^{by Clint Archer}

I am usually not surprised when sinners sin. Nor am I caught off guard when mud is muddy or when dogs bark. When you have not been “delivered from the domain of darkness and been transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son” (Col 1:13) then you will continue to “walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). I mean, why wouldn’t you? The Bible says that you will choose according to your nature until you are given a new nature.

So, when US retail giant, Target, ramped up its support of the LGBTQ+ community by adding to its longstanding Gay Pride clothing line “tuck friendly” children’s bathing suits for boys who want help hiding their boy parts to become trans girls, and books marked as appropriate for children ages 2-8 titled “Bye Bye Binary” and “I’m not a Girl,”  as well as nearly 2,000 other homosexual-themed products, including “Gender Fluid” mugs and “Queer All Year calendars, I shouldn’t have been shocked at all.

But I was.

I was astonished at how un-capitalist the chain had become. I expect the world to act like the world, but I assumed that the god of greed would keep them in check. I just figured that the love of money, harvested from the pockets of mostly straight, suburban, soccer moms with young kids, would override the impulse to pander to a minority preference rather than alienate the bulk of their customer base. If Target’s marketing department had done even the most basic demographic survey of its customer base (or had visited one of their own stores on any given weekday) they could have predicted the consequence of liberally lacing their product line with toxic grooming propaganda.

The self-proclaimed transgender Satanist, Erik Carnell, whom Target tasked with designing this line is openly taunting Christians on his/her/them/their/its social media accounts wearing ram’s horns and a “Satan respects pronouns” t-shirt. Carnell’s designs that have been included in Target’s Gay Pride Month collection include “Happy Coming Out” greeting cards and a “Cure Transphobia” sweatshirt.

Target’s stock price has plummeted as the company hemorrhaged billions of dollars of value in just a few days, as observant investors are predicting another Bud Light fiasco.

And that is what makes Target’s misfire so jaw-droppingly tone-deaf… this just happened to Anhueser-Busch’s stock when they promoted transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, the girly poster boy for Bud Light, a beer that is synonymous with the flannel shirt and trucker cap wearing,  football-obsessed, Ford truck driving, masculine middle-America. Now they literally cannot give away free beer to any man who identifies as a man, which it turns out is every person in their customer base, to a man.

So, Target’s marketing department watched Bud Light make one of the most breathtakingly costly blunders in marketing history, and a few weeks later said… “Hold my beer.”

Target’s decision is doubly dumb because they have no excuse. Or do they?

What could possibly account for educated, experienced, world-class retail marketing executives making such a bad decision on the heels of the failed experiment they just witnessed? How could they not know this would happen? I have only one Scripture that keeps coming to mind as I constantly feel like the kid in The Emperor’s New Clothes.

I think I know why Target missed the mark by so much: they can’t see straight (pun only slightly intended). And I think I know why they can’t see straight…

2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹²in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This explanation is the only one that makes sense to me that accounts for the bewildering, widespread, delusional decision-making lunacy of educators, medical practitioners, lawmakers, political leaders, and corporate executives throughout the world: that God is supernaturally sending a strong delusion to they will whole-heartedly believe what is clearly false, untrue, not real. This explains the travesty of women’s sports being overrun by lying or delusional men. It explains how supreme court nominees and esteemed professors can’t answer Matt Walsh’s simple question, “What is a woman?” It explains why parents who love their children would subject them to experimental hormone treatment and surgery, and why their doctors don’t advise against it. And it explains why Target can so completely miss the mark. They just can’t see straight.

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

1 John 2:2

The word propitiation, as used by the apostle John in 1 John 2, has been the subject of much debate throughout the centuries. The question is this: Does John mean by propitiation that Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross, obtained forgiveness for us, or does John mean that through His death, Jesus not only obtained forgiveness for us but also satisfied the wrath of God against us? How you answer this question will either lead you to the gospel of Jesus Christ and a saving knowledge of God, or to a faulty understanding of who God is and what He requires as payment for our sins.

Some would say that God is not a God of wrath. They would say that God does not demand blood sacrifice to satisfy His wrath against sin and sinners. They claim that God is pure benevolence – a loving God, who would never have this kind of wrath that needed to be satisfied against sin. These people argue that this word means that Christ came and died and brought forgiveness, but that God did not need to have His wrath appeased because a loving God is not angry.

The problem with this view is that the Bible clearly presents God as angry not only with sin itself but also with sinners. In Psalm 2:12, the kings of the earth are enjoined to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.” Our God is a God of wrath who becomes angry with sinners and sin – especially the sin of rejecting His Son. This anger toward sinners is just and warranted. It is the just anger of a holy God who rightly exercises wrath against what is truly evil and wicked.

David writes in Psalm 7:11 that God “has indignation every day.” What is it that makes God’s wrath necessary? It is the fact that He is a righteous judge, and the world is full of wicked people. God is not some petulant deity who becomes angry without cause. Our God, as a righteous judge, must exercise wrath against those who are wicked and defy His divine law. If he wasn’t angry at evil, he wouldn’t be righteous. Those who do what is evil provoke God to wrath every day because of God’s righteousness, which demands He be utterly intolerant of sin.

Because we are all sinners, we are under the wrath of a just and righteous God if we do not have Christ as our Advocate and Propitiation.

In every ancient religion, an angry god must be placated by the sacrifice and suffering of sinners. What is unique about Christianity is that God’s wrath is not satisfied by our sacrifice, or by our suffering, or by something we have done. God Himself provides the sacrifice for our sins that will appease His just wrath against us.

1 John 4:10 says that “God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The situation was not that we loved God and so we figured out a way to appease God’s wrath against us. Quite the opposite! We were sinners who loved sin. But God, because He loved us, sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Christ, then, became the sacrifice that satisfied God’s just wrath against us for our sins. All of God’s holy and just anger towards us for our sins was poured out on Christ on the cross. His fury is thus extinguished, not because we did something to appease Him, but because Christ died in our place, bore our curse, and took the wrath of God upon Himself on the cross.

And so, John’s point in 1 John 2:2 is this: When we sin, we remind ourselves that standing with us before the Father is Jesus Christ. Jesus accomplished a perfect righteousness in our place and died on a cross, bearing the full weight of the wrath of God for us. Our total trust, our total reliance, and our total dependence are not in any notion that we are sinless (because we are not). Our total trust, reliance, and dependence are in the truth that Jesus, through His sacrifice and perfect righteousness, makes us acceptable in the presence of God.

As the hymn writer penned: “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness! I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name!”

What is it that gives us such confidence that Christ stands for us as an Advocate and as our propitiation? He’s not just the propitiation for our sins but for the sins “of the whole world.” That means that the only way anyone is ever going to be saved, no matter where they are from or who they are, is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. No one at any time or at any place can ever say, “Jesus’ sacrifice has no relevance to me because of my ethnicity or my status or my parents or my heritage.”

The fact that Jesus died as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world means that He is the only hope in the whole world for sinners. We dare not say that Muslims get to God through their god, Hindus through their gods, Buddhists through their gods, or Jews through their Torah observance. Jesus died to satisfy God’s wrath for the sins of the whole world, and that means that He alone is the source of eternal life for sinners the world over.

This is the gospel. The gospel is not “Become a better you,” or “Be a good citizen,” or “Be a loving neighbor.” The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ is the righteous one who satisfied God’s wrath for the sins of the whole world and that those who trust in Him receive eternal life and know God through their faith in Jesus Christ.

Do you know God? Do you have assurance that you have eternal life? To know that we know God is of paramount importance because salvation ultimately can be boiled down to this one thing: knowing God.

In John 17, Jesus, before going to the cross, was praying to the Father for His disciples – both those present at that time and those who would believe in future generations through the preaching of the apostolic word of the gospel. In verse 3, Jesus defines eternal life for us, praying, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

“Eternal life” is a phrase used forty-one times in the New Testament. And in John 17, we see what it means: to know God the Father and to know His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eternal life is not merely to live forever and never die. It includes that, of course, by definition. But eternal life is not simply an unending existence of isolation or independence. It is eternal life in relationship with God. It is life that not only is unending but unlimited in its joy because it is life lived in the very presence of God and His light and His love.

Eternal life is what Paul called life indeed in 1 Timothy 6:19. It is the life we were created to enjoy in unhindered and uninterrupted fellowship with our loving and good Creator. Knowing God is the essence of eternal life, and that means it is the essence of the Christian life.

When God promised a new covenant, the essence of the new covenant was that His people would know Him – as described by the Lord in Jeremiah 31:31-34. A new covenant was necessary because Israel broke the old covenant. They did not know the Lord, although they had His Word, His Law, and His promises.

It comes as no surprise, then, that mere hours before Jesus would suffer and die on a cross for His people’s sins, that he would describe the eternal life He would win for us on the cross as a true knowledge of God. All of history has been driving to this point, with the climax of God’s covenant program in the new covenant being a true knowledge of God.

In Philippians 3:8, Paul looked at everything the world had to offer – all goods, all status, all prestige, all religious piety, all riches, all success, all power, all position – and he concluded that next to knowing Christ, it was all rubbish. The word translated rubbish is a crude word in Greek often used of human excrement. When Paul compared the greatest things the world has to offer with the surpassing value of knowing Christ, everything in the world was by comparison human waste.

Paul went on to outline the goal of his existence in Philippians 3:10: “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Nothing mattered in life to Paul, ultimately, besides knowing Christ. And so, knowing God in Christ, knowing the Father and the Son, is the goal of our salvation; it is what eternal life is all about.

If knowing God in Christ is the essence of our salvation, then we find ourselves faced with a most-significant question: How do we know if we know Him? How do we know if we have fellowship with the true and living God through His Son when this God is invisible?

Countless Christians throughout history have wrestled with this question, wondering how they could ever have assurance this side of eternity that they truly know God. Many other professing Christians throughout history have foolishly taken for granted that they know God based on an experience or feelings when the reality is they were deceived and did not know Him. And when we consider the monumental consequences of this question – eternal life or eternal condemnation – there is no more important question to answer for ourselves than this: do we know that we know God?

Thankfully, John gives us a way to answer this question in 1 John 2, showing us three tests how we can have a certainty that is true whether we know God or whether we are deceiving ourselves.

The first characteristic of those who know God is that they trust in Christ’s righteousness. If we truly know God in Christ, we will be marked by a reliance upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ for our standing before God.

The second characteristic is that they obey Christ’s commandments. John doesn’t tell us to keep a list of rules and of dos and don’ts, but that we have a certain relationship to the Word of God that is marked by being conformed to what it says.

And the final characteristic from John is that those who know God love Christ’s people. If we claim to be in the light and holy, but if we do not love others, we are in the darkness and self-deceived.

Our relationship to God is discerned by our relationship to Christ’s righteousness, commands, and people. By these, we can have complete certainty of our eternal life found only in knowing Him.

Warren Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha, is known as the world’s greatest investor. In 1950, at age 20, he had saved $9,400 (about $100k in today’s money). He set out to invest it, applying his long-term, value-based, focussed portfolio philosophy, which his author Robert Hagstrom termed “The Warren Buffett Way.”  Buffett increased his net worth to $62 billion, making him the richest person in the world. Nipping at his heels for that enviable title was the young Microsoft mogul, Bill Gates.

The two richest men in the world were friends, with a friendly rivalry about their wealth. They were not competing to see who could have the most money. Instead, paradoxically, their rivalry was a race to give away money to worthy causes. Together the Buffett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were donating hundreds of millions and billions of dollars to a long list of charities, including the global eradication of polio, child vaccination efforts, HIV research, and neglected tropical diseases such as leprosy.

But on July 25, 1996, the rivalry came to an abrupt and unpredictable end.

It was then that Warren Buffett held a press conference in which he committed to give away 99% of his wealth in one day. He handed out six letters. Five of them went to his children and close family, giving them a relatively small amount (supposedly only a few million each), and the sixth letter contained his intention to give everything else to a single cause. I’m sure everyone who had been invited was holding their breath. Who on earth would the richest person in the world give his money to? Buffett announced without any hesitation that his intention was to give 99% of his net worth to… the second richest man in the world, Bill Gates.

Buffett explained that it was always he and his wife Susan’s plan for him to make as much money as he could, and then for her to not spend it, but give it all away.

Buffett had come to realize that no one else in the world was better equipped to faithfully handle that kind of money than his friend Bill. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had already proven that they knew what money was for, and how to use it as a force for good in the world. It was also the only organization that was equipped for the scale of investment Buffett would bequeath.

This particular investment was perfectly congruent with Buffett’s unwavering philosophy: put your money where it will do “the most good” for the long term, and put it with the people who have the same definition of “the most good” as you do.

Of course, Buffett’s wisdom is derivative of commonplace biblical principles. Consider the parable of the minas (Luke 19:11-27). The master returned to find an unproductive servant who had invested his equivalent of three month’s wage in a handkerchief, stashed in the ground.

He must have thought, “I’m sorry, did you say you deposited my money in a handkerchief? You must mean Handkerchief Bank, or the Handkerchief Investment Growth Fund.” The master asked with incredulity “Why did you not put it in the bank where I could have got it back with interest?”

Then he took the one measly mina and had it given to the guy with who had turned his one into ten. The other servants were taken aback, “Master he has ten!”

But the master, in the voice of Jesus, declared: “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

What about you? What are you doing with your gifts, talents, skills, time, money, relationship, and other resources. God entrusted them to you to be invested for the kingdom work. Have you stashed said stewardship in the dirt; or are you redeeming the time, laying up treasure in heaven, and being rich toward God?

1 Peter 4:10-11  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:  whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

Whatever you have is just seed money to be plowed into God’s kingdom. What you sow you will reap, and what you hoard will pop up at the Bēma Seat judgment like a rotten skeleton of wasted chances, to accuse you.

On the other hand, whatever you invest in the kingdom will be waiting for you when you get there, along with the commendation that we all crave: “Well done good servant!”

May you make this day count for Christ, for faithfulness echoes in eternity.

There are twin dangers that we face as believers. The first danger is in viewing sin too highly. The second danger is in seeing sin too lowly. I have seen both errors within Christ’s church… and I have seen them both within myself. There is a fine line that we walk in this life, and it’s easy to fall on one side or the other.

When someone views sin too highly and too regularly… sin, not Christ, becomes the focus. The consequences of such can be devastating. At that moment a person’s gaze isn’t fixed on Jesus in line with Heb 12:2, and whenever our primary gaze is on introspection that will lead to depression, anxiety, concern, and all sorts of doubt. Why? We were never made to hope in or meditate upon ourselves. We are to, as Paul says in Col 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” 

The flip side of the coin is what I want to focus on here. It’s seen in viewing sin too lowly. While some teach the doctrine of sinless perfectionism, there’s something much more subtle that can occur even in those that wouldn’t appeal to perfectionist teaching (cf. 1 John 1:8–10). There’s a sinister temptation that swirls around in the church whereby we can begin to believe ourselves to be more holy and righteous than we are, and proportionally, we begin to view ourselves as less sinful than we truly are. How dangerous it is to go from the heart that says, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” to, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” 

The moment when we adopt any view of ourselves other than God’s view, we are pridefully saying that we know better than God. It’s a lie that’s origin is traced all the way back to the garden. Whenever we think of ourselves more highly than we are, Paul’s words are designed to swoop down from heaven above like manna to an undeserving arrogant soul, “… let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” 

While we certainly do not want to live in sin, that for which our glorious Savior died, make no mistake about it, you and I sin even when we don’t recognize our sin. When we don’t call a spade a spade, we continue to live in sin (in denying the presence of sin) and go against the Lord in the process. There’s no shame in admitting you’re a sinner, that’s a grand confession. You should cry out not just in the moment of salvation, but regularly cry out,

“O God! Be merciful to me—I am a sinner through and through! My only hope of righteousness is not in me, but only You.”

Not in Me by Sovereign Grace Music

That is a glorious, Spirit-wrought confession. There’s no shame there. But, there is in covering up sins like Adam and Eve did. We don’t relish or delight in our sin, may it never be. At the same time, we recognize it and side with God against ourselves, we then turn to walk in God’s ways. Rinse and repeat, for His glory. 

The most mature saint is the most humble saint. It is the person who not only rests in and delights in Jesus Christ supremely but the one who recognizes his or her own failings so readily. The pride that lies behind selfish desires in choices made during the day, the ungratefulness toward God in the circumstances He’s presented to you, and the lack of patience shown at work or in the home. And the example that I want to put before you today is that of the apostle Paul from three seasons of his life. As Paul walked with the Lord more and more, it seems he understood his condition more and more clearly. 

The first text is found in 1 Cor 15. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian church around the year 56 AD. At this point, he had been a Christian for approximately 22 years. Paul begins in verses 3–5 by speaking of the Anchor of our hope.

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” 

That is the fount from which Paul draws as he goes on in verses 7–9,

“After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” 

Paul says that he was the least of the apostles. 

The word Paul uses, “ἐλάχιστος,” is a superlative. It communicates that he was the least, dead last. It’s a strong way of conveying his place. So why does he say it? It was because of his sin. He knew that he “persecuted this Way to the death.” His recognition is beautiful. He wasn’t like the Pharisee he once was or like the one in Luke 18. He didn’t think of himself as better or more highly than the guys he was around. That’s how he thought before he was saved (cf. Phil 3:3–6). Now, Paul was just thankful to be on the team in light of his sin. What a great mentality to adorn. 

If you then fast forward to the book of Ephesians, Paul builds upon his statement in 1 Cor 15:9. Paul wrote this letter five or six years later while in prison to the church family in Ephesus. At this point, Paul had been a believer for approximately 27 years. And Paul was writing to the body to let them know that in Christ, the Jewish and Gentile believers had been united. They were one new man, in Christ. Before their ethnic identification, they were Christians. Then Paul goes on to say in Eph 3:8–10,

“To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” 

Do you see the progression? Paul previously said that he was the least of the apostles. Now what does he say? He says that he’s the “very least of all the saints.” There are a lot of saints out there. Paul knows exactly what he’s saying. He writes to the church family and says, I am less than all of you. 

Paul uses the same root word here for least but with a distinction. Paul uses the comparative form here of, “ἐλαχιστοτέρῳ.” As opposed to just saying the “least of all,” we see the words “very least of all,” in the LSB. Since it’s comparative, we would think in English of “less than,” but here the word remains a superlative as well. It isn’t “less,” it’s the highest degree, but “least than” isn’t a concept in English. The phrase “very least” is the best translators can do and it does convey the thought as closely as English can. Paul was saying he’s at the bottom of the barrel of all Christians, and then even less than the bottom––if that were possible. Why?

Our third stop is found at 1 Tim 1:15. This is now around two years later. It’s approximately 62 AD. Paul has now been a believer for around 29 years. Paul writes this to Timothy, “It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.” Why was Paul the least of the apostles? Why was he less than the least saint? Well, it’s because he viewed himself as the chief of sinners. He doesn’t say “I was the chief of sinners,” or “I stopped being the chief of sinners and now don’t sin anymore.” No, he says “I am the chief of sinners.” It’s present tense. He owns that. 

The word for chief is “πρῶτος.” A transliteration is “protos.” If you’ve heard of the word prototype before, a first type or model, then you have the idea already based on the prefix. The word is usually translated as first. It can be used to speak of one person in front of another spatially. It’s also used for time and chronology, of being first in sequence. But it could also be used to speak of prominence. The last usage is in view. Paul was the first and foremost sinner, the greatest sinner. Paul says, that’s me. Is that how you think of the apostle Paul? He’s probably not on your top 10 chief sinners list. He’s probably on your top 10 most holy list. Nevertheless, that’s how he thought of himself. 

Paul could say he’s the chief of sinners because he knew himself better than anyone else, besides the Lord Almighty. He knew the corruptions of his motives and desires and he knew and saw his sin more than anyone else’s. Before the Righteous Lord, he believed and saw himself to be the very chief and leader of sinners––at present. Something worth reiterating here is that Paul wasn’t just saved. At this point, he’s been saved for almost three decades. It’s as though his view of himself has become more tuned over time, he sees himself more and more clearly in light of God’s holy light. 

Robert Robertson knew Paul’s words all too well when he wrote,

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it seal it for Thy courts above.”

Paul knew he was a sinner. He wasn’t perfect. He says so in Phil 3:12. He needed the grace of God as much in his sixties as when he was first saved. In fact, over time it appears he recognized how much more he needed it than he ever first believed. 

John Calvin said at this point in 1 Tim 1:15,

“Our mind is always impelled to look at our worthiness; and as soon as our unworthiness is seen, our confidence sinks. Accordingly, the more any one is oppressed by his sins, let him the more courageously betake himself to Christ, relying on this doctrine, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous, but to ‘sinners.’”

A.W. Tozer said,

“We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by.” 

In salvation, there are often many sins that fall by the wayside that are noticeable right away. Because you have new longings and affections you spend your time differently, your energy, your life. You don’t do things you once did because you have a new Master. But at the same time, what also happens? As we see even with Paul, as you grow closer to Jesus, you realize that you are a far greater sinner than you ever knew you were before. While there might be sins with alcohol, lust, language, covetousness, anger, and things of that nature that are cut down, you see the root of pride that is connected to these goes all the way down to the depths of the heart. What was forsaken was the tip of the iceberg, the 10% above the surface. And as you see more of Christ you see what’s beneath the surface that still must be mortified.  

Thomas Watson put it this way,

“The more the Spirit shines in the heart, the more evil it discovers. A Christian thinks it worse with him than it was, whereas his grace may not grow less, but his light greater.”

It is a good thing if you recognize that you’re a sinner. It is a good thing when you adorn God’s view of yourself. When you feel the sweet sting of conviction from the Spirit, don’t run away from it or try to shove it back down. Instead, praise God for His kindness toward you in pointing you in the right direction, back toward Himself. Praise God that He hasn’t given up on you, though you continue to sin. Then make a beeline for the cross. Look to Jesus who forgives the chief of sinners, like you and me, and follow Him. 

At this point, I will issue a concluding word of caution. You don’t want to see sin where it isn’t or excuse sin where it is. Again, our gaze is to be fixed on the Lord who helps us in this regard when we come before Him with a sensitive heart desiring to learn and grow from His word and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our job and goal isn’t to be lost in morbid introspection, I have seen many there. As has been discussed, we also don’t want to look past sin where it exists to feign a false righteousness. Robert Murray McCheyne summarizes this principle beautifully. He said,

“For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God.” 

Press on dear brothers and sisters. 

I’m a sucker for a good sales pitch. I’ve plunged into various predicaments because I couldn’t say no. This weakness almost derailed my career path the day the US military recruiters showed up at my seminary.

They wanted military chaplains. Being a chaplain was so far away from my calling that I expected to be impervious to their pitch. But their chapel speaker, a major in the Navy in a Top Gun-esque white uniform and impressive physique, preached up a storm. He regaled us with how he got to start Bible studies on submarines off the coast of Iraq, how he would disciple pilots while jogging with them on the aircraft carrier, and how he counseled combat troops in exotic locations.

After chapel, a gaggle of awestruck students fluttered to the recruiters like moths to the flame. The recruiters in their smart uniforms all smelled so good and beamed friendly smiles. They talked of seeing the world and being all you can be. They had pictures of happy soldiers with gleaming guns repelling from helicopters like my childhood GI Joe fantasies.

I…was…mesmerized.

Thankfully, I had a natural immunity to their wiles: I wasn’t a US citizen. But a classmate of mine succumbed to the allure and soon discovered a whole other side to the military. Before the ink on the dotted line is dry the friendly faces of the enchanting recruiters disappear and you never see them again. They shave your head, take your clothes, and start yelling and cursing at you.

I found out though that the Navy SEALs recruit in the exact opposite way. They say how difficult the training is, how dangerous the missions are, how many drop out, and how impossible it is to be chosen. They speak of pain and sacrifice and commitment. And paradoxically that brutal truth attracts better candidates than the honey trap method. Only the most committed and determined warriors sign up for the SEAL teams, knowing full well what lies ahead.

Some evangelists share the gospel in a way that makes Christianity sound like a vacation from trouble, a Disneyland tour of delightful experiences. And others present the brutal truth that following Jesus brings sacrifice, persecution, and lifelong warfare against sin and Satan.

Which method of evangelism do you think produces truly committed disciples?

Here are three truths every prospective disciple should know before committing to Christ…

1. True Disciples Must Be Willing to Die for their Faith

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

One of the most popular gospel presentations of our time is “The Four Spiritual Laws.” The very first law is this: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” But the conditions of discipleship in verse 23 are to give up your desires, be willing to die, and obey Christ. The descriptor, “wonderful,” could be seen as quite misleading.

The phrase “take up his cross” refers to a condemned man forced to carry the means of his own execution. In earshot of Christ’s warning, were Philip and Andrew, who were crucified. There was James, who was beheaded in the book of Acts, after Stephen was stoned to death. Peter we know was imprisoned, beaten, and eventually (history tells us) crucified upside down. Mark was dragged to death in Egypt in 64AD, and Barnabas was burned alive in Cyprus in the same year. Luke, who wrote these words, was hanged in Athens in 93 AD. And this slaughter is still happening today – thousands of Christians are martyred every year. Paul says in 2 Tim 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

That’s a pretty broad definition of a “wonderful plan.”

2. True Disciples Must Be Willing to Sacrifice Wealth for their Faith

Luke 9:25 “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”

The desire for profit is a normal part of life. But sometimes the desire for profit in this life is in opposition to profit in the eternal life and then you have to choose.

What happens when you are offered an opportunity to make more profit by being dishonest or ungodly? If obedience to Jesus is a lower priority to you than physical profit, then you cannot be a true disciple. You need to shift your priorities.

Leave your little kingdom building and corporate ladder climbing and invest in eternity. Phil 3:8  “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

True disciples value Christ over everything in life. Everything.

3. True Disciples Must Be Willing to Speak Up for their Faith

Luke 9:26  “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

We are all ashamed of something. A part of our lives that we would rather not talk about. And it’s okay that you keep some of that stuff to yourself. But there is something that it’s never okay to be ashamed of… your Savior.

You say “I’d never deny Jesus like Peter did.” Good. But what happens when people at work are all agreeing about some topic like abortion or evolution and you keep quiet so that people don’t know that you hold the opposite, biblical view?

Are you ashamed of Jesus’ words? It’s one thing to talk about Jesus at church or in a home group where it’s acceptable, it’s another to represent him at work or before your friends who will think you are uncool or even oppose you.

Pray this week for an opportunity to stand up for Jesus. It is a way of honoring him and worshipping him. And no matter what the fallout is, it will all be worth it when Jesus calls your name out in front of tens of thousands of angels and calls you his own.

If you’ve blown it, remember Peter. He denied Jesus three times, but he repented and boldly preached Christ before thousands. And his repentance was obvious: he was mocked, imprisoned, beaten, and killed. Repent of your denial of him, he will forgive you and give you opportunities to stand up for him.

Being a disciple of Jesus is the highest privilege in life. But it behooves us to know what we are committing to before we sign on the dotted line. And we owe it to prospective disciples to tell them the truth about what may lie ahead. I have a hunch that will produce more committed and more determined recruits for the kingdom of God.

Since the inception of the church during the Apostolic age, various competing versions of “Christianity” have led many people understandably to ask, “What does a genuine Christian look like?” Two thousand years of theological reflection and biblical exegesis has not eliminated controversy within the church over this probing query: what makes someone’s profession of faith in Jesus Christ genuine?

While there are several tests Scripture gives to discern true Christianity from its false imitations, one crucial mark of genuine Christianity is the relationship a person or a church has to God’s authoritative standard of truth and righteousness, which is found in his Word. Do those individuals or churches maintain God’s standard of righteousness, or are they more like the description offered by Puritan William Gurnall: “[He] sets his watch, not by the sun, that is, the Bible, but by the town clock; what most do, that he will do. [The voice of the people] is his [voice of God]?” The latter exchange God’s authority and truth for their own standards of whatever is popular and acceptable and thereby completely reverse what is good, holy, and true. By this test, we discern genuine Christianity. And while no external test can avoid false positives, the most revealing test of the authenticity of someone’s faith is their relationship to the Word of God. Do they treat it as the authoritative guide for life, or an obstacle to get around in order to live their life?

This phenomenon of exchanging God’s standard is rampant in the church today, especially where so-called Christians and Christian churches embrace what God calls sin (like homosexuality or other sexual perversions, among others) and call them good. We observed this occurrence all over the United States in 2020 as churches embraced an ungodly and unbiblical vision of social justice – even churches that perhaps seemed faithful to God’s Word up until that time. Some of these churches were not meeting on Sunday mornings due to COVID-19 fears, but they set aside time for their leaders and members to participate in rallies, marches, or other actions in a clear capitulation of God’s righteous standard and expectation of justice.

Apart from a true revival that only the Holy Spirit can produce, we will see God’s truth and righteousness increasingly reversed in the visible church. This moral reversal will accelerate because the trend with the most momentum in our culture is to re-label and re-define sin as virtue. Many Christians and churches today are simply flowing down the same stream as the culture instead of standing firm in the truth of who our God is. What many tragically have forgotten or abandoned today is that God is the one who defines what is right and wrong and what is true and false – not our culture.

When people re-label sin as righteousness, they are calling God a liar because they reject the clear standards set forth in his Word. If someone says that sexual perversion is an admirable expression of love rather than abominable in the sight of God, or that stealing is virtuous as long as they are stealing from the right people, or that lying is acceptable to avoid trouble – then they are saying that God is a liar. And if people say that God is a liar, that means the Truth is not in them.

John addressed this issue of genuine Christianity and the source of truth and righteousness in 1 John 1:5, proclaiming that God is light. God is truth; he is righteous, and he is not tainted by darkness at all. Furthermore, and more importantly, God defines truth and righteousness. God defines the moral standard for his creatures based on his nature as light.

How do we know what is true? We know what is true because God defines what is true in his Word. Without God there could be no truth at all. Everything would be merely subjective opinion because there would be no authoritative light to reveal truth, reducing existence to an inexpressible and impossible absurdity.

Additionally, how do we know what is right and wrong? We know what is right and wrong because God defines what is right and wrong by His nature, revealed in his Word. Popular opinion today says that what defines something as right or wrong is the effect it might or might not have on others; to the contrary, what makes something right or wrong is whether it conforms to the holy character of God.

In a world where the term “Christianity” is used loosely, John gives us a crystal-clear test to find out whether people are genuine in their faith, including ourselves. We can recognize genuine Christians as those who walk in the light as God is in the light, allowing his Word to define truth and righteousness. John’s test of real Christianity is counter-cultural in the society we find ourselves in today. However, his argument is fundamental to a right and true understanding of who God is, who we are not, and most importantly, whether we and those around us have a saving faith in his Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

King William IV unexpectedly became monarch of the UK, Ireland, and Hanover in 1830. With two older brothers he had not anticipated ascending to the throne. When they both died William was shouldered with the burden of leadership he had hitherto evaded. Instead of the requisite stately life of a public figure, he had enjoyed a prodigal routine of hedonistic indulgence.

He drank like a sailor, swore like a sailor, and fathered ten children out of wedlock. He was such a spendthrift that parliament censured him by curtailing his salary until he got married. Like a stroppy teenager who had just had his allowance reduced, King William threw a tantrum before parliament and vowed to expunge all of his own debt…by marrying a wealthy heiress.

Staring down the barrel of life as a broke bachelor William set himself to scouring the landscape of Europe for a princess who would deign to marry a fifty-something, lecherous, alcoholic philanderer who had ten illegitimate children. Unsurprisingly, the pickings were slim.

His reputation of debauchery was so notorious that despite being the king, he couldn’t find a woman of royal blood willing to debase her own reputation by marrying him. Several proposals—issued in rapid succession—were declined.

However, as providence would have it, there was one unmarried German princess, who was twenty-seven years his junior, who was courageous enough to try her hand at reforming the future king, for the sake of the British nation.

Her name was Adelaide.

Well, actually her name was Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline, Her Serene Highness, the Duchess of Saxony and Princess of Saxe-Meiningen. The couple met once, a week before the wedding. William was surprised at how pretty and friendly she was. Unlike her irreligious fiancé, Adelaide was known widely for being deeply devout in her faith, chaste, kind, sensible with money, and extremely dignified in her demeanor.

After the wedding, Adelaide soon endeared herself to her subjects and become one of the most beloved and respected queens in British history. She was loved for her kindness to the poor, her modesty, and her genuine faith in Jesus Christ. Not only was Adelaide able to put up with William, but slowly people began to notice her ameliorating influence on him.

At her behest, the couple moved to Hanover—unprecedented for a British royal—because the cost of living was cheaper than in London. The queen effectively curbed her husband’s spending, decreased his drinking, and even stopped his swearing. Against all odds, the couple enjoyed a happy marriage.

Sadly, the queen suffered multiple miscarriages and never produced an heir for the throne. But her grace, dignity, and faith in God’s providence shone through that series of dark trials. Adelaide’s legacy is marked by how liberally her name was used in memoriam: the capital of South Australia is named for her, as well as countless roads, parks, rivers, towns, and forts in all corners of the commonwealth; not to mention little girls precious to their dads (my fourth child is named after her).

But this courageous queen was not the first to marry a licentious man, only to model character and exert godly influence over the king for the sake of her nation.

Queen Esther was noticed for her supermodel attractiveness, but she was remembered as a model of courage and character who saved a nation.

Many Jews did not return to the Promised Land of Israel after the seventy years of Babylonian exile. Esther was a Jewish orphan, a descendant of exiles, now living under the rule of the Medo-Persians, and thoroughly enmeshed in Persian culture and society.

Many other people groups were also integrated into the Medo-Persian Empire, including an ancient arch-enemy of the Jews, a terrorizing people called the Amalekites. One Amalekite, Haman, from the clan of King Agag (of “hacked to pieces by Samuel” fame) is functioning as the Medo-Persian Prime Minister.

All citizens bow down to him. Except one. Mordecai the Jew rigidly refuses to bend in obeisance. Mordecai is a descendant of the clan of Kish, i.e. the same clan as King Saul, commissioned by God to kill King Agag. Their animosity spans centuries. Haman persuades the king to issue a decree that all Jewish people may be plundered, and if they resist, may be killed. Mordecai, the uncle of the little Jewish orphan who has become queen, persuades her that she will also not escape and that she has to be the one to speak to her husband. But as everyone knows, entering the moody king’s presence without an invitation was punishable by death.

As Esther steels herself for bold intercession, we can glean three lessons from her courage so we can face our fears and do what is needed in the face of danger…

Esther 4:15-17 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

1. Apply your courage

When I say the word courageous your imagination may conjure an image of a scarred war hero donning the purple heart medal, or a soot-stained firefighter charging into a burning building. What you probably don’t think of is an aging beauty queen reclining in a palace.

But leaving your comfort zone of safety and security is one of the most courageous actions you can take for God’s glory. It’s not your size or occupation or gender that makes you tough, it’s your character. It’s your willingness to take a stand for what is right in the face of perilous pain and even mortal danger, in order to accomplish God’s will.

When Esther determined to approach the king on behalf of the Jews she was saying she was willing to die in order to be part of preserving God’s reputation as the Savior of his people.

And as even the Marvel comic universe concedes, heroes and heroines don’t always act alone…

2. Access your community

Esther probably felt very alone in this kamikaze mission. So her simple request is for her community of kinsmen outside the danger zone to hold her up in devoted fasting before the Lord (v. 16).

Sometimes when we need to do the right thing but fear the consequences, the best support is knowing that we are not left alone in our trial.

This is the purpose of the church community, our home groups, our accountability partners – it is to uphold one another in prayer, to offer words of encouragement, and if possible physical presence of support. Short-term missions teams do this for our missionaries, the visitation ministry does this for shut-ins and bedbound hospital patients, and even text messages can bolster a fearful saint when they need to stand up to a boss or colleague at work.

We need to have the courage to do what God wants us to do, and we also need to support those trying to do what God wants.

3. Accept the consequences

Notice too that Esther is not naïve about the danger. She knows full well the potential consequence of her actions. The king is an unpredictable and powerful man. Her statement, “If I perish, I perish” is not a resignation, it’s a resolution. It is a declaration of her resolve to do the right thing, or die trying.

This is the definition of true courage. It is not doing the right thing when it’s easy, it’s doing the right thing in the face of consequences. Part of the sacrifice is being willing to suffer unjust consequences for righteous behavior.

It reminds me of John Bunyan, who accepted that his stance against the Catholic regime would result in his imprisonment. He didn’t attempt to squirm out of the punishment; in fact on occasion his prison door was left unlocked and unguarded because the guards knew he would not escape.

Perhaps your boss asks you to do something illegal. Maybe you are a young person whose peers are pressuring you to do something against your conscience. Or your co-workers are constantly indulging in drunkenness after work, or rude joking, or gossiping about the boss, or complaining about their wages. Whatever it is, if you stand apart from the sin, you will be targeted. You might lose popularity, you might lose promotion opportunities, you may even lose your job.

It’s not fair, but it’s real. And as believers, we need to accept that consequences are part and parcel of Christian courage. As Paul warned, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” (2 Tim 3:12).

And what happened to Esther?

Esther 5:1-3 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, in front of the king’s quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”

In this case, she was spared the consequence, but that does not mean it always pans out this way.

Fellow exiles, Daniel and his friends avoided the consequences of their courageous stand, but centuries later John the Baptist wasn’t spared. He stood up to Herod’s adultery and found himself in jail until he was made a head shorter. The Apostles weren’t unscathed by unjust persecution, and neither are millions of Christians in our world today. But this is what living in a sin-cursed world looks like most of the time.

And for those of us who enjoy relative freedom of religion and the opportunity to do God’s work… we have no excuse for apathy or fear. When you need a reminder, look to this supermodel of courage.

If you’ve been to church twice in your life, you’ve heard it. Romans 10:9 “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It’s a powerful, succinct verse explaining how sinners can be made right with God. Confess and believed, be saved.

But to some, the simplicity of this verse can be deceptive. “Confess and believe? Like, there’s something in addition to faith that I need in order to go to heaven?” And some false teachers stand on this verse as yet another biblical proof that baptism (a form of public confession) is necessary for salvation. “See! Salvation is contingent not only on faith but also on the proper acting of that faith in public confession through the waters of baptism.” What may seem so gloriously plain to some has become a stumbling block to others.

So, which is it? Does God require verbal confirmation to verify genuine faith? Does Paul really mean to say that we need to publicly claim Jesus as Lord or else we are headed for Hades? Does your salvation hang on your confession?

I recently encountered this question when a congregant’s friend made a death-bed conversion and then passed away before being baptized. Should he expect to see his friend in heaven? Was his bed-ridden confession enough, or did he need something else to get him to glory?

The answer is that God accepts all into his kingdom who come to him through faith in Christ, baptism or public confession or not. If the thief on the cross is with Jesus in Paradise, having believed only hours before his death (Luke 23:39-43), then so too is the last-minute convert today. The gospel we believe, the gospel of free salvation in Jesus by faith alone, should be a great comfort in the face of death. Our assurance is not in submersion but in the open heart of Jesus on the cross. He welcomes us by faith, not by baptism or any other work (Gal 2:15-16).

And this is exactly Paul’s point in Romans 10:9 when he says “confess and believe.” In context, Paul argues emphatically against salvation by baptism, by spoken word, or by any other human deed. We are saved by faith alone, and that is our confession.

Why Our Works Won’t Work

The freeness of the gospel – that we are saved entirely apart from any of our works, including baptism – is precisely Paul’s point in Romans 9:5-10. In verse 5, Paul says that Moses explained how a works-based system functions: “the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” Here, he’s quoting Leviticus 18:5 to show that if you want to go the route of “I obey, God pays,” then you’re seeking salvation by the principle of law. The Mosaic Law promised continued blessings to Israel if they would keep God’s commandments – they could continue to “live” in the land and “live” with God and “live” so as to not be killed if they would do everything God told them to do. The Law worked by works – obey and receive (Lev 26, Deut 27-28).

The problem with seeking righteousness by our works (a self-righteousness according to v. 3) is that it never works. Exhibit A: The history of Israel. There isn’t one single generation, one single tribe, or even one single king who kept the Law enough to earn all of its blessings (though Solomon came close… until he didn’t). The standard of God’s law is an exacting, demanding standard, and we have fickle, wayward hearts. God requires perfection (Matt 5:48). To break the law in one place is to break it all (James 2:10). So, the vending machine approach to getting salvation from God will not work with God because our money is no good to God. We won’t keep all his commandments, so we can’t live in his holy presence.

So, we can’t get Mosiac blessings by obedience, but can we receive eternal life by works? Jesus commands us to be baptized (Matt 28:18-20), even as he commands us to love one another (John 13:35), to be watchful for temptation (Matt 24:42-25:13), and a host of other commands. To base our salvation on our obedience to those commands would be, as Paul calls it, “the righteousness that’s based on the law,” – “you do, you get.” And Paul’s point in Romans 10:1-5 is that law-keeping can’t get anyone to glory because we are law-breakers by nature. So, if you think that God will approve of you in his holy, spotless court because you obeyed him in baptism, then how have you done with the rest of his commands?

Jesus quotes the same text (Lev 18:5) to a lawyer who thought he could get to heaven by his obedience, followed by his parable regarding the Good Samaritan. The Law, like Jesus, says, “If you think you can live as righteously as God himself, you haven’t appreciated how righteous God is.” Paul says the same thing, again quoting this text, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith'” (Gal 3:11). The Jews of his day were “ignorant of the righteousness of God” (Rom 10:3); they thought God was about as righteous as a really obedient Pharisee. How small God must be to us if we think that any act – baptism or circumcision or anything else – puts us on par with the Holy One of Israel!

In the context of the famous verse 9, then, we see that Paul roundly rejects the idea that anyone could actually accrue the “righteousness based on the law” because nobody can do the commandments and thereby live. If a spoken phrase (like the sinner’s prayer, a particular creed, or even a baptismal confession) were to count as part of our righteousness before God, then it would need to be followed by a life of obedience as impeccable Christ’s. If we need to say certain things in order to be saved, then we are saved by law, not the gospel of free grace. But the plan of salvation by works simply does not work.

Why We’re Saved By Mouth Alone

If we aren’t saved by the principle of law, then how are we saved? In contrast to Moses, Paul puts forward… Moses. The apostle writes, “But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)” (Rom 10:6-8).

Like with Leviticus 18:5, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 9:4 and Deuteronomy 30:12-14 to draw out the principle at work in these texts and show how they relate to salvation. Whereas Leviticus 18 says, “Do and live,” Deuteronomy 30 says, “Receive and live.” Paul shows the contrast between a works-based system and a faith-based system of salvation. As God did everything necessary to make the Law accessible to his people (brought it down from heaven, made it near), so God has done everything to make Christ’s righteousness immediately accessible to his elect (the Incarnation, the resurrection, and gospel preaching). The point is: There’s nothing for us to do! God has done every work required for sinners to be righteous before him. Our part is not to do, but to believe.

And that’s where verse 9 comes in: “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). So why does Paul talk about the mouth and the heart? Is it because God requires both a belief and a confession to be saved?

Notice that Paul uses the two body parts that Moses used in Deuteronomy 30:14 – the mouth and the heart. And Paul, like Moses, is using those parts as a metonymy – a literary device where a part stands for a whole or a related thing – to talk about the soul’s embrace of the truth. God is not impressed by air passing over a larynx, as if physically speaking certain words – “Jesus is Lord” – would open the gates of heaven and roll out the golden carpet. No, Paul is saying that both the confession of the mouth and the belief of the heart (which he repeats and reverses in the next verse) describe the same, singular reality: true faith. What the heart believes, the mouth naturally confesses. And if you receive with your soul that God – not us and our works – raised Jesus from the dead after he atoned for our sin on the cross, and if that truth causes you to submit to him as your sovereign God and King, then you will be saved.

Consider how this same truth appears elsewhere in Scripture. Jesus says, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32–33). So, is your standing before the Father contingent on having a conversation with your atheist co-worker and outing yourself as a Jesus follower? Does he who know the hearts and minds of all men need a demonstration from you to tell whether or not you really believed?

Or consider Jesus’ stinging words in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). This sentence is instructive in two ways. First, notice that there are people who make the very confession that Paul calls for (they call Jesus “Lord”) and they don’t get to enter the kingdom. The bare statement “Jesus is Lord” is no punched ticket to paradise. Second, notice Jesus’ shorthand way of referring to the one who is granted access to heaven: “the one who does the will of my Father.” Here, the doing is not synonymous with faith but is the natural, necessary product of faith. Doing God’s will is so tightly bound to believing in Jesus that believers can be identified as doers by Jesus himself.

So, do you have to “confess” to be saved? On the one hand, no, salvation is not based on the human work of a verbal confession or obedience in baptism. However, if someone is saved, some form of confession will inevitably follow. And what is the content of that confession? “Jesus is Lord!” Meaning, because Jesus is both my God and my Master, because he died for my pardon, and because he was raised for my justification, he has done it all! If it’s all mouth and heart, then brothers and sisters, it’s no hands!

“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling! Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die!”

Augustus Montague Toplady, Rock of Ages

Praise the Lord that the gospel is free! Embracing Jesus by faith is all God requires to be saved from his wrath and delivered to eternal bliss. God does not demand a ritual, a sacrament, a prayer, or even the movement of our lips – he demands far more. God demands perfection. But Jesus lived the perfect life that was required of us, and he “made the good confession” (1 Tim 6:12) before we ever could. So, God does not offer salvation to us if we would just live a little like Jesus. He commands only simple faith, like a child. God saves the helpless, not the strong. Christ heals the sick, not the healthy. Our Savior rescues the unbaptized and then calls them publicly confess that Christ has done it all.

We are living in a time when nothing is true and when everything is true.

Our current cultural mindset says that nothing is ultimately true. There is no absolute truth or objective reality. There is nothing to be known as it is because there is no such thing as knowledge. There are only perspectives, interpretations, experiences, feelings, and opinions. To claim that something is objectively true is in one sense the greatest heresy of our society’s preferred religion, which places self at the center of the universe.

But on the other hand, because nothing is objectively true, everything is true. Truth has been detached from objective reality, from what is, and now it simply is an expression of what one feels. And so whatever you feel is defined as your truth. This worldview has made its way into every form of media, into our educational institutions, into politics, into religion, into sports, and literally into every corner of our society. People can make the most outlandish claims, and regardless of how objectively false those claims might be, they must be regarded as true for the person who made the claim.

This is the current war on truth being waged in our society today.

Because we live in a society that has essentially jettisoned the truth, I am always fascinated to find out how people come to faith in Christ. To believe in Christ for salvation means that you believe there is truth, and that it is only found in Jesus Christ, and that everything else is a lie. It is an exclusive call and a narrow road. You can’t be a Christian in any meaningful sense of the term simply by believing that Jesus is true for you. To be a Christian demands that you believe the truth of Christ is true for every person who has ever lived, whether they acknowledge it or not.

And so to meet people who have rejected the cultural definition of truth as nothing and everything – and have come to be convinced that the truth is found only in Christ is most intriguing. It stands out in stark contrast to what the prevailing view is today, and it always prompts the question, “What was it that convinced you that truth is not a matter of opinion or perspective, but that truth is an objective reality revealed in the Word of God?”

In John 20:24-29, we find an account of such a person who came to believe in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This passage tells the account of Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, and how he came to believe in Christ. And what makes this passage so intriguing is that Thomas was not an indifferent bystander uncertain of what he believed who then was convinced to believe in Christ. Thomas was a skeptic; he flatly and unequivocally rejected the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in these verses, we see the transformation of Thomas – the salvation of a skeptic, how he went from unbelief to belief in Christ.

This account is here, not just because it is interesting, but it is here to convince us that the truth is found in Jesus Christ. This passage is here to strengthen the conviction of believers that what we believe is not merely true for us, but that is it true objectively and absolutely, and we can confidently put our hope for all of our eternity in this resurrected Christ. And it is here to convince even the hardest skeptic to believe and receive eternal life in Jesus Christ.

As we look at this passage, it unfolds in four parts. First, we meet a resolved skeptic. Right here, we have the first moment in John’s Gospel of someone being called to believe in Jesus’ resurrection – sight unseen and based solely on apostolic eyewitness. The apostles were the ones who were chosen to be His witnesses, witnesses of His death and resurrection, and now the question arises, “Will their testimony be believed?”

Thomas was absolutely resolved not to believe in Jesus’ resurrection unless his conditions and demands were met, and he didn’t appreciate the disciples calling him to faith. Thomas might have been stuck in such resolute skepticism about the resurrection because he experienced massive disappointment when Jesus died or because he was out of fellowship with the other disciples. There are many other reasons people don’t believe in Christ, many excuses that they give, but these are two of the most common: disappointment and disillusionment, and a lack of exposure to the Word of God.

This resolved skeptic, though, was about to encounter personally a resurrected Savior. When Jesus appeared to Thomas and the disciples, He displayed tenderness and compassion for Thomas. He does not scold Thomas for his unbelief, nor does he chastise him for it. Then Jesus calls Thomas to faith, exhorting him to turn away from his skepticism, disappointments, and doubts – and look at the One who was crucified and now is raised from the dead.

When a resolute skeptic encounters a resurrected Savior, he becomes a rescued sinner. We see what happens when a sinner is rescued by the resurrected Savior in Thomas’ confession of faith, which is one of the most glorious and lofty in the Bible. The rescued sinner, first of all, recognizes that Jesus is his Lord. He also recognizes that Jesus is God. To believe in Jesus and be a rescued sinner by His grace is not merely to intellectually acknowledge that He rose from the dead – even the demons know Jesus rose from the dead.  The rescued sinner, not only believes what Thomas believed about the resurrection, but confesses what Thomas confessed about the one who was resurrected: He is my Lord and my God.

Finally, we see a royal summons. Jesus address, not just Thomas, but everyone who would come after Thomas and believe what he believed without seeing what he saw. How would we believe in Jesus when we have not seen Him? The answer goes back to where this passage started: we believe based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles.

In one way, we are called to be like Thomas, confessing that Jesus is our Lord and our God. But in another way, we are called not to be like Thomas because we are summoned by the King to believe in Him based on what His apostles proclaimed rather than based on our own personal experience of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is clear that we who believe based on the Word of God are blessed with the blessing of eternal life.

Those who are not followers of Christ must ask God to show them the truth of Jesus’ resurrection and to give them a heart to believe. They can look for Jesus everywhere in the world, but they will never find Him until they begin to seek Him in His Word.  But for those who are followers of Christ, they are blessed because they have eternal life in His name. And that makes it such a joy to worship our Lord and our God this Easter – to know that He is risen indeed.

Floyd Collins was the greatest spelunker of his day. Spelunking, the exploration of caves, requires a rare caliber of bravery. Floyd Collins discovered and mapped massive sections of Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, the world’s largest known cave system. But that is not what he is most well-known for. On January 30, 1925, the 37-year-old adventurer descended into a manhole-sized opening in the yet unexplored Sand Cave.  When he emerged, he would be (according to one journalist) “One of the most famous people in the world.” But not for his achievement.

While Floyd was snaking his way through tunnels as narrow as nine inches, a rock dislodged, pinned his foot, and loose gravel collapsed, burying all but his face. Floyd Collins was trapped, immobile, 150 ft underground at near-freezing temperatures. It took a day for his brother, Homer, to locate him and to squirm down deep enough to get him food, coffee, and whiskey, to keep him warm. Thus began a herculean effort by 75 rescuers and the National Parks Board, at a cost of about $100,000 in today’s money to bring Floyd up from the cave. The world was following the radio updates, and 10,000 spectators descended on Cave City (pop 694) to monitor the proceedings.

After five days of effort, the cave collapsed in two more places, severing contact with Floyd.

A decision was made to dig a new shaft from the surface. Progress was slow, at about four inches per hour. After 17 days, including 12 with no food or water, they managed to get a view of Floyd. He was dead.

It was determined to be too dangerous to recover the body. The rescue team departed, and the spectators dissipated. But there was one person who refused to abandon Floyd’s body to decay in that dark cave. Floyd’s brother, Homer, started raising funds to bring his brother back to the surface.

The story isn’t over. But for now, let’s consider another body that was not abandoned to decay in a dark cave.

On the day of Pentecost (50 days after Passover) Peter preaches his first sermon, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And it is the first sermon about the Resurrection.

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.  25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

In this sermon, we find… 5 ASPECTS OF RESURRECTION to consider…

1. THE REQUIREMENT

There is a requirement for a resurrection to take place—an obvious first step.

To be raised from the dead, first you need to… die.

That is why when Jesus heard Lazarus was dying, he waited 2 days. For Lazarus to be resurrected, he first needed be … indisputably dead.

John 11: 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” … 43 … he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

What a scene! No one had ever seen anything like that before.

Jesus proved his power over the grave.

And that was just him warming up! A preview of forthcoming attractions!

But first, Jesus had to die.

Acts 2:23-24 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.  

Jesus did not come to earth merely to be an example, nor to merely teach us about the Father.

Jesus came to die as a substitute for his people. This happened because it was God’s will.

His death was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.  It was a requirement for the ultimate miracle that would seal the conquest over sin and death once-for-all, namely that God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.  

Why was it not possible for him to be held by death? Because God ordained it in the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

And how did Peter know this was required and ordained?  Because he read it in Psalm 16, penned 1,000 years earlier.

2. REVELATION

Acts 2:25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption [NASB: undergo decay/ i.e. bodily decomposition].

David spoke of avoiding decay.

But David didn’t mean that his body would avoid decay, he meant Christ’s. That revelation brought him hope…my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One [ undergo decay].

Decomposition is distasteful to us, isn’t it? It’s gross. It makes us squeamish.

That is why funeral parlors can sell satin-lined coffins with soft pillows and a casket with an air-tight seal to delay decomposition. Not that it matters. I hate to break it to you, but you won’t care how soft your casket is. And it doesn’t matter how long they keep the worms out, death is never going to be your best look.

Peter makes the point that the prophecy in Psalm 16 could not mean that David’s body wouldn’t decay, because guess what… David’s tomb—complete with a decomposed corpse in it—is right over there!

Acts 2:29-31 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption [decay].

Dead bodies don’t move. David is where they left him 1,000 years ago.

When Floyd Collins died, the rescue halted. Why retrieve a buried corpse, only to bury it again? But Floyd’s brother, Homer, who did not want to abandon his brother in a cave, raised funds to continue the effort. Two months later, Homer had Floyd’s body embalmed, to stave off further decay, and buried him on their family farm.  That was Floyd’s second burial.

It was not easy to retrieve the body, but it was easy to find it. Because dead bodies don’t move.

3. REALITY

Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

Peter is saying: “David foresaw the Messiah escaping corruption. And I’m here to tell you that it happened just like David said it would. Do you know How I can be so sure? Because me and these apostles saw it with my our eyes.”   

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

Acts 1:3 tells us that He [Jesus] presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

The eye-witness account is what takes this from a myth to reality. You can’t ignore that after the crucifixion many people saw a living Jesus, but nobody presented a dead Jesus to object.

Ellen Johnson, former President of the American Atheists Society said on Larry King Live “There is not one shred of evidence that Jesus even existed.” I find that inexcusably ignorant. Not one shred??

Never mind Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and the existence of the Gregorian Calendar that enshrined the knowledge that there was a time Before Christ (using BCE is a futile attempt to ignore this), if all you need is one shred of evidence, there is little matter of Mark and Luke interviewing witnesses, and of course Matthew, John, and Peter’s written testimony. These were men who were all willing to die rather than deny a single detail of what they claimed to have witnessed.

A year after Homer had Floyd’s body buried, their father sold the family farm to a dentist named Harry Thomas. Dr. Thomas paid an extra $10,000 for the rights to Floyd’s body. In an act of jaw-dropping impropriety, Thomas put the embalmed corpse on display in a glass coffin in Crystal Cave, and sold tickets to tourists to view the world’s most famous spelunker. That was his third burial.

They were willing to pay because they knew for sure Floyd’s body would be there.

But when the disciples went to look for Christ’s body, they were astonished to find… he wasn’t there.

Why is the resurrection such an important part of the history of Christianity?

4. REASON

Acts 2:36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

The resurrection is not something that you can waiver on. You need certainty about it.

If this truth is something we are going to stake our eternal destiny on, it follows that we need to be certain God accepted it as finished. What’s our proof?

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to forgive sins. He claimed to die for the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. He claimed to be the way the truth and the life, and that nobody comes to the Father except through him. He claimed to the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. He claimed to be the resurrection and the life.

Well, I’ve met a guy who claimed to be Napoleon. But he didn’t even speak French!

The easy part of making a claim is the invisible part. The hard part is the visible, verifiable, part.

You say you are the resurrection and the life? Then prove it.  

The living, breathing, eating proof that God accepted his sacrifice, and that he has power of death and hell, is the resurrected Christ.

Without the resurrection, we’d all be hoping it was true, without any assurance.

That’s Peter’s point…

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

In March of 1929, Floyd Collins’s glass coffin was raided. So after two years of being gawked at, someone stole the body. But something went wrong and they abandoned it in a field. The body this time would be interred in a wooden coffin, sealed with chains. That was Floyd Collins’ fourth burial.

5. RESPONSE

Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

This audience of Peter gets what he’s saying: they were cut to the heart…

This is not the type of news you can hear and then not respond. It’s like finding out the button you just pressed started a launch sequence that ends in you and everyone you know being wiped out.

“This man you told Pilate to execute instead of Barabbas—not only was he an innocent man, not only was he our King, he was the Savior of the world, the long-awaited Messiah. And guess what” He didn’t stay dead. He’s alive and he knows who did this to him.”

There is terrifying news. And they get it… Brothers, what shall we do?”

      That is the right response. What shall we do? What now? We killed the Messiah. He came back from the dead. Now what?

If you find out that you had done something that deserved death, the wrath of God, and hell for eternity, the only right response is “Tell me what to do and I’ll do anything!”

  Well, guess what: we have done something that deserves death, the wrath of God, and hell for eternity.

Rom 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Rom 6:10 The wages of sin is death.

You can hear about Floyd Collins and say “Wow, interesting.” But you cannot hear Peter’s claim and respond in any way other than repentance and faith. 

The family of Floyd Collins objected to his body being a tourist attraction, so when the National Parks Board bought the whole Mammoth Cave system, they buried him in a local Baptist Church cemetery.

That was Floyd Collins’s fifth burial.

And you know what happened after that? Nothing yet. But it doesn’t really matter.

What happens to your body doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens to your soul.

The only body that was needed to make it well with our souls was Christ’s. And his tomb is empty, his body is glorified, seated in Heaven and he is waiting to return to raise us all from the dead.

Like David, our only hope of eternal life is the hope found in the one who conquered death.

We can be alive because Jesus is alive.

You can say with confidence: “My body may decay, but it is well with my soul.” Why? Because He is risen!

One of the most common objections I hear from non-believers about Scripture is: “How do you know that you’re right about the Bible when so many other Christians disagree with you?” Usually, the mere existence of Christian denominations (a kind of crystallized disagreement) provides enough of an excuse for a scoffer to throw up his hands and walk away. And I know some in the church who have struggled with this reality as well. “If the Bible is as clear as you say, shouldn’t we all interpret it the same?”

My answer: The clarity of Scripture doesn’t erase Christian disagreements, but it does help us disagree like Christians.

We’ve already seen the Bible’s own case for its clarity and the undergirding of that clarity in the character of God. Beyond that, we’ve considered the natural blindness of mankind to biblical truth and the Scripture’s own demand for obedience to grant understanding. So, Christians should expect to disagree with non-Christians about the Bible – we’re starting from a different premise, so we’ll naturally reach different conclusions. We also saw that we can only be enabled to rightly read the Scriptures when Christ illumines our spiritual eyes to see the clear truth in his light.

So, if all Christians have the same Holy Spirit helping them read the same, clear text, why all the disagreement? Why do some baptize babies and others don’t? Why do some teach sovereign election and others don’t? Why do some believe in a pre-tribulational rapture, some mid-trib, some post-trib, and some the pre-wrath mid-trib double-check discount rapture? Shouldn’t a clear text with the clear light of Christ lead to clear, universal agreement among earnest Bible readers?

Christians can and do still disagree in their interpretations of the clear Scriptures for three reasons, none of which negate the clarity of Scripture itself. Christians disagree because of sin (we may still reject a clear text because of a hard heart), finitude (we are limited beings who can only know so much), and distance (we’re removed from the authors of Scripture by thousands of years, a language barrier, and differing cultural values that need to be grasped before rightly interpreting the text). A combination of these factors can pour mud into the crystal-clear waters of Scripture and make it hard for us to see the bottom. The consequence, then, is that Christians still disagree on the right interpretation of a clear text of Scripture.

So, it’s obvious that we disagree, and it’s apparent why we disagree. The question is how, then, shall we disagree?

The apostle Paul gives us a roadmap to Christian disagreement in Romans 14:1-12. Without plumbing the depths of this text, I just want to help us see Paul’s two chief commands for disagreeing with Christians like Christians. First, “welcome one another.” Second, “be fully convinced.”

Welcome One Another

In writing from the church at Corinth (known for its division), the apostle Paul assumes that the Roman church (whom he has not visited) needs to be prepared for disagreements among the brethren. In fact, Paul seems to assume in his letter to the Roman Christians that they will disagree. This is the same apostle Paul who assumes that Timothy can “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). This is the same apostle Paul who “reasoned from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2) and told his protégé to devote himself to “the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim 4:13). Paul certainly believes the Scriptures are understandable, or else his whole ministry would be forfeit! And yet, Paul also anticipates that Christians who approach the same texts of Scripture will arrive at different conclusions regarding eating meat and esteeming certain days. Paul assumes Christians will disagree.

We should also notice that in this passage Paul believes that when Christians disagree, someone is right and someone is wrong. “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself” (Rom 14:14). The mere presence of a disagreement doesn’t kneecap the truth. Paul’s no post-modern life coach spewing relativist nonsense about “your truth,” “all truths,” and “the truthiness of truth.” No, Paul knows that there is a right way to understand and apply the New Covenant to the lives of believers (the “strong” position), and there are “weak” brothers who need to mature spiritually into that right understanding.

And yet, even though Paul knows there will be disagreements and truly believes that one side is right and another wrong, his first word to his fellow Christians is not a resolution to the debate! More than simply landing the plane for them, Paul wants them to learn how to land it in one piece. In Christian disagreements, Paul wants to first turn their attention to how they love each other in the midst of their difference.

Paul says, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (Rom 14:1). Meaning that before you try to correct another Christian with whom you disagree, you ought to warmly, richly, hospitably embrace him as your brother first. And why should you do that? “For God has welcomed him” (Rom 14:3). If God was willing to bring you close, make peace with you by the blood of his Son, and bring you into the family home, then who are you to begrudge that same welcome to another?

A few clarifications are needed. First, this welcoming in disagreement applies to those whom God has welcomed, someone who is “weak in faith” but is indeed in the faith. Christians should not blindly welcome any old tale-spinning guru, but those with whom we already are one in Jesus Christ. John the apostle tells us, in fact, that if someone teaches a false gospel, we should not welcome him. “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting” (2 John 10).

Second, the disagreement that Paul has in view deals with “opinions.” Paul has no room for disagreements about guys who sleep with their step-moms (1 Cor 5:1-5) or those rascals Hymenaeus and Philetus who have some gospel-denying eschatology (2 Tim 2:14-19). Christians can disagree and still welcome each other when the disagreement concerns secondary doctrinal issues. We can disagree about the right mode of baptism, we can disagree about the nature of the millennial kingdom, and we can disagree about the importance of the regulative principle all while maintaining close, intimate, welcoming fellowship with one another. Once the gospel is on the chopping block, the welcome wagon leaves town. But on secondary issues, Christians may amicably disagree.

Third, this Christian welcoming amidst disagreement should not be taken to mean that the debated topics are unimportant or unclear in Scripture. Again, our misunderstanding of Scripture does not arise from God’s inability to write clearly but from our inability to read clearly. I actually do think that the Bible is clear about the sovereignty of God in salvation, and I do think the Bible is clear about baptizing believers. However, I also know that we’re all sinful, finite creatures who have a remarkable capacity for missing the obvious. So, welcoming a brother with whom we disagree shouldn’t be seen as Paul’s nonchalant dismissal of conscience issues or his condemnation of Scripture as unclear on the topic. In fact, Paul’s insistence on these topics seems to indicate the very opposite – that these disagreements matter and that Scripture must be the tiebreaker.

In order for us to disagree well, we need to start by welcoming our brothers with whom we disagree. Our first thought in a disagreement should not be “How can I win?” but “Who can I win?” If you’re willing to win your erring brother with a warm, Christlike welcome, then you’re ready to hear Paul’s next word about disagreement.

Be Fully Convinced

If our disposition toward each other should be welcoming, what should our disposition be toward the text itself? Here’s Paul’s answer: “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom 14:5).

“Be fully convinced.” You’re only in charge of your “own mind” so what should you do with it? “Be fully convinced.” Paul uses this same word in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 when he writes, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” This word is as close as the New Testament comes to saying, “Be absolutely certain.” It means “to know for sure,” “to have a settled mind on the matter,” “to be convinced of something wholeheartedly.”

When you disagree with a fellow Christian, you should be fully convinced. Paul does not want disagreements in the church to produce Christians who are lukewarm about the truth. May it never be! He wants Christians who are red-hot in their zeal for the Lord on the basis of their biblical convictions for the purpose of glorious worship! That’s what Paul says, “The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God” (Rom 14:6). Wet-noodle waffling doesn’t honor God. Steel-frame certainty does. We should strive to be fully convinced about what Scripture teaches whenever we disagree.

This, too, requires some clarification to avoid falling off either side of this tightrope. First, we should be fully convinced by God’s Word, not by man. Christian disagreements can transform into genuine agreement by the unifying authority of Scripture. Eventually, someone’s mind should be changed by the arguments in the text. We shouldn’t reach an agreement by doleful acquiescence, and we shouldn’t bow before just another theological stance. Instead, we should be fully convinced by Scripture itself, the truth of which will bring oneness of mind to those who see it clearly. See, for our example, the noble Bereans (Acts 17:10-11) and Apollos correction by Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:24-26). Unlike the world, we have a clear, powerful, authoritative referee, so we don’t have to always “agree to disagree.” We can be fully convinced by the voice of God in his Word, which should be our pursuit whenever we disagree.

Second, being “fully convinced in your own mind” does not mean being stubborn and unteachable. The proverbs of Solomon extol the virtues of a teachable heart. A teachable person loves the truth more than avoiding correction. Being fully convinced does not mean that you have omniscience – that was never God’s design for you, and that was never a Christian’s epistemology. Of course, you can be corrected! Surely all of us need correction in some area of our doctrine! Teachability and certainty are friends, not enemies. If you want to be fully convinced, then be willing to be taught by the Scriptures as someone shows you what you have not seen there before. As we disagree, be willing to be shown your own error as you would wish another to see theirs.

Third, while error itself does not honor Christ, hearts that believe in error can still honor Christ. This is Paul’s point in saying, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom 14:7-9). In effect, this text is a different phrasing of “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31), a passage that was also written to address disagreements in the church. All must be for his glory.

Whatever you’re engaged in as a Christian, and from whatever secondary doctrinal position, do it glorify Jesus. Some of us will have more correct theology as we glorify Christ and some of us will have less correct theology as we glorify Christ. So be it. Let’s make it our aim, right and wrong, to glorify Christ. Jesus is magnified by baby-sprinkling Presbyterians every Sunday, and he is exalted by adult-dunking Baptists every Sunday as well. The clarity of his Word is not impeached by our impaired vision in reading it. He is still Lord of the living and the dead, and he will be worshiped by strong and weak brothers alike.

How, then, shall we disagree? We start by welcoming one another, and when we look to the clear light of Scripture we stand fully convinced on that solid ground. In other words, we disagree like Christians, like those who have been welcomed by the God of goodness and truth. And if Paul’s instructions don’t seem to relieve the tension you still feel between Scripture’s clarity and our fallibility, then number your days and ask for a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12). We disagree because our dim little minds obscure even the purest light of heaven. The light is still shining and shining bright. May we learn to live in the light of God’s clear truth as he dispels our darkness and disagreement until one day we “know fully, even as [we] have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12).

Sin is not a popular topic to discuss in our world today. Our culture has virtually banished sin out of its vocabulary. Sin has been re-defined, re-labeled, re-directed, and even revered. People who sin are not sinners because nearly everyone is a victim.

The reality, though, is that you can erase sin from a culture, but you can’t erase guilt. There is the sense that all human beings have that we are guilty of doing wrong. We are born into this world having been created in the image of God, and because we live in God’s world as creatures who bear His image, we can never escape the reality of our guilt because of our sin.

What has been so fascinating and so tragic to watch over the past several years is that the more the world has tried to deny the reality of sin, the greater the guilt they feel. We can see the reality of that all around us. Wokeness, social justice, anti-racism, virtue signaling, false religions, vague forms of spirituality, mindfulness, psychology, and more – all attempting to do one thing: erase the guilt we feel over our sins and make us feel like we are good, righteous people. But all of these attempts at self-justification are ultimately futile and useless.

The real tragedy is that they don’t work at the spiritual level. Denying your sins will never erase your sins before a holy and just God. The real problem we have as sinful human beings isn’t that our existential happiness is hindered by sin; it’s that we are destined for an eternity under the wrath of God because of our sin. This is the tragedy of denying your sin; simply wishing it away or pretending your sin is virtue doesn’t deal with the problem of the wrath of God abiding on you. And you know that in your conscience, and you can’t escape it no matter what you do.

It’s into this setting of a world of sinners in need of real forgiveness from God that Mark begins the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark tells his readers from the outset that he has good news to share with sinful people about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. He ensures we understand at the outset of his Gospel that Jesus has come into this world to defeat Satan by bringing forgiveness to sinners. The miracles, the healings, the casting out of demons are external signs of a spiritual truth, that Jesus has the authority to do the most important thing for us that we need: to forgive our sins. That’s the good news of the gospel that Mark is writing about.

As this Gospel progresses, we learn in Mark 10:45 exactly how Jesus is going to provide forgiveness for our sins. He will do it in the most degrading manner possible, by giving His life for sinners on a cross. There’s one detail, though, that Jesus includes in Mark 10:34 that will vindicate Jesus’ claim that His sacrifice was accepted by God and brought forgiveness to sinners: He would rise again three days later.

Here, we come face to face with the most crucial fact of all: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The one thing Jesus must do if He is the Messiah, the Son of God who has authority to forgive sins, is not only die for sinners but rise for sinners from the grave. And so, Mark ends his Gospel in a unique way from the other Gospel writers. He ends, having proven that Jesus rose from the dead because at that point his work has done. Mark has proven that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God; and he has proven that the gospel is true, and that forgiveness is found, not by denying your sins, but through faith in this crucified and risen Savior.

The way Mark presents the resurrection leaves no doubt of its reality as the only hope for sinners, and Mark 16 gives four ways the resurrection confronts sin.

The first fact that Mark presents is the women’s doubt. The women, who journeyed to the tomb, had absolutely no anticipation that Jesus would rise from the dead because they spent money on spices to anoint their Lord’s body. We can look at these women and say that they had a deep affection for Jesus, but they did not yet understand or believe what he had previously said about rising again from the dead on the third day. Mark is coming alongside us as his readers and letting us know that he and the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection understand what it’s like to hear the truth of the resurrection and not be able to grasp it. And the women’s doubts make the reality of the resurrection all the more clear.

The second fact is the angelic messenger. We read that the women’s doubts turn into a shocking, terrifying amazement as everything they find is nothing like they expect it to be. They went into the tomb, expecting to find the body of Jesus – but instead being greeted by a young man. This man, the angelic messenger, was there for the express purpose of rolling away the stone and letting the women into the tomb.

The third fact is the angelic message. The angel begins his discourse by telling the women, “Do not be amazed!” Then the angel delivered to them divine revelation that made sense of the empty tomb by first ensuring that the women know that the Jesus who has risen is the exact same Jesus they knew during His earthly ministry and the exact same Jesus they came to the tomb to find. Following this, the angel summarizes the gospel in one word in Greek (three words in English): He has risen.

That’s the gospel, that this Jesus who was crucified for sinners has risen from the grave. The angel verifies that this is precisely where the body of Jesus was placed, but He is no longer in the tomb; He has risen! This is the central fact of Christianity, the central fact of the gospel, the central fact of all human history: He has risen. This is the fact that every person has to reckon with: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity would have been the easiest movement in history to squelch because anyone would have had to do to end Christianity in those early years was to produce the body of Jesus. But they never did, and they never will. Jesus is not dead, but alive forevermore, which is such good news for the worst of sinners. And the angel wants to make that clear.

The fourth fact is the women’s dread. The women’s response of fear is not meant to indicated that they didn’t believe it or were disobedient to the word the angel said, but to indicate that this is truly a divine work. Throughout the gospel of Mark, whenever Jesus does something that manifests the power of the kingdom of God, people are left in fear and wonder and astonishment. The response of the women is not one of unbelief, but one of profound belief that they have just encountered the greatest miracle God has ever done in raising His Son from the dead. And seeing the mighty power of God in the resurrection of Jesus, they are in awe, they are in shock, their bodies are shaking, and there is even a fear because the power of God is so great.

What happens next for them isn’t Mark’s concern because his real concern is what happens next for his readers. Mark 16 stands as a testimony to us that Jesus, the Son of God, came to bring good news to sinners under God’s judgement because through His death and resurrection, we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Jesus alone has the power to forgive sins, and He proved it when He defeated death.

As believers, we are reminded afresh of the full forgiveness of our sins through the death and resurrection of Christ. The good news of the gospel never gets old to the heart of a redeemed sinner because we never stop needing grace. We know that never-ending grace is ours because of our Savior’s empty tomb.

Last month, Minnesota introduced legislation making it a “trans-refuge” state. If the legislation passes, it would become a crime for parents to refuse to give their children “gender affirming” care, and parents could lose custody of their children if they refuse to play the gender games.

Minnesota is not alone. Laws like this are popping up all over the country. What’s behind them? Well, like all cultural phenomena there are many factors at work. However, one often-overlooked influence in the transgender movement is modern secular psychology.

Like many (all?) of the sciences, psychology has been co-opted by transgenderism. Nowhere is this better represented then in the DSM-5-TR, the latest version of the so-called “Bible of psychology.” The DSM is the handbook used to diagnose mental disorders, and while it is not considered inspired, it is treated as the definitive book on psychological diagnoses.

In the most recent edition, the DSM-5 fully embraces transgenderism. It separates sex and gender, and defines sex according to “sex characteristics,” while gender is apparently a psychological state. It then defines “gender dysphoria” as when a person experiences a “marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary/secondary sex characteristic (or in young adolescents the anticipated secondary sex characteristics).”

Now, just park the car here for a second. What does that mean? Well, in the background is this separation between sex and gender. Psychology has bought into the idea that in a healthy individual, gender expression can be distinct and different from biological sex. We are not talking about hermaphrodites here, but people with clear and unambiguous “primary” sex characteristics. When a person’s “gender experience” doesn’t match those characteristics, they can be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Now, a careful reader will realize this is a textbook example of begging the question. In order to define gender dysphoria, it assumes that a person can have a gender experience that does not match their sex characteristics. What kind of experience? More on that later. But for now, admire the circular nature of the whole thing: “gender does not always match sex,” they say. How do they know? “Because in some people, gender does not match sex.” What would get an “F” in logic, gets an “A” in psychology.  

Also, notice the phrase “anticipated secondary sex characteristics.”  Those are characteristics that develop during or after puberty. With this phrase, the DSM—and by extension the whole transgender movement—reveals its real motive. The target audience of this is not some 25-year-old gender-studies dude who feels like a girl, but pre-pubescent kids.

The DSM is written to convince schools, counselors, teachers, and social workers to get pre-pubescent kids to question if their “gender experience” matches their “anticipated sex characteristics.”

But that’s not all. The DSM-5-TR goes on to say that someone might have gender dysphoria if they have any two of the following:

• A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)
• A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender
• A strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)
• A strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)
• A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

There is so much that could be said about this. Note the absurdity (and depravity) of applying this to pre-pubescent children. A ten-year old girl who doesn’t want her body to change can be labeled transgender. A boy who as “the typical feelings” of a girl is labeled transgender. A girl who wished she looked more like her brothers is now a likely candidate for a “gender dysphoria” label.

In the DSM-5-TR, if two of the above “desires” lasts longer than six months, it is a likely indicator of gender-dysphoria. but it is not sufficient for a diagnosis. The experienced desires/convictions from the above list have to be paired with symptoms from below:

• A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that one is the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender).
• In boys (assigned gender), a strong preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; or in girls (assigned gender), a strong preference for wearing only. typical masculine clothing and a strong resistance to the wearing of typical feminine clothing.
• A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play.
• A strong preference for the toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender or a strong preference for playmates of the other gender.
• In boys (assigned gender), a strong rejection of typically masculine toys, games, and activities and a strong avoidance of rough-and-tumble play; or in girls (assigned gender), a strong rejection of typically feminine toys, games, and activities.
• A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy.
• A strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender.

Again, notice who the target audience of this is: little kids. According to contemporary psychology, if a boy likes playing with his sisters’ dolls, he is likely transgender. A boy that doesn’t like wrestling or “rough-and-tumble play” is suspect. Finally, notice that by the last item above, the pretense is gone and the switch-er-oo is complete: “a strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender.” A girl that wishes she was strong like her dad is now a candidate for puberty blockers.

Speaking of treatment, how does psychology say gender-dysphoria should be treated? According to the American Psychological Association, gender dysphoria should be treated by:

• A therapist without the therapist having any pre-defined gender identity or expression defined as preferable to another.”
• While any psychological attempts to “force” a transgender person to be cisgender are unethical.

Notice again the logical incongruity. If gender-dysphoria is a disorder, then why wouldn’t the therapist want the student to work out the disorder? This really goes back to the shift in psychology that the DSM represents. Psychologists by and large do not have a “cure” in mind, but “treatment” that affirms people in their diagnoses. The same is true for gender-dysphoria.

What are the psychologically approved methods for treatment of gender dysphoria? Well, they are seen in four categories:

• Socially—pronouns
• Legally—new gender
• Medically—puberty blockers and gender suppressing hormones
• Surgically—Some adults and less often adolescents may undergo various aspects of surgical affirmation

From top to bottom, the DSM-5-TR trains psychologists, educators, and social workers to be on the lookout for pre-pubescent girls who don’t like their bodies, or for boys who are soft and like to play with girls. They are then introduced to the idea that this means they were born in the wrong body, and that they need the psychological care of one who will “affirm them” as they really are. This affirmation comes with pronouns, gender identity, and drugs. And if you keep playing along, it comes with surgery that absolutely devastates your body.

Think of the pressure parents of kids are under. The kids are taught at school about transgenderism, complete with the moral imperative to affirm students in their pronouns and gender identity. And now, with the backing of the DSM-5-TR, some states are considering removing kids from the custody of parents that refuse. How can states get away with this? Because they have “science” on their side. Scientists say that it is in the best interest of the children to be affirmed their new socially constructed gender, and if parents won’t do that, the states are using the DSM-5 to justify legal intervention.

Why am I writing this? I know most parents don’t have the DSM-5 on their shelves. Pastors aren’t reading it during the week.

I’m writing this because I want to make sure pastors and parents see the massive worldview shift that is taking place in the schools and so-called sciences. The transgender movement has become the gravitational center of our culture. It is fed by the Bible of psychology, and it targets our kids. We should at least be familiar with the book that is being used to justify the massive surge in the transgender movement.

Parents: Teach your kids Genesis 5:1-2. Tell them that God made them and God loves them, even when they don’t love themselves. Understand that many leaders, doctors, and educators are committed to getting them to hate their bodies and themselves, which is in stark contrast with the God of the Bible, who loves them, cares for them, and designed them. The love of God is greater than the harm of the DSM-5-TR.

In their commentary on Isaiah 53:7, Keil & Delitzsch write, “All the references in the New Testament to the Lamb of God spring from Isaiah [53:7].”

Isaiah 53:7 is one of the most important verses in the Bible because of how it makes sense of so many other biblical passages and themes. In remembrance of Good Friday, consider four aspects of Jesus’ death in this verse.

First, Jesus died unjustly – he was oppressed. The word used by Isaiah here is found several times in Exodus 3 to speak of Israel’s oppression in Egypt. It highlights the unjust nature of Jesus’ death, which was unjust in how it was carried out by Caiaphas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod. We read in the Gospel accounts that these individuals allowed false charges and witnesses to condemn the Savior, and all of them held sham and unlawful trials to seal the Messiah’s gruesome fate at the cross.

Jesus did not deserve to die, for He had committed no sin. The question of why Jesus died is not resolved in Isaiah 53:7, but rather in Isaiah 53:8, where we learn he died for our sins. The trials and conviction of Jesus were the greatest injustices perpetrated by men in human history, reminding us of our sins and God’s holiness. We deserved conviction for all of our sins at the hands of a holy and just God, but Jesus took our place, allowing the Jewish and Roman leaders to unjustly execute Him because there was no other way to satisfy the Father’s wrath against us.

Second, Jesus died willingly – He was afflicted. Jesus’s submission to His affliction implies that there was a plan and purpose to His death, and He submitted to that plan willingly. This speaks of Jesus’s great love for his people, that He would willingly be oppressed and crucified for us. In Matthew 26:53, we learn that Jesus could have called twelve legions of angels to save him from his humiliation and death, but He did not. He willingly died an unjust death for unjust people.

Not many of us – if any – would give our lives for another human being. The apostle Paul in Romans 5 addresses this fact, writing, “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.” In His divinity, Jesus knew he was the perfect sacrifice for the fallen human race; and in his humanity, he knew how much undeserved pain and agony he would endure. Yet, he went to the cross willingly.

Third, Jesus died sacrificially – like a lamb led to slaughter. He was offered up as a sacrifice. The apostle John recounts John the Baptist calling Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus also died at Passover – a revered day for Jews as they remembered how God had saved them from the hands of the Egyptians. The Jews were well educated on the importance and significance of sacrifices in their day. From the account of Cain and Abel’s offering to the laws handed down in the Mosaic Law, God demanded sacrifices for sin as a reminder that those making the offerings were not holy, that sin was a curse that demanded a death, and that one day the promised Messiah would come to cleanse them once and for all from all unrighteousness.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:7, tells us that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed with the violent, bloody death of the cross. The blood of Christ, our Passover, thus covers us, delivering us from bondage to the devil, the flesh, and the world. Because of his sacrifice, there is no further need for any sacrifices like those demanded before his death in the Mosaic Law. The curtain was torn in two, and we have full access through God the Father through the blood of his Son.

Fourth, Jesus died obediently – like a sheep that is silent. This silence is a significant burden of the text, highlighting the obedient, suffering Servant. Jesus was not merely willing to die, but he was perfectly obedient to his Father in His death on the cross. 1 Peter 2:23-24 notes that Jesus’s obedience shows us the key to faithful obedience: entrusting ourselves to God. His obedience was to enable ours; Jesus died obediently so we might live obedient lives.

Even as believers, we struggle with obedience to our Lord. Though we are being made more like Jesus, we will never be free from the fight with our mortal flesh this side of heaven. Yet, as the author of Hebrews reminds us, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus’s perfect life, and his perfect obedience on the cross, allows all those who trust in him for forgiveness of their sins to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Salvation can only be found in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who was sacrificed on a cross for the sins of all those who would believe in his atoning work. As we mark this Good Friday, give thanks for Jesus’s willingness to die and his perfect example of obedience so that we might live forever with him in glory.

The Thursday of Easter week is the day we remember how Jesus prepared to die.

The preparation for Jesus’s death began centuries before his trials, suffering, death, and burial. The prophet Isaiah documented Jesus’s death in Isaiah 53. Isaiah, before crucifixion was even practiced, wrote that this horrific punishment would be how the Suffering Servant would pay for our sins, noting that he would be scourged and pierced; the very things that happened to the Savior on Good Friday.

And in Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah gives an unusual perspective on the Jesus’s death: “All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.” We see ourselves in this passage as wandering sheep, and we observe Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, as the shepherd who dies for His sheep.

We are described in the first part of the verse as straying sheep. The imagery of sheep is not a flattering picture. Sheep are not known for being wise, easy, strong, or impressive. Sheep, in fact, suffer from several fears that can lead them into all kinds of trouble. They are also stubborn and willful, and it is not uncommon for sheep to go astray.

Phillip Keller, in his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, tells the story of one particularly stubborn sheep he had in his time as a Middle Eastern shepherd. He named this sheep Mrs. Gadabout, because she was always straying. Mrs. Gadabout was never content with what her shepherd provided; and no matter what field or pasture they were in, she would walk along the fence line always looking for a way to get to the other side, to the other pasture, or to an area she ought not be. The ironic thing was that whenever Mrs. Gadabout was able to find a loophole through which to crawl, she would usually find herself grazing in burned, barren, dry grass – rather than the lush green grass that was provided for her. Mrs. Gadabout was not only a straying sheep, constantly seeing the grass as greener on the other side; but she would teach others to follow her lead, so that Keller would have to wrangle multiple sheep who also slipped away, straying into some other shepherd’s field.

This is the picture painted in Isaiah 53:6.

We are all by nature Mrs. Gadabout. We should be content with the things the Lord has provided, and we should be delighted to feast in His pastures. But sin deceives us all, and we look out at the other pastures, burned and barren as they are; and we are convinced that only if we could go astray and wander away, we would be happy.

And that is precisely what we do. We each turn to our own way, rather than following the way of our shepherd.

The Bible calls this straying sin. It is to fall short of the glory of God; to carve out our own way rather than to follow God’s way; to see God as the oppressor, the one keeping us from what is fun or good or exciting; and to wander from His care; or to violate His law in the same way that a sheep violates the boundaries of the shepherd when it crosses the fence line into another field.

We transgress the law of God, and we put ourselves under His judgement. It is not uncommon in the aforementioned instances that if the sheep is particularly stubborn, the shepherd has no recourse other than to put it down because it becomes not only a danger to itself but a danger to the rest of the sheep who follow it. In fact, this particular sheep met just such a sorrowful end.

This is the very end we deserve because of our sin and transgression, because we have gone astray and turned aside from our shepherd, going our own way. But the glorious reality for straying sheep is that there is a saving shepherd.

That is what the end of Isaiah 53:6 is all about. Here we see that the proper and fitting response of any shepherd to such a straying sheep is that the sheep would pay the consequence for its repeated and continuous rebellion. But in the case of God and His people, God prepared salvation by planning to send his Son to bear our iniquity, and to pay the price of our straying, our sinning, and our rebellion.

Jesus picked up this imagery in John 10, where He called Himself the Good Shepherd and said that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. Jesus sees our plight; He sees our danger; He sees that we are on the precipice of destruction forever for our sins – and as the Good Shepherd, He lays down His life to save us.

Isaiah 53 makes it clear that when Jesus lays down His life for His sheep, God places the iniquity of us all on his Son. That means that what we deserved for our sinning is no longer upon us, but upon Christ. Our very sins themselves are placed on Christ on the cross, so that He bears our sins and the full punishment they deserve.

This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ: We are sinners who have strayed and gone our own way, which means we deserve God’s judgement. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came, and He died in our place, taking our punishment, so that through His life, death, and resurrection, we have peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.

The message of Maundy Thursday is that rather than preparing wrath for Mrs. Gadabout, God prepared salvation–a salvation that was unveiled the person and work of Christ.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. It’s a day that we remember as the darkest day in all of human history, through which the brightest light of all bursts forth. It is a picture of the deadness of men in sin, paired with the splendor of a Savior who would lay down His life for His enemies (cf. Rom 5:8–10). It’s a day that we treasure and rejoice in, in seeing the Lamb of God act to save the world (cf. John 1:29). It’s a day that also irks us, in considering the brutal and unimaginable sufferings that our precious Redeemer endured for our sake. 

And on the precipice of the crucifixion, on the day of Jesus’ betrayal… a question arises. What is Jesus worth? It’s such a simple, yet profound question. What is Jesus worth? Make no mistake about it, it’s one that you have already answered in your mind and you display it with your life. In a moment of honest reflection, what is your answer? 

Here’s one of the proposed answers in the Bible… thirty pieces of silver (cf. Zech 11:12–13; Matt 26:15; 27:9). Let that sink in for a moment afresh this season. What is King Jesus worth? The price of one male or female slave according to Ex 21:32. Thirty pieces of silver. That price, that number rings down throughout history, as marred as it is as the price of betrayal, it is also a reminder of the absolute sovereignty and meticulous plan of the Lord. That’s what I want us to briefly consider. 

So as to remove all ambiguity about the death of Jesus, so no one could say it was an accident, a mistake, or just bad luck… Peter boldly declared on Pentecost to a group of unrepentant Jewish people,

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know⁠—this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” 

Everything that happened in Jesus’ passion week was directly in line with God’s predetermined plan. In fact, when you get to Rev 13:8, which concerns the worship of the antichrist, “And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” The last portion is of particular interest. Before the world was made, there was a book entitled, “the book of life of that Lamb…” paying particular focus to the last four words, “who has been slain.” So sure and certain was this book that Jesus would die as a substitute for His people, that this was constructed before the earth was. The cross was the only plan from the beginning. 

Based on the playing out of God’s decree, without betrayal, everyone would still be in their sins. Without betrayal, you would have no hope before you of heaven. Without someone like Judas… there isn’t Good Friday or Resurrection Sunday. God ordained it this way. It was through what Judas meant for evil and selfish gain, that God would use it for good to give many people eternal life. To be clear, while we shouldn’t be thankful for Judas’ evil any more than we are thankful for Joseph’s brother’s evil, we are thankful to the Good God who used and orchestrated these circumstances to bring about His choice ends. 

Just a couple of days before the Passover, we read in Matt 26:14–16,

“Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me to deliver Him to you?’ And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.” 

Is He, Jesus, worthy of thirty pieces of silver? Judas’ answer: yes. 

There are certain names in the world that evoke strong negative emotions. There are some that undoubtedly come to mind from the past century. But outside of Satan himself, there might be none stronger than that of Judas. There was no higher betrayal and treason than that against the Lord of Glory. Yet again, it was no mistake. In John 6:70–71, Jesus makes it clear that He chose Judas and knew that he was “a devil.” Jesus chose “a devil,” to bring about His demise in order to fulfill the will of the Father (cf. John 17:4–5). The other disciples were oblivious to Judas’ true colors. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal, not one of them suggested Judas (cf. Matt 26:20–24). After all, they probably thought, he’s our trusted treasurer. Only later was it found out that he was a thief (cf. John 12:6). 

From the outside, Judas looked like a sheep, he talked with other sheep, he ministered with and to them, and He even walked with the Shepherd, but he was never a sheep (cf. John 10:26–28). Judas went directly to those who had put out a standing order for Jesus to be reported (cf. John 11:57). The order was placed precisely because the Sanhedrin had decided as a collective that Jesus must die (cf. John 11:53). Judas knows what he is doing. He comes to the elite and directly asks them what sum of money they would give him if he were to betray Jesus.

There’s so much that’s wrong here. In Judas’ heart, he believed Jesus was worth an earthly price. We might expect to read here, they measured out ten thousand pieces of silver, or ten million. But no… thirty. Judas doesn’t haggle with them. He doesn’t try to raise things a bit. No. The price alone reveals how low Judas thought of Jesus. He’s worth one slave (cf. Ex 21:32). The Shepherd who taught, provided for, and watched over Judas… who empowered him to heal and teach, and who washed his feet is worth thirty pieces of silver (cf. Matt 10:1–2; John 13:5). Judas loved money, not Jesus. 

The price not only shows what Judas thought of Jesus. It shows what the religious leaders thought of Jesus. I imagine they thought they were being generous given their desire to murder Him. The chief priests believed that the Messiah they claimed to be waiting for was worth thirty pieces of silver. A piece or shekel of silver would have been worth around four denarii. A denarius was around a day’s wages. So this price is around one-third of a year’s work. That’s what the Christ is worth to them… in order to put Him to death. And all of this works to fulfill prophecy, again, not by those who love the Lord and want to see prophecy fulfilled but, ironically, by His enemies. 

The price, the people, the setting, all of it happened in accordance with the Scriptures. In Zech 11:12–13, we read, “And I said to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!’ So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.’ So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.” 

At this point, we see the background for what took place in Matt 26, in Zechariah. Zech 11 presents a picture of the ministry of the Messiah. The scope is focused on the first advent of Jesus as a shepherd, in shepherding a flock devoted to destruction (cf. Zech 11:4; John 1:11–13; 3:19–21). The destruction would come as a form of judgment for not heeding the word of the Lord and accepting His Messiah. While there were some who were poor in spirit who recognized the season, they were the minority (cf. Zech 11:11). 

In verses 12–13, we see a picture of the flock devoted to destruction as seen in rebellious Israel, showing what they think of the Shepherd. When Zechariah says, in speaking as the Messiah, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind.” It further highlights how the people did not esteem this Shepherd. That there would be any possibility of no value seen or given to Him for his shepherding is crushing. Of course, it becomes more devastating as we see that the thirty pieces of silver are given in order to kill Him. 

Zechariah records, “They weighed out thirty shekels of silver.” Matt 26:15b reads, “And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.” A shekel is a unit of weight. They weigh out thirty pieces of silver exactly as expected. Jesus was valued at the price of a slave (cf. Ex 21:32). Even that detail is not without Biblical connection and precedent. While it was meant as an insult, Paul says in Phil 2:5–7,

“Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.” 

Paul glories in the reality of Jesus’ humility because he knew that through it, he was set free. Jesus took on the form of a slave, and He was valued as such in the eyes of fallen men. But what was used as a mean offense in valuing Him as a slave, only reveals His true worth. The infinite and worthy Son of God condescended to become a slave to redeem those who were slaves of sin that they might become slaves of righteousness (cf. Rom 6:17–18). It is a most undeserved and lovely reality.  

After this valuing and weighing takes Yahweh tells Zechariah to throw the shekels of silver to the Potter in the house of Yahweh, which is the temple. In Jer 18:5–6, we read about who the Potter is. “Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ‘Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?’ declares Yahweh. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.’” The Lord is the Potter. We see that the Potter says to Zechariah that the silver that “I,” which is a reference to the Messiah, was valued at, was to be thrown to the Potter in His house. There the Messiah is shown to be Yahweh, God. The money was to go into the temple. 

While Israel rejected the Lord in Zechariah’s day, this is drawn upon and shown to be fulfilled even in Matt 27. After Jesus was betrayed by Judas for thirty pieces of silver, Judas became overcome with the weightiness of his actions. Matt 27:3–8 reads,

“Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to that yourself!’ And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.’ And taking counsel together, they bought with the money the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.” 

Judas went to the house of Yahweh and threw the silver into the Potter’s sanctuary. The price the Messiah was valued at for His shepherding of Israel, the thirty pieces were delivered into the temple sanctuary as it was stated it would be. Judas did this not because he wanted to see Zechariah’s word come to pass, but rather because of the immeasurable weight of guilt that plagued his conscience.  

As the Lord judged Israel and Judah during the days of Zechariah, the greatest point of judgment came at the rejection of the Messiah. In 1 Pet 2:6–8, Peter writes,

“For this is contained in Scripture: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone,’ and, ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling they were also appointed.” 

Israel, on the whole, rejected the Messiah who was sent to them. For Judas, thirty pieces of silver were what Jesus was worth. For the multitudes who followed the blind guides, no price was necessary. For the chief priests, they would pay to kill the Stone of Israel. 

It brings to the surface the same question that was asked at the beginning of this article. What is Jesus worth? Is Jesus worth up to a certain sum of money? If someone offered you a million, a billion, a trillion dollars, mountains of gold, the whole world… would that be enough to sway you from Him? Is He worth comfort and complacency? If you had security and comfort offered to you for the rest of your life–seemingly no strings attached, is Jesus worth more than that? What about your life? Is Jesus worth more than your life? If you had the opportunity to lay down your life for Jesus… would you, or would you deny Him to preserve it in this world? What is Jesus worth?

In 1922, Rhea Miller gave a clear and definitive answer to these questions. She wrote, “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.” The second stanza reads, “I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I’d rather be true to His holy name.” That bridges into the chorus, “Than to be the king of a vast domain Or be held in sin’s dread sway. I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.” The hymn, as the chorus reveals, is entitled, “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” That’s the cry of the heart of the Christian because the Christian knows that Jesus is worth everything. 

During this time of year when we spend a concentrated amount of time on the sufferings of Jesus, be reminded that Jesus is worth far more than thirty pieces of silver. He’s worth far more than the world or anything that you could offer or gain. He is worth absolutely everything. 

Grace Community Church’s media department recently released a trailer for a movie they are making describing the government’s attempts to close the church during COVID. It will be a look back at how leaders used mandated “restrictions” to fine churches, while actively encouraging civil unrest. It will serve as a reminder for future generations about that time, back in 2020, when the government tried to close churches nationwide.

The movie will focus on why Grace Church initially complied with the restrictions, and what led the elders there to change course, and re-open. It will follow the lawsuits, leading to the church’s ultimate legal vindication. This is an important story because the legal (and ethical) precedents it set will be with the American church for a long time.

This feature-length documentary will go beyond Los Angeles County, and explore the struggle between Church and government throughout history. It will head to multiple countries and uncover those who have sacrificed their lives for what they believe in, and then return to Grace Church and John MacArthur examine how the convictions of those in the past fueled courage to stand for the Essential Church today.

Check out the trailer above, and for more info on the project, head here.

Tomorrow in Washington DC, a few miles away from the church I pastor, will be a rally called the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” The event will be led by the “Trans Radical Activist Network,” and has been promoted by political leaders around the country. Supporters of the “Trans Day of Vengeance” say that the Trans Community is under attack, and their protection can only come through retribution.

This week has exposed a seething, violent hatred towards those who won’t fly the rainbow flag over their homes, churches, and on their social media accounts. That the Day of Vengeance takes place the week of the Nashville shooting is no coincidence—or if it is, one of the leaders of the trans movement called it “a happy coincidence.” The media has shown its hatred for the church as well—with major outlets even strongly implying (if not outright declaring) that the church is responsible for the shooting at its own school. The White House expressed support for the calls for vengeance on those that oppose the trans movement because, in their words, “the trans movement is under attack.”

What does the White House mean by “under attack”? When the layers are peeled back, what this rhetoric means is that the current administration perceives laws in places like Tennessee, Florida, and Kentucky as “threatening” and “erasing” trans people. What is in those laws that justify “taking vengeance?” In short, those laws ban “gender affirming” surgery on kids. They ban the teaching in public schools that kids can be born in the wrong body, and need to mutilate themselves in order to feel themselves. This is what is at stake—the government’s insistence to teach kids that the way to happiness is through self-harm.

My heart breaks for people in the trans movement. Many of them are victims. School kids are taught to hate themselves at a young age, and the people in their lives that should be protecting and defending them are instead selling them out for political points.

I consider the trans movement demonic because of the worldview behind it. The trans movement is, by and large, a movement that teaches children to hate their bodies, to hate their parents, and to hate the God who gave them both. This demonic agenda puts parents in an untenable situation—torn between going along with self-harm or “losing” their kids. Kids and parents are both taught that if you’re not an ally of the trans movement, you’re an enemy and deserve vengeance. Many parents decide resistance isn’t worth it and go along for the ride.

Just imagine the absolute insane pressure those parents are under. If they don’t acknowledge that their child has the wrong body, the wrong gender, and the wrong pronouns, then they are told that their child will kill themselves. Worse, that they are killing their own children. At the very least, they are told that their child will break off communication with the family. As if that’s not enough, in some states parents can now lose legal custody of their children if they don’t “affirm” their preferred gender.

Some parents have started to drawn the line. They have said that they love their kids how God made them, they love them for who they truly are, but they do not support drugs, body mutilation, or self-harm. But it’s a logical trap; if parents don’t support the use of drugs, then will they use the preferred pronouns? If so, why not drugs? If not, then it is perceived as an erasure of their child’s identity to rob them of dignity, value, and personhood. That so called “erasure” is then perceived as a threat—“Transgenocide” they call it. Of course, once you label something as genocide, then you can justify violence as a form of “self-protection.”

The rally tomorrow is about expressing the desire for “vengeance” on parents that have drawn the line. It is about making it as hard as possible for parents to protect their kids. It ramps up the social cost of refusing to play the gender games.

The hatred expressed in the day of vengeance exposes the demonic world view behind the movement itself. Demons hate people. They don’t just hate Christians, but demons hate anybody descended from Adam.  The first demonic attack was on the family structure when Satan attacked Adam by attacking Eve. The fruit of that attack was murder (Cain), corruption of marriage (Lamech), and violence (everyone else).  The goal of demons is to destroy human flourishing by destroying families.

And families are under attack. Many of the kids calling for “vengeance” on those who are banning drugs for kids will have their parent’s image in their mind when they do so. It will be a day of anger and wrath, particularly directed at the people they know and who likely love them.

Transgenderism is often pitted against Christianity—for obvious reasons. It’s a comparison that I invite. When Christians march in DC, it’s a “march for life.” When the trans movement marches, it’s a march for “vengeance.” When Christians talk about what motivates them, it is love. What motivates the transgender movement? “Vengeance.”

If a trans person came to a Christian and asked “if you could tell me one thing, what would it be?” I’d imagine the answer would be something about the love of God and how he offers forgiveness through turning from sin and trusting in Christ. I asked a trans person recently what one thing he would want to tell me. His answer was how much he hates me and my family.

If you are a parent with your kids crying for vengeance, continue to show them love by pointing them to the truth. Remember, our message is one of truth that comes from love and leads to life. Their message is one of lies that calls for vengeance and leads to harm.

The divide couldn’t be clearer. One side cries out with the blood of Abel (“vengeance!”) and the other with the blood of Christ (“Father, forgive them”). One is dark, the other light. It should give us confidence that the darkness will not overwhelm the light (1 Jhn 1:5). Darkness may lash out for the moment, but light and love both win in the end.

The Sunday before Good Friday is traditionally called Palm Sunday because it is remembered as the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem to a crowd waving palm branches and praising Him. While we understand the Lordship of Christ and how worthy He is of praise, we know that not everything is as it might appear as the crowds celebrated Him on Palm Sunday.

In fact, as we read the accounts of Palm Sunday in the Gospels, we see that they are somewhat strange and unusual for a day that is remembered as the triumphal entry. For example, in Luke 19:41, we read that Jesus wept as He approached Jerusalem and contemplated the coming destruction of the city at the hands of the Romans. In Matthew 21:10-11, we meet some onlookers in Jerusalem who don’t even know who Jesus is. And then in Mark 11, we see that the day of triumph ends in a way that seemingly couldn’t be more anticlimactic: Jesus turns around, leaves, and spends the night in another city.

It’s interesting that Mark alone tells us how the day ends. Mark has a distinct purpose in telling His gospel, and one of the major themes of Mark is uncovering who Jesus is. Mark develops this theme, in part, by showing how Jesus’ true identity was in a very real sense obscured until His resurrection. We could go as far as to say that the entire theme of Mark is answering the question the disciples asked in Mark 4:41 – “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Mark answers the question of Jesus’ identity in Mark 15:39, which is the high point of his Gospel. A Roman centurion, of all people, when he sees how Jesus died, exclaimed, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Within this statement, we find the key to unlock the secret of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. To see the glory of God in Christ, we need to see the Son of God crucified. Death is the one thing the natural mind would never expect to happen to the Son of God.

But, while most of the crowds on the day of Jesus’ death concluded that because of His crucifixion He could not be the Son of God, a Roman soldier – a Gentile pagan – concluded the exact opposite. That is shocking and unexpected. But it is glorious because we see in the cross the wisdom of God that reveals Jesus as the Son of God who died to take away the sins of the world, including the sins of the hated Romans.

When we think about what happened on Palm Sunday, we see the same type of theme taking place: Mark is showing how Jesus is the Son of God. And we find that the crowds once again missed it. It’s all shocking and unexpected how it unfolds. But for those with eyes to see, we find in Jesus the hidden glory of God. Mark shows us four indications in chapter 11 of the majesty and glory of Jesus – and what happens when people miss it.

The first indication of the glory of God hidden in Christ is seen in His omniscience.

The account is absolutely amazing. While roughly 18 miles away from Jerusalem, Jesus knew that a colt would be at a specific location, ready and waiting for His disciples. The only way Jesus could have known this with such precision is divine omniscience.

How must the disciples have felt when they saw Jesus had told them everything that would happen before any of it took place. How searching must it have been for them to think, “What does He know about me and my life if He has omniscient knowledge?” For believers, this should be a source of great comfort because we know that Christ loves us and died for us, knowing all the sinful realities of who we are. But for the unbeliever, nothing should be more dreadful than to think that Christ knows all there is to know about you.

We do well to put our trust in Jesus because we see the second manifestation of His glory in His authority.

Jesus refers to Himself and instructs the disciples to refer to Him in this way, as the owner, the master, the lord, and the sovereign over that colt. Here we see that in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we find all the authority of God in human flesh. This statement of Jesus’ lordship ends all debate and discussion about what will happen next. At Jesus’ sovereign command under His irresistible authority, the owners and the bystanders alike gave the disciples permission to take the colt.

Another attribute of the hidden glory of Jesus in this passage is His royalty.

The events Mark describes in these verses took place to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. When Jesus sat on the colt, He was declaring that He was the Messiah, the Messianic King who was to come to Israel. The problem, however, was that these people did not correctly interpret the actions of Christ as He sat on the colt because they didn’t understand the true nature of His kingdom. Zechariah prophesied that this King would come and speak peace to the nations, but what the people wanted that day (and what they thought they were celebrating), was a king who would come and destroy the nations, ending the Romans’ oppression of Israel.

The final point of how badly the people missed seeing Jesus’ glory is His divinity.

The most important statement in verse 11 is that Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple to show that He is the eternal God. This is the most dramatic moment of the entire day because this was where His true identity was made known as He came into His temple, but the crowd was non-existent for this revelation. If the people knew He was the Messiah, they should have known Malachi 3:1, that He would immediately manifest, not only His kingship and Messiahship, but His very deity at the temple. After entering the city, Jesus came to the temple, assessed what was being done in His house, and then returned to clean house. And because He claimed the temple was His house, the Jews hung Him on a cross as a blasphemer.

Jesus demonstrated His omniscience, His authority, His royalty, and His divinity on Palm Sunday. It has been plainly revealed, but only to those with eyes to see it – both in Jesus’ day and for those who have had the account passed down to them in God’s Word. The reason people don’t have eyes to see it is because they look for human wisdom and glory. The natural man can’t see the glory of God in Jesus Christ. We have to look to Jesus with faith, looking not for what the world celebrates, but for what sinners need: a holy Savior who bore the sins of His people on the cross and rose again for their salvation.