyond this brief moment? 

As Paul implored, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20b) We stand to gain nothing in this appeal, excepting joy, whereas you stand to gain “everything pertaining to life and godliness.” (2 Pet. 1:3b) Come; come now, before you draw another breath!  There is no matter of greater importance, nothing of truer urgency, than this matter of the sinful chasm between you and your Creator.  Do not wait for tomorrow when today may yet betray you!  “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) To die without Christ is to be judged by Christ, without the benefits of His protection or intercession.  He will weigh out your sins, and will justly repay each of them, including the sin of reading this appeal and ignoring it.  You will find yourself consigned to a blind torment beyond the reckoning of art or science, a lonely agony unsatiated by the endless passage of ages.  Surrender all to Christ; admit of your guilt before Him!  Plead His forgiveness, and lay your very life at His kingly feet.

If we urge you in light of His grace, we also charge you on the basis of His sovereignty.  “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31) God not only invites all to repent of their sins; He commands that repentance.  The day of judgment approaches, over which Christ will preside as proven, triumphant Lord, so the command has gone out:  repent now.  God has created this world such that He is Lord over all of it; He sovereignly issues His orders, and it falls to us to obey Him.  Fortunately, He is entirely wise, powerful, and righteous – we need not fear His leading. 

Many objections are commonly made by those who resist the gospel; let us briefly examine but a few:

- Some of you will say, “This is all well and good, but I simply do not believe in God.”  This is merely to say that you believe in yourself, for, as your finite mind cannot account for a God like the One revealed in the Bible, then He clearly must be a fabrication.  So you set yourself up as your own sure authority, and all your life is washed through the filter of your own good opinions.  Do you not see, though, how dangerous this becomes?  An earthworm could hardly conceive of a thinking, feeling, deciding, inventing human being, but this does not render human beings any less real.  Does an annelid’s inability to grasp music or technology make you or I any less real?  Surely not!  Rather, it serves to underscore the vast difference between a worm and a person.  

This vastness looms larger still between us and our God, and we cannot afford to dismiss this reality out of hand simply because it does not reduce to a comfortable human understanding.  In actuality, how disappointing would an entirely comprehensible deity be?  If God were such a one that could be understood completely, He would not be God at all, for this would fully assure us that He was a fabrication of the human mind.  Our inability to fully understand Him should not dissuade us of His reality.

- Some others will say, “Surely; I believe in God, but I cannot believe in your God.”  My friend, my God is the God revealed by the Bible; what better revelation of God and His character would you have?  Your own suppositions?  Another book, perhaps?  When science and archaeology have crushed countless so-called holy books to powder, the Bible stands conspicuously intact, a solitary monument in the midst of so much rubble.  Space does not permit a complete treatment of its enduring character, but I urge you, look into its history.  See how it has been preserved in the face of determined and repeated opposition.  Mark how its truths have not been altered, though it passes through centuries, through languages, and through cultures.  Note how it is the product of dozens of human minds from different eras and different nations, and yet it comes together as a cohesive whole.  You begin to understand that the Bible you hold in your hand is a startling book indeed – it is the revelation of the one true God to humanity, written perfectly by that very God through human agents, and preserved diligently by God against every feeble calamity and opposition that this world could muster.  To understand this book is to see our Creator as He has revealed Himself.

Simple Truth Revisited: The Response of Believers (Part 3 of 5)

Simple Truth Revisited:  The Response of Believers (continued)

3.  Assurance.  This is twofold.  First, our hearts are assured that we are in the faith, if indeed we behold the gospel in all its undimmed truth and do not shrink away or lash out.  If we seek to alter it, to blunt any of its sharp edges, whatever the reason, there is cause for concern.  Are humans not invariably sinners?  Did Christ not endure all of the Father’s punishment for sins?  Perhaps salvation is not pure grace?  Which portion of the Savior’s gospel truth, tell me, dare we adjust?

On the contrary, if we cherish the gospel in its fullness, if we believe that it is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16b), then our lives will evidence this dearly-held belief.   Our pursuit of righteousness, our attitude toward unbelievers, and our service of God’s kingdom and glory all stem from the hardy root of the gospel.  If a love for the gospel is evident in our lives, then assurance will be forthcoming.

Secondly, when we as believers examine the gospel, God’s Word grants us a greater understanding of its precious truths and their far-reaching implications.  Put simply, we are blessed with greater assurance that we believe truth and know truth.  We cannot afford to rely upon an attitude of “I heard this in Sunday school,” or “My favorite pastor says this.”  These words cannot hope to bear the weight of our beliefs amidst the tempests of life, because they hinge more upon human supposition than upon timeless truth.  Only the strength of God’s enduring Word can truly shape our understanding of the gospel and grant us clarity and assurance. 

4.  Purpose.  The gospel not only serves to direct people to God’s life, but it also serves to direct the lives of God’s people.  We have already seen how righteousness is a mandate of the true gospel.  To this, we now add the Great Commission:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matt. 28:20a) The gospel and discipleship go hand in hand.  It is gospel truth that frees people and makes them disciples, and it is the righteousness reflected in the gospel that becomes the pursuit of the disciple.  Thus the Great Commission is work that is not content merely to see the lost saved by the gospel; its fuller aim is to see those same people growing in righteousness as active, zealous disciples in whom the gospel continues to grow in their hearts and their priorities. 

Simple compassion for the lost also directs believers to the gospel.  If Christ is, as He Himself proclaimed, the only way of salvation, then we must bring people to Him.  We must display Him and His glory to the unbelieving world.  A common Christian adage is that Christianity is more than knowing facts concerning Jesus – it is about knowing the Savior Himself.  The truth here is healthy and undisputed, but let us take care, lest the axiom sway us too near to a different pole.  People must know the truth about Christ if they are to know Him, and they must know Him if they are to be saved by Him.  This is the substance of statements like Acts 4:12 or John 17:3, and it falls now to the church to disclose the person of Jesus Christ to the world, by imitation of His righteous character, and by proclamation of His saving work.  Is this not the gospel? 

The gospel, then, is not something that Christendom cannot afford to relegate solely to evangelists and new believers.  It is not the life vest that we grab when the plane is hurtling toward the ocean, only to discard once we are safe.  It is our spiritual life’s blood, and every bit as precious to our spiritual health as the blood that courses through our bodies is to our physical health.  Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a believer who could be said to possess too keen a focus upon the gospel, or too complete an obsession on living out its principles and implications.  The idea is impossible.  Sadly, though, it is far, far easier to picture a Christian in whom the gospel does not enjoy the preeminence that so richly becomes it.  An honest Christian sees in the mirror one who could stand to love the gospel yet more, who could wrap his or her life still tighter and more wholly around the gospel, for the glory of the One whom the gospel reveals.   For God’s glory, brothers and sisters, let us strive after this!

“Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel…”

                                          - Paul, from Philippians 1:26-27

Simple Truth Revisited: The Response of Believers (Part 2 of 5)

Simple Truth Revisited:  The Response of Believers

Clearly, gospel truth seeks a response from the unbeliever, but what of the believer?  There are those, who, after (evident) conversion, revisit the gospel but rarely; these may, I think, be sorted into two groups.  The first group, after making a profession of faith and repentance, make no move to grow or to obey.  If their cars leave the driveway on Sunday, it is to avert a culinary crisis, not a spiritual one.  And the next year, when the spring cleaning unearths their Bibles, they find a place for them on that shelf of books which they fully intend to read someday when life has considerably slowed (perhaps by Shakespeare, next to which the Bible seems to them no more important, and no easier to fathom).  To these, we say – read on, friend.  There are words in here for you. 

The second group is more careful to study and to enjoy fellowship, in accordance with scripture, but they consider that the gospel, having saved them, can impart but little further consequence into their spiritual life.   This is, in their thinking, the difference between the milk and the meat, as the author of Hebrews says, and they conclude it, then, a mark of immaturity to be shackled to the gospel.  Again, read on, friend. 

Four reasons come readily to mind as to why the believer benefits from returning to the true gospel time and again. 

1.  Adoration and Humility.  “Consider your calling, brethren,” Paul urges in 1 Cor. 1:26.  “…and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” (1 Cor. 1:28-31; emphasis added)  In other words, we are called to consider our own consummate weakness, and the complete life that God Himself has bestowed upon us, in direct opposition to that weakness.  Does this not stir our hearts to remember the indomitable force of God’s grace in our lives?  What place, then, has pride in our hearts? 

When we transfer to our God the esteem that we would otherwise squander on ourselves, we see God magnified, as He should be, and ourselves humbled, as we must be.   If we dare to suppose that this sort of attitude is fit only for infant believers just starting out, we simply guarantee that we will always be infant believers ourselves.  The Holy Spirit does not grow those who are insensible to the grace by which He always works.  Our humility before God communicates our acknowledgement of the insurmountable spiritual and moral failings which we possess, and our adoration of God recognizes the presence of His manifold spiritual and moral perfections.  The gospel rests at the very center of this understanding, and, as such, resides at the very center of life in Christ. 

2.  Righteousness.  The gospel, like salvation, extends beyond simple redemption.  Our Lord Jesus “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:14b)  Redemption was not the end of Christ’s aims; He sought to create a people who would pursue righteousness and grow in it.  Remember Ephesians 2:8-10:  His grace has made us, making boasting impossible, and His grace has indeed made us for specific good works.  The will of God is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3a). 

God’s call to righteousness is therefore traced back to His desire for righteousness, which is expressed, and indeed made apparent, in the gospel.  When we return to the gospel, the clarion call to righteousness sounds with divine urgency.  Are the wages of sin not death?  Was it not unrighteousness that earned this fate for humanity?  Survey the vast cost of salvation, won by a perfect obedience before the Father, the last Adam sustaining the utter righteousness that the first Adam could not!

It is obvious, then, that the gospel is not morally ambiguous, and it makes no provision for those who seek to maintain moral ambiguity.  In other words, it is an offense to the gospel to seek salvation from damnable sin without any desire to be removed from the mire of that very sin.  Be assured that any appeals for salvation made in this spirit will be spurned by the Father.

The gospel exists because of unrighteousness.  It counts an unmerited, perfect righteousness to the credit of those who repent, in order to surmount this human unrighteousness, and it sets people upon a lifelong pursuit of righteousness.  Thankfully for sinful humanity, within this calling resides powerful hope:  the grace of God that accompanies us in our righteous endeavors (Titus 2:11-12) has already been proven in our very redemption.  If His grace was able to draw us powerfully out of hopeless darkness, then surely we may trust in its ability to guide us in light!

Simple Truth (Part 1 of 5)

Author’s Note:  We'll inaugurate this blog with a daily series on the gospel:  what it truly is, how it should affect believers, and how unbelievers should respond.  I urge you, whoever you are, to take a moment to read on.

God, the only true God and He who created all things (Is. 45:18, 44:24), being entirely holy (Rev. 15:4), sovereign (Ps. 103:19), and eternal (Is. 40:28), lives in three Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt. 3:16-17, 28:19).

Although the world, as God created it, was “very good,” (Gen. 1:31), the human race has nevertheless become an unvarying group of sinners (Rom. 3:23, Eccl. 7:20), people who disregard God’s commands at every turn (Rom. 8:7-8).  This universal sinfulness has killed us spiritually (Eph. 2:1), making each of us worthy of eternal punishment (Rom. 6:23, Eph. 2:3, Matt. 25:41), and utterly  hindering us from pleasing God (Rom. 8:7-8).   God is entirely just, and must meet offenses against His own insuperable holiness with appropriate retribution (Ps. 7:12-13; 75:7-8):  an eternity of agony, separated from Him (Rev. 14:11, Matt. 25:46). 

It was not, however, God’s intention that the entire human race go down into eternal hell.  The masterful and incredibly loving stroke, devised before time began (Titus 1:2, Matt. 25:34), came in the form of Jesus Christ, God Himself, becoming fully human while still fully God (Phil. 2:6-7) and living a perfect, sinless life (1 Pet. 2:22, Heb. 7:26).  This life culminated in Christ willingly and sovereignly going to His own death (John 10:18) as His heavenly Father unstintingly laid the full weight of eternal punishment for the sins of many upon Him (2 Cor. 5:21, Is. 53:4-12).  We see that if Christ so suffered and died for our sins, then the just punishment for those sins has been depleted, and we need no longer go to Hell for them.  What gracious and superlative love!

After He had taken the Father’s just wrath upon Himself and died, He wondrously took up His life again three days later (Matt. 28:1-6, 1 Cor. 15:3-4), rising triumphantly from the dead and showing Himself to many (1 Cor. 15:5-8).  If He has raised Himself from the dead, then He has gloriously conquered sin and death – not only is He able to keep people from hell, then, but He can also give them eternal life (Rom. 6:3-10, 1 John  5:11)! 

The uniqueness of this act cannot be overlooked or understated.  When Jesus said that “no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6b), He demonstrated the solitary access He offered to the Father.  The apostle Peter later affirmed the same truth:  “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) If we would be saved from the just wrath of God for the sins in our hearts, we must seek that salvation by the means which He, the sovereign and only true God has established.

What is our response to this?  How can we have this life and avoid our eternal doom?  The command in the New Testament is that people “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” (Acts 26:20b; cf. Matt. 4:17).  In other words, we must remorsefully admit of our sinful character to God, and beg Him to forgive us on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of sinners.  We must also understand that, according to Acts 26:20, we cannot claim to be repentant, but then continue to live and act just as we did before; we must count the cost (Luke 14:26-35).  Our salvation, if genuine, will bear the fruit of good works because we want to please God (1 John 5:3, Rom. 7:22)!

This is the story of us all, friends.  Have we ourselves availed ourselves of Christ’s precious blood and loving work of grace?  Have we humbled ourselves before a mighty and just God?  If so, do we now seize the opportunity to share this extraordinarily good news with others?  More on this later.