News: Living Christ Today Devotionals

Holy One and Resurrected Redeemer

2011-12-05T16:01:18-06:00

Read: Psalm 16 and Job 19:23–27

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

— Psalm 16: 5–6

“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!

— Job 19:23–27

Reflect and Pray:

What wonderful sentiments of acceptance of one’s lot these two passages of Scripture communicate! The psalmist and Job both give us pictures of people who know where their true contentment lies. Though they have faced good times and bad, both writers ultimately rest not on the circumstances of their lives or on the quantity of material goods they have managed to accumulate, for these are changeable and fleeting. No, true joy comes only from knowing the Lord—the One who made us and redeemed us—and from resting in his steadfast, abounding love regardless of our circumstances.

Though the psalmist and Job lived long before Jesus took on human flesh and made all of God’s promises reality in his life, death, and resurrection, they knew the power of God’s love and looked with longing for the One who was to come. We who live on the other side of the Cross can rejoice with them that we know that our Redeemer lives—and one day we will meet him in the flesh!

O Lord, your mercy and goodness to us is humbling and awe-inspiring. May our hearts be ever joyful as we rest in you, and may we, like the psalmist and Job, find our strength in knowing and loving you no matter what our circumstances. Amen.

Messiah: Son of God and King

2011-12-04T15:57:46-06:00

Read: Psalm 2

I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

— Psalm 2:7–12

Reflect and Pray:

Earthly kings or rulers of any kind are often under the delusion that their power is their own, that it comes to them by right and is theirs to do with as they please. But God says otherwise. The fact that any earthly ruler—whether he or she is a believer or not—has authority at all is a gift of God, and God expects that authority to be used wisely and as a reflection of his own righteous rule over his creation. Though all human rulers fall far short in that regard, there is one King who does not—the Messiah, the sovereign Son of God, whose coming the psalmist here envisions and whose reign will bring peace to the righteous and destruction to the wicked. As Israel looked forward to the day of Messiah’s coming, so we of the new Israel look forward to his glorious return. Long may his banner wave!

O Lord, we pray for those in positions of power at whatever level that they would know and love the One from whom all true authority comes, and that they would use their power wisely and well for the good of those they govern. May we be faithful to pray for those in authority over us and give them the respect their offices deserve, even when we may disagree with their policies or actions. Amen.

Son of David

2011-12-03T15:55:52-06:00

Read: 2 Samuel 7:1–17

Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.”

— 2 Samuel 7:1–11

Reflect and Pray:

Have you ever had your mind and heart set on all the great things you planned to do for God—only to have those plans sidelined by God himself? It can be quite humbling to realize that even though our goals may have been good and honoring to God, they were simply not what he wanted from us at that particular time. David desperately longed to build a temple for the Lord to honor the God who had been so faithful to his people. Yet God told David that his dream—good as it was in itself—was not what he desired. God had other plans for David. The grand vision of building a temple for the Lord would eventually fall to David’s son, Solomon; but God promised to build an even greater “house” for David—for it was through David’s family line that the Savior of mankind would come. Through David, God reminds us that his plans are never thwarted—and always better than we could ask or imagine.

O Lord, help us by your grace to be open always to your purposes rather than our own. Teach our hearts to beat to the rhythm of your own and use our hands—in small ways or in large—to build your Kingdom one act of love at a time. Amen.

A Prophet Like Moses

2011-12-02T15:53:06-06:00

Read: Deuteronomy 18:14–22

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

— Deuteronomy 18:14–18

Reflect and Pray:

Again and again God gives his people what they need. In Egypt he enabled them to persevere despite the hardships of slavery. In the Exodus, he gave them guidance and safe passage through the Red Sea. In their desert wanderings he gave them food and water. Now, as they near the Promised Land, Moses assures them that God will one day raise up a prophet for them even greater than he, a prophet whose words will come from God himself and whose authority will be unquestionable; his voice will be the voice of Truth. In Jesus Christ we see and hear the ultimate manifestation of this prophet—he is the way, the truth, and the life that God’s Word provides.

O Lord, keep our ears so tuned to the voice of your Son that no other sounds would distract us from his words. Keep our hearts so tuned to his will for us that all our thoughts, words, and deeds become but joyful echoes of his own. Amen.

Star of Jacob

2011-12-01T15:50:45-06:00

Read: Numbers 23:18–24; 24:3–9, 15–19

And he took up his discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
Edom shall be dispossessed;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed.
Israel is doing valiantly.
And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion
and destroy the survivors of cities!”

— Numbers 24:15–19

Reflect and Pray:

Despite his many efforts to do so, the schemer Balaam could not utter a curse upon the people of Israel as their enemy Balak had desired. Instead, God used the mouth of Balaam to breathe out a blessing for his people, and to reiterate yet again his promise of future glory. No matter what the failings of his people, no matter what the obstacles that seem set to derail his plan, God is never deterred. He turns even the words of fools to his purposes and brings to full fruition the seeds he himself has planted. Though we may only see it dimly as we look through eyes weakened by our humanity and sin, the Star of Jacob shines brightly, bathing us in the light of God’s eternal love.

O Lord, grant that our eyes would always see the light of your Son, and that our mouths would speak nothing but praises of him so that others too may be blessed and bask in the warmth of his love. Amen.

Lion of Judah

2011-11-30T15:48:56-06:00

Read: Genesis 48:15–16; 49:8–10

“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

— Genesis 49:8–10

Reflect and Pray:

Despite some serious missteps on the part of Jacob and his sons that seem to threaten the fulfillment of God’s promise, the line of Abraham nonetheless continues. God works even through seeming disasters to bring about blessing and carry forward his promise. If we listen closely, we can hear in Jacob’s blessing of his sons further intimations of the One to come. If we look carefully, we can see in the features of the Lion of Judah the face of Jesus Christ. The Lion’s roar echoes down the corridors of time, telling of great and joyful things to come.

O Lord, may our ears be open always to the sound of the Lion’s roar. May our eyes be open always to the face of the One who gave himself for us. And may our hearts and hands be ever ready and willing to be used, however humbly, in his service. Amen.

The Only Beloved Son and Sacrifice

2011-11-29T15:46:56-06:00

Read: Genesis 22:1-18

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

— Genesis 22:9–14

Reflect and Pray:

God had once told Abraham he would be the father of many nations. Now, Abraham is asked to give up his only son—the son of God’s promise—for a purpose he does not understand. What must Abraham have felt at this time? What would you have felt? Yet Abraham, in faith, obeys and prepares to sacrifice his son. But God in his mercy provides a substitute sacrifice whose blood takes the place of Isaac’s. What a perfect picture of the Greater Sacrifice who would come to redeem our sins and through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed! God told Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, but then provided his one and only Son for us—and the world (John 3:16).

O Lord, may we, by your Spirit, have faith to believe as Abraham did, and to put our trust in you despite what circumstances may tell us. May we, like Abraham, become blessings to many for your sake. Amen.

Seed of Eve

2011-11-28T15:43:34-06:00

Read: Genesis 3:1–20

The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

— Genesis 3:14–15

Reflect and Pray:

Ponder the tragedy of our first parents’ fall from grace into sin through their lack of trust in God and their disobedience of his Word. Consider the extent of the impact of their actions, which affected not only themselves, but also all of creation and all of their descendants—including us! Consider as well the infinite mercy of God who, even as his children turned from him, was already at work preparing a way to bring them back again. Meditate on God’s promise of One to come who will “bruise the head of the serpent” and set the world right once more.

O Lord, we thank you that by your grace you do not abandon your wayward children even when they abandon you. May the power of your mercy sustain and transform us as we seek to love you more. Amen.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

2011-11-27T15:41:43-06:00

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

— Author Unknown (12th Century)

I pray that this Advent season will be a blessed time for you and your family as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and look with expectation for the day of his return.

Resting in the Grace We Cannot Earn

2011-11-25T10:13:15-06:00

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

— Isaiah 30:15

We can mentally assent to all the biblical truths about grace and yet not apply them to our hearts. This can manifest itself in “repentance” for sin that is really a “good work” we offer to God as bribe for our pardon. We say, in effect, “See, God, I feel real guilty. I got down on my knees, prayed the prayer for pardon, and tried to make things right. Now are you happy?” There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any single component of such repentance—unless we expect it to make God forgive us.

It is a grave mistake to overemphasize the human-action implications of “repentance”—especially if we try to derive support for this from the biblical term’s historical origins. The Hebrew word translated as repentance means “to turn.” If we are not careful, we may press this insight to imply that repentance is primarily a turning from doing bad things to doing good things. But as we have already seen, human efforts cannot be the basis for being made right with God.

Repentance is not a turning from one category of works to another; rather, it is a turning from human works altogether to complete reliance on God. Though new obedience does indeed follow true repentance, the amending of our ways is never a condition of our forgiveness. Repentance is not so much a doing as a depending. It is not so much a striving for pardon as a posture of humility.

In true repentance we confess our total reliance on God’s mercy. We acknowledge the inadequacy of anything we could offer to gain his pardon and we rest upon his grace rather than trying to do anything to deserve it. We confess what our hearts know to be our sin, with the confidence that God’s heart is large enough to cover what we are unable to fully expose (Ps. 19:12–13). In so doing we also confess the inadequacy of our repentance, with the confidence that we can rest under the broad mantle of his grace. We lean heavily on the words of Isaiah 30:15 quoted above.

God promises us mercy and everlasting peace if we will only give up our reliance on ourselves and turn to him in humility. Let us rejoice in that promise and rest in the sweet embrace of his grace.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

The Peril of Do-It-Yourself Salvation

2011-11-24T10:09:13-06:00

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

— Mark 10:17–22

The daughter of a Christian friend once disobeyed her parents and handled the family car in a way that caused an accident. The daughter could not pay for the resulting repairs or traffic ticket, so her parents did so, with the understanding that she would pay them back over time. They did not need their daughter’s money, but hoped to teach her lessons needed for her safety and maturity. The daughter, however, struggled to keep the payback arrangements. Her parents had to keep reminding her of her obligations until one day the daughter finally exploded: “I know what I did was wrong! I know I was irresponsible! I wish you would get off my case so I could figure out a way to fix this!” Her father replied, “Honey, what I want you to figure out is that by yourself you can’t fix this.”

Our heavenly Father’s words to us are quite similar. Because we too easily echo the words of this young lady, or the rich young man in Mark 10—“What must I do?”—God replies, “What you ‘do’ will never be enough to fix your situation. Your sin is too great and your abilities too limited for you to fix the mess of your life. You need my grace. You must turn away from all of your own resources and trust that only what I provide will fix your situation.”

If our best works will not merit pardon for sin, then what ultimately must we seek? God’s grace alone. Unlike the rich young man who wants to “do” something so that he can broker his good works into spiritual blessing (Mark 10:17), the repentant heart senses its unworthiness and yearns for God to fix the damage to our souls that we cannot fix.

If you too are struggling to “do” something in your own power to fix all that is wrong in your life, know that all such efforts are doomed to failure without humble reliance on God’s grace through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Only through his strength can any of us ever be truly “fixed”—or make any progress toward the spiritual wholeness our Lord desires for us.

Let us pray for hearts willing to come before our Lord in humble repentance, seeking refuge in his work on our behalf and not our own.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Confessing Our Sin--All of It--Out of True Conviction and Humility

2011-11-23T10:07:04-06:00

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

— Mark 10:17–22

During the Great Awakening, when the Spirit of God revived much of our nation’s early faith, the great preacher Jonathan Edwards presided over a massive prayer meeting of 800 men. Into that meeting a woman sent a message asking the men to pray for her husband. The note described a man who in spiritual pride had become unloving, prideful, and difficult. Thinking that perhaps the man was present, Edwards read the note to the crowd and asked if the man described would raise his hand so that the assembly could pray for him. Three hundred men raised their hands. Each had been convicted by the Spirit of his sin and longed to confess. A repentant life is so characterized. Rather than hiding sin, or minimizing it, or blaming others, the repentant heart longs to confess.

Not so the rich young man with whom Jesus deals in this passage from Mark. In professing to have kept all the laws, the man displays both his ignorance of the real requirements of the Law and his lack of desire to open his heart to God. When the Spirit truly touches us regarding the presence and awfulness of our sin, confession leaps to our lips. We see our sin as the spiritual poison that it is and we long to spit it out. This young man indicates no such longing. He desires to receive reward for his faith rather than to offer confession for his faults.

Humble acknowledgment of our wrong characterizes the prayer times of the repentant life. We do not hide from God matters large or small, obvious or obscure. We not only want to confess to God the sin we are aware of, but also pray for his Holy Spirit to reveal the things hidden from our own consciences so that we might confess them as well (Ps. 19:12–14). The repentant heart desires full confession. It is more concerned about relationship with God than about reputation among men (Ps. 51:4–6).

Let us ask God today for the grace to be humble before him, and to confess honestly and openly the ways in which we have failed to be the people he calls us to be. Let us praise him in thanksgiving for Jesus Christ our Lord, through whose blood alone we gain forgiveness and eternal peace.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Checking Our Egos--and Our "Goodness"--at the Door of Repentance

2011-11-22T10:04:12-06:00

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

— Psalm 139:23–24

A friend once told me of his pastor’s astonishing response to a sharp criticism: “I will listen to every word that you have to say and take it to the Lord for examination. I want to be corrected if I am wrong.” Remarkable to the man who reported this to me was his pastor’s desire to discern the possible evil in his own heart rather than to dodge blame or reproof.

This is the mark of a repentant heart: it recognizes the awfulness of sin (even hidden sin) and listens to the prompting of the Spirit and the counsels of others to see “if there be any grievous way in me” (Ps. 139:24). The unrepentant person cannot face sin and therefore seeks to blame others, minimize the sin, or deny its presence. The repentant person sees sin as it truly is—an assault on the peace and purity of the soul—and thus is thankful for correction.

The understanding that we should desire repentance because it removes contaminants from our relationship with God and with others helps distinguish false from true repentance. False repentance is less concerned with eliminating spiritual contamination than it is with avoiding the personal consequences of sin. True repentance is chiefly concerned with the wrong we have done to our Savior and to others. False repentance is self-preoccupied; true repentance is a selfless seeking of spiritual fellowship and renewal. False repentance flees correction; true repentance seeks it.

God wants us to understand the true malignancy of our sin. Our disease is too severe to be remedied by our own goodness or to be avoided by shifting blame to others. The Bible’s analysis of the seriousness of our condition should cause us to examine all the arteries, vessels, and capillaries of the way we live. As we test all our relationships, patterns of speech, entertainments, habits, and even religious practices, we progressively discover the cancerous cells that threaten our spiritual health. These discoveries will create healthy dissatisfaction with our level of personal goodness even as they turn us in repentance toward the true means of our ultimate healing.

May the Lord grant that each of us would be like my friend’s pastor, willing to hear a word of reproof spoken in love, and willing to repent fully of those thoughts, words, or deeds that separate us from ourselves, each other, and our God.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

From Filthy Rags to Glorious Riches--By Way of Christ

2011-11-21T09:40:33-06:00

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. . . . But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

— Isaiah 64:6, 8

When I was a boy, my father and I once worked on sawing a log that, though we did not realize it, had a rotten core. At one point a large piece sheared off the log. It looked to my youthful imagination like a horse’s head. I took that piece home with me, attached a length of board to it with a dozen or so nails down the length of it, added a rope tail, wrapped the whole thing in butcher block paper, and proudly presented it to my dad on his next birthday. He opened the gift and said, “It’s wonderful! What is it?” “It’s a tie rack, Dad,” I said. “You hang your ties on the nails.” Dad smiled and thanked me. He leaned the horse against his closet wall (because it would not stand upright by itself) and used it as a tie rack for years.

When I gave that gift to my father, I thought it was “good.” In my mind this work of art was ready for the Metropolitan Museum. But as I matured, I realized that it was not nearly as good as I had thought. I understood that my father had received and used my gift not because of its goodness, but out of his goodness. In a similar way, our heavenly Father receives our gifts, not so much because they deserve his love, but because he is love.

The great disproportion between our good works and God’s holiness never goes away in this life. Even our best works will never be sufficiently free of the contamination of human motive and imperfection to earn us God’s affection or merit his pardon. In fact, our works are so mixed with sinfulness that they are like “polluted garments,” as the prophet Isaiah says; if God did not act in love, they would actually be subject to his judgment. Fortunately for us, God has chosen to deal with our sin through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, through whom our polluted garments are exchanged for robes of glory and in whom we are found righteous and acceptable in his sight.

May we never forget the all-encompassing, life-changing power of this simple yet profound fact, and may we live each day to the glory of the One whose selfless sacrifice on our behalf has made us beloved children of our heavenly Father.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Getting a Right Picture of Ourselves Before God

2011-11-18T15:32:18-06:00

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

— Mark 10:17–22

Jesus works on behalf of this rich man by causing a number of powerful spiritual truths to converge to make the man perceive the depth of his spiritual poverty.

The Holiness of God. The man addresses Jesus as “Good teacher,” to which Jesus offers the troubling but instructive rebuke: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” True repentance always begins by acknowledging the truth of this simple statement: only God is good. There is none like him. No one else is comparable. No one else measures up. Between his perfection and our performance lies a gulf unbridgeable by human means.

The Reality of Our Sin. The man reveals his hubris by asking Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Of course, we cannot do anything to inherit something—what we inherit comes to us by virtue of our birth and what someone else has done. When Jesus tells him to keep all of God’s commandments, the young man replies: “all these I have kept from my youth.” He essentially places himself on the same level as God, thus breaking the first commandment! His words remind us that without an understanding of God’s holiness, we cannot see the terrible reality of our own sin.

The Evil of Our Righteousness. Knowing that the man will not willingly face the depth of his sin, Jesus confronts him with the evil of his righteousness—the inadequacy of human goodness to qualify us for heaven. Our Lord tells the man to sell all he has and give it to the poor. The man’s reluctance to do so reveals that he is more attached to his earthly wealth than to a desire to live for God.

Though the works we do may indeed be good, and even a blessing to others, there is never sufficient goodness in them to make them truly holy by God’s standards. That is why we all need Jesus. Only his atoning work on the cross, done to perfection out of infinite love for undeserving sinners, can achieve all that even the best of our deeds cannot.

Once we recognize this powerful truth, it nurtures our repentance, renews our hearts, and enables us to rely on God’s grace alone as we live our lives for his sake—and for his glory.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

The Repentance That Brings New Life

2011-11-17T15:29:17-06:00

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

— Mark 10:17–22

This account of the rich young man may seem a strange place to learn the nature of repentance. We typically think of him as one who refuses to repent. Yet by this inverse image we are able to distinguish what true repentance must be and, perhaps, see enough of ourselves mirrored here to seek a new path toward God.

Jesus uses this encounter to say to us, “See how this young man strives to make himself right before God? He uses his words and actions to convince himself that he deserves what God grants. Don’t do that! You need to repent of all confidence in your accomplishments to know God’s grace.”

Repentance that rests on grace alone is not easily reconciled with our instinctive patterns of thought, so Jesus arrests our attention with his surprising response to the young man’s request. His words seem initially to affirm the young man’s suspicion that we earn God’s favor with our good deeds. However, Jesus uses the young man’s desires and claims to reveal to him—and to us—the anemia of human goodness even when it engages in religious exercise.

Against the background of the cross, even though the outward form of our spiritual observances may be great, and the mechanics of our religious performance seemingly perfect, they still lack what is needed for spiritual health. While God does require and bless our obedience, we do not secure our eternal relationship with him by our actions, no matter how meticulously, strenuously, seriously, or sacrificially we may do them. Even our words of repentance will not heal us if they become merely a religious ritual repeated to make ourselves right with God.

If we fail to understand how we rely on God’s grace alone to make us right with him, our Christian walk necessarily becomes a showy parade of pride in spiritual gifts and achievements, permeated with envy of others’ accomplishments. Such notions will ultimately wound us spiritually and weaken our witness for Christ.

Let us pray that the healing power of God’s grace would so permeate our hearts and minds that we would bow down to him in complete, total, and true repentance, relying only on his mercy to us in Jesus Christ to secure our place before him and restore true joy to our lives.

This material is adapted from chapter 3 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Remembering Who We Are in Christ

2011-11-16T15:25:45-06:00

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

— 1 John 3:1

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

— Philippians 4:12–13

When my wife taught high school, a special learning consultant came to instruct teachers about learning disabilities and to test some of the children who were struggling academically. The consultant discovered that one child, Bill, had a malfunctioning connection between what his brain knew and what he could actually transfer to his hand to write on a test. Once this was known, the consultant was able to suggest forms of oral testing that enabled Bill to show what he really knew.

There was still much learning and catching up for Bill to do, but once he knew that his status was not that of an academic washout and that he had the ability to improve, his despair and resignation about his schoolwork disappeared. He no longer thought of himself as stupid—and in fact he had never really been so. He just did not know his real status or his real power to improve. It was a very special gift for the consultant to share with Bill the knowledge of both.

God has done something even more precious for us. Some of us—because of our sin, lack of progress, or comparison with others—have determined ourselves to be spiritually stupid, or even hated by God. But the Bible tells us of our true status and ability. Because of our union with Christ, we have the status of the One who gave his life for us and to us—God’s own Son. And because his Spirit now indwells us, we have the ability to change and progress in our Christian walk. Though sin still exists in our lives, this does not establish who we are. There is still much work to do, but we can obey our God because of who we are—God’s beloved children for whom he gave his Son, and to whom he has given his Spirit.

May God grant us the grace always to remember who we are in Christ, and that his power and ability, not ours, enables us to grow in holiness and become more and more like him. That is an encouraging and empowering thought indeed!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Growing in Grace Through New Life in the Spirit

2011-11-15T15:23:27-06:00

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

— Galatians 5:22–24

The new affections of a Spirit-changed heart combine with the instruction of the means of grace to mature us in faith. Like physical growth in children, however, the process of spiritual growth may vary greatly among different individuals. Some grow quickly, sometimes spurting forward, other times plateauing; for others, progress seems virtually undetectable over many years. We all grow according to God’s plan and purposes, but there is not a linear math to prescribe our advances.

No growth occurs at all, however, without the realization that we cannot progress in our faithfulness to God without the supernatural work of the Spirit. This acknowledgment keeps us from pride in our maturity, or from too hasty judgment of others’ spiritual condition. For instance, I can be tempted to take pride in my parenting by virtue of my children’s wonderful record of conduct and scholarship. However, I may learn upon my entry into heaven that the reason God so blessed me was that my faith was too weak to have persevered with the more troubled children of other Christian parents (whom I too frequently judge for their apparent failings).

Only the Spirit knows what is best for the spiritual nurture of each individual, and he matures us by means natural and supernatural that will be fully revealed to us only in glory. Yet we can rejoice now because, by faith, our union with Christ and the power of his Spirit working within us mean that our status before God does not change while our ability to obey him does.

This knowledge frees us from the despair of trying to find within ourselves the resources to earn God’s love, but it does not remove our need to seek godliness with vigor and dedication. Progress in sanctification does require work from us, but we are made willing and able to work because of our sure relationship with the Lord who gave himself for us, rose from the dead, and now indwells us with his life-changing power.

By faith, the resources of our union with Christ become the means by which we live the life our God and our regenerated hearts desire. Praise be to God for such a great and glorious gift !

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

"Rewired" By God's Spirit for the Pursuit of Holiness

2011-11-14T15:20:23-06:00

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

— Galatians 5:22–24

Because I am a new creature in Christ, the Spirit of God indwells me and, through the means of grace, teaches, trains, and “rewires” me so that I can mature in knowledge and righteousness. This supernatural rewiring reminds me of the electric trains I played with as a child. When I wanted the train to reverse its course, I did not push it with my hands. This may have worked for a while, but I did not have the energy or ability to keep the train traveling on a different course for long. Instead, a switch in the wiring reversed the polarity of the train so that it naturally and continually traveled in the new direction.

Similarly, the Spirit changes our hearts in a way that our own efforts cannot achieve. He supernaturally reorients us to love and obey, and he gives us the inclination and power to follow him. Thus, spiritual change is more than a matter of practicing certain disciplines such as prayer or Bible study. While these are important tools for our spiritual maturity, we should not assume that their use automatically or proportionally makes the Holy Spirit work. We progress in sanctification as we humbly repent and prayerfully depend upon the Spirit to mature our wills and transform our affections so that we may stay on the course that he has designed.

Evidence of this supernatural “rewiring” by the Spirit exists not in the total absence of sin in our lives, but in our changed attitude toward our sin. While Christians sometimes still yield to temptation, they now hate their susceptibility to the wrong. Once, this godly hatred did not exist because the mind, untouched by the indwelling Spirit, loved the world and was hostile to God (Rom. 8:5–7; James 4:4–5; 1 John 2:15). The repulsion we feel for our sin is our internal witness of the new nature that God’s Spirit has supernaturally created in us.

Let us rejoice and be grateful to the God who loves his wayward children so much that he not only gave his Son to redeem us from our sin, but also renews us with his own Spirit so that we may, by his grace, grow in holiness day by day. Alleluia!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Able to Please God After All--In the Power of Christ

2011-11-11T10:16:16-06:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

– Galatians 2:20

Faith in Christ gives us confidence that our status before God does not change—but it also gives us confidence that our ability does change. Paul’s statement that he “lives by faith” in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him assures us of Christ’s continuing influence in our lives. We not only have Christ’s righteousness by virtue of our union with him, we also have his power. Christ’s life substitutes for ours in supplying our ability to please God as well as supplying the righteousness that God accepts.

By our union with Christ, God makes us fundamentally new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). Once, we were dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1); we were “not able not to sin,” as theologians have classically expressed it. But now, with the living presence of God in us, though we are still in the same bodies we are essentially different creatures.

God has regenerated us through his Spirit so that we now have Christ’s presence and power in us. With this new nature we have new desires, new goals, new priorities, and new abilities (Rom. 8:5–11). In fact, through our union with Christ we are able not to do the wrong that the Holy Spirit reveals to our consciences. This does not mean that we become sinless in this life. The limitations of our humanity and the resistance of our wills to the Spirit’s influence remain until we are perfected in heaven’s glory. But our new nature enables us increasingly to discern and defeat the forces of evil in our lives.

Faith in our union with Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit provide the “double cure,” ridding us of sin’s “guilt and power,” as the great hymn “Rock of Ages” puts it. Because God has regenerated us as new creatures, we can actually breathe the air God provides to enable us to run the race of holiness in this life. Faith in our ability to do so is what allows us to run with confidence, perseverance, and power.

If you have been renewed in Christ, praise him each day for the wonderful gift of this new life. If you have yet to experience the amazing joy of such renewal, ask God today to change your heart through the power of his Spirit—and the power of Christ for life!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Breathing in the "Air" of Christ's Love

2011-11-10T10:13:35-06:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

– Galatians 2:20

The difference that the knowledge of our unchanging status before God makes in our lives can be demonstrated through the way many Christians practice the means of grace—prayer, Scripture reading, and communion with God and other believers through worship and the sacraments. Some see these more as means to grace rather than means of grace, reasoning that God will love them more if they practice more of these disciplines (or practice them more often), and that he will love them less if their practice is inadequate.

This kind of thinking damages our spiritual walk with God, for the magnitude of God’s holiness compared to even our most strenuous disciplines will drive us to obsession with our works and/or despair of his satisfaction with them. Disciplines that may seem initially to be good buckets to extract love from the well of God’s heart ultimately will be recognized as mere thimbles lowered into a bottomless pit of divine expectation that keeps his care remote.

But what if God’s love were not seen as a well accessed by endless striving, but as the very air around us? Then we would not perceive the means of grace as measures we take to produce God’s love, but as means for using more fully the provision that surrounds us. Opening my mouth to breathe does not make more air but simply draws in what is already there. Similarly, opening my mouth in prayer does not manufacture more of God’s love but allows me to experience more fully the love he already has for me.

Knowing that I function much better with lots of divine “oxygen” encourages me to make consistent use of all the means of grace to take in the benefits of God’s love. Yet the status I have as one surrounded by his loving “air” does not change just because I have not breathed in enough of its benefits. Faith that Christ’s love surrounds each Christian enables us to cease striving for affection and instead live by partaking of the joy that is our strength, being daily renewed by the means of grace God provides.

God grant that we may take full and proper advantage of his means of grace, drawing our spiritual life and health from the “air” of his love and living only for his glory and by his soul-invigorating strength!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

A "Husk" of My Former Self--But Filled With the Life of Christ!

2011-11-09T10:11:21-06:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

– Galatians 2:20

Who I am in Christ can be compared to an ear of corn plucked from its stalk. Like that unprocessed ear, which represents my works, I am only a husk. My tendency is to look at what I have done wrong and say, “That cheating, that lustful glance, that mean-spirited comment show who I really am.” But this characterization based on our misdeeds is not true for us who are in union with Christ.

In fact, the husk, though real, is dead. Depending on how recently it was picked and how dry are its surroundings, the husk—like my sinful nature—still has vestiges of life in it in varying degrees. But the fact is, the husk is dead. It has been cut off from its life source and has no chance of continued life. The only thing that still has life in it to reproduce is the corn inside.

Paul says that the life inside me is Christ himself—and he is the only real life in me. Significant influences of my old sin nature still cling to me, but they are dead, and the only thing that has life is Christ. The fact that more—or less—husk still clings to me does not change the fact that the only thing living in me is Christ, who is my identity.

Because Christ is the only life in me, what I do in the flesh does not change my status with God. By my striving to do what God requires, and by God’s disciplining me, more of my old, dead “husk” identity is stripped away and more of the living Christ in me is revealed (I am decreasing that he might increase). Still, because Jesus loved me and gave himself for me that he might be my identity, God already loves me completely. That privileged status does not change, even though my progressive sanctification will not be complete until I am with him in glory.

How comforting to know that my status before God does not change based on my ability—or inability!—to meet his standards. How liberating to know that Jesus has already met those standards for me, and because he lives in me I am loved and valued by the Father as if I were his Son—and someday I will be with him forever!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Loved by God in Christ--Now and Always

2011-11-08T10:09:05-06:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

– Galatians 2:20

The apostle Paul says that he has faith in the Son of God, who “loved me and gave himself for me.” These words express the amazing truth that Jesus loved Paul, a sinner guilty of murder and persecution of the church, and gave himself out of that love for the sinner. Both the love and the sacrifice are expressed in a way that indicates that Christ’s love for us and his atoning work in our behalf are complete.

The beauty of this lies in understanding that my performance does not affect Christ’s love for me. While God is not pleased with my sin and may discipline me in order to turn me from destructive paths and practices, his love for me does not diminish in any degree. He gave himself for my sins in their entirety so that I might have his love in its entirety.

In the life that I now have by faith in Christ’s justifying work in my behalf, my status of being loved does not change. All my sins—past, present, and future!—are covered by the One who has loved me and has given himself for me. By being in union with him, I have the same regard from my heavenly Father as God has for his Son. Accepting this reality of God’s unchanging regard enables us to make progress in the Christian life.

We no longer need to judge our status by our past sin or our present wrongdoing. Since Christ’s love and atoning sacrifice never cease to operate in my behalf, Christ continues to be my identity and the “me” characterized by my performance continues to be dead (Rom. 6:8–11). The identity established by my works is already dead, and my identity created by Christ’s righteousness will always live. If I cease to be conscious of this already-dead and always-alive reality, then I cut myself off from the promises of God that enable me to continue serving him without despairing over my failure to achieve holiness on my own.

What a great God we have, who gives us the identity and status of his own Son—not because of anything we have done or are, but because he, in his grace, loves us more than we can possibly imagine! May we who are redeemed in this way live to his honor and glory always.

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

"Plugged In" by Faith to the True Source of Our Power

2011-11-07T10:06:41-06:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

– Galatians 2:20

How do we take the knowledge of our eternal status in Christ and convert it into living a godly life today? The plain answer is that we access the power of our union with Christ by faith. Paul says that the life that he now lives (through Christ in him), he lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

At one level—that of past significance—this is a marvelous statement of how Christ’s sacrifice was first applied to us by faith when we became Christians. Because we had faith that Christ paid the penalty for our sin by his death on the cross, God accounted us as just and righteous in his sight through Christ’s work and not our own. This message of our past justification by faith alone in Christ alone is clearly spelled out here and elsewhere (see Rom. 4:23–25; Eph. 2:8–9; Gal. 3:13–14; 1 Peter 2:24).

Still, there is another level—a present, daily one—at which our faith-grasped union with Christ operates: it not only puts us into a right relationship with God, it also provides the resources that enable us to continue in the Christian life, which is also to be lived by faith. Sadly, too many Christians fail to understand this vital concept and struggle to ground their justification in their sanctification—that is, they attempt to keep their justification in effect by good behavior. The problem is that our goodness is always marred; thus, when we “unplug” our sanctification from its power source in this way, we are left having either to ignore our sin or doubt our salvation.

Paul reverses this thought process by reminding us that our sanctification is to be grounded in confidence in our justification. In other words, our sanctification springs from our justification that is by faith—and nothing else. We thus grow in godliness not by our own power but by the resources of our union with Christ.

May the transformative power of this fundamental insight penetrate our hearts deeply, and may we live each day giving glory to God for the gift of such immeasurable grace!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

We Are Children of God? Believe It!

2011-11-04T09:59:42-05:00

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

— Galatians 3:27

. . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places . . .

— Ephesians 2:6

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

— Ephesians 2:19

Statements like these by the apostle Paul make no sense if we base our identity on our human abilities and accomplishments. But when we understand that God in his grace has chosen to grant us the identity of his Son, we see how they can apply to us. Yet many Christians still have trouble accepting such a view of themselves. A pastor I know once said, “The greatest challenge I have is not providing answers to people’s problems, but convincing them that their sins have not caused God to write them off. So many people believe they are worthless to God, and as a result, they are helpless.”

Without confidence in our relationship with Christ, we become like my children, who at a young age would not stand to walk across a rope suspension bridge. The anchors and ropes that held the bridge were perfectly secure, but my children would not progress a step standing up. In great anguish, they crawled out on the bridge even as other people walked boldly past them. Christians who are not confident of their security in Christ or of their status as children of the Father crawl slowly forward in their pursuit of holiness. They are helpless to stand against the winds of difficulty and temptation and do not venture forth to serve the Lord on the strength of the union he grants them with himself.

Some Christians fear that teaching about the security of our union with Christ will cause people to be less concerned about the wrong in their lives. They reason that confidence in our relationship with God apart from our actions will encourage people to do as they wish. It is true that those who have no real love for the Savior can seek to take advantage of the grace that they presume exists for them. However, those who are truly in union with Christ increasingly have the desires of the Author of that union, since his heart beats within them. More importantly, when any of us loses sight of the privileged position that results from our union with Christ, we lose our ability to resist sin.

May God give us the faith to trust in our new status as privileged members of his household, and may we live with the confidence of beloved children who know their Father’s love for them will never fail.

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Alive and Well--But Only Through Christ

2011-11-03T09:56:31-05:00

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

— Galatians 2:20

Most of us barely grasp the vast significance of Paul’s statement that “Christ lives in me,” which means far more than “I have Jesus deep in my heart” or that Jesus is merely the energizing force of our lives. Paul declares that we have being—status, stature, and standing before God—only on the basis of Christ’s life. His life substitutes for my life on an ongoing, daily basis.

This means that, even as the identity I tried to establish by my obedience to the Law is dead, the life Jesus lived to fulfill the Law is mine. His life is in me. Thus, I am united with him and gain the benefits of his being, his reputation, his standing with God, and the credit for his righteousness. I, who was dead apart from him, now live. I do not (and should not) claim to be God, but he grants me the privilege of his Son’s status by virtue of my union with Christ.

This spiritual reality of my new identity permits me once again to look through the eyes of Jesus at the events of Scripture. I see a crowd on a hillside as Jesus preaches of the Kingdom of God--but the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount is mine. A man approaches Jesus tormented in body and spirit; Jesus drives out the demons—but the victory is mine. A funeral procession comes toward Jesus; he touches the coffin and the dead man rises to rejoin his mother—but the compassion and power of that act are mine. In the wilderness, Satan tempts God’s Son with fantastic allurements; Jesus resists him with the Word of God—but the righteousness of that resistance is mine. All of the credit for Christ’s sermons, miracles, resistance to evil, and suffering for good is mine.

How can this be, since I am not personally responsible for any of these activities, nor am I deserving of any of the credit? Through my union with the life of the One who fulfilled all God’s righteous standards in my behalf, I get credit for what I did not, do not, and cannot earn. Even now he allows me to share his identity.

What an amazing reality, that sinners such as we are truly made righteous sons of God through our union with Christ! May his name be ever praised and glorified!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Dead With Christ--But Alive With Him Too!

2011-11-02T09:53:58-05:00

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. . . . I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

— Galatians 2:15–16, 20

The truths in this passage are so familiar to us that we need to be reminded just how startling they are. Paul tells us that the Law, which revealed the holiness required for union with God, also revealed the futility of trying to find God through imperfect human efforts. The Law thus pointed us to another means of life: faith in Jesus Christ.

We might compare the spiritual status of someone depending on his or her own goodness for spiritual life with one of those campy (and biblically inaccurate) movies about people in an accident who do not realize that they are dead. They move about, talk, and wave to other people, but go completely unnoticed. Ultimately they recognize that all they do is without consequence and that they must be dead.

Startling as this is, Paul’s analogy in this passage is even more striking, for he says that we should perceive ourselves as crucified (Gal. 2:20). Though we move about and strive to achieve certain levels of significance and sanctity by our energies, we must realize that we are united with Christ in his death—which means much more than simply drawing lovingly near to the One who died for us.

Our union with Christ in his crucifixion means that we are with him on the cross. He took our identity, including all our sin, in himself on the cross. Thus, we, too, hang with him there. Looking through his eyes, we see the soldiers gather beneath him/us to gamble for his/our clothes, we hear the voices mock him/us, we see his/our mother weep for him/us, we feel the agony as life ebbs away. We are dead, crucified with Christ. So are all who trust in his work rather than their own to reconcile them to God.

Yet this horrible image is not the end of the story. Our union with Christ is also the source of our true spiritual life and the ground of all Christian joy. For as Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”

May the richness of this gospel truth have a powerful impact on our souls, and may we live in joy, loving and serving the Savior whose death—and life!—have freed us from our spiritual chains.

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

United With Christ for Life--Now and Eternally

2011-11-01T09:50:01-05:00

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

— Galatians 3:1–7

“May God bless my discovery of the powerful means of holiness so far as to save some . . . from killing themselves . . . [so that they] will run with great cheerfulness, joy, and thanksgiving in the way of [God’s] commandments.” Seventeenth-century pastor Walter Marshall was grieving when he wrote these words in his classic book The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. People in his church were despairing that they would ever obtain the spiritual maturity and victory over sin for which they longed. Marshall himself had, for many years, believed that he had to accumulate sufficient good works before he could seek God’s blessing—but the reality of his own imperfection led him to torment.

Many of us know this torment as well. We yearn for holy living, but are deeply aware of our failure to live as God or we desire. How do we encourage godliness without depriving ourselves of the holy joy for which our hearts long?

Marshall answered by echoing the apostle Paul’s teaching in Galatians. He reminded his congregation that, while our personal well-being and our God require righteous conduct, God alone can provide our right standing with him. He does this only through what Christ accomplished for us through his life, death, and resurrection—and by our union with him on the basis of faith. Yet even this faith is not a work of our merit but a gift of God’s good grace (see Eph. 2:8–9). The joy that is the strength of the Christian life lies not in relying on ourselves, but in relying entirely on our union with Christ to make us right with God.

Through our union with Christ, God enables us to escape the entanglements of our sin and live more and more as he intends. This process of becoming more Christlike in heart and conduct is called sanctification. It is the work of God’s grace in us that allows us to receive the benefits and power of Jesus, which in turn enable us to overcome the evil that burdens our hearts and to live for God’s glory.

May God grant that we, like Marshall and his congregation, would see the beauty of this amazing gospel truth, and be so changed by it that we would live in joyful obedience to God’s will—by his grace and for his glory!

This material is adapted from chapter 2 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Running the Race of Joy

2011-10-31T09:42:37-05:00

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

— Hebrews 12:1–2

Some years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Jim, a senior member of Covenant Seminary’s board, in the hospital as he was dying of cancer. Jim said to me with a smile, “I always wondered how the Father would take me home.” He had an absolute trust in the goodness of his God no matter what the difficulty. Still, Jim’s dealing with cancer was never a matter of resignation. Far from it. He was in a race.

Jim raced to finish a book on the history of his family and business that recounted the grace of God in his life. He did not write because he believed this would make God love him more, but because he was filled with a loving zeal for the Savior. Jim titled his book Nothing Happened by Accident. He believed deeply that the caring character of God revealed in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was operative in every stage of life.

I have never met a man more zealous for the honor of his Savior, nor more certain of the cause of his zeal. Jim believed that his best works merited him nothing, and that God had saved him from his sin solely for mercy’s sake. Out of thanksgiving for God’s grace, Jim served on the boards of numerous Christian organizations, dedicated his business to God’s glory, witnessed to fellow businessmen one-on-one for years in personal discipleship programs, and, finally, raced against the clock to record the mighty acts of God in his life.

Jim did not believe that any of these deeds would gain him one more ounce of God’s love—that is not why he so zealously gave his life to God’s service. Jim threw himself into homage of the Savior with such energy and joy because he so loved the God who saved him through faith in a great mercy not of human origin. Gratitude compelled Jim to serve his God, and the resultant joy that radiated from his heart made it obvious to all that, though he was dying, this was one of the most “well” persons you could ever hope to meet. Faith in God’s mercy brought joy through the tears. It always does.

May each of us learn to embrace this faith that is the health of our souls, the joy of our hearts, and the truest source of Christian obedience.

This material is adapted from chapter 1 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).

Serving God in Childlike Love

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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

— 1 John 1:9

A pastor I know tells of a three-year-old boy who snuck into his older sister’s room while she was at school and devoured a chocolate teddy bear she had gotten in a gift exchange. The boy’s mother caught him red-handed, and he began to sob, knowing he would have to tell his sister what he had done. The afternoon was torture as he waited for her to get home. As she walked in, the boy ran to meet her, a torrent of tears bursting from the dam of his guilt. “Sally, I’m so sorry,” he confessed. “I ate your teddy bear!” Seeing his sincere repentance and shame, his big sister took him in her arms, kissed him, and said, “It’s okay, Johnny. I will love you anyway and always.” Though still crying, the boy began to laugh for joy, and he hugged his sister with all his strength.

This is a wonderful picture of every Christian who rightly perceives the nature of God’s grace. When we face the reality and seriousness of our sin, we are rightly broken to the point of tears. This degree of desperation only makes our joy more deep when we recognize that God is willing to say, “Do not despair, child; I will still love you anyway and always.”

The love and gratitude that such a gracious pardon generates become the motives for embracing our Lord and his purposes with all our strength. Our thanksgiving for spiritual deliverance powerfully moves us to honor Christ with our lives. The joy that beacons through our tears of repentance moves us to new and more empowered obedience. In such renewed service we discover the truth of the biblical principle that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Neh. 8:10).

Too many Christians do not understand this and get mired in an unrelenting slavery to fear of God’s disapproval. Because God accepts us on the basis of his unmerited pardon rather than on the basis of our earning his affection or compensating for our guilt, we are enabled to serve him with an unrestrained childlike love that is a joyful response to his care.

When we truly perceive the greatness of the heart that pardons us, then our hearts begin to beat in harmony with that heart. Honoring our Lord becomes the joy of our lives, and love for him becomes the power that fuels that joy.

This material is adapted from chapter 1 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).