We are made in Christ
Jun 30
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21). Many men would boast of being "self-made" men, but no Christian can do this. Everything we are that is truly worthy and eternal was made in us by God through Jesus Christ. Our text is clear on this. We have been made righteous in Christ, but this was only because God made Him to be sin for us. When He made us righteous in Christ, He also "made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Furthermore, we were "made nigh by the blood of Christ" (2:13). The contexts of these passages make it abundantly clear that our being made righteous, accepted in Christ, and nigh to God, is all of grace; we did nothing to merit such privileges. This is not all. At the same moment, He also has "made us meet |`fit'| to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12). That we in our poverty should be made joint-heirs with Christ once again is only by His unmerited grace. "Being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).
There is only one God
Jun 23
"For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens" (Psalm 96:5). As the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians, "though there be |many| that are called gods, . . . to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him" (I Corinthians 8:5-6). Every person has his own "god"; even atheists order their lives by some principle of their own choosing which thus becomes in effect their "god"! There are multitudes of others who follow various other gods. For example, the Hindus have almost innumerable gods. Muslims, on the other hand, strongly argue for just one god, whom they call Allah, but it was not Allah who "made the heavens." The truth revealed in the Bible is that it was God's "dear Son" by whom "were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth" (Colossians 1:13,16). Allah denies that he even has a Son, and he calls those who believe otherwise (meaning Christians) infidels.
Justification
Jun 16
"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 7:1). This is the first mention of the great doctrine of justification in the Bible--that is, being seen as "righteous" by God. The same Hebrew word is translated "just" in Genesis 6:9: "Noah was a just man." The reason Noah was seen as righteous and therefore as just, or justified before God, was that "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8). This is the first mention of "grace" in the Bible. The first mention of "faith" or "belief" is also associated with justification: "|Abraham| believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). Thus, in the Old Testament and certainly in the New, justification is by grace through faith. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" and also "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:24; 5:1).
The Finger of God
Jun 09
"This they said, tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not" (John 8:6). During His earthly ministry Jesus never wrote a book or any other document, so far as we know, but it is recorded that He wrote with His own finger in the sand, and that what He wrote turned away those who had sought to stone a woman caught breaking one of God's Ten Commandments. The woman was repentant, however, and Jesus forgave her, evidently indicating this by what He wrote with His finger on the ground. This He could do because He, as God, had written this very commandment Himself with His own finger long before. "And He gave unto Moses . . . two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). Moses testified: "And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly" (Deuteronomy 9:10). There are only two other references to the "finger of God" in the Bible. When the Lord through Moses brought the great plagues upon Egypt, Pharaoh's magicians were able to imitate Moses' first few miracles, but soon their deceptive "magic" could no longer compare, and they had to confess, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19).
The Beauty of Holiness
Jun 02
"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:2). When King David transported the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem he delivered a special psalm into the hands of Asaph and the other musicians. In it he exalted the Lord: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (I Chronicles 16:29). Psalm 96:6 discusses this beauty: "Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Verse 9 gives further clarification when it states, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth." This is not an outward beauty, for the prophet told of Christ that "when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isaiah 53:2). Rather, it is a beauty of character . . . an inward righteousness. It was the searching of this beauty that became David's life mission: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).
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