When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30)
We are always talking to ourselves all day; for many of us, that conversation continues on into and perhaps even through the night. This means that we never stop preaching the Gospel to ourselves. The vitally important question that we must ask ourselves — and answer — is, Which gospel am I preaching to myself?
The gospel of good works or the Gospel of grace?
The gospel of merit or the Gospel of mercy?
The gospel of the self or the Gospel of the Savior?
The gospel of “Do” or the Gospel of “Done”?
Which one is it for you? Are you on the left side of the equation or the right side? The kind of gospel you preach to yourself will absolutely determine, not only what kind of day you will have, but what kind of life you will live. The gospel of good works, merit, self, and “Do” leads to doubt, fear, anxiety, and disappointment. The Gospel of grace, mercy, Savior, and “Done” leads to freedom, joy, hope, and faithfulness to Jesus.
The key to staying on the right side of the equation is to remember that we live under the banner of the finished work of Jesus Christ. When He was hanging on the cross, having endured the full wrath and judgment of God the Father against the sins of all who will believe, Jesus uttered His great victory cry: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Christian, Jesus meant what He said! This is one of the things that makes the good news of the Gospel so incredibly good! Christ’s work is complete; your sin debt has been paid in full. You cannot add anything to what has been “Done” on your behalf. Only by living in view of the finished work of Christ will we be able to rise above the waves of challenge that wash over us each day, knowing that we are fully forgiven and unconditionally loved.
What kind of preacher are you? Preach this truth to yourself each and every day, and you will be set free to be all Jesus has called you to be in this life and the next:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:9-10)
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday, which is observed on the first Monday in September. Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894, Labor Day was initiated to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. Today I would like to take a moment to celebrate the contributions of all workers who are busily engaged in the labor of building the kingdom of God.
Some of you may be thinking, Who are the kingdom builders?Isn’t that term reserved only for those who are in full-time vocational ministry, like pastors and missionaries? If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I will answer that question with a resounding “NO!”
Author and social critic Os Guinness explained it this way in his 1997 book, The Call. This is a longer excerpt than I usually share, but I believe you will find it to be well worth the read.
There is a great distortion which argues that Christ gave two ways of life to his church. One is the perfect life, the other is permitted. The perfect life is spiritual, dedicated to contemplation and reserved for priests, monks, and nuns; the permitted life is secular, dedicated to action and open to such tasks as soldering, governing, farming, trading, and raising families. Higher vs. lower, sacred vs. secular, perfect vs. permitted, contemplation vs. action. Sadly, this two-tier or double-life view of calling flagrantly perverted biblical teaching by narrowing the sphere of calling and excluding most Christians from its scope. If all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, then all dualistic distinctions are demolished. There is no higher/lower, sacred/secular, perfect/permitted, contemplative/active, or first class/second class.
Calling is the premise of Christian existence itself. Calling means that everyone, everywhere, and in everything fulfills his or her (secondary) callings in response to God’s (primary) calling. For the Reformers, the peasant and the merchant—for us, the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor—can do God’s work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary.
The recovery of the holistic understanding of calling was dramatic. William Tyndale wrote that if our desire is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes, and preaching the Word is all one. William Perkins claimed, “Polishing shoes was a sanctified and holy act, and the action of a shepherd in keeping sheep, performed as I have said in his kind, is as good a work before God as in the action of a judge in giving sentence, or of a magistrate in ruling, or a minister in preaching.”
The cultural implications of recovering true calling were explosive. Calling gave to everyday work a dignity and spiritual significance under God that dethroned the primacy of leisure and contemplation. Calling gave to humble people and ordinary tasks an investment of equality that shattered hierarchies and was a vital impulse toward democracy. Calling gave to such practical things as work, thrift, and long-term planning a reinforcement that made them powerfully influential in the rise of modern capitalism. Calling gave to the endeavor to make Christ Lord of every part of life a fresh force that transformed churches and cultures. Calling gave to the idea of “talents” a new meaning, so that they were no longer seen purely as spiritual gifts and graces but as natural and a matter of giftedness in the modern sense of the term.
Calling demanded and inspired the transforming vision of the lordship of Christ expressed in the famous saying of the great Dutch prime minister, Abraham Kuyper: “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!'”
WOW! That should help us all see the vision and value of calling from God’s perspective. Beginning with our first parents in the Garden of Eden, all of life was to be lived coram Deo — before the face of God. It didn’t matter if one was a butcher, baker, or a candlestick maker, or a priest, monk, or nun, every service was sacred when it was lived out in the light of eternity for the glory of God. And that is every bit as true today as it was millennia ago.
So who are the kingdom builders for the King of kings and the Lord of lords? Everyone who is putting his or her gifts, talents, and abilities into faithful service in order to glorify God and expand the cause of His kingdom. This Labor Day, take a moment to do a personal evaluation in the area of your own calling. Could it be that you have, perhaps quite unconsciously, created a sacred/spiritual split in your own thinking? How is your work impacting the kingdom of God? Are you allowing God to use you right where you currently are to expand the cause of His kingdom?
Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
I often tell our congregation that there is indeed one menial job in this world; that is the job where Jesus cannot be found. If your labor is a labor of love for the glory of God, the good of others, and the expansion of God’s kingdom, you can rest assured that what you are doing, regardless of how others may view your work, echoes in eternity. Let that truth bless you this Labor Day and all the days of your life as you labor for your Lord.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
This is the call on every disciple of our Lord Jesus: To say “NO” to yourself. And speaking from personal experience, self-denial is one of the hardest things to do. Does this in any way resonate with you?
Self-denial is foundational for the disciple of Jesus. We are called and commanded to reject the natural, sinful human tendency toward satisfying the self at all costs. And there is no better example of this in all of sacred Scripture than Jesus Himself.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)
Jesus, being fully God, set aside His right to His glory, His power, and His privilege in total submission to His Father’s will (John 4:34). Jesus limited His knowledge as a man (Matthew 24:36) and was subject to time and space and a myriad of other human limitations — fatigue, hunger, thirst, and more. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Are we willing to lay aside our rights and privileges and deny ourselves for the glory of God and the eternal good of others?” Our sinful human nature has little or no desire for self-denial, much less the power to actually do it, but our new nature, having been buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life, has been given the divine power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
To say “No” to the world is to say “Yes” to the Word. To say “No” to yourself is to say “Yes” to your Savior. Remember, the same power that raised Jesus from death to life — the Holy Spirit — is the power that is at work within you. Let that truth set you free to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus Christ wherever He leads.
Why deny yourself? Because with every act of self-denial, you draw nearer to Jesus and become more and more conformed to His image and likeness. And that is how you will live the life of meaning, significance, and purpose that we all long for.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)
When Jesus said He had come to give us the abundant life, we must be careful not to confine that idea to eternity. The abundant life begins on this side of the grave, in the here and now. Are you experiencing life to the full, the abundant life — life with a capital “L” — right here, right now?
In order to experience life to the full, we must remember that no matter what is happening in our circumstances, God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31). God is for us when the sun is brightly shining, and He is for us when the our sky is blanketed by dark, ominous clouds. God is for us when we are in seasons of abundance and seasons of scarcity. God is for us when we are experiencing good health and when we are struggling through times of sickness.
Never forget that life with a capital “L” is the Lord. Here is one of greatest verses in all of sacred Scripture to encourage you to live a life with a capital “L” –
To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
The apostle Paul knew that his life would achieve its ultimate purpose if he was living in such a way that Christ was exalted, magnified, and glorified. Paul’s life was Christ. Period. From the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus right up to his martyrdom in Rome, Paul lived every moment of every day to expand the cause of Christ’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Paul preached. Paul prayed. Paul penned much of the New Testament. All of this was done with a single purpose: to point his audience to Jesus. Paul lived life with a capital “L” and this is to be the confession of our lives too.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)
God has given us more good gifts than we could ever number. Family is a good gift. Money is a good gift. Health is a good gift. Food is a good gift. Our work is a good gift. A good night’s sleep is a good gift. The clothes we wear, the car we drive, and the place we live are all good gifts. But if we love the gifts more than the Giver of those gifts, our hearts will never be satisfied and we will never be able to enjoy all those good gifts we have received from God. When we love any created thing more than we love our Creator, we have created a massive problem for ourselves. When even the best of gifts become ultimate gifts, they become bad gifts that remove the Gift Giver from the throne of our lives.
Before sin entered into humanity, Adam and Eve loved God and loved the good gifts of God; they lived in holy harmony with their Creator. There was no disordered love for the good gifts that pulled their hearts away from the Good Gift Giver. There was no sinful self-absorption or self-centeredness, because they were not sinners. But after the Fall, sin entered into the heart of humanity, and we all began to turn our good gifts into God-alternatives. We began to love the gifts more than the Giver of those gifts. We began to believe that our gifts could give us more life than God. The great Reformer Martin Luther once said, “Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your God.”
The key to avoid falling into this idolatrous trap is to love God through His good gifts. God created us to worship Him by enjoying His good gifts and using all of them for His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom in this world. We must remember that everything we have comes from God; the more we have, the more we are indebted to Him. Satan thought that Job only loved God because of all the good gifts God had given him, but the accuser was wrong. Job still loved God supremely, even after losing everything — his health, his wealth, and all ten of his children.
If this is to be the confession of our lives, no matter what we experience, we must look at life as Job did, and see that God is the ultimate Gift. When we do that, we will see everything He gives as just the sweet icing on the cosmic cake.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
What do you think is the greatest goal in an interpersonal relationship? Perhaps it is simply trying to keep that relationship from blowing up! As ominous as that might sound, years of pastoral experience have taught me that so very many relationships do go sour, and the reason for that comes down to one word with three letters: SIN!
None of us has ever experienced a relationship devoid of disappointment, frustration, irritation, sadness, and a myriad of other problems and challenges. I’m sure you see the glaring the problem with the word sin: it is the “I” in the center of it! Sin drives us to make life and our relationships all about us. We want to sit on the throne of our lives, ruling and reigning, rather than submitting to our Lord Jesus. And the result of our sin leaves the landscape of our relationships littered with “land mines.” Sin causes us to want to be right rather than to be loving . . . to be served rather than to serve . . . to blame rather than to forgive . . . to be critical rather than to be understanding . . . to be first rather than to be last. The list of our sins goes on and on. We are all marked by self-absorption, self-rule, and self-centeredness. It’s a wonder any of our relationships survive!
But the good news of the Gospel tells us we have a God who is for us, with us, and in us, and He is committed to helping us work through each relationship. The apostle Paul adds these words to the warning contained in our verse for today, which, when followed, give us all the grace we need for each relationship race and keeps them all from blowing up:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:30-32)
And if you’re still wondering, “How do I do that?” Paul said it even more simply in his letter to the Corinthians:
Do everything in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“He got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)
The poet Robert Frost once famously said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Well, as a pastor who has worked with many families, offering counsel on many broken relationships, there are homes where that is not an existential truth. Because of sin, some relationships have been ruined beyond the point of repair, reunion, and restoration. But there is one home where Frost’s statement is always true, and that home is in the heart of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Home is where His heart is.
Like the Prodigal Son, who squandered his inheritance on wild living and was so desperate to go back home that he was perfectly willing to live not as a son, but as a hired servant if his father would take him back, we are always received back into the heart of our heavenly Father, no matter how often we rebel and run away. Home truly is where His heart is . . .
His heart of forgiveness
His heart of acceptance
His heart of grace
His heart of mercy
His heart of love
Home is where His heart is because the Father’s door is always open, and we are always welcomed home, no matter what we have done. We are eternally secure in our relationship to our Lord, and there is nothing we can do to ruin it. Will there be consequences for our sin? Oh my, yes! Our God is the perfect Father, and He will discipline His children, just as any good and loving father will discipline a disobedient child. But there is absolutely nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus . . . NOTHING!
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Regardless of where this message finds you today, home is where His heart is, and you will always find Jesus waiting at the front door with open arms and nail-scarred hands ready to receive you back where you belong. You have His Word on that!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)
We hear the phrase used over and over: “Living the good life.” But what does living the good life really mean to you? Is it a life of abundant possessions and material comfort? Is it a life of extravagance and ease? Is it something that is only available to those who have fame and fortune? Is it an address in Beverly Hills? What is the one thing in your life that you tell yourself would make you feel happy, fulfilled, and satisfied?
Whatever you believe will provide you with “the good life” will ultimately rule your heart and shape your life. Your picture of the good life impacts your daily decisions, both large and small. Ultimately you will tend to judge God’s goodness in your life by whether or not you receive this “good life” from Him.
But this is not for you! God often refuses to give us what we want because there are so many times when what we want is not God’s best for us. We must remember that God always directs our lives in a way that is ultimately good, even when — especially when — it doesn’t feel good to us at that moment. You see, God is freeing us from the constricted confines of our definition of the good life and inviting us into His goodness, which transcends the here and now. Because God is always good and is always working everything together for our good, we must keep our focus on Him if we are going to experience the good life He has planned for us.
The good that God promises to provide all of His children is not something, but Someone, and His name is Jesus Christ. The ultimate good in this life is an intimate, personal, right relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus, nothing is good. With Jesus, you need nothing else to experience the good life.
Got Jesus?
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
The so-called wisdom of the world says “Foolishness” to the divine wisdom of the Word. Sin? What is that? Grace? Who needs it? Heaven and Hell? Nobody really believes in that anymore! As long as you’re not hurting anyone, the world says piously, nobody should care what you do.
News flash: Someone does care, and His name is Jesus Christ. The message of the cross is foolishness to the world because their minds have been darkened to their fallen, sinful condition and the grim sentence God has pronounced on humanity: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Those who reject the message of the cross rebel against the revelation of God, preferring to subscribe, surrender, and submit to the vain imaginations of men. The world sees the Bible as an antiquated book that has absolutely no relevance to our lives today. The world rejects the clear teaching of Scripture that we are all dead in trespasses and sins and desperately in need of a Savior because we cannot save ourselves. Sinful pride declares, “I don’t need to bow my knee to a God who is going to tell me how I must live. I am the ‘the master of my fate . . . the captain of my soul’!”
On the other hand, the message of the cross is the wisdom of God to save those who are understand that they are perishing and look with faith to the cross work of Christ. It is the most sublime message to those who recognize their sin and surrender their lives to the One who took their place on a cross to pay the penalty for all their sins.
The apostle Paul went on to say that the message of the cross is the “power of God for those who are being saved.” The cross is not foolishness; it is foundational! It is the key that unlocks the door leading from death to life . . . hell to heaven . . . darkness to light . . . unrighteousness to righteousness.
May that truth set us free to be all that God is calling us to be.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
For those who are — by grace through faith — in Christ, everything we truly want . . . everything our hearts beat for . . . everything we are so desperately seeking . . . we already have because of Jesus.
We are all born needy. The human heart deeply needs and longs for so many things, and the things that matter most in life are given to us by the One who took our stripes and bore our guilt and shame on the cross.
The attention we long for . . . we already have in Christ
The affection we long for . . . we already have in Christ
The acceptance we long for . . . we already have in Christ
The attachment we long for . . . we already have in Christ
The acknowledgment we long for . . . we already have in Christ
The approval we long for . . . we already have in Christ
Jesus lost all of that and so much more when He suffered the Father’s cosmic abandonment and experienced righteous rejection while He hung on the cross on behalf of sinners like you and me. But three days later, God the Father placed His sovereign stamp of approval on God the Son by raising Him from the grave. And now, seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, Jesus has all the affection, acceptance, and approval of His Father . . . and so much more; “Power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise” are His forever and ever (Revelation 5:12-13).
And because of our relationship to Him, we have it too — all the attention, affection, acceptance, attachment, acknowledgment, and approval we could ever possibly want! God has “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). He wants us to know “His incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19) and for us to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
What amazing grace and indescribable gifts have been bestowed on all those who have trusted in Jesus! Remember, every heartbreak of longing that comes from feeling unaccepted, unwelcome, unwanted, unincluded, uninvited, and unloved is fulfilled — completely and eternally — in Jesus Christ, and nothing can ever change that.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 