Can anything separate you from God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A historian tells us that after the Spanish Inquisition, Napoleon’s soldiers uncovered a dungeon. They went down into the dungeon and found a skeleton with chains still on it. To their surprise, they looked on the wall and saw a cross. At the apex of the cross, was the word “height.” At the foot of the cross, was the word “depth.” And on either side of the cross were the words “breadth” and “length.” To this prisoner, the cross was a picture of the dimensions of God’s love. God’s love is expansive and everlasting. 

ACTION POINT:

Jesus Christ went to the Cross to demonstrate the depth and height, length and breadth of the love of God. God went to extremes to show His love for you. Can you do something today to share with others that love of Jesus Christ?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Books at the Judgment

All who dwell on earth will worship [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:8)

Salvation is secured for all who are written in the book of life.

The reason that being written in the book of life secures our salvation is that the book is called “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” The names in this book are not saved on the basis of their deeds. They are saved on the basis of Christ’s being slain.

But John says in Revelation 20:12, “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.” So, how then does the record of our lives contained in “the books” have a part in our judgment, if we are saved on the basis of Christ being slain?

The answer is that the books, which record our deeds, contain enough evidence of our belonging to Christ that they function as a public confirmation of our faith and our union with Christ.

Consider Revelation 21:27: “Nothing unclean will ever enter [the New Jerusalem], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Here the result of being written in the “book of life” is not only not perishing, but also not practicing detestable, sinful behaviors.

For example, consider the thief on the cross. Jesus said that he would enter paradise (Luke 23:43). But what will judgment be like for him when the books are opened? More than 99.9% of his life will be sin.

His salvation will be secured by the blood of Christ. His name will be in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.

Then God will open the books. First, he will use the lifelong record of sin to glorify his Son’s supreme sacrifice. And, second, God will read that last page, where the thief’s dramatic transformation on the cross is recorded. This work of God in his life, recorded in the books, about that last day will be the public confirmation of the thief’s faith and union with Christ. And Christ will be the basis of his salvation, not his works.

Therefore, when I say that what is written in the books is a public confirmation of our faith and of union with Christ, I do not mean that the record will contain more good works than bad works.

I mean that there will be recorded there the kind of life in Christ that shows the reality of faith — the reality of regeneration and union with Christ. That is how we enter each day as a Christian: confident that our condemnation is past (Romans 8:1), and that our name is in the book of life, and that the one who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.

John Piper 

Who’s holding you up?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great. Psalm 18:35

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In World War II, General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright led a gallant but vain fight that led him to become a prisoner of war. For months, the Japanese mocked him and beat him. Then one day, the news arrived that the Allied Forces had won. The prison guards thought Wainwright hadn’t heard the news, so they approached him to inflict their daily habit of abuse. Though Wainwright had grown frail and weak, he stood up straight and tall and said, “From now on, I’m giving the orders around here.”

The devil doesn’t want you to know the Good News that Jesus has won the victory, either. But you must resist him and claim the power of God in your life.

Where do you think you’d be if Psalm 18:35 said, “I have saved myself. My hand has held me up. My gentleness has made me great”?

ACTION POINT:

Praise God that your salvation is from Him! There’s a wonderful; verse in Isaiah you need to memorize. It will strengthen you time and time again:

“Fear not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Strengthens Us Through Others

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)

What about the other ten apostles (not counting Judas)?

Satan was going to sift them too. Did Jesus pray for them?

Yes he did. But he did not ask the Father to guard their faith in the very same way he guarded Peter’s.

God broke the back of Peter’s pride and self-reliance that night in the agony of Satan’s sieve. But he did not let him go. He turned him around and forgave him and restored him and strengthened his faith. And now it was Peter’s mission to strengthen the other ten. “And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus provided for the ten by providing for Peter. The strengthened becomes the strengthener.

There is a great lesson here for us. Sometimes God will deal with you directly, strengthening your faith alone in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is asleep. But most of the time (we might say ten-elevenths of the time) God strengthens our faith through another person.

God sends us some Simon Peter who brings just the word of grace we need to keep on in the faith: some testimony about how “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

Eternal security is a community project. Whenever God encourages your heart with the promise that in Satan’s sifting your faith will not fail, then take that encouragement and double your joy by using it to strengthen your brothers and sisters — with the very strength with which you have been strengthened.

John Piper 

Do you choose God or does He choose you?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Did you know that God chose you before He laid the foundations of the earth? You talk about “old time religion”! Well, friend, you can’t get much older than that! Before there were any trees, mountains, birds, and bees, God chose you to be one of His children.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “God certainly must have chosen me before I came into this world because He never would have chosen me afterward.” 

That means you and I cannot take the credit for our salvation or bear the weight of maintaining it. First John 4:19 says, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Somebody asked a little boy, “Have you found the Lord?” And the little boy said, “I didn’t know He was lost.” How miraculous that God has chosen us. When left alone to ourselves, we would never have chosen Him. 

ACTION POINT:

Although His love for us is a divine mystery, it can bring great assurance to your heart to know “He first loved us.” Allow God’s Word to teach you what it means to be chosen. Read Matthew 20:16, 24:22; Luke 10:20; John 6:37-39; Romans 8:28-39; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Ephesians 1:9-11; 2 Timothy 1:9.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Respond When You Falter

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)

Christians do not live only in defeat. But neither do we live only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:13–25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond.

We should say:

I love the law of God. (verse 22)

I hate what I just did. (verse 15)

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (verse 24)

Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord. (verse 25)

In other words, no Christian wants to live in defeat. No Christian settles for living in defeat. But if we are defeated for a time, we shouldn’t lie about it.

No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality.

And even more, God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others.

God, help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

God, give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text! “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25).

John Piper 

The truth of all truths

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Romans 6:9-10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The best news this old world has ever heard came from a graveside just outside Jerusalem: He is risen! On that day, life and death met in a tomb in mortal combat. Life won. Death died. In that tomb, Jesus won the victory over death.

There is no more timeless truth than this: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That’s a truth science cannot explain, history cannot repeat, and time cannot erode away. It is the Truth of all truths. It’s the Truth that proves Jesus is the Son of God. Romans 1:3-4 declares it to be so:

Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

What’s the proof Jesus is God’s Son? Romans says, “Here’s your proof: God raised Him from the dead.”

ACTION POINT:

Someone has said, “If Jesus Christ is still in that grave, nothing matters. But if He came out of the grave, nothing but that really matters.” Be aware as you go about your day today that in Jesus Christ, you serve not a dead prophet or philosopher—but a risen Lord. Jesus is alive; King of kings and Lord of lords.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers