Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Do! Or Done?

 

The law says, "Do this," and it is never done. Grace says, "believe in this," and everything is already done.—Martin Luther

You need to pay attention to what I’m about to say, because it has the potential to change the way you think about everything that has to do with the faith.  It’s that big.  Here it is:

If you’re always concerned about how you’re doing, you’re doing it wrong.

There it is.  That’s the major life-changer.  Now, I know you’re not some heretic preaching salvation by works.  You’re not the one pushing some new idea to implement Old Testament dietary laws.  If I were to ask you how you are saved, you’d confidently say you get saved by grace through Jesus Christ.

But you’re human.  And so you like  . . . well, you like checklists.  You like to be able to gauge your spiritual progress.  You get comfort from checking the fact sheet.  From seeing a gold star next to your name.

And so you spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, so to speak.  Constantly looking up the list of rules and commands and measuring how well you kept them.  And maybe you love some preacher’s sermons because they’re so relevant, and they really let you know what you need to be doing.  For that matter, maybe you even did read one of those Bible diet books and thought to yourself, “Gosh, maybe I should be eating holier.”

And if that’s you: STOP.  Stop doing all the time, because you’re doing it wrong.

Do you suppose that if you just do enough, you’ll find yourself in God’s presence?

Do you suppose that if you just do more, God will be content with your work?

Do you suppose that if you just do and do and keep on doing, that God will bring you into His Kingdom?

I suppose that you do.  But . . . hasn’t Christ already done all that for you?  Hasn’t Christ already done everything that needed to be done?  Doesn’t He now stand before the Father, reminding Him that you’re one of His own?  And one day, won’t He open the door for you, inviting you to step into eternity with Him?

What’s left that needs to be done?  Nothing, that’s what.  And if you keep focus on your doing, you’re going to miss the fact that Christ says to you, “It’s already done.”

Consider this your wake-up call: Christ has done, is doing, and will do everything that’s needed for you to live life with God.  There’s nothing you need to add to that.  Heck, there’s nothing you can add to that. 

So get your eyes off the mirror, and get them on Christ.  I promise you, you won’t miss your doing, not once you grasp Christ’s done. 

Monday’s follow-up to Sunday’s message: The old has gone, the new has come

 . . . except that the old really hasn’t gone.  It’s still here.  We’re surrounded by it.  We live in the old.  And that’s okay . . . because the old is good.

It’s good because the old is part of the good gifts God has given us.  The old church, the old friends, the old hangout.  All of these memories and experiences and relationships that God has given us and blessed us with throughout the course of our lives . . . they’re very good things!  And who’d want to see good things go away, even if they are a bit old?

No one would.  That’s kind of my point.

We cling to the old, familiar things because they are a source of comfort for us.  They’ve become part of our identity.  When we think about the old, familiar things we have a sense of belonging.  We feel we understand who we are.

But when we do that, we can miss the better thing that God gives us in Christ.  Because when we take a bit too much comfort in the good things God gives us, we can miss the fact that we still need God’s best thing. 

We still need His forgiveness. 

And none of the good things God has given us can offer that.  Only the best thing.  Only Christ.

Christ is the best comfort that makes all the other comforts seem small by comparison.

He is the sacrifice given for you that makes all your sacrifices for Him needless.

His blood alone gives you peace with God.

The old is still good.  There’s no shame in admitting that.  But good is not good enough.  It has to be Christ, or it’s not God’s best.

And thank God that He gave us Christ: His very best.

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

Hebrews 9:15

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: There’s ideal, and then there’s real

 

Ideal vs. real.  There’s the rub.  You’ll hear idealistic people talk about how things should really be, and then you’ll hear pragmatic people talk about how things really are.  And the two worlds they describe couldn’t seem to be further apart.

But that’s the amazing thing about church.  One the one hand, you can describe a Utopian community filled with love, care, and compassion.  But on the other hand, you can in the next breath describe a broken fellowship marked by weakness, sickness, and difficulties.  And—somehow!—both statements describe your church. 

The reason for this seeming mystery is simple:  the ideal church and the real church meet together in Christ.

Christ is the one who forgives our sins, but He is also the one who teaches us to forgive the sins of others.  Christ is the one strengthens us, but He is also the one whose strength flows through us into others. 

Christ is the author of compassion.  The balm that heals illness.  The arms that lift us up and the Body that hold us together.  It’s He who makes church the ideal place for sinners to go for redemption, and it’s He who makes church the place where real life can be lived out.  The ideal church and the real church meet together in Christ. 

Monday's Follow-up to Sunday's Message: That Darn Tongue!

James is confident that the tongue cannot be tamed.  It cannot be controlled.  Once your mouth is opened, the restless poison of the tongue directs your entire body.  And as I said yesterday, I believe there is no part of the body that can lead you into sin more quickly than the tongue.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”   

So what should we do with a tongue that, according to James, “corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell”?  Well, certainly I don’t expect anyone to cut out their own tongue.  But it is fair to ask that we hold it.  

“Therefore God forbids you to speak evil about another even though, to your certain knowledge, he is guilty. All the more urgent is the prohibition if you are not sure but have it only from hearsay. But you say: “Why shouldn’t I speak if it is the truth?” I reply: “Why don’t you bring it before the regular judge?” “Oh, I cannot prove it publicly; I might be called a liar and sent away in disgrace.” Ah, now do you smell the roast? If you do not trust yourself to make your charges before the proper authorities, then hold your tongue. Keep your knowledge to yourself and do not give it out to others. . . . No man should be deprived of his honor and good name unless these have first been taken away from him publicly.”—Martin Luther

Monday's Follow-up to Sunday's Message: Exposing Sins

Ephesians 5:14, “This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

We sleep and slumber in the darkness.  The darkness dulls our senses—it’s hard to see things for what thy clearly are in the dark.  The darkness dulls our reason—it’s hard to think Biblically in the dark.  So we drift away, and the sweet, smooth empty words of the world take hold in our minds and, without thinking, we find ourselves deceived.

No!

It doesn’t have to be that way!  The light of Christ illuminates your darkness.  It disperses your mental fog and lets you think clearly once again.

“Everything exposed by the light becomes visible.”  Confessing your sins—your specific sins—is like dragging those sins into the light: they become visible.  That troubles us, because we’d rather hide our imperfections away.  We’d rather put on a good face, a brave face, for the world to see.  After all, will the world ever listen to us if we honestly admit we sin?  That we religious, church-going, Bible-reading people have actual, real, ugly, damning, personal sin?

It’s natural to fear confession . . . but the cure to fear is faith.  Faith that the light of Christ is the only thing that can overcome your darkness.  Faith that dragging your sins into the light—exposing them!—will kill off your old sinful nature.    

Faith that Christ will be true to His promise and give you His life and light in return for your darkness and death. 

It’s time to stop pretending we’re the righteous, and time to start telling people we’re the redeemed.  No longer hiding our sins, but having them exposed for what they really are. 

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” 

"And this is the reason why our theology is certain: it snatches us away from ourselves and places us outside ourselves, so that we depend not on our own strength, conscience, mind, person, or works but on what is outside us, that is, on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive." -Martin Luther

Monday's Follow-up to Sunday's Message: Action! . . . or not?

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;  to be made new in the attitude of your minds;  and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  Ephesians 4:22-24  

When we talk about the kind of person we’d like to be, we almost always talk about actions.  Things that we think we should be doing.  New habits that we believe we should be incorporating into our lives.  New skills we want to acquire. 

And on the days when we decide we’d like to be a better Christian, we naturally tend to think of specific actions that Christians should do.  So when we read a list like the list in Ephesians 4:25-32, we immediately want to stop doing some things and start doing others.  It’s all about the actions.

Now certainly there are actions that belong to the old, sinful self, and there are actions that belong to the new self.  Paul covers that very well in his list in Ephesians.  But the important thing to remember is that we don’t become better Christians by focusing upon ourselves and what we do.  Instead, I simply advise you to focus upon Christ.

The daily cycle of dying and rising—of daily drowning the Old Adam and having the New Man rise up—is a cycle of daily repentance and trust.  As such, the daily cycle of dying and rising would have us look to Christ—always to Christ—for His forgiveness, His indwelling Spirit, and His renewal. 

You see, when we focus upon actions, we’re really focusing upon ourselves.  And that’s too bad, because we will never have the power to change ourselves in the way we’d like.  Wouldn’t it be better to focus upon Christ?

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: The Lord will give you a sign

Ahaz learned the hard way that when God wants to point you to Jesus Christ it's best to let Him do it.

Ahaz learned the hard way that when you make up your mind beforehand to ignore God, He's not likely to make that easy.

Ahaz missed out on a lot that God had to give.  He could have had God's deliverance.  His protection.  His favor.  His Son.

Ahaz could have had a part in God's salvation story instead of being a footnote.  He could have had a story of repentance and reconciliation and restoration.  He could have been the one to lead God's people back into faithful worship of their covenant God.  He could have had a sign of God's favor . . . but instead he chose a sign of God's judgment.

God's sign to you is Jesus Christ.  The One born of the virgin still comes to you, bringing God close enough to touch . . . to see . . . to be Immanuel, "God with us."  And in Him you can have all the peace, the comfort, the forgiveness you've been longing for this Christmas season.

Look to Jesus Christ as God's sign for you this Christmas season.  Believe upon Him as the One who comes to bring you God's favor.  Do not ignore Him, do not turn away in disbelief or test him by preferring your sin to His forgiveness.  Do not reject the sign, but in faith receive the gracious gift of God.

Jesus Christ, Immanuel.  God with us!

Merry Christmas!