Month: August 2015

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Jesus is Enough

The whole purpose of the Christian life is to “glorify God through our life.” That means that in order to bring God the most glory we must be willing to lay our life down, and then allow Him to live and work through us. How does God do that? He does it by applying the process of the cross to our life.

The Cross of Christ has two primary benefits. One is to provide payment for out sin debt. Jesus did what we could not do by standing in our place dying for us. He died for us and as us, to pay our sin debt. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus became our righteousness to render our self-righteousness useless. Because we now have His righteousness, we no longer have to measure up to some man-made religious standard.(1 Corinthians 1:30)

Secondly, the cross is our example of submission and obedience. The cross is symbolic of a death process that must take place in our life so that Christ may have control. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12) Just as the cross in Jesus life allowed Him to complete what he came to do, the cross process in our life does the same thing. We are destined to become salt and light to a seeking world. We can only realize our destiny by submitting to a death process through trials, temptations, and troubles.

Bottom Line

God wants to bring us to the point that Jesus is enough. When things happen that get us out of our comfort zone, its God’s way of stripping our self-sufficiency. He is pushing us toward Him. He wants us to acknowledge that He is all we need. He is our life, our source of strength, our protector and our provider. Our security, our peace, our rest and our joy are found in Him. Jesus is enough.

“ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

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What Does it Mean to be “In Christ?”

What does it mean to be “in Christ”? Perhaps you have heard that term from a sermon or you may have even read it in a Christian book. Some would say that it’s just another way to say we are placed into Christ when we are born again, and that’s true. The moment we placed our faith and trust in the risen Savior, and His finished work on the cross, we are placed into Christ. But “being in Christ” means so much more. The very essence of our Christian faith is vested in the fact that we are “in Christ”. So it is vitally important to know the fuller meaning of what it means to be “in Christ”.

Space will not permit me to list all the elements of being “in Christ”, so I want to address three of the more obvious benefits of “being in Christ”.

You take on a new identity – The moment you trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you become someone you have never been before. That’s the reason Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus that you must be “born again”. (John 3:1-14) You have passed from death unto life. Before you were a pawn of Satan and now you are a child of God. ( Ephesians 2) The old person you once were is gone and you are now a new creation in Christ. ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) We now have a new nature occupied by the Spirit of the living Christ. ( Colossians 1:27)

Why is that important to know? Our identity in life is now settled. Having our fundamental identity in Christ frees us from trying to develop our identity from our occupation, achievements, our spouse or our financial statement. We no longer have to strive to measure up to some sort of religious standard to receive God’s love. God loves us because we are family.

People of every culture have asked these three questions.
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. Where am I going?

These questions are all answered with our new identity. We know who we are, a child of the living God who is grafted into the family of God. We know why we are here, to glorify God by allowing the life of Christ in us to be manifested to the world. We know where we are going, our home is now heaven and this life is our journey till we get home. The Scriptures tell us that we are “strangers and pilgrims” in this world. A stranger is not familiar with the territory and a pilgrim is just passing through.

Your dependency changes – Before being in Christ, you depended upon your own strength. As a result, sometimes you felt like you measured up and sometimes you felt like a failure. Your sense of security was in your performance. If you performed well in your spiritual walk you felt secure, but if you stumbled you felt like a failure.

God knows our dilemma of trying to measure up, so He alleviated that struggle by allowing us to rest in Him as enough. He tells us to “cast all your care on him for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7) God also tells us not to “worry about anything but bring it to Him in prayer with a thankful heart and he will give us peace that passes all comprehension” (Philippians 4:6-8 – my paraphrase)

We don’t have to bear the burden, because He will do it all for us. God wired us to depend on Him. The more we carry the weight of our own burdens, the more unrest and misery will be part of our daily life.

You have a shift in your worldview – “A worldview is the lens or glasses from which you view the world. Your worldview is the foundation for your values and your values are the foundation for your conduct. Your worldview is a collection of what you think about law, science, history, family, social issues, education, theology and ethics.” (Brannon Howse)

There are basically two worldview’s, a Biblical worldview and a secular worldview. Society gets their values from  one of two places, the culture or from Scripture. The secular worldview is driven by a “relative” mindset which believes that values change as the culture changes. The problem is that there are no absolutes, values are always changing, even to the point that wrong becomes right and right becomes wrong.

But for those who have been placed “in Christ” we have a different worldview. Our worldview is a Biblical worldview. A Biblical worldview is not based on the culture, or political correctness but on the absolutes of God’s Word. The lens we view life from is the Biblical perspective. If God said it, we believe and obey. Therefore, our worldview impacts our value system.

Bottom Line
Being “in Christ” is more than just another definition for being born again, it is much more. It gives us a new identity that is wrapped in God’s love and care. It allows us to never be alone in midst life’s problems. God not only knows all of our problems, but He is there to walk with us every step of the way. We have a stable worldview that gives us rest and peace. We never have to conform to societies values because we have a value system based on the absolute, never changing promises of God. He is not only our God, but He is also our “Abba/Papa” who draws us near. He cries and rejoices with us through every victory, and every trial, just because we are “IN CHRIST”.

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Doing Something for God

Doesn’t it seem natural for a follower of Jesus to live his/her life committed to “doing something for God”? Isn’t this what we are supposed to do, help God reach the world? Matter of fact, there have been numerous gospel songs written with that in mind. One song that comes to my mind contains a line like this, “If working and praying has any reward, then surely some morning I will meet my dear Lord…if anyone makes it all the way home, Lord surely I will.”

The implication of the song is that our self-effort and good works get us to heaven. Those of us who believe that “Jesus is the way, the truth and life…” would quickly condemn that belief system and say it smacks of salvation by works.

However, many of us live our Christian life promoting a similar belief system. We live as if our security and spiritual well-being is related to how much “we do for God”. We may believe that our salvation is “by grace through faith” but we live our Christian life driven by self-effort “attempting to do something for God.” Living in this manner is like an empty vessel trying to fill itself.

You can spot those who live with this belief system. They are constantly trying to measure up to some sort of spiritual performance but always feeling that they are falling short.

Or another example would be someone needing some sort of spiritual experience every Sunday, so that they can feel close to God. It’s as if drinking from the fountain that Jesus gives is not enough. Jesus said that if we drink from His fountain we would thirst no more because His fountain is a fountain springing from within, like an artesian well. “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give them shall never thirst; but the water I give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

The Christian life is not about “doing things for God”. Think about these questions: What does God need? Does He really need us? How much work for God is enough? How will you know when you have done enough? How do you know when you have measured up?

God never intended for us to “do things for Him” in order to measure up to His acceptance. That’s because He already accepts us. The moment we were placed in Christ at salvation, we were eternally accepted by God, all without an ounce of self-effort.

Bottom Line

Then how do we serve God? First we must come to the point that “apart from Him we can do nothing.” God is waiting for us to acknowledge that we can’t live the Christian life. When we accept that we can’t, God reveals that Christ can. God’s design is for us to stop striving and start resting.

As a result, the will of God will be done through us. Instead of attempting to “do something for God”, we allow Christ to live His life through us, and then watch as God does “exceeding, abundantly beyond all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)

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Practicing Grace

One of the benefits of being a committed follower of Jesus is that we are a receiver of God’s grace. He pours out His favor upon us because we are one of His children. We can’t earn it by our good behavior or by performing good deeds. His grace and His righteousness were imputed to us the moment we put our faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Because of God’s grace, we are placed into Christ, and He in turn, is placed into us. (John 17:21-23) Not only does God demonstrate His grace by saving us and bringing us into His family, but He then refers to us as “His children” and “His workmanship”.

This grace also provides us an identity and a oneness with the God of the universe. Added to all of this, we have perpetual forgiveness and cleansing, just for the asking (1 John 1:9). God forgives and cleanses us and then removes the sin from us, remembering it no more.

The depth and breadth of God’s love and grace is unmeasurable. All of this was freely given to us because we are His children. Those of us who have experienced God’s grace will quickly testify that the world has nothing that can compare to God’s undeserved favor. We are truly blessed to be receivers of His grace.

But there is another aspect of God’s grace that we must also recognize. The scripture says that “to whom much is given, much is required.” Just as we have been a willing receiver, we must also be a willing giver of this grace.

When we demonstrate God’s grace to others we are revealing the character of God. This might come in the form of a casserole or a meal, a kind word or a smile. It might appear as a gift of money for someone who is having trouble finding a job. Or, it might appear in the form of forgiveness for someone who has cheated you out of some money. It could come in the form of a helping hand.

In other words, we are to pour out the same measure of grace to others as we have been extended by God. God’s shows His grace to us not because we deserve it or have earned it, but He extends His love and grace just because He loves us. He is not paying us back for something we did for Him. He is not trying to gain our favor because He is setting us up to do some deed in the future that no one else is willing to do. He shows us His grace and favor because that’s just who He is!

Bottom Line

As the old saying goes, “We may be the only Bible someone may ever see.” If we are committed followers of Jesus, God has equipped each of us with the ability to be His grace to someone who needs hope, help and encouragement.

Please don’t waste His grace. Be a demonstration of the grace of God to someone who needs an encounter with our loving Father. Will you join me in asking the Lord to show you those people who need a touch of His grace, and then be willing to be a conduit of His grace to a hurting and needy soul?