Grace for the Race

There was a time, as I was advancing through seminary training, when I had turned Jesus into a doctrine in my mind.  When I look back now, it’s almost hard to believe, but I turned Jesus into little more than the truths I had learned about Him.  To be sure, they were great truths, and the truth sets the captives free.  I’m a lot older and a little bit smarter now; I thank God He gave me the grace to see Jesus as more than a doctrine . . . more than a Presbyterian too!   

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifesto us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.  (1 John 1:1-3)

Wow!  John said He and the other disciples had heard, seen, and even touched the incarnate Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Clearly, Jesus was more than a doctrine to them as they enjoyed fellowship with Jesus—and through Him, fellowship with His Father in heaven.  He walked with them.  He talked with them.  He ate with them.  He served with them.  He did all of this so that He could identify with us in every way, even in our suffering.

[Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:17-18)

Personally, I find it far easier to receive a Jesus who is Lord and Savior, walking on water, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, turning water into wine, and raising the dead to life.  But a Jesus who suffered, who was lonely, and even fearful?  Yet, this is what we see in His life and death.  A Jesus who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses?  A doctrine could never do that.  A theological proposition could never identify with us in any respect.  Yet this is what Jesus has done for us. 

Jesus faced every one of our temptations: the temptation for self-rule, self-absorption, self-centeredness, self-confidence, and self-focus—and every sin that is bound up in all of these, yet He was without sin (John 8:46, Hebrews 4:15).  He battled temptation in the wilderness.  He battled temptation in Gethsemane.  He battled temptation on the cross.  Yet He never once yielded, because of His commitment to those whom He was born to die for.  The person of Jesus Christ is a source of unimaginable comfort for every child born of grace. 

So . . . the next time you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a storm or a wilderness experience, remember the person of Jesus Christ and His finished work He completed for you.  Knowing that the Word of God became flesh and “tabernacled” among us for the perfect amount of time is to know enough to get us through anything we are facing.  Along the way, let us remember these words from our Lord, Savior, and Best Friend.

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)

Jesus was equal to, yet distinct from the Father, and He refused to consider His glory as something to be clutched at selfishly (Philippians 2:6-7).  Jesus emptied himself by becoming a man, but not just any man.  He became the God-man, the Servant of the Lord, the new and better Second Adam who chose to identify with sinful man, yet without sin, to one day remake man sinless forevermore.  

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

Jesus came to this world to conquer Satan, sin, and death.  And conquer He did, through his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. 

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)

To the watching world, this was the last despairing cry from a defeated man, nailed like a common criminal to die a ghastly death on wooden crossbeams.  But to the Father in heaven, this was the cry of a Conqueror who did what He came to do: debt paid, sin forgiven, crooked straightened.  “It is finished!” is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they sinned.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.  (Genesis 3:15)

When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” He uttered the Greek word tetelestai, which literally means “Paid in full.”  When someone in the first century finished paying off a debt they would utter the word tetelestai, meaning “The debt is paid in full; the obligation is fulfilled.”  Jesus was making it clear that He had paid the penalty for our sins in full by His death on the cross.  His was not a cry of relief, the final whimpering gasp of a criminal being crushed under the weight of the cross; it was the cry of a Conqueror!   

We must keep in mind that Christ’s finished work was not limited to the price He paid by His death; it also included the price He paid in the life He lived.  He lived a life of perfection, though He faced every imaginable obstacle, overcame every test—though He was “tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NIV).

At birth, King Herod tried to have Jesus killed.  As an adult, He was falsely accused by the religious leaders who branded Him a false teacher.  He was rejected by the people He came to save, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, and abandoned by all His friends.  He was spit upon, viciously flogged, had a crown of thorns jammed into his head, and nailed to a cross. He hung there in unimaginable agony, His cruelly lacerated back scraping against the harsh wood as He pushed against the spikes in His hands and feet to draw in each shuddering breath.  The religious leaders mocked him, the soldiers cast lots for his clothing, and even two thieves reviled Him as he hung there, no doubt shivering in blinding pain. And if that wasn’t enough, his Father in heaven would not even look upon His very own precious Son, as He who knew no sin became sin for us.  And it was that—not the pain of the nails or the insults of men, all of which He bore in stoic silence—which prompted His desolate cry: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

But He was not defeated!  To be sure, there was a great defeat suffered as Jesus hung on the cross . . . but it was not His defeat.  It was Satan who was defeated, his plans forever frustrated, sin and death eternally vanquished for all those who will trust in Christ.  On the cross what looked like the defeat of Jesus and all that He stood for was actually His victory . . . and it was our victory too!  His cry of victory is our cry of victory.  We now live under the banner of the finished work of Christ.  We cannot add to His work; we cannot build upon it; we cannot improve on it in any way.  When Jesus cried out in triumph, “It is finished,” He meant what he said! 

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

As a Christian, what do you regard as the greatest good for you?  Is it living a comfortable Christian life with regular church attendance and serving a little bit here and there?  Is the greatest good for you experiencing financial freedom and the ability to purchase anything you see at the store without ever looking at the price tag?  Is it arriving at the station in life where you are free to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it?  Is it the vacation of your dreams, with family and friends to experience it with you?

To be sure, there are a lot of good things in this world.  But make no mistake; the greatest good is not a thing.  It is a person, and His name is Jesus Christ.  There are many good gifts we receive when we are in Christ.  We receive the forgiveness of our sins.  We receive adoption into the family of faith.  We receive the promise of eternal life.  We receive the guarantee that Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us.  These magnificent gifts are reserved only for the child of God.  But there is something even better than all of this.  Jesus is the greatest good!

To have Jesus is to have everything.  As my friend and pastor Tullian Tchividjian often reminds us, “Jesus plus nothing equals everything!”  With Jesus you have all the approval you crave.  With Jesus you have all the affection you desire.  With Jesus you have all the acceptance you pursue.  With Jesus you have all the love you need.  The absolutely greatest good is Jesus . . . period!

Steve Brown, who spoke to our men’s retreat last fall, likes to say, “You can’t love until you have been loved, and you can only love to the extent to which you have been loved.”  Well, if that’s true (and it is), the question we must ask ourselves is: “How well have I been loving?”  His love is unconditional; is our love unconditional?  His love is sacrificial; is our love sacrificial?  Our love for Him and others should always flow out of His love for us and His love for us is always flowing over, under, around, and through us.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.  (Ephesians 1:18)

The greatest good for every saint is not the good gifts He gives us, but the giving of Himself!  Paul tells us we are His inheritance.  He doesn’t need us, but He wants us . . . so much so that He was willing to be nailed to that dirty tree and even to be separated from His Father in heaven so that we could be His glorious inheritance.  Marinate on this truth for a while and see if it doesn’t begin to change the way you look at everything else in life.  Jesus is everything and everything else is nothing!

It’s almost too glorious to believe; it seems beyond the ability of our finite minds to comprehend.  Perfect, complete, needing nothing in Himself, Jesus came down from heaven to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, so that we could be with Him forever.  This greatest good would be too good to be true . . . if it wasn’t Truth Himself who told us it is so.

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

I often ask those whom I am teaching, discipling, or counseling what they think it means to grow in grace.  We are all familiar with Peter’s exhortation to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18).  But what does that mean, exactly?  For the most part, the answers I get are as follows:

• Reading the Bible more
• Regular church attendance
• Stronger prayer life
• Consistently tithing
• Volunteering more at church
• Increasing service to community

These are all good answers and there are other practices, as well, which give evidence to the grace of God at work in the life of the believer.  And yet I must say to you that these answers do not go deep enough. 

Growing in grace is more about what we know than what we do.  Peter says we are to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  In other words, we are to be growing in our understanding of the Gospel: the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.  We must seek to understand more deeply each day what Jesus has done, continues to do, and will one day complete on behalf of sinners like you and me. 

He obeyed perfectly . . . He loved unconditionally . . . He forgave completely.  And all of this was done on behalf of rebels who deserved nothing but His wrath, judgment, and condemnation.  The more we understand this unmerited favor, the more we are strengthened by His omnipotent strength to fight the good fight of faith.  The more we understand what Jesus has done for us, the more we grow in grace; the more we grow in grace, the more we are transformed by its truth.  J. C. Ryle rightly observed:

When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this: that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked.  He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart; he manifests more of it in his life.

Growing in grace means we are growing in our understanding of God’s great mercies given to great sinners.  It makes the Cross central in our lives, as we daily gaze upon our Lord nailed to crossbeams—broken, bleeding, struggling for each agonized breath, and crying out to His Father, “Why has Thou forsaken me!”  Growing in grace magnifies the majesty of the One who set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) to pay so great a price to secure our eternal redemption.  At the same time, we see our weakness and utter dependence upon the One who died in our place and has promised never to leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). 

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

Identity theft, also known as ID Theft, is a crime in which a criminal obtains key pieces of someone else’s personal information, such as Social Security or driver’s license numbers, in order to pose as that person.  The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, and services, all using the victims’ name.  The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.  Some consumers victimized by identity theft may lose out on job opportunities, or be denied loans for housing, education, or cars because of negative information on their credit reports. Many victims of ID theft tell stories of how their lives were turned completelyupside–down and how long it took to get right-side up again.  

I am writing about another kind of identity theft in today’s blog,however, and the consequences are far greater than lost job opportunities or denied loans. Genesis 1:27 reveals that we aremade in the image of God.  Therefore, we are not only to love and worship Him, we are to find our identity in Him.  Our whole existence is to be rooted in our relationship to him.  

For in him we live and move and have our being.  (Acts 17:28)

The verse tells us where we are to find our identity: IN HIM!  The problem of ID theft shows up when we seek to find our identity in anything smaller than God.  St. Augustine made it clear that this would never work with his unforgettablestatement: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”  Any identity not rooted in God leads to living a life of unimaginable insecurity and instability.  It often leads to a variety of forms of serious and debilitating addictions.  Think about the following scenarios and see if any of them resonate with you.

•         If you are looking for your identity in your parenting and your children struggle . . . your identity is threatened.

•         If you are looking for your identity in your profession and you are laid off . . . your identity is threatened.

•         If you are looking for your identity in a dating relationship and you break up . . . your identity is threatened.

•         If you are looking for your identity in the applause of man and the applause dies out . . . your identity is threatened.

•        If you are looking for your identity in your physical appearance and you get old . . . your identity is threatened.

Our need for an identity is woven into the fabric of our lives.  God made us to find our identity in Him and in Him alone.  If we attempt to build our identity on something smaller than God, we will eventually “deify” whatever that is and make it into our god.  We will worship it.  We will praise it.  We will sacrifice for it.  We become enslaved to it.  In the end, seeking an identity in anything smaller than God is seeking to build our identity on shifting sand rather than solid rock . . . and we all remember what happened to the house that was built on shifting sand: it fell with a great crash!

Adam and Eve sought to build their identity on something other than God, and sent all of creation into a death spiral.  In so doing, they denied their own humanity, a humanity that was to be realized through their intimate and personal relationship with the One who had created them.  Theologian Thomas Oden puts it this way:

Suppose my god is sex or my physical health or the Democratic Party.  If I experience any of these under genuine threat, then I feel myself shaken to the depths.  Guilt becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values.  Bitterness becomes neurotically intensified when someone or something stands between me and something that is my ultimate value.  

Even if we seek our identity in what is considered to be “good things” (family, service to God, etc.), as soon as they become ultimate things they become bad things.  No matter how “good”something might be, if it is smaller than God, it is what I call a “God-substitute,” and in the end it will inevitably return void.  Only when we find and fix our identity in the Almighty are we able to withstand the winds of change in our lives.  Regardless of what is happening around us, we can look to the One who never changes, never leaves, and never forsakes us.  

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

How often we say, “I’m so thirsty!”  And yet do we really know thirst?  Do we know it like a person who is wandering in the desert without any water to drink or like the soldier on the battlefield?  During my season of service in the Hollywood Fire Rescue Department there were times after fighting a fire when I was incredibly thirsty, but it did not rise to the level of thirst Hagar and her son experienced in the wilderness of Beersheba (Genesis 21:14).       

When was the last time you thought of thirst as a good thing?  Generally we think of thirst as the by-product of a difficult thing like a vigorous workout, a long day of labor, or a hot day at the beach.  But in God’s economy, thirst is one of God’s great gifts to His people.  You see, when God gives you a thirst, He is the One who delights to quench it. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  (Matthew 5:6)

In the Bible, the word “thirst” is packed with figurative meaning and a powerful means of communicating spiritual truth to those who have ears to hear.  In almost all languages the word thirst speaks of an insatiable craving and desire for an object to be satisfied and filled.  To be sure, there are many objects for which we thirst—not just for a cold drink.  We thirst for knowledge, power, wealth, and the applause of man, to name just a few.  Yet in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear that the one thirst that we should have above all other thirsts is a thirst for righteousness.

To thirst for righteousness is to thirst for the things of God.  It is to sip from the fount of every blessing—past, present, and to come.  It is God who gives us a thirst for Him and He is the One who satisfies it.  God extends His invitation to those who are thirsty that we might come to the living waters and drink our full (Isaiah 55:1).  And the deeper we dive into the depths of the Gospel, the more we thirst for Jesus.        

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?  (Psalm 42:1-2)

So . . . what have you been panting for lately?  Frequently it seems like we pant for everything but God.  We pant for a raise at the office.  We pant for the latest advancement in technology.  We pant for the day we begin our summer vacation.  But do we pant for God?  Do we deeply desire to be in the presence of our God more than anything else?  When we thirst for anything smaller than God, we thirst for the wrong thing!  A. W. Tozer rightly observed:

In the midst of this great coldness toward God there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic.  They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me thy glory.”  They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.  I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God.  The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate.  The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire.  Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.  Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.  He waits to be wanted.  Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long in vain.

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”’” (John 7:37-38).  Those who thirst are invited to come to Him.  Does this describe you today?  Is your thirst for Jesus and what matters most to Him?  Remember, the thirst He gives, He alone can slake.  Let’s close with the words of Richard Blanchard in Fill My Cup, Lord.

Like the woman at the well I was seeking

For things that could not satisfy,

And then I heard my Savior speaking:

“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord,

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul,

Bread of heaven, feed me ‘til I want no more,

Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole. 

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

The dictionary defines “fear” as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.  We all know the experience of being afraid.  From the child’s fear of the dark to the adult’s dread of death, from unease due to the unstable economy to apprehension due to an impending layoff at your workplace, we have all experienced the paralyzing effects of fear.  Yet this kind of fear is not from God and can keep us from being all God calls us to be. 

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  (2 Timothy 1:7)

The Word of God makes it clear that any fear that paralyzes us and prohibits our advancing the cause of the kingdom of Christ comes to us from Satan, not our Savior.  This is an ungodly fear that makes us unstable, unreliable, and uncertain about everything regarding both life and death.  The devil likes to distract Christians with every imaginable fear.  He seeks to water down our witness and slow our service to God.

But this is not for you!  The only fear the Christian should have is the fear of God. 

Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.  (Deuteronomy 4:10)

O, that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever.  (Deuteronomy 5:29)

To fear God is to bow down before Him in reverential awe.  It is not a slavish fear that immobilizes us and keeps us locked up for fear of punishment and retribution.  That is the kind of ungodly fear that we see in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. 

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  (Genesis 3:8-10)

Ungodly fear followed on the heels of the first sin and it has plauged every person ever since.  But godly fear is a fear that acknowledges God as much for His holiness as for His love . . . as much for His majesty as for His mercy . . . as much for His faithfulness as for His forgiveness.  To fear God in the way Scripture commands is to experience Him as “Abba Father” and to know just how we got in that kind of relationship with Him.  A God who was willing to send His Son to die in our place that we might live is a God we bow low before in loving awe and reverent thanksgiving. 

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  (Romans 8:15)

The fear of the Lord is the unshakable foundation upon which we build our lives.  We delight in the Law of God and desire to keep it, even though we know we fail daily.  The fear of the Lord empowers us to live out practically what we are positionally.  We are adopted sons and daughters who are deeply loved and desired; therefore we desire nothing more than to live a life that is pleasing to the One who paid so great a price to have us as His own.  And when we fail, and fail we do, we run—not away from Him but to Him, knowing that He awaits us with open arms and nail-scarred hands.  “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence,” the epistle to the Hebrews says, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV).

Godly fear is a great grace given to the believer by faith.  It frees us to praise in our problems, sing in our suffering, and cry out to Jesus in our challenges, because we know that we are the objects of His unwavering and unconditional affection.    

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

Have you ever wondered what a gracious response to the grace that we have been given in the Gospel of Jesus Christ looks like?  To simply say obedience is to not say enough.  The Pharisees, you will remember, were obedient down to the tiniest detail, yet they reserved for themselves the wrath of God.  And yet, at the same time, we know the Bible commands our obedience.  Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father” (John 14:21).  It is our obedience that demonstrates our love for Him.

So what is a gracious response to the grace of the Gospel?  It is obedience that flows out of a grateful heart.  In his newest book, Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything, Pastor Tullian writes, “As we continue working out our life of obedience in light of Christ’s obedience, one thing is clear: the issue is never whether or not to obey.  We know the Bible has plenty to say about keeping God’s commands.  That’s indisputable.  But what motivates our obedience, what animates our obedience, and what prompts us to obey?  Is it fear or faith?  Is it guilt or gratitude?”  A gracious response to God’s amazing grace is a desire to live a life of obedience—not because of what we hope to get (rewards), or what we hope to avoid (consequences), but because of what Jesus had already done on our behalf. 

When the motivations of our heart are rooted in gratitude (not guilt) and faith (not fear), then we are gripped by the truth of the Gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ.  And that is why we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves every day.  The Gospel first relates what Jesus has done and then paints the picture of how we are to respond to it.  What God in Christ has done for us always precedes what we in Christ are to do for God. 

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”  (1 John 3:16)

The transforming truths of the Gospel lead us to a total transformation of all that we think, do, and say.  The Gospel frees us to be what we are (Christians) because of what has already been done both for and to us.  Because we are already saved, we want to do what is pleasing in the sight of the One who saved us.  To reverse this (doing in order to be saved or to find God’s favor) is to distort the Gospel and make it of no effect.  This is trying to live in our own strength, which inevitably leads to disappointment, discouragement, and ultimate defeat.

But this is not for you!  Because we are already His, we should act like we are already His.  Our obedience does not gain us additional affection, blessing, or love.  We already have all of it—all of His affection . . . all of His blessing . . . all of His love.  This kind of obedience is absolutely freeing.  We obey out of devotion, not duty.  The Gospel takes us from being slaves to being sons, sons who are to delight in pleasing the One who paid so great a price for so great a salvation.

In the end, we serve because we have been served, we forgive because we have been forgiven, and we love because we have been loved.  All that we do, we do because of what Jesus has already done for us.  This is a gracious response to grace.

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

In Luke 18 we read about the Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus asking, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  After a brief discourse, Jesus took the man to the heart of the matter in verse 22.  “One thing you still lack,” our Lord said.  “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  The man could not do what Jesus had asked, not because of what he possessed, but because of what possessed him.  Worldly wealth ruled this man’s heart and ultimately shaped his life—and the shape was a dollar sign, not a cross!

Many misinterpret the words of Jesus—“How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God”—and think that money is the root problem.  Money is not the problem.  The love of money is the problem, as 1 Timothy 6:10 clearly states.  Jesus is not telling every rich man to sell all his possessions.  God makes men rich (see Deuteronomy 8:18).  There are some rich men, however, who make themselves poor by looking to their riches as their source of significance, meaning, and purpose in life.  Other rich men make themselves richer by looking to Jesus as the source of true wealth and using their riches for the advancement of the kingdom of God.  Zacchaeus had great wealth, and there were others who had wealth and used it to support Jesus and His ministry. 

So regardless of where this finds you at the beginning of another new year, the amount of stuff you have is never the issue.  The issue is whether or not your stuff has you!  Pascal rightly observed, “There is a God-shaped vacuum inside of every heart,” and trying to fill it with anything smaller than God will never work.  The Rich Young Ruler had everything a man could want, but he did not have the one thing every man needs: Jesus.  He filled his life up with the stuff of life and left no room in his heart for the Savior.  He trusted in his riches as the source of his salvation. 

What will you fill your God-shaped vacuum with this year?  Will it be a new car, new address, new job, or new you?  These are all good gifts from our great God, but they enslave us when they become ultimate things in our lives.

“Abide in me,” Jesus said, “and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).  In this life there is only one possession that should possess us and His name is Jesus Christ!  When Jesus has control of our lives, we don’t need to look to anything smaller than Him to give us the joy, happiness, and freedom we crave. 

Only the Gospel frees us to find everything we want in the only thing we need.  Only the Gospel frees us from our bondage to every idol that would keep us locked up in the prison of performance, producing, and pretending.  Only the Gospel convinces us that everything we have is a gift of God (1 Corinthians 4:7), and the more we have the more we are in debt to the One who has given it.  With this understanding, it is never a matter of what we possess, but rather, what possess us!  When it is Jesus who possesses us, we never find ourselves in the position of “one thing we lack.”

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

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

The world likes to start the new year out by making resolutions.  Some resolve to get fit.  Others resolve to get rich.  Still others resolve to get better.  The problem with making resolutions is located in the one making them.  Think about the last time you made a resolution: how long did it take for your resolution to find its way into the proverbial “hope chest” of your life? 

The Bible tells us there is a better way to start the new year and to keep it going all 365 days: that is to rest in the promises of God.  The power in the promises of God is found in the One making them.  God is absolutely faithful to His Word.  Unlike us, when God says He is going to do something, He actually does it and He does it every time.  Numbers 23:19 assures us, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Does he speak and then not act?  Does he promise and not fulfill?”  

So now, with that truth firmly fixed in our understanding, we can embark on a new year with great hope and a growing hunger to live the life God has called us to live.  Joshua knew this quite well: “Not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed” (Joshua 21:43-45).  I think we would all agree that Joshua lived with great hope and a growing hunger to live the life God had called him to live.  May this be the confession of all our lives after we have faithfully walked through the landscape of 2012. 

The verse I have chosen to kick off this new year is as profound as it is promising.  Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are a new creation.  Grace does not reform us and it does not redirect us.  Grace recreates us from the inside out.  Notice that the verse does not say we need to make ourselves a new creation by working more and trying harder.  It says we already are a new creation, simply because we are in Christ and only God can do the work of creating.  What a pitiful promise this would be if Jesus said we needed to do this and not do that in order to receive its blessing.  To be sure, our nature is too weak, our hearts are too divided, and our hands are too dirty to ever earn God’s favor. 

Camp out for a moment on the word “behold” and marvel at its message!  Jesus is telling us to fix our attention . . . consider it carefully . . . ponder it intently . . . the work that He has done for us through our union with him.  We are to behold His work, His passion, His care, His forgiveness, and His love for us, so that we might profit from His promise.  Those who are spiritually united to Christ by faith are new creations and participate in the “new creation” that Jesus purchased with His precious blood.  This great transformation has taken place because we stand under the banner of the finished work of Jesus.

Now, we all know from unhappy experience that we are less than perfect—quite a bit less!  We know we are still great sinners in need of an even Greater Savior.  Yet, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The Great Sculptor has begun to chisel out the image of Himself in this rough block of human marble; you cannot see all the features, the lineaments divine are not yet apparent; still, because it is in His design, the Master seeth what we see not; He seeth in our unhewn nature His own perfect likeness as it is to be revealed in the day of the revealing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As we stand before our Father in heaven, we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of the Son.  Not only do we stand forgiven, but we stand as if we had never sinned.  How much better are the promises of God than the resolutions of man!  If you are in Christ, God is at work in you and that work will not stop until it has been completed.  My prayer for you this year is that the promises of God will propel you further in and further up into the transforming truths of the Gospel. 

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