Tag: discipleship

11: I Reckon

foundations 
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:11 (NKJV)

If you come from Texas or the deep South, you might use the word “reckon” in your normal conversation, such as, “I reckon you’re right.” This use of the word is about the same as “suppose”. The King James version of the Bible also uses the word “reckon”, but in a much different way. In the above verse, “reckon” is the equivalent of “consider it true or done”. This type of reckoning is very important if we are to grow as a Christian.

Faith is the God-given ability to take God at His word.

Faith is not something we generate from within ourselves or something innate in everyone. When Adam sinned, we all died spiritually, and the human heart lost its connection to God. We died to spiritual things. God had to revive us on the inside for us to be able to live again. Paul put it very clearly in his letter to the Ephesians.

God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)

Jesus is called the Author and Finisher or initiator and completer of our faith.

...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NASB)

Faith is a work of grace from start to finish. The indwelling Holy Spirit is God’s Agent of grace. He is the One who develops faith inside us. He is called the “Spirit of faith”. (1 Cor.12:9; 2 Cor.4:13) He is the One Who lives out the Christ life from inside us. When we trust in God, it is the Spirit trusting in and through us. When we worship the Father, we do so in cooperation with the Spirit.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:6 (NASB)

Because we have been joined or united to the Holy Spirit through the new birth, it is next to impossible for us to differentiate between God’s Spirit and ours in these matters.

But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NLT) 

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 (NASB)

Faith is the ability to accept God’s promises as being true just because God said. Faith enables us to consider that his promises are a done deal even before we see or receive what was promised.

Faith reckons that what God has said is true.

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

Now why is this so important? Remember that salvation begins in the spirit, on the inside, and over time works its way into our thoughts, motives, and behavior, as yeast works its way through a lump of dough. (Matthew 13:33)

If we think that our spiritual growth depends on how hard we work at it, we will always be unsettled. But if we trust completely in what the Bible says, that our new life is a gift of grace from start to finish, we will be steadfast in our faith.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

By God’s grace, our thinking and behavior will sooner or later catch up to God’s promises that we believe. This is a crucial principle for spiritual growth.

Here is an example of how this works, going back to our opening scripture verse. The Bible says we are “dead to sin”. How many of us “feel” dead to sin? I would venture to say that none of us do. Are we dead to sin or not? If we only consider that we are dead to sin when we feel like it, we will never agree with what God says is true. We will not be operating in faith. If, however, we take God at His word and reckon that we are indeed dead to sin, despite what we feel or how we have recently acted, we will be living by faith. Not only that, what we believe will be the truth.

What difference does this make? Practically speaking, it makes a lot of difference. After sinning, which we all do, we will either be cast down and discouraged because we failed again or relatively upbeat and encouraged because we realize a temporary set back is just that. Which way of thinking will lead to which outcome? Now I am not suggesting that we be careless when it comes to sin, but if we get discouraged because we sin, we will be discouraged a great deal of the time. If we can stay encouraged even at our worst, trusting that no matter how we have behaved, we are indeed dead to sin and it shall not be able to dominate us, we will avoid one of the greatest deceptions of the enemy – the power of condemnation.

Condemnation robs us of our joy and peace. It puts us into “Judas Mode”. After betraying Jesus, he felt so hopeless and worthless that he committed suicide. Peter, on the other hand, also betrayed the Lord, but he had hope that he would be forgiven and kept on going. He eventually was fully restored. Unless we conquer lying condemnation, we are likely to despair of there being any hope for us and give up. We might even wonder if we are really God’s children at all. Jesus took our condemnation upon Himself on the cross. When we were made right with God through faith, God the Father declared that we are “Not Guilty” in the court of heaven. We were once for all delivered from the power of the Law to condemn.

"I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. John 5:24 (NLT)

God justifies us, and Christ died and intercedes for us. No one of any rank is left to condemn us.

Condemnation is usually the result of a lack of understanding of what Christ has accomplished, and it is a killer of faith.

Paul lists it as the number one enemy to conquer before a person can learn to “walk in the Spirit”.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)

Now the question we must ask ourselves is this: is what I have just read true? I reckon it is, and so should we all.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion
  • Why is it crucial for us to consider that we are dead to sin, even if we are not yet acting as if we are?
  • What makes condemnation such a powerful enemy, and why must we gain victory over it before we can walk in the Spirit?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

10: The Hope of the Resurrection

foundations 
And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently. Romans 8:23-25 (NLT)

Sometimes when we are attempting to share the gospel with someone, we might ask them if they are saved. A typical response might be, “I hope so!” At that point we have a perfect lead in to tell them about the meaning of biblical hope.

Instead of hope being something we wish for, but is unlikely to happen, biblical hope is a confident expectation that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

Biblical hope enables us to patiently wait for the promise, no matter how long it may take for it to come to pass. Some have described hope as “stretched out” faith. Faith is the basis or ground of hope. Like faith, hope originates in God, who is our source. Paul wrote:

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NLT)

 We expectantly wait (hope) for what we believe (know) to be true.

Faith immediately receives the answer to prayer, knowing that God has already “done” what He promised, even though we do not yet see it. Hope hangs on to that promise for as long as it may take until we see and experience the actual fulfillment.

The resurrection is our hope. We know it’s coming, but we don’t know how long it will be before it arrives.

The future salvation of the body is called glorification, and this is what will happen when believers rise from the dead. We will be instantly transformed into Christ’s image, and our resurrection bodies will radiate His glory.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere. Philippians 3:20-21 (NLT)

The resurrection is the final installment of God’s great salvation.

The first installment is the new birth, whereby we are given a right standing with God, liberation from all that would enslave us, forgiveness of sins, life eternal, the indwelling Holy Spirit, reconciliation to the Father, and the privileges and rights of sonship. The second installment is called sanctification or transformation, which is the day-by-day walking out in our souls of what was given to us through the new birth. This requires our participation in daily grace, faith, and obedience. This is the process of working out our salvation and becoming more and more like Jesus in our thoughts, motives, and behavior. This process will continue until the day of our death. At that point, we will be ready to receive the last installment, the resurrection of the body. The first installment is a past grace. It was accomplished at Calvary. The second installment is a present or daily grace. The last installment, the resurrection, is in the future. Though it will certainly come, we cannot have it now and must patiently wait for it. When the resurrection becomes our experienced reality, salvation will be complete.

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. 53 For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. 54 When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 (NLT)

The transformation of our souls will be instantly completed when our bodies are transformed, too. Jesus wants us to live today in the tension between looking back to what He has already completed through His death and resurrection and what will be ours in the resurrection. In other words, we must learn to live in past grace, present grace, and future grace.

We must learn to reckon as true what is already done and confidently wait for what yet remains to be done.

This will give us the faith and strength to walk with God today, day after day after day.

What do we hope for? Jesus wants us to live our lives in the hope of receiving a reward at the resurrection. This means we should invest in God’s kingdom by making sacrifices now so that we can have a more glorious resurrection later.

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25  He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. Hebrews 11:24-26 (NLT)

Having a future hope in the resurrection gives us a reason to live today.

Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3  And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 (NLT)

Hope in the resurrection is one of our most powerful motivations toward godly living. We should ask God to give us transforming hope.

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NLT)
 
Questions for Further Study and Discussion
  • In your own words, give a working definition of hope.
  • Explain why it is important for our life in the present to both look back to what Christ has already accomplished for us through His death and resurrection and to look forward to what will be given to us in the resurrection.
  • What practical difference will it make for me today, if I live in the hope of the resurrection?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

9: More about Repentance

foundations 
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NASB)

Repentance is integral to the entire process of our salvation. Without it, there is no salvation. Prior to repentance our condition is one of denying our need or willingness to submit to God’s rule. After repentance we recognize the greatness and glory of our Creator–Redeemer–Sustainer and our utter dependence upon him, and we willingly serve him out of love and appreciation for who he is and what he has done.

The “deeper” our repentance from independence and rebellion against God, the greater will be our enjoyment of his benevolent rule and the more effective we will be as his servants.

The basic meaning of repentance is “to change the mind”. How does this happen and what does it look like? Everyone is born with a mind that is clouded or deformed by sin. By default, we are foundationsprone to distrust the truth and believe lies. Thanks to the presence of evil in the world, deception is ubiquitous and relentless. Over the course of a lifetime, without continual repentance, all sorts of wrong thinking can begin to accumulate. Sometimes seemingly impregnable fortresses of deception are erected in our lives as a result of painful experiences and wrong interpretations or reactions to those experiences. The net result is a mind that resists God and rejects truth. Paul describes it in Romans as a deliberate suppression of truth.

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. Romans 1:18 (NLT)

This is every person’s condition before God gives us the desire and ability to repent.

Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 2 Timothy 2:25 (NIV)

It is important to realize that, before the Holy Spirit begins to work inside us, we are quite incapable of understanding how far from God and His truth we are.

Self-deception is deadly because the person who is gripped by it has no idea of his or her condition or peril.

Using God’s Word as the catalyst, the Holy Spirit does an inner work of revelation and conviction. He brings us to the point where we begin to see that we are guilty of wrong thinking and sin, and that we need a Savior.

And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment. John 16:8 (NLT)

When this happens, God asks us to humble ourselves before Him and sometimes other people, admit we are wrong, ask for his help, and surrender to his lordship.

Repentance, then, is the process whereby we transition from sinful defiance of God and His ways to humble reliance and obedience. It opens the way for us to receive God’s blessings and forgiveness.

The process includes aligning with how God thinks. Confession of sin means we agree with what God says about our sin and rebellion. 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NASB)

To confess in Greek means “to speak the same things as” God.

True repentance always agrees that God is right instead of justifying our own actions.

King David did this in Psalm 51.

Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. Psalms 51:4 (NLT)

Ultimately repentance will result in a change of behavior, which is the fruit of repentance.

Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Luke 3:8 (NASB)

You can tell when we are truly repentant because we will no longer argue in an attempt to defend our innocence or justify our actions. Instead, we will humbly admit to our wrongdoing, along with having a heartfelt sorrow for our sin and a desire to make things right. Here is how Paul describes it in his second letter to the church at Corinth.

For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death. 11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish the wrongdoer. You showed that you have done everything you could to make things right. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 (NLT)

In summary, repentance is an inner work of the Holy Spirit that begins with a change of thinking and will ultimately result in a change of behavior. Repentance opens the door to faith and the blessings of God. It is something we must do for all our lives. No one ever outgrows our need for it.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • Why does our thinking have to change before our behavior does?
  • Why it is important for us to agree with God regarding our sin.
  • What would you say to someone who says that he has repented of a specific sin but who still struggles in that area?
  • Why are godly emotions usually a part of true repentance?
  • Would you characterize repentance as more of a gift from God or a choice that we make?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

8: The Renewing of the Mind

foundations

A very important part of the inner transformation process is the renewing of the mind.

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

The first component of Jesus’ message concerning the Kingdom of God was repentance. He echoed John the Baptist when he proclaimed, “Repent!” The basic meaning of the Greek word for repentance, metanoeo, is “to change the mind”. We are born into this world with a foundationspredisposition to believe lies. It’s called the “old man” or sin nature. Have you ever wondered why gossip is so universally appealing? We love the “dirt” about folks, and it doesn’t usually matter whether it’s true or not. Why do people so easily believe negative news but find it difficult to believe the truth? It’s because we’re sinners whose minds need renewing.

Satan is a liar, and his kingdom operates on fear, intimidation, and lies. He lied to Adam and Eve about God, and his most destructive work today is to convince people that God is not to be trusted. He plants deception and misinformation wherever he can, because knowing the Truth (Jesus) will set us free. Knowing and believing the truth of God’s Word will keep us free.

All of us are in bondage to one degree or another, which is always connected to our believing lies. The way out of slavery is to displace lies with God’s truth and begin to act upon it.

Jesus put it like this.

...If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." John 8:31-32 (NASB)

The salvation of the soul is the process over time whereby God displaces wrong thinking and actions with correct thinking and living. This is a lifetime process that requires fresh help from God (grace) each day. Ideas have consequences. What we believe will affect every part of our lives.

Right thinking, the result of repentance, is the key to right living.

The Word of God affects every area of our lives, if we are open and willing to obey. If we see that God’s Word conflicts with something we believe or are doing, we should ask God to help us change.

Repentance is a gift (2 Timothy 2:25 and Acts 5:31), not something we can do on our own.

The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to work repentance or right thinking into our lives. We participate in repentance by responding to the conviction and leading of the Spirit in the pursuit of embracing God’s truth and turning away from evil. The turning away from evil is the fruit or evidence of our change in thinking.

Embracing truth is always the first step in transformation.

Sometimes we will discover areas in our lives that seem impregnable to God’s Word. The Bible calls these “strongholds”.

Biblical strongholds are fortresses of falsehood reinforced by fears and hurts that resist God’s truth. They are usually built on logical arguments that we have constructed, perhaps without realizing it, which interfere with our ability to believe and receive the truth.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)

We can often tell where we have a stronghold against the truth by observing when we use the word “but” as our defense against believing and receiving God’s truth. Here is an example: “I know the Bible says God is a loving Father, but that has not been my experience.” Or “I know we are supposed to forgive, but… (fill in the blank).” In cases like these, everything that comes after the “but” is a lie that must be cast down.

Perhaps our own father was such a bad example of what a father should be that we have transferred our experience with him to God, and we cannot believe in our hearts that God really loves us. This is a common stronghold that must be destroyed with God’s help, if we are going to experience true victory and freedom in our daily lives.

Remember: it’s not necessarily what we believe theologically that will set us free, but what we believe in our hearts. How we act under pressure reveals what is truly in our hearts.

Whenever we act contrary to what we thought we believed or with a reaction that is disproportionate to the stimulus, we should suspect the presence of a stronghold.

Some strongholds run so deep that we must get help from others to recognize and overcome them, but it is always worth the effort. Most of the time God breaks these things down as we seriously study God’s Word, listen to good teaching, pray, and interact with other believers who will speak the truth in love to us.

Unless we take seriously the requirement to study and become familiar with God’s Word as revealed in the Bible, we have little hope of renewing our minds and living in freedom.

Many Christians are lazy in this regard and therefore fail to qualify as real disciples.

Christians are born (again), but disciples are made by the Holy Spirit over a lifetime of disciplined study and committed obedience.

Which are we going to be? Regardless of what our past has been like, we can make the choice to act as a disciple from now on. May God help us all make the right choices.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • Is the basic meaning of repentance different from what you thought?
  • How is the mind renewed?
  • What is a stronghold and how are they demolished?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

Jacob: Hang On Until You Get the Blessing

torah

Jacob is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. He was a deceiver, a complainer at times, fearful, and often lacking faith; yet, God chose and made him to be a father of the faith, and, despite all his failures, his life ended well.

Jacob should give us all hope that God can use even us for his purposes.

We should be encouraged that God’s grace and mercy are sufficient to carry us through, no matter how unlikely a candidate we may be.

This teaching will examine a significant episode in Jacob’s life when he was returning to his father’s home after years of a sort of self-imposed exile. God earlier promised his mother, Rebecca, that Jacob would rule over his older brother, Esau.

But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23  The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger." Genesis 25:22-23 (NASB)

How he came into possession of that promise involves several unexpected twists and turns. Jacob came out of the womb as the second-born of twins, grasping the heel of his older brother, Esau. Jacob’s name is a word play on “heel” and carried with it the connotation of a deceiver, a theme that played out during his life.

The reason that Jacob left his father’s home was because he had tricked his father into giving him his older brother’s blessing, which enraged Esau to the point of wanting to murder him. His father, Isaac, was essentially blind due to old age, which allowed the deception to succeed. Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob, and, according to the convention of the time, Esau, being the first born, should have received a blessing giving him first place among his brothers. But God had already chosen Jacob to have that honor, which is another theme that plays out repeatedly in the Old Testament.

God chooses unlikely people to accomplish his purposes.

It is inconceivable that Rebecca did not tell her husband about the promise God gave her; nevertheless, Isaac, who also had a history of being deceptive, as did his father, Abraham, chose the give his blessing to his elder son. He sent Esau out to kill game and prepare him a delicious stew which would set the stage for his imparting the blessing of the first born. Rebecca heard what was happening and instructed Jacob to bring her a goat to prepare for his father. Following his mother’s counsel, Jacob dressed in Esau’s clothing and somehow managed to pull off the ruse and get his father’s blessing just before Esau’s return. Below is a part of that blessing.

May many nations become your servants, and may they bow down to you. May you be the master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. All who curse you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be blessed.” Genesis 27:29 (NLT)

Previously Esau had traded his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew.

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. 30  Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”) 31  “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.” 32  “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?” 33  But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob. 34  Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn. Genesis 25:29-34 (NLT)

The birthright being Jacob’s by Esau’s choice, it only stood to reason that the blessing should also be his. However, when Esau learned that once again his brother had taken what he felt belonged to him, he was distraught and furious. He determined to kill Jacob after his father died. Upon learning this, Rebecca instructed her son, with Isaac’s blessing, to leave the country and go back to her father’s house to obtain a bride. Jacob left immediately, encountering God along the way, and after reaching Rebecca’s home, ended up marrying two of Rebecca’s nieces, Leah and Rachel. There he built his family and fortune serving his uncle Laban. Eventually God instructed him to return to his father’s home.

Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3 (NLT)

This posed two huge problems for Jacob. Laban was sure to oppose the move, and the last time he saw Esau, he had murder in his heart. This brings us to another life lesson we can derive from this part of Jacob’s life.

When God tells us to do something, he promises to be with us, but that does not mean we will not encounter difficulties.

Jacob tried to escape Laban secretly to avoid a fight, but Laban hunted him down. The ensuing confrontation revealed to Jacob that God was helping him.

Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, and he set up his camp not far from Jacob’s. 26  “What do you mean by stealing away like this?” Laban demanded. “How dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war? 27  Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you steal away? And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps. 28  Why didn’t you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly! 29  I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, ‘Leave Jacob alone!’ Genesis 31:25-29 (NLT)

Once past this significant hurdle, Jacob still faced his biggest fear – Esau. As he approached his father’s home, he got word that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. How would you interpret this news? Probably just as Jacob did… He was convinced that his brother was coming to finally get his revenge. Jacob was caught between a rock and a hard place. God clearly told him to return home, but Esau had to be met for that to happen.

God is an expert at setting up situations that require us to face our fears.

He backs us into a corner from which we cannot escape except by going straight forward. Meeting Esau seemed to be the worst thing that could happen, but God was about to turn what Jacob feared into something good.

This brings us to another important life lesson. God promises that he will work all things out for good in our lives, even the seemingly terrible things. He asks us to maintain our faith in him and his promises.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 (NLT)

A secondary principle that we can derive from this verse of scripture is that we should praise God in every circumstance because we can be sure that he is at work for our good and his glory.

And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20 (NLT)

Jacob did not yet know these principles. All he knew was that God was with him and his brother appeared to be on the warpath. As the confrontation got closer, Jacob took defensive steps, sending droves of animals ahead of him as gifts to appease his brother’s wrath. The night before meeting Esau, he divided his family group in the hope that perhaps some would be spared. Then he spent the night alone by the river Jabbok.

During that sleepless night, the angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him. Jacob was a powerful man, having been able to single-handedly role a huge stone that covered the opening to a well. (Genesis 29:10) Despite his prodigious strength, Jacob was unable to defeat the angel, which is not surprising. God will defeat the areas of our lives where we are self-sufficient so that we learn an important lesson.

God never intended that we be self-sufficient. We were created to draw our life and strength from God.

Until we learn to bring everything under God’s benevolent rule, we will encounter God’s loving discipline. Jacob was about to learn the biggest life lesson of all.

Even in the womb, Jacob struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God. 4  Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him— 5  the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, the LORD is his name! Hosea 12:3-5 (NLT)

According to the Bible, Jacob won his wrestling match, but that is a surprising twist to the story. His victory with God came because he lost to God. This is another key to life in God.

We win by losing our fight against God.

Jacob and the angel wrestled to a stalemate, at which time, the angel revealed that he had the power to defeat Jacob at any time. Imagine a father arm wrestling with his young son and pretending that it is a struggle.

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25  When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26  Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27  “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” 28  “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” Genesis 32:24-28 (NLT)

Jacob won this match with God because he refused to give up and let go, which brings us to the main point of this article.

Never let go of God and his promises until you get the blessing.

Life often confronts us with overwhelming problems that seemingly contradict or nullify God’s love and promises. The test we often face is whether we will let go of God or cling to him. Instead of fighting God, as Jacob did, why not simply surrender to His plan and purpose? 

The cross has been called the intersection or crossing of our will by God’s. The cross symbolizes the death of our will and our desire to determine our own course or direction in life. God’s will is usually attractive to us on a deep spiritual level, but the journey toward its fulfillment usually runs counter to the comfort and ease we all want.

We inevitably will encounter the cross when we embrace God’s divine purpose. We may struggle fiercely, but we cannot win against God. So why not be wise and surrender early on?

Jacob surrendered with one condition, which we should also adopt: he requested God’s blessing.

Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” 
“I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:26

As we face the trial before us, we should tell God that we surrender to His will and purpose for our lives in the trial (as best we can) and that we want the blessing contained in it. (Romans 8:28) The old saying that every dark cloud has a silver lining is certainly true with God.

There is nothing that the devil or life can throw at us that will not ultimately work for our good. Therefore, we can face everything with the bold confidence of a conqueror. In Christ the battle has already been won.

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 (NLT)

Adversity presents us with an opportunity to know God in a fresh new way.

Of course, for the Christian, the Lord is always present, but often we neglect to profit from this most amazing gift until pressed into a corner. We humans are so oriented toward self-sufficiency that we often forget about God, for all practical purposes, until we are faced with something so beyond our capacity to cope that we are forced to run to Him. God is so loving and humble of heart that He accepts us even when we come with such questionable motives.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)

God has no illusions about our motives, but loves us anyway. He is a true friend as well as our God.

In addition to being an opportunity to meet God in a fresh new way, a severe trial is also an opportunity to hear God’s voice in a way that inspires our faith. God can and will speak to us through Scripture, other human beings, our circumstances, or simply by communicating directly with our hearts.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)

When God requires that we face our greatest fears, it is time to get alone with Him and hang on until He gives us the blessing that is hidden in the trial. Never doubt that it is there. It was for Jacob. When he finally face his brother Esau the next day, it turned out well. Esau came in peace, eliciting these words from Jacob.

Jacob said, “Please. If you can find it in your heart to welcome me, accept these gifts. When I saw your face, it was as the face of God smiling on me. Genesis 33:10 (The Message)

Knowing that God truly loves us is a big key to our having overcoming faith.

Some believers have a feeling that God “loves” them, but fear that He secretly does not like them very much. We have a good reason to think this way, since we are so very well acquainted with our own faults and failings. Many of us still think we are on a performance basis in our relationship with God, and we imagine we are quite unworthy of genuine affection from Him.

The good news of the gospel, however, is that God loves us to the core, despite our very unlovable traits, and that He is favorably disposed to bless us, all because of what Jesus did for us.

When we love someone deeply, it gives us pleasure to show that love through gifts and other favorable acts. That is the way God loves us.

When a severe trial comes, for some it is a confirmation that God’s displeasure has been aroused and they are being punished. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to have overcoming faith if we think like that. Perhaps the word “trial” is part of the problem, since it brings to mind a courtroom setting in which we may see ourselves as the accused. If we substitute the word “test” for “trial,” we may obtain a better grasp of what God is doing.

Tests reveal to us what we know and how far we have come in our training and maturity.

They are meant to be passed, but, if we fail one, God does not discard us. Instead we must go back to the Book, the Bible, to study some more and then go back to God, our life coach, for some more internal work. Tests are good, not bad. God is not hurting us by sending tribulation and pressures our way: He is actually helping us. The Apostle Paul wrote:

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

We cannot grow spiritually without encountering tests and pressures along the way. God wants us to use them to learn how to overcome by faith.

It’s analogous to a butterfly struggling to escape its cocoon. If someone tries to “help” the insect by tearing open the cocoon, the butterfly will be robbed of its God-given opportunity to strengthen and develop its wings. It is through the struggle to get out of the cocoon that the butterfly becomes strong enough to fly. As we encounter and struggle with tests and tribulations, our faith and ability to persevere will grow.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4 (NLT)

In adversity, we learn that God is faithful and true and grow strong spiritually. Most of us routinely seek to avoid or quickly escape tribulations. Rather, we should embrace any that God sends our way and seek to profit from them.

God has a purpose for everything in our lives. We just need to find it, which happens more easily when we surrender to God’s will and purpose. Our purpose is found in His purposes. In fact, it is only in the context of His sovereign will that our lives make sense. What before had been terrifying for Jacob, now became the venue in which he beheld God’s smile.

When we go through trials and tribulations with an attitude of faith and an expectation of blessing, we will come to know God in a new way and be able to see His smile.

Do we know that God is smiling at us, or do we imagine that His face is clouded, angry, or frowning in displeasure? The priestly blessing from Numbers reveals that God is indeed smiling at us, or, as the literal Hebrew says, “shining” upon us.

May the LORD bless you and protect you. 25  May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. 26  May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace.’ Numbers 6:24-26 (NLT)

A smile is one of the most effective ways to communicate our pleasure in another person. God takes pleasure in His people because we are perfectly pleasing to Him in and through His Son. We are completely justified, accepted, and blessed in Christ.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4  Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6  So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7  He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8  He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1:3-8 (NLT)

Yes, God is smiling at us, but do we believe it yet? Keep seeking the Lord until he shows you the truth about his amazing grace.

Don’t let go of God until you experience the blessing he has already given to us in Christ.

Share this post...

7: Once for All

foundations 
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 1 Peter 3:18 (NASB)

How important is the phrase “once for all”? I believe it would be safe to say that everything pertaining to our salvation hinges upon it.

Does that surprise you? If it does, you have not properly understood the nature of the work which Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection.

foundationsIn a very real sense, the sin in the garden was a “once for all” sin. Adam’s and Eve’s failure to obey God was a one-time event that negatively impacted all of us. What some call the “original sin” resulted in the transmission of a fallen “sin nature” to every human being who would ever be born the natural way. (Jesus is excluded from this list by reason of the virgin birth.) It set in motion a horrendous sequence of events that is still whirling seemingly out of control today. (However, God is still sovereign over his creation.) The evil we see around us, that sometimes seems to strike the most “innocent” at random, is nothing more or less than the result of that original sin reinforced by the additional sins that each of us have added to the mix and which has been augmented by the malevolent interference of the Devil. Since salvation is God’s means of overcoming the power and effects of sin, it stands to reason that what God would eventually do to rescue mankind would also be a “once for all” event.

God is “Other”. By that I mean that He is very different from you and me, even though we are created in His image. Time is part of his creation,  but he is not bound by it as we now are in many ways. He sees the end from the beginning and “calls those things which be not as though they were”. (Romans 4:17) He exists outside of time but interjects himself into our historical timeline. God merges the eternal with the temporal in a way that confounds our minds. The following verse is an example of this.

And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life, which belongs to the Lamb who was killed before the world was made. Revelation 13:8 (NLT)

If you are a believer, not only did God choose you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), but His Son was put to death before history ever began as well.

There is an eternal reality to things before they ever show up in what we call “history”. History is the playing out of God’s wonderful plan.

That which is eternal is what is truly important. It might be said that what we do here in the present (the working out of history) is the outworking of the eternal. What happens on our timeline is also part of determining our eternity. God is sovereign and we are responsible agents. Please do not make the mistake of insisting that both of these things cannot be simultaneously true. In God they are. That which from God’s perspective was accomplished before the foundation of the earth had to take place at a given point in history as well. In the “fullness of time” (God’s appointed time), Jesus was born, lived, was crucified, and rose again.

When Jesus hung upon the cross, some eternal things were taking place that we must acknowledge and believe if we are to fully appreciate and benefit from what God did. Romans says that when Jesus died, we died. When He rose, we rose. We were placed “in Christ” so that what He experienced and accomplished is now ours. We were and are identified with Christ.

Identification is one of the most important salvation concepts in the Bible.

We were not given salvation as much as we were given a Savior. We did not receive grace so much as the Gracious One now lives inside us. We have not so much been given life as we are filled with the One who identified himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

All the blessings of God are in a Person, and His name is Jesus. We experience all this via the indwelling Holy Spirit, God’s most amazing gift.

When Jesus died on that cross, for the believer He took care of every sin that had ever been committed or would ever be committed. Does this sound too good to be true? Think about it: when the crucifixion took place, the sins of every person who would ever live and come to believe the gospel were still in the future. How could those sins be included in what Jesus did on the cross? God, in His eternal wisdom, placed every future sin of His people on His Son. Jesus carried that heavy burden to His death. He substituted for us by taking our punishment for us. Substitution is another big concept.

Jesus was our Substitute by paying the price for our sin, but we are identified with Him in that we too died. God accomplished two things on the cross. Jesus died for us, and we died with Him.

His death for us released us from guilt and condemnation. (Romans 8:1) Our death with him released us from the power of sin and the Law. (Romans 7:4) When He rose again, we rose with Him, which empowered us to live a new life in the Spirit.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)

But let’s get back to our main topic for today, the once for all nature of what Jesus did. The Greek language has more verb forms than English. The past tense can be expressed as the imperfect, which is used for repeated past actions, and the aorist, which is used to communicate a one-time occurrence. An example of this would be: “Johnny practiced (imperfect) his driving skills every day with his instructor. Eventually he got (aorist) his license.” What Jesus accomplished on the cross is always expressed in the aorist tense. It was done only once, never to be reenacted. (This is one reason why the Catholic doctrine of the reenactment of Christ’s death in the Mass is so unbiblical.) Here is how the author of Hebrews put it.

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to offer the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us. Hebrews 9:25-26 (NLT)

In other words, what Jesus did was permanent and eternal. When we confess our sins and ask forgiveness from God, we tap into that once for all past work of grace on the cross. I hope you can see the significance of this important truth.

Since His death was “once for all” and it took care of the power of sin “forever”, then our salvation is also “once for all”.

Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever. Hebrews 9:12 (NLT)

God permanently transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom of light and life. (Colossians 1:13-14) He caused us to pass from death to life with the result being we will never come under condemnation again.

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. John 5:24 (NLT)

Christ removed us from the treadmill of needing to “earn” our salvation or maintain a right standing with God through our performance and placed us “in Christ,” where the work is finished.

The New Covenant was inaugurated with the death of the substitute “covenant breaker,” our Lord Jesus, who upfront paid the penalty for our failures. He actually “became” our sins, and, when he rose again, we became the righteousness of God in him.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

When he rose again, all forgiven former covenant breakers entered a right relationship with God, passed from death to life and from darkness to light. We participated in his death through identification and in his resurrection, too. It is impossible for us to go back into death and unbecome a born-again child of God.

Christ’s death and resurrection were “once for all” and so is the resultant new birth and justification.

We are now “one spirit” with God. (1 Corinthians 6:17) He lives his life in and through us. (Galatians 2:20) Now God is working in us both to “will and to do” his good pleasure as we cooperate with his grace. (Philippians 2:12-13) This ought to make us shout for joy!

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • Why is it important that we understand that Christ’s sacrifice for sins was “once for all”?
  • Why does the Bible tell us to confess our sins, if the provision for them was in the past?
  • In your own words, explain the difference between identification and substitution.

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

6: Born of the Spirit

foundations 
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:5-6 (NASB)

The spirit of man is the part of us that died when Adam and Eve first sinned. God warned Adam that “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat foundationsfrom it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17 (NASB) God does not lie. They died on the inside that day; even though death did not claim their bodies and souls for many years. God’s great salvation through Christ reverses the death process. When a person places his or her faith and allegiance in Christ and His finished work on the cross and the resurrection, a new birth takes place in the spirit. God makes us new creatures inside, but the full manifestation of that miracle will not be seen until the resurrection.

Just as the death process began in the spirit and later manifested in the soul and body, our new life in Christ begins in the spirit and eventually transforms us in the soul and body.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

When Adam and Eve died on the inside following their sin, it showed up in their souls (mind, will, and emotions) almost immediately. They experienced guilt and condemnation for the first time. When we are born again in the spirit, something begins to change in our souls, too.

The first thing God takes care of for us is the guilt and condemnation problem.

The Bible says that anyone who is justified by faith has peace with God. Peace is the polar opposite of guilt and condemnation.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:1 (NASB)

This peace comes from being in a right relationship with God, which is accomplished by the removal of all guilt and condemnation. Our sins are forgiven, and condemnation is removed. In other words, we are declared “not guilty!” This happens in the spirit, even if we are not fully aware of it or believe it.

Our growth as disciples happens in a large part because we become educated in what the Scriptures reveal about the person and work of Christ in our lives and begin to believe it.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

If a murderer, while waiting on death row, were to receive a visit from the family of the one he murdered and received forgiveness from them, he would still be under the sentence of death at the hands of God’s earthly minister of justice, the government. His sin would have been forgiven, but his guilt would remain. Jesus did an amazing thing for us. God’s justice and wrath were both satisfied when He bore our sin on the cross. God’s wrath was appeased, resulting in forgiveness. This is called “propitiation”. God’s justice was also satisfied, resulting in our justification.

To be justified means to be declared “Not Guilty”! Our names were cleared of all crimes under which we stood convicted and sentenced to die.

That is why Jesus boldly proclaimed:

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24 (NIV)

Paul’s words in Romans completely agree.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1 (NIV)  [* See note at end of chapter.]

The purpose of the Law is to condemn us for our sins and drive us into the arms of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24  So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25  Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Galatians 3:23-25 (NIV)

When we come to Christ and receive justification, the condemnation produced by the Law is removed.

Because we have received Christ’s own righteousness, there is nothing left for the Law to condemn.

This is the reason why we can “walk” or live in the Spirit of grace rather than under a set of laws. Sin gains its power in our lives when we succumb to the accusations of the devil and condemnation for our failures pointed out by the Law. In 1Cor.15:56, Paul wrote that “the law gives sin its power,” meaning that God’s prohibitions stimulate the “flesh” to rebel, and, after we sin, it seeks to keep us focused on our failures and under a cloud of defeat. Instead, we are to focus on our Lord and the freedom we have in Christ, allowing the Spirit to work inside us to change our inmost desires into conformity with God’s will. And when we do sin, we are to admit it and repent, but not get mired down in condemnation. Sadly, many believers either do not understand this great truth or simply do not believe it.

It is important that we grasp that justification and the removal of condemnation were accomplished in the realm of the spirit. Our souls (hearts and minds) often feel quite condemned when we fail to live up to God’s righteous standards. Unless our souls are trained to believe what God’s Word says about justification, we will quite likely fall back into a works mentality and measure our worthiness and right standing before God in relation to our perceived success in living uprightly. This kind of Christianity is filled with frustration and condemnation and is not what God meant for us.

God wants to lift us out of legalism into a new realm of walking by the “law of the Spirit of life”.  (Romans 8:2) For this to happen, our minds must be renewed to think correctly. The end result with be that we live free of condemnation and the struggle of legalism while actually becoming more godly through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)

It is impossible to “walk” in the Spirit while under condemnation.

Condemnation makes us withdraw from God and others, just as happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. They hid from God after sinning and becoming aware of the guilt and failure. Many Christians today are hiding from God because they do not understand justification. Even when we fail miserably, we are encouraged to “draw near” to God to receive his forgiveness, affirmation, and help. It is when we are most obviously a “failure” that we need God the most. He will never reject us because Christ has totally satisfied the requirements of the Law on our behalf. Our relationship with God is sealed and secure. The more we draw near to God, the greater is the liberating and transformative work of the Spirit.

This Lord is the Spirit. Wherever the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. 18  As all of us reflect the Lord's glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (GW)

The new birth is a hidden work of God in our inmost being, the spirit, but ultimately this salvation in seed form will grow and manifest itself in every area. It is like leaven that works its way into the whole batch of dough.

We must have confidence that what God begins in us, though seemingly small and hidden, will eventually conquer and result in our transformation into the image of Christ.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

This is what God has planned all along.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30 (NIV)

From this passage we see how the salvation that begins in the spirit will eventually result in a day-to-day transformation of our thinking and behavior (the salvation of the soul) and finally be manifested in the glorification of our bodies in the resurrection (the salvation of the body). The salvation of the Spirit can be termed a “past” salvation because it was accomplished once for all through Christ some 2000 years ago. The salvation of the soul is “present” because new grace is needed each day as we believe and apply what Christ has done for us. Paul calls this “working out our salvation” in Philippians 2:12. The salvation or glorification of our bodies is in the future. In the next meditation, we will look in more detail at the “once for all” nature of the salvation of the spirit.

* Note pertaining to Romans 8:1 - Later Greek manuscripts added the phrase "who live according to the Spirit", but this addition is not in the earliest manuscripts. We must remember that the Word of God AS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN is the infallible message from God. I suspect later editors who did not fully comprehend the grace of God could not abide such a wonderfully freeing message and felt compelled to add in the legalistic terms that once again seek to place the reader on a performance basis with God rather than allow him or her to fully enjoy the grace of God. John 5:24 has no such addition and further confirms that the earlier manuscripts were correct.

 

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • Why would a lesson entitled “Born of the Spirit” end up focusing on freedom from condemnation?
  • How would you explain the difference between forgiveness and justification?
  • Do you think that a person who feels condemned by God can live in the freedom God intends? Why?
  • If you were trying to help someone who feels condemned, what would you tell them?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

5: Spirit, Soul, and Body

foundations 
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NASB)

A proper understanding of the relationship between spirit, soul, and body is a master key to help us unlock the mysteries of salvation.

According to Genesis, God created mankind in His own image.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

God is a Trinity – one God consisting of three distinct Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is clearly revealed in the Bible, even though the word “trinity” is never used. We too are one person having three distinct parts – spirit, soul, and body. This too is revealed in scripture. Just as foundationsit is sometimes difficult to distinguish one Person in the Godhead from another, since they are all one God; likewise, the lines sometimes get blurred when we try to differentiate between our three parts. With God, one of the easiest ways to keep the Members of the Godhead separate in our understanding is to focus on what each Person does. Similarly, if we highlight how God’s great salvation affects each of our parts differently, it will become clearer to us that they are indeed distinct.

Using the language of building, God the Father is the architect of salvation. He planned it long ago before the creation of the world. Jesus is the contractor, so to speak: He came and put the plan into action, doing the difficult “hands on” work. The Holy Spirit is the marketing agent and administrator. He is “selling” the completed work to prospective customers. This is a very inadequate and somewhat inaccurate description of salvation, but it gives us an idea in plain language of the distinct roles of each person in the Godhead.

Father God planned salvation. Jesus accomplished it. The Holy Spirit applies it. The Father chose us. Jesus died for us. The Holy Spirit draws us.

Reconciliation to the Father is the goal of salvation. The cross and resurrection are the means of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation, applying to our lives everything the Father planned, and the Son accomplished.

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 (NASB)

When God created Adam, he took dust and formed it into a body. Then He breathed His Spirit into that lifeless substance, and Genesis says that Adam became a living soul. As I understand it, a soul is the result of the combination of spirit and body. Spirit is breath or wind. We all know what a body is. The soul is harder to define, but many have settled on three main components – mind, will and emotions.

God’s salvation impacts each part of our being and is marvelously complete.

We will look at what God has done for each separate part in more detail in coming chapters, but, for now, an overview is helpful.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV)

On the day Adam sinned, just as God promised, he died. His body did not die, nor did his soul. That leaves only one other part. His spirit, which had been alive to God in a special way, was cut off from its source of life, God, when Adam sinned. This was evidenced by his and Eve’s hiding from God in the garden and their sudden awareness of their own nakedness. Many think the first humans’ nakedness may have been previously covered by God’s glory, which was removed because of sin. Regardless, their consciousness had been defiled. They became all too aware of their own shame and sinfulness; whereas, before they had been gloriously innocent before God and able to fellowship with Him without fear, guilt, or shame.

The spirit was the first part of man to die and needed to be the first part restored.

The spirit is the most God-like part of a person. We know from Scripture that God is Spirit. (John 4:24) The spirit is the innermost core of a human being, the part of us that is intuitive and able to connect with God naturally. I started to write “supernaturally”, but God’s intention for the spirit of man is that it would always be able to connect with Him; therefore, it is its “natural” function.

When we are “saved” the first thing that happens is a rebirth of the spirit.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6 (NASB)

The spirit is restored to the perfect condition it had before sin. (Hebrews 12:23) The spirit within is given access to God’s presence once again. (Ephesians 2:18) Believers are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), and this in the spirit, or should I say, Spirit. When we are born again, our spirit is joined to God’s Spirit (1Cor.6:17), and it is hard to distinguish them anymore.

The body is the last part of us that will be restored completely. This will happen at the resurrection.

Until then we live in a world that still suffers from the aftershocks of that first sin. God’s judgment upon our race still stands. Even born-again Christians still die physically. People get sick. Evil is all around us, and our bodies often suffer the most. As we wait for the glorious day when these mortal bodies will be transformed into glorious spiritual ones, we can experience God’s provision of healing and strength. Nevertheless, the glorification of our bodies is a future event for which we confidently wait. In the meantime, we live in imperfect bodies that are still subject to the fallout from sin.

As mentioned before, the soul is the combination of spirit and body. If you are tracking with me thus far, I imagine you see where I am going next. We have a problem here.

A saved person has a huge inner conflict. We have a perfect spirit combined with a body that is still subject to the fallout of sin.

(Paul calls it a “body of sin” – Romans 6:6 & 8:10.) What do you think will be the result when we combine the two? Paul describes our inner conflict in Galatians Chapter Five.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18 (ESV)

The soul or mind is where the battle rages.

Our spirits always desire to do what is right, but our “flesh” or sin nature, which derives from the unredeemed body that is not yet glorified, never wants to do what is right. (* See note at end of chapter.)

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25 (ESV)

The ”inner being” is the spirit, with which Paul’s mind agreed. However, the pull of the flesh, which comes from the unredeemed body, works against the desires of the spirit. This makes born again people somewhat spiritually “bipolar.”

We are pulled in opposite directions, and we must learn to lean on the Holy Spirit to overcome the pull of the flesh.

Jesus recognized our weak condition when he said:

"Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41 (NASB)

What God did for our spirits was done once and for all on the cross. We can say it is a “past” salvation. What God will do for our bodies at the resurrection is in the future, but what God wishes to do in our souls is in the present.

Every day we need to access fresh grace for that day. Our victory in the daily battle for our souls hinges on our confidence in what God did in the past and what He will do in the future. You can also see what a glorious day it will be for every believer when we shall be given glorified bodies that will not be in conflict any longer with our perfected spirits. There will no longer be any inner turmoil or struggle between “flesh” and spirit. We will have been completely saved!

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21  who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. Philippians 3:20-21 (NASB)

 

* Note: I am not suggesting that the body is evil, but only that it has been corrupted by sin. The body was part of God's original creation which was good. Jesus came in the flesh, which showed again the inherent goodness of the body. Jesus' body was not compromised like ours by sin since He was born of the Holy Spirit and the woman. Apparently, the sin nature is transmitted through the man, the governmental representative of the human race. Jesus did not have the inner conflict caused by having a perfect spirit and a sin corrupted body. The fact that God will one day glorify our bodies further establishes that God regards these bodies as "good" and worth saving. Let me also emphasize that my theory of the soul is not something you must believe in order to benefit from this teaching. To me it makes sense and helps me understand. If you have a better model, please share it with me.

 

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • What questions do you have regarding spirit, soul, and body?
  • Do you think that Genesis 2:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 adequately support this doctrine?
  • Do you understand the significance of the past, present, and future aspects of salvation?
  • How is our daily transformation impacted by believing in what God did in the past (justification) and what he will do in the future (resurrection & glorification)?
  • How would you attempt to explain the battle we all have between flesh and spirit?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

4: The Nature of Revelation

foundations

Receiving revelation from God is the only way we can recover from spiritual blindness, deafness, and hardness of heart.

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40 (NASB)

The spiritual condition of an unsaved person is spiritual blindness and deafness to the things of God. Jesus addressed this issue with the Pharisees who believed they could see but were blind. This is a common deception for religious people who are not born again. Religion, as I am using it, is our attempt to know and be accepted by God through using our own efforts, rather than by receiving by faith the gift of forgiveness and eternal life offered in Christ.

Then Jesus told him, "I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind." 40 The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, "Are you saying we are blind?" 41 "If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied. "But you remain guilty because you claim you can see. John 9:39-41 (NLT)

A blind person cannot see where to go and does not know what to do to be saved. When a religious person, who has never received a revelation of Christ, tries to lead another to salvation, the result is disastrous.

Jesus replied, "Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be rooted up, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch." Matthew 15:13-14 (NLT)

We cannot know God unless he opens our eyes, unstops our ears, and softens our hard hearts. When God does this for us, we can see, hear, and understand spiritual things, which results in our seeing or knowing Christ in a totally new way.

But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT)

When we see Christ for who he truly is, it fundamentally changes us on the inside. The new birth and revelation go hand in hand.

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 (NASB)

We can easily tell which plants were planted by the Father from those which were not: the first has a revelation of Christ, and the latter has only religion.

Those who are religious end up opposing those who have revelation and faith. (Galatians 4:28-29)

Then he asked them, "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Matthew 16:15-17 (NLT)

So how does a spiritually blind unsaved person gain sight through revelation? Only the Holy Spirit really knows, but those of us who have had our eyes opened can testify that it happened.

The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (NLT)

The man healed by Jesus of physical blindness in John Chapter 9 did not know how Jesus did it, but he knew he had been healed.

The mechanics of revelation are not necessarily for us to know, only the results.

I remember when I first “saw” in my heart that Jesus is Who the Bible claims. I don’t know how God did it, but suddenly I “knew” that Jesus is alive, risen from the dead, and the glorious Lord. Before that life-changing moment, I heard my girlfriend, who is now my beloved wife, share the gospel with me. I deeply considered whether I wanted to pursue knowing this Christ. I honestly asked Christ into my heart and life, if He were indeed real, and I asked Him to reveal Himself to me. From all this, you can see that receiving revelation is not a passive thing; at least it wasn’t for me.

Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes, but, as far as I can tell, we must be active in our pursuit of Christ in some form or another.

It is God’s good pleasure to limit salvation to those whose eyes he opens.

At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26  Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! 27  “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:25-27 (NLT)

No one deserves to receive revelation from God. No one is good enough or smart enough.

It is always a supreme act of mercy when God opens blinded eyes.

It is also very humbling to us as the recipients of his mercy. No one can boast that they were able to know these things on their own.

Paul the Apostle was a man who received a revelation of Christ in a dramatic fashion. He was actively pursuing Christians to torture, imprison, and kill them for their faith. Was he pursuing God, too? The answer has to be, “Yes”. Although he was misguided, he really did wish to please God. The point is that God knows the human heart and will reveal Himself to those who seek him.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NASB)

The Pharisees believed that they already knew God because they had their Law and religion.

Many who attend Christian churches today are modern day Pharisees. They grew up in the church, know the language and the Bible, and are members of the church. They hear sermon after sermon and mentally agree with what is said, but they have never received a revelation of Christ from the Father.

This is the most dangerous place to be in the world. It is a form of self-deception that inoculates a person from ever really hearing the gospel. It’s as if their hearts are closed to any possibility that they might be still lost. Only the Holy Spirit can bridge the chasm between their deception and the light of the glory of the revealed Christ. It begins when we realize we need to be saved.

Is there any record that this has ever happened before? Yes, Paul is the supreme example. God gave him to all religious people as an example of what God can do for the most obstinate of people. Humanly it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You may know people who are in this condition. If so, you should pray for them to have their spiritual eyes opened to receive a revelation of Christ. More importantly, we should ask ourselves, “Have I ever had my eyes opened?” If not, we should earnestly seek God until we know that we have.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion 

  • Share your testimony of how Christ was revealed to you.
  • Explain why you think God uses revelation to separate those who are really His children from those who are not.
  • What is our role in the process of having our eyes opened?

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

Share this post...

Why Apprenticeship Works Best for Making Disciples

follow me

follow me

 

 

 

 

 

Those who take seriously the need to produce disciples who can disciple others have come up with all sorts of strategies to get this done, but apprenticeship is tried and true. Any discussion about making disciples begs the question: “What exactly are we trying to accomplish?” I have heard ministers who went through seminary complain that they never learned the practical side of things that would have helped them navigate the “real world.” Do we really think that filling a person with biblical and theological truth is all they need? Should we not be preparing people to live out the teachings of Jesus, including the Great Commission, and teach others to do the same? Isn’t that what making disciples is all about?

The seminary route assumes that Christian leaders are formed primarily by consuming, digesting, and regurgitating significant amounts of prescribed information about theology, the Bible, ethics, counseling, and a variety of related topics in a location that is generally separate from the local church setting. It is a classic “Greek” methodology which treats knowledge as an abstract, divorced of action. The presupposition is that the highest good is right thinking about doctrine. Unsurprisingly, this is the surest route to produce self-righteous heresy hunters and anti-God Pharisees. It is also a proven way to convince people that the doing part of being a disciple is not that important. Attending multiple church services per week replaces evangelism in the priority list. I contend that using the classroom approach to making disciples actually produces good church goers and Bible students, not true disciples who take seriously the Great Commission.

Interestingly, the classroom approach was not the strategy Jesus used.

Jesus trained and equipped disciples using a combination of oral teaching, ministry demonstration and inclusion, and sending out to do what was taught and demonstrated – apprenticeship.

Jesus’ goal was to produce men and women who had a vision and understanding of how to “go” to the world carrying the words of the gospel in the power of the Spirit, and who were equipped and able to minister healing and deliverance, while standing up to the hostilities they would receive from the Jewish leaders and Roman state. Do we really have a better plan?

Jesus was criticized by the “seminarians” of his day (the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees) for not having been properly taught. His main men were considered to be ignorant fisherman. His sermons were simple affairs filled with stories and examples drawn from the lives of common people. There is no record that Jesus taught his apostles any sort of a “systematic” theology, used any written manuals of instruction, or developed a formal system for making disciples. He seemed to operate “by the seat of his pants” (doing what he saw his Father do – John 5:19) as he took his followers with him on ministry trips and used the opportunities that presented themselves to instruct them on a variety of topics as needed.

I believe a case can be made for the effectiveness of disciple development by using what seem to be “random” opportunities for teaching, demonstration, and discussions related to real life situations that we all face on a daily basis.

The classroom approach usually assigns a prescribed “course of study” that seeks to include all the basic things that a disciple should know. Once the student completes this course of study satisfactorily, he or she receives a certificate or diploma acknowledging the accomplishment. This in turn may become their “ticket” for being hired into the ministry. Jesus did not do this. How did he know when his disciples knew enough to survive and thrive as his ministry representatives? The answer is that he trusted the Holy Spirit to teach them what they needed to know as they went forward – a kind of on the job training.

But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:26 (NLT)

Most people, especially new followers of Jesus, have enough “issues” going on in their lives that those of us who are engaged in discipleship development will never lack something to talk about when we get together with them. We gain traction in the transformation process when we apply Christ’s teaching to the real life issues they currently face.

Most of what we need to know in order to properly love and serve our Lord is fairly simple. It’s the application that is challenging. Most disciple development should consist of putting simple truths into practice, not perfecting deeper and deeper theological understanding. Of course there is a need for solid doctrinal training, but it is not the core of disciple development.

Putting Christ’s teachings, including the Great Commission, into practice in everyday life must be our focus.

A great plan for working with most individuals might be for them to be responsible for reading portions of Scripture on their own and making notes of anything they want to discuss. When a disciple maker meets with his or her developing disciples, the first thing to talk about might be what is going on in their lives that is a challenge. This should not be some formal or hurried endeavor; rather, it should be done perhaps over a cup of coffee in casual conversation. The disciple maker should be genuinely interested in the life of the person with whom he or she is working; otherwise, the whole process will be somewhat of a sham and never get below the surface. There is too much superficial Christianity already – people who know what the Bible teaches but do not put it into practice.

The disciple developer will be amazed how many teaching opportunities there will be in the context of talking about everyday matters. Once that “stream” has dried up, if there is still time, discussion can center around what the disciple has been reading in the Bible. Of course, the entire thing should be “organic” and develop as led by the Spirit. You may end up praying or discussing theology. Who can say? That is what makes each encounter interesting.

If you are developing a potential leader and someone who likely will be teaching others, more attention should be given to teaching sound principles of doctrine. A book that lays out this sort of thing could be assigned for reading and discussed. Ultimately there should be a hunger in the disciple that will propel him or her to seek deeper understanding. You can lead a horse to water…

Lastly, but by no means least, developing disciples should participate in ministry, outreach, and developing the next generation of disciples.

If we produce Bible scholars who are not fishing for men and making disciples, we are teaching people to disobey Christ.

If we fail to develop men and women who in turn make their own disciples, we have failed in the Great Commission. Churches have been fairly successful at developing churchgoers, but our God given mandate is to focus on disciple development instead. The goal and strategy for the two are entirely different.

Disciple development has to be hands on, organic, Spirit-led, and Christ-focused. It must include following Christ’s teachings in everyday life and ministry to those around us.

It also must have a multi-generational approach to disciple development. If the church is going to grow and multiply as it should, this sort of development must be practiced by all followers of Christ. We cannot afford to spend years developing seminarians who may not even know how to reach and disciple the Jesus way. Jesus turned over the keys of his kingdom to “regular” people after a mere three years of apprenticeship. This is amazing and very challenging to those of us who prefer to develop ministry systems.

Share this post...
Share this post...