Q: I am thoroughly convinced that God is True to His Word..Mathew 19:26 says WITH PEOPLE THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT WILL GOD “ALL”THINGS ARE POSSIBLE…THANK JESUS FOR DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE IN MY LIFE AND ALL THE GLORY GOES TO YOU JESUS.
A: I am particularly drawn to the story of the Rich Young Man in Matthew 19. We have a young man who asks God Himself, whether he knew that or not we do not know, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life (Mat 19:16)?" And Jesus replied, "If you want to enter life, obey the commandments (Mat 19:17)." Then Jesus tells him which ones to obey. To my amazement, the man says, "All these I have kept (Mat 19:20a)." Jesus doesn't jump in and say the man was lying or didn't keep all the commandments. Therefore, we can only conclude that this man was obedient to those commandments. Yet, he still hadn't done enough to receive eternal life. The man finally asks the Lord, "What do I still lack (Mat 19:20b)?" Jesus makes it clear to him in His response. "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me (Mat 19:21)." We read that the "the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth (Mat 19:22)."
It is amazing how we are told and tell others that we must be obedient to please God. Yet, we have an example here of an obedient man who still missed out on eternal life because his heart was not changed. The man was still hanging on to the things of this world. I bet in many ways his dreams had come true and he was thankful to God for all he had acquired in this world. Yet, his treasure was here on this earth. Saints, take a queue from the story of the Rich Young Man. If your focus is on the things of this world and believe that by being obedient God will reward you with treasure on earth, your focus is not on what God has come to give you. He came to grant you the desires of your heart. But, it is not through the accumulation of wealth or material gain based on your obedience. He came to fulfill the desires of your heart for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life, not by rewarding your obedience with the things of this world, but by giving you Himself in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Mat 19:26)," He was reiterating that only faith in Him will result in eternal life not obedience and pursuit of worldly gain. Have a blessed weekend in the Lord Saints.
Q: What is the "true" meaning of "worship"?
A: The true meaning of worship is making yourself available to God in order to be used by Him at any given moment. That is why Romans 12:1 says, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God —this is your spiritual act of worship." Being a living sacrifice is allowing yourself to be at the mercy of another. The reason God "has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3)" and "has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Ptr 1:3)" is so we will stop looking to the world to provide for us what can only be received in Him. The result of which is that we rest from our own acts of disobedience as we try to maintain or obtain our right-standing before God by what we do. God fulfilled our hearts desire in Himself, so that through us He can reach the lost world with the message of reconciliation and resurrected life in Christ.
Because of this, worship is something that is done on a constant and daily basis. While it is fine and a blessing to worship God when we are inside the walls of our church that is not the main definition of worship. Just like the Christian life is what we do outside of Sunday morning, worship is also what we do as we live our lives each day. In many ways, worship is not what we do, but who we are in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20)." Christians live by faith in Jesus Christ who indwells us. Faith is our response to the truth He has revealed to us. God gave us the greatest gift anybody could ever give. He gave us Himself. Now, in Christ, we allow Him to live the life only He can live in and through us. God gave Himself for us, so He could give Himself to us, so that, raised from the dead, He could live His life through us. "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27)." Be blessed.
Q: We can't earn our salvation through our "works", it is a gift..So what does it mean when Jesus says faith without "works" is dead?
A: It was James, not Jesus, who said, "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead (Jam 2:26)." There are two views of this passage. The first, and more traditional, view is that if you have faith in Christ you will have works that emanate from that faith. The second view, and the one I believe is more correct, is that James was promoting a works based Christian life. I say that because it is clear in scripture that James did not have a full understanding of grace and had a more legalistic view of the Christian life because of his Jewish background and being the head of the Jerusalem church. Just two verses prior to the verse in question James says, "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone (Jam 2:24)." This is in direct contrast to what Paul said in Romans, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law (Rom 3:28)." Further evidence for the disagreement between Paul and James is seen in Galatians 2 when Paul talks about how "certain men came from James (Gal 2:12)" and caused Peter to be led astray and behave as a hypocrite.
However, if we take the more traditional view of the passage we must simply not try and extrapolate from it. If we are going to say faith without works is dead we cannot, therefore, try and determine what those works look like. The works a Christian does is between them and the Lord as they grow in their faith. It is all too common for Christians to define the works of a Christian. Thus, we come up with things like church attendance, water baptism, tithing/giving, rules about living and general church activity as the "works" of a Christian. This is the quickest way to burn out on the faith because your efforts are motivated by the flesh and legalism rather than in response to the leading of the Holy Spirit. A Christian will grow in their faith. We, as believers, need to do all we can to remove the barriers to that growth in order to allow the Lord to do His work through a believer. And it begins by realizing that faith in Christ will, in and of itself, produce works. Remember, we are the branches and Jesus is the Vine. The fruit of the Spirit is not our fruit, but that which He produces through us. "But the fruit of the Spirit is....(Gal 5:22a)." It is not your work, it is His. "Against such things there is no law (Gal 5;22b)." If there is no law, there is no work. Be blessed.
Q: Why should you "forgive" someone who did you wrong?
A: This question addresses one of the biggest misconceptions within the Body of Christ. As has been said, we forgive others because we have already been forgiven of all our sins throughout eternity. "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you Colossians 3;13)." Forgiving others releases us, and those who have sinned against us, from the bondage of expecting someone who has sinned against us to pay a debt they are unable to pay. This is exactly in line with the forgiveness we already have in Christ. God forgave us a debt we owed Him, but could not afford in order to restore Himself to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And now in Him "WE HAVE redemption through his blood, the FORGIVENESS of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace (Eph 1:7)." Similar to the way in which the death of Jesus reconciled us to God, we can forgive the sins of others against us in order to reconcile us to them. Therefore, we can either move on with our relationship with them or go in peace without any grudges standing between us.
The misconception many Christians have stems from the belief that we must forgive others first before God forgives us. Tell me if you can see the difference between the following passages? Jesus said, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Mt 6:14-15)." However, through Paul, God said, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph 4:32)." The difference is that the passage in Matthew says forgiveness is conditional on our ability to forgive others. If you don't forgive, God won't forgive you. If you do forgive, He will forgive you. However, the passage in Ephesians reflects the unconditional forgiveness we already have in Christ. Forgive others because God has forgave you. The difference is the Cross. Before the Cross, forgiveness was conditional based on what we do. After, the Cross we already possess forgiveness as an inheritance of our faith in Christ because of what He did. Remember, you cannot forgive others with the forgiveness you have in Christ if you must first forgive others in order to be forgiven by God. You can't give to others what don't have to give them. We have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son. As Paul begged the Corinthian church, I beg of you. "We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20)." Amen.
Q: Jesus says when you are "weak" I AM(Jesus) strong. Does that mean Christians are "weak"?
A: Yes, it does mean we are weak. If not, Jesus would not have said, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak (Mth 26:41)." This should not come as a surprise to us, but rather an acknowledgment of a fact of life.The Apostle Paul underscored this fact when he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Rom 7:15)." I don't say this to discourage anybody, but rather emphasize the fact that no matter how hard you try you will never stop sinning until the day you die. This is not to encourage you to sin, but to realize like Paul, "we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3)." You don't have to answer this, but how many Christians are told that the goal of the Christian life is to stop sinning? This is a belief that leads to a person putting confidence in their flesh as they dedicate themselves, with no little zeal, to a lifetime of trying to do the impossible.
The goal of the Christian life is to start trusting the indwelling Holy Spirit. We do that by recognizing that while we still sin that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them (2 Cor 5:19)." How does knowing that your sins are not being held against you affect your life? Our sins serve as a reminder of the forgiveness we have in Christ and our need to be in continual dependence on Him. That is why the Bible says, "for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10)." Our weaknesses, our sins, remind us of who we should be depending on and who we are in Him. We are forgiven, holy, blameless, righteous, justified and sanctified children of God. Because God is not judging us for our sins we are free to "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Heb 4:16)." We wouldn't need to approach God to receive mercy and find grace unless we were weak. But, we are only able to approach Him in our time of need because our sins are forgiven. Amen!
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