Grace for the Race

When we fail to recognize the difference between being a chosen people, rather than “choice” people, we not only mess ourselves up, we mess up everyone else around us!

There is a huge difference between believing we are “choice” people, rather than a chosen people.  It is the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Temple (Luke 18:9-14).  The Pharisee saw himself as a “choice” person, and thanked God that he was not like other men.  “I do this,” he boasted; “I do that.” On the other hand, the tax collector knew his condition; he was painfully aware that he was not “choice” by any means!  The tax collector threw himself upon the mercy of God, praying that he would become one of God’s chosen people.

Let me clear up any confusion. God did not choose us because there was something special—something “choice”—about us. God initiates His gracious relationship with us; He is not responding to anything that we think or do or say. Hear His word to Israel:

You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.  (Deuteronomy 7:6-9)

What a huge difference a single word can make!  If we see ourselves as “choice” people—if we believe God chose us because He saw something valuable about us—we will place ourselves above our fellow man.  We see our salvation as God’s response to who we are and what we have done to earn it.  We think the blessings that are poured out on us are a result of having earned the favor of God.  We begin to believe that we are better than everyone else and spend all our time building self-protective barriers around our tidy, controlled, and well-organized lives.  We seek to erect gleaming ivory towers to keep out the great unwashed who are not as “choice” as we are, continually thanking God we are not like them.  We are characterized by tribal mindedness instead of mission mindedness.  We associate only with those who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, act like us, and think like us.  We are puffed up with our special status in our elite club.

But this is not for you!

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.  (John 15:16 NIV)

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  (1 Peter 2:9)

Think about it for a moment.  Isn’t it better to be a chosen people rather than “choice” people?  If we regard ourselves as “choice” people, we look only to ourselves for our comfort . . . as long we believe we have maintained our superior status.  But what happens when our strength wanes, performance falters, and contribution lessons—when we begin to lose the reasons for being in the “choice” category?  Would we not believe that God would set us aside . . . perhaps toss us on the discard pile to make room for someone else who is more “choice” than we currently are?  We see that happen all the time to athletes who once were great heroes but are no longer “choice” in the eyes of their team.  Some of the greatest players of all time are put up for trade or simply kicked to the curb.  Is that how God will treat us?

If you think you are part of a “choice” people, you will locate your sense of identity, meaning, significance, and purpose in yourself.  But when your “choice” status begins to change, so does your sense of identity, meaning, significance, and purpose.  But to be a chosen person is to be wanted by your God for no other reason than He because He wanted you!  “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In lovehepredestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). You have been chosen, not because of what you did do . . . can do . . . or will do for God, but simply because He chose to set His affections upon you.  And He did it before the foundation of the world, in accordance with his pleasure and will—not yours!

What an enormous difference between being “choice” people or chosen people!  As for me and my house, we are deeply grateful that we have been chosen to be on God’s team, knowing that we will never outlive our usefulness to Him.  And when the day comes when—whether because of sin or illness or age—our service to God wanes, His love for us never, ever wavers.  We can rest on His promise that “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

You’re selfish!

Are you offended by that accusation?  Don’t be; I’m selfish too!  We are all selfish by nature.  We seek our own good over the good of others.  When forced to choose, we’ll choose, more often than not, to build bigger barns instead of asking God to give us bigger hearts.

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12:13-21)

Our desire for bigger barns is a demonstration of our unbelief.  We do not trust God to deliver on His promise to meet our every need in Christ Jesus, so we keep a white-knuckle grip on everything we can get our hands on.  We turn our backs on service in pursuit of security.  We turn our eyes away from the poor in pursuit of our pleasure.  We turn our hearts from the helpless in pursuit of our happiness.  We believe the old maxim, “If it is to be, it’s up to me” and live life as if it is a self-salvation project.

Make no mistake, only a right understanding of the Gospel can change our desire away from building bigger barns toward building a bigger heart.  Only the truths of the Gospel will transform our hearts to beat more for the Savior than ourselves.  Only the Gospel message will deliver us from our desire for self-protection and open us up to a life of self-sacrifice.

There is something beyond bigger barns, and it is the place where we are living more for the expansion of His kingdom than the expansion of our own.  Living as subjects in His kingdom, we demonstrate to a watching world that it is not only far better to give than to receive, but it is far better to simply keep on giving!  This is what our Lord has done and continues to do for us each and every day; His Spirit transforms us from demanding consumers to delighted contributors.

When has God ever let you down?  When has He been unfaithful to even one of His promises?  To be sure, He may not have given you what you were looking for, but He gave you something so much better; He has given you everything that works together for your good!  God is gracious when He gives to us . . . and also when He withholds from us.  He knows what is best, He has promised to work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28), and we need to simply trust in Him.

Remember that Adam and Even tried the first self-salvation project in the Garden of Eden, and it was a catastrophic failure!  But God did not leave them cowering in the shrubbery; He pursued them and promised to send them their true Savior, who would once-for-all deliver them from their self-salvation projects and their desire for building bigger barns.

Beyond bigger barns is an enlarged heart that beats for the King and the advancement of His kingdom.  In remembering all that our King has done for us and all that He has promised to do for us in the future, we are set free to let go of the stuff of this life and cling to what will come in the next.  At this level of living, His concerns become our concerns . . . our passion . . . our everything!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

A doxology is an expression of praise and adoration to our Most High God.  It is usually sung as a short hymn as part of the worship service.  The word doxology comes from the Greek doxa, which means glory or splendor, and logos, meaning word or speaking.  Here is the doxology that is sung in many Christian churches, including our services at The Cross.  This familiar hymn of praise was written in 1674 by Thomas Ken, a priest in the Church of England:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Amen!

Although the word doxology is not found in the Bible, doxological themes are found throughout sacred Scripture, from praising God for His many blessings (Ephesians 1:3) to affirming the Trinity (Matthew 28:19) to ascribing all glory to Him (Romans 11:36).

So . . . is doxology simply a song we sing in worship? Or should it be something more—a way of life rather than a way of singing?  And if doxology should be more, what would doxological living mean and what should it look like in the life of the believer?

I believe God calls us to live doxologically.  We are commanded in Scripture to reorient every aspect of our lives for the praise, glory, and worship of God.  Instead of living for self we begin living for the Savior, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  We no longer push Christ and the cause of His kingdom to the periphery of our lives; instead, we keep Jesus in His rightful place: in the center and on the throne of our lives.  And we do it not out of fear or a sense of duty; we live doxologically because our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.  (2 Corinthians 9:15)

The indescribable gift of Jesus that God has given us is to be the motive and motivation for living doxologically in every circumstance we face.  Now, it’s easy to give glory and praise to God when the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy.  But what about when we are in the middle of the storm?

When her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.   And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.  They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.  And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.  Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.  (Acts 16:19-26)

Clearly, Paul and Silas were in the middle of a storm!  They had been falsely accused of disturbing the peace, attacked by a mob, beaten with rods, and after suffering many blows, they were bound and thrown into prison.  And what do we find them doing?  Around midnight, Paul and Silas were offering prayers and songs of praise to God—and doing so with such enthusiasm that the other prisoners were listening!  And please take note that their doxological disposition was on display prior to the doors of the prison opening up.

James Allen once wrote, “Circumstance doesn’t make the man.  It reveals him.”  The circumstance Paul and Silas found themselves in revealed them for who they really were: disciples of Christ who intentionally chose to live doxologically, regardless of the harsh circumstances they were in.

What a great goal for every child of God—to be able to see the good God is doing, even behind the worst stuff in life, and calmly accept that God is working it all together ultimately for our good and His glory.  If we continually keep in view the truth that nothing happens to us that doesn’t first pass through His nail-scarred hands, we can sail over every rough sea and withstand every storm wind that blows into our lives.  And through it all, we can live doxologically, witnessning to a watching world just how awesome our God really is and how amazing is His grace!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!   

Take a moment to read the following verse and meditate on it for a moment.  What do you think it means to be an “epistle”—a letter from Christ?

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

You will encounter many people throughout your lifetime who will never, ever crack the cover of the Bible or read a single verse.  But they are reading your translation of the Bible in the life you are living, moment by moment, as a child of the Most High God.  Scores of unbelievers are reading your version of the Scriptures as they scrutinize the things you do: on and off the job, in the music you listen to, the movies you watch, the web sites you visit, the places you go, how you react to challenges in life, and how you deal with suffering.  It is important to remember that we not only preach the Gospel to others with our lips, we preach it with our lives.  And what we do speaks so loudly, unbelievers can’t hear what we say!

Let me caution you before we go any further: I am not suggesting that you should or could live a perfect life in the eyes of the watching world.  We can’t!  Nor do I have any desire to lead us in the direction of feeling responsible for the salvation or condemnation of anyone because of the way we live.  We aren’t.  We are fallen, broken, imperfect people who live fallen, broken, and imperfect lives.  Everything we do we do imperfectly.  We serve imperfectly; we give imperfectly.; we love imperfectly.  Yet, in spite of all of our imperfections, when our heart beats in tune with the heart of God, when our heart desires to live a life that is pleasing to Him and blesses others—all others—we become a letter from Christ to an unbelieving world.

Scripture asserts that even our best works are “as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) before a holy God. Our God does not “need” our good works . . . as if He needed anything!  But our good works are needed by our fellow man.  God has raised us from death to life to be the hands and feet of Christ in a fallen and broken world.  Yes, our hands get dirty and our feet often stray far from the path God has directed us to follow.  So let me give you the key that unlocks the door which will lead others into a deeper understanding of the Gospel you preach, the God you serve, and the epistle you are called to be:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  (John 13:34-35)

Let me ask you: based on this command from our Savior, what kind of epistle have those around you been reading lately?  I must confess that there are times when I dream about the great and grand things I can do for the glory of God . . . when in fact the greatest thing I can do is to be more loving!  In 1 Corinthians 13, known as “the love chapter” to many of the faithful, the apostle Paul makes it perfectly clear that no matter how spectacular our deeds, if we do them without love, we do them without any redeeming value.  Our works return void, because we are poor, blind, and naked, living more for self than for our Savior.

We are surrounded by people who are searching for answers to questions they don’t even know how to ask.  They strive and ache with a longing they cannot begin to articulate.  If you have trusted in Christ’s atoning death on your behalf, you possess the truth; unbelievers will look to our truth when it is lived out in the life of someone whose words and actions clearly communicate the love of Christ.  The love of Christ is not only meant to compel us, it is to convince others we have something they desperately need, even though they will not admit they want it.  If you want to be a “living epistle” that attracts rather than repels, let the love of Christ guide, govern, and direct your steps.  And in those times when you misstep, tell the watching world that your sin is why you needed a Savior who would die on a cross to pay for your sins. And He is waiting to welcome them also! His invitation is simple and charming:

  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30)

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

We are raised in a culture which teaches us not to show our weaknesses. We should “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps,” we are told, which means we are to act, advance, and accomplish by the application of our own efforts.

If you’ll give it just a little thought, you’ll see just how ludicrous this “bootstrap” idea really is.  No matter how hard you pull on your own bootstraps while standing in your boots, you will never be able to lift yourself up off the ground!

So how are we to get on in this life and do the things God is calling is to do, especially when the odds often seem to be stacked against us?

Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper.  Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior.  (Psalm 29:9)

We were never designed to be “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps” independently and apart from God.  Our need for God did not begin in the Garden of Eden after the Fall, as many mistakenly believe.  We were created needy, and our needs are to be met only by God.  We were made by Him, in Him, and for Him; that means we are fully dependent upon Him.

Here’s some really good news: the fruit of your labor is not dependent upon you!  Your success in life does not rest squarely upon your shoulders.  The goal for every child of God is simply to be faithful and leave the fruits of our labor in the hands of the Almighty.

When you read in Scripture about the lives of some of the great saints, you see just how needy they really were.  Abraham and Sarah were old.  Moses was not an eloquent speaker and needed Aaron to be his spokesman.  Elijah was suicidal and needed to be strengthened by God.  Martha was a workaholic and needed a new perspective . . . which was provided by her sister Mary, who sat calmly at the feet of Jesus.  Peter was impulsive and ill-tempered and needed the patience of his Prince.  Timothy was timid and needed the encouragement of Paul.

We all have more needs than we might care to admit.  But instead of expending all of our energy trying to hide our needs and construct a façade to present to others, we do better to simply identify our needs and look to God, who has been and always will be our Helper!  In looking to God, we often find that He sends us helpers in the form of friends, family, and even complete strangers.

As we go about the business of life, we can easily forget just how needy we really are and how much we need God’s help each day . . . until we have gone too long looking in the wrong direction!  When we keep looking to ourselves, attempting to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we get worn down, beat up, and burned out.  I know this resonates with you, because it resonates with me too!  God is the ultimate and only help we need, regardless of the circumstances we are facing.  He not only saves us from our sin, He saves us from ourselves!  His gracious rescue creates the “great exchange,” where we are decreasing and He is increasing in our lives.

The more we focus on the truths of the Gospel, the more these truths will renew our minds, enlarge our hearts, and bend our wills.  This is the place where we begin to embrace the truth that we simply can do nothing apart from Christ.  God wants you to look to Him and no one else for all the help you need to do all the things He has called you to do.  It is God’s grace that sustains you and God’s wisdom that overrules every challenge and trial for your ultimate good.

God is your help for a difficult relationship . . . a troubled marriage . . . a rebellious child . . . trouble on the job . . . a major health concern . . . and any loss you have encountered or will encounter in this life.  You are His, and He has promised to get you home safely.  Sure, the road is long and hard, but He has walked it before you and is walking it with you right now.  So forget about those silly bootstraps and fix your eyes on Christ!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Ever look around and see someone who seems to be doing better, experiencing more peace and joy, earning more . . . someone who always seems to be getting the right breaks, is making a bigger impact for Christ, finds more favor with God, and on and on?  In a word, they seem like “super saints.”  Or maybe you think you have seen this person staring back at you in the mirror?

I have news for you.  There are no super saints!  Never have been . . . never will be.

As a founding pastor of a church plant that Jesus is currently building, it’s all too easy for me to take my eyes off Jesus and put them on myself and think that I am more than I am.  In those moments, I am so thankful that God has given me a partner in ministry—my beloved wife, Kim—who reminds me I am no super saint—and that the church we serve is Christ’s church, not mine!  What a precious gift from God—to have a wife who is not afraid to kindly but firmly tell her husband like it is . . . over and over and over again!

Evangelist D. L. Moody once quipped, “I’ve had more trouble with D. L. Moody than with any other man I’ve ever known.”  Thomas à Kempis advised, “Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish yourself to be.”  When G. K. Chesterton was asked what was wrong with the world, he promptly responded, “I am!”  Honesty is truly the best policy, especially when it comes to being honest with ourselves!  When we acknowledge our true condition—great sinners in need of an even greater Savior—we begin to approach the place where we can be used by God.

Regardless of what we are doing for God, we are only doing it because He has given us the strength to do it.  Our next breath is a gift from God.  Our next heartbeat is a gift from God.  Our next step in the direction of advancing our service to our Savior is a gift from God.  Daniel testified that “God . . . holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways” (Daniel 5:23 NKJV).  Everything is a gift from God, and when we understand this truth, we see ourselves for what we truly are: weak, utterly dependent creatures.  We join David in his cry, “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy (Psalm 86:1).  Make no mistake, the ground is always level at the foot of the cross . . . and that means there are no super saints!

Keeping this truth before you at all times will do two things.  First, if people may regard you as some sort of super saint because of your character and service before God, receive the compliment with all humility—even with a measure of fear, for “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise he receives” (Proverbs 27:21).  Give all the glory to God!

Second, if you are quite sure that no one regards you as a super saint, perhaps because of your lack of ministry and service to God, remember that you are just as valuable to God and needed by God as everyone else!  You don’t believe me? Answer this question: How many extra Christians has God made?  The answer, of course, is none.  “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).  You are a vital member of the body of Christ.  Pouring all your gifts, talents, and abilities into the service of your Lord will cause all the boats in the harbor rise; refusing to do so diminishes us all.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)

So . . . since there are no super saints in the service of our Savior, what are you waiting for?  God never calls you to do something without equipping you to get it done.  You have the greatest reason and motivation in the world to do all God is calling you to do: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  You are free to simply put in what you have—all that you have—and leave the results to God.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN! 

Really? Two things?!

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you what these two things are.  They are true for all of us, regardless of where this message finds you.  The two things that never change are:

1. God

2. The fact that there will always be change in your life!

I think you would agree that it is a whole lot easier dealing with life when we deal with it truthfully.  First, we know that God never changes, and that is very good news!  Those of us in the theological community refer to this as God’s attribute of immutability.  God simply does not change.  He does not change His mind, He does not change His plan, and His feelings toward us never change.  He does not have a Plan A, and then respond to our actions and go with Plan B, for not even a bird falls to the ground apart from His will (Matthew 10:29).

Knowing this first truth is a source of great comfort for the Christian.  God is the same, regardless of what is going on in the world around us and regardless of what is going on inside of us.  We read this truth in Scripture and we sing about it in congregations all over the world.

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.  (1 Samuel 15:29 NIV)

I the Lord do not change.  (Malachi 3:6)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (Hebrews 13:8)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  (James 1:17 NIV)

However, as contrary as it might seem, the second truth is also very comforting for the Christian believer.  Everything other than God is always changing.  Now, I know the only person who actually likes change is a wet baby, but whether we like it or not, change is happening around us and within us.  It never stops!

Some of these changes are welcome and some are not.  Advances in medicine have turned diseases that were once dread killers into a note in a history book.  There have been remarkable technological changes that have helped us advance in all areas of life.  But while these changes have made life longer, easier, and more productive, they have not come without a cost.  Today we can communicate with people all over the world at the touch of a button.  At the same time, however, we no longer have to build real relationships with face-to-face communication.  Today’s technological advances in communication have created individual lives that are, as the saying goes, “a mile wide, but only an inch deep.”

So . . . how do we deal with this second truth that everything except God is in a state of constant change, including you and the life you are living?  We must believe and fully embrace the first truth!  The only way to effectively deal with the truth of change is to view it in light of the truth that God never changes.  He is the one constant we have, in both life and death, and He is the One we are to focus our attention on.

When those we love move away, we can be assured that God never moves away.  When those we love begin showing the debilitating effects of aging, we can be assured that God does not age.  When those we love die, we can be assured that God never dies.

What change are you dealing with today?  Are you facing changes in your personal life?  Changes in your professional life?  Have the climactic changes in our economy triggered difficult changes in your life?  Regardless of the changes you are confronting and the anxiety they might be causing you, keep looking to the only One who never changes.  And along the way, you must trust that our sovereign, immutable God is working every one of those changes for your good and His glory.

One last thought: the most important change you will go through is to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:29).  This means two things:  first, it is going to be painful!  Second, God will not stop His work until it is completed, and it will not be completed until you get to the other side.  Yes, along with the apostle Paul, we can be sure of this: “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

When was the last time you gave any thought to having a savior other than Jesus?  At this moment, you’re probably thinking, “Never!”  To be sure, Jesus is the only Savior.  But you might be surprised to see just how easily we replace Jesus on the throne of our lives with “functional saviors,” which we imagine will meet us in our place of deepest need.

A functional savior is anything other than Jesus that we focus on to meet our needs, give us our identity, strengthen our significance, or magnify our meaning in life.  Jerry Bridges writes:

“They become the source of our identity, security, and significance, because we hold an idolatrous affection for them in our hearts.  They preoccupy our minds and consume our time and our resources.  They make us feel good and somehow make us feel righteous.  Whether we realize it or not, they control us and we worship them.”

My years spent devoted to men’s ministry brought me face to face with countless functional saviors that men serve: from accomplishment to addiction . . . from money to ministry . . . from good looks to the good life.  The foremost functional savior for many of these men was their careers!  Whether they are searching for a feeling of significance, meaning, purpose, identity, or approval, most men I have counseled over the years look to their careers as their savior—not Jesus Christ.  In the end, of course, the career could not deliver on its promise and left these men wrecked, washed up, and wandering aimlessly on the empty trail of their own selfish ambition.

So . . . is there a functional savior that you are depending on to bring you happiness and fulfillment?  Let us look at a man who worked through this question.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.  A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.  He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.  When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”  So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.  All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:1-10)

The functional savior for Zacchaeus was money.  He even profited off of his own people by charging more than what was owed; because of this he was hated and despised by his neighbors.  Then Jesus showed up and everything changed, because this tax collector now knew what he was looking for in his money was only to be found in his new Master.  Zacchaeus was not only willing to give half of his possessions to the poor, he was willing to make it right with anyone he had cheated out of anything.

You see, while Zacchaeus was depending on money, he was never really happy.  He was never really fulfilled or satisfied.  And this is clearly evident in the account above; he was so eager to meet the genuine Savior that he scaled a tree, so as to be sure not to miss Him as he passed by!  Zacchaeus had tried to fill the God-sized void in his heart with money, but it wasn’t until that void was filled by his Master that he come to know true joy and fulfillment and to discover his real identity.  Do you know this feeling?  Is this the confession of your life?

Only the truths of the Gospel can empower us to trade in all of our functional saviors for the only true and real Savior: Jesus Christ.  Only Jesus has the power to deliver on His promises—every one of them, every single time.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

It is one thing to have a promised salvation, one in which you hope to be saved in the end.  But it is another thing altogether to have a present salvation—to know that you are currently saved, no ifs, ands, or buts.

So . . . which do you have?  Take a look at what the apostle Paul had to say on this matter.

By grace are you saved.  (Ephesians 2:5)

Herein lies both the sum and substance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  By the grace of God, you are saved presently.  Paul does not tell us that we will one day be saved.  Paul does not tell us to hope that we will be saved.  No, Paul says we are already saved; our salvation is a completed act.  Charles Spurgeon, “the prince of preachers,” powerfully underscored this truth:

A present salvation cannot consistently be preached by any beside those who hold the Doctrine that salvation is by Grace.  Appeal to the very best of men, the most devoted, the most earnest who are seeking salvation by their own works and ask if they have obtained eternal life.  You cannot find one who has done so—they are all hoping that, through the mercy of God, they may somehow and sometime be saved—but none of them will declare that they are now saved.

If you are trusting in anything other than the finished work of Christ on the cross (such as your obedience and/or good deeds), you cannot ever consider yourself to be saved!  When would you know you had done enough or been good enough?  When you put both your good works and sinful deeds on the scales of justice, are you counting on the “good” scale to outweigh the bad?  Or are you more than a little unnerved by Jesus’ words, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”? (Matthew 5:48 NASB)  Perhaps, when you read those words and consider how ruinously short you fall from God’s standard of perfection, you are moved to cry, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

If this resonates with you, know this: if Adam had always kept the law of God and never sinned, his works would only have brought him to a place of doing his duty; and doing his duty would merit him nothing.  Our Creator owes nothing to His creation.  What would God have owed Adam for keeping the law?  Nothing!  Eternal life would still have been a gift of God’s grace.  And Jesus warns us, “You also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’” (Luke 17:10).

Unworthy servants that we are, should we not abandon any and all notions of keeping the law to merit salvation?  Do we not recognize that we are sinners—both by nature and habit?  We cannot keep the law of God for a single hour!  Which one of us has ever loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength?

If by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.  (Romans 11:6)

Those who are hoping only in a promised salvation find that there is no rest for their souls.  It is a never-ending, life-draining, heart-sapping run on the performance treadmill of life.  With every step, we hope we have moved one step closer to the goal of final forgiveness and eternal life.  And these are the individuals who will say it is a presumptuous thing to believe in a present salvation!  I would reply that it is far more presumptuous to imagine that we could be good enough to make God our debtor!  Spurgeon argued,

The Scriptures teach that the moment a man believes in Christ, he is not merely put into a salvable state, not have saved—he is not placed in a position where, if he remains, he will be saved, but concerning which there is fear that he may fall from it—but that he is already completely saved!  I verily believe that the saints in Heaven, albeit they have received the crown of salvation, are not, as to its essential reality, more truly saved than the meanest and weakest believer in Christ who is struggling through floods of temptation here upon earth.  For what is it to be saved?  It is to have sin forgiven and to be accepted in the Beloved.  The moment a sinner believes in Jesus, his sins are as much pardoned as they ever will be!  They are as fully and as finally blotted out of God’s Book of Remembrance as they would be if he should live a thousand years of piety.  He is as completely clear, as far as the forgiveness of his sins is concerned, as he will be when he stands at the right hand of the Judge at the Last Great Day.

Only the truths of the Gospel take us from a promised salvation to a present salvation.  And only by preaching these truths to ourselves each and every day that we can live with the freedom and joy that comes with knowing we live under the banner of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

When grace comes knocking on the door of our hearts, it opens our hearts and takes up residency there, now and forevermore, because we are saved by His grace alone and not by our works.  From beginning to end, and all points in between, salvation is God’s gift of grace which moves us beyond a promised salvation to a present one.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Those who are in Christ are living in the shade of the shadow of the cross.  This is the place where we meet with all the blessings of being in Christ:

• Pardon
• Adoption
• Acceptance
• Forgiveness
• Redemption
• Freedom
• Love
• Eternal life

The list of blessings, of course, is virtually endless.  Indeed, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).  Having been raised up, cleaned off, and brought in, we simply cannot plumb the height and depth of the blessings that we have received in Christ.  But we must remember that the Christian life is not an endless parade of balmy days and delightful, cool breezes.  We will spend days on the other side of shadow of the cross, where the sky is bronze and brittle, and a scorching sun beats pitilessly down on us—on that side of the cross is suffering.  And in that suffering we also need to live, and live well, as a witness to the One who hung on that cross in our place.

To be sure, it is always easier to live in the shade of the shadow of the cross.  This is the place where we find the sky is always blue and the clouds are always fleecy.  But on the other side of the shadow we find suffering . . . and this is part of taking up our cross and carrying it for Jesus.

He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  (Luke 9:23)

The cross is not only our greatest source of blessing, it is the source of our heaviest burden.  Jesus was a cross-bearer, and all those who would follow Him must be cross-bearers too.  If we will one day receive a crown, it will only be by way of the cross.  The Via Crucis, or the Way of Sorrows, is the only way to the place of blessing; it must be walked by every follower of Christ.  Jesus carried His cross to the Hill Golgotha to be crucified and to die upon it.  Will we not submit and surrender our shoulder to our cross to be purified on our way to eternal life?

If you keep the promise of the glorious life to come in view, your present burden will be greatly eased.  Jesus willingly gave Himself to a cross He did not deserve.  God forbid that we would shrink back from the cross that had our name carved into its side.  To know the Father’s love—a love that gave His only Son to be nailed to the cross to pay for all our sins—is to know enough to receive our cross as a badge of holy honor.  The apostle Paul’s prayer was that he would

. . . [B]e found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.  (Philippians 3:9-10)

Paul believed it was an honor to share in the sufferings of His Lord, because Paul knew what His Lord did for Him on that cross.  He knew “the incomparable riches of [God’s] grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7-8 NIV).  He stood in the glorious shade of the shadow of the cross on the road to Damascus, and in that moment when Jesus raised Paul from death to life, Paul stooped to surrender his shoulder to the glories of its suffering too.  Paul wanted nothing more than to be like Jesus.  To live like Jesus . . . to suffer like Jesus . . . and to die like Jesus!

The more deeply we understand the Gospel, the more delighted we are to carry our cross.  Both blessing and burden live beneath the cross, and it is the call of every follower of Christ to take it up daily, regardless of the cost or circumstance.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!