TODAY #12–Jesus, our Hero!

TODAY

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”—Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out…that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.

There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him—for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith—and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” —Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

You stand fast through faith, so do not become proud, but fear—Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jn.1:11,12ESV; Mk.2:17ESV; Acts 4:19,20ESV; Acts 4:12NLT; Rom.10:12ESV; Gal.3:26ESV; Gal.4:6NLT; Rom.10:4NIV; Rom.11:20ESV; Gal.5:14ESV

There’s no way around Him, no way to commend myself to the Father but through Him. No true goodness apart from His. I find I must continually review these truths.  It is said that the ground at the foot of the Cross is level.  There are no distinctions here, no superior Christians, no naturally good people.  All are given new life because of Jesus’ death for their sakes.  He did not come to call the ones who were sure of their good standing with God because of their diligent rule-keeping.  These He rebuked and called to repentance so that they could see their need of a Saviour.  And once we’re ushered into the family of God, there is still no room for boasting.  It is all of God’s mercy that we see the Son and our need of Him.  Even faith is His gift to us.  In it we stand fast, dearly loved siblings of Jesus, our Hero.
–LS

 

 

 

 

 

 

TODAY #11–When sin masquerades as goodness…

TODAY

I’m reading in Galatians today–looking for a better understanding of what it looks like to be walking by the Spirit. Sometimes sin is not obvious. In fact often I am blind to my own sin nature.  It masquerades as a good thing, a conscientious thing, a right thing.  And yet the aftermath is not love, joy or peace.  And I discover that my self is in control rather than being controlled by the Spirit! It’s not just wild parties, sexual immorality, or outbursts of anger that reveal the sin nature at work.  Sin can hide in the heart in the form of ‘selfish ambition’ and ‘the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group’.  

False teachers had come winsomely coaxing the Galatians to turn back to keeping the law so as to be better Christians, to join their elite forces and become circumcised so they could boast of their superior righteousness… 

Into this context Paul speaks God’s words:

If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives—when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit.  Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves…the exact opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.  But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.

What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people—What is important is faith, expressing itself in love—May God’s mercy and peace be upon all those who live by this principle.  They are the new people of God!

Galatians 5:25; 5:22,23; 5:16-18; 5:6; 6:16 (NLT, British text)

Sin is not always blatantly obvious.   It can boast of great self-control while all the while feeding the self’s passion to be in charge, to be ‘productive’ on its own terms and  to be esteemed as ‘conscientious’.

The Pharisees were surely conscientious!  They might not have been caught in wild parties or obvious immorality.  In fact they strolled about looking pious, intimidating the common man with their intense ‘goodness’, all the while being odious to God and incurring the harshest of Jesus’ words.  They turned righteousness into a nit-picking list of do’s and don’ts that served to assure them of their own righteousness while in fact alienating them from God!  It is to them I look when I need a reminder of sin at its most deceptive.

They were not unlike the religious leaders that wheedled their way into the church at Galatia, luring them to become better Christians by getting circumcised and joining their elite band.  Theirs was a righteousness superior to that of the simple Gospel preached by Paul, or so they thought.  This fraudulent version of the ‘good news’ was attractive.  It offered the go-getters something they could do to improve their standing with God and especially with man!  It appealed to the competitive.  They could look better than their lowly neighbor and earn themselves some congratulatory pats on their own backs.  Best of all, they could feel good about themselves!!

The true Gospel isn’t about this.  It paints a grim picture of our self-enthralled natures.  The hope of the Gospel is found in dying to my sinful self in order to gain the life of Christ within.  It means dying to my pursuit of goodness on my own terms.  I am not good enough to commend myself to God and will never be apart from reliance on Jesus’ death and resurrection on my behalf.  Only His goodness has merit.  Only His life in me by His Spirit can cause me to walk in a way that truly pleases God.

I am often not pleased with my productivity on any given day.  I often have unrealistic ideals of my potential.  I get annoyed when my plans are interrupted, my ideas turned down, my ambitions foiled.  Love, joy and peace vanish so readily. And then I have to reconsider whether my plans were in fact God’s plans for me.  Was I following my agenda or His? 

I suspect that  dying to selfish ambition is at the very heart of what it looks like to follow the Spirit.  The natural self and the Spirit are constantly dueling for control. My ‘choices are never free from this conflict’ (Gal.5:17 NLT) and yet I am not at the mercy of the old me.  The Spirit fuels God’s desires in my heart. He leads me in paths of righteousness.  He opens my eyes to wrong motives and selfish ambitions and points me to fresh opportunity to love and serve the ones whose paths I cross.  This is the life I live by faith in the One who loved me enough to die that I might so live!

–LS

 

 

TODAY #10–Just as if…

TODAY

I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD.  Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin….I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.–Nothing in all creation can hide from him.  Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes.  This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.  That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God.  Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him.–For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.–For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.–for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.–if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.–God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.–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.

Ezek.18:30,32ESV; Heb.4:13,14NLT British text; Rom.3:20-22ESV; Rom.10:4ESV; Mt.12:37ESV; Rom.10:9ESV; Rom.3:24NLT; I Tim.6:12ESV; Ps.32:1,2

Incredible this reality in which we are called to stand as those who claim Christ as our King. He has done all.  We appear before God just as if we had never sinned.  The fight is to continue to believe when sin dogs our steps and condemnation flutters in to find a place to roost.  We need only run back to rest under the shadow of the Cross.  There our sins, past-present-and future, were nailed.  God declares us righteous on this basis and this basis alone. –LS

Listen in on these lyrics till your heart resounds with them:

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love

And bled for us
Freely You’ve bled for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave

(Christ is risen: Matt Maher / Mia Fieldes)

TODAY #9–Thank-you for the Cross, my Friend

TODAY

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake… And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.–But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Therefore…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross–so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.  He will come again but not to deal with our sins again.  This time he will bring salvation to all those who are eagerly waiting for him.

I Jn.2:12,28 ESV; I Jn.1:7-9ESV; Heb.12:1,2ESV; Heb.9:28 NLT British ed.

“Thank-you for the Cross, my Friend”–I sang the words lately with a fresh jolt that this One who came to die on my account is now my Friend.  He died for this, accomplishing all that was needful to deal with my sin-debt, awaiting only my faith in His sufficient sacrifice.  No longer is my sin held against me no matter how poor my current track-record on this journey to glory.  By faith I can count Him my friend and not wither under His gaze as with increasing age I am made more and more aware of my decrepit human nature.  He is not my Friend because I am so worthy of His friendship.  Our relationship is based on my reliance on His worth, His sacrifice of Himself on my behalf, and His resurrection. 

Though sin’s deadly power is broken it still tries to trip me up, and in its wake I’m tempted to shrink back in shame and doubt Jesus’ friendly gaze.  But sin deceives from start to finish. It is never so potent that confession will not banish its shame.  And so I look to the Cross and live! –LS

 

TODAY #8–Our Shepherd was Himself a Lamb…

TODAY

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all—John looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”—For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…”You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings…Behold, I have come to do your will”…And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all—like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away… stricken for the transgression of my people.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep—So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture”.

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Is.53:6; Jn. 1:36; Heb 10:4, 8-10; Is. 53:6-8; Jn. 10:11,7,9; I Pet. 2:25; Ps. 95:6-7 ESV

I’ve been confronted again this week with the brutal realities of the crucifixion in Lee Strobel’s concise: “The Case for Easter,” a journalistic investigation of the evidence for the Resurrection.  Such an extreme display of cruelty only underlines the extent of man’s need for a Saviour.  That He died extending forgiveness to His persecutors further demonstrates the gulf between man and God.  And yet Jesus was willing to become as we are, a lamb, to lead us back to God.  Oh what happy sheep we have reason to be!   –LS