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Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 20
I don’t believe we understand exactly how terrifying it will be to stand before God in judgment. I’m sure I don’t truly get it. Because we live in the age of grace, God actually protects us from His fury at the abject lawlessness, demonically-inspired hatred toward God and others, and general spiritual poverty that is so prevalent not only in society in general, but within too many of those who call themselves Christian. Yes, we have salvation. Wonderful! But we need more of Jesus that only comes through fellowship with Him.
Continue Reading December 15, 2015 at 8:38 PM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 19
Remember, this time of judgment is not regarding our salvation, which is safe and secure. That cannot be removed from us. We’re talking about our actions, words, and intentions, for which we are accountable. How would God be able to provide us with any rewards if He doesn’t judge those things? I guess what I can hope for when the time comes for me to stand before Him is that there will be a marked difference in my life as I grow toward Him. I’m hoping that as time progresses toward the end of my life, I will be a good student, a good soldier for Jesus, one who boasts in the Lord and willingly submits to Him in all things. I’m hoping my times of sin will be fewer and further between and my actual intentions for the actions and words that flow from me will stem from a heart that is more molded in His image and character. We can only hope this will be the case for all of us, but certainly, much of that is up to us and our desires for God in the first place.
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 18
I also find it fascinating that it would seem easier for a person caught up in rampant sin to come to realize just how wrong he is and repent of it (like the Prodigal Son). In that case, God’s forgiveness cleanses that person from his sinfulness when they come to their senses and see the need to repent. The writer of Hebrews seems to be saying though, that a falling away due to severe doctrinal error is so deceptive, so sneaky, and so seducing that many fail to realize what is happening. Over a period of time, they more fully embrace doctrinal error and move further away from the Truth (Jesus is the Truth, John 14:6). In doing so, they become encased in their intellectual error, that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to come out of that error because they see their error as being based on biblical truth, as opposed to clearly denoted as right or wrong (like adultery, theft, murder, lying, etc.).
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 17
Did Jesus set up a corner stand with the banner stating “Free Samples of Eternal Life!” and then encouraged people to simply “try” them? If they didn’t like them, they would always reject it, right? But if a person actually becomes truly born again or born from above (John 3), wherein that person is sealed with the Holy Spirit and made partakers with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3; 4:30), how can that be taken away? How can they legally reject it? It seems as though this and other portions of Scripture we’ve highlighted are pointing to the fact that the only thing about being a Christian that a Christian can ultimately reject is whether or not that Christian makes and keeps Jesus LORD over their life daily. By stating this, I am not stating that so-called Lordship Salvation has merit. I’m simply stating that each and every Christian must come to terms with the fact that we need to submit ourselves to God in Christ daily. This is the fellowship aspect of being a Christian that rests with us. But even there, Jesus appears to have made it easier because He says He will help us.
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 16
Wouldn’t it be nice to learn what the Prodigal Son learned without having to go through the things he went through? We’re all different. Some people can increasingly submit to God bit by bit, giving Him more of them so that He, in turn, can fill them with more of Him. Others have to do it the “hard” way. The hard way is when God has to take measures to use outside forces to sand off the hard edges so that we will submit to Him. In either case, the results are often the same. But God has a strong hand in this process too as we learn from Psalm 32:3-4.
Continue Reading December 13, 2015 at 3:01 PM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 14
I think we see this in the Prodigal Son. It seems clear that he literally and with vigor walked away from his father. It is clear that he completely misunderstood his father’s love, seeing it as something it was not. His pride, stubbornness, and sinful attitude kept him from seeing the truth about his father. The Prodigal deliberately broke off fellowship with his father because of the wrong views he harbored about his father. It took the problems of life to begin to move him back toward his father, but even there, he got it wrong. It was only the starting point.
Continue Reading December 12, 2015 at 8:25 AM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 13
Out of the two sons, who ended up being better off? Clearly, it was the young son who initially walked away, squandered his inheritance (that he had no right to take at that point since his father was still alive!), almost starved himself to death, and in the end, became truthfully humbled. It was this humility that brought him back to his father, not to “regain” salvation that some say he lost, but to enter into fellowship with his father, fellowship that should have existed from the getgo. Would it have been better off had he never gone through any of that? Of course, but please note that it seems like he had to go through it in order to cast off the things that kept him enslaved to SELF. He needed to be divested of a good amount of arrogance and pride before he would be ready to begin fellowship with his father. In the end, he truly became his father’s son! Do you think he ever broke off fellowship with his father again? While it’s possible, I can’t imagine it because he always had that lesson to draw on. He may have even exercised a great deal of compassion toward his older brother, we just don’t know.
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 12
In some ways, Luke’s narrative of the ten lepers highlights different reactions to being saved (and we’ll talk more about this in an upcoming article in this series). They gain salvation but never really stop to consider the fellowship aspect of it. Like the nine lepers, they are overjoyed to have salvation and they continue to go their way, paying little to no attention to the One who provided it. Is it any wonder their joy (and potential fellowship with God), dissipates and sometimes disappears altogether?
Continue Reading December 10, 2015 at 4:49 AM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 11
Paul says that no unrighteous person will inherit the Kingdom of God. This is what we were before we received salvation from the Master’s hand! We were absolutely and pitiably unrighteous with no ability to help ourselves!! But just like those within the Corinthian church, once we received salvation through Christ, we stopped being seen by God unrighteous and were declared righteous! But guess what? I can still do unrighteous things and so can you!
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