Month: May 2019

268. Deliver from Wrath

1 Thessalonians 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

We are delivered from the wrath to come; that’s a promise. We eagerly wait for Jesus to come from heaven to earth for the second time. But when He comes the second time it will be for judgment. We do not fear the judgment, but we eagerly look forward to it for then sin, death and devil are gone forever. Life and Love rule unchecked without end.

The wrath of God will definitely come upon the earth-dwellers; that’s a threat. Of that there is no doubt. We want justice to be done once and for all, so that we can live in peace, wonderful peace, for eternity. Wrath is real; sin is real; judgment is sure. We don’t like to hear preaching about the wrath of God, but it cannot be avoided. God must be angry at sin and He must surely punish sin, or else He would not be a just God. Wrath is necessary. We wish we could ignore it and simply deny that God could be angry. “A loving God could not send anyone to eternal punishment.” Oh, no? Love and Justice demand wrath and judgment. Judgment and justice will put all things to rights so that love, peace, and joy will have free course.

When God’s Wrath is unleashed upon the earth no human can stand. The only thing for earth dwellers to do is hide in caves, to rant and rave, and to gnash their teeth. The awareness of Wrath leads one to either unbelieving rebellion or to believing repentance. Here the Good News comes: Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come. For the believer the wrath of God for our sin has already fallen upon Jesus Christ, His Son, on the cross. Jesus took the wrath of God that was meant for us upon Himself. We believers are not at all afraid of the wrath to come.

In the Book of Revelation the wrath to come is revealed, and it is not pretty. But we will only suffer the wrath of men. True “fear of God” fears nothing but the wrath of God, and from that the God-fearer has been delivered. Only one fear is needed, and from that fear we are free. Live a life without fear.

267. Power, Holy Spirit, Assurance

1 Thessalonians 1:5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

The Gospel is words, but, significantly, it is much more than words. The Gospel contains words that have power: something real is happening. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. A life-changing power comes with the proclamation of the Gospel. It really forgives sins, brings salvation, and gives God’s life to the hearer who believes the words. The Gospel is the only power that can make a difference in life and behavior. It generates the motivation to actually change and follow up repentance with good works. This kind of power is not seen like the power of lightning or fireworks, but it packs just as much power. The Law and the preaching of morality and improvement of life have no power to change anything. The Law can only convict and condemn. The Law prepares the heart to positively and joyfully apprehend the Gospel. It seems right to us to find the right way and walk in it, but trying to obey is an exercise in futility. It doesn’t work, and it only leads to more frustration. The Gospel has power; the Law does not.

The Gospel comes in the Holy Spirit. With the Gospel the Holy Spirit comes along and enters the heart to create and grow faith. The Spirit living in our spirit causes us to do good things, and He makes good things happen. The words of Jesus are Spirit and they are Life. The life-giving Spirit comes with the Gospel and the Gospel energizes life. The Gospel nourishes the energy and activity of the Spirit. The spirit needs to be fed, not starved; it needs to be stirred up, not allowed to lie dormant. For this recharging we go to church to receive forgiveness and hear the Gospel. When we believe this promise we will not grieve or neglect the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel also comes unto us in much assurance. We need the assurance of God’s love, mercy, grace and power. There are so many promises we need to believe because we do not see them. When the Gospel comes it give great assurances to all the doubts, fears, worries, anxieties and troubles that plague us daily. Gospel assurance overcomes.

266. Reward of Inheritance

Colossians 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Jesus Christ has earned the receiving of the inheritance. He has earned the promised inheritance by His innocent suffering and death and by His resurrection of the body, and He has freely granted that inheritance to us. The inheritance was first promised to Abraham and all descendants of that promise by faith. Believers are rewarded for the work done by Christ. The reward is eternal life in an eternal Paradise. This reward is for those who serve the Lord Christ. Serve Christ = believe in Christ. We do not earn this reward, but the reward is given to us, for Christ earned it on our behalf. We are rewarded for Christ’s behavior, not for our own behavior. This is Grace. If the reward of the inheritance depended on our life and behavior in any sense we could never be certain, but it is not. All blessings we receive are granted to faith by grace; these blessings are dependent upon Christ, and they are therefore guaranteed.

We have received the inheritance, and the inheritance will be realized upon the death of the believers. The inheritance is eternal in the heavens; it is kept there for us, guaranteed as a certainty. The guarantee is the Holy Spirit living within us. There is no way we could be more certain. This certainty underlies our daily lives with a strong foundation. This foundation supports our faith and life, gives strength to our decisions and actions, and defends us against evil enemies that would bring us down.

I can confidently say, “I am a child of the King, and all that is His is mine.” He is responsible for my protection and care. He will make sure that I will go on through all the difficulties of living unto the eternal goal. The eternal inheritance God guarantees is kept unfading in the heavens. 

265. A New Man in His Image

Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

God promises you a new man. This new man is God’s personality entering your human spirit and combining with your personality to give you a new human being in addition to the old man, which though crucified daily, still lives within. This new person inside is a combination of God and me in a new personality that lives as me in the world. Both “mes” are living at the same time, the “old man and the new man.” 

This new man is renewed every time I repent and believe the Gospel. This new man is renewed in the image of God. We are “like Christ.” We reflect the person of God Himself. The created image of God, which we lost when we were born in sin in the image of Adam, is being restored ever since we were baptized and came to faith in Christ. The original intention of God’s creation was to have a bunch of people who would reflect back to Him the very image of God. God would be able to have a relationship of intimate love and mutual caring with a very large group of people who look like Him.

Sin and disobedience killed the image of God in Adam and his subsequent descendants, except for One. Then through that One the image is being restored again. That image is constantly being renewed in believers, and sacrificial love peeks out more and more in those renewed new people.

How do we “put on the new man?” How are we renewed? We are renewed in knowledge every time we repent and receive the Gospel. If that isn’t done at least every Sunday we gradually, and mostly unnoticeably, grow older and older and the “old man” begins to get the upper hand; sacrificial love appears less and less; selfishness appears more and more; the new Christ in us looks more and more like the old Adam. Put on the new man by receiving Absolution, remembering Baptism, partaking the Lord’s Supper, hearing the Gospel. We won’t usually see or notice a great or sudden change in behavior, but it is still true that the new human in the image of God is being renewed. Believe the truth of God’s promised cause and effect.

264. Christ our Life

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Christ is our Life: this is a promise repeated in Scripture. This Gospel Promise must be repeated for us often because it is easy to forget and ignore. Christ is our Life! Without Christ I am dead and I have no life. I naturally do not want to hear that, but when I hear and understand I rejoice to believe it. It is humbling to recognize that I have no real life in myself, but I am so proud that I think I have life, that I am alive by myself, that I live by my own strength and brains, that God owes me because I live, that I have rights just by being alive. Pride says, “I did it;” humility (and faith) says, “God did it. ”Which do you think is true?

Christ is my life; to live is Christ. I enjoy living because of Jesus. God alone is the source of my life; nothing else. I am living that life now, but That Life is clouded and darkened and suppressed by Sin and Death, which is equally, and even totally, me. I live both in life and in death, in me and in Christ both at the same time. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

But there will come a Day when Christ will appear; when He appears then our real life will also appear, for it will no longer be covered over with Sin and Death. When Sin and Death is gone the only thing left for me is Life. My true life will appear when Christ appears.

The promise also includes the truth that I will appear with Christ in glory when He comes. When Christ come again all believers in Christ, dead or alive, will meet Him in the air and come to earth with Him in glory, and Eternal Judgment will commence.

This promise is already: Christ is our life. This promise is not yet: our life will appear whenChrist appears and we will appear with Him. We have this certain hope; meanwhile, while we wait in faith, Christ is our life and Jesus lives in me. Believe it or not, you and I look like Christ. We are, indeed, “little Christs.”

263. Life Hid with Christ

Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

The promise of a life hidden with Christ must be believed because we can’t see it; of course, we can’t see that life: it is hidden. We must be told that there is such a thing as a life with Christ in God, and so we have this promise that this is true: We have a life that is hidden from the world of earth-dwellers. Christ is God and God is by definition spiritual and invisible to physical eyes: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” And so we do, by faith.

We must also be told that we are dead, because we do not want to see this truth and it does not appear to be true. Adam probably didn’t believe it either, that the moment he disobeyed God he surely died. We sin daily and that causes death, but we don’t see the consequences right away. We think we got away with it because we are still living; life seems to go on the way it always has. Sure, people die around us, and that stinks, but it hasn’t happened to us yet. And although we see death around us and we feel it in our bodies when we are sick or injured we don’t really see it and we refuse to see the link between sin and death, the cause and effect relationship. Therefore, the Word must tell us that we are dead, and that we are dead because of our own sin and guilt.

Than we hear the Gospel and we are told that we are alive with Christ in God, and although we do not see life with Christ in God we believe it. When we examine our life honestly in the light of God’s Word we see Sin and Death in us, and we also see Righteousness and Life in Christ. In Christ I am alive; in myself I am dead. This radical and eternal truth is believed through the preaching of Christ Crucified, through the preaching of Law and Gospel. For this reason we have the Word of God: to show us what we cannot see.

This invisible truth of life is unveiled to the eyes of faith in the Word of God. The final and definite Word of God is Jesus Christ in human flesh. The Word is visible and became flesh. Some have seen Him and touched Him and witnessed it for us to believe and witness, too. And then God is gracious to also give us visible elements like water and bread and wine so we can see life hidden with Christ in God. Now we ask the Lord to open our eyes so we can believe and proclaim: “I am dead and my life is hidden with Christ in God.”

262. Blotted Out Ordinances 

Colossians 2:14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

At the cross God has promised us that He would blot out the crimes against the Law that held us guilty before a Holy God. The Law is real and true and good, and the Law cannot be broken with impunity. The Law is firm, rigid and solid. The Law does not break, but it does break the one who breaks it.It is like the Law of Gravity. One cannot break the law of gravity; it breaks you.

The handwriting of ordinances is the written Law of Godthat is summarized in the Ten Commandments; it is against us because we didn’t keep it; it is contrary to us because we constantly fight it.  Another translation: “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Every little sin, every trespass, every breaking of the Law, every act of disobedience, every rebellious thought, and every untoward word piles up a huge debt of guilt that we could never pay off. A person can pay his “debt to society” by finishing his sentence in jail, but he can never pay his debt to God; the debt is infinite; the sentence is eternal death.

Jesus blots out every sin against God by nailing it to the cross. The record of debt is paid in full: it is finished. The just sentence of death (the only sentence for any sin) is laid upon Jesus on the Cross. All sins are blotted out from the book of our life (and Almighty God keeps a perfect record), nothing but good works is recorded in our book, and then our names are written in the Book of Life.

Once God has erased the guilt it is eternally erased, never to be remembered or brought up again. Once the blood of Jesus cleanses every sin the stain never appears again. Thank God that He keeps a perfect account, a complete record, with no errors or mistakes; for a perfect accounting also means that everysin is erased, no mistakes are made, and the blotting out does not miss any crime. The slate is clean.

261. Dead and Alive

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven your all trespasses.

The truth is: You are Dead; the promise is: He has made you alive. We know we are dead in sins, if we will just admit it; our flesh has not been circumcised, for the flesh still controls thoughts, feelings, words and actions. But what we don’t know naturally, unless the Gospel tells us so, is that we have been made alive together with him since all our trespasses have been forgiven. This is a promise that needs to be believed: we are quickened. What was dead has been made alive; without sin, we are alive with Christ.

We are not yet resurrected, but we are made alive now. Resurrection refers to the resurrection of the body, which is joined together in perfect union with a pure soul. Quickening refers to the coming alive of the dead spirit. Adam and Eve were born with a live spirit within, deeper than the soul; this spirit was alive, meaning it was in constant and unfettered communication with God, the source of life and living. But the moment Adam disobeyed God his spirit died, he lost communion with God, and he tried to hide. All men since are born with a dead spirit, that is, no God and no life. The selfish soul is still alive, but it is animated with sin and rebellion and love turned inward. After Christ paid for sin on the cross those who believe in Him are made alive in the spirit; they are born again, or born from above.

This new life animates, energizes and quickens the soul, which in turn affects what the body does. Sin is forgiven, but its death-giving force still remains. Thus we have two forces working in us, flesh and spirit, sin and grace, life and death. When the life-giving spirit hears the Gospel life will gain the upper hand. Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

260. Buried and Risen

Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

In Baptism we are buried with Christ; through the operation of God we are risen with him. This is a part of the awesome promises of God for us sinners: we died with Him; we are buried with Him; we are risen with Him; we ascended with Him; we reign with Him; and we will come back with Him to judge. It is amazing that we are so identified with Jesus Christ that what He has done we have done. This means we live today with Him and He with us, and we will live and reign with Him forever in eternity. Oh, what faith has given us! Awesome promises!

There is a mystery to the union of the believer with Christ. We cannot understand how it works; we can only believe it.We are buried with Him in baptism: we remember our baptism daily by repentance and faith. When we died and were buried with Christ Sin died and was buried, the old man drowned and died. Sin has corrupted the flesh beyond recognition, and nothing can be done to rehabilitate the flesh and the old man. Therefore, it must be drowned and die. The flesh is crucified and the old man is drowned. Repentance and Faith recognizes this fact as truth. We are indeed dead to sin. Sin has no connection or influence with the new man; it has no mastery or control over the spirit. By the Gospel, and faith in the gospel, we overcome, or rather, Christ has overcome for us.

But dead and buried is not enough: we are also raised with Christthrough faith in what God has done: what God has done is raise Jesus from the dead. The upshot is that we live a crucified and risen life, dead to sin and alive in Christ. By the power of the Spirit we are able to say to Sin, “I don’t do that any more,” and we can say to good works, “That is what I do now.” This is living; this is the life God grants.

259. Complete

Colossians 2:10And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

In Christ we are complete. We are perfect in the sense of being complete, full, nothing lacking. This is the sense Jesus uses the word in the saying, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect [Matthew 5:48].” Perfect means whole and complete, not just righteous and innocent. Holy and whole are similar in sense and meaning. Nothing inherently punctures the whole character: there is no sin, no lack, no flaw, and nothing more is needed. Jesus makes us whole not only by forgiving sin but also by declaring righteous. Christ has definitively made us whole and complete by grace through faith in Him. It is a finished work, but personally and individually He is still in the process of making us complete, perfect, and whole, and He promises to finish the job. The process of making whole will be ongoing until our own death and resurrection.

Sin is forgiven, but Sin still remains, it still influences, and it still corrupts. We are complete in Christ now by faith, but we are not whole and perfect in life, evidenced by the fact that we will still die. We will be changed and we will be incorruptible in the body, and soul. For now, we stand on the promise of completeness; we can claim wholeness in Christ, by faith in Him, even though we make many mistakes, come up short, and commit many sins. We see the sins and we suffer the consequences, but we turn in repentance and faith to Christ and the Gospel, and we are cleansed thoroughly and completed entirely. 

We live with both contradictory truths at the same time, and all the time; we are saint and sinner. We are incomplete and whole all at once.Sight sees the Sin; Faith sees the righteousness that makes us whole: we live by faith, not by sight.

By faith, we live whole and complete in Him. We need to believe that we are whole, since so much of life around us is fractured and so often life inside us seems fragmented. “Getting it all together” is a constant expression of desire and need. We do not need to get it together, to become complete; we only need to turn to Jesus who has it all together, who completes us. If we have Him, we have it all.