The disciple of Jesus Christ needs to quickly learn to pray. Following conversion, the training in prayer needs to be intense and brief with a steep learning curve. The reason that this is the case is that the burdens of life can quickly become towering tidal waves and can escalate to the overwhelming quite suddenly. Thus the believer must be well-trained in prayer and must be practiced in using the weapons of spiritual warfare. Storms rise suddenly and attacks are usually both unexpected and vicious.

I urge every disciple of Christ to quickly learn to pray and to receive the comfort, protection and defense that the Lord can provide. You do not want to be untrained and unprepared when the enemy suddenly attacks or when the fears and difficulties of life suddenly overwhelm you.

The danger for the disciple in America is that we can easily be lulled to lethargy by the appearance of peacefulness and prosperity. In the past, America has been a land where even true Christians have become soft and dull because there has been no persistent persecution of believers here and everything seemed safe. In this environment of relative peace, the believer can forget that: a) we have been given a mission by our King to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20) and to be His witnesses in the whole world (Acts 1:8); b) there is a war raging against Christ and against His church; and c) we have an enemy, Satan, who hates us and who seeks to destroy us (John 10:10). This forgetfulness leaves us wide open to attack and makes us vulnerable to collapse and to surrender in the heat of the battle. We become a casualty of being casual about prayer. One minute the believer is drifting along in his safe bubble and the next moment the serenity of his world is shattered by daunting conflict and overwhelming adversity. Therefore the believer must learn to pray early in the walk of faith and must learn to use the weapons of our warfare (2 Cor. 10:4) and wield them skillfully.

The disciple of Jesus Christ is (usually) given the blessing of seasons of relative calm and peace. These seasons must not be wasted, but should be used as times of training and strengthening. It is in the green tree (Luke 23:31) that the disciple must gain strength. Instead of being lulled to sleep by the appearance of peacefulness and prosperity, the disciple must make the most of those times (Ephesians 5:15-16) to become mighty in prayer.

Several Scripture passages can be applied to this lesson:

Luke 23:31 – “If you do these things in the green tree, what will you do in the dry?” My paraphrase would be, “If you are frightened and anxious when things are basically calm and prosperous, what will you do when Satan launches his vicious attack against you?” When the tree is green (in the good times), you should use that time to prepare for the day of battle (in the dry tree).

Psalm 32:6 – “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You at a time when You may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.” Learn to pray before there is a flood of great waters (danger and threat and adversity). Learning to pray means that you learn how to call upon the Lord so that He will protect you when the floods pour down.

Isaiah 55:6 – “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.” There is an urgency for learning to pray. We must seek the LORD while He may be found, not when we feel like seeking Him. The LORD will not always be available, so we must seek Him while He is open to being found. Praying is seeking the LORD and is also calling upon Him.

Matthew 7:25, 27 – The winds and the rain and the floods are certainly going to come. The question is, “Will you be ready when they come so that you are ready to pray with power?” Do you know the Lord well enough to pray to Him during the flood and the storms?

Jeremiah 12:5 – “If you have run with the footmen and grown tired, how will you compete with the horses?” You thought that you could handle all the difficulties, because you thought they were all pretty limited in their threats. Now you realize that there are many threats and challenges that are much too difficult for you to handle. For the threats of life, you need to know how to pray to the Lord.

It is sad to see a believer who has trusted in his own abilities to handle life’s problems come face to face with overwhelming problems much too big to handle on his own. The person thought that life would never give them crushing problems too big for human solution, but would always give them the under-handed softball pitches, so they never learned to call upon the Lord with desperate cries for help. The person believed that somehow going through the motions would be good enough for avoiding the major catastrophes of life. If they stayed in the middle of the road and were decent people, God would smooth out their way. Since they believed everything was okay and always would be, they never learned to enter the fiery furnace or the lion’s den and so they never learned to pray like they needed the Lord to deliver or all would be lost. For that is the case. If the Lord does not deliver, then all is lost. We are all defenseless in the face of many of life’s threats and difficulties and we must learn to pray and call upon the Lord to give us His power and might.

Brothers and sisters, take the time to learn to pray as a weapon and learn to wield that weapon skillfully. Let the halls of heaven be very familiar with your voice.

SDG    rmb    7/30/2016

Our God is a God of the “little by little.” God usually does not remove our troubles suddenly and in one fell swoop. He can do that, of course, and there may be times in our own lives where He has done that, when He has miraculously wiped away our troubles or removed what was threatening us in a moment. But while He can do that, and He may have done that for you or for me, that is not how He usually works. Normally God takes away our troubles and our threats and our enemies little by little (Deuteronomy 7:22; Exodus 23:29f). And this process, which leaves us dependent on Him for His ongoing grace and help, is consistent with the idea of what can be called a discipline of suffering. As we look to the Lord over an extended period of time, the persistent low level suffering both allows us to fellowship with the Lord Jesus (Philippians 3:9) and to have our faith strengthened.

It is almost that our world would be a blander and more tasteless place if there was not the stress of long-term suffering and extended troubles which drive us to our knees and cause us to cry out to the Lord for His help and His presence. Like many aspects of the Christian life, this idea is counter to natural thinking, but a moment’s reflection will remind us that those times when we wrestle with difficulty; when we bear the burden of conflict and we are doubtful about the outcomes and when we have occasional feelings of helplessness are times when we feel the sweetest fellowship with the Lord and know what it is to have a “very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).” “O grant Your strength to Your servant (Psalm 86:16).” “. . . “I will yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God (Psalm 42:12).” In my suffering and my anguish, in the midst of my troubles, my patience and my perseverance are nurtured. Spiritual strength is purified in the furnace of adversity. Since that is the case, the disciple of Jesus should not shrink back from difficulty, but should rather lean into the pain of suffering and should face whatever threats the Lord allows knowing that our Dread Champion (Jeremiah 20:11) is leading us on into the fight.

So the Lord raises up adversaries so that He can prove His faithfulness when we cry out to Him and so that He can give us the context that is most conducive to our spiritual growth. The threat comes into our life and we fall on our knees and suffer the affliction of adversity, while savoring the opportunity to be immersed in the fray with the Lord at our side. Our human flesh groans under the effort and the pain of the conflict and our human frailty causes whispers of doubt to enter our mind, as we wonder if the Lord will indeed again be faithful to us and if He will again deliver us from the cords of death. Yet at the same time the Spirit inside of us encourages us to press forward into the battle and insists that we trust the Lord and that we act in spite of our fears and doubts. And so we persevere and continue on and we trust, and each time we do that, we increase our faith and grow stronger in the Lord.

The Lord clears away our adversaries little by little and in the midst of that extended time of effort and dependence and conflict, our spirit grows stronger. This is the discipline of suffering or the discipline of perseverance, and even in the midst of bearing up under the strain of this discipline, there is the savor of a godly effort and the sense that the flesh is groaning and weakening its grip on our heart. For those who persevere and who spend time in the practice of this discipline, it really does yield the peaceful, sweet fruit of righteousness.

SDG     rmb     7/27/2016

This expression in this verse (1 Peter 2:24), “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness,” certainly provides for justification (namely, that Christ’s death provided the atonement for our sins that satisfied the Law’s demands and that His death allowed God to justly forgive those who trust in Jesus for salvation (Romans 3:26)), but I think that the context emphasizes the sanctification that begins at the moment of our justification and continues until our death and our eventual glorification. For while we have died to sin (Romans 6:7, etc.), we are also dying to sin every day as we put sin to death in our daily lives and as we seek moment by moment to live in righteousness and holiness. In this context, and I believe in all of 1 Peter, the emphasis is on living an obedient life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Peter assumes that the disciple has experienced the new birth and so instructs and exhorts the disciple to live out that new birth in righteous living. Thus dying to sin is clearly defined in the radical and sanctified living to which Peter calls the disciple. Therefore, the main responsibility for “dying to sin” rests on the disciple. Through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the disciple is to vanquish remaining sin in his flesh (Colossians 3:5, etc.) and is to strive toward righteousness (Romans 6:17ff). While there may be setbacks along the way, the disciple is to persevere on the journey and should see continual progress in sanctification through obedience.

SDG     rmb     7/24/2016

In this verse (1 Peter 2:18), the apostle Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit exhorts servants to be submissive to their masters with all respect, even those who are unreasonable. Now to be submissive to our “masters,” like bosses and supervisors at work, is hard enough for anyone to do, but Peter calls the disciple of Christ to submit to our masters categorically and unconditionally. And this submission applies to those who are reasonable and to those who are unreasonable.

It feels like there must be a line somewhere that allows the disciple to say, “Enough is enough. This is not fair and I do not deserve this.” But actually there is no such line. Scripture calls the disciple of Jesus to submit and to bear up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. Why would Peter command disciples of Jesus to submit to unreasonable masters?

First, the disciple willingly and graciously submits to unreasonable masters because we follow Christ’s example, and Christ our King submitted to unreasonable men to the point of death and gave us this example to follow (2:21ff). So we submit to follow Christ’s example.

Second, the disciple submits to his unreasonable master because this provides a bolder and a clearer testimony to the watching world of what it means to follow Jesus. If we do what is completely unexpected and submit to unreasonable masters, the world will notice and will eventually demand an explanation. There is a strong testimony given (and isn’t that the whole point, to give a testimony to Jesus?) if a servant submits to unreasonable masters out of his love for Christ and out of his desire for obedience. From that place there are often opportunities to tell others about Christ.

Third, submitting to unreasonable treatment more quickly and more purely subdues the disciple’s fleshly pride and arrogance. The flesh hates discipline and pain and suffering, so the flesh resists all sanctification. To subdue the flesh the disciple subjects the flesh to suffering and to training. The more rigorous the training, the more quickly and effectively the disciple is trained. Thus sanctification is the reward and the gift of obedience and submission.

Many would still rebel against the suggestion that a person is to submit to unreasonable treatment by a master. You may say to me, “That is unnatural. That’s just radical. God would not want me to just take that sort of abuse. I have rights!” But actually through the apostle Peter, God explicitly commands the disciple to submit to unreasonable masters. This is exactly what God intends. Of course this is radical behavior! The disciple has been called by a radical King to live a radical life, a life that is radically distinct from the life of the uncalled. And so we submit to unreasonable masters in the hope that, in so doing, the world would make much of Christ and we would become more like Christ in all our words, thoughts and deeds.

SDG     rmb     7/24/2016

Once again my meditations have brought me to the book of Romans and for this study we will be looking at Romans 4:25:

“(Jesus) who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.”

In Romans up to this point, Paul has prosecuted all mankind, Jew and Gentile, and found them all to be condemned by their sin and in need of a Savior to rescue them (1:18-3:20). He has presented the gospel in its essential form (3:21-26) and illustrated justification by faith (Chapter 4 and the example of Abraham’s faith and his being credited with righteousness). Now at the conclusion of chapter 4 Paul introduces us to the Hero of our story, the Author of the gospel Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.

The Location of the verse:

This verse is located at the end of the section which tells how a man or woman can receive the benefits of the gospel (believe in Jesus unto righteousness) and forms the segue to the section that tells what God has accomplished in Christ for the salvation of His people and how He accomplished it and how this affects the life of the believer (Chapters 5-8).

The Structure of the verse:

It is obvious that the verse is made up of two parts that are almost identical in how they are worded. In its rendering of the verse, the NAS retains the structure in the Greek, which is certainly a rhetorical device employed by the apostle Paul. Each part of the verse contains an immense theological concept which is stated in the most efficient way possible.

So the structure of each part of the verse goes like this:

“Christ” + [aorist passive verb, past tense] + “because of” + “our” “transgressions” (the instruments of our condemnation) and “Christ” + [aorist passive verb, past tense] + “because of” + “our” “justification” (acquittal/deliverance from condemnation).

The reason I point out the structure of the verse is to appreciate the beauty of expression of the inspired Word. The masterful use of rhetoric, the balance of the sentence, the efficiency of expression and the profound nature of the ideas communicated all confirm the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Commentary/Meditation on the verse:

Since it is obvious that the verse has two parts which are rhetorically very similar, we will examine each part of the verse separately. First, the Apostle states that “(Christ) was delivered over because of our transgressions.” The Bible teaches that our transgressions necessitated a sacrifice that would satisfy the wrath of God kindled by our sins. Thus the first phrase speaks of our great need, that our sin had condemned us before our holy God. Our transgressions earned the wrath of God and merited our just condemnation and if we were to escape God’s wrath there had to be some sacrifice that could turn away God’s wrath from us. Therefore, “because of our transgressions,” . . . Because we were helpless (5:6) and condemned and because Christ was the only one whose death could propitiate the wrath of God; “because of our transgressions,” Christ was delivered over. He was delivered over to death so that He could give His life as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Because Christ was the only one whose death would satisfy and because we were helpless and dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1), Christ had to be delivered over to death on our behalf. It is important to realize that Jesus Christ could not merely be punished and released (Luke 23:16, 22). Because God desired to save His elect from their deserved condemnation, and because the wages of our sin is death (6:23a; Ezekiel 18:4), Christ was delivered over to death. Thus our transgressions made it necessary for Christ to be delivered over to death. “who was delivered over because of our transgressions.”

As we have already stated, the second part of the verse is rhetorically similar to the first. “. . . and (He) was raised because of our justification.” What is Paul now saying in this second part of the verse? We have seen that Christ was delivered over because of our great need, but now He is raised because of His great accomplishment. Having accomplished our justification, Christ is now raised victorious. Thus Christ’s resurrection followed after our justification. What Paul is saying is that when Christ died on the cross, His work of atonement and propitiation was done. He had been “delivered over” and had died and thus Christ had atoned for the sins of His people and He had propitiated the wrath of God against them. His work had been perfectly completed and the goal had been reached. “It is finished!” He had cried from the cross (John 19:30). By His death on the cross, His people had been justified. Now with our justification accomplished by His death, it was no longer necessary for Him to remain in the grave. Therefore, since our justification was accomplished, He could be raised in glorious resurrection. Because Christ’s work of justification had been finished, He could be raised from the dead.

So “[He] was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.” Christ was delivered over to death to atone for our transgressions and He was raised because He had perfectly accomplished His work of justification.

SDG    rmb    7/16/2016

One of the most prominent and significant words in the Old Testament is the conditional word, “IF.” The word occurs frequently in the Torah as the Law is expounded to the people, warning them that curses will surely come with disobedience and that the LORD will only bless IF you listen to His voice. It is painfully obvious that the LORD will only bless IF certain conditions are met.

Psalm 81:8 – “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, IF you would listen to Me!”

:10 – “I, the LORD, am your God. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”

In Psalm 81:14-16 a host of magnificent promises follow as the LORD declares what He will do IF . . .

81:13     IF My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!”

In many ways, this word defines the old covenant. IF you meet these conditions . . . IF you obey the LORD, THEN you will be blessed. But this small word (IF) created an impossibly large obstacle, because the “IF” of the old covenant established a condition that had to be met and Israel consistently failed to satisfy the condition. The old covenant was a covenant of works focused on the condition of obedience. IF you obey the LORD you will be blessed. But the other edge of that sword was just as sharp . . . IF you do not obey the LORD, you will be cursed. You must meet the condition to be blessed. Under the old covenant you were always having to meet the condition of “IF.” Huge sections of the Old Testament are devoted to declaring the IF conditions of the Law. (Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy)

By contrast the new covenant in Christ is a covenant of certainties, a covenant in which the promises are already guaranteed to those who believe and in which our hope is sure and steadfast, anchored by Christ. IF you believe in the Lord Jesus, all the promises are yours, for Christ has accomplished your salvation.

The IF of the old covenant is vanquished by the cross.    SDG   rmb   7/15/2016

In the first part of this meditation (June 25), we considered the suffering of the Messiah Jesus Christ from the perspective of His daily exposure to the ugliness and the offense of sin. He as the Holy One, as very God in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3 NAS), had to endure a lifetime among those who were rebellious and disobedient and fallen. Surely this constant bombardment of sin from those around Him must have been a source of persistent suffering, but this suffering, while real, is mentioned only occasionally by Jesus, because the focus of the Scripture is on the very specific and purposeful suffering of the Messiah.

The suffering that is the focus of Scripture is the extraordinary suffering of Jesus the Messiah in which, on the cross, He received in Himself the just punishment for the sins of all the elect and thus propitiated the wrath of God against them (1 John 4:10; Hebrews 2:17; Romans 3:25). The primary suffering of Jesus is the suffering of the cross. This is the agony of bearing the full punishment for sin in His own body on the tree. This suffering is utterly unique, for only the chosen Messiah was worthy to bear the wrath of God against sin. Thus while sinners share with Jesus in the general suffering of this fallen world, no sinner shares in any part of the suffering of atonement, for no sinner is worthy or able to bear this awful suffering of the pouring out of God’s wrath. No sinner shares in this suffering, because this suffering is FOR sinners, not BY sinners. The awesome act of atonement is a work accomplished by Christ alone and in this atonement, Christ suffers utterly alone. The Chosen One hangs on the tree completely exposed to the full weight of the wrath of God with no one to comfort Him and no place to hide. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” How can any human being grasp the height or the depth of this divine suffering? Here we see the agony of God the Son as God the Father propitiates His wrath on Him, a wrath merited by the sins of God’s elect.

This is the true suffering of Jesus the Messiah. It is an exclusive suffering, experienced by Christ only and by Christ alone. It is a necessary suffering, in that our salvation depends on this atonement. It is a planned suffering, for Jesus Christ knew that He was sent to earth for this very suffering. It is a purposeful suffering, in which Christ, through His death, accomplishes the redemption of His people.

“. . . since Christ also suffered for you . . .”     SDG   rmb   7/12/2016

“But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.” – Jeremiah 18:4

The primary purpose of this verse and this passage is to give an illustration of the coming rejection and ruin of the nation of Israel because of their persistent rebellion against the LORD, because of their idolatry and because of “the stubbornness of their evil heart” (18:12). These sins and this rebellion led Jeremiah to prophesy of the future remaking of “Israel” (national, ethnic Israel) when, in Christ, all the elect from every nation are gathered into the church, which is true Israel. So the primary understanding of this parable of the potter is the destruction of the spoiled vessel of national Israel and the remaking of true Israel into the new and useful vessel of the church.

But there is also another secondary meaning here and it is this secondary meaning that I want to explore. In this writing I want to consider the parable of the potter as an illustration of salvation and sanctification, wherein the LORD, the master Potter, graciously finds particular spoiled vessels and puts these ruined vessels on His special potter’s wheel to remake them into vessels of honor, useful to the Master and prepared for every good work. So I want to explore this parable as a picture of the Lord’s saving and sanctifying work in the life of each one of His chosen saints.

In this light, then, the first thing that I want to consider is the utterly ruined condition of the vessel. Notice that in our study verse “the vessel is spoiled in the hand of the potter.” Before the Lord begins His rescuing work in our lives, the vessel of our life is utterly ruined. Our condition is not slightly flawed in need of a little touch-up work. Rather, sin has made us into vessels which are spoiled beyond remedy. When we were in our unsaved condition outside of Christ, we had no hope and were without God in the world. It was not patching and repair of the vessel that we needed; rather we were irredeemably spoiled and could only be saved if someone had the power to demolish the spoiled vessel and remake it into another vessel that was pleasing to the Master. And this is exactly what God does in Christ. The “old man,” who is the spoiled vessel, is crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) when a person believes, and is buried with Christ in baptism unto death (Romans 6:4a), and then the “new man,” who is the remade vessel, the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), is raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4b) and the new self is created in the righteousness and holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:24).

So the first consideration is the utterly ruined condition of the vessel.

The second thing to consider is that, while the vessel on the potter’s wheel is utterly ruined and must be remade if it is to be pleasing to the potter, there is nothing in the vessel itself that makes it worth remaking. We are all spoiled vessels (Romans 3:23), and there is no desert and there is no merit in any ruined vessel. All are equally ruined and all are equally in need of being remade. By His sovereign choice, God remakes into vessels of mercy those He graciously calls (Romans 9:21-24).

So the second consideration is that no spoiled vessel deserves to be remade, but some are remade by the sovereign choice of God.

The third thing to consider is that we are dramatically remade in our new birth. The vessel is utterly ruined and is hopelessly beyond repair and then God the Holy Spirit causes us to be born from above (“born again”). When we, as ruined vessels, call upon the Lord for salvation, in that moment we are remade. In that first moment of faith in Christ we are justified, redeemed, regenerated, converted, saved and united with Christ. We have been remade and have passed from death to life (John 5:24). We have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:13-14). Our spoiled vessel is remade into a new vessel in the moment when we trust Christ.

The fourth thing to consider is that once our gracious God has remade us into useful vessels, He continued to remake us day-by-day as we, in sanctification, grow in practical holiness. Our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). As we continue on life’s journey and persevere through trials; as we meditate on Scripture and as we cry out to the Lord in prayer; as we proclaim His excellencies and drink the pure milk of the Word; as we suffer for His name’s sake and hope for heaven and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we are being remade by the Spirit of God. So the vessel you were at salvation is not the vessel you are now is not the vessel you will be tomorrow, for the remade vessel is a vessel that continues to be remade and to grow.

The fifth and final thing to consider is that all remade vessels will one day be glorified vessels. God’s grace remakes ruined vessels into saved and useful vessels. Through His Holy Spirit, God’s grace remakes saved vessels into more and more sanctified vessels. And God will ultimately remake us into glorified vessels. Then we will be like Jesus (1 John 3:2) and we will be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). All who have been remade into Christ will be raised in glory and power (1 Cor. 15:43) and will bear the image of the heavenly beings (15:49).

The Potter will remake all His chosen vessels into glorified vessels to praise His holy name forever. Amen.

SDG    rmb    7/10/2016

In seeking to understand the good news of the gospel, it is necessary to first understand the bad news of our condemnation. For the harsh fact is that your sin and my sin is the central issue before our holy God. Since that is the case, we need to understand something of the nature of sin.

First of all, we need to understand that it is not the degree of sin that condemns me, but it is the fact of sin that condemns me. God does not grade on a curve, such that a moderate amount of sin is allowed, but that a lot of sin demands a recompense. The Bible teaches that one sin merits eternal condemnation. The proof of that is that Adam was condemned for his first sin. In eating the fruit, Adam sinned against God and was thus banished from the Garden of Eden and was separated from God. Not only this, but Paul makes clear that God’s judgment on mankind arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation (Romans 5:15). Adam’s one transgression plunged the entire world into sin. One sin is all it takes to condemn me. Therefore I cannot say, “I may be bad, but I’m not as bad as some people.” I may be condemned for a few “small” sins or condemned for many blatant and big sins, but the result is the same. Condemned is condemned, and this is not a question of degree. If there is one sin on my record, one transgression against one of God’s holy commandments, then I have earned eternal condemnation. There is either perfect righteousness or there is condemnation for my sin and there is no in between.

We must understand that God’s standards are absolute. Man’s standards are relative and are lenient, but it is not before man’s throne that you must appear. You are either perfectly righteous or you are a sinner and are utterly ruined, and there is no third option. Are you perfectly righteous in God’s eyes? Have you lived in perfect obedience to God’s holy laws? You will stand before God’s throne, God’s judgment seat (Romans 14:10) and in that moment your righteousness will be compared to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How does your righteousness compare to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ?

Many people will say, “Surely if my good outweighs my bad, then God will accept me and I will go to heaven.” The God of heaven, however, does not have scales, but judges in absolute terms. For the Bible declares, “The soul that sins, it will die,” (Ezekiel 18:4) and “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) There is no verse in the entire Bible that gives a sinner any hope that he can earn his way to heaven by doing good works or that any number of good works will somehow count more than his sin. In fact, the Bible says just the opposite: “All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” (Isaiah 64:6) Have you ever sinned against God? Have you ever broken even one of His commandments in thought, word or deed? Your only hope for heaven is the complete absence of any sin. If that does not describe you, then you are condemned for your sin.

Many people will say, “I think I’m basically a pretty good person,” but the Bible says, “There is none righteous, not even one,” (Romans 3:10) and “The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick,” (Jeremiah 17:9) and “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The question is not whether you are “basically a pretty good person”, but the question is whether you are a perfectly righteous person or not. Have you lived a sinless life of perfect obedience to God’s laws? If not, then you are unrighteous and are condemned.

The Bible sometimes speaks of people who have leprosy. In Bible times, leprosy was as feared a disease as cancer is for us today. The Bible also uses leprosy as a picture of sin. How so? A person would examine their skin in search of an open sore, which would indicate they had leprosy. If there was one spot of leprosy, it meant that the person’s entire body was full of leprosy. The disease had spread that far. This is analogous to sin. You can be assured that if there is evidence of any sin in a person’s life, it means that their entire life is contaminated with sin. The disease has spread throughout your life. The point of the illustration is to show that, if you can find evidence of any sin in your life, then it means that there is sin throughout your life. In the Bible it says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10)

The point of this discussion is to show that mankind has a terrible problem. Each one of us has sinned before the holy God of the universe and we are thus condemned. The fact that I have sinned against God and have violated His holy commandments means that I am under His condemnation. It is from this terrifying situation that I must be rescued. The building is on fire and I must find a way to escape the flames. I must be rescued or I will perish and will spend eternity enduring God’s righteous wrath for my sin.

What is the answer to this terrifying dilemma? The answer is to repent of your sins and to run to Jesus Christ in faith, asking Him to cleanse you of your sin and asking Him to save you. Jesus lived the perfectly sinless life that is required by God’s holiness and is required by God’s holy law and Jesus died the death that sin required so that those who place their faith in Him will receive His imputed righteousness and will have their sins forgiven.

If you have ever sinned, you are condemned by a holy God. Regardless of the extent of your sin or the degree of your sin, the fact of your sin condemns you. Therefore, you must fly to Jesus Christ to be saved from your sin.

SDG   rmb   7/10/2016

In the last few months I have been spending extensive time in a very deep and detailed study of 1 Peter, and in that study I have reached the passage on 1 Peter 2:21-24 where Christ leaves us an example of suffering. From this passage I wanted to take an “aside” from the study of the epistle to explore this concept: A prominent fact of our redemption is the profound idea that our Savior, the sinless Son of God, suffered. How is it possible that God suffered? How can it be that God would take on human flesh so that and for the express purpose that He would suffer and die? From this it becomes evident that suffering is a necessary consequence of all humans after the Fall, such that even the One who had no sin is subject to the effect of the Fall. To have human flesh is to experience the suffering of the flesh. He who has flesh will suffer, because that is the necessary result of the Fall. Thus Christ fully and knowingly accepted the suffering that came with living in a fallen world among fallen people, the suffering that was the result of man’s sin, when He took on the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3).

But not only did He suffer as all who have a fleshly body suffer, but He suffered more than any other human. What do I mean? I have this in mind, that while you and I suffer in the flesh because we are sinners and receive this suffering as a consequence of our own sin, He bears His suffering because of the sins of others. We suffer justly, but He willingly endured a lifetime of “unjust” suffering (1 Peter 2:19 – “when suffering unjustly”). He willingly endured suffering His entire lifetime, but His suffering was of an entirely different nature than ours. Since He was God in human flesh, His suffering was likewise entirely “other.” He suffered in a way that is incomprehensible for us, for He, the sinless One, suffered because of constant exposure to the horror of sin and to the ugliness of sinners. In His untainted and unstained holiness, He endured a lifetime among those who are unholy. This was His daily and constant suffering. This was one way that the Messiah suffered.

But there was a much more intense form of suffering that our Messiah also endured, and that will be the subject of the next blog.               SDG    rmb    June 25, 2016