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A Crucial Crucifixion

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.  (James 2:10 ESV)

The law is a package deal. If you keep one law, you must keep them all. When you break one law, you have broken all of them and are found guilty. We carry the law as a heavy weight on our shoulders. We are sad when we can’t achieve, disappointed when we can’t perform. We’re never good enough, never quite make it, never get it just right. The law is perfect, and when we fail in one point, we have failed in all points and we are judged guilty.

But there’s good news. Don’t miss this.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19-20 ESV)

If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have been crucified with Christ. This is great truth and sometimes hard to grasp. Notice the grammar of the statement: “I have been crucified.” This is the present perfect tense—denoting an event in the past with continuing effects. When were we crucified?   When Jesus died. Jesus died a substitutionary death—he died in our place. He stood in on our behalf.

The law that brought to Paul the awareness of sin, and the guilt to you, brought Christ to the cross. And on the cross, he died, once for all, for the sins of all people. The law always required a sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice was perfect—the law was perfect. Jesus’s sacrifice was complete, fulfilling the obligations of the law. When you chose to accept Christ, whether you knew it or not, you accepted Him as your representative before God and His death as fulfilling the law.

How should this change the way we live?

One word: focus. Do you focus on your sin problem or on the One who freed you from your sin problem? When you fail, do you wallow in guilt, or turn to the One who took your failures to the cross and seek His forgiveness?

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Heaven on Earth

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23 ESV)

You have a choice. If you sin, you will sin more and more. One sin leads to another. When you present yourself to your old habits, you heighten the desire for more sin. And you can’t get enough. Before you know it, you are engaging in sin you thought you would never commit. You look back and wonder how you ended up where you are. If you do the right thing, you will do the right thing more and more.   One act of obedience leads to another…and another…and another. As you continually obey, the old habits begin to fade. You are no longer feeding your flesh. Your will sin less and less.

For when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. In other words, before Christ, when you were enslaved to sin, you had no desire to please God—righteousness had no claim on your life.

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:21 ESV)  What fruit were you producing before you came to know Christ? What fruit came from your life—that life that you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. There is pleasure in sin for a while—but sin always leads to death.   “What kind of death?” you may ask. For the believer who engages in sin, sin leads to spiritual death. When a believer continually sins, his is a death-like existence. He dies a spiritual death. There is an inner turmoil that drains him emotionally and physically. His life is a living nightmare and he feels trapped between what he knows to be the right thing (that’s the Holy Spirit working on the inside) and the wrong thing he continually does.

There is good news. Look at verse 22. But now. Now—that’s today. That you have been set free from sin (you no longer have to report to the old master) and have become slaves of God (you have a new master), the fruit you get (there are great rewards from this new master), leads to sanctification (living the life that pleases God), and its end, eternal life.

And finally, Paul paints the picture in terms that we are able to understand. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. When the Christ-follower engages in sin, her paycheck is death. When the believer is enslaved to obedience, her paycheck is eternal quality of life. Her life on this earth will have an eternal nature that she thought before was impossible.

This is what I call Heaven on earth.

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Jesus, the Selfless Master

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18 ESV)

Either: you have a choice. You can either obey sin or you can obey righteousness. No longer must you show up to the taskmaster of your own flesh and say “yes.” You can say, “no.” Why does Paul saturate this description with slave language? A slave among the Romans was considered his master’s property, and he could do with him as he wanted. Under a bad master, the slave lived a dreadful life. His ease and comfort were of no concern; he was treated worse than an animal; and, in many cases, his life hung on the mere whim of the master.

That’s what the old slave master, sin, does. Satan cares nothing for you. And when you come to Christ, his hatred for you intensifies. Your old nature, the sinful nature that you possessed when you came to Christ, you still have. Deep within you is the desire to sin. When you give in to that old sin nature, you are throwing away the freedom given you in Christ. Your own evil lusts and appetites become your most cruel taskmasters.

The truth is that you choose your master—and you do not have to show up at your master’s house one more day. You can be free. As a Christ-follower, slavery to sin is voluntary.   Look at what Paul says. You are a slave either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.

Why use the same term, slave, to refer to believers? It more forcibly shows that we are our Master’s property; and that, as he is infinitely good his service must be perfect freedom.   Jesus Christ asks no obedience from us that he does not turn to our eternal advantage because He has no self-interest to secure. You see, before Christ, you had no choice. The temptation came along, you gave in, and you fell to it. Now you have a choice. You have God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, living inside you. When temptation comes, you don’t have to say yes.

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Who’s Your Master?

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16 ESV)

Every day we present ourselves—either to God or to Satan, either to the Spirit or to our flesh, either to the ministry of the Church or the ways of the world.

Obedience results in slavery.

Maybe you struggle with this statement. Let me ask you a question. How many of you thought about how to put on your shoes this morning? How many of you actually thought about the way you brush your teeth? You didn’t. You’ve done it for years. It is, as we say, “second nature.”

So what happens? Before you come to know Christ, you have habits—bad habits—that you already practiced. In some cases, God immediately frees people from those habits. For others, freedom is a process. Healing doesn’t take place over night. That old habit still wants to be your master. You still find yourself waking up with a bad attitude. You lose your temper with small things. You still think lustful thoughts. “Why is this happening?” you may think. “What is going on inside me? I thought God changed my life. I gave my heart to Christ, yet I still struggle.”

The question is, “To whom or what do you present yourself.”To present is to hand oneself over, to surrender oneself. If slavery is not optional, if you are going to be slaves of the one you obey, the problem comes when what you obey is the sinful desires that dominated your life before you came to Christ. Did you present yourself to God or to your old habits today? Did you offer your body to God for His service or did you give Satan an opportunity to establish a stronghold in your life?

Whoever you obey becomes your master.

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Walk Down a Different Street

This is my version of a poem originally written by Portia Nelson. I didn’t agree completely with some of her statements, so I adjusted them. Some of you need to walk down a different street today. Not tomorrow…today.

Day 1: Today I walked down a street. I fell into a hole. I did not see the hole until I had fallen in. I climbed out.

Day 2: Today I walked down the same street. I saw the hole. I knew it was there all along. I got caught up in the crowd and fell into the hole again. I climbed out.

Day 3: Today I walked down the street. I knew right where the hole was. All of a sudden, my attention was drawn to an accident. And before I had realized it, I had fallen into the hole again. I climbed out.

Day 4: Today I walked down the street. I saw the hole ahead of time and I walked on the other side of the street.

Day 5: Today I walked down a different street.

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The Underestimated Power of Sin

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. (Romans 6:12 ESV)

Sin is tenacious. Sin is powerful. Sin is persistent. Sin is dominant. Sin is controlling. Sin is devastating. If you doubt the power of sin, consider Josh Gordon’s story:

Josh Gordon is a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. He is 23 years old and his annual salary is $1.3 million. He was suspended for ten games of the 2014 season because he could not say no to marijuana. A failed drug test sealed his fate. Now his playing ability for 2015 is in jeopardy. He has tested positive for alcohol. Gordon has opportunities that any athlete would only dream about…yet he is rocked by the reality that he can’t resist the temptation of drugs and alcohol.

Sin is controlling. Sin is not content as a guest in the throne room of your life. Sin will insist on being king on the very throne of your heart–sin will reign. And once sin reigns, it will call the shots, choose your course, determine your destination.

The Cleveland Browns are dealing with another potential rising star who’s mesmerized with sin. Consider this post today on nbcsports.com.

Browns head coach Mike Pettine just said that he has to approach this offseason as if he’s looking for a starting quarterback, saying “it’s probably accurate” to think that’s the team’s approach.

Pettine said he visited Manziel in rehab last week, and that “he has our full support.”

“He’s in a much better place now than before he went in,” Pettine said. “We’re proud of him. . . .

“We had the same information everyone else in the League had. It turns out to be a deeper-rooted thing that we thought.”

The support for their quarterback at a human level is impressive. But the lack of support from a football standpoint is telling.

Johnny Manziel’s bout with alcohol has gotten the best of him. He might just lose his career over it.

Don’t underestimate the power of sin.

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Kept By God

Slowly and deliberately pray this prayer to the God “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…”(Jude 1:24):

Jehovah God,

Creator, Upholder, Proprietor of all things, I cannot escape from your presence or control, nor do I desire to do so.

My privilege is to be under the agency of omnipotence, righteousness, wisdom, patience, mercy, grace.

You are love with more than parental affection; I admire your heart, adore your wisdom, stand in awe of your power, abase myself before your purity.

It is the discovery of your goodness alone that can banish my fear, allure me into your presence, help me to bewail and confess my sins.

When I review my past guilt and am conscious of my present unworthiness I tremble to come to you, I whose foundation is in the dust, I who have condemned your goodness, defied your power, trampled upon your love, rendered myself worthy of eternal death.

But my recovery cannot spring from any cause in me, I can destroy but cannot save myself.

Yet you have laid help on One that is mighty, for there is mercy with you, and exceeding riches in your kindness through Jesus.

May I always feel my need of him.

Let your restored joy be my strength; may it keep me from lusting after the world, bear up heart and mind in loss of comforts, enliven me in the valley of death, work in me the image of the heavenly, and give me to enjoy the first fruits of spirituality, such as angels and departed saints know. (The Valley of Vision, page 106-107)

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Satisfied

“And at mealtime Boaz said to her, ‘Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.” (Ruth 2:14 ESV).

For some time Ruth had been taking care of her bitter ole mother-in-law, and in our text she is now in Boaz’s field gleaning from his barley harvest. She had been working all day long with little rest, and now it was time to eat. Like any of us would have been Ruth is hungry from all of her hard work. She sits down at the table with Boaz and all of his workers and eats all the food she wants until she can’t eat any more. She even has enough left over to take back to Naomi! First off it was a big deal that Boaz allowed Ruth “the Moabite” to sit at his table because by doing so he was saying to her and the rest of his people, “I see you as one of mine.” But secondly, she goes from a traveling, sojourning stranger in Israel, to an accepted Moabite at the table of Boaz, eating enough to satisfy her, and then some! She left the table lacking nothing. She was completely and graciously filled.

In John 6 Jesus is talking with a crowd of people who are looking for a sign in order to believe Jesus in the messiah, and he tells them in verse 35: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” By making this statement Jesus is saying that He is the life-sustainer, the one who satisfies hungry people completely. He is not talking about physical hunger, but rather spiritual and emotional cravings that we so often seek elsewhere.

Many times in our everyday life we look for so much to satisfy our deepest longings. As imperfect beings we look to things other than Christ to satisfy those. Ruth came to Boaz (the picture of Christ in that text) and ate at his table until she was satisfied, Jesus looks at those seeking a sign and tells them that anyone who comes to Him will never hunger or thirst again. Jesus is simply saying, “You want to be accepted? Come to me.” “You seek approval from everyone; instead come to me, and based on who I am I’ll approve you.” “You long for emotional stability; I alone give that freely to those who ask.”

Whatever it is today you seek to satisfy the longings in your life; maybe it’s your job, your family, or some hobbies. I encourage you to instead go to the ultimate and complete satisfier of all your longings, The Lord Jesus Christ.

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Your Failure Is Not Your Identity

“Ruth the Moabite.” This is a common phrase in the book of Ruth. In chapter 2 alone she is referred to as ‘Ruth the Moabite’ three times.  Had she been known as  ‘Ruth the great’ or ‘Ruth the wonderful’ that would have been one thing, but Moabite? This was not only her ancestry, but also a stigma. The Moabite lineage stems all the way back to Lot, Abraham’s nephew.  Lot lived in the sinful city of Sodom with his daughters, and was taken out of there only because God had to send his angels to take them out before he destroyed the city! After Lot and his daughters left Sodom and were living in Zoar, there was absolutely no man to be found to give Lot’s daughters a son to carry on his line.  Lot’s daughters then decided to deceive their father by getting him drunk and sleeping with him, and the oldest daughter had a son and named him Moab…  WOW! (The full story is in Genesis 19)  What an unbelievably terrible story about your ancestors. This would be comparable to discovering your great grandfather was the absolute worst Nazi general, who was responsible for killing most of the Jews during the Holocaust; nobody wants that to be their identity, but this was Ruth’s. She was “the Moabite.”

Her failure had become her identity. The writer of Ruth intentionally and divinely placed her identity in the text, but according to our story it didn’t matter to Boaz that Ruth was a Moabite. Boaz was able to look beyond Ruth’s stigma to meet a need that only he could meet. This is such a beautiful picture of Christ!

How many of you reading this blog have allowed your failure in this life to become your identity? You have let your major failures define who you are! God is speaking through this passage to a generation of failures saying, I don’t care what you’ve done, I don’t care what others say about you, it doesn’t matter how you feel about yesterday, you may not can forgive yourself but I will… I will accept you; I am willing to lower my status and risk losing everything for the sake of taking care of you & giving you the value you’ve been looking for your entire life.

Boaz gave Ruth value and did not discount her because of her failure. Praise The Lord Jesus that He’s done the same for us by way of the cross! As followers of Christ our past sin and failure has been nailed to the cross, therefore canceling our record of debt to God, which was our sin (Col. 2:14-15). Your new identity is therefore now a child of God, a son or daughter of the king, someone who’s gone from spiritual death to eternal and abundant life!

Paul said: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Embrace your new identity.

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The Sorrow of Sin

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” (Ruth 1:19 ESV)

Sin disfigures. Sin destroys. Sin devastates. When Naomi returned to Bethlehem she was hardly recognizable. As an Ephrathite she was among Bethlehem’s elite, a member of the aristocratic class. Well respected when she left town, she comes home stripped not only of her self-respect but also visibly bearing the wear and tear of her stay in Moab. Naomi’s former friends didn’t even recognize her. As soon as they saw her the whispering began. “Is this Naomi?”

William Paul Young said, “Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.” Paul’s now famous words in Romans 3:23 echo Young’s statement: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul used very familiar imagery so that his audience would get his point. Sin always writes you a paycheck and always pays you the same wage: death.

If sin is so deadly, then why do people do it? Why do people choose to live their lives in perpetual sin? Remember the hall of fame of faith? Moses demonstrated both the danger of sin and the delight of God.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. (Hebrews 11:24-28 ESV)

Moses shows us how to avoid sin. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh. There will be times you will simply have to say “no.” Moses also chose. He chose one option over another. Option #1 was to be mistreated with the people of God. Option #2 was to enjoy the fleeting pressures of sin–indulge the flesh one more time. Third, Moses considered. Moses had to weigh his options. He was set to inherit the treasures of Egypt. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. In other words, Moses valued God above his own selfish desires.

Sin is serious. 3 quick questions:

1. What are you allowing right now that you need to refuse?

2. What decision (choice) do you need to make today?

3. What (or who) do you value more than God?