Jesus Still Loves Hypocrites
I’ve recently been thinking alot about a specific passage in the New Testament book of Galatians where the author of the book says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)
The author is saying that the new spiritual life he has because of Jesus is so powerful that it takes hold of his entire existence.
Very often as a Christian I hope that non-christians will begin to follow Jesus, but when I consider my own life I am living by my own set of rules. I do not see my life in such radical terms.
Most of the time I feel like I have tried to make some deal with God, where he gets a certain percentage of my week, but the rest is mine as long as I can keep my nose clean.
I wonder how different my life would be if I stopped living for myself, and began living my entire life by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I think my free time would be different. I know I’d care for my wife more. I probably wouldn’t avoid eye contact with people that I didn’t want to talk to. I might actually begin to follow Christ in a way that showed my friends and neighbors what it could look like for them to be reconnected to God.
I’m a hypocrite and thats one of the reasons why I need Jesus.
I Am So Slow to Believe
21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Most of the time I am so slow to believe. With my head, I understand that Jesus is the central figure of History. Yet, it is hard to maintain that he is the central figure of my daily realities. I am perpetually putting new and inferior things in the place that only Jesus can hold. I place approval from others at the center of my life. I place my emotional state of mind at the center of my life. I place the validation of my ministry in the center of my life. I even place my Knowledge of Christ, rather than Christ himself at the center of my life. Yet there is nothing strong enough to fill the place in my life that is intend for God alone.
No created thing can ever fill the role that is intended for the Creator alone.
Another Great Quote – Jack Miller
by Sam
Tags: Books, Christ, Jesus, missional, PCA, Preaching, Theology
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“I fear that many pastors today have fallen into the error of preaching the doctrines of grace theoretically instead of preaching them practically and using the truths of Scripture to draw men to Christ. Instead of using the Bible as our instrument to draw men into fellowship with God, biblical doctrine has become our grounds to exclude those–even other believers–who disagree with us. Instead of using the Scripture as the sword of the Spirit to conquer men for Christ, we spend our energies defending it, as if it were fragile and easily broken.”
-Jack Miller, Powerful Evangelism For the Powerless
Lewis on Love
“It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody may be an excuse for living nobody in particular.”
-C.S. Lewis
Keller On Preaching
by Sam
Tags: Christ, Church, Gospel, Preaching, Preaching Christ, Theology, Tim Keller
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If you have not checked out the Gospel Coalition’s new website, you need to. They have posted 5 videos from their recent conference.
Here is a quote from Tim Keller’s talk entitled “What Does Gospel Centered Ministry Look Like?”:
“The basic subject of every sermon ought to be Jesus! It Doesn’t matter what passage, It doesn’t matter if its the Old Testament or the New Testament. Its got to be about Jesus…My friend Sinclair Ferguson says that most evangelical ministers don’t preach Christ, not only do they not preach Christ in the old test most of them don’t preach Christ in the New Testament.”
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