A Dangerous Motive

 

“Who has given a gift to [God] that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. (Romans 11:35–36)

When it comes to obedience, gratitude is a dangerous motive. It tends to get expressed in debtor’s terms. For example, “Look how much God has done for you. Shouldn’t you, out of gratitude, do much for him?” Or, “You owe God everything that you are and have. What have you done for him in return?”

I have at least three problems with this kind of motivation.

First, it is impossible to pay God back for all the grace he has given us. We can’t even begin to pay him back, because Romans 11:35–36 says, “‘Who has given a gift to [God] that he might be repaid?’ [Answer: Nobody!] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” We can’t pay him back because he already owns all we have to give him — including all our efforts.

Secondly, even if we succeeded in paying him back for all his grace to us, we would only succeed in turning grace into a business transaction. If we can pay him back, it was not grace. If someone tries to show you a special favor of love by having you over for dinner, and you end the evening by saying that you will pay them back by having them over next week, you nullify their grace and turn it into a trade. God does not like to have his grace nullified. He likes to have it glorified (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).

Thirdly, focusing on gratitude as a motive for obedience tends to overlook the crucial importance of having faith in God’s future grace. Gratitude looks back to grace received in the past and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to grace promised in the future — whether five minutes from now or five centuries from now — and feels hopeful. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1).

This faith in future grace is the motive for obedience that preserves the gracious quality of human obedience. Obedience does not consist in paying God back and thus turning grace into a trade. Obedience comes from trusting in God for more grace — future grace — and thus magnifying the infinite resources of God’s love and power. Faith looks to the promise, I will be “with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9), and ventures, in obedience, to take the land.

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 4.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY MAY 03, 2022.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 4.

Memory verse: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” (John 1 vs 16.)

READ: Colossians 2 vs 8 - 10:

2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

2:10: and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

INTIMATION:

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul asserts Christ’s deity. “In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily” means that all of God was in Christ’s human body. When we have Christ, we have everything we need for salvation and right living. The character, essence, attributes and deity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were representatively manifested through Jesus. 

Those who are in Christ are spiritually complete for God’s eternal purpose to create beings with characters that are fit for eternal dwelling. Therefore, the saints of God are the completion of the work of God in the creation of all things. All those who have responded to Jesus by receiving, believing, and obeying the gospel, have received the fullness of what He offered on the cross. In Him are all spiritual blessings that refer to our salvation. 

Therefore, those who are born again into Him, enjoy the saving grace of God that supplies the fullness of what Jesus offers through His atoning sacrifice. Those who are in Christ have responded to the grace of God by immersion into Christ in order to receive forgiveness of sins. Those who are immersed are born into a realm of grace wherein they work in response to God’s grace. 

Obviously, few Christians seem content within themselves. Most Christians feel a strange and often hard-to-identify inner vacuum occasioned by circumstances of life, which gives them an uneasy sense of incompleteness. Christ fills that vacuum! As Jesus’ Person is fully divine, so we, united by faith with Jesus, find personal fulfillment in Him. Do not look at circumstances but rather look up to Him that controls all circumstances!

We are the fullness of Him, and are in Him, having come to fullness of life in Christ. The full power and presence of God have taken up residence in the mind and heart of the believer. You are a new person, equipped for life and satisfied in God. You, also, are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature in the knowledge and revelation of Him. And He is the Head of all rule and authority (of every angelic principality and power). He is not only equal to God, He is God, and is supreme over all creation, including the spirit world.

He is the same Jesus we are complete in, and also His fullness. He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness also. The word, "fullness" comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: "pleroma," which means "completeness," "perfectness," or any other synonym that suggests fullness. 

It is for this reason that Jesus said, “....Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”? (John 10 vs 34). Yes, He called us gods, to whom the word of God came, because we are agents of God’s revelation and Will, and the Scripture cannot be broken (See John 10 vs 35). We are the sons of God in a unique and unparalleled relationship of oneness with the Father in Christ.

It was for this reason that the apostle Paul thanked God in Colossians 2 vs 14, for His triumph over Satan for us; "But thanks be to God, who always lead us in triumph in Christ," and “gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (First Corinthians 15 vs 57). That is the Hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ.

Paul said you need this knowledge, "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Colossians 1 vs 10 - 12).

In Hebrews 9 vs 12, the Scripture reveals to us that this is an Eternal Redemption. Not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead; that he is as much a subject to the Name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.

As you start today in the newness of life, take some risks—God will guide you, Give more generously—God will supply. Love more freely— God will energize you. Say “can do” more often—God will amaze you.

Prayer: Abba Father, I am Your fullness, and is complete in You. Endue me with the spiritual wisdom and understanding of my inheritance in Your works, and the complete knowledge of God, that I may walk worthy of You, fully pleasing You, strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, and being fruitful in every good work, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How to Ask Forgiveness

 

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. (1 John 1:9)

I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person’s theology was the effect it has on our prayers.

This struck me as true because of what was happening in my own life. Noël and I had just been married and we were making it our practice to pray together each evening. I noticed that during the biblical courses which were shaping my theology most profoundly, my prayers were changing dramatically.

Probably the most significant change in those days was that I was learning to make my case before God on the ground of his glory. Beginning with “Hallowed be Thy name” and ending with “In Jesus’s name” meant that the glory of God’s name was the goal and the ground of everything I prayed.

And what a strength came into my life when I learned that praying for forgiveness should be based not only on an appeal to God’s mercy, but also on an appeal to his justice in crediting the worth of his Son’s obedience. God is faithful and just and will forgive your sins (1 John 1:9).

In the New Testament, the basis of all forgiveness of sins is revealed more clearly than it was in the Old Testament, but the basis, namely, God’s commitment to his name, does not change.

Paul teaches that the death of Christ demonstrated God’s righteousness in passing over sins, and vindicated God’s justice in justifying the ungodly who bank on Jesus and not themselves (Romans 3:25–26).

In other words, Christ died once for all to clear the name of God in what looks like a gross miscarriage of justice — the acquittal of guilty sinners simply for Jesus’s sake. But Jesus died in such a way that forgiveness “for Jesus’s sake” is the same as forgiveness “for the sake of God’s name.” There is no miscarriage of justice. God’s name, his righteousness, his justice is vindicated in the very act of providing such a God-honoring sacrifice.

As Jesus said as he faced that last hour, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27–28). That is exactly what he did — so that he might be both just and the justifier of those who trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

God Demonstrates His Love

 

God shows [demonstrates] his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Notice that “demonstrates” is present tense and “died” is past tense. “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The present tense implies that this demonstrating is an ongoing act that keeps happening today. And will keep happening tomorrow.

The past tense “died” implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Why did Paul use the present tense (“God demonstrates”)? I would have expected Paul to say, “God demonstrated (past tense) his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Was not the death of Christ, when it happened, the demonstration of God’s love? And did not that demonstration happen in the past?

I think the clue is given a few verses earlier. Paul has just said that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3–5).

In other words, the goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations.

But how can we?

Paul answers in the next line: “Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). God’s love has been poured into our hearts. The tense of this verb means that God’s love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and is still present and active.

God did demonstrate his love for us in giving his own Son to die once for all in the past for our sins (Romans 5:8). But he also knows that this past love must be experienced as a present reality (today and tomorrow) if we are to have patience and character and hope.

Therefore, he not only demonstrated it on Calvary; he goes on demonstrating it now by the Spirit in our hearts. He does this by opening the eyes of our hearts to taste and see the glory of the cross and the guarantee it gives that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38–39).

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 3.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY MAY 02, 2022.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 3.

Memory verse: "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (Second Thessalonians 2 vs 13.)

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 3 - 8:

1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 

1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 

1:5: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 

1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, 

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

INTIMATION:

Now notice from the Scripture we read today that He chose us in Him way back before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish in His presence, and out of His love for us, He foreordained us into the position of sons to Himself through Jesus Christ.

Let it soak into your very being that way back, before the foundation of the world, God planned to have us. We are the product of His plan. And when the fullness of time came, He said to the great heathen world: ‘Whoever will, may come and become a member of My fore-planned family.’

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, Let him come to Me and drink, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7 vs 37 - 38). It is the call "If anyone thirsts,” and you have answered that call; you are a member of that holy body that can stand in His presence without the sense of guilt and condemnation. 

The apostle Paul tells us that "He has freely, by grace, made us accepted in the Beloved. It isn't done grudgingly, not scantily, but it was according to the riches (glory) of His grace. In the Beloved we have our redemption through His blood, the remission of our sins, and it is according to the very riches of His love, His glory, and the fullness of His grace.

Can you see your place now? You must glorify Him by taking your place in Christ. Never think of your worthiness, for He is your righteousness. Don't think of your ability because He is your ability. Enjoy your rights and take your place and fill His heart with joy.

As I said before, very little is known by many Christians of ”spiritual wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” The spiritual wisdom and understanding is ours to have. And when we have it, there will never be a struggle after faith again. Your prayer life will be like that of the Master. The sense of unworthiness that comes from sin-consciousness would be destroyed in that full knowledge—that ‘exact and perfect knowledge,’ of our redemption and righteousness in Christ.

When we have grown to that fullness, into full manhood and womanhood in Christ, we are imparted with the reality of our being “delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1 vs 13 - 14).

If you are then conscious of that perfect redemption from Satan's dominion, you will walk with a sureness that Jesus had in His earth walk. That sureness comes from knowing that everything you had ever done, and all that you ever were, stopped at the New Creation. All your past has stopped being, and you start anew.

Then if you make mistakes, or commit any sins, you have the intercession of Jesus. All you have to do is acknowledge your mistake or sin, confess and repent of your sin, and you obtain mercy and it is wiped out instantly, and your fellowship is restored.

Prayer: Abba Father, I am what I am in Christ by the riches of Your grace. I pray for the full revelational knowledge of my inheritance in Christ according to the good pleasure of Your Will, in Jesus’ most precious Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Dirty Rags No More

 

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6)

It is true that any shortcoming of God’s law offends his perfect holiness and makes us liable to judgment, since God cannot look with favor on any sin (Habakkuk 1:13; James 2:10–11).

But what brought a person to ruin in the Old Testament (and it is the same for us today) was not the failure to have the righteousness of sinless perfection. What brought them to ruin was the failure to trust in the merciful promises of God, especially the hope that he would one day provide a Redeemer who would be a perfect righteousness for his people (“The Lord is our righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). The Old Testament saints knew that this is how they were saved, and that this faith was the key to obedience, and that obedience was the evidence of this faith.

It is terribly confusing when people say that the only righteousness that has any value is the imputed righteousness of Christ. To be sure, justification is not grounded on any of our righteousness — even Spirit-given righteousness by faith — but only on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. But sometimes people are careless and speak disparagingly of all human righteousness, as if there were no such righteousness worked in us that pleased God. This is not helpful.

They often cite Isaiah 64:6, which says our righteousness is as filthy rags, or “a polluted garment.”

But in the context, Isaiah 64:6 does not mean that all righteousness performed by God’s people is unacceptable to God. Isaiah is referring to people whose righteousness is in fact hypocritical. It is no longer righteousness. But in the verse just before this, Isaiah says that God approvingly meets “him who joyfully works righteousness” (Isaiah 64:5).

It’s true — gloriously true — that none of God’s people, before or after the cross, would be accepted by an immaculately holy God if the perfect righteousness of Christ were not imputed to us (Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). That is true! But that does not mean God does not produce in those very “justified” people an experiential righteousness that is not a “polluted garment” — even though it is not yet perfected.

In fact, he does produce such a righteousness, and this righteousness is precious to God and is, in fact, required — not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ only), but as an evidence of our being truly justified children of God. This is what Paul prays for, and we should pray for. He prays in Philippians 1:10–11 “that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 2.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY MAY 01, 2022.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 2.

Memory verse: "And raised us together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2 vs 6.)

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 17 - 23:

1:17: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

1:18: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

1:19: and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to working of His mighty power

1:20: which He worked in Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

1:21: far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

1:22: And He has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

1:23: which His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

INTIMATION:

In the first three chapters of Paul's epistle to the church in Ephesus, he enumerated the consummation of Christ's substitutionary work regarding Satan and his cohorts —the demons. His heart intent is that we come to the full knowledge of what we are in Christ.

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus, and the prayer is applicable to all believers to this day. Paul prays that our eyes be opened or enlightened, that we may know what is the richness of the glory of Jesus’ inheritance in the saints—in the substitutionary work accomplished for us believers, and what the exceeding greatness of His ability on our behalf who believe.

He clearly stated that, it is according to that working of the strength of the Mightiness of God, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him up from the among dead.

He declares the same ability that wrought in the dead body of Jesus when He was raised to immortality, is at work in us. Yes, undoubtedly so, because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is indwelling us by grace (unmerited favor) of God.

Now see how the apostle Paul made known this fact to the saints in Rome; "And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken (or heal or strengthen) your mortal bodies." (Romans 8 vs 11). The heart can hardly take it in that the same might, the same ‘Resurrection Power’ that wrought in the dead body of Jesus is ours today. That same Spirit that embodied the power is indwelling us today, and with the same power. 

Now, consider deeply the mystery in our memory verse, "And raised us together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Reconcile it with this, "And He made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come." An everlasting authority, isn't it?

You must always keep in mind that we were raised together with Him, and He made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies; so representatively, we are seated on the Throne with Christ, and all the authority in His seat, and position, is made available to us seated with Him. And He also has given us the “power of attorney” to the use of His great name. 

Remember, Jesus Christ is the head of the body. The body and the head are one entity. We are members of the body—the church. So if the head is exalted, the body is exalted with it. If He has been given all authority, that authority belongs to His body—the church, for its benefit. If He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead, it is as though we had accomplished the mighty work. It is reckoned to our credit.

Notice carefully the 22nd and 23rd verses:

"And He has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." We are His body, therefore, all these malignant, wicked influences are beneath our feet. We have been made masters of them all. He did not defeat them for Himself, but for us. He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good. 

This knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable as the multiplication table. And when this is done, ‘Believers’ will spend less or no time glorying the devil, instead of using the time to glorify Jesus Christ for His triumph over Satan and his cohorts, on our behalf. If you embrace this truth, you will hardly give the devil any room to minister his usual lies to you because, by God's grace, you have known what you are in Christ!

The big question still remains, “When will the hearts of all Christians embrace this ‘Truth,’ and their minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ?” 

Prayer: Abba Father, all that is within and in me is thanking and praising You for Your unparalleled love for me, and the riches of the glory of my inheritance in Christ. Endue me continually with the spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge, and understanding of You, and to know the hope of Your calling, in Jesus’ most wonderful Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!