Posted by Gary on December 16, 2009
Colossians 2:23 “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
It has been reported recently that Pope John Paul II engaged in the practice of self-flagellation, that is, whipping himself as a response to sin.
The report comes as the Roman Catholic Church continues its consideration of John Paul’s sainthood. It would appear that the revelation of the pope beating himself is an argument on behalf of his sainthood. (See this article on becoming a saint in Roman Catholicism).
How tragic this all is. Perhaps if John Paul had understood that sainthood is not achieved but received by the suffering and merits of Christ he would not have made himself suffer and misled the many who looked to him for truth.
Perhaps you think this all unkind but let me remind us that John Paul was the proclaimed bishop, teacher and shepherd of a billion souls and what message do we find in his actions? Punishment for his sins? This according to bishop Emory Kabongo:
“He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests,”
Is this the message of the gospel, that my sins need to be punished further since Christ died for them? Was it not really finished when Jesus said, “It is finished?” (John 19:30). This practice is a tremendous revealer of the doctrine of Catholicism which at its root is human striving in addition to Christ’s work on the cross for salvation.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Gary on October 31, 2008
Psalm 146:3 “Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.”
My question is very simple, “How much control did the believers of the New Testament era have over the government that ruled them?” The answer: virtually none. Here is another question, “What accusation did the non-believing world make against the Christians of the first century?”
Acts 17:6 “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
How could this be? You mean that the Caesars of the first century were not Christians? There was not a Christian/conservative majority in the Roman senate? Believers were not collecting signatures on petitions against ungodly laws? How could they ever have turned the world upside down without any hand on the political steering wheel? Could it be that their faith was in God?
We are well into another election cycle and I grieve. American Christians are blind, blind to the fact that we have reduced the Christian faith down to a political movement. Oh, we are in high places no doubt. We are rubbing shoulders and throwing weight around. Someone please tell me what this has all done to promote and further the gospel.
What does the average unbeliever think of Christianity in our nation today? They believe it is all about political control and power. Who are we winning? I believe with all my heart that what we have done these past few decades is something to be repented of. Our trust is in princes and the power of this world. Who are we kidding? In what way are we turning the world upside down? We are powerless and our political grasping is proof that it is so.
What matters to us is the Supreme Court, control of Congress and the White House. What will we have if we were to have all these? We will still have a nation of people estranged from God but by golly, we’re going to legislate them into the kingdom. We have nearly forfeited our opportunity to share the gospel of Christ, hardly anyone believes that this is what we are after anymore. The unbeliever thinks to himself, “This is about you imposing your way of life on me” and he is right. We are not after heart change and knowledge of Christ, if we were our reliance would be on God not on political power.
I come to my questions again. Someone please tell me how the Christians of the New Testament turned the world upside down without relying on political power? Why are we not seeking the power that they had? How have we come to think that we have found a better way? Thank God that His purposes cannot be thwarted despite how determined His people are to do so.
Posted by Gary on February 2, 2008
Jude 1:3 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
An article by Lucas Weeks posted via BaylyBlog calls our attention to something very concerning regarding the Christian faith. (See Lucas’s article here). Last October a number of Muslim scholars sent Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders a document/letter entitled, “A Common Word Between Us and You” (read it here). One month later, dozens of Christian leaders responded in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, (See their response here).
The response from the Christian leaders is very troubling. Follow the document throughout and what is more than implied is that Christians and Muslims are seeking the same God. The letter is a comparative, you believe this, we also believe this. Of course what is never addressed are the things we do not believe together and these things do not allow the allusion that we are speaking of the same God or the same salvation.
The Christian response centers on two points of agreement those being love for God and love for man. Do we see what is being claimed here? The claim is that the foundation of the Christian faith rests upon man’s effort, his love for God and then loving his fellow man. A question must be asked immediately, if loving God and loving our fellow man is our faith and therefore results in gaining heaven, why did Jesus Christ die on the cross? Did God send His Son to die when it was not really necessary for Him to die? The response these Christian leaders composed it must be said, is a denial of the basic tenant of Christianity which is the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. We do not define Christianity by love for God and man but by naming Jesus Christ the Son of God and pointing to the cross on which He died for man’s sin.
Here are some especially concerning excerpts from the Christian response:
“Given the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great. The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace. If we fail to make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony you correctly remind us that “our eternal souls” are at stake as well.“
As desirable and important peace is, the future of the world does not depend upon the ability of Christians and Muslims to live together in peace. The future of the world depends upon God Himself. “Our eternal souls”? Will any dialogue include a frank discussion about what each faith claims about the destiny of our souls? The claim of Scripture concerning Jesus is: Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” According to the Bible it is my relationship to Jesus Christ that determines the destiny of my soul not my relationship with people of other faiths.
“We are persuaded that our next step should be for our leaders at every level to meet together and begin the earnest work of determining how God would have us fulfill the requirement that we love God and one another.”
Listen carefully to this statement, “…to meet together and begin the earnest work of determining how God would have us fulfill the requirement that we love God and one another.” God is spoken of singly here, throughout the document the shared belief that God is one is heralded. But do we understand that in saying to the Muslim that we are going to look to the one God together for what He wants is to validate the claim of the Muslim to true knowledge of God? The picture clearly painted here is that we are going to approach this one God together to see what He wants. Does a Christian believe a Muslim can do this?
“What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and love of neighbor. Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the Christian faith, but of Islam as well.
This sounds so wonderful but it is so untrue and dangerous. The foundational principle of Christianity is not love, at least not love originating from me toward God or anyone else. That love is vital to Christianity is undeniable but these false teachers claim that the foundation of our faith is our love being expressed to God and then others. This response reeks of human works and effort. The foundational principle of Christianity is that God loved us and sent His Son to die for us: 1 John 4:9-10 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
That so much common ground exists – common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith – gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together.”
Our undeniable differences can, do and must overshadow the common ground we share for our differences include the nature of the God each faith claims and how man can know Him and have redemption. What earthly goal is more important than a true statement of God’s person and true statement of how I can have a relationship with God and spend eternity with Him? If I take this statement as it stands blasphemy and damnation are worthy prices to pay as long as we can say we get along. If this is the case, the Christian faith needs to apologize for the actions of its martyrs who, instead of dying because they could not compromise their differences of faith should have set them aside to pursue the greater goal (so called) of being at peace with their persecutors.
Am I to love people of the Muslim faith? Without question. Should I seek to live at peace with the Muslim? Of course and with the Jew, Hindu and atheist as well. What I am not to do is to seek peace by validating that which God’s Word tells me is untrue. What is being pursued in the Christian response is not peace and it directly contradicts what Jesus Himself said: Matthew 10:34-36 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”
How different the approach of the signers of the Christian response is to the Apostle Paul.
Acts 17:22-23 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
Posted by Gary on December 27, 2007
Late Christmas Eve as my children lay on the floor in front of me under our Christmas tree I scanned some news and came across the headline that Pope Benedict XVI had conducted midnight mass and had addressed the Roman Catholic faithful and the world. Before proceeding I would emphasize the world… while Benedict began his statements at this service with the words “brothers and sisters” mankind in general was referenced in his message and there is no question that when the pope speaks, his words travel throughout the world, even gaining top page, headline status at the Drudge Report.
Being a former Catholic and now protestant minister I had more than one reason to be interested in what Benedict would have to say as the world listened. I think that above all, the fact that the pope has the world’s ear made me especially interested to hear what he would say. Think of the opportunity, the ears of perhaps billions of people, what will the world’s religious leader say? I regret to say, nothing.
Here again, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of people will hear or read what the pope will say this night and did we hear the gospel? No, we did not. Yes, Jesus was mentioned, God was mentioned, man was mentioned but never in all that was said on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day when Benedict made an appeal to the leaders of the world for peace (here) did Benedict ever lay out plainly the cause of man’s problems or why Christ’s birth was necessary.
Granted the word “cross” appears I think twice and the words “sin” and “sinner” are each used once but never with elaboration, never with an even abbreviated explanation of the gospel message which is God coming to earth to save us from our sin.
One might argue that this homily was offered to the faithful and that the faithful would see in these buzz words a references to the gospel. But again I argue, that one must recognize that whenever the pope speaks it is to the world and his obligation on this night perhaps above all others would be to preach the gospel. Even if it were addressed to the faithful alone do the faithful not need to hear the plain, detailed gospel?
There was a willingness to speak of oppression, the poor and even man’s treatment of the world (environmental concerns). I read and thought, “Ok man, tell us why we are in the predicament we are in, speak plainly about the effects of the fall and sin. Tell us that our greatest problem is that we are on our way to an eternity separated from Christ. Tell us that God’s intention in sending His Son was to send Him to the cross where He would punish Him in our place as our substitute and that our response now is to repent of our sin and turn in faith to Christ but this was not said.
Benedict urged man to make room in his heart for God, he might just as well have urged man to sprout wings and fly. Man doesn’t want to make room in his heart for God. This is what sin has done to us:
Romans 3:11-12 “THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
Our hearts do not open to God until He first breaks them open and He does this by showing us the truth about ourselves in our lost condition. Benedict wants man to open his heart but then does not preach the heart rending Word of God that will open man’s heart.
I will put it this way, if an unsaved person were to have heard or would later read Benedict’s Christmas message would he come away from it understanding that he is lost in his sin and on his way to stand before the holy God? Would he know the way of salvation? Would he know that Christ’s birth was ultimately about going to the cross to pay the price of sin committed and that simply by looking to Christ he could be saved?
The truth is that the gospel of Rome is not looking to Christ alone for salvation, it is Christ plus my religious works and faithfulness that work together to accomplish salvation. I am ultimately convinced that Benedict’s message Christmas Eve is a revealer of the false gospel of Catholicism. Benedict’s message boiled down was open your heart to God and do the things you are supposed to. But Benedict never told us that we can’t do these things apart from Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection. What a tragedy, the ears of the world, an opportunity to preach gospel of Christ and nothing.
I fear that many who are Roman Catholic will not see in my thoughts anything more than a mean spirited attack and I suppose this is what is most tragic of all, the bulk of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics have not been taught the Biblical gospel and therefore are unable to discern when they have not heard it. It is not my intention to be mean. How I would rejoice to write a post that could confirm that the pope preached the gospel on Christmas Eve, but he didn’t and I can’t. An exalted position, vestments, incense, religious talk but no gospel.
May God lead us to His Word which leads us to His Son, then and only then will we have hope.
Posted by Gary on July 24, 2007
The gospel of many is the gospel of sincerity, it does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere (see more here). In the recent controversy concerning the prayer for the conversion of the Jews which will be offered in the resurrected Latin mass of the Catholic Church this statement was made by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League:
“How do we now sit and dialogue when the other side believes we are blind and need to be converted?”
Humanly we can sympathize with a person resenting being called “blind” and “unconverted” but the important issue is if someone is blind and unconverted. Do we even believe that there is such a thing as spiritual blindness and being unconverted in this day? Most don’t.
Before calling theology to enter the Fray, Foxman’s statement makes no sense simply on the basis of logic (which is not at odds with theology by the way). Can two things that oppose each other both be true? One faith involved holds forth Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of man, the other rejects Jesus as the Messiah. Can both of these groups be correct? If salvation is at stake, must not these groups be willing to speak of the other as blind and unconverted? In many cases I think we must admit that people do not believe salvation is at stake. If Mr. Foxman believes salvation is at stake, he must be willing to view Christians as blind and unconverted. Amazingly, this is what his faith did throughout the Old Testament. Those who were uncircumcised and outside God’s covenant with Abraham were without God and without hope.
There are some to whom salvation is all-important and I mean here people who do not currently possess salvation. God is always at work drawing men to Himself and when He does begin to draw someone, He makes the answer to how salvation can be had vital to that person. I am more and more convinced that where we must begin in the work of evangelism in this day is to reason with men on the basis that not everything can be true. Those whom God is saving will seek the matter out to its end. But perhaps today they are still caught in the deception of sincerity, they may believe that the claims of the different world faiths do not matter just the sincerity of the adherents. God has given us minds and when He begins to save someone, He begins to send light and truth into their mind and so we hold before them the simple, undeniable truth, things that contradict each other cannot all be true, this is often the first seed that grows into salvation.
We are going to have to be willing to embrace the call to discipleship if we are going to be used of God in our day. We are going to have to be willing to lovingly yet firmly use words like “blind” and “unconverted”. How politically incorrect Paul was:
Acts 17:22-31
“So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
21st Century Social Architect: “Excuse me Paul; we don’t use words like “ignorance” in religious dialogue today.”
Paul: “I wasn’t dialoging, I was proclaiming.”
21st: “But you were dialoging, and doing so well at first and then meanly used the word “ignorance”.
Paul: “We have different definitions of dialogue. By dialogue you mean that each side is considered equally valid. I was willing to make mention of the Athenian’s many gods and religious spirit so that I could open a door to show them that they don’t know the one, true God. Your goal is to have everyone feel good when the conversation stops, my goal is to see people receive salvation.”
21st: “In the process you have also offended many people. Who taught you to deal with people this way; this doesn’t seem very much like Jesus.”
Paul: “Actually it was Jesus who taught me to approach people this way; He told the woman at the well that she worshipped that which she did not know and that woman came to faith and is in heaven today.”
21st: “It still doesn’t seem right.”
If we are going to see the gospel go forward we will need to strip away the delusion that everything can be true. We will have to be willing to be called, “mean” and “bigoted”. Let’s remember that is not our goal to have people think well of us now, but later. Let them think of us as mean now, it will be all the more enjoyable when they embrace us in heaven.
Posted by Gary on February 23, 2007
The Church of Christ is always at battle and will be until Christ returns. Currently we are the Church militant, we will assume our status as Church triumphant in a little while. There is one battlefield in the realm of truth which continues to rage and I am convinced always will, this battle concerns the necessity of the atonement. The Christian faith rests on the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. In short, on the cross, Jesus received the punishment that sinners deserved. God’s holiness demands justice and for salvation to be possible, the price of sin must be paid and Jesus paid it receiving justice at God’s hand in our place.
Man does not like the idea of the atonement because it declares the holiness and justice of God. The atonement also bespeaks man’s sinfulness, guilt and need to repent. Throughout her history the Church has had to stand for the truth and necessity of the atonement. Those who would have us believe that sin and justice do not matter to God continually attack this foundational doctrine.
Enter Katharine Jefferts Schori Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA. In a recent article in USA Today Schori is held forth as as a source of light. The article written by Cathy Lynn Grossman begins: “Every time Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori dons her personalized vestments, there’s a vision of sunrise.”
Note well the comments of Jefferts Schori, they make it clear that the battle for the atonement is far from over. Here is a sampling:
“Yes, sin “is pervasive, part of human nature,” but “it’s not the centerpiece of the Christian message. If we spend our time talking about sin and depravity, it is all we see in the world,”"
Does not Jefferts Schori understand that it is because of sin that we need the Christian faith? If there were no sin, we would not need the faith, we would still be walking by sight with God in the Garden of Eden. It was sin that caused Adam and Eve to be cast out of the garden. Prior to sin Adam and Eve did not walk by faith, they were in the presence of God Himself, there was nothing separating them from God to require faith or a Savior. Jefferts Schori’s statement could not be more incorrect, sin is the centerpiece of the Christian message (Christ is the height of the Christian message, the One who purchased forgiveness of sin).
With the following, Jefferts Schori sets herself in oppostion to the Savior she claims to represent. For the fullest flavor and most accurate picture I leave the statements in the context of the framing statements of the article author:
“She sees two strands of faith: One is “most concerned with atonement, that Jesus died for our sins and our most important task is to repent.” But the other is “the more gracious strand,” says the bishop who dresses like a sunrise. It “is to talk about life, to claim the joy and the blessings for good that it offers, to look forward.”"
Apparently the Bishop does not want to be a part of the strand that Christ is a part of:
Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”
Notice that Jesus did not say, “The time is at hand, talk about life, and claim the joy and blessings for good that it offers”. The passage above mentions John the Baptist, what message did John preach?
Matthew 3:1-2 “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
According to Jefferts Schori, one strand is most concerned about the atonement and that Jesus died for our sins and stresses that our most important task is to repent, yes, the strand that Jesus and John the Baptist were a part of. The truth is that there are not two strands of Christianity, there is only one and Jefferts Schori is not a part of it.
This woman is not from God, her message contradicts the Son of God Himself. She is a servant of Satan. Why such harsh treatment? Many reasons: the glory and truth of God, the stakes (human souls) and the fact that this woman holds herself forward as one who knows the truth of Christ and as a shepherd of others. Jefferts Schori’s gospel is not the gospel of Christ, the Scripture could not be more plain in its condemnation of false teachers:
Galatians 1:8-9 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
What does all this mean for the Christian?
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Gary on February 15, 2007
There are many reasons that people do not seek God. I am convinced that one of them is that we, at least in Amercia, are a little too healthy and wealthy. The simple truth is that our affluence and ease have led us into sinful arrogance, the arrogance of believing that we don’t need God. The Bible makes a direct link between poverty and faith:
James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”
Religion has been called, “The opiate of the people”, in sinful man’s eyes people believe in God because they need something to get them through. In particular, the poor need something to hope in and so they choose to believe in God. What strikes me about the verse above is that the Bible mentions God’s choice of the poor, not their choice of Him. Does this mean that the rich can’t know God? No, but let us never forget these sober words from Jesus:
Mark 10:25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
I have done enough funerals at this stage of my ministry to have made some observations. I have found that no group seems to be more hostile and unwilling to be confronted in regard to their need of God then men in their forties through early sixties. I can see the contempt on their faces: “Save this God business for children and old ladies…I have all I need and more, I’m going to Florida for on a golf trip and am going to eat and shop to my heart’s content”. I fear for you dear man, your health and wealth are not blessings to you, they are curses and will damn you before they are through.
Sin has done something terrible to us, it has led us to make God’s kindness and gifts our very justification for rejecting Him. Many people are without God because they refuse to see their need of Him. They are well, they have all they need, for now. The scary thought is that God in His justice leaves many men at the end of their lives where they chose to be in the prime of life. They despised God when He offered Himself and they refused and so God gives them over to the hardness of their hearts and they enter eternity lost, when they finally see it is too late.
Are you trying to scare me preacher? This is scary business. Don’t let your health and wealth deceive you, you need God. What Jesus said to the healthy, wealthy church of Laodecia many Americans need to hear:
Revelation 3:17-18 “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”
Posted by Gary on January 27, 2007
One of the pillars of the Christian faith is the fact that human beings are unrighteous and cannot do anything to earn their salvation. Sinful man’s response to this claim of the gospel is that people do good works (drive their elderly neighbor to the store, give money to the poor, pray…) and that these works have have merit with God and can be counted toward our salvation account. I am convinced that the bulk of humanity believes that we possess some level of righteousness and do some level of good works that earn us favor with God.
I recently read the book of Job and noted with interest that the people of Job’s day understood clearly that good works earn us nothing with God. The young man Elihu states it quite plainly:
Job 35:7 “If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, or what does He receive from your hand?
The idea that good works are an “extra” that what we perform earns us points with God is rejected out of hand by the Bible in this place and many others. Elihu’s question could not make it more clear, righteous deeds result in us giving nothing additional to God, nor does God regard it a favor or an extra that we have done something good.
This passage has a parallel passage found in the book of Luke:
Luke 17:7-10 “Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? “But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink ‘? “He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”
Immediately, we do not like Jesus’ terminology. Plug yourself into the story, what are you? A slave. What do slaves do? The will of their master. Service performed by a slave is not an extra, it is not meritorious, it is what is expected. We as sinners want to tell ourselves that doing good deeds is an extra, we think we are doing things others aren’t and this should mean something, should earn us something.
The teaching of the Bible is that that God created us to be good, it is His expectation that we do good and our duty to do good, not some of the time, but all of the time. Consider Jesus’ statements as a number line with positive numbers to the right and negative numbers to the left. If you and I did everything we were supposed to do, if we obeyed God every moment of every day, where would it place us on the number line? The answer is, at zero. Listen to Jesus, “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’” The ESV is even more helpful, “We have only done what was our duty.”
Dear friend, do not rely on good works to earn you anything with God. Goodness is your duty, every day in every situation, thought, motive and word. You have not done good all the time have you? Nor have I. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came and received the punishment that our disobedience deserves, He did good all the time, He performed our duty and then died in our place receiving in Himself the punishment our disobedience deserved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Posted by Gary on January 23, 2007
Our Sunday School lesson this past Sunday was in Acts 10 the account of the Apostle Peter at the home of Cornelius. Cornelius the Bible tells us was a Roman soldier, a centurion (commander of 100 men). In every way we would say that Cornelius was a man’s man. He must have been a man of varied strengths and courage and accomplishments. When we consider the fact that he had been given charge of 100 men, we can be convinced that he was all that most would say a real man is. But these are not the only things the Bible tells us about Cornelius, most importantly, according to the Word of God Cornelius was:
Acts 10:2 “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.”
Immediately I wonder if the world considers Cornelius a man’s man now. Yes he is a soldier and a leader of soldiers but he is a leader of soldiers who fears God. Real men don’t fear anything, let alone God. To fear God means that a man recognizes he doesn’t have all the strength he needs. A man who fears God is also concerned about how his actions will be viewed by God, he does not live for himself and his desires but according to the law and standards of God. How unlike the world’s man this is. The world’s man lives for himself and declares as he pounds his chest, “I did it my way.”
As we read Acts 10 and came to the portion where Peter arrived at Cornelius’s house I was struck as I read the account:
Acts 10:24-26 “On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.”"
What do you first think of when you read these events? Like me you probably say, “He did something very wrong, he worshiped a man.” This has often been my first reaction when reading these verses, without question his falling down before Peter was wrong. But on Sunday as I thought about these things two things stood out: Cornelius’s humility and his hunger for God.
Imagine this scene, we are told that all of Cornelius’s relatives and friends are present when Peter arrives and here this soldier, this centurion mind you, this man’s man gets up, walks across the room and falls down at Peter’s knees. I wonder what the others in that room thought as they watched Cornelius? Whatever they thought Cornelius didn’t care. Without question his reverence was misdirected, yet it was reverence just the same. Cornelius did not have a full and proper understanding of who God was but he had a great desire and longing to know God and Cornelius knew that this was the man the angel commanded him to send for. Cornelius’s kneeling was a declaration of his desire for God and his humility before God and whatever else we might say about it, God was pleased to reveal Himself to this man and all those with him.
I came away from this passage reminded that God is pleased to reveal Himself to those who humble themselves and who desire Him. How many men will never come to know God because of their pride, their unwillingness to fear God and seek Him. Many men who have no where near the level of manliness that Cornelius had refuse to fear God, refuse to acknowledge their need of Him, will not bow their knee in front of others or in private. Men who do not fear God nor will acknowledge their need of Him will spend eternity separated from Him in hell. The day will come when God will strip the scales of pride from their eyes and they will see what they are and will mourn forever.
As my life progresses I see more and more my pride, my hardness. I think it is manliness, it isn’t; it is sinfulness. Men often want to be like other men they know, may God help me to be like Cornelius.
Isaiah 66:2 “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
Posted by Gary on January 17, 2007
If you have never applied yourself to consider the claims of Calvinism and Arminianism, you owe it to yourself and the kingdom of God to do so. I regard Arminians as brothers but their doctrine is harmful and must be opposed. Often in the midst of debate between Calvinists and Arminians the Arminian will allege that Calvinism fosters sinfulness. The argument goes something like this: “You teach that a person cannot lose their salvation and that leads people to think that they can do whatever they want, you are promoting sin!”
Before responding to this accusation I would like us to acknowledge something about the gospel. The gospel is such good news that it leaves itself open to just such an accusation. I have always found this passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans interesting:
Romans 3:7-8 “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come “? Their condemnation is just.”
Note the accusation being made against Paul and those with him, they are accused of teaching that we should sin so that good (God showing mercy) might come. This is essentially the Arminian accusation, you are teaching that we can sin and sin and God will continue to keep us as His children.
The gospel is such good news that it leaves itself open to abuse. Because salvation is absolutely free to the sinner and God has promised to keep His children to the end, one might think that sin no longer matters and that we can do whatever we like because our sin has been paid for. If I am preaching the gospel faithfully, I expect that some mistaken people might think I am teaching that we can sin and it doesn’t matter. The fact that some may think this and maybe even act upon it cannot keep us from preaching the true gospel that is gloriously free, the potential misunderstanding did not keep Paul from preaching the good news nor must it stop us.
Now to the accusation itself, what is our response to those concerned that we are promoting sin? The answer quite simply is that the person who believes they can sin all they want without fear of losing their salvation has never had salvation to begin with. This person needn’t fear having salvation and then losing it, they never had salvation to begin with.
On what basis do we say this? By very nature a person who has been born again is a person who has come to recognize the evil nature of sin. A person cannot become a Christian without coming to the place where they hate sin and turn from it. If you want a picture of a person who has truly become a Christian here are two:
Luke 5:8 “But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’”
This person the Arminian holds forth who believes they can continue in sin and yet go to heaven is a straw man. The Calvinist is not willing to accept the premise. The Arminian claims this is a child of God who thinks he can sin all he wants, the Calvinist responds, “He is not a child of God”.
The gospel is not a revamped system of works, it is what it claims to be, “Good news” news so good some in their sinfulness will try to distort it to indulge their sinfulness. That being said, the good news must be preached and the person who has come to understand it and has truly believed it is a person who hates sin.
Posted by Theundershepherd on February 28, 2006
Proverbs 16:25 “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
It is very troubling to watch the vast majority of humanity heading toward eternity convinced that the truth is whatever they believe it to be. The devil has cast a powerful, damning spell over the hearts and minds of men which deludes them into thinking that truth begins within them.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
The majority of men believe that sincerity is the qualifier for eternal life. The world’s doctrine of salvation teaches that the specifics are irrelevant, all that matters is sincerity to whatever you believe to be true. Our blindness is so great that no one (until God enables them) sees that they are not really sincere to their own truth, we are all hypocrites even to our self-made religion proving that we have deified self and the flesh.
How is it that a person can hear conflicting claims to truth and maintain that both can save? The doctrine of sincerity. Most people will hear the claims of the world religions in the course of their life. Most have heard Christianity’s claim that Jesus is the Son of God and Messiah while also hearing Judaism claim that He is not. Judaism teaches that righteousness with God can and must be obtained through our obedience to God’s Law. Christianity in response claims that no one can be made righteous through their obedience and that forgiveness and salvation had to be purchased for us by God’s Son, Jesus. How is it that a person can hear these two contradictory claims and yet believe that both will go to heaven? Because they believe that sincerity is what God is concerned with.
Proverbs 16:25 is the Bible’s warning to man that it is possible to be sincerely wrong. Truth is not determined by what seems right to us, truth is found in God Himself and is revealed by God. If what I believe differs from what God has revealed I will be damned no matter how sincerely I pursued my system of belief.
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Posted by Theundershepherd on November 11, 2005
The recent Supreme Court nominations have renewed in me a concern that I have had for many years, the politicalization of the gospel. Watching this process with an eye for the matters of Christ has led me to wonder what we are really after as the people of God.
I am as concerned about abortion and the Biblical view of marriage as anyone else but I must say, when I step off the whirly-gig of the political sphere and think about Jesus and the gospel and the work of God in men’s souls I wonder what we are accomplishing. I wonder if we realize that for many years now we have been reducing the Christian faith to a political party in the United States.
I am not wiling to blame the press and its portrayal of Christianity here, there is a sense in which the media’s portrayal of us is true, we are I fear far more about the business of politics than we are the matters of the Kingdom of God.
Yes, I know, God’s matters cross the political realm the question is, is the political process the way that we are to be about the matters of Christ? I ask you if you are a Christian to stop for a moment, how do you see the gospel being furthered through the tremendous political effort of Christians?
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