Month: January 2019

The Shepherd's Voice

Faith Alone–Start to Finish

Posted on by The Shepherd's Voice

Salvation is secured by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. No other act (including baptism or keeping the law) can save a man, and failure to perform any single act (including baptism) will not condemn a man. Salvation includes forgiveness of sin, the reception of a new heart and spirit, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee or deposit of final salvation.

We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Gal. 2:17).

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

The majority of the Christian church at least gives token assent to the idea that salvation is by faith apart from works. There is, however, a dangerous undercurrent in much of the church that seeks to add “works” back to the mix in a way that is reminiscent of the dispute in Acts 15 and the book of Galatians. As an example of that, it used to be taught (and still is taught in many quarters, either expressly or implicitly), “You are saved by grace, but kept by works.” Only one problem with that theology (well, many problems, really): Jesus never taught such a thing. Jesus said He would keep the believer, not their works. Paul gave a stinging rebuke to the Galatians for believing the same type of idea:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Galatians 3:1-6).

Paul’s argument here is unmistakable. Salvation begins by faith and continues by faith. Law-keeping as a means of righteousness or obtaining favor with God has no place in the life of the believer. In fact, Paul even makes a stronger statement on the subject. He warns that:

if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace (Gal. 5:2-4).

In plain language, Paul is teaching that if you turn from faith as your source of righteousness to trying to keep the law, you are obligated to keep the whole law. Since that is an impossibility, you have then placed yourself under a curse and have been cut off from Christ (we won’t explore the implications of this now). It is impossible to walk in the realm of faith and the realm of law at the same time. You must choose.

Now, before the more practically-minded of you hit the delete button, let me hasten to add that “works” have a legitimate place in the life of the believer. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, salvation is by faith alone, but faith is never alone. Christ saves us not so that we can sit on the sideline waiting for Heaven’s Train, but so that we might go out and display His grace and love to others. Salvation involves change. The new heart and spirit that the believer receives desires to love, obey and serve God–and love and serve others. If that desire is not present, then a claim of salvation just might be suspect. James rightly said, “Faith without works is dead.”

BUT, we must maintain that our works do nothing to secure or improve our spiritual standing. They flow from, are a result of, our new identity. Thank God for answering David’s prayer in us!

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.   (Psalm 51:10-12)

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The Shepherd's Voice

The Image of God

Posted on by The Shepherd's Voice

We’re continuing our series on the fundamentals of the faith. Today we turn to humanity, being made in the image of God.

God created humanity in His image. Adam and Eve were literal people who fell from their position of innocence into sin because of disobedience. Because of that, the whole creation has been contaminated by sin, and every human born since then, save Christ, has inherited a sinful nature, desiring to live independently of God and being hostile to the ways of God. Without Christ, humans are dead in sin, without hope, and in danger of spending eternity apart from God. However, anyone who places faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, regenerated and changed.

Genesis 1:26-27 tells us, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Like many subjects of the Bible, the subject of humanity (men and women) sparks debate—both within and outside the church. Besides the whole evolution debate, there are questions in the church regarding the place of women in ministry. But…. we will not attempt to answer those questions. Instead, we will discuss the foundational truth that the Bible teaches concerning humanity, and draw out some implications.

First, we must realize that humankind is a special creation of God. Contrary to the evolutionary view (still trying to find the missing link), men and woman were created by God and especially for God (not that God has needs, but He created humanity for His specific purpose). We consider humanity a special creation of God because, being created on the sixth day, they are the crowning act of His creation. It was only after He created Adam and Eve that God declared creation “very” good. In addition, of all His creation, humanity is the only part of creation said to have been created in Him image and given the breath of life (thus giving humans a soul).

Speaking of His image…..

Second, Adam and Eve were created in His image. No, they weren’t divine (and neither are we, for that matter). Created in the image of God means that firstly they were created with the ability to connect with God spiritually and live in community. Secondly it means that they were created with the ability to reason and choose; they were free moral agents (meaning they were not compelled or coerced into making a choice).

Third, Adam and Eve were created in innocence. At the time of creation, they were neither sinful nor righteous. The text of Genesis makes it clear that they did not know what evil was, or that such a thing even existed. The declaration of Genesis 2:25 (the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed) speaks of that innocence. Another indication is Satan’s declaration to Eve that she would “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). What he spoke was the truth, as God confirmed: Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:22). Adam and Eve had no need to know what good or evil was. They simply lived in dependence on God in a state of innocence.

Fourth, Adam and Eve fell into sin when they disobeyed God. Even though they were created in innocence, God had still given them the command not to eat of the tree of good and evil. When they broke that command, they fell into sin—and died. Not physically at that moment, but spiritually, in that they were cut off from God. Their first reaction was to hide, their second was to try to fix it on their own (the fig leaf incident), and the third reaction was to blame everyone else. That is the nature of the sinful heart: Do it myself. Make life work for me apart from God. Enlist others to cooperate with me, and blame them if it doesn’t work. The key point here, however, is that they were dead in sin from the moment they sinned, and their sin affected all of creation—including their descendants. And, incidentally, they (and their descendants) lost the ability to choose to do right. They became slaves to their sinful heart.

But God…..  He had a plan to redeem His creation. He sent Jesus who died on the cross and rose again. His death and resurrection made it possible to reverse the effects of the fall:

We now have full access to God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has removed the barrier, torn the veil.

We have a new heart and a new spirit that are inclined toward God instead of turned away from Him.

We are being restored to His image fully (mankind never truly lost the image of God; it was, however, marred by sin).

Here are a few implications of the these thoughts:

First, men and woman have always been and will always be on equal footing. The order of authority that God established has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority. And it also has nothing to do with the Fall. To teach otherwise misrepresents to truth of the Bible.

Second, all are still image-bearers of God and have value in His sight. In fact, God thinks you are so valuable that He paid the ultimate price to have you! (In case you didn’t know, value is what someone else would pay for something or someone). As such, all are due the same dignity and honor. To ridicule, insult or otherwise defame one who carries the image of God (even a distorted one) is a slap in the face of their Creator. The saying is true: Love the sinner, hate the sin.

Third, contrary opinions aside, all without Christ are lost in sin. There will be no second chance. Once you take that last breath, it’s over. No spending 40 million years in purgatory. It’s either heaven or hell. Only the grace of Christ can save mankind. Trying to be good enough just won’t cut the mustard.  Why? Because even if you scored 99% on God’s test, you still fail! His passing mark is 100%. You’d have to be perfect! And there’s only been One to achieve that mark. Fortunately, though, He did achieve that mark. Because He did, He invites all to come to Him. Discover new life. Discover eternal life.

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The Shepherd's Voice

The Heart of the Matter

Posted on by The Shepherd's Voice

So far in our series on the fundamentals of the faith, we have examined God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Now we turn to the nature of sin.

Sin exists in the world because of the fall of Adam and Eve. Sin is more than outward behavior or disobedience to God’s commandments. At its core, sin is the desire of humanity to live independently of God. At the core of the unregenerate person lies the Sinful Heart, a heart turned from God and turned toward self. At the core of the believer is the Spiritual Heart, a heart inclined to God and desiring to obey Him.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it (Jeremiah. 17:9).

And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after (Numbers 15:39).

What is sin, and where does it come from?  Ask a child, and he or she will tell you plainly, “Sin is when you do bad things.” For many years, this understanding of sin has pervaded the church. Sin is any violation of God’s law, whether intentional or unintentional. While sin is certainly that, the Bible paints a much broader picture than that.

First, sin begins in the heart. Jesus made it clear when He told the Pharisees that out of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12-34-35). Likewise, the act of hatred, murder and adultery all begin in the heart (Matthew 6:21-28). The implication of that, of course, is that sin doesn’t stay in the heart. Sin will find it’s way out, to dwell in our thoughts, words and actions.

Second, if what Jesus said about the heart and trees bearing fruit after their kind is true, then it follows that the heart of sinful men is sinful. At the core of the unregenerate man is a heart turned toward self. Self seeks its own good, not the good of others, and certainly not the things of God. Paul has another phrase for this: “being in the flesh” (Romans 8:8). He makes it clear that such people cannot please God. To use a well-known saying, they just don’t have it in them.

Under the New Covenant, God has promised to give His people “a new heart and a new Spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Further, He promised that this new heart would cause His people to walk in His way. He described the transformation as replacing the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Thus, God was talking about a fundamental change in the nature of His people.

“If that’s true,” you may ask, “then shouldn’t the believer with the new heart be able to walk in God’s ways?” I’m glad you asked that question. We know that our new heart is indeed inclined to obey God. That is one of the strongest personal evidences for the assurance of salvation. If a person says, “I’m a Christian,” yet has no desire to obey the Lord, what might Jesus say about that? Something to ponder.

The answer to the earlier question, though, is a word we mentioned earlier: the flesh. Though the Sinful Heart has been removed and replaced with the Spiritual Heart, what’s left behind is the flesh. The flesh is that part of a person programmed to live independently of God. The flesh, as Paul defines it, resides in the mind (hence the instructions in Romans 12:1-2). The mind has been thoroughly programmed by the heart, so much so that “when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Romams 7:21). The question then becomes how one overcomes sin (which we’ll get to in the future).

At its core, sin is far deeper than flouting God’s laws and decrees. Sin, in its most basic form is embracing the lie that independence from God is freedom and life. As believers, we must reject that lie and embrace the truth that Jesus Christ is freedom and life.

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The Shepherd's Voice

The Spirit of Christ

Posted on by The Shepherd's Voice

We are continuing our series on the fundamental doctrines of the faith. What are the core truths of the Gospel? Today, we are focusing on the Holy Spirit. Our statement about the Spirit tells us:

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. The Spirit is to be referred to as “He” or “Him,” not “it,” since He, like the Father and Jesus, is a personal being. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, assures of salvation, speaks the words of Christ, regenerates the sinner, and dwells in the believer, empowering him for service by giving spiritual gifts.

Paul tells us this about the Spirit:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom . . . . The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 3:17; 13:14).

If the subject of Jesus stirs of controversy in the world, the subject of the Holy Spirit stirs up almost as much controversy within the church. Though many segments of the church have moderated their stances in recent years, the church remains deeply divided about the Holy Spirit and His work. The Pentecostal denominations owe much of their growth to the renewed focus on the Holy Spirit (sometimes to excess according to some opinions), while some denominations and churches teach in a way that almost denies the reality of the Spirit. As in the previous discussions in this series, we will not examine every nuance of this subject (that would be impossible in this space). Rather we will discuss the fundamental biblical picture of the Holy Spirit.

First, the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son. Paul refers to Him as the Lord, and places Him on equal ground with the Father and Jesus. In addition, Jesus taught that it is possible to commit “blasphemy against the Spirit” (Matthew 12:31-32). As Lord, Jesus made it clear that the Spirit’s work must not be attributed to Satan. The importance of this can hardly be overstated. In the Bible, the sin of blasphemy was always against God.

Second, the Holy Spirit is a personal being. Like the Father and the Son, the Spirit is not an ‘it,’ but is rather a “He.” Jesus referred to the Spirit exclusively in this way in His teachings (see John 15-16). The Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19), and lied to (Acts 5:3-4, incidentally in this passage Peter uses the Holy Spirit and God interchangeably).

Third, the Spirit is active in the believer’s life. At the time of salvation, the Spirit unites the believer with Christ through baptism (Romans 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 12:13). The Spirit indwells the believer, remaining to teach and guide him (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:12-13). The Spirit illuminates Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:14-15, 2 Corinthians 3:6 and16, this is true of both regenerate and unregenerate humans). The Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers to equip for service (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31).

Fourth, the Spirit is also active in the world. His primary work in the world is to draw people to Christ. As with believers, He illuminates spiritual truth to unbelievers. Without that enlightenment, no unregenerate person would ever come to Christ. Jesus gave another apt description of the Spirit’s work: And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:8-11).

There are many other things that we could say (and debate) about the Holy Spirit. These, however, are the core truths concerning Him. In all of our talk and worship of Jesus and the Father, let us not forget Him (even though His job is to point back to the Father and the Son).

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The Shepherd's Voice

The Reality of Jesus

Posted on by The Shepherd's Voice

Continuing on in our look at the core truths of the faith, we come now to Jesus. Now, we have talked about Him a lot previously. Specifically, though, we have discussed His being both God and Man as well as the purpose for which he came.

(Listen to the podcast “The Centerpiece of the Gospel: Jesus,” or read the blogs “Jesus: Son of God,” “Jesus: Son of Man,” and “Jesus: Our Rescuer” for more details.) Now, however, we are going to bring out a few pints that are important to understanding who He is. Our statement about Jesus says:

Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Trinity. He is fully God, and having been born of the Virgin Mary, also fully man. He was born, lived a perfect life before God and people, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. His death and resurrection secured salvation for those who turn to Him in faith. Jesus will return in bodily form in the future to fulfill the Davidic Covenant and rule the nations.

The Apostle Paul tells us:

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

First, Jesus was and is an historical Person. Even scholars who hold no Christian beliefs acknowledge that Jesus lived. His life is well-documented, even outside of the pages of Scripture. The disagreements, however, lie in the claims that Christians make about Him. Thus, we see movements such as the Historical Jesus movement, which seek to undermine the credibility of Scripture and thus His Person and Work.

Second, Jesus claimed to be God incarnate. He made these claims both implicitly and expressly. We read in John 8:58, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”  The question must be asked, “What did Jesus mean by this? The two candidates that are the leading possibilities are 1) Jesus simply meant that He was older than Abraham (i.e., He was born before Abraham and continued living); and 2) Jesus meant that He was the I AM, the Self-Existent One, thus calling Himself God. The reaction of the Jewish leaders is a good indication of what they thought He meant. We read in verse 59, So they picked up stones to throw at him. Now, if Jesus did not intend to make a claim to be God, He could have stopped right there and corrected the misunderstanding!

Third, not only did He claim to be God, but He proved the truth of His claim by rising from the dead. This is the linchpin. This seals the deal. Either Jesus rose from the dead (in which case everything else He said is true), or He didn’t (in which case why would I believe anything He said?)  Many opponents of Christ recognize that this claim is the central truth of the Gospel. Without the resurrection, we have nothing. Paul is right when he told the Corinthians,

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).

This is a masterful argument, and one we must take seriously. At the risk of repeating myself, if Jesus rose from the dead, then everything else He said was true (because He predicted He would die and rise from the dead). And if Jesus rose from the dead, then there is hope for the future. Without the resurrection, we have no hope; we are still in our sins. And Paul finishes his argument with a single sentence:  But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (verse 20). Thus, no matter what struggles we go through, no matter what pain we experience, we have hope. Life need not be a drudgery on the way to the grave, because Jesus whispers in all of our hearts, “I have overcome death, and in me so have you.”  That is the centerpiece of the Gospel.

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