Best Passage Ever

God put [Jesus] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26)

Romans 3:25–26 may be the most important verses in the Bible.

God is wholly just! And he justifies the ungodly! Really? A just judge acquitting the guilty!

Not either/or! Both! He acquits the guilty, but is not guilty in doing so. This is the greatest news in the world!

“[God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He takes our sin. We take his righteousness.

“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Whose flesh? Christ’s. Whose sin condemned in that flesh? Ours. For us then? No condemnation!

“[Christ] bore our sins in his body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24)

“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

“If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5)

If the most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out his wrath on our sin . . .

. . . Then the best news in all the world (the gospel!) is that God has decreed and enacted a way of salvation that also upholds the worth of his glory, the honor of his Son, and the eternal salvation of his elect. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

John Piper 

Are you consulting the best?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Proverbs 1:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Several years ago the investment firm of E. F. Hutton ran a TV ad with the slogan: “When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen.” Everyone in the ad suddenly stopped what they were doing and leaned in to hear what Hutton was saying.

If only people had this respect and reverence for God and His Word! That’s the kind of ear we ought to have for the matchless Word of the living God.

If you do not incline your ear, sharpen your hearing, and tune in to God, you’ll miss something. It’s been said that God will not only hold us accountable for what we hear but also for what we would have heard if we had listened!

How important it is that we understand wisdom! You want your children to be wise. Well, it’s the purpose of our Father that His children be wise. God desires for you to be wise. The teacher of wisdom is the Holy Spirit. We are to incline our ears to Him, listening to our teacher. Jesus said He will guide us into all truth (John 16:13).

ACTION POINT:

Do you take notes when your pastor teaches? Maybe it’s time to start. Do you need wisdom for decisions you must make today? Do you want guidance from the One who knows everything about everything, and knows the past, present and future? Inquire of Him and tune you ears to listen.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Wise Mercy

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23–24)

Over against the terrifying news that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin, there is the wonderful news of the gospel.

This is a truth no one can ever learn from nature. The truth of the gospel has to be told to neighbors and preached in churches and carried by missionaries.

The good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his justice without condemning the whole human race.

Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice. But there is another way. God provided another way. This is the gospel.

The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God. There it is. The gospel. Let me say it again slowly: The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.

And what is this wisdom? The death of the Son of God for sinners! “We preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23–24).

The death of Christ is the wisdom of God by which the love of God saves sinners from the wrath of God, all the while upholding and demonstrating the righteousness of God in Christ.

John Piper 

Has your mouth gotten you in trouble this week?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. Proverbs 10:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Your tongue can get you into a lot of trouble. Nothing can do more damage to your relationships than your words.

Proverbs 17:27 says, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words.” Now, there’s a seeming contradiction—if you have knowledge, if you’re so smart, why wouldn’t you speak a lot? But it’s saying, “If you’re smart, you won’t talk so much.” When you do talk, bear in mind the warning, “Keep your words warm and sweet; later you may have to eat them.”

There’s an old saying I heard a rabbi use once: 

“The ears are open and out. They’re unguarded. But the tongue is behind ivory bars.”

• When you’re talking, you’re not learning.

• When you’re not learning, you’re not communicating. 

• When you’re not communicating, there will be no intimacy in your relationships.

ACTION POINT:

In what ways has your mouth gotten you into trouble this week? Confess those times before the Lord and ask for strength and wisdom to be a better communicator. And look for opportunities to listen more.

LWF Adrian Rogers

Our Good Is God’s Delight

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are one and the same pursuit. God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows in praise.

For God, praise is the sweet echo of his own excellence in the hearts of his people.

For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from living in fellowship with God.

The stunning implication of this discovery is that all the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. These are amazing words: “I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

With all his heart and with all his soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth.

John Piper 

Are you part of something bigger than yourself?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God gave women an instinctive desire to nurture and to men He gave the task of dressing and maintaining the garden. He gave men a hard exterior to be providers and protectors. With that natural gift, it follows that men want to be admired by women. I want to be admired by my wife. I’m blessed when she admires me and says, “You are wonderful,” and she’s blessed when I’m romantic, loving, and tender toward her.

1 Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

“Honor” here is the same word used in 1:19 for “precious”—referring to the “precious blood of Christ.” Your wife is to be precious to you, given honor akin to your respect for the blood of Christ. 

Notice it says “weaker vessel.” Weaker than you, which means you’re also weak, right? That’s part of the problem in marriage. Two weak people get married. Elton Trueblood said, “A successful marriage is not one where two beautifully matched people find each other and get along happily ever after. Instead, it’s a system where two persons, sinful and contentious, are so caught up in a dream bigger than themselves that they work throughout the years, in spite of repeated disappointments, to make the dream come true.” That’s well said. Two weak persons, together giving their weakness to Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

How can you show your wife a little tender, loving care today? Now that you’ve thought of something, go do it! 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Wait, He Works

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. That’s not at all in Isaiah’s mind when he says, God “works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

God works for me means I can’t do the work. I am utterly in need of help.

And this glorifies God not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

Listen to the way the Bible talks about God working for you, and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. Let him do that work.

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:12, 15).

“To your old age . . . I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

“I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

“Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).

“Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (Philippians 2:12–13).

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

John Piper