Unworthy rebels, redeemed by the King of Kings and made servants fit for His use.

Tag: Forgiveness

If God Is Real, Why Is Your Life So Hard?

Recently, someone I know was asked “if God is real, why is your life so terrible?” Sadly, this is an all too common question that is loaded with presuppositions. It assumes that for God to be real, life cannot be difficult. It assumes that I should never have to deal with difficulty. It assumes that I am such a good person that I deserve for life to go well. It assumes God owes me a good life. And it assumes God can only be real if He does everything possible to make my life easier.

As Voddie Baucham once said, this is the wrong question. I don’t get to ask a question like this loaded with all the wrong presuppositions and then conclude God cannot be real because He did not meet my standard. Rather, I must look at the question from God’s perspective.

Who decides whether my life should be one of ease or difficulty? Who decides what constitutes my being a good person? Who decides on the basis of the “good person criteria” what I deserve? Who decides what I am owed? And who decides but God if intervening in a time of tribulation will really be best for me?

The truth is, the answer to these questions is that God is the one who decides these things, not me. God is the sole standard of what is right and good. He is morally perfect and righteous. It is against Him that one can determine if they are a good person. And for the record, not a single one of us is good. We are all morally bankrupt and evil when compared against the righteous and holy God.

Knowing that we fail to come even a micrometer close to God’s goodness, knowing that He is a perfect and righteous Judge, how can we possibly think we deserve even the slightest good thing from Him? Determining God’s existence on whether or not my life is difficult is like a criminal deciding Courts cannot be real and have no authority over him because he had a hard life.

We are God’s creation and have rebelled against Him. The fact that we continue to breathe air despite the multitude of sins we commit against Him daily rather than being struck immediately to Hell testifies of His patience and longsuffering. What God owes us is His judgment. Not reward and ease, but His wrath, immediate and without relenting. Yet, God patiently allows us life in this world until the day we must all stand before Him. He does so because God desires that all men everywhere repent and come to faith in Christ.

In other words, God gives us time. Time to see Him for who He is and to recognize ourselves as the sinners we are. Time to turn from our sin and turn to Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. God graciously gives us time.

Will all men turn to Christ? No. Yet, even in this God is gracious because He sends forth His gospel message through His people. Then, God kindly brings to faith and repentance all those whom He will save, because apart from this work, none would turn to Him.

What about those who do not? They will never be able to say they do not deserve His wrath. Creation and conscience testify to the truth of God’s existence and the reality of their sin. They know He is real and will hold them accountable. And they have His Word readily available to find the truth. They will be judged, condemned eternally to Hell and there is no defense. And, in this, God too is glorified.

Therefore, when we see life is difficult, when trials are painful, we are reminded that sin is at work in the world and that judgment is one day coming. God does not owe us a life of ease, rather, these trials testify that we deserve far much worse.

Yet, He has given us time. Time to admit we have sinned against Him, to turn from that sin, and to turn to Christ for eternal life. Trials then show us that this life is but a vapor, a time we must endure, be faithful, and serve. Then we will spend eternity with the One whom we had once rebelled against yet, in His kind mercy, He adopted us as His children.

God owes us nothing but His wrath, we do not deserve His kindness. But, God is merciful and will use even the most difficult of lives to demonstrate His goodness.

Is Roe the End?

A Historic Moment

Today, June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In this monumental decision, the Court ruled there is no constitutional protection for abortion and returned the matter to the States. In other words, each State must now decide whether to make abortion illegal, legal, or restricted in some capacity. This means it is not a full ban on the horrific practice despite what commentators, media personalities, or politicians have claimed.  Nor is it a removal of a Constitutional protection enshrined in our founding document. There has never been any such protection in the Constitution. What Roe v. Wade did is interpret that laws banning abortion were unconstitutional. That decision thus prohibited states from making laws outlawing the act. In today’s decision, the Supreme Court reversed that finding and determined no such protection existed. You cannot remove something that was never there.

What Now?

What happens next? All 50 States in the Union must now determine what laws they will pass with regard to the act of abortion. Some states have already passed legislation that would be triggered once the decision was handed down. Other states already have laws protecting the practice of abortion and will continue to stand by them. Ultimately, each state’s laws will be based on the votes of its citizens and the representatives they place in State political offices. This is not the end of abortion, but it most certainly limits the ability of people intent on murdering their babies. The fight to end abortion is far from over, but a major victory has been won.

What does this mean for the church? As Christians, we recognize that Scripture declares murder to be a sin. God knew us before we came into being.  He declared when would be born and would die.  He determined the path our lives would take. And He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. We are made in His image and likeness. God has declared the willful murder of such image-bearers to be a sin, one which has not only temporal but eternal consequences. Therefore, the church must continue to proclaim to the world at large that the murder of babies is a sin. That those who promote, affirm, endorse, and engage in this willful rebellion will face His just and righteous wrath. We must call on the world to repent of such heinous sin and turn to Christ whereby the only hope of forgiveness can be found. We must not equivocate on this matter. We must firmly, authoritatively, and with great love, proclaim this truth to the world.

What Cannot Be

But we must not fall prey to the language of the world on this matter. We must not seek to soften the blow that abortion is a sin by telling people that abortion is only thinkable because we have failed to provide for the needs of women. That abortion only happens because social justice has not yet been achieved. This is patently untrue. Murder occurs because people are sinners. We commit sin because our hearts are enslaved to sin. That sin will be shown in a myriad of ways, including the murder of babies in the womb. We can justify our sins all day long with hundreds of reasons but it is still sin. We cannot remove the guilt of sin because life is unfair or difficult.

We must also not fall prey to the redefinitions of terms. It has become passé to rephrase pro-life to mean “pro-whole life.” In other words, that protecting infants from murder is not actually being pro-life. To be pro-life, you must be willing to have the secular government at large provide and care for life from womb to tomb. We are told we must authorize the government to so organize society through financial incentives, social programs, and health care to ensure that every life born has every single thing it needs. In this redefinition, you cannot possibly be pro-life without this provision. To reject it means you are “pro-birth” and could not care less what happens after.

Those actually aware of the history of the church know that Christians have created numerous resources for hundreds of years to care for children and families in need. Through local church donations and care in the community – and through the creation of charities, pregnancy centers, hospitals, adoption agencies, and more – the church has always stepped up to the plate to provide for those children in dire need. It is a lie from the pit of Hell to say that Christians do not care what happens after a child is born. And by adopting the language of “pro-whole life” we deny the truth that countless Christians in history have actually done the work of caring for those in need.

Do Not Forget Our Primary Mission

Finally, we must not assume this particular victory means our work is done in the culture. Even if all abortion was banned today (may we see that day soon) evil hearts that desire to murder their children are still enslaved to sin. The very hearts that want to fight to restore abortion to legal status are still speaking vile words that spew forth from evil hearts. Their standing before God has not changed even if the law were changed completely. Sinners bent on evil still need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While we rejoice and worship God for His mercy on this matter, we must almost recommit ourselves to the command to make disciples of every nation. We must confront hearts with the truth of Scripture that they are enslaved to sin and will stand before God on Judgment Day. That the only hope of forgiveness, even for those who have already murdered children in the womb, is Jesus Christ. We must confront them with their sins, warn them of the danger to come, and plead with them to turn to Christ alone.

Christians, Roe is not the end. While the fight has been long and arduous, it is not yet over. And it would not be over even if we could put an end to this abdominal act. The first and primary mission of the church is the proclamation of the gospel and the winning of souls to Christ. We can fight and win culture wars but still lose souls to Hell. Let us fight the one without neglecting the other. No, Roe is not the end. It is a time of humble rejoicing to be sure. But, it is also a reminder of the great God we serve and the mission He has given us. Let us go forth and serve our King this day and every day till He brings us home.

Obedience from Love

Recently, my pastor taught from Romans 7, speaking of Paul’s inability to keep the law of his own accord and his realization of his need for a Savior. In the culmination of his teaching on the law, my pastor made a wonderful application about our obedience to God’s law: out of Christ, we cannot obey the law to merit God’s favor due to our sin nature; inside of Christ, we cannot be more loved of God by trying to prove how good we are through our obedience; thus our obedience can have only one motivation, our love for our Savior.

The Purpose of the Law

Scripture teaches us that the law is our guardian, or schoolmaster, leading us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). It is the reflection of the perfect nature of God Himself. God does not give us the law simply because He had the desire to make up a list of dos and donts. In order to be in fellowship with God, we would have to be perfect as He is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Thus the law is God’s standard of perfect righteousness. Anything less than utter moral perfection keeps us from His presence. This is because He cannot look on sin without judging it. To do so would be a grave injustice. In His divine forbearance, he allows us to continue in this earthly existence until the time of deaths. But none will escape His perfect justice on that day.

However, we often try to think of the law as something we can achieve, a means of meriting the favor of God. We see this played out in the gospels as Jesus took the Pharisees to task for adding their traditions to the law. Ceremonial cleansings, Sabbath limitations on what was considered work, tithing and more were subject to extensive writings by the Jewish leaders. They defined every aspect of the law to such an extent that they believed it was actually possible to merit the salvation of God by their very works. Christ repeatedly rebuked them for their traditions as it actually laid further burdens on the Jews, but did nothing to lessen the load. In doing so, the religious leaders barred the way of salvation to those who followed them.

The purpose of the law is not that we can achieve moral perfection before God. Scripture is again clear that, outside of Christ, every person is a slave to sin (Romans 6: 17, 20). We were born with a sin nature, therefore, we cannot help but sin. It has been said that we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. Christ made this evident when He spoke of the fact that it is not what is outside of ourselves that we take in that makes us unclean. Rather, it is that we are unclean in our hearts which works itself out in what we think, say, and do (Mark 7: 18-23). That is why He taught that it is not only the outward acts of adultery and murder that were sinful but also the very inward lusts and anger that we feel as well (Matthew 5: 21-22, 27-28). Therefore, the law’s purpose is that it exposes our utter inability to be morally perfect like God. For every command we fail to follow, we only expose that the condition of our heart is evil continually.

Thus the point of the law is not to give us the “how to” of making it to Heaven. Instead, it is the means by which we come to know we are utterly incapable of meriting the favor of God and are deserving of His wrath. Unless we have Someone who intervenes on our behalf, the law only illuminates that we have no hope of eternal life. Thus, it is the spotlight which points us to the Cross of Calvary where there is One who took the penalty for our sins.


In Christ Alone…But We Can Still Earn It, Right?

The cross is the place of the great exchange (Romans 5: 12-20). Jesus, the Son of God, fully God and fully Man, willingly laid down His life, taking the full wrath of God for sinners. It is at the cross where justice and mercy meet. Christ had no sin of His own for which He was crucified. He was perfectly sinless, having always obeyed the will of His Father. Yet, Christ allowed sinful men, who were deserving of His condemnation, to whip Him mercilessly and nail Him to a cross to die. This was a penalty for the worst of criminals. It was not only the most painful means of capital punishment but the most humiliating. Why would the Son of God endure such ignominy? Because such is the wages of our sin (Romans 6:23). It is what we deserve for the rebellion we have committed against our Creator.

In His love for us, while we yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). His perfect love for us was played out in that Jesus took on Himself the full wrath that we deserve for our sins. And after being in the grave for three days, He rose again, defeating sin and death. Those who see the vileness of their sin through the law and repent, putting their full faith in the completed work of Christ, receive forgiveness for their sins. Not through any merit of their own, but because not only took our sin on Himself but because He gives us His righteousness. Now the believer not only has his sins paid in full, but he is made perfect in the eyes of God. It is as if the believer perfectly kept every aspect of the law, down to the smallest detail, because Christ Himself has done so.

When we receive salvation from Christ, we are receiving the full and perfect love of God Himself. We can never be more loved by God now or in the future because the Father’s love for the Son is perfect. And because we now have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, we have the perfect love extended to us. This is the beauty of the cross, the great exchange that makes us the beloved of God.

The problem with us as Christians is that, while we have a new nature, we tend to still struggle with our old way of thinking. Where we once may have thought we could merit salvation from God through works, we now think that we can coax God into greater love or blessings by being really, really good. James teaches us that faith without works is dead (James 2: 20). And Paul made it clear the law still has a place in the life of the believer (Romans 3: 19, 6: 1-2). So it is indeed necessary that we seek to live our lives in obedience to the commands of God. Yet, we tend to think that our obedience earns us some kind of approval from God.

We can tend to believe that our times of study, prayer, worship, discipleship, etc. make God happier with us. As a result, we will credit any blessing in our lives to the fact that we have been obedient in these areas. Yet, when we fail to adhere to the spiritual disciplines we attribute any tribulation in our lives to these failures. As a result, we tend to think God blessed us because we were obedient, and gave us a smack down when we’re not. We find ourselves in another form of legalism that leads us to wrongly believe that God can still be bribed into blessing us through our good works.

This is not to say that God does not demand our obedience, or that He will not discipline us in our times of sin. Most certainly God desires to have us be conformed to the image of His son. And He will bring discipline into our lives when we sin against Him (Hebrews 12: 6). However, this is not a matter of quid pro quo. God isn’t nicer to us when we’re good and mad at us when we’re bad. He already loves us perfectly and has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). Thus, His discipline is to draw us into a close relationship to Himself, purifying us and purging us of the sin that lingers in this flesh. We must disregard the notion that we can buy a greater love from God by our works. Christ already purchased that in full at Calvary, therefore, we are free to enjoy his great love and mercy now and into eternity.

So Why Should We Worry About Obedience?

In his letter to the Romans, Paul called on the church to pursue holiness and forsake unrighteousness. He rightly asked how believers, who had once been slaves to sin, continue in the very transgressions from which Christ freed them (Romans 6: 15-19). Continual repentance and the pursuit of holiness is not a work in which we merit salvation or approval from God. It is the conforming of ourselves to Christ, of whom we are now servants. And our desire to do so is motivated by our deep and abiding love for the One who set us free.

When Christ willingly surrendered His life at the cross, He took the wrath that we godless rebels deserve for our sins; past, present, and future. In other words, the price He paid for our salvation was the full wrath of God against every sin we would commit in our lifetimes. Every single one of them. Therefore, how can we have any desire to commit the thoughts and deeds, or speak the words which cause our Savior to be tortured and crucified? If we have no desire to obey the commands of our God, then we have no concept of what He did to redeem us. In the greatest act of love in all of history, Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself to save those who were yet in their sins. The only proper response to this act should be deep humility and undying gratitude from those who name Christ as Savior. Obedience should then be the result of our unceasing desire to be made like Him who died to purchase us.

When a condemned sinner turns from his lifestyle of sin and commits himself wholly to Christ in faith alone, He promised that the Holy Spirit would enter into that person and make them a new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17). They are given a new heart, with new desires. The Holy Spirit then goes through the process of sanctifying the new man, conforming him to the image of Christ. The outworking of that sanctification should be that the Christian then pursues, out of love and humility, obedience to the commands of our Lord and Master. Thus, our good works are an extension of our salvation and sanctification, showing that God Himself has indwelt and changed us. Christians should care about obedience to God’s commands because it is that which helps us to see that we are bearing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5: 22-24).

If there can be one takeaway from this article, it should be that you cannot in any way merit God’s redemption or approval by the works you commit through your own effort. However, if you are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, one evidence of your saving faith is that God has worked in you an abiding desire to grow in your obedience toward Him. You will abhor the sin that condemned you more and more, and you will find yourself desiring to become more holy, just as He who saved you as holy. Christian, pursue good works, not that you may bribe God with some token effort, but that you may be conformed to Him that saved you by His precious shed blood.

“I’m Offended!” – The Anti-Intellectual Argument

Postmodern philosophy declares that all truth is valid truth. Since every person’s particular definition of truth is considered to be, in fact, true, there can be no competing ideologies. In other words, everyone can hold to their own personal ideology, regardless of whether or not it can be proven true, because it is true in the mind of the beholder. Since it is true to the person holding it, it is not necessary to actually prove or defend said truth, as it does not have to be true in the eyes of any other person. This results in creating a personal echo chamber wherein truth holders surrounds themselves with only that information which affirms their belief and never allows anything in that could challenge their thoughts.

The problem with the postmodern belief system is that it still allows other persons or groups to belief and espouse truths that contradict our own. Despite the fact that multitudes of people attempt to live in their personal echo chambers, opposing belief systems will ultimately crash into each other. To use an extreme example, if a person believed that traffic laws did not apply to them, and that they could drive on any side of the road they chose, a person who believed the opposite would one day have a face to face meeting with them. Likewise, our individual belief systems impact how we think, speak, and act. No matter how much culture says your beliefs can only be your own, and hence, should not impact others, the reality is that we will act out on our beliefs in our interactions with other people. Therefore, our personal echo chambers cannot filter out other belief systems no matter how hard we try to plug our ears.

Once we are confronted with truths that contradict our thinking, especially if we hear those truths espoused en masse, we are forced to defend what we believe. This is one of the most difficult aspects of the post modern philosophy to deal with in practicality. We cannot isolate ourselves from the rest of society, so we must live with the reality that ideas have consequences. Our personal truths do not exist in a vacuum. They impact our lives in how we live, how we work, how we vote, and so forth. When people are allowed to pursue whatever truth they wish, they ultimately we live out those truths around us. They will speak to us and act toward us in ways that are inconsistent with our personal truths. We are then forced into a series of options: we can remain consistent with post-modernism, allowing their actions to impact our lives in uncomfortable ways; we can abandon postmodernism, returning to the search for truth by debating which belief is actually true; or we can determine that competing belief systems are intolerant and offensive, thus are not deserving of protection in the postmodern philosophy. It is this last option that has been resoundingly accepted in our current culture.

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Christians and the Culture War – Love Your Enemy

There is little doubt to anyone that our nation is heavily divided along socio-political lines. Some have argued that we may be more divided than we have ever been. While such a claim is one for the historians to determine, I certainly can state that I have never seen such animosity amongst opposing worldviews in my lifetime. It is no longer characteristic of our culture to have well informed debates over cultural topics. In times past we would lay out our case, making specific points to be heard and understood. We would have listened to our opponents, taking in what they said, and making counter points for consideration. Today, it is rare if such give and take occurs. Rather than seeking to win converts to our thinking through sound argumentaion, we seek their utter domination.

We now engage in debates with a winner take all mentality. No longer do we seek to hear the voices of those who disagree with us. In fact, to allow them to speak at all is considered tantamount to treason. After all, if they stand in opposition to what we believe, they cannot possibly have anything meaningful to say. Thus, rather than allow them a platform where their beliefs can be discussed, we seek to shut down any and all avenues where they can be heard. And if we cannot keep them from speaking, we must utterly destroy their character. For, if one is considered to be the most vile form of life, then there is no need to hear what they have to say. In fact, their worldview is to be considered so worthless that we claim to hold to it is to be mentally ill.

There is much that can be lain at the feet of this development in our culture. The philosophy of post-modernism, the idea that all truth is valid truth, certainly has its part to play. If truth is what I determine it to be, then no one can ever have a point that is counter to my own. If I can dismiss your argument by simply claiming it is your truth and not my own, then I never have to be challenged in my thinking.

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Modern Day Jonahs

angry-man-1441834773gytJonah Was a Prophet

In the Old Testament, God often spoke to His people through the prophets. These were people specifically chosen by God to speak His messages to His people. They were not to misrepresent God in any fashion. If they spoke falsely, or gave a prophecy that was not 100% accurate, they were to be stoned to death. To be a prophet was serious business, it was never to be treated lightly. Prophets spoke not only the foretelling of future events, but also the commands of God to His people. Often those messages included the command to repent of the sins against God which had brought judgment on them. If the nation of Israel would repent of its collective sin, God would deliver them from the judgment He had poured out.

Jonah was such a prophet chosen by God. Jonah had a unique mission in that he was commissioned by God to preach coming judgment, not to Israel, but to the Gentiles in Nineveh. The Ninevites were a pagan people who had oppressed the Jews. Such a nation was not viewed favorably by Jonah or any other Jew. When God directed Jonah to preach to Nineveh that His judgment was forthcoming, Jonah did not leap at the chance to preach to them. Rather, he booked the first ship to Tarshish he could find (Tarshish is NOT in Nineveh, just in case you were not aware). God sent a storm and a giant fish to forcefully bring Jonah back to the Ninevites.

Three days later, Jonah was spit up on shore and he was once again sent to Nineveh by God. Jonah arrived and preached the message he had been given, forty days and God would judge them. Then he sat back and waited for the judgment to come. But Nineveh understood what this meant. They had sinned greatly against the one, true God of the universe. They understood that his judgement would be righteous and true. They did not fall back on false worship of false gods to deter this judgment. They bowed the knee in utter repentance, seeking the gracious mercy of God. And God, because He has already promised that those in repentance toward Him will be saved, abstained from pouring out His wrath upon them. God mercifully spared them, a picture of the glorious gospel which was later fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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How Fast Can You Go?

213732-muscle-car-wallpaperHow fast can you go? That seems to be the mantra of the modern age. Everything is a race of one sort or another. “The faster the better,” seems to be the motto of nearly everyone. Get me there fast! Fast cars, fast planes, fast trains, fast internet, fast, fast, fast. You never see anyone advertise, “we have the slowest” anything.

The world speeds by at a neck breaking speed. We want instant access, instant news, and instant messaging, and all under the “give it to me now and as fast as possible” mentality.
I have a question for you. When you die, how fast will you go into eternity? It will be the quickest trip you ever take. In the blink of an eye, you will go from being a breathing citizen on Earth, to either a citizen forever in Hell or Heaven. This fast fact is undeniable, you will die one day.
This should concern you greatly. Some may say, “When I die, I will just rot away in the ground and that’s the end of it.” But, what if that’s wrong? What if you will either spend eternity in Heaven or Hell? Then what? Where will you or anyone else be? Do you know?

The fast fact is this; you can actually know for sure where you will spend eternity. The Bible makes it clear that all who die will either be justly sentenced for their crimes against God in Hell or they will be given the reward of Heaven. The problem is, once you die there will not be a day in court to plead your case. The only time to have your sin crimes pardoned is now. Today is the day of salvation. That can only be accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ. The only way a person can be truly forgiven and escape the wrath to come is by the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ.

Pride is the fast track to destruction. It’s the humble of heart and the repentant person that receives the adoption of Christ. I ask you, are you ready to stand before God and give an account of your life? When you die, you will stand before God and give an account for every word spoken, every secret thought, and every public or private deed. Because God’s very nature is perfect goodness, He is going to judge you according to the perfect, moral standard of His Law. If you’ve ever lied, stolen, or taken His name in vain, He will find you guilty of breaking His Law. Because God is good and Holy, He must punish your sin. And the only punishment for all sin against God is eternity in Hell. But, God is also merciful, loving, and kind. He provided one way to escape that punishment and that was through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was and is fully-God and fully-Man, without sin. He died on the cross a death He did not deserve, in order to take upon Himself the punishment you and I rightly deserve for our sins against God. He then forever defeated sin and death when He rose from the grave three days later. What God requires of you is that you repent (turn from your sin and turn toward God) and by faith alone, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Throw yourself on His mercy today, and beg He grant you the eternal gift of salvation.

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