Growing in Christ
The Gospel
All that’s needed is free in Jesus
01 year ago
I’ll be honest, sometimes I skim in my Bible reading. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I sometimes quickly pass over the powerful intent of statements in the Bible because I’m not immediately being addressed. Often times a letter or passage is written to a large audience with the intent of each person individually meditating upon it for grace and change. I get hung up on the “we” and “us” and forget the implicit “me” and “you” of a passage.
One of those passages if Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
I can be prone to pass over this passages intent upon me for the sake that it uses “we” language. Thankfully, God stopped me in my tracks this morning. This is my own attempt to get inside this passage as, I think, Paul (and God) intended me to receive it:
Father, you did not spare your own Son, but gave Him up for me. Jesus died for my many sins in my place. How will you not also with him graciously give me all things needed? Therefore:
- All things I need today are all in Jesus.
- All things I need today are free in Jesus.
- Jesus is already freely pouring upon me the grace I need today.
- There are no real, substantial needs I have that Jesus will not meet.
- If a solution today comes that does not directly tether to Jesus, it is not a need, and is probably sin and temptation.
There is, of course, more that could be said to the above. My point here isn’t to excessively qualify remarks, though those could go on ad infinitum. My point is simply this: To meditate on this grand reality that God is for us in Jesus Christ, and to make that personal in my life today. God is for me in helping me be faithful at my job today. God is for Michelle in helping her care for Owen today. And this help is only in Jesus Christ. But it’s not hard to get the help! The point of Romans 8, if anything, is that God is for us and near us. He is not far. God is so close to us that not only did he take on flesh, take on the place of our sin under his wrath, but he also indwells us by his Spirit. God is for us in the most outlandish, staggering, bewilderingly beautiful ways possible.
So, I say it to myself again: All things I need today are free for me to receive, because Jesus, who died for my many sins, is free to me by faith.
Hello, I’m a pessimist.
01 year ago
I don’t mean to be this way, but I guess I am. Hello. I’m a pessimist.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate…It’s not the sort of thing I intended to be, but in reflecting on how I view people and my life, I’m at least a pessimist. And yet, the term seems to fall short by a few shades of gray as to what I actually believe and do.
While my wife and I were out last night on our weekly date, I made the throw away comment about something we were discussion, “oh, I guess it’s because I tend to view everything I’ve done in the past in a negative light.” She picked up on this, and while we were in the car gently said, “You know love, I know you were kinda joking when you said that, but that’s really not good or glorifying to God.”
The issue that prompted this was a simple one: I had gotten a gift for Michelle a couple years ago, and I was talking lightly about how I’ve felt guilty lately about getting her the book because I felt it was a Gift-for-me-to-you gift. But she countered and reminded me that, no, while she hadn’t read the book in question, that it was still a thoughtful gift, and that I had her best intentions in mind when I had gotten it.
As we began to open up the issue, she was pointing out that viewing all of my past decisions through a negative lens distorts the truth in a couple ways.
Grace
In viewing things through a presumptively negative lens, I completely discount the reality of God’s grace. God takes the whole of a Christian’s life and showers them in grace from beginning to end when they are in Christ. You aren’t as bad as you could be, and thank God for it! To view things negatively, I foster a heart of ungratefulness and subtly feed unbelief that God is not at work. I feed unbelief by completely divorcing the grace, mercy, and love of God to work in all things by thinking the worst of any or all of life’s actions.
Gospel
By being at least a pessimist in how I view my life, I’m fundamentally not believing what the Gospel says about my life. Do I screw up and make bad decisions? Yes. But the Gospel comes in and says that my life is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Who I am is no longer defined by me. That’s kinda strange. You mean, those sins that I do, are no longer the defining mark of who I am as a person? Nope. You mean, being stupid doesn’t define me? Nope. What does? Jesus. To be a Christian is to fundamentally be “in Christ” and have all the things that define Jesus, define us. (This is, by the way, why Paul’s writing is absolutely saturated with “in Him” language. It’s important. Don’t miss it.)
When I view my decisions in the past, present, or future as the absolute worst they could be, and associate myself with them as my fundamental identity, I’m not functionally believing the Gospel. My actions, contrary to popular belief, do not define me. Jesus does. So to look back on a bad gift, feel really bad for it, and think , “Man, I’m such a block head!” is tantamount to saying “Man, Jesus isn’t enough!” That is, when I have that perspective and am not prompted to gratefulness and joy for Jesus being my identity. I am a block head – that’s for sure – but Jesus is better. And I’m in Jesus. So that’s enough.
So let’s do this again.
Hello. I’m in Christ.
__________
Resources
If you’d like to read some more on this subject, let me point out a couple of resources:
- If you’d like to learn how to better serve your spouse in helping them grow in Christ without being their personal Holy Spirit, let me point you towards a sermon recently preached at my church: Spousekeeping.
- If you’d like to learn more about this “in Him” theology from someone who’s so helpful in making it practical and real to our lives, I’d recommend David Powlison’s Seeing With New Eyes.
No right to condemn
21 year ago
Do you ever have those moments when you’re listening to a sermon and suddenly you get struck by lightening? I mean like an actual bolt of lightening coming down from heaven and sapping you in your chair? Personally that’s never happened to me, but I try to avoid wearing metal and standing in water.
A moment that was like that for me a while back was when I was in a sermon listening to Paul Tripp, and he said:
You have no right to condemn what God is redeeming.
I don’t know about anybody else in that room, but my audience with the God of the universe got pretty personal.
One of the great declarations of the Bible is Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Here was an all to powerful practical and theological point wrapped into one concise statement. I tend to not be easily deceived (it’s one of the distinctives of being a ninja), but I think what I had subtly begun to apply this truth in merely vertical terms: Jacob, there is now no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus. But I had read this too narrowly and applied it in terms of American Individualism.
What Tripp was pointing out is that the declaration that there is “no condemnation” also applies in how we think about other people. God is in the process of redeeming people, changing them slowly over time, according to his timing and plan. So when I get all huffy about somebody offending me in whatever way (perceived or intentional), and laying on the guilt and condemnation (either mentally or verbally to them) then I am guilty of fundamentally misunderstanding what the Gospel of “No Condemnation for Those in Christ Jesus!” means.
Yea, that person in your church that really bugs you and does everything they do entirely different than you would – yea, they’re no longer under condemnation, and so you have no right to keep giving it to them. That’s right, the person who’s deliberately slighted you by hanging out with other people and not you – yep, they are no longer receiving complimentary condemnation packages, so you need to stop paying for the postage.
For me, it was a moment where I began to see my self-righteous, judgmental heart towards others. I like to condemn because it’s merely an application of “Jacob the King of the Universe” world I like to build. Last time I checked, I put my pants on like every other non-king-of-the-universe human around me.
The point Tripp was making was helpful though: That person you’re eagerly condemning (that God doesn’t anymore) is God’s personal glory story. They are God’s personal way with them of revealing his grace and redeeming a broken human being and making them whole in Christ. Are they going to annoy you? Sure. But is your annoyance really that important?
But Tripp’s point also speaks to love. Love so freely enjoys the glory and riches of Christ that it eagerly seeks to think about others the way Christ does. If you’re a person prone to condemn, consider how things would change if you took up your new right in Christ to “pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). Apply “no condemnation” vertically and horizontally and you’ll begin to taste the rich grace of the Gospel that Jesus has freely given us.
We need bruising
11 year ago
One of my favorite books of all time is The Bruise Reed by Richard Sibbes. At 128 pages, it’s a highly distilled vaccine of Gospel power. Virtually every page of my copy is underlined and starred. In this book, Sibbes exposites the prophetic promise of Isaiah about Jesus that, “a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice” (Isaiah 42:3). The book is like a solid home-cooked meal. All from scratch, warm, steaming, just the right company and family around, with an explosion of comforting, soothing flavor as it hits the palate. Here’s one little quote for the book that I thought I’d share today:
After conversion we need
bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy. Such bruising may help weaker Christians not to be too much discouraged, when they see stronger ones shaken and bruised. Thus Peter was bruised when he wept bitterly (Matt. 26:75). This reed, till he met with this bruise, had more wind in him than pith when he said, `Though all forsake thee, I will not’ (Matt. 26:33). The people of God cannot be without these examples. The heroic deeds of those great worthies do not comfort the church so much as their falls and bruises do. Thus David was bruised until he came to a free confession, without guile of spirit (Psa. 32:3 5); nay, his sorrows did rise in his own feeling unto the exquisite pain of breaking of bones (Psa. 51:8). Thus Hezekiah complains that God had `broken his bones’ as a lion (Isa. 38:13). Thus the chosen vessel Paul needed the messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he should be lifted up above measure (2 Cor. 12:7).
Hence we learn that we must not pass too harsh judgment upon ourselves or others when God exercises us with bruising upon bruising. There must be a conformity to our head, Christ, who `was bruised for us’ (Isa. 53:5) that we may know how much we are bound unto him.
Ungodly spirits, ignorant of God’s ways in bringing his children to heaven, censure broken hearted Christians as miserable persons, whereas God is doing a gracious, good work with them. It is no easy matter to bring a man from nature to grace, and from grace to glory, so unyielding and intractable are our hearts. (Pages 5-6)
Live as though you need Jesus
02 years ago
Last night, I sinned. I know, “Whaaaaaaat?!” How did that happen? Oh, you know, the usual: In a conversation with a friend, and there I am with a particularly dear, well-groomed soapbox and an opportunity to pontificate. So there I went, into my bag of goodies and lurched out my expertise: an irrational ability to syllogistically destroy people.
Almost upon the words exiting my mouth I have this sense that maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, and maybe my opinion on the matter is dumb. Upon further review, as the phrase goes, later that night I began to see the wickedness of my sin. I have this deep inner compulsion to detonate anything I judge stupid, to push other people beneath me and exult my own opinion that I might be shown to be the Radiance of Wisdom that I am.
Repentance to the Father was made. I looked to Christ with sorrow for my sin and trusted in him to give life to this sinful man. Talked to my wife about it. Went to bed.
Then the morning came. Woke up, and stumbled into the shower. There, I began to fester about it. Why did I do that? That’s just like all those other times before… Man, I am such a loser! I need to figure out how to stop doing this.
I did that whole thing for a few moments, and then it dawned on me: Right now, I am living as though I don’t need Jesus.
It was a fog light moment. You know, one of those moments where the fog of thought suddenly has a beam of light pierce through to bring clarity and focus. I was morning my self-righteousness for the purpose of fueling my self-righteousness. I really was sorry that I had screwed up whatever sense of self-worth I had and had potentially lowered myself in my friends eyes. The horror of people having an accurate picture of who I am! The festering I was experiencing was due to the fact that I was evaluating myself apart from a view of Christ.
But Jesus didn’t come to perpetuate self-righteous sorrow for sin. The Son of God took on flesh that he might take my frailty as a man, walk through life pleasing God on my behalf (something he didn’t need to do since the Son was God’s delight already), and then take the place of my sin on the cross so that I might only need to trust in him.
For our sake he made himself to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
It seems to me that this is the way Paul thinks. We’re all born bound to sin, but Jesus comes in, breaks that up and marries us to himself (Romans 6). Sure, sin sticks around like a perpetual zombie attack, but it really is dead to you, and now Jesus alone is sufficient to give life, hope, and change to sinners like me through the indwelling power of his Spirit (Romans 7-8). To live and respond like Jesus isn’t enough – that it’s Jesus + ____ = me changing – is to be one of those cats in Jesus’ day that hated him. Jesus taught in direct opposition against the Pharisee’s who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9).
Jesus wants us to live in him because he actually is enough. He wants us to live like we need him. This is what it means to be a Christian. Jesus “became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” when we were united to him through faith, “so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). We don’t need to worry about people seeing our sin clearly because Jesus has already seen it more clearly than anyone else and dealt with it. And he is enough.
All we have is Christ; there’s no reason to be surprised by sin. Rather, we should be staggered by grace. You mean, God loved me, and chose to bring me to himself at the cost of his dear Son’s blood and life? Yes. This is the Gospel. Do not trust in yourself to change you. Do not trust that you can reshape who you are. Live as though you need Jesus, because he actually is enough.
Recommendation: What Is The Gospel?
02 years ago
I read Greg Gilbert’s recent publication
What Is The Gospel? this weekend. Gilbert walks us through a basic structure showing us from the Bible: God, man, Jesus, response, and life. All in relation to the centrality of Gospel. Each of the eight chapters is short, filled with Scripture, and guided by keen insight to let the glory of the Gospel – Jesus Christ dying in the place of sinners to reconcile them to God – glisten and shine. I found myself saying several times while reading, “Man, he’s really really going to the heart of the matter. No side trails!” But this isn’t a fault. In going right at the Gospel, Gilbert shows us the mangificent display of God that God himself paints for us in his Word.
In this book, Gilbert gently, but firmly clarifies what the Gospel isn’t in contrast to a few modern aberrations at the end of the book. When he does this, it’s merely to serve his audience in drawing them into a better understanding of the Gospel, not a better Gospel. I deeply appreciate this book for being simple, clear, and focused on presenting the Biblical Gospel with a pastoral heart to help us enjoy God as God intended us to.
With the book being a mere 128 pages, if you’re looking for some small fodder to your quiet times in the morning, or something short and powerful to read quickly before going to bed, this book fits the bill. Get it, enjoy it, and enjoy it again.
Miscarriage of Suffering
02 years ago
Part 1
When I hoped for good,
I tasted evil;
When I reached for wine,
It had soured;
When I looked to Heaven,
It turned to steel;
When I longed for death,
I remained an hour.
When I turned from you,
He looked at me;
When I hated Him,
He prayed with blood;
When I cursed His face,
He washed my feet;
When I turned Him in,
“Thy will be done.”
Part 2
With cries of anguish he birthed me new,
The Spirit’s bloody baby who
Knew the curse as no curse at all,
Reversal of Great Adam’s Fall.
Using now these painful arts,
To write His name upon my heart,
Devil’s schemes He new contorts,
Temple in me, His tender work.
How to confess like a legalist
12 years ago
- Have no sorrow for sin, only fixation. A man may well see himself as a sinner and only have a metal tablet of law in the room of examination instead of the God of the universe. A true sense of sin must see it in relation to God, the personal Triune God who is offended by his defamation in our sin.
- Have no joy hoped for, only the desire for the burden of condemnation lifted. We are called into enjoying God and in sin we turn from that. True sorrow for sin consists of seeing our fellowship with God broken and longs for its restoration. Should one merely desire the weight of condemnation lifted they might as well stop being a Christian.
- View confession and agony of sin as atonement. The legalist has no view of the Cross in its finished accomplishments because it would rather view its own agony and confession (to self and others) as satisfying the laws demand of sin. It is a small view pretending to wear big cloths. The legalist here is finally shown for what he is: an atheist. There is no room for the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob; the perfect life and righteousness of Christ; no cross; no death; no resurrection; no victory; no union with Christ. The legalist has no need of God for he is his own god.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
~ Romans 5:9-11
——
(These are a few thoughts from earlier this week. I woke up having this weight of condemnation and began to eventually think through what exactly I was wanting in my condemnation. I was acting like a legalist and looking to confess my sin as a legalist. So I started writing down observations to help direct my soul to the Gospel. Surely there is more to be said – and probably better said – so feel free to share thoughts or corrections)
How The Gospel Engages My Sorrow
12 years ago
The miscarriage happened a little over two weeks ago. That’s a strange thought. This has to have been the craziest month thus far in my life, followed in a close second by the month Michelle and I got married. Honestly, getting married was a lot more fun. I knew miscarriages were sad and unfortunate, but one of the things I hadn’t expected was the lingering, cloak-and-dagger type sorrow that follows behind the loss. The sorrow comes in waves it seems – no real trigger, if there were, I’d like to avoid it. And most frustrating and tiring of all, it seems to stick around. You’d think I could talk about it by now with a straight face, but my eyes still seem to leak every once and a while – I hold it back, who really wants to cry at work over computer parts?
There is the inner swarm of thoughts: Why’d this happen? Why this way? Memories of when it happened. My father’s reaction to when I told him in person that we were pregnant. Coming home to Michelle crying that evening. The doctor’s office where they confirmed it. Frustrations over how this affects Michelle. I find it difficult to find steady ground. I feel that all I have in these moments is the single beam of light from God’s Word that tends to the simmering coals of faith. I feel a naked faith of sorts, the kind that’s likened to anemic people in the hospital – still human, still living, just barely.
In my devotion reading this morning, David, carried along by the Eternal Spirit, sung to me, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). David’s statement is all encompassing, it’s a declaration. God has brought his righteousness near to me and covered me (Isaiah 46:13) because of Jesus work to take my sin upon himself (2 Cor. 5:21) that I might be forgiven and be blessed in enjoying God. Why is that so hard right now? Or is it? Joy isn’t always clothed in joyfully raised hands. Joy takes on the cloths of sorrow (that’s why 60% of the Psalms are in a minor key). At church this past week there were songs and prophetic words (if I remember correctly) about the Lord Jesus taking on our sorrows and griefs. He took these sorrows on that I might be declared blessed in the free justification of his grace. He has born these sorrows to a depth that I will not, because he’s made a declaration over me. So in my sorrow, I take hope that the one who has turned these events as they have gone is the very one to whom I must go, because that’s what it means to be blessed, to be surrounded by the steadfast love of the Lord (Ps. 32:11).
I trust in God, my rock and fix my mind on him in this sorrow that he would give me a perfect peace, the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding and guards me from falling away (Isaiah 26:3; Phil. 4:7). Even still, however long that peace is withheld, he is strengthening these feeble legs of faith to walk after him; to step when the pain is in the walking. This is how the Gospel engages our miscarriage – Jesus has lead the way and taken the full force of sorrow and grief that we might know God. How do I know I don’t experience the full weight of the sorrow? Because I see Jesus, and he has overcome the world (John 16:33). All things are now not in vein.
By His Divine Power: 2 Peter 1:3-4
02 years ago
This is a diagram that I drew up in my devotion time this morning. 2 Peter 1:1-11 was on the docket, and after a few reads, verses three through four really stuck out to me as a profoundly God-centered logical flow of thought (surprise, surprise – it’s in the Bible!), so drew what I saw. The verse itself reads:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
These diagrams help me to unpack what is being said. What Peter is getting at is quite profound. Notice the flow of thought:
- God initiates his divine power, he gives it freely. There are not conditions for it – save being a sinner! – and he has given it, as we learn in v. 2, in Jesus Christ to us. This is on God’s initiative. There is no invitation from man, “Hey God, we’re kinda hating you right now. Mind doing something about that?” God initiates his love without any inclination of interest in those he initiates towards. This is the wonder of Free Grace.
- It is given so that we might A) Have knowledge of him, Jesus, and B) have something through it. Stop for a moment. God freely gives knowledge of himself (implicitly this is saving knowledge of him), not just to be impressed by God, but to have something. God is giving people who have committed treason against him treasures out of his glory. He is giving traitors that which they should have given him. Do you see the free, amazing, glorious grace involved here? Not only is God initiating something, but he’s initiating with a purpose to bless and give. That’s two givings of grace, if you’re counting, to people who deserved nothing!
- God’s power intends life changing effects. This is simply amazing. God doesn’t just send Jesus to give us a ticket out of Hell (to use the phrase), but he saves us to be like him “in life and godliness.” To be a Christian is to grow, and desire to grow, in godliness. Moreover, it is through the knowledge that God gives that we receive “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” It is not through 10 steps, it is not through accountability programs, it is first and primarily about seeing and knowing something that God gives. That something is Jesus Christ in the Gospel – his death for our sin, his taking of the wrath we deserve, his actual death and actual resurrection, his victory and reign over Satan, sin, and death. It is not in participating in some way that we receive “all things that pertain to life and godliness”, it is through seeing and knowing. We don’t do anything to get right with God, thus we don’t do anything to merit the ability to grow in grace. All we do is see Jesus Christ, in all that is and all that he has done, and in that we grow in our love for him, have our minds and hearts changed by that sight, and thus simply by believing in Jesus we receive the power to grow in godliness.
- Change comes through God’s promises. Not only are we saved by God’s self-initiated grace and mercy, but God also gave in ages past his promises about his name and goodness to those who repent and believe in him. Thus, when we do repent and believe in Jesus Christ through knowing his Gospel and seeing its goodness, “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). And it is God’s already existing promises of mercy and goodness that cause change in us. We believe in God’s ability to do what he has said because God fulfilled his great promise of redemption (Genesis 3:15) in Jesus Christ; thus we know that all his subsequent promises are also “Yes!”.
- His grace sent to make us partake of him. The aim of God’s divine power (#1) is to bring us near to him and partake of himself. The extent of this “partakers of divine nature” is deep, but I think a part of what is in view is holiness. God brings us, those rebels who once hated him and were full of “sinful desire” are now brought near to God by his own initiative and grace to be “partakers of divine nature”. Stop for a moment and wonder at this! What wondrous grace is this. “My song is love unknown, My Saviour’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, that for my sake, My Lord should take frail flesh and die?”
- As a final strand, We escaped because he called. Lest we should boast in ourselves in any of this, Peter makes the strand in this verse that we escaped the corruption of the world in its sinful desires (which we freely partook of) only because God “called us to his own glory and excellence.” This call that he gave was effectual. It changed our minds, it set our feet on a path, gave us fuel to walk, and an aim to end in.
What grace from God. Let his name be praised for his amazing grace.
