Lucid Theology

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

This gospel, something for which the writer of Romans, the Apostle Paul was willing to suffer shipwreck, stoning, persecution, and flogging, is a message for which thousands have died, and millions have lived. It isn’t just some kind of cultic hidden belief that is revealed to a select few, it is powerful!

What makes the gospel great? Well, the fact that it bridges the chasm between us and God, made by our sins, and formerly uncrossable. We could never have made it to God through our own efforts.

Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Rom 1:18-25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

Thank God we weren’t left to die in our selfish wallowings! We aren’t allowed to go on chasing false baits and candies that lead us to hell! We have been made aware of our heinous sins against a holy God and have been given a path to salvation and eternal life with Christ in a new perfect world, where there will be no more sin and death! All through the blood of Christ, at whose name EVERY KNEE WILL BOW!

“It is the glory and beauty of his love to us, polluted sinners,
that is an infinitely pure love. And it is the peculiar sweetness and
endearment of holiness, that it has its most glorious manifestation in
such an act of love to us. All the excellencies of Christ, both divine
and human, have their highest manifestation in this wonderful act
of his love to men—his offering up himself a sacrifice for us,
under these extreme sufferings. . . . He suffered that we might be
delivered. His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, to take
away the sting of sorrow, and to impart everlasting consolation. He
was oppressed and afflicted, that we might be supported. He
was overwhelmed in the darkness of death, that we might have the light
of life. He was cast into the furnace of God’s wrath,
that we might drink of the rivers of his pleasures. His soul
was overwhelmed with a flood of sorrow, that our hearts might
be overwhelmed with a flood of eternal joy.”

- Jonathan Edwards

These words penned by who many consider to be the greatest preacher in American history reveal the glorious truth of the gospel. Christ underwent an excruciating death (both in the physical and spiritual realm) on the cross, as Edwards put it, because of His “infinite hatred of sin and his infinite love to sinners”. Edwards wrote this on Nov. 28, 1751, to a lady by the name of Mary Pepperrell who had recently lost her son. Edwards wrote her a letter and midway through it he focused on Christ and His work on the cross. How grand it is when we are able to gain a proper perspective of our trials when we consider what our Lord went through to save us. Surely if all else is removed from me in this life—be it family or goods—I pray that I am content, for I am my Savior’s and my Savior is mine.

———————

Johnathan Edwards biography by the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University

“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands; I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends of His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend. . . . There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can now disillusion Him about me.”

- J.I. Packer

I came across this quote by J.I. Packer a while ago in his classic Knowing God and it has resonated with me ever since. What great comfort it is to know that God knows me. He knows me as I am. He knows my constant wayward heart. He knows my ever-failing obedience. He knows me as no individual would ever be able to know me (including my mom). He sees my every sin. And you know what the amazing part is? Despite His perfect knowledge of me, God, in His sheer mercy and grace laid down His life on the cross for men such as I to crucify Him with the nails of our sins.

Whenever I read 1 John in my quiet times, I cannot help but stop and linger on, “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). Our love for God and others is based on His initial love for us. I am always dumbfounded by this statement. What a glorious truth to ponder!

Richard Phillips (author of the recent book, Jesus the Evangelist) posted this recently on the Reformation21 blog:

If we are fascinated or excited about anything more than the fact that the Son of God voluntarily suffered in our place, bearing the guilt our sins deserved, then we are in big trouble. I get the impression that many today — both in the broadly evangelical world and in the Reformed world — are rather bored with the cross of Christ and the justification of sinners through faith alone. But there is no greater mystery and no more glorious theme than this. Do we get bored hearing the “same old gospel?” If so, our ministries and our lives are heading for big trouble. In my opinion, there would be no more powerful influence in our lives and our churches than for us sincerely to exclaim with Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of Christ Jesus my Lord.

These are very wise and convicting words by a man who like me understands how easy it is for one to lose sight of the cross. I remember growing up as a young boy always wanting to buy some new toy. My grandma would buy it for me, I would play with it for a few weeks, then I would jump to the next “big” thing. Things haven’t changed much since then. Last year I was able to buy (with my own money) a Dell E1505 Inspiron laptop; after years of a rugged old desktop with dial-up internet, I was able to zoom on the internet and do all my assignments in half the time with half the stress. I remember being so passionate about my new laptop—taking it everywhere. It didn’t take long for me to get over it.

But when it comes to the cross—the cornerstone of our faith—why do we lose the passion? I’d venture to say that we lose the passion for the cross because we lose sight of the cross. When we stop looking at Calvary where our Savior laid down His life for us, that is where we begin looking at ourselves and our wants and our plans and our good deeds. We lose passion because we get bored with the gospel. But may it never be! The great reformer Martin Luther once said that he felt as though Christ had died yesterday. Every day of our lives we should feel as though Christ had only died but yesterday.

The way is the by the cross. How are we saved? By the cross. How are we sustained? By the cross. Everything in our Christian lives flows out of the work of Christ on the cross. It is there where we have been justified and delivered from our sin.

Are you bored with the cross?

John MacArthur, in preaching on the subject of the cross, gave this final exhortation in one of his sermons:

I would encourage you to look in your own heart this morning; do you glory in the flesh? Do you think that in your own strength, on your own merit, by your own credentials and religious efforts and activities and ethics and morality you’re going to enter God’s kingdom and His eternal heaven? Are you outside the gate negotiating your own price or have you come realizing God has established the way in Jesus Christ? And kneeling at the foot of the cross do you confess your sin and embrace the savior? It’s your choice. Empowered by the Spirit of God may you make the right choice.

As a college student I am very good friends with Mr. Debt. Having to owe money is not a nice thing when you start realizing that one (and soon) you’ll be paying it all back (and for a very long time)—I guess it’s that way with most people (that are poor). On my side of the bill (no pun intended) I’m doing everything within my power to incur the least debt as possible knowing that it’ll one day affect my future education plan, my marriage plans, and with enough foresight, my children’s plans. I will one day pay it all back in one form or another.

Do you ever stop to realize that we all share one debt that one day we all will have to pay for? It’s a debt that is not optional but comes with the package of just being human. It isn’t for school and it isn’t for a mortgage; it isn’t for a car and it isn’t for a house. In fact, it doesn’t even exist materially (insofar as it cannot be paid with any material asset). What I’m referring to is our sin debt. We all carry this debt on our accounts whether we realize it or not—its existence is not dependent on our knowledge or assent to it, it’s outside of our control.

The apostle Paul traces this debt all the way to the early days of the world, saying, “. . . [T]hrough one man [Adam; cf. Gen. 3] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. . .” (Rom. 5:12). Adam passed down to all of us our natural bent to sin. Ain’t that something special! From the moment we are born our sin is present as David makes clear, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5). In Romans we find a dark picture for mankind, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and then with a strong follow-up, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).

In the garden of Eden (before the Fall [in chapter 3]), God warned Adam, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16,17). One must see the full scope of “death” as the Bible describes it. It is death physically, but it is also death spiritually. In other words, spiritual separation from God occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God mercifully spared Adam and he lived to be nine—hundred and thirty years (Gen. 5:5) but spiritually, there was a debt to be paid that could not be escaped.

In our complete absence of good we are dead in our transgressions (Col. 2:13a), which only adds to the utter helplessness. We are unable to pay back God even if we mustered enough willpower to somehow appease Him for our sin. The inescapable result is death—to be banished eternally from God presence.

Being in that predicament God “. . .made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:13b,14).

Do we have hope? An emphatic yes! Our Savior bore the sins that we committed and the wrath of God was poured on Him. Having abolished sin by His death, Christ stamped “PARDONED” on us and more than that, He gave us His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).

In the Old Testament:

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:4-6).

In the New Testament:

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. . . .He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:16-17,21).

That is the heart of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, who “knew no sin,” didn’t sin, but became sin for what?. . .so that we would become the righteousness of God. Our disobedient lives were traded in for the sinless and righteous life of Christ.

Our “certificate of debt” (Col. 2:14) was, along with Christ, nailed on the cross where He gave up His spirit saying, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30). At that moment, the entire work of Christ redeeming His own and canceling their sin and giving them His righteousness had been complete. The love and justice of God had been met and the words of John 3:16 never rung truer,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

While in this life I’ll be paying off debt for a while, there is one debt that has been paid for already. I rest assured in the grace of God who loved me and gave His own Son for me. I place my trust in Him and He gives me all that ever matters: being with Him forever. Remove all else in this life and one thing remains intact—my debt has been paid and I belong to Him.

I have recently been studying the lives of men such as John Hus, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and many others, who played a crucial role in the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. The Reformation stands as one of those singular events in history that changed the course of the church and the world. At the root of it all were five statements known as the solas which set a firm biblical foundation which girded and fueled the Reformation. The Latin word sola simply means “alone.” I want to briefly examine these five solas, which if grasped, will fuel our faith and place the glory of God in its proper place, in biblical truth.

SOLA SCRIPTURA

“Scripture Alone.” This vital truth is foundational for the other four solas (that will covered later on) in that without this truth, truth would simply be relative and subjective. But if indeed God’s Word is truth and God’s Word is the final authority, then everything else must come under the scrutiny and subjection of the Word.

On April 17, 1521, Luther stood before a general assembly (known as the Diet of Worms) of the Holy Roman Empire, where he was asked to renounce his heretical ways and and retract his writings. He asked for time to think about it and it was given to him. The next day he appeared once more before them and said,

“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.”

What Martin Luther had realized was that God’s Word was the final authority, not the pope or some council. It was the Word alone. It wasn’t (and isn’t) the Word plus traditions, or plus commentaries, or plus opinions, or plus cultures that contain the counsel of God. Far too long the Bible had been eclipsed by the Roman Catholic Church with other additives, but when that eclipse was removed, the brightness of God’s glory and majesty was evident to the common ordinary people as revealed in Scripture. The elevation of the Word over the Church had brought about the genuine faith of the people (cf. Rom. 10:17) which energized the Reformation.

SOLUS CHRISTUS

“Christ Alone.” Christ is the gospel. At the heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In speaking of Jesus, Acts 4:12 makes it clear: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Only Christ can act as the Mediator between us and God through His atoning death (2 Tim. 2:5). It isn’t Christ and the sacraments. It isn’t Christ and rituals. It isn’t Christ and money. Christ alone is the unequivocal Savior! We as sinners come to Christ without anything through the small and narrow gate (Mt. 7:13,14); empty handed we fall before the Cross–we bring nothing to the table but a contrite and broken heart.

SOLA GRATIA

“Grace Alone.” In Ephesians 2:8,9, Paul says that we are saved by “. . .grace. . .through faith; and that not of [ourselves], it is a gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” God does not depend on our good deeds to save us. Our salvation is a sheer result of His divine grace on our lives. The poet Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) captured eloquently the grace of God on undeserving sinners in his hymn Not What My Hands Have Done:

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

How beautiful is it to know that before the foundation of the world, God chose His elect to receive His grace (cf. Eph. 1:3,4). God knowing our state of complete bankruptcy (spiritually speaking), bestows on our hearts the gift of divine grace–unaffected by our actions. Our salvation is totally free and independent of our works which are like filthy rags before God (cf. Isa. 64:6b).

SOLA FIDE

“Faith Alone.”Salvation is received by faith alone. In Ephesians 2:8, which we looked at with sola gratia, one cannot miss that we are saved by grace which is appropriated by faith. Faith as well is a gift of God. Faith alone is what saves us. It isn’t faith and our participation in Sunday School. It isn’t faith and our attendance at church. Isn’t faith and our baptism. Paul tells that we “. . .[have] been justified by faith” and as a result “. . .we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1,2, emphasis added). How liberating is it to know that we all come the same way. Whether rich or poor, whether healthy or sickly, whether outgoing or reserved, we all come to Christ the same way, namely, by faith alone. Our being made right with God was accomplished on the cross which we receive by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

“To the Glory of God Alone.” The climax of the Bible is reached when we see that all of history is for the glory of God. Every act of God–be it creation or salvation or whatever else–is fueled by God for His glory. The four previous solas set the foundation for this final apex of redemptive history. When we recognize that our salvation is clearly presented in Scripture, and that Christ is the Object of it where He is seen as the One who purchased our salvation on the cross, and that by only grace are we saved, and that that grace is appropriated by our faith, it is then when God receives the glory.

We are not the center of God. He does not bow down to our whim, we bow down to His awesome splendor. He is the center of all that we are. To Him be the glory–alone!

These five Latin phrases are more than object lessons in the history of the Church. They are to be personal truths that are derived from the Word of God. The Reformers saw it as such, and they unashamedly called the church to see its errors.

In speaking of the five solas, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mobile (Alabama), Steve Lawson, concluded with this exhortation:

If we are to see a new Reformation in our day, it will require a return to these same history-altering doctrines that once shocked the church. May God again restore such a commitment in His church. And may it begin with you.

Will we be known as such people?

[More Info: THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION]

This is a message given by Paul Washer of the Heart Cry Missionary Society. He was invited to preach at a church; so shocking and confrontational was the message that he has (to this day) never been invited again to preach there. This message was delivered to the 2002 Youth Evangelism Conference in Montgomery, Alabama. His text that evening was Matthew 7:13-27. [You can read the sermon in pdf format here].

This is an excellent clip of a conference message asking the question, “How does a person make a worldwide difference?” His words resonate with truth in a day in age when we Christians in America become so attached to this life and its enticements.

Saved. A simple term that has been cherished by some and ridiculed by others. It’s a word that has been used and misused throughout the years in today’s evangelical world. From our standpoint, the essence of the gospel is that we are just that, saved; it is one of the simplest messages of all time, yet one of the most profound and complex. The good news is that Jesus is the Savior. His very name comes from the Hebrew Jeshua which means “the Lord is Salvation.” A fair question might be asked: “What is the ‘Savior’ to save us from?” What threatening condition is there? What are we so desperately in need to be rescued from? I don’t know about you, but as I flip through the channels on TV, I regularly come across a myriad of televangelists who preach about a gospel that Jesus wants you to be healthy and wealthy and prosperous. One often gets the impression that the gospel is to save people from a not-so-prosperous life of poverty.

Seeing no problem of yanking sole verses out of their original context, some individuals pronounce Jeremiah 29:11 (“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”) as a promise of which we must all stand on—they seem to ignore the Israelites, to whom this was written, to assure them of God’s intentions that God would bring about a blessing in the midst of the exile. (Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem trusting in God’s providence, but I do have a problem when we think it’s all about us and not about His glory).

Some preach the gospel with the message that the only danger we have is that of not fulfilling our dreams. Jesus is there to get one the promotion; to have self-esteem; to be excelling in life; to have two cars and a retirement fund.

There are others pull out John 10:10 and declare that Christ has come to give us an “abundant life,” which according them entails a large bank account and a bubbly life with no worries. Once again, the point of the passage is missed.

Still, there are some who also present Jesus as a breaker of bad habits. He’s presented to be there to free us from sexual sin, debilitating drinking patterns, and overeating disorders. Now please, don’t get me wrong, the gospel does affect all these areas of life, but that is not what we are ultimately and supremely saved from.

In back of John MacArthur’s book, Hard To Believe, it says this:

“Too many people just want a Madison Avenue Jesus to make them well, make them happy, and make them prosperous. But Jesus Christ isn’t a personal genie. He is the Savior. He died in agony to satisfy the wrath of a holy God and to forgive the sins of humankind. Faith in Him demands a willingness to make any sacrifice He asks. The hard truth about Christianity is that the cost is high, but the rewards are priceless: abundant and eternal life that comes from faithfully following Christ.”

Once an individual is born-again (another term that is often misused and ridiculed), that person is indwelt by the Spirit of God. No longer is that person the same. That person’s goals take a dramatic shift (whether immediately or gradually) from the temporary and transitory to the eternal and everlasting. Sinful habits are affected—no longer does that person have to give in to sin. But all this is secondary to the ultimate reason Jesus died.

Attaining fulfillment in life is something that is not universal. While there are many who have no purpose in life, there are those who experience a great and fulfilling life (in a way). Heart-wrenching habits certainly are not universal. There are a lot of people who exhibit great discipline and self-control (like athletes and military officers).

What is the desperate need of mankind? What is one universal, incontrovertible fact that we must all come face to face with? Oh you know…sin. We see it in the news, in the streets, throughout the pages of history, but most evidently it is displayed in ourselves. We are the best attestation to the reality of sin. In the deep crevices our minds is where sin is most rampant, loose, and unbridled.

The issues of life come from the heart (Prov. 4:23) and the pure in heart shall see God (Matt. 5: yet look at the claims of the Bible describing the heart:

• the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful (Jer. 17:9)
• full of vain thoughts (Jer. 4:14)
• hateful to God (Prov. 6:16,18;11:20)
• full of evil (Eccl. 9:3)
• darkened (Rom. 1:21)
• full of evil imaginations (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Prov. 6:1
• fully set to do evil (Eccl. 8:11)
• far from God (Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:
• a treasury of evil (Matt. 12:35; Mark 7:21)
• prone to error (Ps. 95:10)
• impenitent (Rom. 2:5)
• divided (Hos. 10:2)
• hard (Ezek. 3:7; Mark 10:5; Rom. 2:5)
• carnal (Rom. 8:7)
• prone to depart from God (Deut. 29:18; Jer. 17:5)
• blind (Eph. 4:1
• haughty (Prov. 18:12)
• of little worth (Prov. 10:20)

Talk about lowering someone’s self-esteem! Bu that’s the point. By ourselves we are left utterly bankrupt and desperate. It is not until we recognize that fact that we won’t ever see our need for salvation. John MacArthur aptly wrote on humanity’s problem: “Self importance is the reigning reality in human fallenness: man is the master of his own soul, the captain of his own fate, the monarch of his own world” (Hard to Believe, p.14). The heart of man is the real predicament that is universal regardless of race, ethnicity, social status, income, or fame. Everyone is hell bound were it not for God’s intervention. That’s the problem. And the gospel is the solution to that problem.

Though the gospel saves us from sin, it nowhere guarantees a prosperous life here on this side of heaven. Paul beautifully wrote in Philippians:

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. . .” (vv. 7-9a)

No longer are we the central character in our lives, rather Christ is. The message is one that everyone must hear. We are all in the same boat. We are all beggars letting other beggars know where there is bread to eat.

What happens to the heart of man once God comes in the picture? The heart is:

• fixed on God (Ps. 57:7; 112:7)
• joyful in God (1 Sam. 2:1)
• perfect with God (Ps. 101:2)
• upright (Ps. 97:11)
• clean (Ps. 73:1)
• pure (Ps. 24:4; Matt. 5:
• tender (1 Sam. 24:5; 2 Kin. 22:19)
• single and sincere (Acts 2:46; Heb. 10:22)
• honest and good (Luke 8:15)
• obedient (Rom. 6:17)
• awed by the Word of God (Ps. 119:161)
• enlarged (2 Cor. 6:11)
• prayerful (Ps. 27:
• a treasury of good (Matt. 12:35)

A heart that was once wicked and bent against God is now supernaturally transformed by the power of God alone. How awesome it that?!

Are we to soften the gospel message to appease and appeal people to believe? May it never be so! We are to faithfully proclaim, in love, the message that is so hard to believe—knowing full well the power to save rests not in our cleverness and wit but in the power of Him who shed His blood. The message is so simple: “Christ crucified.” Yet, that same message is so profound that man, even if given all eternity, could not mine the depth of it all, always finding more and more treasures that were not visible before to our eyes.
Soli Deo Gloria!–To God Alone Be the Glory!

In life we have all encountered people who seem to live in an ever-constant sadness. There are those who appear to have no joy in life…no reason for living. When it comes to the life of a Christian, there are many out there who seem to have no different than those who don’t believe at all. Think about it…what does the Christian have that other do not? Our world offers happiness founded in the temporal affluence of our times. It promises to make one happy with the pleasures of our generation. We even think food will make us happy (e.g. the “Happy Meal”). We buy and buy and think that somehow we will be satisfied with all that we own. We must realize that this “joy” that our culture offers is circumstantial; it depends on positive events to make it thrive. True joy, on the contrary, is the result of God’s salvation in our lives. Joy is not a shallow “feel good” emotion that turns with the tide, but rather a constant deep fact that is grounded in our faith; it is rooted in the fact that we are no longer in our sin but our placed in the palms of the living God.

My good friend, Christian, who works in the Cafeteria at our school, reminds me of what it means to rejoice in God. Every day he approaches me with his catch phrase, “I have a word for you today!” Though his method is certainly unusual, there lies deep down a passion and joy that blows me off my feet - it makes me take a good look at my life and evaluate how I have been living in light of our sweet salvation.

In our proverbial “walks” with God there lies a serious threat of simply being bored with our faith. Sin has a way of sucking the joy that we were and are meant to experience day to day. We get so comfortable in our seemingly “easy” Christian life, that we think that it is nothing more than a crutch when the going gets tough. The life of a Christian is so much more that! May it never be that we take the salvation that God has so graciously given to us for granted. It is each day that we must, with a humble heart, thank the God who has given His only son that might live with Him for ever and ever.

In God we have an assurance that remains intact. It is ironic, how we find ourselves at times looking around us to find satisfaction – depending on our boyfriend, or new album, or a television show to make us feel “good.” The familiar oldie screams, “I can’t get no satisfaction” – how right they are! It is in the promise of our God that we find our ever-quenching satisfaction. We get so tied up in this world that we lose sight of our rightful home. We forget that we are passing ambassadors who are called to be set-apart and show the world the love that the Creator has exposed for all mankind to witness. We were delivered from sin and given new life. We have been rescued from our due punishment and have been declared innocent. We rest in God’s faithfulness and not ours - Oh may we long for Christ…may the fact that we were once apart from God and now that we belong to Him give us joy! Though the trials and suffering may come, may we rejoice knowing that we are His. He has promised to never let us out of His sight and has given us the Spirit to indwell in us to make us more and more like Him each and every day.

Our salvation is one that beckons us to rejoice in all that God has done. We…have done nothing. Nothing in us has contributed to God’s abundant grace. Why rejoice?! Why not?!!! God has been so awesome. Life has not been perfect but He has been all much more to us. Seeing who I am in light of all of who God is humbles the proud heart that I carry so often. Nothing in me is worth rejoicing in, but everything in Him is. His promises are binding, His providence is sure, and His salvation is marvelous. He is not a pipe dream but a reality that requires our very lives.

Every day is one more day that we have to experience the joy that He offers. Sin will come and attempt to sap away the life out of us. It will happen. But when it does, may we cling to our hope which is imperishable - may we live with grace fueling our lives. It is in the cross of Jesus that we find our true identity and our awesome joy.