The Gospel

The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Jesus came to solve both problems – sin and death! Sin was paid for at the cross on that dark Friday afternoon. Death was conquered at the empty tomb early on Sunday morning. The point of the gospel is to have the payment of the cross applied to your sin as you genuinely repent of your sin and wholeheartedly place your trust in Jesus Christ as the complete solution to the debt your sins have racked up against a holy God. Don’t fall to history’s most frequent religious error, thinking that being good, sincere, or better than the next guy will somehow be a sin-cancelling credit. We need to see our lives, including whatever perceived credits we might think we have, exchanged completely for the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Be sure your hope is in him and not yourself. Turn from sin and trust him today.

Christianity Attacked

It seems that almost daily we Christians have to endure a new barrage of attacks against the Christian faith. Tirades on websites, new books pitted against the Bible and angry dissenters continually grabbing microphones and keyboards to unleash their latest arguments against the Christian God. While their presentations are delivered in intellectual terms, it is important to notice how often their diatribes are predated by their own moral departure from the boundaries of Christian ethics. Remember Demas turned on Paul, Christ and Christianity after it was noted that he fell “in love with this present world” (2 Timothy 4:9). The academic attacks upon Peter’s preaching came from those who had already fallen “in love with the gain of wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15). The modern critics of Christianity may argue in intellectual terms, but God has often warned that the reasoning of our mind usually follows after the loves of our heart (1 Timothy 6:3-5). It’s not that we shouldn’t respond to their arguments in intellectual terms, it’s just that we must always be aware and at some point address the connection between the “lure and enticement” of unchristian morality and their antichristian arguments (2 Peter 2:1-3; James 1:14-15).

God's Justice

If God is not just, God is not good. If God does not respond justly to the unrighteous decisions of his creatures, then God cannot be holy, good or righteous. In the same way earthly judges cannot be good while perverting justice in their courtrooms, the perfect Judge cannot be perfect if he ignores sin. His perfect love does not negate, invalidate or nullify the perfection of his justice. Without justice there is an eternal imbalance, a nagging discrepancy, and a lack of divine equilibrium in the universe that cannot be disregarded. This reality is our predicament and the quandary of the human race. The gospel of course is the solution. But realize God’s love does not repeal God’s justice. Instead, God’s love provided a judicial solution. The whole point of Christ’s crucifixion was the exacting of rigorous justice motivated by extreme love. If love were enough to solve our problem and maintain divine perfection, there would have been no costly incarnation and no crushing crucifixion. But of course there was. The solution was extravagantly provided because God is love, and it was necessary because God is just.

Bible Reading

Whenever we study the Bible we have to do our best to let the text speak for itself. The goal is to excavate God’s message, ascertain God’s values, and comprehend God’s perspective. We may have many ideas and expectations about what we hope to uncover and what we wish to find, but the Bible has to be approached with an intentional objectivity. Many will tell you that reading the Bible objectively is impossible. That’s a popular refrain from those who want to give themselves license to dismiss what’s really there. But reading the Bible with requisite objectivity is not impossible. It may be unsettling and even scary, but it can and must be done. There are a good many things that I wish the newspaper would report each morning, but every day I have to let the reporters report, adjusting my hopeful expectations as I read. And God is no cub reporter. He knows how to communicate. God has revealed his ascertainable message clearly in the pages of his word. He is not seeking to obscure the truth we need to know. Sure, there is work involved in mining God’s truth, but we must do it, leaving behind our preconceptions and allowing the Bible to speak as we make adjustments.

Defending Truth

1 Peter 3:15 commands all Christians to stand up for the truth and defend the hope of the gospel. It also commands that this be done with “gentleness and respect.” Unfortunately, there is something about defending the truth that can quickly deteriorate into heated arguments, belittling statements, and insulting remarks. It shouldn’t. God expects his ambassadors to stay in control of their emotions and maintain a godly decorum that is worthy of our stately King. Christ’s victory is already settled. His triumphant return is not dependent on our frenzied quarrels. The truth is settled. Christ has already won. Our objective is to provide dignified and respectful corrections to those who call his truth into question. While our emotional disturbance is understandable when people malign our God, the Spirit’s goal in our speech is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). It may seem paradoxical, but we are called to fight for the truth gently and respectfully. So don’t get out there and attempt to defend Christ’s honor in a dishonorable way. Keep your cool, and let your defense be seasoned with the courtesy and dignity that befits God’s royal family.

Fickle Feelings

Our feelings are fickle but God’s word is unchanging. There may be several factors, righteous and otherwise, which will influence our emotions, yet the Bible stands as our unalterable source of divine information providing eternal clarity regarding God’s values and priorities. This is why the Bible must serve as our perpetual guide for decision-making. God repeatedly warns us to “not lean on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) but instead to affirm with David that God’s word is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). It is tragic that much of modern Christianity has advocated a shift from objectively thinking our way through the Christian life in the light of God’s written word, to subjectively feeling our way through the Christian life being pushed and prodded by our fluctuating emotional impulses. How many clear passages of Scripture are ignored because Christians don’t “feel it”? How many express commands in the Bible are disobeyed because God’s people don’t “feel led”? This should never be. We must act on God’s inscribed directives, not our shifting sentiments. So may we all reaffirm the historic Christian resolve to subject the entirety of our lives to the authority of God’s word, even when our feelings are left to catch up.

Making A Difference

We cannot afford, nor should we ever be content to live unmotivated and unproductive Christian lives. God has endowed every one of his children with gifts, opportunities and resources to make a difference each day for the advancement of his kingdom and the good of his people. Many of our fruitless days have to do with a deficiency in our attitude, not a lack of opportunities. This is why the Bible has so much to say about our perspective and our mindset. Jesus certainly encouraged us to have an optimistic outlook for our daily productivity when he said that through the means of his people “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Paul sets the pace in not getting bogged down in yesterday’s failures or accomplishments when he wrote, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:12-14). We, along with the Colossians are exhorted to “work heartily” at the Monday-through-Friday tasks to which we are called, always keeping God, his transcendent agenda and his eternal rewards in view (Colossians 3:22-24). So then, let’s approach each day with an energetic passion to make a difference for Christ, tirelessly “abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain” (1Corinthians 15:58).