Showing posts with label Reconciliation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reconciliation. Show all posts

Sunday, August 9, 2026

The End of the Gospel

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9–11)


What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?


No. Verse 10 says “much more . . . shall we be saved by his life.” Then verse 11 takes it all the way up to the ultimate end and goal of the gospel: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”


That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”


The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.


God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).


The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.


John Piper

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

God’s Indescribable Gift

If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:10–11)


How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in God? We do it through Jesus Christ. Which means, at least, that we make the portrait of Jesus in the Bible — that is, the work and the words of Jesus portrayed in the New Testament — we make that portrait the essential content of our exultation over God. Exulting in God without the content of Christ does not honor Christ. And where Christ is not honored, God is not honored.


In 2 Corinthians 4:4–6, Paul describes conversion in two ways. In verse 4, he says it is seeing “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And in verse 6, he says it is seeing “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In either case you see the point. We have Christ, the image of God, and we have God in the face of Christ.


To exult in God, we exult in what we see and know of God in the portrait of Jesus Christ. And this comes to its fullest experience when the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5:5 says. And that sweet, Spirit-given experience of the love of God is mediated to us as we ponder the historical reality of verse 6, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”


So here’s the Christmas point. Not only did God purchase our reconciliation through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:10), and not only did God enable us to receive that reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ, but even now we exult in God himself, by the Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:11).


Jesus purchased our reconciliation. Jesus enabled us to receive reconciliation and open the gift. And Jesus himself shines forth as himself the indescribable gift — God in the flesh — and stirs up all our exultation in God.


Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he purchased. Don’t put the gift on the shelf unopened. And when you open it, remember God himself is the gift of reconciliation with God.



Exult in him. Experience him as your pleasure. Know him as your treasure.


John Piper 

 

Monday, December 15, 2025

Seeing A Train vs. A Train Wreck

“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” ROMANS 5:10-11

 

PONDER THIS


Suppose you’d never seen a railroad train, so I brought you to Memphis, Tennessee, and there was a train wreck with all the cars tangled, bent, and crashed. Smoke and steam were everywhere, the locomotive was upside down, and the rails were bent and bowed. And I said, “There is a train.” Would you truly be able to say you’d seen a train? Would you have seen what a train does, how it moves, or what it is meant to be? No, you would have seen a train wreck—all the pieces of what a train should be. You would not have really seen a train.


When we look at humans, we don’t see the fullness of humanity. We are wrecked by sin. You won’t see people fully as they were made to be until the resurrection, and they’re made like the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you’ll understand what a man is supposed to be. Then you’ll understand what a woman is supposed to be. Then you’ll understand fully what it is to be made in the image of God. We all witness how broken humanity is. We all can attest to it. It has impacted us all, and we all need the complete healing and restoration that comes from Christ.


What are some ways we still miss the mark in reflecting God’s image?

How does the hope of complete restoration impact your relationship with God?


PRACTICE THIS


Thank God for the hope of complete restoration with Him. Ask Him to help you hold onto that hope as you witness the brokenness of humanity.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Taking the Step Toward Reconciliation


“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

MATTHEW 18:15

 

PONDER THIS


What does the Bible say to do when people trespass against you? Go to them. You lovingly visit and confront them. How are you to visit them? Do so privately. When people sin against you, don’t gossip about them. Address your grievances with them, talk to them, and take the step toward forgiveness and reconciliation.


Human nature says, “He sinned against me. If he wants me to forgive him, let him come to me.” But when we look at Scripture, we are called to live differently. Am I supposed to seek reconciliation and forgiveness? Absolutely. Why? Because the Bible says we’re to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. How? As God forgave us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In response, when someone sins against us, we do not have the luxury of waiting for them to come to us. We go to them as Christ has come to us.


How do you respond when you have an argument with someone? What are some ways you move away from people instead of moving toward them?

What is most challenging for you about moving toward reconciliation? How can God help you with that challenge?


PRACTICE THIS


Have a conversation with someone you have been at odds with. Be intentional about showing the love and forgiveness of Christ.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Sunday, April 20, 2025

Presented to the King


“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” ISAIAH 53:11-12

 

PONDER THIS


Jesus brings us to God. What will sin do? Sin separates us from a holy God. On the cross, Jesus took holy God with one hand, sinful Man with the other hand, and by His blood, He reconciled God and Man. When Scripture says He brings us to God in 1 Peter 3:18 the Greek word bring—prosago—means to take an individual and present him to a king or a dignitary. That’s what Jesus has done. Jesus has taken us by the hand to present us to God the Father. He’s brought us to God. He’s said, “Father these are Mine. I purchased them with My blood on that cross.” Does that excite you?


King David had a son named Absalom. Absalom rebelled against his father, and a woman in the kingdom said, “David you need to do something to reconcile your son, to get him back” (2 Sam. 14:13, author’s paraphrase). She said in 2 Samuel 14:14, “For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.” Isn’t that a great Gospel text in the Old Testament? We’re like water spilled on the ground. God has a way of bringing us back.


How can we reflect God in the way we reconcile with others? Who is someone you need to reconcile with?

What excites you about the way Jesus reconciled you with God? How do you share that excitement with others?


PRACTICE THIS


Pray and thank God for how He has reconciled you. Ask Him to help you reflect His reconciliation to others.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, March 31, 2024

The Cross Reconciled Us to God


PRAY OVER THIS


“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 5:10

 

PONDER THIS


Christ has suffered for sin, the just for the unjust. Why? That He might bring us to God! What does sin do? Sin separates us from a holy God. What does the cross do? On that cross, Jesus reconciled God and Man. He’s made peace by the blood of His cross that He might bring us to God. The word reconciled in Greek is prosago. It means to take an individual and present him to a king or a dignitary.


That’s what Jesus has done. He has taken us by the hand and has presented us to God the Father. He’s saying, “Father, these are mine. I purchased them with my blood on that cross.” Does that excite you? That is a life-changing message! You and I were separated and far from God but now we get to be in His presence and live for and with Him forevermore!


How does it affect you to remember you have been reconciled to God? How has your life changed as a result?

How easy or difficult is it for you to remember the weight of your separation from God?


PRACTICE THIS


Praise and thank God for reconciliation with Him. Pray for someone you know who still needs that hope.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Pursue Reconciliation Over Gossip


PRAY OVER THIS


“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

 

PONDER THIS


One man said he was so distressed with evil in the world that he got to talking with God and asked, “God, why don’t you destroy these evil people?” And God said, “Alright, I will. I’ll start with you.” All of us, even the best of us, fail. A church is not a museum of saints; it’s a hospital for sinners. If somebody has sinned against you, don’t make it a matter of gossip. Don’t come and tell your pastor what some church member has done wrong. Go to that individual. Pray. Go lovingly, humbly, gently, and try to win your brother. If he won’t hear you, get a few trusted friends—spiritually mature people—and go back. If he won’t hear them, then bring it to the church and the church must confront. If he doesn’t hear the church, it would break our hearts, but we would have to treat him as though he’s never met and known the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Attempt, with all your heart, to win them with the love of Christ.


With whom do you need to pursue reconciliation?

Why do you think it is easier to see the sin in others than to see the sin in ourselves?


PRACTICE THIS


Pray for reconciliation in your broken relationships.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Saturday, December 23, 2023

God’s Indescribable Gift


If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:10–11)


How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in God? We do it through Jesus Christ. Which means, at least, that we make the portrait of Jesus in the Bible — that is, the work and the words of Jesus portrayed in the New Testament — we make that portrait the essential content of our exultation over God. Exulting in God without the content of Christ does not honor Christ. And where Christ is not honored, God is not honored.


In 2 Corinthians 4:4–6, Paul describes conversion in two ways. In verse 4, he says it is seeing “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And in verse 6, he says it is seeing “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In either case you see the point. We have Christ, the image of God, and we have God in the face of Christ.


To exult in God, we exult in what we see and know of God in the portrait of Jesus Christ. And this comes to its fullest experience when the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5:5 says. And that sweet, Spirit-given experience of the love of God is mediated to us as we ponder the historical reality of verse 6, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”


So here’s the Christmas point. Not only did God purchase our reconciliation through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:10), and not only did God enable us to receive that reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ, but even now we exult in God himself, by the Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:11).


Jesus purchased our reconciliation. Jesus enabled us to receive reconciliation and open the gift. And Jesus himself shines forth as himself the indescribable gift — God in the flesh — and stirs up all our exultation in God.


Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he purchased. Don’t put the gift on the shelf unopened. And when you open it, remember God himself is the gift of reconciliation with God.


Exult in him. Experience him as your pleasure. Know him as your treasure.



John Piper 

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Do You Need to Reconcile?


PRAY OVER THIS


“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

 

PONDER THIS


I had a brother in Christ that I loved very much and still do love very much. He wronged me, and there was anger that rose up in me that said, “I’m finished with him. I can’t trust him. He’s been dishonest.” As I paused and reflected, I thought, now why should I do that? I love this man. He is a brother. I refuse to let his mistake ruin what has been a good relationship. I prayed about it, gave it to God, and went and restored the relationship.


You may ask, “What if the person who has wronged me is not a follower of Christ?” Well, he or she is still a potential brother or sister in Christ. If that person is not a follower of Jesus and if you have an unforgiving spirit toward him or her, what chance do you have to bring that person to Christ? Would you let a sense of revenge cut off an opportunity to bring a person to the Lord Jesus Christ? That person is more than a person who has hurt you; he or she is a person who needs you.


Who have you been tempted to cut out of your life? Why?

How is God calling you to take part in His ministry of reconciliation?


PRACTICE THIS


Think about a person you have been tempted to give up on. Pray about it, and make the first step toward reconciliation as you are led.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Monday, June 6, 2022

All Hostile to God


And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. (Colossians 1:21–22)


The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended and we are reconciled to the Judge of the universe. God is no longer against us, but for us. Having omnipotent love on our side mightily steels the soul. Life becomes utterly free and daring when the strongest being in the universe is for you.


But Paul’s message of salvation is not good news to those who reject the diagnosis in Colossians 1:21. He says, you “were alienated and hostile in mind.”


How many people do you know who say, “Apart from God’s grace, I am hostile to God in my mind”? People seldom say, “I hate God.” So, what does Paul mean that people are “hostile in mind” to God before they were reconciled by the blood of Christ?


I think he means that the hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him.


But concerning the God who really exists — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.


That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated.


Many are still learning not to be hostile to God. It is a good thing that he is gloriously patient.



John Piper 

Sunday, June 7, 2020

All Hostile to God



And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. (Colossians 1:21–22)

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended and we are reconciled to the Judge of the universe. God is no longer against us, but for us. Having omnipotent love on our side mightily steels the soul. Life becomes utterly free and daring when the strongest being in the universe is for you.

But Paul’s message of salvation is not good news to those who reject the diagnosis in Colossians 1:21. He says, you “were alienated and hostile in mind.”

How many people do you know who say, “Apart from God’s grace, I am hostile to God in my mind”? People seldom say, “I hate God.” So, what does Paul mean that people are “hostile in mind” to God before they were reconciled by the blood of Christ?

I think he means that the hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him.

But concerning the God who really exists — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.

That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated.

Many are still learning not to be hostile to God. It is a good thing that he is gloriously patient.


John Piper 

Sunday, April 5, 2020

The Crown of Misery: Rescuing His Beloved



“…So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men…”... Isaiah 52:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Some years ago in New York City, there was a mother who was hanging out her clothes. A neighbor came screaming, “Your house is on fire!” The mother dropped her clothes and ran into the raging inferno to the crib where her little girl was. She wrapped her baby in a blanket and laid her upon the grass as the house was consumed. That mother’s face took the heat of those flames and was horribly scarred. Her hands were burned and gnarled. But the little baby was not touched at all by that fire. The little girl grew up to be a beautiful girl and when she was 18 her high school class held senior day on the Hudson River. This girl, so lovely she could have worn the crown of a beauty queen, was the center of attention. At a certain moment, this girl’s mother passed by, and one of the high school girls asked, “Who is that hideous woman?” And her own daughter said, “I don’t know who she is.”

ACTION POINT:

Once the mother revealed to her daughter the account of how she had become disfigured, the mother-daughter story concluded with reconciliation. Will your story have the same ending? The crown of thorns was placed on Jesus’ temple, one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Then they battered the head of the Lord Jesus Christ until His face was so brutalized you could not tell whether it was the face of a man or an animal? Look now upon His face. Let your heart be pricked by His crown of thorns. Recognize that He allowed Himself to be disfigured so you could be made eternally beautiful and wear the crown of the redeemed. God has revealed Himself to you through Jesus Christ. Will you be reconciled to Him?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, September 15, 2019

What does God want from you today?



BIBLE MEDITATION:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Psalm 133:1



DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know what God wants from you today? Reconciliation. That’s far more important than singing in the choir, preaching a sermon, serving in the nursery, or giving an offering. When we learn this, God is going to bring great revival to our churches.

Revival always begins when people begin to confess their faults one to another, pray for one another, and forgive one another. Revival isn’t raising the roof with a lot of emotion. It's getting the walls down. It’s not just saying, “I’m going to get right with God.” It’s saying, “I want to get right with my brothers and sisters.”

ACTION POINT:

When we are reconciled, revival will come. And rejoicing will surely follow. Not just any kind of rejoicing. There will be Holy Spirit joy—joy unspeakable!—when you know there is nothing between your soul and the Savior and nothing between your soul and another believer!


LWF Dr Adrian Rogers 

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

All Things?


It really matters because it’s a question about what’s commonly called universalism, or the teaching that in the end, everyone, even demons, will be saved. It insists that there’s no hell and no eternal punishment. It believes that sooner or later, even if it takes a thousand years of some kind of purgatorial discipline, everybody gets saved. That’s what some people say this text, Colossians 1:20, supports.

Let me read it. “In him [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19–20). The question is, When Paul says all things — that all things will be reconciled to God through Christ — does all things mean every unbeliever who has ever lived, including Satan? My answer is no.

Rather, all things is a comprehensive term referring to the new heavens and the new earth, where absolutely everything — all things that exist in the new heavens and the new earth — will have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. There is a reality excluded from the creation. There is hell that’s outside God’s new creation, where impenitent believers and demons suffer justly forever. There is, over and against that new heavens and new earth, an outer darkness, an away-ness, an other.

Now, here are four passages that point me to this understanding of Colossians 1:20. These teach me that Paul just doesn’t believe in universalism.

Eternal Punishment

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. (2 Thessalonians 1:7–9)

Now, that passage shows that Paul does not believe all will be saved. He believes that there will be an eternal destruction for those who disobey the gospel. Paul does not believe that everyone will be reconciled to God. Not everyone will be saved, and he says that they will suffer a punishment away from the presence of the Lord and of his glory. That points, I think, to what I mean by “outside of the new heavens and the new earth.” Now, I think the next text supports that.

Exiled from the Kingdom

I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:11–12)

They will be thrown outside the kingdom — away. So, what Paul calls “away from the Lord’s glory,” Jesus describes as that place that will be outside of the established kingdom of God, and outside of God’s saving rule. It will be outside the place where all is reconciled — the place of outer darkness.

Under the Earth

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. (Philippians 2:10)

Remember in Colossians 1:20 that these all things that are going to be reconciled are things on earth and things in heaven. Now, why doesn’t Paul say “all things under the earth”? He says “all things on earth or in heaven.” All things in heaven, all things on earth, all things under the earth — he uses all those three in Philippians 2:10. But that phrase under the earth is not used in Colossians 1:20.

Now, when he uses it in Philippians 2:10, he’s not saying there’s universal salvation, but universal submission. Willingly or unwillingly, every knee is going to bow, including the demons under the earth. Could it be that Paul did not use the phrase under the earth in Colossians 1:20 because those under the earth will not be reconciled to God? They’re not part of the all things. They will have to submit, but they will not be reconciled.

All Flesh

Here’s my last text, and a very, very important observation, I think. These are the very last verses of the prophet Isaiah. The point of this text is simply to illustrate how careful one has to be in taking a phrase like all things and assuming it includes what it does not include. Here’s what it says:

For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. (Isaiah 66:22–23)

Now, if we stopped right there, after verse 23, we might say, that’s Colossians 1:20, right? All things are going be reconciled; everybody’s worshiping; all flesh is worshiping.

Here’s the problem. The next verse goes like this: “And they” — that is, all flesh — “shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24).

Now, I think this is clear, and what is clear is that all flesh in the new creation — like all things in Colossians 1:20 — does not include the flesh of those who have rebelled against God. What all flesh means in Isaiah 66:23 is the totality of humanity in the new heavens and the new earth.

There will be nothing and no one there who does not joyfully worship God. Rebels will be outside, away from the glory of the Lord. And that’s what I think Colossians 1:20 means as well.

Thank you John Piper!!!

Thursday, August 9, 2018

The End of the Gospel


Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9–11)

What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?

No. Verse 10 says “much more . . . shall we be saved by his life.” Then verse 11 takes it all the way up to the ultimate end and goal of the gospel: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”

That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.

God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).

The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.


John Piper 

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Who Killed Jesus?

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

One of my friends who used to be a pastor in Illinois was preaching to a group of prisoners in a state prison during Holy Week several years ago. At one point in his message, he paused and asked the men if they knew who killed Jesus.

Some said the soldiers did. Some said the Jews did. Some said Pilate. After there was silence, my friend said simply, “His Father killed him.”

That’s what the first half of Romans 8:32 says: God did not spare his own Son but handed him over — to death. “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Isaiah 53 puts it even more bluntly, “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. . . . It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he (his Father!) has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:4, 10).

Or as Romans 3:25 says, “God put [him] forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Just as Abraham lifted the knife over the chest of his son Isaac, but then spared his son because there was a ram in the thicket, so God the Father lifted his knife over the chest of his own Son, Jesus — but did not spare him, because he was the ram; he was the substitute.

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us and still be a just and holy God. The guilt of our transgressions, the punishment of our iniquities, the curse of our sin would have brought us inescapably to the destruction of hell. But God did not spare his own Son; he gave him up to be pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities, and crucified for our sins.

This verse — Romans 8:32 — is the most precious verse in the Bible to me because the foundation of the all-encompassing promise of God’s future grace is that the Son of God bore in his body all my punishment and all my guilt and all my condemnation and all my blame and all my fault and all my corruption, so that I might stand before a great and holy God, forgiven, reconciled, justified, accepted, and the beneficiary of unspeakable promises of pleasure forever and ever at his right hand.


John Piper 

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

All Hostile to God

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. (Colossians 1:21–22)

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended and we are reconciled to the Judge of the universe. God is no longer against us, but for us. Having omnipotent love on our side mightily steels the soul. Life becomes utterly free and daring when the strongest being in the universe is for you.

But Paul’s message of salvation is not good news to those who reject the diagnosis in Colossians 1:21. He says, you “were alienated and hostile in mind.”

How many people do you know who say, “Apart from God’s grace, I am hostile to God in my mind”? People seldom say, “I hate God.” So, what does Paul mean that people are “hostile in mind” to God before they were reconciled by the blood of Christ?

I think he means that the hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him.

But concerning the God who really exists — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.

That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated.

Many are still learning not to be hostile to God. It is a good thing that he is gloriously patient.


John Piper

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Renouncing The Rebel Inside

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Is there stirring in your heart a spirit of rebellion today? Maybe you don’t even recognize it. But if you do, let me plead with you to do something about it right now.


Ask God to cleanse you from your desire to rebel.
Ask Him to root out the rebel in you. He is not going to remove it until you renounce it. It is your choice.
Ask Him to forgive you for the foolish and careless words you have spoken.
Ask Him to take out that spirit of rebellion against authorities.
Ask Him to teach you how to lovingly respect people when they are in the wrong.


Either you crown Jesus as Lord, or you crucify Him. Are you with Jesus today or are you against Him?


ACTION POINT:
Is there someone who has wronged you and you seek revenge? Do you have a need to have your rights exalted above others? Read and apply the truth of Philippians 2:3-11.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Friday, September 15, 2017

Reconciliation Leads to Revival!


BIBLE MEDITATION:
 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you know what God wants from you today? Reconciliation. That’s far more important than singing in the choir, preaching a sermon, serving in the nursery, or giving an offering. When we learn this, God is going to bring great revival to our churches.


Revival always begins when people begin to confess their faults to one another, pray for one another, and forgive one another. Revival isn’t raising the roof with a lot of emotion. It is getting the walls down. It is not just saying, “I am going to get right with God.” It is saying, “I want to get right with my brothers and sisters.”


ACTION POINT:
When we are reconciled, revival will come. And rejoicing will surely follow. And not any kind of rejoicing, there will be Holy Spirit joy when you know there is nothing between your soul and the Savior and nothing between your soul and a brother! Joy unspeakable!


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Sin Salt Judgement Grace Forgiveness Reconciliation


What is sin?
Anything that is against God's teaching.
He gave us a guide, the bible.
He gave us laws or you could say commands to make us aware of our sin.
When we don't obey, we become lawbreakers.
The good news is " while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
We start out in sin, then the gospel is spoken and eyes are opened.
They repent, when the salt of the earth (Christians) speak the words of hope found in Christ.
We teach them that judgement will come.
We teach them the pitfalls of sin and how grace and forgiveness were bought with the only acceptable ransom.
Christ death and His resurrection are the ransom.
We teach them that Christ is the only way to be reconciled to a Holy God.
God will not withhold His wrath from those sinners who remain in sin.
So, how can we teach Christ to sinners if we don't engage in conversations with them? 
Did Christ shy away from sinners?
No he did not.
He spoke the words of life to those who are perishing.
Let us speak the words in love, not sparing the truth.
Let Christ bring about the new creation through the power that is The Cross.
Be careful you are truly grounded in His word and His power for sin will stain. 


4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. - 1 John 3:4-10

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. - Romans 7:7-25

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. - Romans 3:19-20

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. - 1 John 2:1-3

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. - John 3:16-17

For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  - 2 Corinthians 6:2

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. - Revelation 20:11-15

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Will you repent?