Faith’s Object: Jesus Christ

What is the object of my faith? What am I to believe in to receive the gift of eternal life and live with God in heaven? What must I do to be saved?

The object of faith for the sinner is Jesus Christ. We receive “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe” (Romans 3:22). We are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (v. 24).

Jesus Christ alone is the object of your faith for the forgiveness of sin. On nothing else can you trust to have all your sins pardoned.

God is a just God, and He must punish sin. God at the same time is merciful and wills to pardon and forgive those who believe on Jesus Christ. How can He be just and exact the penalty for sin? How can He be merciful and accept the sinner? How can He be just and at the same time justify the believing sinner?

The Biblical solution to our sins problem is substitution, which is essential to God’s plan of salvation. God looks upon Jesus Christ as though He had been all the sinners in the world wrapped up into one. The sins of His people were taken from their persons and actually laid on Jesus Christ when He died on the cross. God in fiery judgment met the sinner and punished Him. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). God poured out His wrath against sin on His own Son. Christ was not the actual sinner, but the sins of all His people were all imputed to Him. They were charged to His account personally and spiritually. The justice of God met Jesus Christ on the cross as though He had been the actual sinner. Jesus received the punishment for His people’s sins. God extracted from His Son the last atom of the penalty for our sins. He drank the last drop of judgment against us.

Today we look upon Jesus Christ as our substitute who died in our place. We put our trust in His saving work for us. We are delivered from the curse of the law because Jesus died for us. Jesus Christ has paid the wages of sin in full.

Jesus was the “just” dying for the “unjust.” He was the “righteous” one dying for the “unrighteous.” Jesus Christ is the vicarious substitutionary sacrifice dying for the sins of all those who will trust Him for the remission of their sins. Jesus endured once and for all the punishment for our sins. He has put away our sins forever by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross.

Therefore, the object of our faith must ever be in Jesus Christ. Saving faith can never be in ourselves because we are sinners, already condemned and under the judgment of God. A person dead in trespasses and sins cannot offer God anything to merit salvation.

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8). Therefore, God now offers us His free gift of salvation. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:23).

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the person who puts his faith in Jesus. The waters of baptism cannot wash your sins away. Only the blood of Jesus can do that. If the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, cannot cleanse us of every sin surely water cannot. Trust in the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ to save your soul. Nothing else will do.

The object of the sinner’s faith must be Jesus Christ who is the substitute for sinners. The sinner has no other plea but the blood of Jesus that was shed for him. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and because we are sinners, we qualify. We come confessing ourselves to be sinners and trusting Jesus Christ alone and His atoning death alone to save us. We come with nothing in our hands but the cross of Jesus and His redeeming blood. Jesus and Jesus alone can save your soul. “Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Believe on Jesus Christ and His blood will make you clean. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus baptism. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus church membership. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus your good works. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus anything you do. It is faith in Jesus and His saving grace alone that will save your soul. Put your trust in Jesus and you shall be saved.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Joseph’s Secret to Success

Tucked away in his father’s blessing is an illustration that the blessings of the Lord are greater than anything we can imagine on this earth. One commentator has said, “It is the Old Testament equivalent to John 15:1-17 where Jesus taught His disciples to abide in the vine. Whether the Old or the New Testament, the secret of spiritual fruitfulness is union with the Lord God through Jesus Christ.”

“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall” (Genesis 49:22 NIV). That is the testimony of the Bible. “The LORD was with Joseph… The LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph… The LORD was with Joseph… The LORD was with him, and whatever he did, that the LORD made to prosper” (Genesis 39: 2, 5, 21).

The LORD God caused Joseph’s vine to “climb over a wall” into Egypt, and God used him there. “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (41:52). “God has made me lord of all Egypt” (45:9).

Joseph was saying, “I saw God do it!” The LORD God was sovereign in his life, and it was His sovereign grace that delivered and sustained him during those long hard years in Egypt as a Hebrew slave.

If Joseph had been living in our day, he would say without Christ we can do nothing. However, when we are in union with Him, it is His life that is seen in us; it is His power at work in us, and our works are therefore His works.

Jacob told his son Joseph how he would be a fruitful vine. It would not be without adversity, trials, and temptations. Bitter archers who hated him attacked Joseph. “They shot at him with hostility” (v.23a-24a). He kept liberally “in an unyielding position.”

Joseph’s own brothers shot their bitter arrows of hatred and envy at him. “If God loves you, man will hate you; if God honors you, man will dishonor you,” cried Spurgeon. Joseph’s own brothers shot their bitter and hostile arrows at them conspiring to kill him, threw him in a cistern and sold him unto slavery and was taken to Egypt. The first archers were the archers of envying in his own home. “When they saw him, they plotted against him to put him to death” (Gen. 37:18).

The hot arrows of temptation from Potiphar’s lusty wife took aim at Joseph. When given the opportunity that many a man craves for, Joseph ran for his life shouting, “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” (39:9). It was not just one lustful, passionate advance because “She spoke to Joseph day after day” (v.10).

Joseph said, “No!” “He did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her” (v.10). He fled, and he paid for it by going to prison.

Joseph was maligned in the eyes of his master, and his character was ruined. Spurgeon said, “It was a marvelous providence that Potiphar did not put Joseph to death.” This lying person ruined Joseph’s character..

C. H. Spurgeon drew an application saying, “There are no royal roads to heaven – they are paths of trial and trouble; the archers will shoot at you as long as you are on this side the flood.” Those who are true to God’s Word can expect it, indeed, must expect it. “Bless be God, they have not said worse things of us than they said of our Master.”

Again, the great old Baptist preacher said, “Do not be in a hurry to set yourselves right. God will take care of you. Leave yourselves alone; only be very valiant for the Lord God of Israel, be steadfast in the truth of Jesus and your bow shall abide.”

No one was able to bend Joseph’s bow but he and God. “His bow abode in strength; it did not snap, it did not stray aside. His chastity was his bow, and he did not lose that; his faith was his bow, and that did not yield it did or break; his courage was his bow, and that did not fail him; his character and his honesty was his bow, nor did he cast it away.”

What was Joseph’s secret? How did he bear such fruit of righteousness?

“His bow remained in an unyielding position, and the arms of his hands were agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob” (v.24 using the marginal notes). The NIV reads, “But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, the Rock of Israel, because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you…” (49:24-25b).

Joseph’s arms “Were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” The image is that of the LORD God placing His strong hands upon the hands of Joseph as he draws the string of his bow just as a strong father might steady and guide his son in giving an archery lesson.

Who steadies your hand? Who gives you inner strength? Joseph’s “bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). The secret of Joseph’s strength is divine strength. And if you and I ever accomplish anything to God’s glory, it will be in and by and through abiding in Jesus Christ.

Selah!

Keep on Walking by the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit suppresses the evil impulses of nature as the believer trusts Him to do so. As we cooperate with Him in the work of sanctification He enables us to be victorious in the Christian life.

It is the responsibility of every true believer to submit his life to the control of the Holy Spirit.

In the context of a church biting, devouring, and destroying Christian fellowship, the apostle Paul admonished Christians to “walk by the spirit.” Conduct yourself under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Let the inward impulses of the Holy Spirit continue to control your behavior.

The Spirit is the source of all good and gracious impulses in your life. He works within the believer enabling with sanctifying power. The Spirit gives us wisdom and direction and by His help and power we live and overcome the inevitable temptations, sorrows and joys in life.

The present tense of the verb “to walk” (peripateite) indicates a continuing condition or need. Paul is encouraging the believers to keep on doing what they have been doing, i.e., “Keep on walking by the Spirit.” Keep in step; don’t fall out now.

It is the responsibility of the Christian to make the Holy Spirit the rule of his life. Live continually in and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit always continue to direct your life, and when He is guiding your life “you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

How does the Christian fulfill the “righteousness of the law” without becoming a legalists? Romans 8:4 tells us “walk after the Spirit.” "So that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).

Instead of biting, devouring, and consuming one another, which is the result of fulfilling the desire of the flesh, let the Holy Spirit produce His kind of righteousness in your life.

As a believer “keep on walking” through life depending on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God for His guidance and power.

The emphasis the apostle Paul is making is this submission to the Holy Spirit is the responsibility of the individual. The Holy Spirit does not operate automatically in the Christian. We do not become robots when we believe on Christ. However, as the Christian does yield to the Spirit’s control, the promise is that he emphatically will not (ou me) carry out the desires of the flesh. Paul uses a strong double negative to reinforce this great truth. The Holy Spirit wants us to be obedient and when we do obey Him we overcome these evil desires (vv. 19-21).

This great Biblical truth frees us from going to the extremes of liberty as license and lordship as legalism. True Christianity is neither license nor legalism. We have been set free to live Christ. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery” (5:1). The Holy Spirit frees us to live in that spiritual freedom. He frees us from the penalty and power of sin and will one day free us from the presence of sin.

The Bible teaches us that the human body is not sinful; it is neutral. However, when the Holy Spirit is in control of the body, we live in a manner that pleases God. It is when the Holy Spirit is not in control that we live in a way that fulfills the desires of the flesh--the old nature with its sinful behavior.

We cannot win the spiritual victory by our own personal strength or will power. Once you let the Holy Spirit guide you, “then you will never satisfy the passions of the flesh.” The promise is realized in those who continually walk or live by the Spirit. Those who walk by the Spirit will definitely not (emphatic) fulfill the desires of the flesh. This is the only assurance that we will not yield to the power within us that leads to sinful behavior. You will always know who or what is in control by the works (vv. 19-21), or the fruit (v. 22-25).

Selah!

God’s Perfect Goal for You

C. S. Lewis said, “Our Lord . . . warned people to ‘count the cost’ before becoming Christians. Make no mistake,’ He says, ‘if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you may push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through… I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect—until My Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with Me’” (Mere Christianity, pp. 157-58).

The apostle Paul wrote, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).

What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God? What is that “good work”? Again the apostle wrote, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your [rational] spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1). How do you prove that is the will of God? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." In verse one the apostle states the goal positively when he wrote, “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your [rational] spiritual service of worship.” That is our responsibility as Christians. It is a “once and for all” decision of commitment of our lives to God and a daily renewal of that life-long determination to live for God.

Paul also states the goal negatively in verse two. “Be not conformed to this world.” We no longer want to use our bodies to fulfill sinful pleasures. We now belong to God who purchased us in the death of His Son Jesus Christ. Christ has ransomed us. The Christian’s body is God’s temple (I Cor. 6:19-20). We can now glorify God with our bodies.

How do we experience such a daily transformation? “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is interesting that Paul uses the same word here that is translated “transfigured” in Matthew 17:2. Jesus was “transfigured” on the mountainside. The word means to “change into another form.” It is an inner change, a radical renovation. The transformation is invisible to the physical eye; however, we do see the outward effects of that inward spiritual birth.

Robert Haldane observed, “There are degrees in this transformation, although all Christians are transformed when they are born again, yet they ought to be urged, as here, to a further degree of this transformation.”

This inner transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. C. E. B. Canfield brings out the force of the tense. “Stop allowing yourselves to be conformed… continue to let yourselves be transformed …”

The renewing of the mind of the Christian is not something that takes place in an instant, but is something that must be continually repeated. It is a process which has to go on all the rest of the Christian’s life.

The Holy Spirit helps us look at life from a new perspective. The renewal is an adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God. It stresses the continual operation of the indwelling Spirit and the willing response on the part of the believer.

The world system of beliefs seeks to control our minds so we will conform to its way of thinking about moral values, behavior, philosophy of life, etc. It constantly seeks to squeeze us into its mold.

We are transformed in the renewing of our minds as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God over a lifetime. We have spent years under the influence of a constant bombardment of a way of looking at life that is opposed to the Christian way of life. The Holy Spirit takes God’s Word and reprograms our way of thinking. His goal is that we will live to please God, and do His will which is always “good and acceptable and perfect.”

I like the freshness of the NET Bible. "Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. Conduct in Humility" (Romans 12:2).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds