From Blindness to Kindness

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?~ Romans 2:1-4
 

There is a rather cheesy old saying that goes 'Whenever you point a figure at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you'. and it carries some weight.

Some people seem to take some kind of comfort in having someone to be superior to. But Jesus is very specific about those kinds of people (he says, whilst feeling superior to those horrible judging types!). He says that 'Whatever measure you use to judge people it will used 'unto you''. (Matt 7:2) and he then goes on to paint a comedic word sketch of probably the funniest joke in the bible.

 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

You see, as funny as the illustration is, it's point is deadly. The point is, really, both from Paul, and from Jesus, that everyone is flawed. But who is in the greater danger? The one who knows they have a problem, and can therefore seek help, or the one who can only see fault in others and will therefore never look for help. A doctor is for the sick rather than the healthy.

And when we talk of our state of sin before God, the stakes are raised instantly to critical levels.

The key here is that Paul says that 'now we know that God's judgement against those who do such things is based on truth'. So, you can fool others, you can even fool yourself with your denial, but you cannot for a second, fool God.

We are like the children that have been told in a game of hide and seek that 'so long as you can't see them, they can't see you'. All very well if that instruction is the difference between hiding in the middle of a field, or getting into a wardrobe and shutting the doors. But if it is the difference between the field and a boy standing in the middle of the field simply with his eyes shut, we see how ineffective the advice is. And we, if we say we have no sin, deceive ourselves, and are like that child. Just because we say that we cant see the sin, it's ridiculous to assume God doesn't.

If you remember my blog from a few posts back, you will be aware of how I talked about Jesus 'raising the bar' on the legal requirements for righteousness so that we will know that we need him to save us because it is impossible for us to save ourselves. This is an allusion to that principle.

Firstly, you break the rule by judging someone else for breaking the rule, so you have lost the argument before you have even started really.

And secondly, you have not understood, that it is God's kindness that leads you to repentance. In other words, he has been aware of your sin the whole time and shown you patience, forbearance and kindness, allowing you time to turn and come to him, and yet you have hardened yourself in denial and in judging others, rather than repenting.

And I am taken back to yet another of Jesus' wonderful illustrations; that of the tax collector and the Pharisee.

You will remember that the tax collector beats his breast and cries out ' God have mercy on me, a sinner!'

But the Pharisee addresses his prayers to God in a superior tone, saying;  ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I don't know about you, but I know who I identify with.... and it is the tax collector. Can you even imagine the audacity it would take to recommend yourself to God on your own merit, or to assume that because other people are obvious 'sinners' that you are somehow exempt?

I have never met a Christian who expressed themselves in such a way, because we all at some level understand this concept of grace. But I have heard other people defend themselves as 'basically a good person', even in the context of 'going to heaven'.

And , you see in these verses, the characters Paul describes are biting the very hand that feeds them, They do not even realise that they are being shown mercy in his patience, but the God they call upon to vindicate them, will be the be the very one to condemn them.

The 18th century puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards puts it even more starkly in his sermon 'Sinners in the hands of an angry God' Where, in an illustration, he describes God dangling them (sinners) over the fiery abyss, like spiders by their thread and all the while they curse God, who is the only thing between them and consignment to the flames.

I see this in light of that. Later on he talks of how sinners are treasuring up wrath for themselves, to be revealed on the day when wrath is unveiled. It is the exact reverse of where Jesus tells us; Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust can not eat away.

Jesus said, 'where you treasure is there your heart will be also'

And here it is . You can store up wrath, or you can store up heavenly treasure by grace. And you can collect the rewards of either.

But for us, and if you are reading this as a Christian, I presume you are included in this, who have understood the kindness of God, what is it that drew you? Was your experience of salvation merely a relief from the judgement you were under? Was it simply a legal transaction that you feel you had little connection to? Or did you begin to finally understand that you are loved eternally by a compassionate father? Even in his confrontation of our sin, his love for us was so evident.  Why even bother confronting us unless he cared about us and our situation?

But his love goes deeper still.

Later we are told;

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.~Rom 5 6-8

And the implication of God's kindness leading us to repentance is not simply a once and for all thing, but it is a pattern for life and for building your character in your spiritual journey. It is always an understanding of God's loving kindness to us that brings us transformation. It is never through effort and determination and hard discipline that we change, but we respond to his love.

As the Hymn has it,

Joyful, Joyful, Lord we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of Love,

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Hail Thee as the sun above.

 

 



 This morning, let your heart unfold before God, responding to his love as a flower responds to the warmth of the Sun, because you are coming to understand a little more of the depths of his infinite love for you.

God keep you in his love,

This day,

And all days,

Amenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6SYZtMVyhc

Journey into the Heart of Darkness

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.~ Romans 21-23


Yesterday we looked at how the exchange of the truth of God for a lie manifests itself in sinful behaviour.

I dealt a little with sexual immorality yesterday, but, as I say, it is just one among many symptoms of an abandonment of God.

If we look at what follows, all spilling out from this initial bottle-cap of a verse (21), it is a descent into depravity.

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity"

By the end we have an idolatrous society that rejects God and 'natural relations', and all the social and personal fall out that entails, which Paul asserts as 'the due penalty' for their actions. And the list doesn't stop there.

"They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy"

Paul isn't just making it up. The societal norms around the various cultures contained within, and not excluding, the Roman Empire are quite staggering, toe curling, even. Just read the issues he has to address in Corinth which include incestuous marriages between mothers and sons.

Paul identifies that all of this sinfulness springs from this abandonment of God,

And God abandons them, in turn, to their lusts.

We often see the judgement of God as being something directed at sin, but sometimes God's judgement is to give us over to sin.

But it gets even worse. (light one this morning!).

"they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

Bad enough to sin, right? But to hold it up as good, as something to be endorsed and actively encouraged? Corrupting others, even children by inducting them into the same mentality?
Jesus says for those, it would be better that a large millstone be hung around their neck and they be drowned in the depths of the sea (told you it got dark).

Does he say that as a retribution against those corruptors? No. He says it would be better for them if this was to happen to them, than for what will happen to them if they partake in such practices.

And all the while they are behaving in this God-hating way, they are lauding themselves as wise, but no, Paul says, they are fools.
And listen, when did they become fools? When they, in spite of their suppressed knowledge of Him, refused to glorify Him, or thank Him.

Then, Paul says;

"Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" 

Like I said in the title; Heart of Darkness. 

I am not going to try to put a positive spin on this, this morning. I am not going to sign out, like I usually do, either. Instead I am going to leave you with the purest antidote to darkness that I know, contained in scripture. Just read these words from the opening passage of  John's gospel and let it stir your heart and minister light into every dark corner.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God bless you.

Praise Where Praise is Due

  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, ~ Romans 1:22(a)

If you are following along with me in your bible, you will see that this verse is embedded in a larger section dealing with a whole bunch of sinful behaviours and attitudes, including Idolatry and sexual depravity. It doesn't make for comfortable reading. But I think, in a way, this segment of verse 22 is the key to understanding the whole passage.

Let me take the issue of homosexuality, for an example.

In our modern understanding (and lets not pretend it is actually modern, because these things have been present on the planet as long as we have) people's sexual preferences are deemed to be a highly personal thing, beyond question (as long as they fall into societies skewed view of morality) and an inalienable right.

As a compassionate human being, let me lay my Christianity aside for a moment, I have much sympathy with this view. After all I was raised in this culture and it appeals to my sense of fairness. And woe betide you if you question it.

And from a non believers stand point it makes perfect sense. It is really hard to persuade someone without an understanding of God to think any differently on the issue.

We make it all about the individual.

'How can you deny me?'
'What about my rights?'

For me personally, my thinking radically changed on this issue when I came to understand that it is not about fairness to the individual, but about obedience to God. It is about recognition of God and his rightful place of authority in my life.

I do not believe in theocracy. I am more of a libertarian. I don't personally want to force other peoples to live by my beliefs. To me the Kingdom is 'opt in'.


We submit to God as we glorify him and acknowledge his rightful place.

It is not about people's freedom but rather about God's holiness.

I, for example, accept that there are restrictions on my sexual 'freedom'. I am not homosexual, but that doesn't mean I am not attracted to forms of behaviour that do not glorify God. However, as a divorced man, that means I am effectively celibate.

And although it is not always easy, joyfully I accept this to be right.

Why?

Because I acknowledge and love God. It is a joy to follow and serve as he asks me to.

And this is the key. I picked the issue of homosexuality because it is one of the subjects referred to in the text and also one of those issues where my culture is at odds with my faith. And therefore easy to demonstrate. It is one among many issues, and not the most important.

So this has been an example from the negative. Paul is demonstrating what happens when we 'exchange the truth of God for a lie'. But we can look at this way more positively than that.

Let's just say, for a moment, that we don't exchange God's truth for a lie. Let's say that we do know God, Glorify God and Give thanks to God.

What would that look like?

All the descriptions of Sinful behaviour in the passage followed from this abandonment of God in his rightful place and God said, 'Okay. have it your own way then'. But good behaviours flow from a place of submission.

The world thinks of submission as slavery, but we know it is freedom.

Paul says in Galatians that the mind controlled by the sinful nature is death but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and health and peace.

And if we glorify God we are doing what we are created to do. A sense of wholeness, peace, shalom comes from our peace with God. Our lives begin to reflect something of his life and his glory.
And it is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

And of course we give him thanks, as Paul later says, in all things. He is the giver of all good gifts.

Heavenly Father, the father of heavenly lights, we love you and honour you. We accept your truth.
Today we acknowledge you as our Sovereign Lord and Loving Father. Give us the grace and the mind-set today to acknowledge you and glorify you in all we do and to do it with joy and thankfulness,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

This day,

And all days,

Amen.

The Visible Invisible

 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.~ Romans 1:18-20

So we see that in the gospel the righteousness of God is being revealed. (17).

And now we are told the wrath of God is being revealed. 

Those two things are not unrelated.

God is righteous in all his ways. He is the standard by which righteousness itself is defined.  There is no righteousness apart from Him.

And a God who turns a blind eye to sin is no righteous God.

Think of a system that allows people like Stalin or Hitler to walk away from their deeds with no consequence.  Would that be righteous?

Instinctively we say 'no'.

But then justice must work at every level.

I don't entirely agree with the concept that there are no 'big sins or little sins'.

But on one level all sin is the same,  in this; that it separates us from God.

And without redemption that means eternal separation.

And all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

All of us.

What strikes me here is Paul's argument that humanity has suppressed the truth.

It's like;

'You're in denial'

'No I'm not!'

Paul says elsewhere that 'the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers'.

So that is a double whammy. 

We suppress the truth,  because we can't face it.
And Satan keeps us in our deception with every trick available.

What really staggers me is that he says God's invisible qualities are clearly seen.
Being understood,  the NKJV has it, by the things that are made.

Now I will not ever argue from a merely scientific basis,  and not without reason (being thoroughly unscientific) but this needs to be said. 

It is not evolution theory that is the enemy of the gospel.  There are ways of understanding and interpreting creation that are compatible with a working understanding of God.

But the Devil is in the detail.

The chief aim of Satan in using man's own 'wisdom against him is to separate the concept of the creator from his creation.

Without God there is no accountability.  There is nothing higher than mankind itself. 

That my friends is how Satan likes it.

Scripture says we innately understand something of the eternal majesty through his creation.

But we suppress that knowledge.

Because,  like Adam and Eve in the Garden,  we are ashamed and afraid of God.

But we needn't be,  if we only understand him.

This wrath accentuates his love.

Listen to what Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones has to say;

You and I must realise that; that before we see the love of God in the cross we must see His wrath. The two things go together and you cannot separate them.  It is only as you have some conception of the depth of His wrath that will understand the depth of His love.  It was God Himself who found the way whereby His own wrath could express itself against sin, and yet the sinner be not destroyed but rather justified,  because His own Son had borne the punishment.

I am so glad that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to understand this love. And the deception is deep. It still attempts to call me back.  But it calls to me from the wrong side of the Red Sea and I could not cross that sea to return to Egypt if I wanted to. 

This day, 

Or any day, 

Amen. 

From First to Last

A righteousness that is by faith from first to last~ Romans 1:17

 I have been perplexing recently over Jesus' statement in Matthew 5:48 'Be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect'.

What could that possibly mean? How can I ever be perfect? What the heck kind of instruction is that?

It's not that I ever expect to be perfect, and I know instinctively that he isn't saying that I must literally be perfect. I know I am saved by grace, made acceptable through Jesus, but what does it actually mean? That is what bothers me about it.

I have become convinced over the years that one of the main purposes of Jesus' teachings on the mount is to raise the bar beyond reach. For example, 'you have heard it said, do not kill, but I tell you that anyone who hates his brother in his heart is guilty of murder'!

Categorically I must state that I am not dismissing the aspirational aspects of the sermon on the mount. I believe we must pray for our enemies, love those who hate us, turn the other cheek. But some of those things are not always practical or possible.

I am not a pacifist. At least, not entirely. I am glad we stood up to Hitler, for example. Evil should be opposed. But I would say that the scriptural remit here, is for me not to take personal revenge.

But then take Jesus instruction that we must give to all who ask? Give and do not hold back.

I am wealthy in the wider context of the world. I have been told I am among the top 5% of the richest peoples on earth merely by being in the UK.

But there are weeks when I have not had money for food or for transport andhave had to find some solution to that.

Why tell you this? Well because it makes no practical sense for me to give to anyone who asks. Would it be okay, for example, for me not to feed my children because some charlatan saw that I had no ability to refuse whatever was asked of me.

It is unlikely, but the teaching gives rise to this kind of scenario.

But the aspiration of the command to generosity, and , for sure, at times, reckless giving, stands firm.

But Jesus puts these things there for a reason.

I believe the clue as to why is in his words in Matthew 5:20

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

There are two reasons he says this. The first is, of course, that the Pharisees have an external righteousness only. And Jesus would have us know that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Justice and compassion must exceed legal morality.

But that is not to say that legal morality is not important. Don't forget that God's law is perfect.

Perfect.

Jesus came not just to show us a better and less legalistic way. He came to do legal business. In essence the second reason he speaks of the greater righteousness in the sermon on the mount,  is to show us that we cannot possibly meet the standard ourselves,  even if we could keep the law.  (We may not kill,  but we have felt hatred).  So he came to justify us in the eyes of the law.  He says that he did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfil it. To meet all it's legal obligations. To perfect it.

And his actions mean that his righteousness is imputed (Transferred, counted and accredited) to us who believe.

Justified means that it is just as if I had never sinned. It also means 'it is just as if I have always obeyed'.

Jesus righteousness is accredited to you.

You stand before Almighty God as righteous as Jesus himself.

Now that is grace.

That is perfection.

And it is this perfection that Jesus refers to that will get us into the kingdom,

So yes, legalistic righteousness is extremely important.

And here is my point, to lend weight to today's text; this righteousness is by faith.

It could never be achieved by your own efforts,

NEVER.

Were you to pour your heart and soul into every action to do your best from the second you were conscious to the moment you closed your eyes in death, though you 'gave all you had to the poor and surrender your body to the flames'. You would still be a sinner. You would have been born in sin, and have died in sin, from first to last.

The only way this perfection comes is when you lay hold of the sacrifice of the Son of God, by faith.

You cannot earn or keep this by human effort. But by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this, not from yourself. It is a gift of God.

There is no way round it. This righteousness is by faith, from first to last.

And the amazing thing about God's imputed righteousness is that, when you understand this grace, it starts to not only be imputed but also imparted, by the Holy Spirit, and we are changed from one degree of glory to another.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for the gift of faith, that saves us and we are even more grateful for Jesus. Thank you for saving faith, from the first day we believed,

To this day,
And for all days,
.
Amen

Mutually Encouraged

 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.~ Rom 1:11-12


The more astute of you will notice that I have gone back a few verses. I had originally moved very quickly past this, making passing reference to it only. But tonight (I am writing this what will be, or rather will have been, yesterday night) when I returned to the passage, this caught my eye.


I remember an utter sense of dismay that gripped me on one occasion, when I found out that someone I was working with was also a Christian. My dismay was not at his faith, but at what occurred when I attempted to connect with him.

I was very excited to know that this chap was a Christian. It did not, back then in more youthful days, really occur to me to think about how well I knew him or whether he even liked me.

'Oh, you're a Christian!' I said, with great enthusiasm, 'So am I!'
His reaction rather underwhelmed (much as mine may have overwhelmed him).

'SO?!'
And he walked away from me without another word.
And, if I am honest, although I was personally slighted (which passed quickly enough) I was also grieved in my spirit.

It just felt wrong.

It still feels wrong when Christians fail to take encouragement from one-another.


The reason, or at least one of the reasons, that this jumped out at me was because I have just returned from my Church Life-Group, and tonight we were studying the conversion of St Paul and the impact that it had made on him and on the world. And it came into our conversation that not everyone has this 'Damascus road' experience.

I was reminded of a book I read once where the conversions of St Augustine and C.S. Lewis were compared. One (Augustine) had a dramatic about-face and powerful encounter with God and the other (Lewis) wrote of being on a bus journey to Whipsnade Zoo and saying (Paraphrased) that he could not say when the exact moment was but all he knew is that when he had begun the journey he knew he wasn't a Christian and that by the time he arrived, he was.

Inspired by the differences of experience we decided to share our conversion stories.

Some of those stories I had heard before, some in slightly different detail, and other not at all, but as we shared I became encouraged  to see the thread. That all our stories were different and yet they were all containing the same element. That of encounter with Jesus and his love.

And I found their faith (as well as God's mercy) to be inspiring and encouraging.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians;

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

This is the motto of our lifegroup, so it seemed especially appropriate to share it here.

Those stories that we tell each other do encourage and spur one another on to good works.

And it is not just those immediately around us that we can draw inspiration from. Hebrews 11 is there for just such a reason, so that we may read of others who had similar faith, and so we may draw strength and encouragement from their experience and imitate their patience and faith. The great cloud of witnesses , as the writer refers to them, cheer us on to the finish line, to run with perseverance the race marked out for us, to fix our eyes on jesus and throw off everything that hinders. And this communion of the saints, both old and new is part of what sustains us. We are one body. We give greater honour to our weaker parts.

You can be a Christian without going to church, but why would you want to do that, when such an encouragement awaits?

And the young man I spoke to. The one who said 'So!' and walked away from me. Why did he do that?

I have a few conclusions.

Perhaps he was only a nominal Christian and did not have any real experience of Jesus.

Or perhaps he was socially awkward. (And God knows I didn't really know about boundaries then!). Perhaps he feared being forced into an intimacy and vulnerability with someone he did yet know or trust?

And that is a shame. With hindsight it may be very understandable,  but it is still a shame. It is often fear that causes us to miss out on love and friendship.

But with vulnerability comes the really fertile soil of the kingdom.

And that is what we did tonight, as we exposed a little more of ourselves than usual, in revealing our personal stories to each other, and as a result we saw more of God's grace and understood one another just a little better than before.

Can I encourage you today, surround yourself with saints, in all wisdom be vulnerable and share your ongoing story with those around you so that they may encounter God a little in what he is doing with you, and take courage yourselves from the example of good believers, both from scripture and testimonial books, and from your nearest and dearest.

We can see God in each other, and it really is quite breath-taking.

God bless and encourage you,

This day,
And all days,

Amen

Righteousness Revealed

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,^[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”~ Romans 1:17

It's strange to think that in all that precedes 'the gospel' (in as much as the gospel must be explicit regarding Christ)  the Righteousness of God is not revealed.
Not in the creation account,  nor in the narratives of Judges,  Kings and the exiles.  Not in the prophets or the wisdom or the psalms.

God may have shown himself to Moses,  but even Moses did not see the full righteousness of God revealed.

That privilege was reserved for us who would hear about Christ Jesus.

Wow.

And more specifically,  in his death and resurrection.

We often see righteousness and mercy as being at odds with eachother.

But at the cross they meet in perfect synchronicity.

You see,  righteousness that only ends in out judgement,  is not true righteousness.

For God is righteous and he is merciful.  And his mercy never compromises his righteousness.  And his righteousness is never aside from his mercy.

His righteousness is merciful.

His mercy is righteous.

In his righteousness he showed us mercy at the cross. And in the person of Jesus both wrath and compassion have their fulfilment,  at his expense.

In Jesus,  full righteousness is revealed.  Not merely the wrath of Sodom and Gamorrah.  Not only the mercy of the Ark.  But the full righteousness of Almighty God.

Tomorrow we will look a little more at wrath.  For God's holy wrath against sin is the only context for our redemption.

But today we want to just wonder at God revealed to us.  In his Holiness,  in his mercy,  in his love; in Jesus.

Lord we thank you, for your righteousness,  seen in the mercy you showed to us in Christ.

We are in grateful awe,  and ever will be,

This day,
And all days,

Amen

Them That Believe

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: (Rom 1:16)

There is in essence here, the thrust of the whole epistle.

Paul writes to lay down his Gospel to the Roman believers, and in doing so leaves the most comprehensive exposition of the doctrines of faith contained in the whole of scripture. And that Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

You can take from this that we are saved by Faith. But to say faith alone is what saves us would be a mistake. It is not a matter of belief that saves us. I could believe that a particularly large cardboard box would help me float across the Atlantic ocean and fulfil my life long dream to see America, but my belief would be misplaced and ill founded.

No. It is the object of the belief that truly saves.

If I believed that a cruise ship might fulfil the role of the aforementioned cardboard box, my faith would be more likely to be correct in it's assertions.

(But of course a cruise ship may not make it.)

In terms of salvation, the object of our faith is sound to the uttermost. It is the Gospel that saves, if again, as is fast becoming the theme, we see that God is the Gospel. For it is God that saves us. Not merely our belief.

Faith is some sort of unique blend of belief and trust.

That cruise ship is all very well. I believe it will go to America, and so it will. But unless I get on it, it will go without me.

And so believing in itself is not enough. James astutely points out that even the demons believe.

Faith is belief in action. It is what connects us to the object of our belief.

faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

No. Faith buys a ticket and gets on the boat. And now the boat has the ability to perform the task that you believed it could do. We believe in it. And now we have put our belief into action by trusting it to do what it is supposed to. We have exercised a saving Faith.

And this, as we will see later, is in itself a gift from God.


And the wonderful thing about this is that it is the meeting point for Calvinists and Arminians alike.

We all agree that those who are saved must believe.

And as Jesus himself says;

For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him might have eternal life. (Jn 3:16)

I love the nuance of that word whosoever.

On that word lays all the argument of the Calvinist and the Arminian. But it is known to God in full.

WHOEVER believes on his name will be saved,

Praise God.

There is hope for the world.

To as many as believed on his name he gave them the power to become children of God.

And this is what happens when this saving faith appears in our lives. Jesus said You must be born again. And this is what happens at the point of faith in the gospel. The power of God to save is released in our lives.


And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit~ Eph 1:13

This morning (or whatever part of the day you read this in), let your faith give you reason for great hope and comfort. God has saved you. God IS saving you and his great power for salvation, an unstoppable force once it is unleashed, is at work in your life, and it works together in all things for the good of those that love God and are called according to his purposes;

And that means you.

And it wont quit saving you,

This day,

And all days,

Amen.

Unashamed

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel ~ Romans 1:16 (a)

 

I have skipped the section spanning from v8 to v15 but I need to refer to it. I need to say what the 'for' is there for.

Paul is assuring the believers in Rome of his desire to come (and telling them of his failed attempts,  in order to support this). 

He finishes by saying (v15)

"So as much as is in me,  I am ready to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome."

And to reiterate his point,  he says ;

 

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

 

Today I want to think about what that means,  to not be ashamed of the gospel.

When I first gave my life afresh to Jesus,  as an 18 yr old,  I was extremely zealous in sharing my faith.  I think it is a common experience for the youthful and freshly converted!

It was a particular reaction to what I then saw as the hypocrisy of a large section of the church,  who I had,  in my arrogance (I am ashamed to say),  written off as lukewarm Christians. 

I thought 'how can they be living for Christ when they just go day to day,  week by week as they always have done'.

 

I am going to give Christ my whole life,  I thought.  As if in the first place I were actually able to do so by sheer effort,  or in the second place that those I judged so harshly weren't already living for Christ to the best of their abilities.

And,  although I had been shown incredible grace by God,  in including me in his great salvation even though I was a dropped out,  drug addicted rebel,   I still did not (and in some ways even now)  understand what grace meant.

 

But times have changed for me.

 

I now feel more naturally weary of sharing my faith.

There have been one or two success stories, over the years,  but, largely, that early evangelistic fervour was very unproductive.

 

I know,  I know,  you will say, 'seeds were sown'...and 'you never know what came of it'.

But let me tell you,  I found it ultimately disheartening and I simply could not sustain it.

I still share something of my faith from time to time,  but,  and I am in no way endorsing this or defending it,  largely I have given up on one to one evangelism.

And the guilt of it plagues me continually.

And yes,  it's largely to do with shame.

 

Firstly I didn't like the expectation that was placed on me once people know you are a Christian. Ironically,  they start judging you,  maybe even see me as a judgemental person.

And some mock.  Some in what they consider to be 'playful banter', and some in outright derision.

And you know what?  It hurts to have the most precious thing in your life repeatedly trashed. 

I know the older generation used to say that religion is a personal thing. 

And although it is way more than just personal,  it is personal. Deeply, deeply personal.

And also I struggle enough with my own doubt.

Why would I want to engage with someone else's as well?

(bear with me)

And then there is the science thing. I am not a scientific person.  I don't even like science.  And yet people are so much better informed over scientific critique of scriptural understandings of creation,  and the afterlife etc, etc.

The truth is,  I just can't argue very well.
I am not the owner of a towering intellect such as the one that possessed St Paul.

So,  although I sometimes (VERY rarely) share when prompted by the spirit, I have Largely lost my early habit of routine evangelisation of every human I meet.

 

But am I ashamed of the gospel?

I don't feel I am.

Not one bit.

 

The gospel is everything to me.

 

I believe it and I have experienced it.  It has captured my heart for all eternity, that wonder of the cross,  in God showing this sinner such undeserved favour and forgiveness.  I write this with grateful tears in my eyes.

 

I love the Gospel.

 

But the Gospel is more than the ABC of belief.

As we have noted already in this series,  God himself, in Jesus, is the Gospel.

And so to be ashamed of the gospel,  is to be ashamed of Jesus.

And Jesus says,  if anyone is ashamed of me,  or my words, of him I will be ashamed before my Father in heaven.

 

Shame is one of the most powerful emotions.

It is the very first result of the fall of mankind. Shame at your nakedness.

This was never Gods intention.

And then when Christ Jesus redeemed us from the fall,  he hung naked on the cross.

 

The cross was not simply a penal execution.

 

It was a humiliation.

 

A shaming.

 

And Hebrews 12 tells us,  that he, Jesus, 'endured the cross,  scorning it's shame '

Colossians goes further,  it's implies that the cross itself was used to shame his enemies. He made a public spectacle of THEM,  he says,  triumphing over them by the cross.

But Jesus bore our disgrace.

To be ashamed of the Gospel is to be ashamed of him. It's not compatible with faith in him.

I feel here is the the thing to help me and hopefully some of you.

I would maintain it is not the Gospel I have been ashamed of but of myself.
Ashamed at my lack of ability to defend the message intellectually,  ashamed that my life may not match up.  Ashamed of being vulnerable.

 

But here is the thing.

 

I referred earlier to the sharing of my faith. I am no decrying personal testimony. As young evangelists we are taught that people cannot argue with our personal experience.  And that has some truth.

 

But it is not ourselves we are supposed to be sharing.

And do we need to defend the Gospel?
It is objective,  absolute truth.

 

I head a preacher once say; 

 

You don't need to defend a lion.

 

Do perhaps we need to be at least as objective as we are subjective. Just share the Gospel and shake off the dust from your feet.

And our sense of shame is all askew to begin with. There is no shame in Christ.

Let us go to him,  outside the camp.
Becoming outsiders for Christ,  who became the ultimate outsider for our sake.

Hebrews 11:16 says 'Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God'.

It seems to me that if The almighty and holy God is not ashamed of me then any sense of shame I would feel over him would be twisted in the extreme.

I write today,  knowing that I am not alone in my community,  in struggling with sharing the Gospel. I write in part because of this.  That we all may renounce shame,  as Jesus did, and preach him to all.

God who is unashamed to call us your own, may we never be ashamed to call you ours,

 

This day,
Or any day,

 

Amen.

And You Also

And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.~ Romans 1:6




Welcome back to a new week. I cant think of a much better way to start it, than to reflect on this verse.


The temptation is to get heavily theological, but I think we will get more out of it if we take it as experiential, even,  as personal.

And I think that is what Paul is trying to do here.

He is saying to the Roman believers, who he has never met, "all of this I have been speaking about; The Gospel of God, long promised to the Jewish people through their prophets and scriptures, the promise to bring their messiah, the God-man born into the House of David, who was then raised from the dead, The Messiah himself , Our Lord Jesus Christ, the very one who called us and gave us his grace; this gospel is for You.

YOU ALSO are among those gentiles who are called.....to belong to Jesus Christ.

The verse that comes to my mind is from 1 Peter 2:10 

 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And Paul says in Ephesians

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
This is the incredible thing about Jesus. he takes all of this stuff, all these promises, and all of the hope contained in them, and all his power to save, and he takes in right out of the bible, and he puts in into you. He makes it real. He brings it to life!

There must be the moment, or at least those moments when the academic and the theological becomes personal.

Do you remember how it felt when in it dawned on you that all this was for real?

Sure, you had your doubts. You have them, still, at times. but do you remember when it first started to dawn on you that this wasn't just pie in the sky, but that it was real? That it made all the difference in your life?
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed.

And it fills you with joy, inexpressible.

You weren't even supposed to get a look in, (assuming you are a gentile, like me) but you were included , bought near and shown mercy.

Just how incredible is that?

I am drawn to two songs. the first is a hymn,

Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven;
To His feet thy tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
 Who like thee, His praise should sing:

 

The second song is a psalm;

 

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

And to quote a third song, 'how good it is, to be loved by you, Jesus'

This God, hs become your God, and blessed are the people whose God is the Lord,

This day,

And all days,

Amen

 

Called to Obedience

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.(Romans 5)

Obedience

Yesterday we looked at Romans 1:4-5, where we are told that the apostles were sent to call the nations to toe 'obedience to the faith'.

Obedience is something like a dirty word here in our culture.

Ask Parents what they've most value in their children and I doubt obedience would even make the top ten (though I am sure if you offered to wave a magic wand and make their children obedient,  many would be tempted to take it).

And we see that it is the word 'obey' that is frequently removed from the marriage service,  even christian ones,  though the scripture clearly says 'wives obey your husbands'. We can talk about cultural context in some other blog,  perhaps.

But my point is that obedience is not deemed highly.

But it is absolutely necessary, as Christians we understand that primarily we are called to obedience.  And not just obedience,  but obedience 'to the faith'.

I don't want to say too much here,  because Paul goes into this in much greater depth in this same letter.  So I will hold back a little.

But sin came into the world through Adam's disobedience.  He ate the only fruit he was forbidden to eat.

And the rest is,  as they say,  history.

Until Jesus steps in.

And lives a perfect life culminating in his obedience in going to the cross.

Philippians tells us,

He humbled himself and became obedient to death. Even death on a cross.

And so his supreme obedience cancels out our obedience.

We are no longer reliant on our own obedience to be in God's favour.

No.  He did that.  And his act of obedience has justified and redeemed us for all time.

As we have seen,  his obedience made the many (us who believe)  righteous.

Later he goes even further. He who knew no sin,  became sin, he says,  that in him we may become the righteousness of God.

His obedience is credited to our very much overdrawn account. It has cleared our debts and put us into the black to the extent that we could never spend it all.  Not ever.

What grace.

But as Paul says,  should we then sin that grace may abound?  By no means.

Our salvation,  as we have clearly seen,  is not dependant on our obedience,  but none the less we are called to obedience.

I have heard it said that 'The gospel is not an invitation. It's an ultimatum.'

And yes,  we the children of disobedience,  are called to obedience to the faith. Called to repent... And to follow the Lord becoming his disciples,  following his teachings,  and listening obediently to his Spirit.

And We must remember that the life of obedience is the best life for us.  True freedom is in service to God.  It blesses us more than any other way we could choose. 

And obedience is better,  oh SO much better,  than sacrifice.

It blesses us and it blesses God.

And just as Jesus redeemed us from our disobedience through his obedience,  then our own obedience has redemptive qualities on those around us.  We can not save others from sin,  but we can lead people,  impress people,  love people,  serve people so much more effectively,  when we keep in step and obey the Spirit,  not grieving nor quenching but synchronising with him.

LORD of all, 

We give ourselves again to you today,  that we may please you heavenly father,  by our obedience to the faith you have given us.

Lead us and guide us,

This day,

And all days,

Amen.

The Mission, Should You Choose To Accept it...

We have already looked a little at apostleship.  Apostle, I understand,  literally means 'sent one'.
In a sense,  not the grandest definition of a title that carries such weight. Until, that is,  you consider who did the sending....

The qualification for this kind of apostleship is that of having met the risen Lord Jesus.

What an amazing privilege in itself!

And we looked a little, yesterday,  at how they who saw were blessed but more blessed are those who believe without seeing.

That's us, folks.

That is us.

So first I want to say that I love the fact that Paul does not, and never,  leads with the authority inherent in his position of 'sent one '. The first recognition of the gift that he has been given is that of grace.

Later he says, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this,  not of your selves.  It is the gift of God.

Wow. The undeserved favour of almighty God,  on you and I! The Lord of the vast starfield,  in a universe that is creating new solar systems to this day,  when we live in a galaxy we could not cross in many lifetimes,  has looked down and noticed you. And not only noticed,  but bestowed his favour,  at the cost of his one and only beloved son.  You who were content to go your own way and never have to acknowledge the one to whom you owe your every breath. He showed you grace. He put this treasure within you,  the riches of his grace.

Yeah.

Wow.

And Paul is no different.  He never loses the sense of awe at this love. And this grace and calling are the foundation for his message.

The message that we will examine a little more tomorrow, is that of obedience to the faith.

It is a call to repentance and faith.  And obedience.
In becoming obedient,  we will be calling others to obedience and faith.

But don't fret.

Because,  as we have seen,  this message is of grace from start to finish. It is not something you can achieve.

God will give the gift as he sees fit.  That part is not your responsibility.  God will work independently of your effort or ability, but he choses to use you,  to include you, to partner with you in this amazing work of Salvation.

Co-workers with the Holy Spirit.

I hope today you will be inspired afresh by God's amazing grace to choose you, and to use you,  for the sake of his name.

let us choose him then,

This day,
And all days,

Amen.

The God-Man Cometh; Pt 2

 who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead~ Romans 1:3

Of God

Yesterday we looked at Jesus' humanity.  Today it is his divinity,  attested to by the resurrection.

The resurrection is one of those stand or fall doctrines.

Christ's resurrection is the ultimate proof both of his divinity and of his messsiahship.

If there is no resurrection then Jesus is just some deluded fool and his work and words nullified.

Theologically it says that Jesus was without sin. As death only has a hold on those who are under sin.

But as the sinless sacrifice death had no hold over him.

It is,  as we will see later in Romans,  God's vindication of his son from all charges.

That Jesus is God is the only explanation for his sinless life and for the resurrection.

And much is staked on it. Paul says,  if Christ be not raised then we are fools and worse than fools.  We are to be pitied above all people.

The resurrection is hard to comprehend.  It ntellectuall challenging too. But not the hardest of all doctrines to believe.

We are told elsewhere that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord,  and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we will be saved.

It's that explicit expression believe in your heart that gave me pause for thought yesterday.

I struggle against doubts.

I am pretty sure I am not alone in that.

Okay,  I know I am not.

But I have all kinds of doubts.  Persistent doubts that I try to swat away. And I concede,  a lot of my beliefs don't always make sense...in that they are pretty hard to defend in this day and age. I have often to see my beliefs as truths that I hold to.

I don't believe in the resurrection like I believe in the bench I am sitting on right now.  That is solid and material. But I hold to it as a constant that is true despite my inclinations.

And yet the truth I hold (in the resurrection)  actually is the truth that holds me. Much like the bench itself. If I believed it or not,  it would still support me.

And as I pondered these things the words came to me.

You have believed because you have seen me. I tell you,  blessed are those that believe that have not seen.

Do you ever read those words and think.... Really??!

I suffer from chronic disciple envy.  Yes,  it is a very real condition.

The very reason they are apostles is because,  in part,  they are eye witnesses to the resurrection. We testify,  they say,  to what we have seen and heard.

So how blessed are they?

And yet they were not without their struggles initially.  But they saw the miracles first hand.  They sat and ate with Jesus.  They blushed the breadcrumbs out of their beards after the five thousand were fed. You know!

How blessed are they.

And then I remember Jesus words 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first' and I wonder what we don't actually know about our heavenly reward.  Will it be proportional to the circumstances with which we struggle? 

I don't know.

But this I know.

Jesus changed my life.

And that,  I believe without doubt.
I have tasted and seen that he is good.
And that he is alive.  And that he is God.

And I will let that truth hold me,  even when I can hardly hold it.

And doubt is the hill that faith must climb. It is the Pearl inducing grit in the oyster.  What would faith be without doubt?

Its would be knowledge.

And faith is being certain of what what we do not see,  the substance of things hoped for.

And I say with Peter,  stood in the presence of Jesus, looking into his eyes,

I believe.

Lord help my unbelief.

This day,
And all days,

Amen.

The God-man Cometh

The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³ regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.~ Romans 1:2-3


Of David

In my last blog we looked at how the gospel of Jesus was foretold and promised in many ways, from the beginning, throughout the holy scriptures.
One aspect of the messianic prophecies in scripture is that of the lineage of David.

We see early on in the first section of the first Gospel (Matthew who was writing to convince the Jews particularly) that Jesus' lineage is traced back through Joseph, to David and to Abraham.

Matthew established a strong connection with Jesus as a child of the promise and, as a Jew. Luke, in his gospel, traces Jesus back through Mary, also to David and, significantly, to Adam.

These things are not coincidences, neither in the events, nor in the writing.
Luke is telling us that Jesus is human.
Matthew is telling us that Jesus is the Messiah.

Paul is telling us both.

In Matthew 21 We see the Triumphal procession, whereby the people all cry out;

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[c]

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

This is a direct quote from Psalm 118:25-26 which indicates that the people were effectively acknowledging him as their Messiah.

Sadly it has to be said that their expectations of salvation were limited primarily to the expulsion of the Romans and the regaining of Jewish independence. Little did they know that Jesus came for the expulsion of sin and the gaining of true freedom.

However, it is clear that Jesus, on both sides, was a descendent of David. Paul includes this for two reasons. Firstly he is linking Jesus (and rooting his commendation of him) to the promise from scripture.

He is the one.

The one who was promised.

Secondly that in nature he was human. The NIV, quoted above, says 'as to his earthly life'. The NKJV says 'According to the flesh'.
I understand about the NIV's squeamishness over this. There are all sorts of implications. When it comes to Christ's humanity it is difficult to clearly navigate the unchartered waters of the sea of mystery surrounding the incarnation. Where does God end and man begin. How human was human?

I cannot definitively give my answer, but I understand the implication of Jesus being human. And Paul lays it out here in a way that at first glance could seem to be dualistic. If we had no other scripture to go by, it could here be implied that Christ only had a human body and yet a divine spirit.
And of course, the human body is subject to sin, and sinful desires.
I think the NIV is trying to distance itself a little from this. The word 'flesh' is fastidiously avoided.

But one of my favourite descriptions of Jesus comes from Hebrews.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.


And what does tempted in every way  mean?

If Jesus was truly holy surely sin would not have been a temptation to him?

Ah, but he was/is human. He had/has a human body. That body had needs. Those needs were at times in opposition to God's purposes.

He got hungry.
He got tired.
He felt lonely.
He felt desire.

And yet without sin.

Hallelujah. How amazing??

He was fully man and yet at no point did he ever cease to be fully God.
The key to this we will look at tomorrow but is hinted at in my opening verse; who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead.
But here is the thought for today. Whatever we face today, whatever we go through, whatever tempts us, Jesus has been there. He understands. He sympathises, he empathises. He walked where you walk.
And he has made a way, for us to come to God, without condemnation or fear, but to boldly approach the throne of grace to receive help in your time of need,

This day,
And all days,

Amen.

The Long Awaited Gospel of God

The gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord~ Romans 1:1-3 (a)

We don't tend to think of Moses primarily as a prophet,  but when he penned the pentateuch he placed on parchment the very first prophecy of the Gospel.

In his account of the fall of mankind he records the words that had been passed down since the time of Eden,  so that we can see from the offset that as soon as sin entered the world,  therefore was a promise of redemption.

When God curses the snake he says,

You will strike his (the offspring's) heel,
And he will crush your head.

Now,  cards on the table,  I go gaga for this. It utterly blows me away. Because not only does it predict the coming of the one who will destroy Satan and his works,  but it predicts something of the nature of the method.

That in the same action that Satan attempts to destroy the promised son, he is himself destroyed.

And that to me is the essence of the crucifixion.

But today I simply want to demonstrate that the gospel was alluded to and prophesied all through scripture.

The Ark is a picture of Christ.  All inside are saved from judgement.

Abraham being willing to sacrifice his promised (and only) son 

Isaac willingly carrying the wood up the hill for his own sacrific. 

The Ram that was provided to take his place,  it's head caught up in a thorny thicket,  shadowing the Crown of Thorns. 

The passover Lamb. 

The Scape Goat, 

Isaiah 53 (and so much more)  which is SO explicit about the Messiah taking on our sins and dying in out place. 

And this is just a small sample of the prophetic references to Jesus contained in,  yes the HOLY scriptures. 

And the phrase used here is 'the gospel of God'.

I am sure that it is used in this context to say that the Gospel comes from God and belongs to God. 

But it seems inescapable to me that we don't see that God himself is the gospel. 

Jesus being promised,  is the promise of his message to,  because Jesus IS his own message. We preach Christ. 

Lenin did no preach Leninism. 

Hitler did not preach Hitler. 

The preached communism and fascism respectively. 

But Christ is the message.  

God is the gospel. 

We have notionally looked at how Jesus,  and indeed Paul came at 'just the right time ' historically speaking. 

No one knew that the promised one would take a few thousand years to come,  but come he did. 

We are dismayed if we see world events going pear shaped but to us fifty years is a long time and no bit of time is more pressing to us than the hour we are in and we won't look much more than fifty years ahead. 

But to God a thousand years is as a day. 

I take from this an incredible sense of security. We may trouble ourselves and worry about Isis or the threat of another ensuing cold war,  or whatever crisis we face,  buy God has got it all under control,  and help works in all things for the good of those that love him. 

And how privileged are we,  who know this gospel of God,  that we were born on this side of his coming? 

And why did he come? 

For this divine exchange,

The righteous for the unrighteous,  to bring us to God. 

That you might know him. 

I pray with Paul,  for myself and for you, 

 

 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

 

This day,
And all days,

Amen

Set Apart

 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God ~ Romans 1:1

There I was,  on Monday,  talking of how you would struggle to get a sermon out of one verse like this,  and now here I am, three days later,  and still on it.

We have looked a little at Paul,  and how the kind of man he was,  living in the time and place he did,  placed him perfectly to be the man to spread the message of the gospel.

And we have seen yesterday,  that Paul,  a forgiven and redeemed would be murderer,  has devoted himself to God,  as a slave given his freedom,  out of love and gratitude.

Today we see how God had set him apart.

I quoted Queen Esther on Monday,  who was a remarkable woman placed perfectly to save her people.  Perfectly but precariously.

And she had the tenacity and faith to step up when required.

She said,  for it may be that I was born for such a time as this.

Cometh the woman,  cometh the hour.

Except that as inspiring as that is,  and credit where credit is due (Esther and Paul made good decisions in the light of God's grace,  for which they should be commended), it did not all fall to them.

God set them apart.

He chose them.

This interplay between free will and divine appointment is a mysterious paradox,  but I am one who believes that,  in the mystery of God,  these are not incompatible.

But the point,  and always the greater point in my opinion, is that God ordained it.

He separated them for a purpose.
Called them to himself.

It is my belief that he calls us all to a purpose.

But he doesn't just set us apart for some work or other. Primarily he sets us apart for himself.

He wants you to be his man.  His woman.

It is God's ownership of Paul,  through his redemptive love,  that precedes.  Paul is his bondservant.  A willing slave of his love.

And consequently he is committed to following God's call.

There is a sense in which the Gospel is all of our calling.

If we hold that God is the gospel,  then whatever you do in worship of that God is gospel work.

You or I may not be called to establish churches and evangelise half the world,  but we are called,  set apart,  to be God's people,  wherever we are.

And wherever you are,  God, in Christ,  has called you to be his.

You belong to him.

'You are not your own. For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit '~ 1 Cor 6:19-20

Father we pray today,  keep us set apart for you,  so that where ever we are,  whatever we do,  we can do it all in sincerity in the name of the Lord Jesus,  and bring you glory,

Today,
And all days,

Amen.