Union with Christ: The Key to Christianity

“I think that one of the greatest advantages that union with Christ provides us is the profound sense of assurance and security flowing from the knowledge that God deals with us only and always in terms of Christ” (Barrett, 95). We do not stand alone in the presence of God. We stand with and in Christ. Thus, there is no reason for us to carry a burden of guilt because of “our personal failures, imperfections, and sins.” “The merit of Jesus Christ encompasses and subsumes all of our service to Him. What we do personally cannot increase or decrease God’s acceptance of us” (Barrett, 94).

God’s plan for spiritual success was not a 12 step plan. No, because we would certainly turn to that for our assurance and merit before our Holy God. God designed us to be complete in Christ through faith in his finished work (cf. Phil. 3:7-9). The greatest thing we as believers can do is believe that God loves us and has made a way through/in Christ by which to love us. This love has opened up a way of direct confident access to spend time with that same God (cf. Eph. 2).

So today Go and Believe and look to your union with Christ to be full and righteous before God.

The Gospel With Culture in View

In 8 Witnesses, A Study on 1 and 2 Peter, Mark Driscoll, talking about the Church in Modern day Turkey describes them as wavering in their devotion….

Basically, Christians stepped out to live with, for, like, and to Jesus. In response, the

world pushed back and tried to get them to go back in the closet with a private faith

that did not affect their external life and role in the greater culture. Thus, and this

point is vital to a correct understanding of Peter’s letters, they were suffering not

because of their sin but rather because of their faithful devotion to Jesus.

However, they were wavering in their devotion. Like so many college students

who weary of being mocked by their professors for being Bible-believing Christians,

husbands who are mocked for not looking at porn or partying with their buddies,

wives who forego a professional career to stay at home and be a wife and mother,

singles who are the butt of jokes at the office for waiting until marriage to have sex,

and net surfers who can’t stomach one more nasty blog or negative news story about

their faith and church, their resolve was tried. They responded in one of four ways.

One, some were enticed by the liberal route of compromise. They wanted

to cut out—or at least explain away—the parts of the Bible that they were being

criticized for believing. In our day, this would be most typified by the mainline liberal

Christian denominations with pastors who endorse all religions and spiritualities

under the oversight of unsaved bishops who appreciate their tolerance, pluralism, and

minds so open that their brains fall out. This is one of the central issues in 2 Peter.

Two, some were compelled to privatize their faith. Sure, in private they would

pray to and worship Jesus. But in public they would shut their mouths and keep their

faith to themselves so as to not be considered the weirdo for Jesus on the block.

Three, some were considering junking their faith altogether. They were tired

of being the butt of jokes in the press and on the late-night talk shows and wearied

of being the Jesus freaks. Why? Because most people simply do not like being the

oddball, misfit, and outcast—especially those who are young and want to be cool and

those who are old with privileged social positions to uphold.

Four, still others were attracted to the fighting posture of fundamentalism. They

were preparing to separate from the culture, set up their own subculture, defend

themselves, and talk trash about the non-Christians who were criticizing them, all in

the name of a culture war.

It is evident that this is the same today in our culture. As Christians we are encourages to be 007 Christians on hush-hush missions, just avoid the parts of the Bible that don’t suit us, giving up on Jesus, or adding stuff to our faith to make us counter-cultural.

Christ taught counter-cultural lifestyle…..in a Cross-centered way….
Jesus ate with sinners.
Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Jesus said that how you receive Children shows how you receive Him.
Jesus said that the whole law hung on Loving God and Loving People.

But, He didn’t do these things, or say these things to fight or to promote a faith-plus orientation to Salvation; he realized that the Cross is offensive enough.

Christ didn’t compromise; He knew that everything He did or said was for the glory of God.
Christ was not private. He knew that he would be beaten, mocked, ridiculed, and crucified in public for the Glory of God and the Joy of all people.

So what do we find from Christ about the Gospel and culture…
- The Gospel is not bound by culture
- The Gospel is for the Glory of God and the Joy of all people.
- The Gospel unites, but religion divides.
- The Gospel is the blessed hope that we as Christians wait for and we continually look to Christ,
his resurrection, and his Gospel for hope and joy amidst tough cultural norms and circumstances.
- The Gospel is to be spoken and lived out daily; we must boldly proclaim the Goods news.
- The Gospel tells us that we are “exiles and sojourners” on mission for God in a world that is not our home.

Thus, if we embrace trials as an opportunity from God, they can and do
result in his glory and our good.

GP Quote of the Week from my Perspective

 

“It was Karl Barth, I believe, who said that trying to make the gospel relevant to the contemporary age was like running after the train that has just left. ‘The World’ that we are supposed to address with the gospel, that is, is a moving target. By the time we think we are finally getting to understand it, it is too late…When a historical, tragic accident occurs we investigate the causes. We search the wreckage for the ‘black box.’ We understand, if at all, when it is too late…

“The most serious mistake of theological attempts to understand the age is the assumption that the gospel could somehow be made to appear relevant to old beings.”

The fact that many churches – even of our own – do not seem to have learned the simple but apparently hard lesson is no doubt the reason for the transformation of many churches into service organizations, social reform clubs, and support groups, rather than proclaimers of the coming reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Seeking to be relevant to the age, they just succumbed to it. Claiming to be wise, as St. Paul put it, they became fools.The most serious mistake of theological attempts to understand the age is the assumption that the gospel could somehow be made to appear relevant to old beings.

‘The unspiritual’…, Paul tells us, ‘do not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to them, and they do not understand because they [the gifts] are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14)- always a favorite passage used to caution against being overly optimistic about appeals to relevance.”

(Gerhard O. Forde, The Preached God, “Speaking the Gospel Today,” pp. 165-166) 
(quote researched and found by my Uncle John) 

My Take on the Issue:
We have a lot of churches who have decided that if they make the Gospel relevant that they will reach more people and make a huge impact on the world. How can you make a life changing message MORE relevant? “It is the power of God unto salvation”…..How can that be more relevant? If someone saves your life from utter despair and then offers you the greatest riches imaginable, why would they need to dress it up in fancy garb and market it to you. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about making much of Christ, and if your going to do something, do it right, and well. But that is more of a mark of excellence, not relevance. We need to quit trying to make the Gospel relevant and preach Christ and only Him crucified. One of the problems of our culture is that we tend to try and make everything relevant because as my teacher says, “We as a whole have the attention span of about 5 minutes. -Miss D.” So as shepherds we have the mentality that we have to make the Gospel exciting, have flame throwers, and smoke machines. Devote your daily life to making the Gospel paramount and presenting it as Christ did.

The Gospel: The Only Source of Real Change

This is an excerpt from a sermon series wrote by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. This quote talks about the People in modern day Turkey that Peter was writing to in 1 Peter.

 Following regeneration by God the Holy Spirit, their minds, desires, and actions changed, which made them unpopular with mainstream culture. The unpopularity of Christians was in large part due to the fact that their moral conduct had changed. The Christians were no longer willing to eat too much, drink too much, party sinfully, or engage in sex outside of marriage (1 Pet. 4:1–4). Those who had known them and enjoyed sinning with them prior to their conversion to Jesus considered their life change negatively. The drinking buddies who lost their wingmen and the boyfriends who got dumped by their live-in girlfriends who moved out to walk with Jesus were not pleased with the influence Christianity was having on their friends because it was upsetting their own lives. The unpopularity of Christians was also due to the fact that their devotion to Jesus above everyone and everything else caused them to be viewed as subversive people overturning long-held familial and cultural norms. Simply, once people became Christians, their lifestyle changed and they stopped worshiping the gods of their empire, city, trade guild, or family.

MY PERSPECTIVE:
As believers, living a life that is set apart is commanded in Scripture. I grew up living a life where I was told that I needed to change (and inside I agreed) and be set apart, but never knew how. I heard the Gospel preached but it was a “clean your act up and become presentable (Do this, Don’t do this) Gospel” but it wasn’t a Gospel that proclaimed the Glorious Good News that FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST FINISHED WORK ALONE will bring change in my life. Since getting saved, I will say that my life has changed in a real way. I want to throw a disclaimer out there by saying that I still struggle daily with sin and have to look to Christ constantly for forgiveness of sin, and removal of guilt and shame. BUT, my life has changed, and that change was not brought about by determination or my resolving never to do this or that again. Every time I made a resolve not to return to my sin (pre-salvation), I would shortly run back to it, and as soon as I broke the resolve, my heart was filled with condemnation, guilt, and even self hatred. I lived a roller coaster faithless Christianity and my heart was overwhelmed with the magnitude of my sin. BUT, (DONT MISS THIS) my knowledge of sin and the weight of my sin DID NOT BRING CHANGE, it was only in seeing the GOSPEL (the Good News) and to believe upon Christ finished work on the cross that brought lasting change.Once I put my faith and trust in the finished work my life indeed began to change. Thus, in the Gospel God gives to us what He demands and requires of us.

To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect. _ John Owen

Change is great and change provides further proclamation of the Gospel to the outside world.

    “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make  a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” (1 Pet. 3:15–16)

The Gospel and Nothing Else

 

Paul insists that anything that maintains “Christ plus” is a false gospel, corrupts the glory of God and thus punishable by the most severe consequences.

In this quote, John Fonville, hits at the point that the Gospel and Christ finished work on the Cross is the only thing we can stand on.

This has been a huge reality in my own life and in the life of my dad.

My DAD:
Joe grew up living a luxurious life, including Lacoste, Corvettes, and being educated at Wake Forest University. He met his wife, fell in love, and then got married. He religiously attended church, gave of what the Lord blessed him with, and had a stellar family. He then “ran into life” and began washing his hands 250 times a day, was plagued by a feeling of uncleanness(OCD) because he felt unclean, and “knew” that he had been chemically poisoned by working at his father’s golf course. His life began to spiral out-of-control when he was hospitalized and began to lose his family and his faith. He got out of church, got a divorce, and he felt like he was without hope. One night a bat got into his house and begin to, as he puts it, “dive bomb him,” and attacked him the entire night. When he called his son the next day, he kept saying that he had been attacked by the bat, and “he had done research and discovered that bats were toxic, but he hadn’t determined what toxic meant.” This incident allowed his son to talk to him about Jesus and pray for him. The hour long conversation ended with the question being posed…. “Joe, (DAD) what is the gospel?’ ‘Well, its that God died for me and I just need to clean up my act (Christ plus).’ ‘No, Joe that’s not right, it’s that Christ died for you, just as you are, and is calling you out of your uncleanness to come to Him, drink of Him, rest in Him, and live in Him, and trust Him at His word, repent and believe on Him.” The day ended with a prayer from Joe that perfectly articulated the law and the Gospel, and ended with a confession of daily dependence on self (Christ plus), and the failed efforts of trying to clean his self before God, and a new welcoming of the finished work of Christ in his life.”

My story will come tomorrow, but my dad’s is such a reminder to the fact that although people grow up in church their entire life and sit there Sunday-in and Sunday-out, they may not understand the Gospel. It is our oblitunity (obligation + opportunity) to proclaim the Gospel everyday.

When we make the Gospel paramount in our own life it begins with a process of hearing the Gospel, receiving the Gospel,enjoying the Gospel, and proclaiming the Gospel.

The Gospel Intentionally

Most Gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionally.

What a statement Chester brings out in his book, Total Church, it is something that we far to easily overlook.

The question with this statement becomes…..”What am I ordinarily good at?”, because I must look at myself and admit that I’m just an ordinary person. There really is nothing innately unique about me besides maybe the fact that I love life a little to much and I am a child of God. When I die there will not be a monument resurrected in my memory, or a parade through the streets, but I will  be warmly accepted into my Father’s presence and hopefully hear well done.

The Gospel lived out intentionally can take  on several forms. I am reminded of a story of a local university student at Furman University, who has a very busy schedule and will never be a preacher. However, she and a group of a few girls get up before the sun rise on Friday mornings cook breakfast and head to the Work-Force shelter in Greenville. She loses sleep and spends money on food because she believes that she can take ordinary things like cooking and a little money and can  make a difference in peoples lives who are down and out by extending some fellowship, food, and a warm smile, along with a conversation. Her response when asked about it was, “You know sometimes it’s a little uncomfortable because you don’t know exactly what to say, but at the end of each time, it’s so very worth it.” Is she using a normal everyday ordinary thing, and living with the Gospel in mind, intentionally? You bet ya. Is she making a difference? You bet ya.

Another story that circulated to me was a man who was a contractor and wanted to make a difference. He knew that getting up and proclaiming the Gospel in a Sunday service would never be his thing. So he got into several well building classes and applied his previous knowledge and decided he would go. He would go over seas into places with unclean water that were closed or even hostile to the Gospel, and under the guise of a humanitarian. At the end of the day he has had the privilege of building a well, providing water for people, and telling them about the “living water” because he lives intentionally, taking his ordinary talents and making the Gospel Paramount.

So what am I asking you?
Take inventory of your own skills and talents……and ask God how He can use them in light of eternity to make the Gospel Paramount. Ask God to give you a vision for how to use the talents to share Him in a real way with others around you.

Gospel Paramount’s Quote of the Week

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay upon the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him is not to believe that He loves you.

-John Owen, COMMUNION WITH GOD,  Chapter 3

Quote of the Week

“The means or instruments by which the Spirit of God accomplishes our union with Christ, and our fellowship with Him in all holiness, are the gospel, by which Christ enters into our hearts to work faith in us, and faith, by which we actually receive Christ Himself, with all His fullness, into our hearts. And this faith is a grace of the Spirit, by which we heartily believe the gospel and also believe on Christ as He is revealed and freely promised to us in this, for all His salvation.”

Walter Marshall, THE GOSPEL MYSTERY OF SANCTIFICATION, Chapter 4

The UNSPEAKABLE JOY

Luke 15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Today there was a big PHAT DADDY party in heaven and in my heart.
A Sinner was reconciled to the fold of God and  was made alive again.

My DAD who I have been praying for, for 10 years was made a live in Christ.

The problems of his life were exposed for what they are, SIN. (transgressions and inquity against God.)

Then the Good NEWS of the CROSS were delivered as the Bible presents it and by the grace of God he came into the knowledge of

Is. 53:4 ¶ Surely he has borne our griefs

the iniquity of us all.

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted. 

Is. 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed. 

Is. 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him.

Ten years of prayer……..God opening up the eyes of a sinner and making him a son later, WE REJOICE BECAUSE HE IS NOW ALIVE IN CHRIST.

Our Duty?

Our number-one task [duty- emphasis added] as believers is to make sure that nothing- no “god,” object, task, duty, or pleasure-comes before Him in our priorities, in our plans, and in our affection.” (Ron Mehl, The Tender Commandments, p.41)

 

How very true this is, and how oft I fail at making it a reality. The Bible tells us that only one person has ever lived a life that fully incapsulates this statement, and His name is Jesus. Daily Jesus was seeking to be about His father’s business, and everything He did was for His Father’s good pleasure, His Father’s renown, and to satisfy His Father’s wrath through the cross.

Christ lived out His Father’s plan to perfection and was without sin. I fail daily to live for 1 hour without sin. Christ did and said what the Father wanted. I spend countless words on myself, and often act in a selfish manner. Christ took the wrath of God and drank its bitter cup. I caused that cup to have to be borne so that I might go free.

In the law and the duty it requires we see that there is no possible way for us to measure up to what the Father requires of us.

In the Gospel we see the scandal of a perfect man dying to set a filthy wretched one free.
In the Gospel we see perfect forgiveness for our past, present, and future sins.
In the Gospel we see the most stunning picture of love and a Father who now welcomes his adopted sons with upon arms.

2 Corinthians 5:21- For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

So how does this impact us today?
We are now free to live a life that is free from the devastating reality of the law. Romans tells us that we are no longer under the law, but now are under grace.

Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. It was not merely deflected and prevented from reaching us; it was exhausted. Jesus bore the full, unmitigated brunt of it. God’s wrath against sin was unleashed in all its fury on His beloved Son. He held nothing back. (Bridges, “The Gospel for Real Life”, p.54)