 Together
The kingdom of God is a community under the reign of Christ our Lord and King. Oftentimes, when we talk about the nature of salvation we emphasize the personal relationship between the individual and God. This is important because every believer does have an individual relationship of faith and trust in God through Jesus Christ. Each believer has the Holy Spirit residing in them! However, this does not mean that the personal Christian life is to be private or experienced alone. This last Sunday we had the privilege of participating as the local church in a baptism. Here in our church we weekly participatie in taking the Lord’s supper as Christ’s body and bride. The reason I use the word participate is that I believe that in these ordinances we are participating in the grace that has been collectively given to Christ’s body. The church has been given gifts. These are unmerited blessings provided by Christ for His people. But they are not automatic; they are experienced through means of grace in which we fellowship and participate in these blessings. Grace So when we gather to sing God’s praises and hear His word proclaimed we are experiencing together, God’s grace in these practices. The grace is already there for us but this is how we practice and experience it. In the age in which we live we are able to watch and listen to preaching and teaching from anywhere and anyone we want all on our own. I love to listen to sermons and podcasts where I learn more of Christ and His kingdom. However, when we gather for the worship and word of God more is happening than mere instruction or data transmission. We should be gathering to love and serve one another as family members in the body of Christ. If I miss a family dinner, someone could bring me a plate of leftovers, but honestly I missed the best part by not being there. This is also true in the church. Covenant Love God loves. That is a complete sentence because the Bible is clear that God is love (1 John 4:16). God loves us! Of course as believers we should stand amazed that God loves us individually. But God also loves us corporately as His people. His promises have always been corporate promises. “They will be my people and I will be their God”Jeremiah 32:38. There is a real sense in which we experience God’s love corporately in ways that we cannot experience it alone. God has set His love on His people and we are supposed to experience things together so much so that Jesus said this would be the proof of our discipleship (John 13:35). Faithful Discipleship Finally, faithful discipleship requires the community of the local church. Jesus never intended His disciples to be lone rangers. He sent them out two by two (Luke 10:1) and even after Pentecost we find them together (Acts 3:1). When we are born again we receive all the grace of Christ and all the unmerited favor we will ever need. But it is through the means of grace that we participate in all that we have received. Paul says that we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12-13). This means participating in real time and experiencing in real life the sufficient and sustaining grace of God that we have in Jesus Christ!
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 Real Idols
Last week in our Sunday sermon, we considered Paul’s proclamation to the citizens of Athens in the Areopagus. The Apostle was confronting the rampant idolatry of the city. When we think about idolatry, we probably start by thinking about the fact that the idol is not god at all (Isaiah 44:9-11). This is true. It is also true that the idol is a tool for demonic worship (1 Corinthians 10:19-21). Since we were all made to worship and serve God it is a big sin to give that praise and glory to other things. But there is another problem with idolatry. Every idol or concept of deity conceived of by the imagination of man is too small and too weak to be the one true God. As one historic theologian has said, “Our hearts are idol factories.” However, they are idol factories producing cheap knockoffs of the real thing. The Trap These idols are crafty prisons of the inmates own making. We often express our hatred for the life destroying power that these idols have over men and women. The ability of drugs, pornography, and gambling to draw away the heart of man is amazing. But remember, these things don’t have power on their own. The sinner is enslaved by their own passions (Romans 6:15-23). The amazing point here is that in our sin the grip that holds us to the impotent idol is our own. I believe that so much emotional and spiritual trauma is, to an extent, self inflicted by people holding on to sin, shame, and pain. The trap is that we imagine a god too small to deliver us from the problems and challenges that we face. Even many who claim to be Christians are actually living as unbelievers because the god they believe in is too small to vanquish their sin, free their hearts, and lead them in victory! The Truth So if the true God is a Big God, so big in fact that He is by His very nature beyond the limits of our imagination, then how can we know Him? The answer is that He must condescend to us and reveal Himself to us. By condescend, I mean that He must come down to us. We might say that He must “get on our level,” so that we can understand Him. Throughout history God has used interactions with key people such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses to give understanding of who He is. He has also used interactions with key positions Pharaoh, kings of various rival nations, or even the kings of Israel and Judah to demonstrate His power and purposes. God even uses the general knowledge of the created world to display His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). God has also chosen to communicate with us through divine revelation in the inspired writings of prophets and Apostles (2 Peter 1:16-21). God used these individuals to deliver His message to us. Dr. Jeff Johnson writes “There is no true theology without divine revelation. Light comes from above--from God. Knowledge of God is not obtained from man’s own ability to climb out of His darkness into the light.” God has chosen to come to us and tell us what we need to know so that we can love and worship Him. God tells us what He wants us to know about Him so that we can rest and rely upon Him. Most of all God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through the incarnation. I love Christmas time, and the celebration of Jesus birth is far more than the celebration of the successful delivery of a baby (although that is an amazing thing), but rather it is the celebration of God coming into the world in the form of a servant (Philippians 2:4-11) so that everyone who trusts in Him can be made a son (1 John 3:1-3). The Transcendent The Bible uses many words to convey the transcendent nature of God. He is Spirit, awesome, great, mighty, almighty, majestic, glorious, worthy, immutable (unchangeable), wise, just, good, true, faithful, love, blessed (happy), honorable, perfect, complete, glorious and Holy! Also this is only a partial list. The reality is that God is far greater than we can imagine and beyond any box that we might attempt to put Him into. However, this reality has led many to try to speculate beyond what the Scripture says because God is more than what is in the Bible. But we must not fall into this error, because when we go beyond the sure revelation of God in the Bible we will certainly end up with a worthless idol instead of the true God (1 Corinthians 4:6). It is because of the infinite, transcendent nature of God that we must rest ourselves in God as He has revealed Himself in the 66 books of Scripture alone.  Stories
Stories are powerful! One of the best ways to teach concepts and truths is to use stories. Jesus often used stories called parables to make particular points to those listening to His teaching. The Bible itself is a book that contains a high percentage of narrative portions that are not fairy tales or fables but true accounts of what happened in people’s lives and God interacted with them. God is in Himself a God of community and communication even beyond the reality of His creation. Within God there is perfect community and communication among the trinitarian Godhead of Father, son and Holy Spirit. Since we are created in God’s image this desire for true community and communication is at the core of humanity. Therefore it should not be surprising to us that we are drawn into stories of what has happened in the lives of other people. Also we should expect these stories to be used by God to have effects on our lives and on our hearts. This seems to be evident as we read the accounts of people in the scriptures both individuals and the greater communities, especially God’s covenant people. Personal Testimonies Personal testimonies are impactful because there is connection between the truth being conveyed and real life experience. The Bible is clear that independent eyewitness testimony is crucial to convicting the guilty. But God also chose to use independent eyewitness testimony to attest to the reality of Jesus' resurrection. In the gospels, we see the angels, the women, and the disciples testify to the miracle that has taken place. Even the reality that we have four gospels written by four different authors is a picture of the importance of a plurality of personal eyewitness accounts of what has happened. Our personal testimonies of what God has done in our loves can also have a real impact on others as we relay what God has done for us and through us. Oftentimes these stories are hard to tell because they involve us confessing our sins and/or bearing testimony to hard circumstances in our lives, but God is able to bring beauty out of the brokenness of our stories and meet people where they are in the midst of their own stories. Testimonies can be used to encourage brothers and sisters in trying times, warn the wayward of dangerous and hurtful paths, and to call lost people to the same salvation that we have found in Jesus through repentance and faith. Biographies Another way that stories can have a profound effect on us is through reading good biographies. There have now been twenty centuries of faithful believers who have lived for Christ, loved God and suffered by the power of the Spirit and their testimonies can be used by God to strengthen and encourage us in our part of the race of life. Of course, these biographies are not inspired by God and we should not base our doctrine on them. However, we can learn how other believers have applied the same doctrines that we believe to their lives which is valuable instruction for how to live for Christ in this present darkness. Biographies of church fathers, faithful pastors, brave reformers and valiant missionaries are a great source of hope and courage for those willing to read their stories. HIStory Of course we have heard the cliche that history is HIS-story, but in reality it is true. In all of our personal stories and in reading biographies even in the Bible we must focus on the most important part which is what we learn about God! The purpose behind all of our stories is to convey what we have learned about God and how He related to people in tangible and practical ways. We serve the real and true God and so there are real and true accounts of His proactive interactions in time and space with His creation that help us understand who He is immaterial and eternal. Of course the greatest example of God revealing Himself is in the person of the Lord Jesus. (Hebrews 1:1-4;Colossians 1:15;John 14:8-11)  Strategy
Do you like puzzles? My grandmother loved puzzles! She would sit at the table in the kitchen putting together puzzles with thousands of pieces. If you enjoy puzzles you have probably figured out certain strategies to help you identify which pieces fit into which places. Usually, these practices utilize the final product (the picture on the box) to help make sense of all the pieces. If you do not enjoy puzzles you may be focusing on the individual piece to the exclusion of the whole picture. Trees & Forests In our modern western world our lives can become like one of these very large puzzles. At times it can become hard to be sure that we even have all the pieces. We become managers trying to juggle many more responsibilities and opportunities than ever before. Interestingly, as modernity seeks to help us to organize our lives and control our environments, the sheer amount of information, decisions, and systems can be staggering. Compartmentalization is an ability that can be both a blessing and a curse. This means that even though being able to categorize the various relationships, activities, responsibilities, ambitions, and goals in our lives may help us to be more efficient, we may lose the meaning that makes all these things significant. Jesus said “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?” (Mark 8:36) In the immediately preceding verse He makes a cryptic statement about the one who would save his life actually losing his life and the one who would lose his life saving it. There is a way for us to laser focus our lives to the point that we forfeit the very life or future that we thought that we were building. The disciples are thoroughly confused at this point. They (through their always ready spokesman, Peter) had just confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. But now, Jesus is explaining that what was coming was suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. For the disciples these did not seem like the pieces that could come together to display the picture of the glorious Kingdom of God. However the Lord is describing for them what their discipleship (and ours) will necessarily look like. Every disciple of Jesus needs to realize that at many points in the journey that is our life as believers, the path of obedience is going to look too hard and the path of disobedience is going to seem like the better way. IT’S A TRAP! But remember Jesus told His disciples and us that the easy way is the wrong way! (Matthew 7:13-14) Conclusion Because this is the case, we need to trust the one who knows what the final result is supposed to look like to help us fit together the pieces in the middle. It would probably serve most of us well to consider what God has revealed about our eternal future and His glorious kingdom. No amount of suffering or pain or disgrace now can ever compare with the goodness, grace and glory of God that awaits us in His presence and in His kingdom! No one wants to spend hours putting together the puzzles only to discover that a few key pieces were never included in the first place. In the same way we should not live our lives just assuming that things will work out. Instead as genuine disciples, we must be resting in His grace, relying on the goodness of His plan, and relentlessly pursuing His glory in all things!  Premiss
I heard an argument in the field of philosophical ethics. The question was: Is it better to have a smaller population of people who were happier and more fulfilled or a larger population of people that lived less happy lives just barely worth living. I listened as the person posing this fictional scenario explained that it is a paradox because it cannot be balanced and equalized through a mathematical formula. Now, I’m not a mathematical superstar, but I think that numbers aside a biblical worldview can and does answer the problem. The way our biblical worldview will address this problem is by adjusting the assumptions of the argument. While I have not listed the argument in it’s full form you can watch the youtube video with this problem here. I would like to demonstrate that there are 2 particular flaws in the assumptions according to a Christian, Biblical worldview. The First Flaw The first flaw is in the assumption that people are valuable or important because of how happy or fulfilled they are. While of course we want people to find inexpressible joy in Jesus, peace beyond understanding with God, and true fulfillment with the Holy Spirit; the assumption is that sad or struggling people are not valuable or dignified as people. From a materialistic and naturalistic perspective this is exactly correct. In that philosophical framework you can only value life in regards to the qualitative or productive aspects. The utility is hindered by the scope of seeing people as less than inherently valuable. For us as believers we cannot assume this kind of naturalistic understanding because our Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). As His image bearers, both believers or unbelievers, there is inherent value that stems from the image of God. Because He is valuable, that which bears His image (even if poorly) is also valuable. Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which bore Caesar’s image and unto God that which bears God’s image (Luke 22:19-26). So we value people as important because they are people. The Fatal Flaw The argument assumes that some level of life is not worth living. That some humans have such bad circumstances that not living would be better. But this cannot be true because the relative ease of our lives is not the factor that makes our lives worth experiencing. The difference between this flaw and the earlier flaw is that the first flaw was about the value or importance of the human being. This flaw is about the value or importance of the human experience. This is highly influenced by subjective standards. We must understand that the current state of affairs in our world, while fallen, is still as it was intended to be. God has purposes in our experiences in this life and in this world. The Apostle Paul intends for us to live with our eyes focused on the glory to come (Romans 8:18) and on the weight of glory that is won through our trials (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). When as human beings we minimize the scale of what God is doing to just the variants and factors that we can know and quantify then it is impossible for us to accurately judge the importance and purpose of a single human experience and even more so all of the human experience. The Final Flaw It missed the point of people all together. This philosophical exercise is crippled by the fact that there cannot be in a materialistic, humanistic worldview any purposeful transcendent meaning to the universe or any creature in it. The reality is that all of creation and every creature, especially humans, exist for God’s own glory. No matter how desperate, disoriented, depressed, or despondent every life and life experience is important because the Lord is worthy of the glory of that life! God’s goodness, grace, and glory are all magnified by every life and this purpose is greater than any mathematical, philosophical, or psychological purpose that mankind could ever imagine. So let us live! And live for God’s glory!  The Real Picture
We live in a time when many people claim to believe things that are inconsistent with the way they live their lives. This deplorable condition has led many of us to rightly denounce the false faith that does not produce evidence of sincere or genuine belief. It is a real problem! Far too many individuals think that they are safe and secure because they have given a mental accent to statements of fact about Jesus and salvation but without acting on the accompanying logical realities of believing that Jesus is Lord! Pristine Deception However, this way of falling off the path to the left is not the only perilous stumble. Just as one can become convinced that belief without practice can save, one may also place confidence in their performance instead of in the Lord. In some ways this kind of discontinuity is more subtle because these people also will have statements of belief that sound good and in these cases the walk seems to accompany the talk. When judging their journey these individuals may actually be convinced that they are living well. In all honesty they are living by faith, just not faith in God, rather faith in their own meritorious activities. This means that it is hard for the individual or even the people around them to know that they are actually far from Christ! Necessary Discomfort What must happen in their lives so that they can see the danger and flee the coming wrath? Well, they must be confronted with the loss of whatever has their trust. The problem comes most acutely when these are “good” things. In these cases, they are almost always good things. Things like a nice home, good job, healthy kids, stable marriage, active social life, authentic church life, even meaningful ministry work can become an object of trust rather than results of faith in Christ! We see this in Luke 18 when Jesus pulls away the idols of the rich ruler to show that all his self assessed obedience was done without true faith in God. The result was that he “became very sad.” Real Hope Jesus, seeing the man’s reaction, commented that it is difficult for those with wealth to enter heaven. Maybe it would help us to expand our idea of wealth. Truly it will always be hard for those who have their hope placed in other things to turn from them to God. The more externally virtuous and socially acceptable the idol the more difficult the repentance will ultimately be. Jesus' response caused the disciples to respond with a despairing question about the ability of anyone to be saved! But thanks be to God that Jesus then reminded them and us that what things are humanly impossible are truly possible for God. With this truth Jesus also emphasized that this repentance results in Jesus being loved as Lord and faithfully followed to the end. He then also gave a great promise that when this rightly placed faith producing true obedience is present in one’s life the reality of eternal hope and life is sure and secure!  Travel Log
Do you like to travel? I have to admit that I really enjoy traveling! I sometimes hear people who travel regularly for their job or ministry complaining about the airports or the road and I think about just how fortunate they are to get to travel and have those experiences. In the last month, I have covered some miles myself in 8 states. I have enjoyed every inch of it! But whether we are globetrotters or benchwarmers, road warriors or homebodies, busy bees or couch potatoes, the reality is that we are all traveling through this world on a journey. The old saying really is true that “you can’t go home again” but it is also true that you can’t stay where you are either. Everyone of us is progressing toward something and somewhere. We could be just coasting along and going with the flow but that doesn’t mean that we can stop the progress. Or we could be intentionally seeking a goal(Phil. 3:12-16) and a country of ultimate rest(Hebrews 4:8-13) and peace. It’s the miles This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, “it’s not the years, it’s the miles.” The point of this piece of classic western wisdom is simply that our experiences and engagements are more defining to our lives than the number of trips that we make around the sun. This is usually applied in the case of what we might call “hard living.” However, the truth also applies to those seeking to live peaceful and quiet lives of faithfulness (1 Timothy 2:2). This kind of good living is not an accident, but rather, the outcome of the Christian work ethic and dedication to a future that is not dependent on us but on God’s promises. Every path will have its own set of challenges. The path of faithfully following the Lord Jesus Christ will also be a perilous journey but we have the assurance that we will endure and arrive in the great city of God that is built foursquare! The Straight Gate Jesus even told us that we should not expect the life we live for Him to appear to be the easy path. He said that the gate is broad and the way is easy that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). The way that most of the world takes is the one that seems best to their own inadequate understanding (Proverbs 14:12). But God has graciously rescued us from this easy way not because we are better or more brilliant but by His grace. Through the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit brings regeneration and life to us we now have new spiritual eyes through which we can best see the world and the beauty of Christ. This illumined perspective helps us to see that the way that looks so easy is not actually so without Christ’s goodness and grace. Therefore we can also properly understand that our own narrow and hard trail is actually training us and preparing us to experience even greater glory and pleasure in Christ in the ageless ages to come!  New
I love Utah! This is my third trip out here and I just really enjoy the people, places, and partnership in the gospel with the brothers and sisters of Sojourn Church. It is interesting how God can ignite a passion in our hearts and then weave together amazing circumstances confirming His will. However, this post isn't just about my affinity for the beehive state. Rather, I would like to focus on some things that I have been reminded of in my conversations with both Christians and Mormons. Scripture Alone First, I have seen firsthand the consequences of not relying solely and exclusively on the rock solid revelation in the Bible. When we weaken our resolve to believe all the Bible (tota scripture) and only the Bible (Sola Scriptura) as sufficient and authoritative we will inevitably be drawn away from the genuine kingdom of God. The reality is that God has spoken and He has definitely and perfectly revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since this is so, we should not only be satisfied with the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments but also passionate about knowing everything we can about our God and what He has told us. Christian, we ought to be people who are hungry for more of God's word and who will accept no substitutes, whether those be other claimed revelations or worldly philosophies (CRT, etc.) or fleshly distractions! Christ Alone Second, genuine salvation can only be found in real faith placed in the actual Jesus. The Mormon religion is technically named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However, it is interesting that they focus immensely on the heavenly father. The reason this is interesting is because in their theology 'heavenly father' and Jesus are not both God. They are not of the same being. They are not only distinct persons but distinct beings. So to focus so heavily on heavenly father seems to exclude Jesus except for where he is needed. It seems as though Jesus isn't King. But in reality Jesus is King! Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lord's and He rules all things by the word of His power. The real Jesus is in His being the one God, Yahweh, who is Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus is not the Father or the Spirit for they are distinct person's but there is no distinction or division in their being. Salvation is found in the Jesus who is God and who came as man to redeem men as only God could do! Glory Alone! Finally, I was reminded that the ultimate purpose of all things does reside in us. We are not at the center of the purpose of the universe. Rather God's glory is at the center of the purpose behind the reason for all things. God deserves and will have His glory! Everything from creation and fall to salvation and redemption to resurrection and recreation is ultimately about God's GLORY!  Overlap
As we consider the last element in our series on worship, you notice the correspondence between each part. In some cases our works of worship and walk of worship would almost be synonymous. What this reveals is that inconsistencies in these different areas of our lives will alway be evident, if we are objective enough to notice or if others are brave enough to confront us. The overlap between what we say, what we do, and where we go is important for both our testimony to others, as well as, our own sense of peace. Often, Christians struggle to find real abiding peace because of the very real friction in their behavior and habits. We have cognitive dissonance, because our stated values and beliefs are not matching our actual actions and motivations. In the first post, we dealt with the worship of our words, which we could think of in practical terms as how we use our lips or mouth to worship God. In the second installment, we considered the worship of our works, which correlates nicely with our hands. In this post, I want to consider our walk, meaning our feet or our steps. Location Maybe the best place to start in thinking about our walk in relation to our lives as worship to God is to consider where we are. Where have our feet or steps brought us in life? Of course we are probably inclined to the fact that this is really about the decisions that we have made which is true. But, as we have walked the path of life, we must consider where we are and where we have come from. As sinners we must recognize the state of sin from which God has brought us. Too often we forget the tangible victories that God has given over sin and doubt when we have safely arrived far from those things. We don’t need to dwell on the sin, but we do need to remember to continue to celebrate those victories. As image bearers of God we must recognize how God is restoring the image of God as we walk the path of life. We are being renewed by truth (Romans 12:2) and conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This does not happen in an instantaneous experience, but rather, through the progressive growth of sanctification. We begin as spiritual infants when we are born again as followers of Christ. But then we are meant to grow into mature manhood (Ephesians 4:13). As followers of Christ we are meant to reflect His glory in the world in which we live. Reflecting Christ requires humble but bold consistency between our walk and our talk. This kind of steady and honest way is crucial to our ministry and mission for God. Direction Next we must also be thinking about where we are going. The call to salvation is a call to follow Christ. The Apostle Paul refers to this as imitation (1 Thessalonians 1:6). This means that we are going in the same direction. Our idea of repentance is shaped by this concept. We were once traveling in the opposite direction from Christ and His kingdom but turned around and began to follow Him. This means that we go wherever He leads even if that is not the path we would have chosen or the plan we had for our lives. While this does leave us with some questions in the meantime we must also remember that we know the end goal. We are on our way to the place that He has prepared for us (John 14:1-7). We are on our way to a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). Therefore we are looking for a home that we have never seen before. Transportation Finally, we also need to remember what we are carrying on this journey. We are bringing with us the message of good news. Jesus told us to go into all the world making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). This is why the Bible talks about the beautiful feet of those who bring the good news ( Romans 10:14-17). As we venture out into the world, whether across the street or around the globe, remember that as Christians we are taking the most important and wonderful message with us to those who most definitely need it! Today, a group of us from the North Central Baptist Association are leaving to take the gospel to the people of northern Utah. Please pray for us to be safe in our travel, compassionate in every interaction, and bold in our mission!  Action
Last week, I mentioned that we were beginning a series on how we worship God with our whole self. In that post, we considered the most obvious way we worship God - with our words. But worship is a much bigger subject than simply the prayer we pray or the song we sing. Genuine worship is about the life we live! God is worthy of the worship of our works. As soon as we mention the word “works,” our first thought may be to repudiate any hint of salvation by works. This is a good impulse, because as recipients of God’s grace who have been transformed and regenerated by His power and not by anything that we have done, we always want the focus to be on what God has done. If you are a Christian today, it is because God the Father in eternity past set His love upon you and chose you in Christ for Himself (Ephesians 1:4). The Father sent Jesus to save you (John 3:16). If you are a Christian today, it is because Jesus lived the righteous life you should have lived and died the death you deserved to die and rose from the grave to save you (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). If you are a Christian today it is because the Holy Spirit called you, convicted you, and converted you by His power. All of this was not of your doing. But because of all of this all our future working should be in worshipful response to what He has done. Product The Scriptures are clear about our inability and unwillingness to produce good works on our own apart from the grace and goodness of God. Many might respond that even atheists and others caught in false religions do many “good” things. However, we must remember that God gives, by His common grace, a kind of restraining of evil that is working providentially even in the lives and circumstances of unbelievers to accomplish His foreordained purposes. Also, this judgment of “good” is against the subjective standard of our own fallenness and not the ultimate standard of God’s holiness and righteousness. The Bible is also clear that if our faith is legitimate it bears good fruit (Luke 6:43-45). This is not an instance of works earning anything, only the natural production of that which is alive. All living things produce. So If we are alive we will produce works that are a part of the state of being alive. These works are a form of pleasing worship before our great God. Proof The idea of works as the product of our genuine life then also leads to the reality of our works as the proof of our being alive. When medical professionals assess patients they usually check their vitals signs (blood pressure, pulse, body temperature), because these give evidence to the state of the person’s well being, and if they are absent, clear evidence that the person is dead. In the Scriptures we are also told that without genuine vital signs of spiritual life we should conclude that the patient is dead (James 2:14-26). James instructs us on this so that we will be able to recognize those who are alive and those who are not. James says that our works are the only way that we can show our faith. These demonstrations are not for our glory but for the exaltation and worship of God. Purpose The Scriptures are replete with references to the purposes of God in the works of His people. The idea that our salvation is without a purpose of worship and glory to God is a dangerous misunderstanding of what salvation is. God is at work in us to restore us as the image bearers of God that we were made to be. Just today I spoke with Jim Adams and had the opportunity to see an old truck that he restored that had belonged to his father. It was an amazing story and a stunning vehicle, but God is doing an even great work of restoration in every one of His people. He is also conforming us into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). As we are conformed more and more into the image of Christ as Pauls says from glory to glory then God is rightly magnified because of His work seen in our works (2 Corinthians 4:6). We must be people who rightly live for God’s glory and work for the fame of His name. God’s own fame and glory is the reason you were made and remade, born and reborn! |