Elyse Fitzpatrick. Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 216 pp. $10.19.
I have to confess, I did not know whether or not to expect to like Give them Grace. I’ve read so many parenting books as a biblical counseling student and as a pastor that I could not imagine wanting to read one more. Elyse Fitzpatrick surprised me. This is an excellent little book that puts a well-defined, biblically-rich gospel presentation at the center of how we parent our children.
Fitzpatrick does not write her book as another how-to-parent guide. She instead centers all that she recommends parents do on the gospel. For example, when parents see their children doing good things, this is an opportunity for them to remind their children that this is Christlike, but it is also not what makes them right with God. When parents see their children doing wrong things, it is an opportunity to remind children that we all do wrong things, and that Christ is our only hope. I have never read a book that does such a good job of keeping our need for Christ and his grace at the center of parenting conversations.
On the down side, not all the recommended conversations in the book sound like conversations I could picture myself having. Some of the recommended things to say are just too perfect. However, I do not consider this to be something that really detracts from the book. We all know that we cannot script our conversations with our children. Fitzpatrick does a great job for us in attempting to lay out some conversational guidelines that we all should be bright enough to tailor to our own words and communication style.
I will be recommending this book highly to parents. It challenged me to consider how the gospel of Jesus impacts my own life on a day-to-day basis. It helped me to consider how to praise and correct my children with Christ at the center. It reminded me that the sovereign God, not my parenting skill, is the One who will save my children if they are saved. There is correction, joy, pain, and comfort in this work that I think any growing Christian parent can benefit from.
I received a free audio copy of this work from ChristianAudio.com as part of their reviewers program. It was beautifully read by Tavia Gilbert, who may have just become my favorite ChristianAudio.com narrator.
Make Growing in God’s Word a Top Priority (Luke 2:43-47)
Luke 2:43-47
43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
At the end of the festival, it was time to travel home. Because of the distance and the dangers, people who made this trip did so in large groups or caravans. Joseph and Mary traveled a full day’s journey from Jerusalem and, amazingly, nobody had Jesus with them.
Before we are too hard on Mary and Joseph, let’s consider that either of the two could have assumed that the other had Jesus, especially if they were separated in the caravan. Jesus was 12. He was still young enough to be with Mary and the women and children. But he was bordering on manhood, and thus could have been with Joseph and the men. Besides, the children of many families were together, and it was just easy to assume that Jesus would have been with them. But he wasn’t.
Can you imagine the moment when it dawned on Mary that Jesus was missing? It’s not like she has lost just any kid. This is the boy that an angel came to tell her was coming. This was the boy who would fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel. This is the boy over whom Simeon and Anna prophesied in the temple. Just think of it, humanity has one shot at salvation, and Mary left him behind at the temple.
I’m being a little silly here. Mary is a mom. Her boy is missing. She does not know where he is. I’d guess that this is what fills her mind.
As soon as it is light the next day, you can imagine Mary and Joseph racing back toward Jerusalem. It probably did not take the full day to get back, but it would have been close. Thus, it took until the third day for them to finally make their way to the temple.
What did Mary and Joseph find when they reached the temple? They found their boy. He was not hurt. He was not frantically looking for them. No, Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among others learning from the finest scholars of the day, asking and answering questions.
Let’s notice something special about Jesus here. He was 12. He was sitting among a body of PhD level students. He was participating in the conversation. No, he was not the teacher. But he was understanding what was being said and he was asking intelligent questions. This young man was fitting in with the big boys at the finest center of learning about God’s word that existed in that day. How good were Jesus’ answers and questions? Verse 47 says that people were amazed at Jesus’ answers and understanding.
What happened here? Jesus did what we too must do as believers, he made learning Gods’ word a top priority. Even though Jesus was God, in his humanity, he still learned and grew. When he had the chance to sit at the feet of the best teachers in the nation, he took it.
Besides worshipping Christ, one of the things that we are committed to doing as a church is growing together in Christ. Simply put, this means that we learn to love one another and to be more like Jesus. And let me say with absolute clarity, there is no growth in Christ without growth in the word of God.
The Bible is the way God speaks to us. The Bible is God’s perfect revelation of himself to mankind. It is breathed out by God. As 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us, it is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. The Bible is what teaches us God’s standards and how we fall short. The Bible is what teaches us about the wonderful grace of God. The Bible is how we know how to worship God, to serve him from day-to-day, and to tell others about him. Without his word, we do not grow.
If Jesus, even at age 12, found it necessary to stay at the temple for 3 days to hear the wisdom of the best teachers in his day, do you not think that we should commit ourselves to the study of God’s word? How do you do that?
· Come to worship.
· Have a daily quiet time in the word.
· Connect with a small group.
· Get into a mentoring relationship with a mature believer.
· Take classes that we offer to help you go deeper in the faith.
Make it a priority in your life, a top priority in your life, to learn, understand, and obey the word of God. This is crucial to your growth. Parents, teach Gods’ word to your children. Youth, study Gods’ word for yourself. Do what you must do to make his word an essential part of your daily life.
Make Worship a Top Priority
The following is the first point of a sermon that I preached at FBC Columbia this past Sunday:
Luke 2:41-42
41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.
When God gave his law to his people, one command was that the men of Israel were to travel to his holy city for certain annual feasts. These feasts were special times of worship that God’s people were not to neglect.
Luke points out to us that Joseph and Mary were devout followers of God’s law. They went up to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration every year. Back in verse 39, we saw that they had done all that God’s law required when Jesus was born. Now we see them making the trip to Jerusalem a priority. Interestingly, Mary travels with Joseph on these trips. Women, according to most scholars, were not required to attend these events. For the whole family to make the trip shows that they were a family devoted to the worship of God.
Next we learn that Jesus was with them when he was 12-years-old. This is not to say that this was Jesus’ first trip with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem, but this was a significant one. Age 12 was very likely Jesus’ last year to be considered a child. He did not have to go to Jerusalem for Passover yet. But next year, when Jesus would be 13, he would be required to keep the law as a man in his society.
Let’s stop right here for a moment and draw a point of application. We see something good and right being done and even commended in Scripture, so let’s try to apply it to our own lives and homes. Make worship a top priority.
You have heard us say to you that, in our church, we are committed to three things. We worship Christ, we grow together in Christ, and we impact the world for Christ. This first point of application fits that first purpose. We, as the people of God, are committed to worshipping Christ, which means we love Jesus and live for his glory in all that we do.
Worship has a formal and an informal aspect to it. Whenever you do what you do and think what you think and avoid what you avoid for the glory of God, you participate in worship. Thus, you worship God and show him as glorious when you refuse a second dessert so as not to be a glutton. You worship Jesus when you tell your children a Bible story for God’s glory. You worship Jesus when you refuse to cheat on an exam in order not to disobey God’s commands.
But we also know that worship has a formal aspect to it as well. Here on Sunday morning, we are gathered to worship. We, in an intentional way, participate in activities that demonstrate that God is our King and we are his subjects, that he is glorious, and that we are dependent on him. We pray together. We give our offerings, we sing. We hear God’s word read and taught. We respond to Gods’ word with joy and obedience and repentance. All of these are aspects of worship, and they are vital to the life of any believer.
If we are to learn from Joseph and Mary in this account, let us learn to make worship a top priority in our lives. Joseph and Mary made the trip to Jerusalem for a formal ceremony and festival of worship every year. Remember, this family was poor. They had to walk for three days to get to Jerusalem. They had small children, Jesus’ half-brothers and half-sisters. Nothing about this trip would have been easy for them, but Joseph and Mary made worship a priority.
How about you? Do you make worship a priority? Is being together with the people of God to declare the glory of God a big deal to you? Do you feel like you have missed something important when you miss it? How big a thing has to come up for you to say to yourself that you can skip a week of formal worship?
Let me add in something for the parents who are among us here. Joseph and Mary worshipped God and brought Jesus with them. Parents, it is vital that your children see you worship. I’m not saying that seeing you worship will guarantee your child’s salvation or even his or her good behavior. However, if you are going to call your children to have faith in Christ, you should be modeling for them what it means to worship Christ. They should see that you have joy in your salvation. They should see that you repent of sin. They should see that you give freely and cheerfully. They should see that you sing, even if your voice is not perfect, for the glory of the Lord who is above all. They should see that you value the preaching of God’s word and that your life changes because of what you hear. They should know, even if they can’t understand all that you are hearing or doing, that something special and very important happens when you worship your Savior. Make worship a top priority.
Handling Pain (Psalm 22:1-3)
Psalm 22:1-3
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
One of the beauties of the psalms is the fact that these prayers and songs so often reflect the genuine hardship of life. The psalms, unlike modern prosperity preachers, remind us that living in the family of God is not easy. Often we suffer. Often we do not get what we want. Often things go far differently than we expect.
Psalm 22 is a perfect example of such a psalm. In it, the psalmist is suffering greatly. Verses 1-2 show us that he is despairing and feeling forsaken. How much anguish is in his soul? He expresses such sorrow that this psalm is the one on the lips of our Lord Jesus as he was crucified and suffered the wrath of God for sins he had not committed.
How do we deal with it when we feel forsaken? How should we respond when things have gone badly for us? Look at verse 3, and find the answer. David, in his pain, in his deep suffering, makes one solid declaration that puts everything in right perspective. David says of God, “Yet you are holy.”
When things do not go our way, we often feel unfairly treated. If our dark hearts are allowed to vent the poison of our sin, they will accuse God of mistreating us. WE are apt to feel like Eve in the garden and believe that God has held back something good from us that we deserve to have.
So, what do we do to overcome these feelings? The answer is, like the psalmist, to focus on the holiness of God. God is perfect, and infinitely so. God’s perfection makes him utterly different than us, above us, superior to us. He does not owe us ease. He cannot mistreat us, because he is the very definition of good. Anything that he gives us that is less than hell is mercy. Thus we can never be forsaken by God, If he forgives our sin and makes us his children, there is nothing in this life that we can go through that is wrong for God to allow.
Think of how many of God’s children have suffered greatly. David was chased by a murderous King Saul. Job was afflicted by Satan himself under the sovereign plan of God. Joseph was sold as a slave. Paul, Peter, James, and countless others in the family of God were imprisoned and put to death for their faith. Even the Son of God suffered humiliation and execution at the hands of sinful men. Yet, in all these, God has never ceased to be perfect, holy, and always right.
What we must understand is that the ways of a holy God are not our ways. God is wiser than us. He knows more of what he is doing than we can. He will refine us through the crucible of suffering. HE will give us the joy of seeing his glory as we trust in him through hardships. He will prove himself as perfect in eternity as he rewards his followers with his perfect love and kindness.
So, when we suffer or when things do not go our way, let us remember that God is holy. He is perfect. He cannot fail. As 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 reminds us, this life is short. Our momentary afflictions will be as nothing when they are compared to an eternity of perfection. The always right, always perfect, infinitely holy God will never wrong us. He may let us go through hardships, but he will never ultimately forsake us. Let us trust him and know that his ways are as far above ours as the heavens are above the earth.
Responding to Failure (Acts 13:13)
Acts 13:13
Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,
How do you deal with it when you fail as a Christian? You know, of course, that we all fail, and sometimes royally. I can look back over life experiences as a believer, even as a pastor, and see things that I messed up completely. How should we deal with it?
When Paul and his group set out on the missionary journey of Acts 13, they brought along John Mark. Mark, the young relative of Barnabas, failed. He flaked out and left the mission team without his support. We don’t know why. Did he conflict with somebody? Did he get homesick? Did he just wimp out? All we know is that he left.
Recognize that this decision of Mark’s was a big deal. It had consequences that rippled through the church. Paul and Barnabas could no longer work together in future ministry when they disagreed over how to respond to Mark. What John Mark did caused big problems. It was the kind of gaff that would make any of us think that our ministry lives or at least our usefulness was at an end.
But if we read to the end of the story, all the way toward the end of Paul’s life, we find out that Paul thought Mark was a very important friend and fellow minister. Writing to timothy, Paul said, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).
I have often heard these snippets of Marks’ life preached with a strong focus on forgiveness and reconciliation. Usually we emphasize Paul’s forgiving spirit. But I think we can also learn from Mark. I do not think there is any doubt that Mark knew he messed up. Could Mark have thought himself a failure in ministry? Finally he gets a chance to do some real mission work, and what happens? He blows it, that is what happens. Could Mark have ever seen himself as possibly useful again? Apparently so, because he became such an important tool in the hand of God that he penned one of the four gospels.
There are failures that men can commit that will disqualify them from pastoral ministry. I do not at all ignore that truth. However, there are also failures that we can experience that scar us, but which do not end our usefulness to God. Even those men disqualified from pastoral ministry have the ability to serve the Lord well in the future in other capacities if they repent. The point here is that we need to recognize that no past failure renders us useless for the Kingdom of God. No bad experience, no botched mission trip, no dropped ball, no bad committee chairmanship, no rough job experience is enough to make us no longer part of God’s plan. God has the ability to use any of us, even those of us who have failed miserably at different times, to accomplish his will for his glory and our joy.
Not So Sweet Speech (Acts 13:8-12)
Acts 13:8-12
8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
How important is it that Christians look and sound nice at all times? If you observed the lives of many saints, there seems to be a belief among American Christians that says that we have to be syrupy sweet at all times if we are ever going to see anyone come to faith in our Lord.
However, If you look at the words of Paul above, you will notice that sweetness was not his only distinguishing quality. I am sure that Paul, at times, was very loving, kind, and gracious—all believers will be if they are truly believers. But when something evil was taking place around Paul, when a man was intentionally opposing the things of God, Paul did not speak with the tone of Ned Flanders from the Simpsons. No, Paul look the evildoer right in the eye and called him a son of the devil and enemy of all righteousness. That’s pretty harsh.
After Paul called this man very ugly names, he then pronounced a curse on him that left him without sight. Paul was willing that this man go through hardships because of his opposition to the Lord. Paul did not seem to think that doing so might potentially hinder this man’s salvation. Paul did not try to win this man with kindness. Instead, Paul spoke truth and pronounced a right judgment. The results of Paul’s words and actions were that God was glorified and others came to faith.
Christians, sappy sweetness is not the tool by which we will win the world. Yes, we show love; Jesus commanded us to do so. We are to love each other and the lost world. We are kind as often as we can be. But we do not change dead hearts to living ones by coating all our words and actions with sugar. No, we also must be, like Paul, people with the backbone to stand for what is right and to speak the truth. We need to be willing to call sin exactly what it is, even if that offends a lost person. No, we cannot assume that lost people will live by Christian standards. However, neither should we think that we do the lost any good by pretending that all the things that they do that oppose God are OK.
It is a hard line we have to walk. How do we speak the truth in love, even when that truth is harsh? How do we know when to speak with grace and when to call sin out? The answer to this question is wisdom. We need God’s wisdom. We need God’s Spirit. We need to walk closely with our Lord and prayerfully ask him to give us the right desires. We need to ask God to help us to know when to speak strongly and when to speak sweetly. We desperately need our Lord to guide us and to give us the grace and the courage to do what needs to be done to help the lost world know the truth of God.
Eternal Perspective Enables Forgiveness (Genesis 45:4-5)
Genesis 45:4-5 (ESV)
4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
We find ourselves looking at a tense scene. Joseph has again met his brothers (brothers who had sold him into slavery years earlier) and told his brothers who he is. As you might imagine, these men who formerly hated and abused their brother are terrified to see him sitting in a position of power over them. Joseph literally holds their lives in his hands. He has the power to have them thrown into prison or executed.
What would you do if you were Joseph? How would you feel? Would you want to get back at these men for the hurt they caused you? Would you want them to suffer to make up for the suffering you went through? Would you want to gloat over the fact that you are now the master while they are in your power? Would you want to remind them that your dreams from twenty-something years ago were indeed true?
Joseph says something to his brothers that is unheard of. Though his brothers did him great damage, Joseph says, “do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.” How in the world can Joseph look at these men and tell them not to worry about the wrong that they did?
Some would presume that Joseph saw the sadness in his brothers when they talked about him thinking he was gone forever. Some would say that Joseph realized that his brothers were truly sorry. Maybe so, but the fact still remains that many of us would have far too bitter a heart to even consider the state of the brothers’ hearts. Many of us would be out for blood the moment we found out that we had them in our power.
Not Joseph. Joseph had a heart that was tender and forgiving. He does not pretend that nothing wrong happened, but something about Joseph gave him the perspective that he needed to be able to tell his brothers that he was not holding a grudge against them for what they had done to him. What was it? Joseph tells us when he says, “for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Joseph was looking at his situation with his brothers from a bigger-picture perspective. He saw that God had a bigger plan than any of them could have dreamed. Joseph understood that, though his brothers were terribly wrong, totally evil in what they did to him, God had something greater that he was accomplishing. Though all that the brothers did to Joseph was evil, God was working all things together for good.
What about you? Do you have that kind of perspective that we see in Joseph? Can you look back over your life, even at the things that hurt you deeply, and see that even your pains and struggles and hardships are tools that God has used to teach you of his mercy and grace? Can you recognize that the shadows that you have walked through have opened for you opportunities to glorify God, to enjoy his kindness, to tell others of his provision?
Let’s face it, all of us have been through hardships at one point or another. We have all been wronged by people whether they were family members, coworkers, or maybe even fellow church members. How can we be like Joseph and have hearts that are eager to forgive?
The best answer that I can give, and the one that I think the Bible bears out for us time and time again, is that we must have a larger-than-this-life view of our circumstances. We must understand that God is in the picture and not absent.
Picture in your mind the two beams of a cross. One is vertical and the other horizontal. Before you can be ready to become a person who offers horizontal forgiveness, forgiveness between fellow human beings, you must first be a person who understands his or her vertical relationship with God. Consider where you stand before God. God is perfect, and endlessly so. All of us have fallen short of God’s perfection, and endlessly so. God, as a just judge, rightly could have punished us by casting us into hell forever for the endless offense of our rebellion against him. But God, rather than throwing us into hell at our first sin, chose to send his own Son to earth to die as a substitute for the sins of people like you and me. God moved to forgive us.
If you have been forgiven by an endlessly holy God, forgiven an endless offense, how can you not, before God, desire to offer forgiveness to those who have wronged you. You may not be able to actually transact forgiveness with them. You may never get a chance to talk with them. They may never choose to repent and agree with you that they need to be forgiven. But, when we recognize who God is and how great is our own forgiveness, we, in our hearts, will begin to learn that, before God, we do not hold grudges against those who have hurt us in the past.
Trust me, I know this can take time. None of us becomes instantly perfect when we are saved by Jesus. None of us will find this heart change easy. Some will battle with this stuff for years. Joseph, as you may remember, had not seen his brothers for twenty years. But, as Joseph saw from a bigger picture perspective, he understood that the wrong that his brothers did him actually helped to put Joseph in the position he now occupied. Joseph knew that he was able to help others, to save lives and protect his family, because of the horrible circumstances that he had been put through.
So, what should we learn from Joseph’s example here? Keep an eternal perspective in order to have a soft and forgiving spirit. Instead of looking at the short-term, small picture, pray that God will remind you of his eternal plan. Ask him to let you think beyond the bounds of a few years, or even a few decades. Ask God to show you that, in eternity, we will see that he truly worked all things, even our most painful things, together for good according to his plan.
Simple Church – A Review
Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples. Nashville: B&H Books, 2006. 272 pp. $12.94.
Do we need another stat-filled book offering churches another way to organize themselves in order to maximize their effectiveness, reach more people, heighten fellowship, stir excitement, encourage evangelism, and all the rest? It would be nice if we had no use for such works; but the fact is, we do. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger have collaborated to bring to us a work that is by no means earth-shattering, yet is somehow hitting a note that many of us miss. I’m not a big fan of the Church Growth Movement, but I like what Rainer, head of Lifeway Christian Resources, sets before us in the pages of this work.
In Simple Church, Rainer and Geiger show us the results of a study performed on several churches, examining the differences between vibrant and declining congregations. The authors point out four major things that growing and vibrant churches have in common, all of which lead to the churches being simple churches. The four aspects are clarity, movement, alignment, and focus. Each of these words relates to a church’s vision. Is that vision clear and simply understandable? Is that vision a process through which members move to reach maturity? Is that vision aligned throughout the church so that it is the same for each ministry? Is the church focused enough on that vision that they will do away with superfluous activities, even if those activities are generally OK things?
On the positive side, I found myself challenged to think about the church I am serving to consider how we might simplify our ministries. I was encouraged to work with the staff to clarify our vision, to develop the discipleship process, to get others on-board with the plan, and to eliminate things that are not part of who we want to be. The authors make a sweet and strong case for churches not wasting their time and energy on things that are unnecessary for the growth of the Kingdom of God.
Contrary to what I expected from the book’s title and from what I had previously heard, Simple Church is not merely a book about cutting away unnecessary programs. The authors call on pastors and church leaders to know how they will help believers to move from their first contact with the church to deep discipleship. This concept is more than a scheduling issue; it is a focus issue. A church’s leadership must know both what a disciple looks like and how they intend to help people progress toward that point.
At the same time, I would have liked for two strong sections to have been added to this book. The first and most important section that I would have liked to have seen would have been a more theological section in which Rainer and Geiger show the simple church life in a church that is more doctrinally rather than pragmatically centered. What does the simple church concept look like in a theologically rich and deep church? Would it look different than it would in a more seeker-driven congregation? Honestly, most of the things that the authors mention only make sense when considering a very program-heavy congregation.
Secondly, and perhaps surprisingly considering my first critique, I also would have liked to have seen a more nuts and bolts approach to implementing a simple church model. I know that the authors gave us a few examples of simple churches and spelled out the concept well. At the same time, many pastors are sitting in messy circumstances. How does one go about developing the vision, clarifying it, getting others to buy in, and implementing it in such a way as to not lose anything that we are called to do or be in the process?
Overall, I am very glad to have read Simple Church. Rainer and Geiger challenged me to think deeply about communication and structure in our local congregation. Hopefully the good questions that I am asking will lead to positive discussions with others and eventually positive growth in God’s church. I would recommend this work to others who need to think more deeply on their church’s vision and structure, especially if such a one has not been communicating to his people what the church is about or how to take the next step in the discipleship process.
A Test of Salvation (Matthew 7:21-23)
Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Where do you stand before God? Are you his child? Are you, as the saints of yesteryear so often put it, saved? How do you know? How can you tell if you will go to heaven when you die?
Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, gives us a very clear challenge for our thinking about this topic. There is a test to see if someone’s conversion is genuine. What is that test? Obedience to the commands of the Lord is the test that Jesus gives us.
We know from other passages of Scripture that no person will be right with God simply by being good enough or following enough rules. Paul tells us in Romans 3:20, “…For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” So, before you make this mistake, recognize that you cannot make yourself right with God by following the rules.
The only way to be right with God is by God’s grace. God grants that grace to us through faith in Jesus Christ as the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9. Thus, the way to be made right with God is by fully trusting in the finished work of Jesus for your entire eternity. If all of your hope for all of your soul’s forever is placed in Jesus and Jesus alone, you have been made into a child of God. If you have cried out to Jesus for rescue, you are his. As John 1:12 tells us, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Why then the test that Jesus mentions above? There are many people in the world who claim to have a relationship with God through Jesus. What Jesus tells us is simple. If a person claims to have a relationship with God, to be forgiven by grace through faith, but that person does not obey the commands of God, that person is mistaken. A person who is saved will be changed. A person who is changed will obey. Of course we will not obey perfectly, as we are still in a fallen world; however, we will obey more and more of God’s commands as time goes on if we are truly his children.
Jesus goes on to add that religious expression and religious experience is no gage of salvation. The people who are confused about their salvation, who think they are saved and are not, will want to argue their own case. Some will look back on ecstatic experiences, charismatic expressions, prophecies, spiritual warfare moments, etc. to claim that they are truly saved. But Jesus makes it plain that such experiences are no true tests. Obedience is the test, not supernatural spiritual experiences or feelings.
Do not let this post frighten you. Instead, simply turn to Jesus and be sure of your salvation. Put your whole trust for your whole soul in Jesus. Cry out to him for mercy because of the sacrifice he made on the cross and the fact that he rose from the grave. Jesus will forgive all who truly call on him. Then, once you have trusted in Jesus, follow him faithfully. This is how we know we are saved: Our trust is in Jesus and our lives are marked by obedience and repentance.
Would you Obey (Acts 5:17-21a)
Acts 5:17-21a (ESV)
17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
When the disciples were put into prison for preaching Jesus, they did not stay there long. God sent them an angel to release them and to charge them to keep on preaching. Had you been among them, what would you have done? Would you have obeyed the angel? Even though it would likely cost you a beating or possibly even your life, would you have obeyed the charge of the angel?
I’m guessing, Christian, that you read this and think to yourself, “Of course I would obey the angel.” After all, the disciples were talking to an angel. They received their marching orders from a supernatural being. They understood that God had the power to do miracles and protect them if he so chose. Why not obey the angel and preach the word, even in a hostile environment?
Why not indeed? Here we sit in a far more gentle environment. Few of us have ever been threatened with prison or physical violence for telling others about Jesus. All of us have received from the Lord Jesus the call to go and make disciples of all the nations (cf. Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus, of course, is a supernatural being who outranks the angel that the disciples heard from, because Jesus is God the Son. We have our commission; it came from God himself. Our circumstances are easier than that of the disciples. Why, then, do we refuse to obey?
Let us take stock of ourselves and our lives. Our Savior is worthy of our lives, our discomfort, our deaths. If we are called to tell our friends, neighbors, and families about the Lord Jesus, we must do so. Let these thoughts encourage you. Confess your sin. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your lack of evangelistic zeal. Learn what you need to know to be able to share the gospel with others. And then, obey the Lord Jesus by simply choosing to open your mouth, take the risk, and tell somebody about the Savior.
Pastor Travis Peterson 