Sanam Doctrinam

. . . being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus . . .

Romans 3:24

Christmas is finally here. Shoppers are trying to complete their purchases. The trees are decked out. Lights (or “sparkles” as my daughter calls them) are draped across front yards.

In many places in the world, a big part of the Christmas celebration is gifts. I’m not sure how the gift-giving at Christmas got its start, but I suspect it has something to do with the Magi offering gifts to the Christ-child. Certainly, the giving of gifts can serve as a commemoration and remembrance of the Father’s gift of the Savior to the world, even if it’s not often thought of in those terms. But today, as we look at what makes Christians more than mere people, I’d like to take a look at one gift He gives those who believe in His Son, that sets us apart as unique among humanity.

To discover the gift of God we’re looking at today, there are few better places to go than to Romans 3. What I’d like us to focus on, however, is one fascinating adverb that appears in verse 24 of this chapter. It is translated in today’s verse, “as a gift.” We don’t really have a corresponding adverb in English. If we tried to contrive one, we’d have to say something like, “giftily.” What does this verse say happens giftily? Our being justified. That’s a 50 cent word that we don’t often use in the same way the Bible does in this context. We speak of justifying actions, and the like. What Scripture is speaking of in today’s verse, though, is God’s act of declaring a believing sinner right with Himself. It’s something of a judicial pronouncement. My Greek dictionary describes justification as, “to be acquitted,” “to be pronounced and treated as righteous.”

It’s pretty counter-intuitive to think in terms of someone being acquitted and treated as righteous, giftily, to use my own term. We think of a judge evaluating the reasons for guilt or non-guilt, and then making a declaration on the basis of what the person being judged has done. That’s not how it works in Romans 3. There, God reviews the facts of the case, and every single defendant turns up absolutely guilty. Worse, each defendant comes out so guilty, he or she is worthy of death. But with the justification of Romans 3, God makes a ruling in a gifty manner. He says, in effect, “Even though you are guilty before Me and worthy of eternal condemnation, I’m going to declare you righteous as a gift.” He does so, not because of worthiness on the part of the condemned, not because of good living, not because of tearful pleading, but simply on the basis of, as Romans 3:25 says, “faith in His [Jesus'] blood.” When a person replaces confidence in his own good works with confidence in the death of Jesus Christ, the result is God declares that guilty person righteous.

We are marvelously blessed not to hope, but to know, that we stand before a holy God righteous, simply because we trust in the sufficiency of Jesus’ death. And our standing before God does not come because we are good, but because He is gracious. The righteous declaration we enjoy is the greatest gift of all.

It’s gift-giving time. But this Christmas, I invite you to remember my homemade adverb, “giftily.” That’s the way God provides justification for those who believe in His Son.

Merry Christmas!

I know, it doesn’t seem like the “stuff” of Christmas, but in reality, it is the reason Jesus came (cf. Matt. 1:21).  The real reason I’m writing is to correlate with my buddy Jason’s recent post about the blood of Christ.  Read it, it is very thoughtful and he is way smarter than me.

In a nutshell, he is making the observation that we sing about Jesus blood, but never really consider what the blood is all about and he draws attention to the OT sacrificial system and the need for blood to be shed (Heb. 10:4-13).

This sparked in my memory a controversy from about two decades (and apparently still around in some circles today) ago dealing with the blood of Jesus.  Some fundamentalists were making the case (unbiblically) that it was necessary, not only to know that Jesus blood was shed, but that somehow, Jesus’ blood mystically existed in heaven and that each time someone was “saved” God literally (mystically) dipped the person’s sins in the blood of Christ.

It was important that Christ’s blood be shed.  Hebrews 9:22 states, “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  However, it is not necessary for Christ’s blood to exist in heaven.  In fact, the bloodiness of the OT sacrificial system was a constant reminder that the blood of goats and bulls was not enough to save us. Again I point to Hebrews 10 for this.  But Christ’s death was a once for all time sacrifice that fulfilled the Father’s requirement to atone for the sins of the whole world, which included, as necessary, the shedding of blood.

Our understanding of Christ’s blood does in some way play into our understanding of Christology, keeping in this vein of thought, I will explore this theme in my next post.

I just recently heard a report on the radio (you can see a similar article here) that people are now wanting to be buried with their technology.  Yes, if you’d like, you can have the funeral director, get you all nice and set up with your iPod complete with ear buds inserted in your ears and everything.  Wanting to make that last conference call from the casket?  They can arrange that too!  You heard me correctly, you can actually have your cell phone turned on in your pine box as they lower you in the ground (hope you have Papa John’s on speed dial!)

Now, you might think I’m joking, and I’m not, but what does the scripture have to say about such silliness?  Hebrews 9:27 says, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”  This seems pretty cut and dried to me.  Unfortunately those without a Biblical worldview (i.e. anyone who is not a true believer) will not see things this way.  There hope has now been placed in… well really, I don’t know what in this case.  It’s funny, my guess is if you talk to the average American, they are not going to espouse any sort of life after death experience, maybe some concept of heaven or reincarnation, but seriously, do they think they’ll be getting any calls from beyond or any pleasure from listening to that last Foo Fighters’ song?

This is just a further evidence to me of man’s final attempts to find solace in something other than the Truth of the God of the universe and His Good News.  I believe we’ve heard from beyond the grave and for those with no hope, it is not a pleasent prospect. (Luke 16:19-31)

I would like to share an article from one of my friends from my days at Moody.  I enjoyed it and would love to hear your opinions of it.  You can click here to link to it.

As far as my absence, I have been really busy and have neglected the blog.  I hope to be up and running again soon…

. . . while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son . . .

Romans 5:10

Isn’t it nice when people get along? I don’t think there is anything quite so delightful as seeing two people who have been at odds, come together and have their relationship mended and reestablished. It may be a son, estranged from his father, it might be a husband estranged from his wife, it might be a woman estranged from her sister, but whatever the case, there is joy in seeing the relationship healed and restored.

If we find delight in people coming together after distancing themselves from each other, we are experiencing but a dim reflection of the joy that fills the heart of God over reconciliation. It’s a distant, obscure text from the Old Testament, but the words the woman of Tekoa said in 2 Samuel 14:14 are true: “God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from Him.” In short, God delights in reconciliation.

God’s love for reconciling people to Himself is seen nowhere clearer than in Romans 5:10. But before we encounter what God has done, we need to consider why it was so necessary.

Today’s verse says that as far as God was concerned, we were enemies in our fallen state. Seldom do people—believers in Christ, even—recognize the plight into which they came when they entered this world. Today’s verse says that we were enemies toward God. That is to say, our purposes, plans, and passions were all directed away from God, not toward Him. We were at odds with Him.

Then, in real history, something happened. Christ died. He gave His life on the cross for the sins of the world. God took the initiative in reconciling the world to Himself. And, without regard for what Charles Wesley wrote in the final verse of his hymn “Arise, My Soul, Arise,” God was not reconciled to the world by the death of Christ. God did not need reconciling. Rather, the world was reconciled to God in the death of Christ. Christ’s work of reconciliation did not automatically make enemies of God, friends, however. Individuals must place their faith in the finished work of Christ for the Christ’s reconciling work to be personally applied.

What’s wonderful is that when a person does believe in Christ, the result is the reality of Romans 5:1: The former enemy is finally at peace.

If you are a believer in Jesus, you have experienced the reality of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ in your own life. You are no mere, run-of-the-mill person. You are a person at real, genuine peace with God.

On his deathbed, Henry David Thoreau is said to have been asked by a clergyman if he had made his peace with God. Thoreau’s response was that he didn’t know they had ever quarreled. Unfortunately, Thoreau was wrong. He, and all others apart from faith in Christ exist in a state of constant enmity with God. But there is a sense in which the clergyman was wrong, too. Thoreau couldn’t make peace with God; it had already been made. Christ was the ultimate Peace-maker. Thoreau needed simply to trust in Him and His finished work on the cross in order to enter into that peace.

If you are a believer in Christ, rejoice that you are at peace with God Himself because of what the Prince of Peace has done. When He came that first Christmas, He took the initiative in bringing an estranged world to reconciliation with God.