A West Texas reader responds to my comment that God forgives repentant people who do not conform precisely to his commands. "Is that really just?" he asked. * * * Yours is a most perceptive question which takes us to the very heart of the gospel. For without considering what God has done in Jesus Christ, the answer must be an emphatic "No!" We do not deserve God's kindness and we never will. No one who is finally saved will receive "justice" based on his or her own performance. Yet the "good news" of the gospel is that God gives us sinners what we do not deserve. He treats us in a way that … [Read more...]
JESUS AND OUR SIN
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "You said that Jesus was without sin. But didn't he become a sinner by taking on our sins? Isn't this why he was forsaken by God on the cross?" * * * Indeed, Jesus was the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). God made him "who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5:21). He "became a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). It is as if the cross of Jesus was a cosmic lightning rod planted squarely in the middle of the universal storm of divine judgment, a judgment that built in … [Read more...]
WAS THE CROSS NECESSARY?
A gracEmail reader asks, "Was the cross necessary in order for God to forgive our sins? Did Jesus have to die in order for God to love us sinners?" Part 1 Jesus considered it imperative that he be murdered (Matt. 16:21) by crucifixion (Luke 24:7) and that he be "counted with the transgressors" (Luke 22:37). These things were "necessary" because the Father's own love and holiness made it so, not because of something external to God himself which God was bound to obey. Nor were these things imposed on an unwilling Jesus by a determined Father, for Jesus "gave himself" (Gal. 2:20). Jesus' … [Read more...]
HE MADE THE CHOICE
For our sake Jesus "suffered" (Heb. 13:12) the "suffering of death" (Heb. 2:9). He experienced physical pain we cannot imagine. There is a reason the root of "excruciating" is the Latin word for "cross." It began with a bloody scourging followed by savage pummeling. A crown of thorns, pressed down, punctured his scalp. Metal spikes impaled his wrists, securing him to the wooden cross-beam. Then he hung suspended for hours while every muscle cramped and every nerve was set on edge, until finally, mercifully, death ended it all. Yet the Bible focuses more on the suffering of shame and … [Read more...]
ANIMAL SACRIFICES: WHY & WHY NOT?
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "Why did God command the Israelites to bring animal sacrifices as sin-offerings, and why did those sin-offerings stop after Jesus died and rose again?" * * * Those animal sacrifices reminded the Israelites of God’s greatest desire—that they love him with all their hearts, and show their love by keeping his commandments. The sacrifices also reminded them of their own failure ever to do that. And they pointed to a future Messiah who would give God what he had always wanted. To say it a different way, God asked from every Israelite the living sacrifice of a … [Read more...]
BITTER TOWARD CHURCH – 1
A gracEmail subscriber is struggling with bitterness toward his church heritage. He loves God and reveres Jesus as Savior but has lost interest in attending public worship, reading the Bible or praying. If he leaves the church in which he was raised, his father would consider him lost to God. He is silently resentful when his children come home from Bible class and relate their lessons with which he totally disagrees. "I'm stuck," he says. "I'm frustrated, I'm bitter, and needing some advice. I'm also willing to admit part of the problem is me but I don't know how to overcome it." * … [Read more...]
PUTTING IT TOGETHER, TOGETHER
Someone asks how it is that I do not fit the mold of any particular denomination, and agree at times with various groups across Christendom. Is not that being unfaithful to the tradition in which I was reared and to which I belong? * * * I am convinced that each major Christian group began by a move of God's Spirit to recover, renew or restore some element of Christian teaching, life or experience which was then dormant, lagging or lacking in the church at large. All of us need all the truth -- and we should not fail to receive it just because someone else found it first. We must also … [Read more...]
ALIKE OR DIFFERENT?
Every Christian denomination, nondenomination or subgroup faces the constant tension between a desire to focus on Jesus Christ, the core gospel, and the truths which Christians share alike, and a desire to emphasize its own history and purpose and the issues which distinguish it from other Christians. This is particularly true when the group was founded to reform or to renew the existing church, or to restore the original or ancient church of the first or early centuries. Individuals in group also tend to reflect one or the other of these points of view. Some people are converted to Jesus … [Read more...]
THE SHADOW OF SECTARIANISM
Churches in Hawaii and other exotic locations regularly see a considerable number of visitors, often outnumbering the local residents. One Sunday this month (September 2009), our Maui assembly included vacationers from Churches of Christ in Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and California, holding doctrinal opinions as diverse as the places they called home. It is a joyful thing to receive fellow-believers because they love and follow Christ, without having to apply some creedal litmus test to determine their worthiness. Unfortunately, not everyone yet experiences that particular joy, as a visitor at … [Read more...]
FINDING A CONGENIAL CHURCH HOME
A Southern gentleman who calls himself a "born-and-bred" member of the Churches of Christ "of the 'everybody's going to hell but us' school of thought," but who personally renounced that thinking 30 years ago, writes to say he is seeking a church home. He lives 100 miles from a congenial Church of Christ. Nearby Christian Churches and Disciples of Christ are "few and basically lifeless." He loves the "good people and minister" of the Presbyterian church he presently attends and believes they are saved. However, he lacks "peace of heart" and cannot "be comfortable and happy with some of their … [Read more...]
