Grace for the Race

I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. (Revelation 5:6)

I first preached on this text many years ago, and I still remember the number of people who were surprised — even shocked — by its truth: Our exalted Lord Jesus Christ still bears the marks of the wounds He suffered on our behalf, and He will forevermore. Have you ever wondered why? Let’s take a look, and I pray you will be encouraged by the witness of His wounds.

• By His Wounds You Are Healed

When the apostle Peter quoted the prophet Isaiah, saying, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24), he was telling us that it was through the suffering of our Lord Jesus that our salvation was won on Calvary’s hill. The beatings and scourging of our Lord, culminating in His slow, terrible, agonizing death on a wooden cross, delivered the death blow to the evil one. Jesus took our punishment, our beatings, our scourging, our crown of thorns, our nine-inch nails, our cross, and ultimately our death. And when He walked out of the tomb three days later, giving proof positive that God the Father was fully satisfied by the atoning sacrifice of His beloved Son, we were granted access to a redeemed relationship with God, by grace through faith. We have been healed by Jesus’ wounds from the curse of sin and death.  But that’s not all!    

• By His Wounds He Is Revealed

His wounds not only healed us, they also revealed Him. Here is how “the Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, put it in his April 23 Evening devotional:

The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because He is white and ruddy – white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! There never was such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross.

The glorious Trinity — God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit — revealed their unwavering eternal love for us in the deepest and most profound way through the witness of Jesus’ wounds. Jesus loved us enough to endure the most unimaginable torture . . . willingly! Every blow Jesus endured fell because He allowed it. And when the full, atoning price for our sin had been paid, He willingly gave up His Spirit. No one took our Lord’s life; He laid it down so that He might lift us up into heavenly glory (John 10:17-18).

So as you go about your day and throughout this week, pause to reflect on the witness of His wounds. You have not only been healed, but Jesus has been revealed as the Lover of your soul who refused to let you go. He loved you . . . He sought you . . . He bought you . . . and one day He will catch you up to be with Him forever.

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

“I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4)

We were created by God for God, and thus we exist that God might be glorified in us. And because everything we do is to be an act of worship, we can be sure that there are countless ways of giving God glory. Let’s take a look at just one of these ways, which is rooted in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.   

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). Every moment of every day, Jesus was focused on His mission of being the Savior of the world. And He knew that by fulfilling His mission and finishing the work that His Father in heaven had given Him, Jesus was bringing glory to God.

Here is a phrase from the world of business that helps to crystallize the truth of John 17:4 — Begin with the end in mind. Jesus knew what He was here to do, and He would let nothing prevent Him from doing it. 

What is true for Jesus is true for His disciples. We bring glory to God when we are busily engaged in finishing the work God gave us to do. I often say from the pulpit that I don’t know if God has called you to be a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, but I do know is this: Every disciple has been called to advance the cause of the Kingdom of Christ, right where God has planted us. From the boardroom to the family room, we have been called by God to demonstrate the truths of the Gospel to a watching world.

Now, let me caution you with this truth: None of us will do this like Jesus did it. Jesus brought glory to God by finishing His work perfectly.  We all do our work imperfectly — wildly imperfectly at times. But God takes our imperfect work and sanctifies it; ultimately He will perfect it. Knowing this truth frees us to press on toward the goal, to finish the work, knowing full well that work will be dogged by faults and even failure along the way. Many Christians are paralyzed by the fear of failure, which keeps them from attempting much of anything for God. But the true disciple of Christ knows perfection will only come on the other side of the grave. Here the goal is simply progress. 

How are you progressing in giving God glory by finishing the work He has given you to do?  Let me encourage you with one final point on today’s passage. When Jesus prayed the words recorded in John 17:4, we are to anticipate His victory cry from the cross: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Knowing that Jesus finished His work for you should be all the motivation and inspiration you need to finish your work for Him. 

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

“Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.” (Isaiah 1:14)

When was the last time you thought of God as carrying around some sort of burden? If you are like most believers, the answer is most likely, “Never!” Yet the prophet Isaiah tells us that the all-powerful God of the universe does indeed become burdened, and the reason can be found in a single word: hypocrisy. 

Omnipotence wearies when we worship Him with our lips while our hearts are wandering away from Him. To weary God — to burden our Beloved — is a serious matter that must be dealt with. Like any enemy that comes between us and God, we must take sword to this sin and cut it out at its root.

To be sure, we are all affected by the sin of hypocrisy. If we are honest, all of us would confess that there are times when our practice does not match our profession. We say we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then we behave in a way that is entirely inconsistent with the inspired, infallible, inerrant, God-breathed Scriptures. But that is not the “burden” that the Lord says is wearying Him. God knows we are still sinners in need of a Savior; even after we have been saved, we need our Savior moment by moment. God knows the old sin nature is waging a constant struggle with the new saved nature (Galatians 5:17). This is simply the way of the Christian life, and we will fight this battle all the way into glory. 

God’s burden is a believer with a heart that has grown cold, treating God as an unnecessary appendage, if you will, one to be jettisoned by a cool and casual commitment. I cannot find a greater statement of the evil of a divided heart than to read that Omnipotence grows weary and is burdened by it. This alone should cause each of us to examine our own heart to see what it is actually beating for. As we saw in Monday’s article, too many of us have hearts that beat for the good gifts God has given, not for God Himself. That sort of mercenary relationship with Jesus is one that has been reduced to a religion marked by empty ritual – “New Moon feasts and appointed festivals” conducted with no love, no gratitude, no sense of awe and wonder at the manifest goodness and glory of God Almighty.    

So how do we ease God’s burden? We journey back to the day of our salvation, the day when our hearts burned deep within us for Jesus Christ, not the things He could give us. We remember that God will tolerate no rival and we turn back to our First Love . . . on our knees. We cry out to Jesus, knowing that He is faithful to forgive and forget. And we keep in view all the great saints who occasionally found their hearts beating for something much smaller than God.

Abraham struggled to believe God’s promise and tried to pass his wife off as his sister to save his own skin. David’s duty as king was to lead Israel’s army off to war, but he remained behind, seduced another man’s wife, and then arranged for the man to be killed in battle. Peter’s divided heart became malignantly manifest when Peter denied Jesus three times on the night He was betrayed. All these faithless actions wearied God and became a burden to Him. Yet God brought Abraham, David, and Peter through these dark valleys of disbelief with a deeper love for Him than they had before. Our gracious God transformed His burden into His blessing. 

God never changes; He has attested to that in His Word. What He did for the saints of old, He will do for you today. 

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

No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame. (Psalm 25:3)

The Prodigal Son lived in a palace. It was the place where he was met with the unconditional love and forgiveness of his father — not only daily, but moment by moment. But when this young man told his father he wanted to collect his inheritance, he essentially exchanged the palace for a pigsty.  

“There was a man who had two sons.  The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating.”  (Luke 15:11-16)

We do the very same thing every time we exchange our will for God’s will in our lives. In demanding his inheritance “now,” the Prodigal Son was refusing to be patient and follow the father’s timing. To be sure, he had a time of carefree celebration in the far country, but it didn’t last. It never does. He squandered all he had been given and found himself utterly bankrupt, eating husks with the swine, and longing to be back in his father’s loving presence.

Does that resonate with you as much as it does with me? Look at it this way: The Prodigal Son already had his inheritance. It was his by birth, but it was not the right time for him to receive it. God not only knows exactly what we need, He also knows exactly the right time to give it to us. But the sin of impatience got the best of the young son.  Impatience starts as an infection and winds up as an insidious disease, and it will eventually lead us away from the palace into the pigsty. 

Remember, it’s not enough to want what God wants for our lives. We must wait to receive it in His timing. Often “now” is not God’s perfect timing for our imperfect lives. The shepherd boy David had to wait seven years to receive what God wanted for his life, which was the king’s throne in Israel, and that wait occurred after he had been anointed three times to become king! 

So let me ask you this question: Where in your life right now are you dealing with a bit of impatience?

If this message finds you on the other side of impatience that has pushed you into a pigsty, fear not! The younger son eventually made his way back from the pigsty to the palace, where he was met with the unconditional love and forgiveness of his father. Amazing grace, wouldn’t you agree? Even when we mess it up, God turns our mess into His masterpiece. As the psalmist said, those whose hope is in the Lord will never be put to shame. Turn to Him. Experience His forgiveness. Feel His love. Rejoice in His grace!   

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

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)

You know the difference between sedatives and stimulants, yes? A sedative is designed to “take the edge off” and help you fall asleep, while a stimulant is designed to “take you to the edge” and keep you going and going and going. I want to share a story about a time in the life of God’s people when past blessings acted like a sedative rather than a stimulant; they sedated God’s people into a sense of sinful, self-centered security, rather than stimulating them into a season of sold-out, Savior-centered service. 

After Israel spent 400-plus years in bondage in Egypt, God sent His servant Moses to deliver His people from slavery. The Sovereign Lord performed a series of incredible miracles: the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from a rock (twice!), and a pillar of cloud guiding the people by day and a pillar of fire by night. Tragically, these many blessings acted like sedatives on God people. They slumbered into the sinful thinking that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Their past blessings sedated them into a season of self-absorption, because they focused on the blessings they had received rather than the One who had graciously given them. And here is the warning from Paul: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” (1 Corinthians 10:11). When we shift our focus away from the Giver of our blessings to the blessings themselves, they become like sedatives, and sin begins to envelop us.

The warning is clear: When we allow past blessings to sedate us, we are lulled into a false sense of security.  We begin to see past blessings as a present promise. We start to expect only good from the hand of our good God, as if we are somehow deserving of it. We lose our sense of appreciation for the many good gifts we have received from the hand of Almighty God.

However, when past blessings serve as stimulants, we shift our focus from the gift to the One who is the Giver of the gifts. When we do that, we never lose our sense of dependence on Him. We understand that past blessings can be replaced by present burdens in an instant, so we keep our spiritual eyes on our Savior, which keeps our hands and feet from slackening into sinful self-reliance.

How is it with you today? Have past blessings sedated you or stimulated you in your walk with Jesus? Is your focus on what you have been given, or on the One who has given it to you? Remember, our greatest gift is God, not what He so graciously gives to us. Keep looking up and let your past blessings stimulate you to a life of sold-out service to your Savior.   

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

My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. (Hebrews 12:5-6)

I once heard someone say, “I am a spoiled saint of the Most High God!” Now, depending on your definition of the word “spoiled,” I submit to you that there is no such thing in God’s family of faith!

The best possible definition of the term “spoiled child” that I can come up with describes children who consistently exhibit behavioral problems caused by being overindulged and under-disciplined by their doting parents. In a word, these parents have raised a brat! Are there any kids you know who come to mind when you read that definition?

How should we understand the term “spoiled” as it relates to the child of God? That would be rooted in our definition of overindulged. To be sure, we are overindulged with . . .

• Love
• Mercy
• Grace
• Goodness
• Forgiveness
• Kindness

The list could fill this entire blog! Is there anyone reading this who can fully describe the “overindulgence” we receive from our omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God? But when we read this list of “overindulgences,” we are never to think it includes words such as pampered, babied, coddled, or spoiled. Loved by God? Most definitely! We are infinitely loved by Him! Spoiled by God? Not a chance! Make no mistake about this truth: God would have none of us as His children rather than coddle a bunch of self-centered, self-absorbed, self-seeking, and self-interested ones. 

We must keep in view the fact that the grace that saves us is the same grace that sanctifies us, and the business of sanctification is often a painful process. God’s greatest goal for every one of His children is to conform them into the image and likeness of His beloved and precious Son. And that takes discipline . . . discipline that is designed to deflate the ego that is continually edging God out. The self does not die in a day, but daily, and God will not stop short of conforming us perfectly into the image of His Son.

It will never be said of our Father in heaven what was said about King David concerning his parenting of his son Adonijah: “His father [David] had never corrected him by saying, “Why do you do such things?'” (1 Kings 1:6 NET). No, Scripture tells us that we should expect the rod of discipline from our loving, heavenly Father:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. (Hebrews 12:7-8)

Nobody wants a spoiled child. So we discipline our children in love, with the goal of course correction and heart transformation. God will not settle for a spoiled saint. So He disciplines us by every means necessary, which is a kind of love that will never spoil!

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

Peter said, “Never, Lord!” [Peter] said. “This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22)

When Jesus told His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of evil men and crucified, Peter objected sharply, “Never Lord!” You remember the stinging rebuke from our Lord don’t you? Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).

Well, what was true of Peter’s sinful failure to understand the cross as an almighty instrument of death leading to eternal life is also true of the sinful failure of far too many in the church today to recognize the cross as a way of life for the disciple of Jesus. Let’s take a look at our Lord’s teaching on this matter:

“If anyone would come after me, he must 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)

Make no mistake, every time we refuse to take up our cross, we demonstrate to our Lord that we do not have in mind the kingdom of our God, but the kingdom of self. The Christian is called by God to live in a culture marked by the cross. We are to deny ourselves — to die to self — and follow Lord wherever He leads, regardless of the cost or circumstance. The apostle Paul living in the culture of the cross this way:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Yet all too often we are marked by the words of Peter more than we are by the cross we are to carry.   

• Service over status . . . “Never, Lord!”
• Loving the unlovable . . . “Never, Lord!”
• Giving until it hurts . . . “Never, Lord!”
• Denying the self . . . “Never, Lord!”
• Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply . . . “Never, Lord!”

Over and over again, we tend to cry out like Peter rather than setting our shoulder under the cross we have been given and following in the footsteps of our Lord. And Satan cheers us on every time we allow ourselves to get caught up in human concerns. Our enemy has been doing that ever since the Garden of Eden, when he convinced Adam and Eve to neglect the concerns of God and focus on their own desires. 

Where in your life have you been crying out like Peter? At the office? In your family? At your church? In your community? Where have human concerns held you captive to yourself? Remember, you have been set free, but that freedom is to be understood as a life that is lived for the glory of God and the good of others. And that is a life that can only be lived under the weight of the cross that has been given to you by the One who hung on His to pay the penalty for your sins. 

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

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2-3)

The Israelites remained true to God’s Word to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), even while they were in bondage for more than 400 years in Egypt. In those harsh conditions, giving birth to children demanded the services of midwives. The midwives assisted the mother in the process of birthing the child – often cutting the infant’s umbilical cord, washing the baby, and presenting the newborn to the parents and family. However, as vitally necessary as the midwives were in the physical realm of the people of God, the Master has no need of them in the spiritual realm. 

Here is why the Master has no need for His disciples to play the role of midwives: Because we play no role in the birth of the new believer! That new birth is all the work of God and His grace. God gives the gifts of repentance and faith. God raises the dead to life. God in Christ does it all, with no help from midwives. There is no need for any of us to cut the cord, wash the baby Christian, and present the infant to the family of faith. There is, however, a need to step into the life of the baby Christian — from the moment after new birth until his or her last day on this earth. 

The role of the Christian is to disciple the new believer, not deliver him. We are to make ourselves available to God to be used as instruments of sanctification in His mighty right hand.  The first and most important aspect of sanctification is the renewing of the mind, and that comes through the reading of Scripture. We are to bring the Word of God to all those with whom we come in contact. And the good news is we don’t need to interpret the Word for them, because the Bible is its own interpreter.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

In other words, you don’t need to be a Bible scholar to disciple a new believer; you only need to be a model of Bible study and a living encouragement to search the Scriptures daily.

How are you doing at helping others grow up in their faith? Remember, the Master has no need for midwives, but He does need willing workers who will lead others through the pages of sacred Scripture. After the new birth, which is solely the work of God, it is our calling to help the new believer understand what it means to believe, belong, and become a fully-functioning member of the family of faith. 

Biblical truth received and responded to does more than change behavior. It renews the mind, realigns the will, and recalibrates the heart. And this is the business of making disciples, which is the call on every believer . . . not in birthing new Christians, but in helping them grow to maturity. 

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

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66)

Today I have a word of both comfort and caution to offer you. It is a message designed to help us understand the teachings of Jesus without taking offense. In today’s verse, the apostle John recorded that many did indeed take offense at Jesus’ words and walked no more with the Lord. What caused them to turn away? Jesus was teaching deep Gospel truths about being the Bread of Life, saying things like . . .

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.”  (John 6:51)

At the very least, this was difficult for many listeners to understand. For those who took Jesus’ statements at a surface level, these words were offensive. But Jesus was teaching deep spiritual truths, and His audience was unable to understand . . . so they took offense and walked away. Here’s the point: Jesus intentionally made Himself an offense to His audience. Why? Because it separated the goats from the sheep — the false followers from the true disciples.

Many of the teachings of Jesus are offensive to the natural man. How about, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23)? Who reading this is excited about living a life of self-denial and cross-bearing?  Or how about “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44)? Do really want to pray for your enemies rather than punish them?

Someone once said, “The Christian life is not hard to live; it’s impossible!” And that is wholly true apart from the grace of God. Remember, our promise from Jesus is safe passage into glory . . . but not without storms and struggles along the way. The test for everyone who professes faith in Christ is this: At what point do I believe the teachings of Jesus are offensive and refuse to walk with Him? The world insists that we should satisfy our every desire; Jesus says deny yourself.  The world says get all you can; Jesus says give all you have. The world says look out for number one; Jesus says look out for everyone else. The world says seek happiness; Jesus says seek holiness.   

Listen, having been bought at the price of His precious blood, you are now a slave to your Savior. And make no mistake, in this life you will never find a more demanding Taskmaster who will demand everything from you. Jesus did not raise you from death to life so you could give Him half your heart; He demands all of it . . . and rightfully so! He gave you all of Himself while hanging on a cross, and it is only right for His disciples to give Him back the same. 

How are things with you? Have you taken offense at any of the teaching of your Taskmaster? You are faced with a choice every moment of every day: Take offense and satisfy yourself . . . or take no offense and live out your slavery to the Savior. The first action leads to death . . . The second leads to life. The choice is yours. 

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

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and He is our opposite. He is infinite and we are finite. He is omnipotent and we are weak. He is Omniscient and we know very little. He is omnipresent and we are bound by space and time. And that is the way God intended it to be all the way back in creation. Our limitations are not a result of the fall; rather, they are simply part of God’s perfect plan for humanity. 

God never intended for us to be His equal. The terrible arrogance of the fallen angels who rebelled against God in heaven drove them to want to be equal to God. Adam and Eve succumbed to the same desire when they rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Satan, the fallen angel who appeared as a shrewd serpent, hissed to our first parents, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Tragically, they believed Satan’s lie.

Equality was not what God had in mind when He created angelic beings in heaven and humanity on earth. There is no more grotesque demonstration of rebellion than when we rise up and try to “be like God.” Make no mistake, the greatest sin of the human race is the sin of trying to overcome the oppositeness between the Creator and the creature. And we all do this every time we try to remove God from the throne of our lives so that we can sit there ourselves. 

Listen, there was only one Person in the history of the world who could and did truthfully and rightfully claim equality with God, because there was no oppositeness in Him.

I and the Father are one.  (John 10:30)

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?  (John 14:9-10)

Only the God-Man could make such a claim. Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, He was equal with the Father in every way. Only when we let God be God can we get on board with the perfect plan He has for our imperfect lives. And in that perfect plan, we learn this overwhelming truth: Opposites Attract! When God in Christ draws us to Himself, the pathway is now open for us to bring our oppositeness to Him that He might apply His ointment –

• When we bring our fears, He applies the ointment of His faith.
• When we bring our doubts, He applies the ointment of His belief.
• When we bring our hopelessness, He applies the ointment of His hope.
• When we bring our weakness, He applies the ointment of His strength.
• When we bring our discouragements, He applies the ointment of His joy.

Jesus Christ is wholly Opposite, wholly Other . . . and I hope you find that truth wholly Attractive!

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