Bible Study

John 4:53

[53] The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

Mark 16:16

[16] Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Joel 2:32

[32] And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

Acts 2:21

    [21] And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

A Nice Car on the Wrong Road

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” PHILIPPIANS 3:8-9

 

PONDER THIS

This passage is confusing to many of us. We ask “How could Paul put striving to keep the Ten Commandments and being religious on the negative side? It may not get him to Heaven, but at least those are good things.” But Paul said, “No. I count all these things but loss.” Why? Because those were the things he trusted in that kept him from the Lord.

Once, I had an engagement in South Florida. I rented a car, and it was nicer than I expected, so I was happy to have it. It was one of those beautiful Florida days, so I turned on the stereo, and I found the most gorgeous music. The road I was on was incredible too, very little traffic. After I had driven about two hours, I said, “I should be there already. This doesn’t look familiar. Something is wrong.” And then it dawned on me. I was going the wrong way. I was on the wrong road. The good car and the music and all these things that might be good were bad, because they distracted me, and I went in the wrong direction. That’s what religion is without the Lord. The worst form of badness is human goodness, if human goodness keeps you from salvation.

What are some good things that could distract us from God?

What things are distracting you from God right now? How can you address those distractions?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down a list of good things that could potentially distract you from God. Circle the ones that you struggle with the most. Pray and surrender those things to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Radical Effects of the Resurrection

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Paul concludes from his hourly danger, and his daily dying, and his fighting with wild beasts, that the life he has chosen in following Jesus is foolish and pitiable if he will not be raised from the dead.

If death were the end of the matter, he says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). This doesn’t mean: Let’s all become gluttons and drunkards if there is no resurrection. Drunkards are pitiable too — with or without the resurrection. He means: If there is no resurrection, what makes sense is middle-class moderation to maximize earthly pleasures.

But that is not what Paul chooses. He chooses suffering, because he chooses obedience. Ananias came to Paul after his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, with the words from the Lord Jesus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted this suffering as part of his calling.

How could Paul do it? What was the source of this radical and painful obedience? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, Christ was raised, and I will be raised with him. Therefore, nothing suffered for Jesus is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. It freed him from materialism and consumerism. It gave him the power to go without comforts and pleasures that many people feel they must have in this life. For example, though he had the right to marry (1 Corinthians 9:5), he renounced that pleasure because he was called to bear so much suffering.

This is the way Jesus said the hope of the resurrection is supposed to change our behavior. For example, he told us to invite to our homes people who cannot pay us back in this life. How are we to be motivated to do this? “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

This is a radical call for us to look hard at our present lives to see if they are shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Do we make decisions on the basis of gain in this world, or gain in the next? Do we take risks for love’s sake that can only be explained as wise if there is a resurrection?

May God help us to rededicate ourselves for a lifetime of letting the resurrection have its radical effects.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Revelation 1:17-18

[17] When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, [18] and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

[14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14

The Resurrection of the Dead

[12] Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? [13] But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. [14] And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:15-18

[15] We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. [16] For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. [17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. [18] Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

A Gift for the Guilty

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

ROMANS 10:1-4

 

PONDER THIS

Many in the world believe salvation is rooted in the merit of Man. If you were to walk up and down the streets of any city and ask people, “Are you going to Heaven?” many will say, “I hope so.” And if you were to ask, “Why?” they would likely say something like, “I’m trying to live as best I know how.” They think salvation is a reward for the righteous. But salvation is not a reward for the righteous; salvation is a gift for the guilty. If you don’t understand that, you are never going to receive salvation. Paul wrote about his brothers in the flesh, people of the Jewish nation, that they were very religious and zealous but still misunderstood righteousness.

Many people in our culture are strutting to Hell—not because they’re drunkards, not because they’re thieves, but because they think they’re too good to be condemned. They trust in their own religion and good deeds. You are not good enough for Heaven. You need Jesus, not just for getting to Heaven but for every day you live on Earth.

What is dangerous about depending on your good merit for salvation? How does the fact that salvation is a gift for the guilty give you hope?

Who is someone who needs to know this hope? How can you share this with that person?

PRACTICE THIS

Share the hope of this gift with someone who is struggling. Pray with and for that person and share your testimony of putting your trust in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When God Becomes 100% for Us

. . . among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:3)

All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure, and receive him in this way, his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.

The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?”

In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”

Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity? The answer hangs on the meaning of “100%.”

With the term “100%” I am trying to preserve a biblical truth found in several passages of Scripture. For example, in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says that Christians were “children of wrath” before they were made alive in Christ Jesus: “We all once lived [among the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Paul is saying that, before our new birth — before we were made alive together with Christ — God’s wrath was on us. The elect were under wrath. This changed when God made us alive in Christ Jesus and awakened us to see the truth and beauty of Christ so that we received him as the one who died for us and as the one whose righteousness is counted as ours because of our union with Jesus. Before this happened to us, we were under God’s wrath. Then, because of faith in Christ and union with him, all God’s wrath was removed and he then became, in that sense, 100% for us.

Therefore, exult in the truth that God will keep you. He will get you to the end because in Christ he is 100% for you. And therefore, getting to the end does not make God to be 100% for you. It is the effect of the fact that he is already 100% for you.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Galatians 5:16

Keep in Step with the Spirit

[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Psalm 51:5

    [5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

        and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Romans 5:12

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

[12] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

2 Peter 2:14

[14] They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!