day no. 13,043: the two common threads of saving faith and faithfulness

B.B Warfield points out that Saul of Tarsus’ conversion may have included many unique details (personal appearance and audible voice of Jesus, Jesus’ strong hand knocking Saul down, blindness, etc…), but the basic outline of what occurred is the same as any person’s typical conversion experience.

Warfield points out that there are 2 phenomena common to each and every story of salvation.  He calls them surrender and consecration.

SURRENDER:

Acts 22:8

“I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’

CONSECRATION:

Acts 22:10

“Then I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’

Warfield’s point is this: everyone that God saves first acknowledges who Jesus (Lord, God, Christ, Savior) is in also recognizing for the first time who they are (sinner, unholy, unworthy, needy, at His mercy).  Next, they immediately employ themselves to His service in submitting themselves to whatever He might ask of them to remedy their newly discovered situation.

Warfield points out that it is the Spirit that graces the person with the first knowledge and recognition of who they are and who Jesus is.  It is the same Spirit that then grants mercy to the person by provoking them to pursue a resolution with this newly discovered almighty and uplifted Savior.

Lastly, the person discovers in this moment of terror that the work of bridging the gap they have recently been made aware is already accomplished.  The vast distance between you and God that previously was unrealized is in the moment after acknowledgement breached by the One who graced you with the despairing knowledge.

That’s why we sing

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace, my fears relieved

It is right to inquire, what should I do?  The knowledge of His exalted place and our devastating failure should produce a desire to bridge the gap. 

The Good News is that the gap is already bridged by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our LORD and SAVIOR.

He provided what He required.

The rest of the Christian life lived in trust and dependence upon that Good News still often inquires of its Lord, “What should I do?”

The doing now not being sought to save the sinner, but to sanctify, set apart and consecrate the life that was purchased by the Saving One.

day no. 13,042: without revelation people run wild

Proverbs 29:18

Without revelation people run wild,
but one who listens to instruction will be happy.

Reminds me of the time of the Judges.

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Revelation comes down, speculation goes up.

Without revelation, we follow only our own fancies.

We speculate that God agrees with us (that’s why he or she’s so smart, right?)

We fashion a god in our likeness and worship him or her not realizing it is only our powerless reflection that we praise.

day no. 13,041: kanye 'as far as the east is from the' west

Sin takes you further than you want to go

Faster than you want to get there

Keeps you longer than you intended to stay

Costs you more than you wanted to pay

Further

Faster

Longer

Costlier

This is like a Daft Punk proverb or something.

Maybe Kanye will rip this off too.

day no. 13,038: judah, Jesus and genesis

Genesis 44:33

Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers.

Judah offfered to put himself under the wrath of Pharoah in order to set Benjamin free. 

Now, it bears pointing out that at this point Judah isn't even sure if Benjamin is innocent.  He has no evidence to suggest that Benjamin DIDN'T steal the silver cup.

Even so, Judah offers himself as a substitute for his brother Benjamin.

One day Another who went by The Lion of the Tribe of Judah would do the same.

He would be King and Sacrifice, Christ and crucified.

Genesis 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah
or the staff from between his feet
until He whose right it is comes
and the obedience of the peoples belongs to Him.

Revelation 5:5

Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.”

He would offer Himself for people He KNEW were sinners.

He would rule and reign and redeem as true Judah!

day no. 13,037: warning: wolves are coming

Acts 20:32

And now I commit you to God and to the message of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Paul just warned his friends that wolves were coming.

His confidence in leaving them to fend for themselves in the face of these foretold attacks was twofold:

He was leaving them in the powerful hands of their Father.

Also, he had preached to them the full counsel of God so that they were not without artillery to defend their hearts and minds against falsehood and heresy.

The message of grace genuinely received and believed by a person transfers them from the family of death to the household of life as an adopted child of the eternal King!

Preach this message, share this message and those who believe can be left in confidence that the Good News and the Good King will keep them safe (even in the face of great trial and difficulty!)

day no. 13.036: the Lord saves sinners

The Lord saves sinners.

The Lord: for all that He is

Saves: for all that it's worth

Sinners: for all that they need.

The Lord saves sinners.

The Lord: perfect, complete and eternal

Saves: does everything for

Sinners: wicked, unrighteous, imperfect rebels

The Lord saves sinners.

The Lord: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Saves: work together

Sinners: for those working against Him

The Lord saves sinners.

day no. 13,035: logos, ethos and pathos (a brief word on preaching the Word)

So I decided to start studying deeply the book of Isaiah on weekends.  I received a commentary from a friend maybe 6 or 7 years ago on the book of Isaiah called "God Saves Sinners" by Ray Ortlund, Jr.

I am going to read through the commentary as I read through the book of Isaiah in order to more deeply study it.

In the opening pages of the book Ortlund offers a "Word to those that preach the Word."

He reminds us who preach that the Logos (the Word) is paramount.  Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning and who was with God and who was and is and ever will be God.

We have to be men of ethos as well.  Substantive men who let the Word sink deeply into us and to teach and instruct us first so that we can in turn, teach others (Ezra 7:10).

Lastly, we have to be men employing pathos.  We have to bring our charisma and character and convictions to light by launching them out with the tone, candor, speed and pitch appropriate to the power of the message we preach.

A man who has studied the Word, been nourished by the Word and persuasively preaching from their unique person the Word they know and believe is the kind of man preachers are called to be.