Author Archives: Jeff

8: following in what is fully accomplished.

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Let’s pick up where we left off in Romans 8. I am convinced that if we paused to consider what Jesus has done for us, we would live differently. He has already accomplished all that He calls us to be and do. The Christian life is not about you and what you must do. It is about God and what He has done.

… He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
—Romans 8:4

Jesus lived a perfect life for us and died a death for us so that everything He told us to do would be considered done. Because of Jesus’ life, God looks at us and says the law is fully accomplished. We can follow the Spirit without the pressure to perform because Jesus has performed perfectly for us. Instead, we are empowered by God’s Spirit to live.

Remember today that you follow the Spirit, and so you have fully met every requirement that God demands.

Of course, many will try to abuse this freedom and inwardly reason “Since Jesus did everything, I don’t have to do anything.” But we who think thus deny the Gospel by our lives, and show the Spirit does not live in us. Jesus told us the SPirit would come and make all that is His become ours; so, to not walk in the pattern of living as Jesus is to reject Him as Lord and Savior. But, to welcome His fully accomplished work for us is to rest and revel in His greatness, goodness, grace, and to rejoice in His glory be shown through our lives. This happens through God’s continual presence, His Spirit in us.

“The Christian is like a man who has the right tune in his head but cannot remember all the words. So when Paul says that love fulfills the law (Romans 13:8; Galatians 5:15), that is not to [declare] that Christians are perfect, but that they live … according to the Spirit.
—James R. Edwards

—Quoted in the Sojourn project, forty: romans eight (to meditate on and memorize Romans 8 over the course of 40 days).

 

Awake my Soul, I will hold on Hope.

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Sundays shall be a day when our souls are renewed to see the world as we’re meant to see it, recognizing the darkness around and especially within us, and the Light who dispels the darkness and cannot be extinguished (John 1:1-5).

I leave you with two songs by Mumford & Sons that can become for us prayers for a renewed day and world. Let’s start with where we place our Hope, and preparing to meet our Maker. Today let’s “plant [our] hope with good seeds” and not “cover [ourselves] with thistle and weeds.”
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8: a different plan in effect.

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The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
—Romans 8:3

The law of Moses says, “do this.” The gospel says, “it is done.” God looked at the law and said, “This might be impossible for you, but nothing is impossible for me.” What was impossible through the law God made possible. It’s impossible for us to save ourselves by doing what we’re told because we can’t do what we’re told.

God put into effect a different plan. He made what’s impossible for us possible when He send His own Son to live the life we should have lived, and die the death we should have died. By doing that, God destroyed sin’s control over us.

In this new plan God does for us and in us what we could not do for ourselves, because of the principle that is at work in us: sin and death. When we own up to this reality we are on the road towards recovery.

Christ became our substitute, conquering sin and ultimately death for us, bringing us to God.

“God sent his Son, who took to himself a nature — a body and all the other components of human nature, with one noticeable exception: he did not take to himself sinful human nature. The incarnate Christ has without original sin. Christ came like us, meaning he looked like us, but not with the sin we are born with. If he had come as sinful flesh, he himself would have been a sinner and could not have saved himself, let alone us. God destroyed sin’s control over us. The cross of Christ was where God poured out his judgment upon human sins. Believers’ sins were imputed to Jesus and God condemned them. That is why there is now no condemnation left for anyone who is in Christ, because the condemnation has already taken place on the cross.
—R.C. Sproul

—Quoted in the Sojourn project, forty: romans eight (to meditate on and memorize Romans 8 over the course of 40 days).

 

8: Zilch.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
—Romans 8:1

So now means “now that you are a Christian,” or, “because of all that God has done.” If you are a Christian, if you belong to Christ Jesus, because of all that God has done for you, there is no condemnation for you. No here literally means no, as in nada, zip, zilch. There is no judgment left, no penalty, no fine to be paid. We can kick and scream and feel guilty all we want, but there is no condemnation left for those who belong to Jesus because Jesus has paid for all of it.

Have you trusted in Christ Jesus? Then there is no condemnation left. Today, remind yourself you belong to Christ Jesus.

—Quoted in the Sojourn project, forty: romans eight (to meditate on and memorize Romans 8 over the course of 40 days).

 

8: No condemnation.

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It is the unspeakable privilege of all those that are in Christ Jesus that there is therefore no condemnation to them. He does not say, “there is no accusation against them,” for this there is; but the accusation is thrown out. He does not say, “there is nothing in them that deserves condemnation,” for this there is, and they see it, and own it; but it shall not be their ruin.
—Matthew Henry

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
—Romans 8:1

Quoted in the Sojourn project, forty: romans eight (to meditate on and memorize Romans 8 over the course of 40 days).

 

Straining by Grace.

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“Grace is opposed to earning, but not to effort.”

—Pastor Joel Dombrow quoting Dallas Willard and J.P. Moreland

“What if being a Christian actually meant a more difficult, more costly, less comfortable life?”

—Pastor Joel

From Joy Motivates on Philippians 3:12-4:1:

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

 

3 true ways of describing the Good News.

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Trevin Wax has a helpful summary of three ways we can summarize the Good News of Jesus (the Gospel):

  1. Telling the Story for an Individual
  2. Telling the Story of Jesus
  3. Telling the Story of New Creation

Which one do you tend to emphasize? I am convinced we need all three to be faithful to God in proclaiming His message. The Gospel is more than heaven’s minimum entrance requirement, and we must proclaim Jesus as the Hero and center of the storyline. How do we do this faithfully, making it more than about one individual?

When sharing the Gospel with people, I seek to find common vocabulary and see where their story intersects with God’s Story. And then I ask questions tailored for the situation to explore and explain this chart (a combination of all three ‘Stories’ listed above):

The Big Story of God & the Gospel

[Download three page document as a PDF: The Big Story of God]

 

More than just good works.

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I get this question all the time (or some form of it): “If we are rescued by Jesus through grace, and not because of good works we have done, what is the purpose of good works?“

Those of us who worry about whether our good works will be enough, are not quite grasping the Gospel nor the purpose of our good works. A few things to point out:

We ARE saved by good works.

Just not our good works.

Jesus lived the life we should have lived but haven’t, and died the death we should die but don’t have to. Those are part of His good works, the fruit of which we get to partake. (In theological terms, we are made right with God — justified — through Jesus’ active righteousness and His passive righteousness. His record of perfect obedience is credited to our account — see Romans 3:21-26, and Romans 4-5. More than that, we share in His life, through union with Christ, which is the anchor for our secure place in God’s love and the primary way He changes us.)

Jesus does much more than get-us-into-heaven-when-we-die, and His is greater than our perfect Example. The life He has He shares with His people, who are being remade into His image (Colossians 3:10). Because God is good and does good, we share in His character and inevitably do good towards others.

What is the place of our good works in relation to His good work?
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Training Partners.

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This morning I was grateful to lead a sixth grade boys Bible study. Exactly thirty boys entering their teen years were mostly respectful, and enthusiastic. Sometimes rowdy, mostly funny, and definitely happy to be there among friends, they returned each time to listening to an adult persuade them to trust God and live in His goodness. Thankfully I know many by name, so I can speak into their lives with credibility.

I spoke on Training Partners, a connection between two recent messages and Scripture passages they recently heard taught by men they respect.

A training partner is someone who invests in you, and you in them, as you grow stronger in a shared area of our lives. In middle school lingo, it is the guys we share life with in doing challenging things (sports, homework, etc.). They recognize the difference between trying and training, and that alone helps us see all the people who help us succeed in life. Even as we considered many ‘solo’ sports (golf, tennis, motorcross, being their examples). How many of us create our own gear, or drive ourselves to the course/court? Did we entirely teach ourselves how to play? If we’re wise, we watch others and want to do what they do how they do it. In fact, that’s why we wanted to play that sport to begin with — someone introduced us to it, and made our playing possible.
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