“Yes, He is very precious to you who believe!” 1 Peter 2:7
The sense we have of our continual and absolute need of Christ, has a tendency to engage our affections to Him. At our first conversion, when we were turned from darkness to light—we saw ourselves lost—and that none but Christ could save us. We felt the wounds of a guilty conscience—and we knew that He alone could heal them. We trembled before the offended Majesty of God—and we were persuaded that He alone could deliver us from the wrath to come. We saw that there was no remission of sin, no reconciliation with God, no salvation—but through Jesus. Hence He became, at that period—all in all to us.
We still see the absolute necessity of this precious Savior in every respect, so that without Him we can do nothing, as He Himself has told us. We have need of Him . . .
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“You are not your own! For you are bought with a price—therefore glorify God in our body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19
Your eyes are not your own—that you may feed your lusts, that you may go about aping, and gazing, and looking into every shop window to see the fashions of the day—learn the prevailing pride of life—and thus lay up food for your vain mind—either in coveting what must be unfitting to your profession—or applying your money to an improper use—or being disappointed because you cannot afford to buy it.
Your ears are not your own—that you may listen to every foolish tale—drink in every political, worldly, or carnal report which may fall upon them—and thus feed that natural desire for news, gossip, and even slander —which is the very element of the carnal mind.
Your tongue is not your own—that you may speak what you please, and blurt out whatever passes in the chambers of your heart, without check or fear.
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It’s a bit of a strange word picture, the kind that causes you to wonder and to feel just a bit uncomfortable. But it says volumes about what you need and about what it is that God is doing.
If you’re confused about what God’s agenda is in your life, or if it doesn’t always seem like his promises are being fulfilled, then this strange little prayer from Psalm 51 is helpful and clarifying. In his psalm of repentance after his sin against God, Bathsheba, and Uriah, David writes this provocative little prayer, “Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” What in the world is he talking about and how in the world can it give perspective and hope to you and me?
Let me begin to answer with a personal confession. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I have a low tolerance for difficulty. I confess that I am a project-oriented person. I tend to have a specific agenda for each day. I awake knowing exactly what I want to accomplish and what a successful day will look like. I don’t want to have to deal with interruptions or obstacles. I want the people, circumstances and locations to willingly submit to my sovereignty and participate in my plan. All of this means that it’s counterintuitive for me to view difficulty as something beneficial. I have little time or tolerance for “broken bones.”
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“My Father!” Jeremiah 3:4
This is a child’s cry! It is full of meaning. It is full of love. It is full of comfort.
It is a title which the Lord loves to hear us use!
Believer!
To whom will you repair in trouble? To whom will you look in difficulty?
To whom will you cry in danger? From whom will you ask when in need?
Surely I hear you say, “My Father!”
Who speaks to you in the Bible? Who tries you by His providence?
Who chastens you with His rod? Who purifies and cleanses you? Who humbles and reproves you?
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As I consider the state of the evangelical church at the beginning of the twenty-first century, I observe a people who have swapped their faith for a bumper sticker and a church that has been caught up with the wrappings of religion. Many in the church have grown tired of that old-time religion, and they have become enamored with the affluence of get-holy-quick, pop-Christian programs. They have joined arms with the razzlers and the dazzlers of the world’s marketplace, and they have set out on a journey down a yellow-brick road that will lead only to the great and powerful Judge whom they do not recognize, for without even realizing it they have abandoned their first love. For all practical purposes, the person and work of Jesus Christ have become commonplace, and the finished work of Christ’s atonement is largely taken for granted.
Nevertheless, the atoning death of the Lord of glory is never to be regarded merely as a pleasant fact of history. Redemption has been accomplished. God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and He promised that the Christ would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those under the Law for the express purpose that we, His people, might be adopted as sons of God. God’s Word is filled with the story of God’s enduring love for His people. From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals the progress of the salvation of His people culminating in the death of death in the death of the Savior who cried out “It is finished.”
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Jay Dharan is the theological editor at ROE, and also the founding contributor at Beacon of Truth, an Evangelical ministry aimed at promoting the supremacy and sufficiency of the gospel.
Does Not Calvinism Destroy Evangelism?
It is argued that a belief in the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners would dampen the evangelistic fervor of Christians. Many believe that if God has predestined those who will get saved and will efficaciously save them, then there is nothing we Christians need to or can do, in the winning of these souls. Thus they who think so, firmly assert apathy as the end result of believing these doctrines.
However convincing this argument seems, there are some flaws in it. For God is not only the God of ends, but also the God of means. In other words, even though God has foreordained His purposes from the very beginning, He has also ordained certain means by which He will accomplish those purposes. It is when this truth is forgotten in this matter of evangelism that we end up with bad theology. A proper recognition of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and our evangelism will help us see how one is not against the other; but rather one supports and holds the other.
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Tags: Jay Dharan, Jay M Nair
In the divine scheme of salvation the doctrine of faith is central. God addresses His words to faith, and where no faith is, no true revelation is possible. “Without faith it is impossible to please him.”
Every benefit flowing from the atonement of Christ comes to the individual through the gateway of faith. Forgiveness, cleansing, regeneration, the Holy Spirit, all answers to prayer, are given to faith and received by faith. There is no other way. This is common evangelical doctrine and is accepted wherever the cross of Christ is understood.
Because faith is so vital to all our hopes, so necessary to the fulfillment of every aspiration of our hearts, we dare take nothing for granted concerning it. Anything that carries with it so much of weal or woe, which indeed decides our heaven or our hell, is too important to neglect. We simply must not allow ourselves to be uninformed or misinformed. We must know.
For a number of years my heart has been troubled over the doctrine of faith as it is received and taught among evangelical Christians everywhere. Great emphasis is laid upon faith in orthodox circles, and that is good; but still I am troubled. Specifically, my fear is that the modern conception of faith is not the Biblical one; that when the teachers of our day use the word they do not mean what Bible writers meant when they used it.
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“You are not your own! For you are bought with a price—therefore glorify God in our body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19
