"No one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes from the law. But now, apart from the law, God's righteousness has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets - that is, God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction." - Romans 3.
There are many aspects of God's character and work that are alien to us. One of which is His work in salvation.
In a sense, God saves us from himself by himself, and He does this by first wounding us and then healing us.
God first wounds us through the law (What was given through Moses in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy). Contrary to a popular notion that "If I act a certain way then I can be considered a good person", the law describes in specific detail what it means to be righteous in God's eye, and in turn shows how every single person fails to meet God's standard, this is especially evident if you try to obey the law on your own. Our human standard of good is too low and often times too lenient on ourselves, the law in this sense wounds and humbles us.
But fortunately God doesn't stop there, He also heals us by revealing to us a way to be good apart from the law, a way which the law bears witness to (especially the laws describing the sacrificial system), that is faith in Jesus Christ.
Everyone who trust in Jesus are united with his death and resurrection, dead to sin and alive to the God who both wounds and heals.
The law brings death to all who are under it, but Jesus brings life to all who are under Him.
What a strange and wonderful God we worship!
Friday, June 17, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Over emphasis on trying harder to commit to Jesus?
There are trends in churches when leaders discover the congregation is not up to a spiritual standard, so they challenge the congregation to truly commit to Jesus, and to surrender all to Jesus, to serve God more, or something similar to these lines.
I doubt the effectiveness of these methods, because they are seldom, maybe even never used in scripture, sometimes they will only drive people to rely on their flesh out of ignorance.
It seems a real root of the visible church's weakness comes from the fact that wheat and tares are sown together, yet important truths from the Bible are never taught.
People need to be taught the truths about the need and evidence for regeneration, to believe in the Father,Son,and Holy Spirit's work of salvation in their lives, to find strength in their identity as children of God, and salvation is ultimately an choice of God's will and not human will. This way wheat will be encouraged because they will learn to examine themselves and see they are indeed in the faith and have great confidence and joy from assurance to serve God, and tares will be convicted in there own heart, the mask of deception of some tares may fall off, maybe some will even turn into wheat.
Besides, weakness is alright, Paul learned to glory in his weakness because through them, God's strength is shown
I doubt the effectiveness of these methods, because they are seldom, maybe even never used in scripture, sometimes they will only drive people to rely on their flesh out of ignorance.
It seems a real root of the visible church's weakness comes from the fact that wheat and tares are sown together, yet important truths from the Bible are never taught.
People need to be taught the truths about the need and evidence for regeneration, to believe in the Father,Son,and Holy Spirit's work of salvation in their lives, to find strength in their identity as children of God, and salvation is ultimately an choice of God's will and not human will. This way wheat will be encouraged because they will learn to examine themselves and see they are indeed in the faith and have great confidence and joy from assurance to serve God, and tares will be convicted in there own heart, the mask of deception of some tares may fall off, maybe some will even turn into wheat.
Besides, weakness is alright, Paul learned to glory in his weakness because through them, God's strength is shown
Saturday, January 23, 2016
No need to live with guilt all the time
Guilt and shame can cripple Christians very badly, but the good news is that we shouldn't live with constant guilt and shame, but with constant joy because of what God has provided for us in Jesus.
This article explains it very well, I hope you will be encouraged by it.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Two sides of the same coin
Sometimes people would say Calvinism and Arminianism are two sides of the same coin. I personally don't think they are because they view God's sovereignty in salvation in opposing ways, in fact one school of thought started as opposition to the other.
But there is 2 truths that are two sides of the same coin, they are repentance and faith.
Sadly these 2 truths are misunderstood and even despised in this era.
People hate repentance because it implies we have wronged God, people misunderstand faith because it's not always explained clearly, and it runs against the grains of the popular notions of rationalism/free thinking.
But the servant of God has to tell people both truths, this requires Christians to die to the desire for the applause of other people. The apostle Paul rightly said that if I am still trying to please men, then I am no longer a servant of Christ.
Not only does our presentation of the gospel itself have to be true, but what do we tell people to do with the gospel also have to be true, and that is often the hard part because we run the risk of offending people when we tell them to turn from their sins.
But the effects of compromise are far worse than offending people. I've seen all kinds of softening of the biblical demand of repentance and faith in Christ, whether it be "just accept jesus into your heart", or by playing music to stir up people's emotions to induce some kind of response, the result is that we trade true spirituality for emotional feelings, and give people false assurance. A lot of people who made a decision without recognizing they should accept Jesus because they have offended God by their sins usually fall away and it'll be more difficult to engage them in gospel conversations again.
May the Lord help us to be faithful in this area.
But there is 2 truths that are two sides of the same coin, they are repentance and faith.
Sadly these 2 truths are misunderstood and even despised in this era.
People hate repentance because it implies we have wronged God, people misunderstand faith because it's not always explained clearly, and it runs against the grains of the popular notions of rationalism/free thinking.
But the servant of God has to tell people both truths, this requires Christians to die to the desire for the applause of other people. The apostle Paul rightly said that if I am still trying to please men, then I am no longer a servant of Christ.
Not only does our presentation of the gospel itself have to be true, but what do we tell people to do with the gospel also have to be true, and that is often the hard part because we run the risk of offending people when we tell them to turn from their sins.
But the effects of compromise are far worse than offending people. I've seen all kinds of softening of the biblical demand of repentance and faith in Christ, whether it be "just accept jesus into your heart", or by playing music to stir up people's emotions to induce some kind of response, the result is that we trade true spirituality for emotional feelings, and give people false assurance. A lot of people who made a decision without recognizing they should accept Jesus because they have offended God by their sins usually fall away and it'll be more difficult to engage them in gospel conversations again.
May the Lord help us to be faithful in this area.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Strange and perplexing sovereignty
In my mind justice should be accomplished by just instruments. But God doesn't play by this rule.
In the OT he uses wicked Assyrian to judge wicked Israel, and when he's done he judges the Assyrians.
It's almost like kings and mighty armies are but toy soldiers in his hands.
Except human free choice is not always directly overruled in God's fulfillment of his plans. This is the most perplexing mystery in the sovereignty of God.
We see the same sovereignty in salvation, how can hard hearted men who's will is bent on hating and disobeying God trust in Jesus? It ultimately comes down to God's work in gifting faith and not human will, yet he doesn't do this in a completely mystical way, practical instruments like other people and the bible are always used. God's recorded words are always involved to engage the mind, heart and will of men to choose to trust Jesus in salvation. It's just that men cannot find out exactly how God's intervention and our choices mingle together.
In the OT he uses wicked Assyrian to judge wicked Israel, and when he's done he judges the Assyrians.
It's almost like kings and mighty armies are but toy soldiers in his hands.
Except human free choice is not always directly overruled in God's fulfillment of his plans. This is the most perplexing mystery in the sovereignty of God.
We see the same sovereignty in salvation, how can hard hearted men who's will is bent on hating and disobeying God trust in Jesus? It ultimately comes down to God's work in gifting faith and not human will, yet he doesn't do this in a completely mystical way, practical instruments like other people and the bible are always used. God's recorded words are always involved to engage the mind, heart and will of men to choose to trust Jesus in salvation. It's just that men cannot find out exactly how God's intervention and our choices mingle together.
A most perplexing thing
How is it that joy is so fragile and breaks so easily yet sorrow lingers on like skunk spray?
Why are we creatures so fragile and easily discouraged on this side of eternity?
I can be happily experiencing a joyful time with God and see some comment on social media and immediately be sad and/or angry. The effort it takes to regain that joy is greater than it took to kill it by viewing those comments (which took almost no effort at all.)
Is this normal?
Why are we creatures so fragile and easily discouraged on this side of eternity?
I can be happily experiencing a joyful time with God and see some comment on social media and immediately be sad and/or angry. The effort it takes to regain that joy is greater than it took to kill it by viewing those comments (which took almost no effort at all.)
Is this normal?
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Who does God help
It is often said that God helps those who help themselves, some people joke that's what Sarah and Abraham believed when she gave him Hagar.
But the good news is that God helps the helpless who cry out to Him. His grace is not unconditional in the sense that even those who do not respond receive it, but it is unconditionally in the sense that it is not given as a payment to any human ability or attempts to bargain with God, but to all who are willing to receive it His way.
*Edited for clarity. The 2nd sentence of the 2nd paragraph used to read "...even those who do nothing receive it".
But the good news is that God helps the helpless who cry out to Him. His grace is not unconditional in the sense that even those who do not respond receive it, but it is unconditionally in the sense that it is not given as a payment to any human ability or attempts to bargain with God, but to all who are willing to receive it His way.
*Edited for clarity. The 2nd sentence of the 2nd paragraph used to read "...even those who do nothing receive it".
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