Lent - Day 33 (March 27)

Larger Catechism – Day 33 of Lent

Question 71:  How is justification an act of God’s free grace?

Answer:  By his obedience and death Christ made the correct, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on behalf of those who are justified. Yet, insofar as this satisfaction is accepted by God as a guarantee of performance, which he might have demanded from the justified, and since God himself provided a guarantor in the person of his only Son, in justification God imputes righteousness to the justified and requires nothing from them in return except faith, which they also have as a gift from him. Consequently, justification comes to the justified as an act of God’s free grace.

The Oxford Online Dictionary defines gift as “a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present.”  A gift can be given on a birthday, at Christmas, on an anniversary or any time that a person or group decides to do it.  Tonight, Evergreen Church is giving a gift to our community – a free spaghetti dinner.  We are giving the “gift” because we feel God is calling us to do it.  We are not asking anything of the people who attend.  Our community did nothing to “earn” the dinner.  The dinner is our free gift to our community

God provided a gift to this world in Jesus to satisfy the debt owed for our sins.  God gave the gift of justification because he wanted to and because he loves us.  There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s gift in Jesus.

God provided a gift to the world in that he gives us the faith to receive the gift found only in Jesus.  The justification offered to us in Jesus is a free gift that must be accepted by faith; yet, due to our sinfulness we do not even have the ability to have that amount of faith.  If we were able to have the faith to receive Jesus by our own doing then one could say we have done something to earn or deserve God’s grace.  Thankfully, God gives us the faith to receive Jesus.

God provides the gift of justification found in Jesus.  God provides the faith for us to receive that free gift.  Thus, we are justified by God’s free grace. 

Lent - Day 32

Larger Catechism – Day 32 of Lent

Question 70:  What is justification?

Answer:  Justification is the act of God’s free grace to sinners, by which he pardons all their sins and accepts and looks on them as if they were righteous, not because of anything worked in them or done by them but because God imputes to them the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ that can only be appropriated by faith.

There are times when it is challenging to take off my “pastor’s hat.”  When worshiping at another church I like to see what they are doing, learn new songs and get some ideas for things that might be used here at Evergreen.  When I attend a wedding I like to get ideas of things that might work well at a future wedding.  I think that you get the picture.

Unfortunately, there are times when I see things with a critical eye.

There have been too many funeral/memorial services where I have heard someone say, “He was a good guy.”  There is a part of me that wants to stop the service and say, “How good was he?  Who’s measuring system of ‘good’ are you using.”

According to God’s measuring system none of us is “good” – in and of our selves.  Original sin has tainted every corner of our being.  We all fall short of God’s command to be perfect.

One of the first memorial services I conducted as a pastor was for a man who drank himself to death.  This man had not been a “good” man.  He spent most nights at the local bar.  There were lots of things that he did that were not “good.”  Eventually, two things caught up with him:  a liver that failed and a Lord that loved him.  Marshall came to know Jesus a couple of years before he died.  His liver was so far gone that there was nothing that they could do. I spent time with him most every day for the last few weeks of his life on earth.  Everyone attending Marshall’s funeral new his history.  Many at that service did not know that Marshall came to know Jesus.  At the service I was able to say (with total integrity) that for most of his life Marshall had not been a nice man; however, he came to know Jesus and that Jesus had paid the price for Marshall’s sins and that Jesus had given Marshall his righteousness.

Justification is God’s act of giving us Christ’s righteousness as Christ takes our sins upon himself.  None of us is “good” enough by God’s measuring standard.  We need to be clothed with Christ’s righteousness.  That is justification.

Lent - Day 31 (March 25)

Larger Catechism – Day 31 of Lent

Question 59:  Who shares in the redemption through Christ?

Answer:  Redemption is inevitably and effectively imparted to all those for whom Christ purchased it, who in the process of time are enabled by the Holy Spirit to believe in Christ as presented in the gospel.

We live in a time when people are all about “me.”  People might as well say, “I want it, when I want it, as I want it and that is just the way it is!”  This self-centered attitude infects all aspects of our society.  Advertising agencies want you to want a particular product now – go buy it, even if you can’t afford it.  A local professional football player signed a multi-year contract last year and now he is demanding that his contract be re-negotiated.  Costco has their best and largest televisions right by the entrance door so that people will see the televisions, want the televisions and buy the televisions.  Me.  I.  Me. I.

That same attitude has invaded the Christian faith.  I have met so many people that are adamant that they chose to follow Christ (I was one of them).  But what does the Bible say?

John 15:16 says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

Ephesians 1:4-6 says, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will –to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 says, “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.  He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible goes on and on about God choosing us—not the other way around.  I don’t understand how it works (it is way above my pay grade).  Christ purchased our redemption.  The Holy Spirit seeks us out so that we come face to face with Jesus and receive his forgiveness and new life.

Notice the words “he chose us”, “his will”, “his purpose”, “he called” and “God chose you.”  It is all about God’s will and God’s purposes.

It is very comforting to know that Christ chose us.  In elementary school we played touch football during recess.  The guys would line up and two captains would choose the people to be on their teams.  The best athletes would be selected first.  Eventually, it was about who the captain didn’t want on his team (after all, no one wanted the kid that couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time). 

God wants us to know that we are valuable to him.  God wants us to know that he loves us.  God wants us to know that he will always be there for us because he chose us.  God redeems us because he chose us.  We are his because he chose us!  He chose us first.  He chose us before the creation of the world.  He chose us.  HE CHOSE US!!