Proud Works vs. Humble Faith

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’” (Matthew 7:22)

Consider the difference between a heart of “faith” and a heart of “works.”

The heart of works gets satisfaction from the ego-boost of accomplishing something in its own power. It will attempt to scale a vertical rock face, or take on extra responsibilities at work, or risk life in a combat zone, or agonize through a marathon, or perform religious fasting for weeks — all for the satisfaction of conquering a challenge by the force of its own will and the stamina of its own body.

The heart with a works-orientation may also go in another direction and express its love of independence and self-direction and self-achievement by rebelling against courtesy and decency and morality (Galatians 5:19–21). But it’s the same self-determining, self-exalting works-orientation — whether it is being immoral or mounting a crusade against immoral behavior. The common denominator is self-direction, self-reliance, and self-exaltation. In all of this, the basic satisfaction of the works-orientation is the savor of being an assertive, autonomous, and, if possible, triumphant self.

The heart of faith is radically different. Its desires are no less strong as it looks to the future. But what it desires is the fullest satisfaction of experiencing all that God is for us in Jesus.

If “works” wants the satisfaction of feeling itself overcome an obstacle, “faith” savors the satisfaction of feeling God overcome an obstacle. Works longs for the joy of being glorified as capable, strong, and smart. Faith longs for the joy of seeing God glorified for his capability and strength and wisdom and grace.

In its religious form, works accepts the challenge of morality, conquers its obstacles through great exertion, and offers the victory to God as a payment for his approval and recompense. Faith, too, accepts the challenge of morality, but only as an occasion to become the instrument of God’s power. And when the victory comes, faith rejoices that all the glory and thanks belong to God.

John Piper 

Enduring When Obeying Hurts

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

What faith performs is sometimes unspeakably hard.

In his book Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II.

At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die!” he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing.

What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus was carried and sustained in his love for us by “the joy that was set before him.” He banked on a glorious future blessing and joy, and that carried and sustained him in love through his suffering.

Woe to us if we think we should or can be motivated and strengthened for radical, costly obedience by some higher motive than the joy that is set before us. When Jesus called for costly obedience that would require sacrifice in this life, he said in Luke 14:14, “You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In other words, be strengthened now in all your losses for Christ’s sake, because of the joy set before you.

Peter said that, when Jesus suffered without retaliating, he was leaving us an example to follow — and that includes Jesus’s confidence in the joy set before him. He handed his cause over to God (1 Peter 2:21) and did not try to settle accounts with retaliation. He banked his hope on the resurrection and all the joys of reunion with his Father and the redemption of his people. So should we.

John Piper

The Offense of Fearing Man

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” (1 Samuel 15:24)

Why did Saul obey the people instead of God? Because he feared the people instead of God. He feared the human consequences of obedience more than he feared the divine consequences of disobedience. He feared the displeasure of the people more than the displeasure of God. And that is a great insult to God.

In fact, Isaiah says it is a kind of pride to be afraid of what man can do while we disregard the promises of God. He quotes God with this piercing question: “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker?” (Isaiah 51:12–13).

Fear of man may not feel like pride, but that’s what God says it is, “Who do you think you are to fear man and forget me your Maker!”

The point is this: If you fear man, you have begun to deny the holiness, the worth of God and his Son, Jesus. God is infinitely stronger than man. He is infinitely wiser and infinitely more full of reward and joy.

To turn from him out of fear of what man can do is to discount all that God promises to be for those who fear him. It is a great insult. And in such an insult God can take no pleasure.

On the other hand, when we hear God’s promises and trust him with courage, fearing the reproach brought upon God by our unbelief, then he is greatly honored. And in that he has much pleasure.

John Piper 

When You Ignore God’s Direction

“Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.” ACTS 27:29

 

PONDER THIS

In this verse, the sailors prayed in essence, “Oh! If I just had some light; if I just knew what to do!” But they had rejected God’s light. And now they found themselves in darkness. The sailors of that day didn’t have the modern instrumentation that we have today. They sailed by the stars, the sun, the moon, the land, and the shore. But the Bible tells us in Acts 27:20 that the storm was so fierce that all these things had disappeared. They were gone! What do you do, dear friend, when the stars go out of your night, and the sun disappears out of your day? These sailors were in suffocating darkness, wishing for the day. And their hopes vanished.

What are some of the things you might be tempted to turn toward when you lose your spiritual bearings?

Why is it important that we heed God’s guidance in these situations and not reject it, as these men did?

PRACTICE THIS

Is there anywhere God is leading you that you haven’t obeyed? Act in obedience today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Right Isn’t Decided by the Crowd

“Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, ‘Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.’ Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.” ACTS 27:9-11

 

PONDER THIS

The question arose regarding whether to continue or not. Those leading the ship said, “What does everybody want to do?” Now there was a crowd on that boat, and Paul was outvoted. Despite Paul’s warning, they said, “Let’s sail.” But we should recognize that majority support doesn’t make a thing right. Morality is not set by the majority, but by God.

Twelve spies went out to spy out the land in Joshua’s day. Ten said, “It can’t be done.” Only two said, “It could be done.” The ten were wrong, and the two were right. Later, the people of Israel didn’t have a king and they wanted a king. They should have been a theocracy, ruled by God, but they wanted a monarchy. They said, “How many of you want a king?” And they all voted for a king. They got Saul. God gave them what they wanted, but after a while, they didn’t want what they got. The majority was wrong. What is most important is what God is calling us to do, not what gains the most favor.

When was a time you felt led to go against the crowd in God’s name?

What makes this so difficult?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider today where God might be calling you to go against the crowd for His sake. Take action toward faithfulness in this area.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Rebuke Is a Sign of Hope

“He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” PROVERBS 29:1

 

PONDER THIS

God has called me to proclaim that He loves you with an infinite love. He has spoken to you over and over again, and He’s speaking to you today. But God says, “If you continue to harden your neck, you’ll be destroyed.” And when you are, there’ll be no second chance. It will be without remedy, without hope. I looked this verse up in several different translations, and they all mean the same thing: no hope, without a second chance, without a remedy, without a cure.

But why would God rebuke you? Because He loves you so much, and He wants to save you today. You may ask, “Pastor Rogers, would Jesus save me today?” Yes. “Pastor Rogers, are you sure?” Yes, I’m sure, if you’ll call upon Him.” You say, “What if I’ve crossed the deadline?” If you call upon Him, you haven’t.

How might you use the message of today’s devotion to encourage someone in the truth?

How does God’s rebuke always give us hope? Why is it worse to not have His rebuke?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider where God is rebuking you currently. Respond to Him in obedience as He is prompting you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Embracing Jesus

This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. (1 John 5:3–4)

Notice: Loving God is not just keeping his commandments. It is having a kind of heart for God that means that commandment-keeping is not burdensome. That’s what John says. But then he puts that truth in terms of new birth and faith, rather than love. He says, without a break, “For” — that is, here’s why God’s commandments are not burdensome: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” So, the new birth is what overcomes the worldly obstacles to keeping God’s commandments without burdensomeness.

And finally he adds, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.” So, the new birth overcomes the worldly obstacles to burden-free commandment-keeping, because the new birth gives rise to faith. So, the miracle of new birth creates faith, which embraces all that God is for us in Christ as supremely satisfying, which makes obedience to God more desirable than the temptations of the world. And that is what it means to love God.

The eighteenth-century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards wrestled with this text and concluded, “Saving faith implies . . . love. . . . Our love to God enables us to overcome the difficulties that attend keeping God’s commands — which shows that love is the main thing in saving faith, the life and power of it, by which it produces great effects.”

I think Edwards is right and that numerous texts in the Bible support what he says.

Another way to say it is that faith in Christ is not just assenting to what God is for us, but also embracing all that he is for us in Christ. “True faith embraces Christ in whatever ways the Scriptures hold him out to poor sinners” — that’s another quote from Edwards. This “embracing” is one kind of love to Christ — that kind that treasures him above all things.

Therefore, there is no contradiction between 1 John 5:3, on the one hand, which says that our love for God enables us to keep his commandments, and verse 4, on the other hand, which says that our faith overcomes the obstacles of the world that keep us from obeying God’s commandments. Love for God and Christ is implicit in faith.

John then defines the faith that obeys as “the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5). This faith is “embracing” the present Jesus as the glorious divine person that he is: the Son of God. It is not simply assenting to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, because the demons assent to that. “They cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:29). Believing that Jesus is the Son of God means “embracing” the significance of that truth — the value of the reality. It means being satisfied with Christ as the Son of God and all God is for us in him.

“Son of God” means that Jesus is the greatest person in the universe alongside his Father. Therefore, all he taught is true, and all he promised will stand firm, and all his soul-satisfying greatness will never change.

Believing that he is the Son of God, therefore, includes banking on all this, and being satisfied with it.

John Piper 

The Great King’s Wine

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”

This is a sobering biblical truth. For example: “For [Christ’s] sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paraphrase: No pain, no gain. Or:

Now let it all be sacrificed, if it will get me more of Christ.

Here’s another example: “Although he was a son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The same book said he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).

So learning obedience does not mean switching from disobedience to obedience. It means growing deeper and deeper with God in the experience of obedience. It means experiencing depths of yieldedness to God that would not have been otherwise attained. This is what came through suffering. No pain, no gain.

Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said, “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”

Do you not love your beloved more when you feel some strange pain that makes you think you have cancer? We are strange creatures indeed. If we have health and peace and time to love, it can become a thin and hasty thing. But if we are dying, love becomes a deep, slow river of inexpressible joy, and we can scarcely endure to give it up.

Therefore brothers and sisters, “Count it all joy . . . when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).

John Piper 

Faith Follows Obedience

“By faith he [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.”

HEBREWS 11:9

 

PONDER THIS

I am sometimes asked by young pastors about the approach they should have when taking a position at a new church. Here is what I tell them: “When you go to a church, you must be able to do two things: number one, you must be prepared to spend the rest of your life there, and number two, you must be ready to leave in the next 15 minutes.” Both are true. You can’t only say, “Lord, I’m building a nest.” You need to pray, “Lord, if I’m building a nest, put a thorn in it. I am ready to go.” Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus. God gives you the choice. If you do not obey what you know, don’t ask God for more light. God is not going to give it to you.

Are you having a faith problem? If you’re having a faith problem, you’re probably really having an obedience problem. Is there a confession that you need to make? Is there restitution that you need to perform? Is there a gift you need to give? Is there a testimony you need to offer? Is there a place you need to go? Obey! Do you want faith? First you must hear from God, but then you must obey God.

Where is God currently calling you to obey Him?

How will you respond this week?

PRACTICE THIS

Take concrete steps toward obeying God in whatever way He has called you this week.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

A Faith That Fears God

 

“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear.” HEBREWS 11:7A

 

PONDER THIS

God warned Noah of the flood. But Noah had never seen a flood. In fact, Noah had never even seen rain. Genesis 2:5-6 says, “before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” Noah didn’t have evidence of the flood, but He did have evidence of God and His faithfulness.

When Noah believed God, he feared God. Fear and faith are inseparably linked. Fear sees God’s power, holiness, and justice. Faith sees God’s lovingkindness, grace, and mercy. Therefore, the fear of God is not a cringing dread of God. It is love on its knees.

What evidence is there in your life that you fear God in an appropriate way?

How does a right fear of God lead to living faithfully before God?

PRACTICE THIS

What is something you know God is calling you to do? Obey Him without delay. Fear God that you might walk faithfully before Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Works Through Good Resolves

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

Seeking the power of God to fulfill our good resolves does not mean that we don’t really resolve, or that we don’t really use willpower.

The engagement of God’s power never takes the place of the engagement of our will! The power of God in sanctification never makes us passive! The power of God engages itself beneath or behind and within our will, not in place of our will.

The evidence of God’s power in our lives is not the absence of our willing, but the strength of our willing, the joy of our willing.

Anyone who says, “Well, I believe in the sovereignty of God and so I will just sit back and do nothing” does not really believe in the sovereignty of God. For why would someone who believes in God’s sovereignty so blatantly disobey him?

When you sit back to do nothing, you are not doing nothing. You are actively engaging your will in a decision to sit back. And if that is the way you handle sin or temptation in your life, it is blatant disobedience, because we are commanded to wage a good warfare (1 Timothy 1:18) and resist the devil (James 4:7) and strive for holiness (Hebrews 12:14) and put to death the sinful acts of the body (Romans 8:13).

Second Thessalonians 1:11 says that it is by the power of God that we will fulfill our good resolves and our works of faith. But this does not nullify the meaning of the word “resolve” and the word “work.” Part of the whole process of walking worthy of God’s call is the active engagement of our will in resolving to do righteousness.

If you have lingering sin in your life, or if you keep neglecting some good deed just because you have been waiting around to be saved without a fight, you are compounding your disobedience. God will never appear with power in your will in any other way than through your exercise of that will; that is, through your good resolves — your good intentions and plans and purposes.

So, people who believe in the sovereignty of God must not fear to engage their wills in the struggle for holiness. “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24). Only strive in the faith that in and through your striving God is at work to will and to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

John Piper 

When Obedience Feels Impossible

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)

For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

Perhaps the command or call of God you hear just now is to stay married or stay single, to stay in that job or leave that job, to get baptized, to speak up at work about Christ, to refuse to compromise your standards of honesty, to confront a person in sin, to venture a new vocation, to be a missionary. And as you see it in your limited mind, the prospect of doing this is terrible — it’s like the loss of Isaac, the only son who can be an heir.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Now you know what it was like for Abraham. This story is in the Bible for you.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

John Piper 

Why God Says ‘No’ Before He Says ‘Go’

“And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” ACTS 5:32

 

PONDER THIS

God is not going to give spiritual power to rebels. Why should God release the anointing power of the Holy Spirit upon your life when you’re not living in obedience? The Holy Spirit is there to get His work done. Have you ever taught a teen to drive an automobile? If so, one of the first things you likely pointed out was the brake pedal. Now suppose that teen said, “I am not interested in the brake. Show me how to make it go. I’m not interested in how to make it stop. I want to go!” You’d take the keys back, put them in your pocket, and say, “You’re not ready yet.” In the same way, you will never know the release of the Spirit until you know the restraint of the Spirit. You will never know the “go” till you know the “no.” God gives the power of the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.

Where have you experienced the restraint of the Holy Spirit in your life?

How does the Holy Spirit lead us to change our lives? Why does this include doing some things and not doing other things?

PRACTICE THIS

Spend time in reflection, asking God to reveal to you the areas in which He is calling you to obedience. Ask Him to lead you to faithfulness in those areas beginning today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why God Won’t Force You to Obey

“But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’” ACTS 5:29

 

PONDER THIS

You cannot obey God unless He enables you to do so: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And “it is God who works in [us] both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Obedience to God is like breathing. Is breathing a gift of God? Of course it is. God gives you lungs, and God gives you air. But you can suffocate if you want. Obedience is a gift of God in the sense that God gives you the will—God works in you—but there comes a decision, and God is not going to force you to obey Him. We can’t shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, if God wants it to happen, it’ll happen.” No! There is a decision to be practiced. You must say, “I will obey Him.”

Where are you currently faced with a decision of obedience or disobedience?

How will you respond today?

PRACTICE THIS

Take steps toward obedience in a specific situation in your life today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Joy You Discover Only After Obedience

“So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” ACTS 5:41

 

PONDER THIS

Don’t get the idea that the will of God is something you have to do. God’s not going to force His will on you. It is something you get to do. When you learn to obey, you learn the joy that’s available in the Christian life. There’s no such thing as a happy, disobedient Christian. It is a contradiction in terms. Obedience and rejoicing come together. It is a lie from Hell that doing the will of God is painful and makes you miserable. The Bible says, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

The reason some of us don’t obey the Lord and fail to understand there’s joy in obedience is that we don’t trust the Lord; we have difficulty taking commands from a stranger we don’t know. Once we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we learn that His commands are not grievous or burdensome.

How have you experienced joy in being obedient to God?

How have you been deceived into believing that following God is burdensome and grievous?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways you feel God calling you to be obedient to Him this week. Pray over this list, asking God to remind you that joy is found in obedience to Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Command That Creates

Anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14)

When Jesus commanded Lazarus to rise from the dead, how did he obey that command? John 11:43 says, “He [Jesus] cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’” That was a command to a dead man. The next verse says, “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips” (John 11:44).

How did Lazarus do that? How does a dead man obey a command to live again? The answer seems to be: The command carries the power to create new life. Obedience to the command means doing what living people do.

This is extremely important. The command of God, “Rise from the dead!” carries in it the power we need to obey it. We do not obey it by creating that life. We obey it by doing what living people do — Lazarus came forth. He rose. He walked out to Jesus. The call of God creates life. We respond in the power of what the call creates.

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul says, “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” How do you obey a command to wake up from sleep? If your house has poisonous carbon monoxide in it, and someone cries out, “Wake up! Save yourself! Get out!” you don’t obey by waking yourself up. The loud, powerful command itself wakes you up. You obey by doing what wakeful people do in the face of danger. You get up and leave the house. The call creates the waking. You respond in the power of what the call created — wakefulness.

I believe this is the explanation for why the Bible says paradoxical things about new birth; namely, that we must get ourselves new hearts, but that it is God who creates the new heart. For example:

Deuteronomy 10:16: “Circumcise your heart!”

Deuteronomy 30:6: “The Lord will circumcise your heart.”

Ezekiel 18:31: “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!”

Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.”

John 3:7: “You must be born again.”

1 Peter 1:3: “God caused us to be born again.”

The way to obey the command to be born is to first experience the divine gift of life and breath, and then to do what living, breathing people do: cry out to God in faith and gratitude and love. When the command of God comes with the creating, converting power of the Holy Spirit, it gives life. And we believe and rejoice and obey.

John Piper 

Outfitted and Empowered

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

(Hebrews 13:20–21)

Christ shed the blood of the eternal covenant. By this successful redemption, he obtained the blessing of his own resurrection from the dead. That is even clearer in Greek than it is in English, and here it’s clear enough: “God . . . brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus . . . by the blood of the eternal covenant.” This Jesus — raised by the blood of the covenant — is now our living Lord and Shepherd.

And because of all that, God does two things: 

1. He equips us with everything good that we may do his will, and 
2. He works in us that which is pleasing in his sight.

The “eternal covenant,” secured by the blood of Christ, is the new covenant. And the new covenant promise is this: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Therefore, the blood of this covenant not only secures God’s equipping us to do his will, but also secures God working in us to make that equipping successful. 

The will of God is not just written on stone or paper as a means of grace. It is worked in us. And the effect is: We feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to God.

We are still commanded to use the equipment he gives: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But more importantly we are told why: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

If we are able to please God — if we do his good pleasure — it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping to omnipotent transforming.

  John Piper 

Authority is Linked to Obedience

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” JOHN 17:4

 

PONDER THIS

We need to understand the relationship of Jesus Christ to the Church. Don’t think of the Church as a business with Jesus as the president. The Church is a body with Jesus as the Head. Do you see the difference? We are organically related to the Lord Jesus Christ. His life is in us. Our authority comes from Him. In the Great Commission, He said, “All authority is given unto Me! Go ye, therefore!” Essentially, He said, “Because I have this authority, I am now giving you the power of attorney to act for me.”

You cannot have authority over anything until you get under the authority that is over you. All authority is linked to obedience. Why would a person give you authority to act for Him when you’re disobedient to Him? That’s the reason Satan tried to get Adam to disobey.

Even Jesus was under authority. He not only showed us what God was to be like on Earth; He also showed us what Man was to be like on Earth. He was God, but He lived on Earth as a man subject to His Father.

How can you submit to God’s authority? What does it look like to live apart from God’s authority?

How does Jesus’ submission to God’s authority instruct you? How can you seek to live under the authority of God like Jesus did?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk with a friend about how Jesus lived under God’s authority and how that is challenging for you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Hold Fast to Your Hope

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6:17–18)

Why does the writer of Hebrews encourage us to hold fast to our hope? If the final enjoyment of our hope was obtained and irrevocably secured by the blood of Jesus, then why does God tell us to hold fast?

The answer is this:

What Christ bought for us when he died was not the freedom from having to hold fast, but the enabling power to hold fast.

What he bought was not the nullification of our wills as though we didn’t have to hold fast, but the empowering transformation of our wills so that we want to hold fast.

What he bought was not the canceling of the commandment to hold fast, but the fulfillment of the commandment to hold fast.

What he bought was not the end of exhortation, but the triumph of exhortation.

He died so that you would do exactly what Paul did in Philippians 3:12, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” It is not foolishness, it is the gospel, to tell a sinner to do what Christ alone can enable him to do; namely, hope in God.

So, I exhort you with all my heart: Reach out and take hold of that for which you have been taken hold of by Christ. Hold it fast with all your might — which is his might. His blood-bought gift of your obedience.

John Piper 

Marveling at the End of History

[God will] grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:7–10)

When Jesus returns to this earth, which he has promised to do, those who have not believed the gospel, Paul says, “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” This is a terrible prospect that should terrify all unbelievers who hear this truth.

And oh, how it should sober us who do believe and fill us with seriousness about what is at stake in this world. Oh, how it should cause compassion to rise in our hearts for those who do not believe, or do not even know, the gospel.

But to sustain us in all our afflictions here Paul gives us two amazing words of encouragement and hope. “[God will] grant relief to you who are afflicted.” If we experience a terrible intensification of affliction near the end of history, God’s word is: Hold fast: relief is on the way. Your afflictions will not have the last word. And your seemingly powerful adversaries will regret the day they touched the Lord’s people.

But then comes the best word of encouragement and hope. Not only will we get relief when the Lord comes, but we will get the greatest experience that we were created for in the first place: We will see his glory, and marvel at it in such a way that he will be glorified in us for all the world to see.

Verse 10: “He comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed.” We were made to marvel. Nothing and no one is more marvelous than the crucified, risen, returning King of glory, Jesus Christ. He will attain the destiny of his glory, and we will attain the destiny of our joy as we begin the perfect, sinless, never-ending marveling at the greatest marvel.

John Piper