the gate

It is quite common for Christians to think they have to grow themselves spiritually. We put our focus on the things we must do — that’s what we emphasize — rather than on what God does. Yet, I’ve never heard a Christian say, “I saved myself.” We know it is God who saves us. Salvation involves not only justification (being made right with God), but also sanctification (spiritual growth). Since it is God who saves, that means he not only justifies, he also sanctifies.

Our terminology reveals our thinking. Many people talk about the role of spiritual disciplines in spiritual growth. “Spiritual disciplines” puts the focus on what we do. Yes, we must practice spiritual disciplines (reading the Bible, prayer, meditation, service, etc.), but that terminology puts the focus on ourselves and our works.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other reformers, instead, talked about “means of grace”. They were referring primarily to the Word and the Sacraments. Because the average Christian did not own a copy of the Bible, they were not talking about personal Bible study. They meant hearing the teaching of God’s Word, and receiving baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “Means of grace” emphasizes God’s work — it’s what God does. In time, “means of grace” has taken a broader meaning to include many of the activities that are called spiritual disciplines.

I wouldn’t say it is wrong to speak of spiritual disciplines; only that I think it is better to call them means of grace, because we shift our focus in a way that helps us remember our growth is what God accomplishes by and through his grace.

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

We receive spiritual growth just as we receive God’s forgiveness — we earn neither — but God uses means to accomplish both. So “meet with” your brothers and sisters for worship (Hebrews 10:24,25); read your Bible and pray; serve others in the name of Jesus — realizing God is using these means to fulfill his promise in Philippians 1:6.

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Related post:
The Gospel Is The Whole Enchilada

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A certain man wanted to sell his house in Haiti for $2000. Another man wanted to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn’t afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.

After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, buthe new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

The moral of the parable is, “If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.”

-Leadership, Spring 1983

Something for all of us to think about.

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Repeatedly, God tells us to repent. Yet, on our own, we are incapable of doing so.

Yesterday, I was reading a short piece Justin Holcomb wrote about repentance. He noted that John Calvin addressed the distinction between “legal repentance” and “evangelical repentance”. I think gospel repentance is a better term, but Calvin was only using the terminology of his day.

Holcomb writes, “Legal repentance is the view that says, ‘Repent, and IF you repent you will be forgiven!’ as though God must be persuaded into being gracious. It . . . regards God’s love and acceptance and forgiveness as conditional upon what we do.”

Gospel repentance, “on the other hand takes the form that, ‘Christ has born your sins on the cross, therefore repent!’ What this means is that repentance is our response to grace, not a condition of grace.”

Holcomb concludes by saying, “God does not merely speak a word of forgiveness and then throw us back on ourselves to make our response of repentance. God knows our weakness and condition. Grace means that in Jesus Christ we have God personally present as a human giving himself in forgiveness, and at the same time from our side vicariously making the perfect response for us to God. In light of this, we are summoned to a life of faith, but our response is now by the grace of God, through the Spirit, a response to God’s response in Jesus.”

It truly is nothing short of AMAZING GRACE!

Click here to read Justin’s whole article

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Related post:
Gospel Repentance Is Full Of Joy

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I think this is the funniest story I’ve ever heard a preacher tell. It is told by none other than Chuck Swindoll.

He says he received a letter from a woman he had met at a conference. In the letter she said, “After your talk last night I was enjoying some relaxed moments with friends I met here. I told them I got married at age 31. I didn’t worry about getting married; I left the future in God’s hands. But I must tell you, every night I hung a pair of men’s pants on my bed and knelt down to pray this prayer:”

Father in heaven, hear my prayer,
And grant if you can;
I’ve hung a pair of trousers here,
Please fill them with a man.

Chuck Swindoll read the letter to his congregation the following Sunday. The mother of one particular teenager in the church missed that Sunday because she had to stay home to care for her sick daughter. A couple of weeks later, she wrote this letter to her pastor.

Dear Chuck:

I am wondering if I should be worried about something. It has to do with our son. For the last two weeks I have noticed that before our son turns the light out and goes to sleep at night, he hangs a woman’s bikini over the foot of his bed. . . . Should I be concerned about this?

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I take great comfort and strength from this passage of scripture and I hope it does the same for you.

Romans 8:31-39 NLT

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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this is written in response to the story of Jesus appearing to mary and mary after He rose from the dead in matthew 28:

“they hear a welcome in the greeting and fall to their knees before the resurrected Jesus.  their first response to the risen Christ was to kneel in awed reverence.  there was also an element of intimacy in that reverence, for they dared to touch and hold on to His feet:  they ‘worshipped Him’ (verse 9).”

“the two elements together became worship.  falling to our knees before Jesus - an act of reverence - is not in itself resurrection worship.  touching and holding the feet of Jesus - an act of intimacy - is not in itself resurrection worship.  the acts of reverence and intimacy need each other.  the reverence needs the infusion of intimacy lest if become a cool and detached aesthetic.  the intimacy needs to be suffused in reverence lest it become a gushy emotion.  these women knew what they were doing:  they were dealing with God in the living presence of Jesus, and so they worshipped.”

(eugene peterson, “living the resurrection”)

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“For freedom Christ freed you.” (Galatians 5:1)

“Everything about the Christian gospel is freedom. Jesus’ whole mission was an operation of liberation.” – Pastor Tim Keller, Galatians Study Guide

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I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual freedom lately. Have you ever noticed how extensive the discussion of spiritual freedom is in the New Testament?

Here’s a little taste:

“. . .to preach the gospel . . . to proclaim release to the captives . . . to set free those who are oppressed . . .” (Luke 4:18)
“. . .and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32)
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
“. . .so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Rom 6:6-7)
“. . .she is free from the law . . .” (Rom 7:3)
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . .” (Rom 7:24-25)
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom 8:2)
“that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom 8:21)
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
“. . .free from the love of money.” (1 Tim 3:3)
“. . .keep yourself free from sin.” (1 Tim 5:22)
“and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Heb 2:15)
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. . .” (Heb 13:5)
“Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” (1 Pet 2:16)

Christians have been freed from the wrath of God, from the Law, from sin, from condemnation, from a guilty conscience, from fear of death, from the power of the devil, from religious self-effort, and more! We should be living on a continuous feast of joy! Christians really should be the happiest people on earth. Hmmmm . . .

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Related posts:
Happiness, A Delicious Privilege

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ok, so 1 corinthians 13:4-7 has been a mainstay in christian weddings for quite some time, and rightfully so.  it is a great thing to think about in the context of marriage.

however, to reduce this passage solely to a lovey-dovey “i should love my wife” (sniff-sniff, move on to the lighting of the unity candle) is to neglect what the point of the passage is.

this passage is permanently attached to chapter 12 and the prior verses of chapter 13. it is speaking about love as a general statement, but more specifically love in the context of the use of our spiritual gifts.

chapter 12 talks about the spiritual gifts.  it tells us that God distributes them to whoever He feels like, and we each don’t have all the gifts so that we have to rely on one another as a symbiotic organism, THE collective Church, a mosaic if you will.  ** winks **

anyways, so then God tells us that even if you speak in tongues of men and angels, can prophecy, discern or have faith to move mountains (BTW - wow), it is all meaningless without love.

love is the binding factor in following Jesus.  nothing is pure and pleasing to God without love.  we can even exercise the gifts that God has given us specifically to His displeasure if they are not done so in a loving way.

i question myself, whether all of my words and actions come from the source of love.  is everything i do based on love?

if not, how do i love more?  is that even something that i can realistically work on?  i don’t think so.  love in this context is a love born only of the Spirit of God in us.  it is not tied to emotion or circumstance.  it merely is or it is not.  either the Spirit of God has destroyed our hearts of hate and envy and pride, or He has not.  if we cannot love, then the solution is not trying to love people more, but begging God to break us.

God to you:  “without love, you’re just a 7th grade marching band“.  yeesh!

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I pray that you may “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19)

Do you see the stunning implication? Paul assumes that we cannot be as spiritually mature as we ought to be unless we receive power from God to enable us to grasp the limitless dimensions of the love of Christ. We may think we are peculiarly mature Christians because of our theology, our education, our years of experience, our traditions; but Paul knows better. He knows we cannot be as mature as we ought to be until we “know this love that surpasses knowledge.” (Don Carson, A Call To Spiritual Reformation, p. 195)

Sounds like something we should be praying, don’t you agree?

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