Jesus does it for me. . . .

 

This week a man was found not guilty and released from prison after being locked up several years for something he did not do. Imagine a twist to this story; the man was guilty but released because another person was willing to serve his sentence for him. This twist illustrates the gospel and the grace of God.

Just as our laws require obedience and punishment for those who break them, God’s laws are even more exacting. The law must be fulfilled. Both its requirements of righteousness and justice must be satisfied. The only way fallen, sinful men can ever fulfill the law and be saved is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner’s Substitute.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:3–11)

This passage is for those who believe the gospel and trust Christ, our Substitute as our law-keeper. Yet how easily this is overlooked. The church at Galatia did that, either through simply forgetting, but more likely because false teaching made a strong appeal to their pride.

Put it this way: Christ is my righteousness. I cannot save myself or do anything that warrants His amazing grace. My pride balks at this. I have some goodness, don’t I? So I begin an effort to be righeous without depending on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That fails, but spiritual blindness can make me think I’m doing just fine as I walk in the flesh, ignoring what I’d once learned, or just not seeing my efforts as fleshy. Reread the above passage!

So Paul wrote to the Galatians, and his words are for anyone who falls prey to the idea that there is some goodness in that old nature. . . .  

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1–3)

If this happens, along with it comes the rating of sin. Some are totally intolerable, like most of the lists in Scripture, but God put in enough for me to realize that simply ignoring Him and doing my own thing, as good as it might seem, is sin. I might even start telling Almighty God how He should rule the universe, or at least the events of my life, as if I know better than He does. It may take years for some of us who trust Christ to realize the meaning of “in everything” and actually do it in everything.

PRAY: Father, I know that all believers struggle with the noisy demands of our hostile flesh and I know how much I need a daily reminder to trust You with everything, the messiness of the world and the trials that keep popping up in my world. Thank You for Jesus. When I fail and listen to the flesh, You are listening to my Savior and Substitute interceding for me. Like a prisoner set free, I’m deeply thankful that Jesus stands for me and for the grace and love that motivated Him to take my place and do what I cannot do.

Living this new life…

 
This morning I’m tempted to cut and paste; first from the Bible and then from my devotional book. Yesterday was filled with God’s presence and power — in our worship service, in conversations with others, and in witnessing someone enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. After that, we had a lovely time with family and watched our home team win another game in NHL playoffs. Lots of emotions, much to stimulate my mind and choices.

Today the topic is freedom from the slavery of sin. All this is incredible good news as we see the results in our own lives and the lives of our Christian family. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6)
How did this happen? The NT tells the events in the life of Jesus Christ and how that affects our lives. Our choices are expanded. Yes, I can still sin, but first He gives me this option:

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:10–11)

And with a new way of thinking, I’m also given a new ‘task master’ which is a negative word to describe the One who gave me this new life:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness… For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:16–23)

While the choice to live in newness of life seems the winner, the Bible warns against the pull to return to life under those old options. It says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

The devotional illustrates how a woman can have a job and is obligated to do what her boss asks, but they love each other and decide to marry her — the relationship changes. Her reason for doing her job is different. While that describes the difference in her motivation, it also describes how her ‘boss’ is no longer the same. Instead of the world, her old nature, and all sorts of other ideas, her life is now in the hands of the Son of God and she is united to Him and His perfect love.

Unfaithfulness to that perfection seems so unlikely, yet it happens. In Christ Jesus the choices of the old life count for nothing. He wants from me faith working through love. I might start well but become hindered from obeying the truth, and that is not His idea. I know that even a little temptation can initiate a big crash. It could come from a worldly desire, or yielding to false teaching, or the pressure of persecution, or lies from the enemy. However, Jesus called me to freedom, and not use that freedom as an opportunity to go back to the habits of my old nature. I’m to love others, even my enemies, and that means being like Jesus. He listens, wants the best for me, pays attention to the details of my life, is always there for me, never puts me to shame…

PRAY: You, Jesus, are wonderful. To be like You is not slavery at all but a joyful way to live. May the delight of being dead to sin always keep me alive to You and reflecting Your love to the world around me, especially to Your children and increasingly to those who need to experience the same freedom You alone can give.

Called to a most wonderful new life!

 

NOTE: Read yesterday’s post again! I mistakenly uploaded the one from the day before. Getting old and senile? Maybe. However, God uses all things for good. Maybe it was not supposed to ‘go public’ or more likely I just needed another reminder of my weaknesses and the need to always focus on Him.

As for today, the topic is knowing the hope of our calling. We who believe are rooted and grounded in what Christ has done and in the promises of God. No matter what we have done, or the mistakes we make, or our IQ or profession, or the size of our bank account, our possessions, our family or relationships, or our have’s and have not’s, we are called to be His own and to be transformed into the image of His Son. That is enough!

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

The vital result of being called into the kingdom of God is knowing and experiencing His great love. This passage says that His love is beyond our comprehension yet because of Him, we can know the vastness of it — which takes a lifetime and even then is not fully grasped. We are guiltless and totally forgiven, but still feel guilt and ask for forgiveness when we sin. I understand the love of Christ enough that I never want to have any barrier between my heart and His, even if that barrier is just in my own mind!

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:6–10)

My calling is powerful in itself. Just as someone elected to lead a country is suddenly given a huge responsibility, or a woman who becomes a mother, or a person wins the lottery, life changes with that event. I have Jesus Christ, the man who is God, in my life. I cannot walk or talk or think the same way. I’m to guard that relationship and not let any worldly or ‘old nature’ ideas rule me ever again. He is to fill me up and I am to totally cooperate with that filling!

Being called includes total access to His promises; some say 600 or more. Some are given instantly; others I must wait for, but either way, even though I may read them and know them, their fulfillment is always a delightful surprise. The call of God is like that. It is anticipation and delight, like the smell at the kitchen door even though the turkey or the pie is still in the oven.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

This hope and anticipation produce a hunger for what we know is coming . . . “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3) Anyone who smells what’s cooking is quick to wash their hands and sit down at the table!

Jesus, I am thankful for my security in You and the blessings You grant in this life. I’m also thankful for the surprises that are coming, that You are returning and I will be with You forever. There is nothing in me that deserves this yet there is everything in You that I need!

SUGGESTION: Do a word study on ‘call’ and ‘calling’ and note the power of God and what His calling means to sinners like me.