As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1Pet. 1:14-19).
A joyful obedience is the only right response to the gospel.
It is not out of fright that God desire us to follow Jesus. We are not called to this obedience because we are afraid of punishment. We are called to obey not first because of what God will do to us, but because of what God has done for us.
When I was a boy, I obeyed my parents because of what I thought they would do to me if I didn’t (like my kids most often do). As I matured my obedience has matured, and even today I obey my mother not because I am afraid of what she will do to me, but rather because I realize all that she has done for me.
The grounds of our obedience is not a fear of what God will do to us, but the fruit of what He has done for us in Christ Jesus. This is gospel obedience. This is the proper and faithful response to the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the glory of God and the delight of His people.
A friend and I are reading A Better Freedom: Finding Life as Slaves of Christby Michael Card. I have always appreciated the song writing of Michael Card. There is a depth of thought and theology in his writing that is both refreshing and biblical. This is why I was immediately excited about the book. I am just beginning to read it and will no doubt have more comments in the future. In the book Card reminds us that we are called to be servants (lit. slaves) of Jesus Christ. This is powerful when you consider the horror and atrocity of human slavery, particularly that of Rome (the backdrop of the New Testament) and American slavery (the backdrop to our understanding). As horrible and sinful as the institution was, and in many parts of the world still is, we are called to be slaves of Christ. It is a humbling thought to consider, and yet one that needs our utmost consideration if we would faithfully call Jesus our Master.
Check out this short documentary on Alexander McLeod and his willingness to be a slave of Christ by seeking the end of American Slavery. His booklet Negro Slavery Unjustifiable is now available online.
In understanding what Jesus says in Matt. 5:16: “Let your light shine before men, then they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven,” John Stott wrote:
It is our human cowardice which made him say “Let your light shine before men,” and our human vanity which made him tell us to beware of practicing our piety before men. A.B. Bruce sums it up well when he writes that we are to “show when tempted to hide” and “hide when tempted to show.” Our good works must be public so that our light shines; our religious devotions must be secret lest we boast about them.
I am not one given to hyperbole, especially when it comes to books. When I say that The Pilgrim’s Progress is the best book I have read outside of the Word of God, I mean it. I have yet to find a book that comes close. Consequently, I don’t anticipate any book supplanting Bunyan’s masterpiece in my estimation (though it is possible).
Nevertheless, I am reading books all the time and am frequently impressed with what I am reading. In fact, from time to time I am more than impressed, I am actually pleased and challenged by it. Recently I came across such a book.
The leaders of East Point Church are beginning to read The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. Mark Dever says, “This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.” While I have not thought about it long enough to do a comprehensive comparison to all the books I have read on the subject, I will say that it is my favorite book so far this year. When the authors subtitled the book, “the ministry mind-shift that changes everything” they were not kidding. Marshall and Payne seem to have put in book form what we are seeking to implement in our church planting. At East Point Church we talk about developing and promoting a Gospel-centered ministry and community. In this book, I am being encouraged and challenged with the fact that we still have a ways to go. And though I thought my mind was shifted in doing a church plant, this book is reminding me that there is still much shifting that needs to take place.
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 147:12-20)
It’s February in East Point and it’s snowing like January in Michigan. I gave our children the opportunity to throw snowballs at me and as you can imagine they jumped at the chance .
The will of God for his people is their sanctification (1Thes. 4:3). In practical terms sanctification is the process whereby those who have been made holy by faith in Jesus Christ are manifesting or working out that holiness in their every day lives. It is as Paul says in another place, the working out of our salvation with fear and trembling because God works in us to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13).
Unfortunately, many confuse biblical sanctification with legalism. Sanctification is not Legalism. Legalism is the conformity to certain rules and commands for the purpose of being found pleasing in the sight of God and other people. It says that I can change my ways and how I am perceived and thus God will be pleased with me and so too will my mother. It is living by a set of edicts like: Don’t drink. Don’t smoke. Don’t chew. And don’t go out with girls who do. Don’t play cards or games of chance. Or go out with boys who dance. Legalism is dangerous and even spiritually disastrous for several reasons.
It Exalts Humanity. Legalism makes much of people. It says look at what I did. It gives the false assurance of believing that since I am alright in the sight of others, I must be alright in the sight of God. It makes us think that just because people are impressed, God must be. The road to hell is populated with more legalists than anything else. Romans 12:3: For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
It Underestimates Sin. Legalism misleads us into thinking that sin is just something we do. And if we stop doing it we will be sanctified and holy. Stop drinking. Stop cussing. Stop sleeping around. Yes, if you are doing these things, you need to stop. However, that will not heal the sin issue. Sin is not just what you do, sin is what you are. We sin because we are sinners. By nature, the Bible says, we are irreverent and disobedient and under the wrath of God because of sin (Eph. 2:1-3). Legalism takes sin much too lightly in that it just seeks to modify behavior. Salvation is not behavior modification. AA may be help an alcoholic to stop drinking, but it can’t keep him out of hell.
It Devalues the Gospel. Legalism gives the impression that a person can be saved by the gospel, but then must live and reach perfection by keeping a set of rules, laws, and regulations. Or as Paul says (Col. 2:20-23): If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations-”Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)- according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. It says that Christ came to reform our lives. He entered the prison house of humanity and instituted a prisoner reform movement. Now, I would hope that everyone in here would be reformed and embrace the truths of the Reformation. But more than reform, the gospel transforms. The gospel does not just change the mind; the gospel transforms the heart and brings about a holiness that is heavenly rather than earthly. It is transform the inside that ultimately is manifested on the outside. Legalism reforms the outside, with little to no transformation on the inside.
The only cure for the disease of legalism is a steady diet of the gospel of sovereign grace. We must meet each morning with a cup of sovereign grace and rest each night on a pillow of the same.
This morning in our Men of God in the Morning (MGM) Breakfast the subject under consideration was Jesus’ words in Matt. 5:43-45: “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
Dan Doriani, the author of the book we are using to guide us through the Sermon on the Mount, writes concerning this section of Scripture: Few teachings in Scripture are more memorable and more challenging than this…It is alien to our thought, our practice, and our nature.
Some would say that part of the difficulty in understanding and applying this passage to our lives is in our understanding of love. For most of us love is a sentimental, human affection. It is the rapid heart beat, the warm-fuzzies and the sweaty palms. Is this sentimental, affectionate emotion what Jesus has in mind? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not think so. In a sermon on this topic, Dr. King wrote:
Now we can see what Jesus meant when he said, “Love your enemies.” We should be happy that he did not say, “Like your enemies.” It is almost impossible to like some people.”Like” is a sentimental and affectionate word. How can we be affectionate toward a person whose avowed aim is to crush our very being and place innumerable stumbling blocks in our path? How can we like a person who is threatening our children and bombing our homes? This is impossible. But Jesus recognized that love is greater that like. When Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is speaking neither of eros nor philia; he is speaking of agape, understanding and creative, redemptive goodwill toward men. Only by following this way and responding with this type of love are we able to be children of our father which is in heaven.
Is Dr. King correct? Is this the point of Jesus’ teaching? Are we to detach love from like, and thus be able to obey the command of our Lord? Is it possible to detach love from like? Can I truly love my wife and not like her? Can I love my enemies not like them? Is like inherently commanded in the command to love?
These are just a few of the questions we wrestled with this morning. I find myself still wrestling. Might we not stop until God is pleased to bless us.
ByFaith Magazine has an interview with me on our book Glory Road. The interview was conducted by Richard Doster, editor of the magazine. Like me, he was encouraged by the stories of the men in the book and had a few questions he hoped would expand the book’s exposure and the importance of the discussion. The interview begins:
Why is it important that we know how these 10 black men came to the Reformed faith?
I think it’s important to know how God’s work of grace has occurred in the lives of those who are outside our normal sphere of influence. It is encouraging to know that God’s grace and salvation are being marvelously and wonderfully experienced outside our normal circles. A lot of us have a myopic view of Christianity and our own faith. To be encouraged, to know that God is at work in the hearts of men and women whose lives may not look exactly like ours—and yet whose faith and confession is the same—that should offer a sense of encouragement. And it should offer a challenge to get involved in what God is doing, even outside our normal areas of operation.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1Pet. 1:14-19).
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This morning in our Men of God in the Morning (MGM) Breakfast the subject under consideration was Jesus’ words in Matt. 5:43-45: “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” 