Tag: gospel

Trusting the Unseen

All the Benefits of Believing (ATBOB) #3

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

Psalm 103:1-3 (ESV)

I’ve included the text from verses one to three here, but our focus today is just on verse three. So far in this Psalm we have thought a little about praise and worship, and also about using our minds and memories. The psalmist – David – begins to list out some of the benefits of believing, and he starts with two of the most amazing ones.

Who forgives all of your sins

From the very moment Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God put into action His plan of salvation. So many times in the Old Testament do we see imagery or typology of the future Christ Who would come to die for the sins of the world. Indeed in that very garden, God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins/furs of animals. Blood had to have been shed for those animals to give up theirs skins, and the principle of the shedding of blood to “cover” sins was begun.

David knew as he praised God with these words, that He is a forgiving God. Of all the characteristics of God David could have pointed to, he chose first to highlight His forgiveness. Even in Old Testament times, before Christ came to deal with sin, we see God’s patience with His people lengthened time and time again.

And how many of our sins does God forgive? All of them!

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:28 (ESV)

God, through His Son, dealt with every single one of our sins now and forever. The idea that God has forgiven all of our sins sometimes makes my head spin. When I think back over my life, I can recall the times when I’ve let God down. Sometimes it was out of ignorance, but if I’m honest, there have also been times when I’ve done or said something which I knew I shouldn’t – but did anyway. I feel unworthy and even now I can barely comprehend that I can walk right up to God as my loving heavenly Father and know that I’ll be welcomed!

It’s almost too good to be true! I just don’t deserve it – and that’s what makes it so good! That’s grace!

I hope you are still with me up to this point, and that you too are humbled and full of praise to God for forgiving you of all of your sins. But the third verse doesn’t end there…

Who heals all of your diseases

This is where it may get more difficult. If I asked a typical church if God had forgiven their sins, I’d get at least 99% of the hands in the room go up. If I then asked if God had also healed all of their diseases, I’m not sure I’d get more than one or two hands if any.

I’ve never met a Christian who didn’t believe the first part of verse three, about being forgiven. But I’ve met many who don’t believe the second part.

Why is that? The same God who forgives our sins, also heals our diseases right? If He forgives all of our sins, then it follows (according to this verse) that He also heals all of our diseases. We cannot separate the two. If we accept the former, then we have to accept the latter also.

The difference is that we cannot see the evidence of forgiveness, and have no option but to trust that God has done it. You can’t see a sin, forgiven or otherwise, so we have to operate out of faith.

When it comes to our bodies, we look and see, and if we still see sickness, then we wrongly conclude that this verse isn’t true. Perhaps we wouldn’t admit that we think it isn’t true, and instead look for other interpretations of the Scripture.

Jesus faced a similar problem with the paralysed man in Mark 2. His faithful friends lowered him down on a mat before Jesus, but instead of healing the man, Jesus told him his “sins were forgiven”. This probably wasn’t what he wanted to hear! It certainly wasn’t what the teachers of the law were expecting. In fact, they thought it was a blasphemous thing to say – who is He to forgive sins! – they thought.

That was Jesus’ point. He essentially proved that He could forgive sins by healing the man. He proved the thing that could not be seen (the forgiveness) by doing the thing that could be seen (the healing).

When we see symptoms in our bodies, it is easy to conclude that we’re still sick. Yet this verse clearly states that God heals all of our diseases. So which is true? We have the same choice that Adam and Eve had. We can choose to believe what God says, or listen to an alternative voice. In this case, our symptoms.

To be honest with you, I have a problem with my eyesight. It is a long-standing issue, and one I have prayed about many times. I have yet to receive my healing. With a sight problem, the symptoms are always before you. And I’ve “trained” myself to believe in the symptom more than in the Word of God. So I am not writing this from the perspective of someone who has it all figured out! I have much to learn myself. And we are all on a journey.

Healing is not a straightforward issue, and there are many reasons why we might not be healed when we ask for it. But we have to start from the premise that this verse is true. God is a healer. Jesus, the perfect representation of God, spent the majority of His ministry healing people. God is the same today, yesterday and forever. If He was a healer in Jesus’s day, He is a healer now.

This post is long already, so I don’t want to spend too much more time on this subject. Perhaps it is a subject for a future series. For now though, if you accept that God forgives all of your sins (something unseen), at least consider that He also heals all of your diseases. Pray over this verse, talk to God about it, and begin to trust the unseen more than the seen.

Resurrection Sunday

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (ESV)

May I wish you a very happy… Easter? I hesitate over the word because actually “Easter” doesn’t appear in the Bible. While I realise some translations include the term, it actually isn’t a biblical word at all. Easter probably comes from the pre-Christian celebration of the goddess “Eostre” which occurred at the beginning of spring. At some point in history, our celebration of the Resurrection of Christ took over the name of the festival.

I much prefer the term – Resurrection Sunday, rather than Easter Sunday therefore – but I digress…

Whatever you choose to call it, it’s the time of year when we remember and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was perhaps the most important moment in human history, alongside the Creation, as it marks the time when God dealt with sin once and for all. From that time on, whenever someone puts their trust in Jesus, they become “dead to sin but alive in Christ”. They receive eternal life and are born again into God’s family.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15 quoted above, gives us a concise and clear explanation of the Gospel – the good news about Jesus.

The Gospel is:

  • Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
  • he was buried, and
  • he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared… to many
Christ died

Jesus lived a perfect life, fulfilling every aspect of the Law of Moses. He was never tainted by iniquity, and so was the perfect sacrifice for our sin. He died the death of a sinner on our behalf. He was tortured and crucified so that you and I might go free.

Christ was buried.

They put His body into a tomb carved from the rock. It was a tomb where no one had been laid before. According to the Scriptures, He would stay there for three whole days.

But which Scriptures? Where does it say that Christ would spend three days in the grave?

In Genesis 22, we read the account of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his only son – Isaac. If we’ve been paying attention, we’ll realise that Abraham had more than one son, and so something else must be going on here. In fact, the whole account is Abraham acting out a prophecy of what God the Father would one day do with His Only Son.

Nearer to Father’s Day, i’ll upload a sermon about this…

From the moment Abraham was given the command to sacrifice Isaac, until he arrived at the place God chose, was exactly three days. In Abraham’s mind, his son was dead from the moment the command was given and so, to Abraham, Isaac had been dead for three days when the stay of execution was granted.

Likewise, when Jonah was swallowed by the great fish/whale, he was in its belly for three days and nights before he was “vomited” onto the beach! No one said resurrection wouldn’t be messy!.

Christ was resurrected

Often when we share the gospel, we say something like… Jesus lived a perfect life and died for our sins on a cross. Therefore, if you put your trust in Him, your sins are forgiven.

What’s wrong with that, you may ask, and it’s pretty much what you’ve said above?

We somehow forget the Resurrection. The Gospel does not end with the cross.

We must never omit the resurrection from our Gospel preaching. If the cross enables God’s justice and our forgiveness, then the resurrection enables our new life in Christ. Without being born again, we are stuck forever with our sinful, fleshy nature and have no hope of changing our lives. The cross deals with our sin, but the resurrection enables us to be new creatures in Christ.

I conclude with these words from John’s Gospel. It includes perhaps the most famous verse of them all, “for God so loved the world…” It also includes Jesus’ teaching on being born again. We must, each one of us, be born into eternal life – new life in Christ.

I hope you enjoy this season celebrating the Resurrection!

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 3:3-5 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16-18 (ESV)

Continue in Christ

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him

Colossians 2:6 (ESV)

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul is here urging them to stick with the Gospel they heard. That Gospel was Christ-centred. Paul points out it was all about Him, and that there were no bells or whistles – Christ was simply more than enough.

Paul urges them here to continue in the Christ-centred Gospel they started in. Not to wander off after other gospels, other more “exciting” teachings and so walk on serving Him.

This is an important truth, and one we should not lose sight of. But I want to draw something else out of this text today.

Other translations render this verse essentially as – so as you received Christ, continue on in the same manner.  So how did we receive Christ exactly? While everyone’s story is different, it comes down to the fact that someone told you of Christ, and you put your faith in Him. It wasn’t about you, and it certainly wasn’t about what you had done to deserve Christ, rather it was about what Jesus had done for you.

Imagine someone coming to your church and asking any of the following questions:

  • How many times do I need to come to church in order to be saved?
  • How much does it cost to join the church?
  • How many hours a day do I have to read the Bible in order to get right with God?

You would likely be quite shocked. You would tell them they just need Jesus! It’s not about what you have done or can do for Him, rather it is recognising we cannot save ourselves and we need a Saviour!

But does anything change after we come to Christ? How do you approach God now, when you have a specific need?

Let’s say you are seeking God for something (it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s biblical!). Do you come to God, asking Him for it, and giving Him a list of reasons why He should do so? “I’ve been to church every week, sometimes twice, for years! I’ve prayed four hours a day for eight months! I’ve read the Bible and confessed the Scriptures over and over – yet I’ve still not received my answer!” If that’s you, then you are not approaching God in the way you did to receive salvation. Instead of trusting in Him and His grace, you are piling up works of the flesh – your own actions and efforts – to try and convince God you deserve an answer.

If you have a need, irrespective of what it is, you must approach God in the same way as you did to receive Christ.

Don’t go to God trying to twist His arm into giving you what you want. Instead, seek His will in this area. If the Bible says it is something God has promised or provided, then you can seek Him for it.

When you pray and ask God to meet this need, look to the cross and what Jesus has already fulfilled. It can’t be about what we deserve, as we surely don’t deserve anything from God. But rather, it is about Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and Him purchasing for us everything we do not deserve.

Grace and faith must stand and work together. I’ve heard it said that “Faith takes what grace makes.” Put simply, we cannot use our faith to “make” God do something for us. Instead, we use our faith to receive what God’s grace has already provided.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:8

Faith gets a bad name when there are those who try to use it to get whatever they want. Faith does not move God, it only enables us to receive what God has provided through grace. Put it this way, you cannot use your faith to get anything God has ot promised to give you.

So, we must continue on in faith just as we started our relationship with Jesus. We must refrain from trusting in our own good works and instead rely totally on His grace to sustain us. If you find yourself more focused on your own actions/works/efforts, and not on Christ, then chances are you have strayed away from the Gospel. Keep Christ at the centre of your life, and continue on in Him.

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The Fear of Bad News

He will not fear bad news;

His heart is steadfast, trusting [confidently relying on and believing] in the Lord.

– Psalm 112:7 (Amp)

 

This is an interesting psalm, and I’d encourage you to read the whole thing when you have some time.

I want to focus on verse seven for now, as I think it holds an interesting truth.

The “He” in this verse is not necessarily a male, but rather “one who is upright” or someone who is righteous. This verse tells us that he will not fear bad new,s and that his heart is steadfast and trusting in God.

Bad news can come in many forms; a report from a doctor, a bank statement covered in red, a phone call from a distraught family member and so on. Jesus Himself told us that while we are in this world, we will face trouble but that we should take heart in him.

Perhaps you are facing something right now which you would consider “bad news”. This verse however isn’t so much talking of bad news, but rather the fear of bad news. This may be a subtle distinction, but I believe one worth thinking about.

If you are a Christian, then you are righteous. That means to be in right standing with God, and this is something you have been given as part of your new birth in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). It doesn’t matter whether you feel righteous or act righteous, you are righteous because the Bible says that you are. It’s not something you’ve earned, but something Jesus earned and gave to you.

Therefore, this verse instructs us not to fear bad news. Absolutely we need to deal with it when it comes, but we are told here not to fear its coming.

Like the examples above, do you have a doctor’s appointment next week? Are you expecting your bank statement to come through your door or inbox any day now? Are you checking your phone regularly looking for missed calls? Could it be that you are fearing bad news that may come?

Fearing bad news is another name for worry I suppose, and the Bible is pretty clear about that. We believers should not worry. Easier said than done? It is for me at least. I’m a natural worrier! If it were an Olympic sport, I’d be in with a chance for a medal! But this verse also tells us something important about the reason we worry (the fear of bad news) – our hearts don’t fully trust God.

The truth is, and it can be a hard truth, if we find ourselves worrying or fearing the future, then we are not fully trusting God. If we truly believed God’s Word that says He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us; plans to give us hope and a future, then we wouldn’t worry about it. If we believed Jesus when He said not to worry about food or clothing, as God takes care of the birds and the lilies and that we are far more valuable than they; and if we believed that God shall supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, or that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him… then why would we worry at all?

I don’t wish to be flippant, and I genuinely do appreciate that this is easier said than done. However if we reflect on these biblical truths, then we should realise that worrying really is a waste of time and energy. If we trust in God and refuse to fear the bad, then we will have deep foundations in Christ that won’t be easily shaken.

Perhaps it’s too much to ask you to stop worrying right now. If so, then I do understand. Rather, could you at least come to a place where you don’t fear bad news? That is, refuse to worry about things that might happen and pray and think on the positives. I’m going to try myself, and I hope you can join me.

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