IF THE GOSPEL REALLY IS TRUE . . . We Have a HOPE! (Part 8 Final)

I don’t agree with Karl Barth on much, but his question — “Is it true? Is the Christian faith true?” is essential to biblical Christianity. We’ve seen that certain conclusions follow IF Christianity is true. For example, we have a message for the world which is both good news and bad news. Second, we have every reason to challenge other worldviews and religions as to their response to the gospel. Third, if the gospel is true, we have a complete justification to make the Bible our absolute guidebook for life. Fourth, we agreed that we desperately need the people of God, the church. Our fifth conclusion was that we can honestly face the suffering in the world without becoming cynical or callous. We have a theodicy which helps us understand evil and suffering.

Let’s look at a sixth — and final — conclusion and it is this —

IF THE GOSPEL IS TRUE, THEN . . .

We can be biblically hopeful about the future because our God is sovereign. Someone has posted the following on Facebook —

I think that’s a terrific way of thinking about the Christian life! Despite life’s challenges, the follower of Jesus is, in a sense, neither a pessimist nor an optimist. He or she is a realist who is eternally grateful that his cup “runneth over”!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%We have an eternal hope that God will wrap up history, exercise righteous judgment, reward the godly, forever separate the ungodly from His kingdom, and will usher us into an eternity of worshiping and serving our blessed Savior! There is no greater hope, is there?

What might be some characteristics of one who is biblically hopeful? Several occur to me: (1) We will not overestimate man’s abilities to solve his own problems. We will care about our world and cooperate to alleviate man’s suffering, but will recognize that only the Lord can meet a person’s deepest needs;
(2) We will cling tightly to the truths of Scripture and allow its worldview to be our worldview. This means identifying and rejecting the “wisdom of the world” and being determined to stand with God’s people, even when they are suffering;
(3) We will affirm with the Apostle Paul that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor. 4:17) What’s the “them” in that text? Logically, the “them” refers to our troubles, our outwardly “wasting away” (v. 16)

Today’s Challenge: Do a bit of a word study of the term “hope” in the Scriptures. What are several truths you can share with those who read this blog?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #38 “Critical Imperatives for the Christ-Follower” (A Study of Romans 12) Part 10

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 12 each day this week.I count 24 injunctions or commands or imperatives for the believer here in Romans 12. I’m aware that the expression “critical imperative” is redundant, but I think it’s useful for what we see here in this great chapter. Let’s continue our multipart study by looking at verse 11.

We’ve seen that the believer is to offer his body as a living sacrifice, not to conform to the pattern of this world, to be transformed by the renewing of his mind, to think of himself with sober judgment, to use his gifts to build up the body of Christ, to hate as God hates, to be devoted to the body in love, to honor one another beyond yourselves, and to keep one’s spiritual fervor!

The tenth critical imperative is —10. Believers are TO BE JOYFUL IN HOPE! (v. 12)

I don’t know about you, but a joyful Christian is an arresting advertisement for the gospel! And we are to be “joyful in hope.” What does that mean? Our present circumstances do not necessarily give us joy. Nor does thinking about our past, especially our failures, provide us happiness. Our JOY is in the Lord and in what He is going to do in the future! Ours is a hope-starved world. Although some may suffer from biological or chemical depression, the normal Christian life is to be one of JOY!

Today’s Challenge: Would you describe yourself as a JOYFUL follower of Jesus? What is producing JOY in you? Is it your JOY in the HOPE of God using you in this world?

 

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #21 “Eight Blessings of Belief” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5) Blessing #8

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Here are the eight blessings that I see in this passage:

1. Justified through faith (v. 1)

2. Peace with God

3. Gained access into this grace (v. 2)

4. Boasting in the hope of the glory of God

5. Glory in our sufferings (vv. 3-4)

6. A hope that does not put us to shame (v. 5)

7. God’s love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

8. The Holy Spirit has been given to us

We will think about each of these blessings — one by one — in subsequent posts. Let’s consider the eighth blessing: THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US!

What an incredible gift! The Third Person of the Divine Trinity — the Spirit of God — has been given to us!  What does that mean? [I just finished producing four videos on the topic “Developing a Biblical Relationship with God the Holy Spirit.” We will be posting those videos on this blog].

Pastor John Piper makes the point in his little book God Is the Gospel that when you trusted Christ, you got GOD! Here Paul makes the point that having been justified by the finished work of Christ, you and I got the Holy Spirit!

What a conclusion to this list of blessings here in Romans 5!

Thank God today for this incredible gift — the Holy Spirit Himself!

 

The Theology of Calvin . . . and Hobbes (New Year – New Possibilities!)

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #20 “Eight Blessings of Belief” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5) Blessing #7

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Here are the eight blessings that I see in this passage:

1. Justified through faith (v. 1)

2. Peace with God

3. Gained access into this grace (v. 2)

4. Boasting in the hope of the glory of God

5. Glory in our sufferings (vv. 3-4)

6. A hope that does not put us to shame (v. 5)

7. God’s love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

8. The Holy Spirit has been given to us

We will think about each of these blessings — one by one — in subsequent posts. Let’s consider the seventh blessing: GOD’S LOVE HAS BEEN POURED OUT INTO OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT!

What a wonderful way of expressing the gospel! God’s LOVE. That was His motivation in sending His Son. And that love has been POURED OUT! Not doled out in small doses. But an abundant POURING OUT into our lives. And this is through the Holy Spirit. [I’ve been working on a series recently entitled “Developing a Biblical Relationship to God the Holy Spirit.” I’ll post those four videos in the near future.]

Thank the Lord today for the Holy Spirit’s action in pouring out the love of God into your heart. But ask yourself, “How can I show God’s love to people who haven’t experienced that ‘pouring out’?”

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #19 “Eight Blessings of Belief” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5) Blessing #6

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Here are the eight blessings that I see in this passage:

1. Justified through faith (v. 1)

2. Peace with God

3. Gained access into this grace (v. 2)

4. Boasting in the hope of the glory of God

5. Glory in our sufferings (vv. 3-4)

6. A hope that does not put us to shame (v. 5)

7. God’s love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

8. The Holy Spirit has been given to us

We will think about each of these blessings — one by one — in subsequent posts. Let’s consider the sixth blessing: WE HAVE A HOPE THAT DOES NOT PUT US TO SHAME (v. 5)!

Pastor Tim Keller has a great statement about HOPE in his book The Reason for God. Please take a few minutes and listen . . .

What would be a HOPE that does put one to shame? A hope to win the lottery only to find that one has wasted $3 on a Pick-Six? A hope to get a promotion even though one doesn’t have the experience to do that next-level job? A hope to win another’s heart even though there is no chance that other person would have any interest in one’s overtures?

Biblical hope is not wish-fulfillment or a gritting one’s teeth and believing really hard. Biblical hope is a certainty about the future promised by God Himself. And that kind of hope does not — and never will — put the child of God to shame!

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #15 “Eight Blessings of Belief” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5) Blessing #4

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Here are the eight blessings that I see in this passage:

1. Justified through faith (v. 1)

2. Peace with God

3. Gained access into this grace (v. 2)

4. Boasting in the hope of the glory of God

5. Glory in our sufferings (vv. 3-4)

6. A hope that does not put us to shame (v. 5)

7. God’s love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

8. The Holy Spirit has been given to us

We will think about each of these blessings — one by one — in subsequent posts. Let’s notice this morning the fourth blessing: WE CAN NOW BOAST IN THE HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD (v. 2).

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have a clue what that expression means! Boasting in the Lord makes perfect sense. Boasting in our salvation — brought about by His grace — makes perfect sense. What does it mean to “boast in the hope of the glory of God”?

We will see in our next blessing that we are to “glory in our sufferings”! Perhaps this boasting in the hope of the glory of God is one way to describe our settled position in Christ. We have the certain hope that we will share in His glory and live forever in the presence of the beauty and magnificence of the Trinune God.

But right now — I’ve got some boasting to do.  And so do you. Talk about your hope in Christ today — and brag about His grace and mercy in saving you!

 

Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #11 “Two Reasons to Boast!” (A Study of Romans 5:1-5)

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 5 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

[You’ll forgive me for my notes on the passage (the bolding, the comment “It’s not a waste!”)? These are the first thoughts that hit me as I read the passage.]

Notice two points in this text:

(1) We boast in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2)

(2) We also glory in our sufferings (v. 3)

I’m not certain what the first statement means, but I want to focus on the second. “We glory in our sufferings.” WHAT?! Is Paul crazy? How could he say such a thing?!

This same Paul talks about his “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12 and actually says there that he “delights . . .  in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” (v. 10). But, notice please, I left out some critical words: “for Christ’s sake”! The Christian life is not pathological, but purposeful. Whatever we suffer — it is for Christ’s sake!

Here in Romans 5, Paul wants us to glory in our sufferings because —

(1) of what we KNOW — we know that suffering produces! Suffering is not worthless or a waste. It can be incredibly productive! It produces perseverance, character, and hope! And we could all use more of that trinity of qualities, right?

(2) of what we HOPE FOR — We are not “put to shame.” What does that mean? Put to shame about our suffering? We have HOPE that our suffering will make us more like Christ. And our assurance of that progress towards holiness is the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who has poured out into our hearts the love of God. A gift worth everything!

 

 

Some Thoughts on the Book “What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?” (Post #18): Chapter 17- “Jesus’ Resurrection”

Chapter 17 of Martin Thielen’s book What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? is entitled Jesus’ Resurrection. His subtitle is “Is There Hope?” Thielen does a masterful job of affirming the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and showing that it is our HOPE.

I like how he brings in contemporary films (such as Cast Away and The Shawshank Redemption) to show the absolute necessity of HOPE. He also bears his own soul in telling about his sorrow of having to conduct the funeral for a pastor friend who died (with his whole family) in a car crash. Only hope (inspired by the resurrection of Jesus) could redeem this awful tragedy, he thought to himself.

He quotes the words from The Shawshank Redemption in which Andy says to Red, “Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

MY RESPONSE: I don’t disagree with Thielen about anything in this chapter. What concerns me is that he says nothing to challenge one of the scholars he quotes earlier in his book (Marcus Borg) on another issue. But Borg said the following about the resurrection of Christ: “I think the resurrection of Jesus really happened, but I have no idea if it involves anything happening to his corpse, and, therefore, I have no idea whether it involves an empty tomb, and for me, that doesn’t matter because the central meaning of the Easter experience or the resurrection of Jesus is that His followers continue to experience Him as a living reality, a living presence after His death. So I would have no problem whatsoever with archaeologists finding the corpse of Jesus. For me that would not be a discrediting of the Christian faith or the Christian tradition.”

Granted, Thielen is writing these last chapters to state what he believes Christians ought to believe. But I wish he were more forthcoming about those who deny the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting to Know . . . Ephesians Chapter 2! (Part 5: Remembering What We Were!)

I will also be teaching Sunday School at Cedarcroft Bible Chapel on February 3.  The assigned section for that class is Ephesians 2:11-17.  Let’s look at that text carefully for a few posts.

You may have heard about the old gentleman who said, “My problem is not my memory.  My problem is my FORGETTER!”  We forget a lot, don’t we?  Here in Ephesians 2 Paul reminds his readers to REMEMBER!

1.  They are to remember who they were before they were saved!  Here’s a brief chart of that series of descriptions —

We need to be reminded that God established a covenant, not with a mighty and powerful nation, but with the small people group later called “Israel.” He chose them out of His mercy.  He became their God!  And the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12) clearly specified that through that nation all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles and attract others to the living and true God!

But Israel failed in many ways.  It fell into idolatry; it worshiped other gods; it presumed upon its relationship with God, thinking it had a monopoly on His favor.

The Gentiles were those outside the nation of Israel, loved by God yes, but they needed to learn of God through God’s covenant people Israel.

These Ephesian believers, Paul reminds them, were uncircumcised Gentiles by birth, not part of God’s covenant with Israel, and were “without hope and without God in the world” (v. 12).  What sad words!  And they are described as their being “once far away” (v. 13).

Unless you or I are Jewish, my friend, that’s an apt series of descriptions of us!  Aren’t you glad for the salvation that God has provided for us?

Prayer for today:  “Lord, please remind me of where I was before Christ stepped into my life.  Disengage my ‘forgetter,’ Lord.  Thank You for becoming my hope and my God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”