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"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

IN THIS MEMORABLE TEXT, ISAIAH PORTRAYED THE MESSIAH’S DOMINION IN MAJESTIC, SWEEPING LANGUAGE. He would rule as God’s sovereign King (“the government shall be upon his shoulder”), and He would be entitled to the most exalted praise. “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” are epithets that could apply only to a divine ruler, receiving both the love and reverence that are reserved for God.

The words “to us a child is born, to us a son is given” should remind us of the “Immanuel” prophecy in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Indeed, our text for today in Isaiah 9:6 should be seen within the context of the entire section of chapters 1-12, a section filled with messianic hope. The messianic King who was to come would be no ordinary king. He would be even greater than David: a descendant of David physically, but one who would be miraculously born and nothing less than the Son of God — Immanuel (“God with us”).

The King in Isaiah 9 would rule “from this time forth and forevermore” (v.7). This is exactly what Gabriel the angel told Mary about the Son that she would bear: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33). And when the Child was born and taken by His parents to Jerusalem for the required sacrifices, an aged man named Simeon took Him in his arms and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

"The point of Isaiah 9:1-7 was to alert the house of David that the virgin-born King for whom they were to look would only come after a long period of darkness. Nevertheless, He would indeed come, possessing a divine nature, to establish a righteous and eternal kingdom" (Michael A. Rydelnik).

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"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5,6).

IN THIS AGE OF THE WORLD, “KINGDOM” AND “PRIEST” ARE NOT EVERYDAY CONCEPTS, LET ALONE “HOLY NATION.” But what did God mean by these terms in speaking to Israel at Sinai, and what relevance do they have to us in thinking about the gospel of Christ?

MY TREASURED POSSESSION. This is what physical Israel was then, and it is what spiritual Israel is today. Those who have been reconciled to God are uniquely His people, His “special property” (BBE).

A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. In the Law of Moses, the priests were to represent Israel to God, but they were also to represent God to Israel. By extension, then, Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests” — that is, they were to represent God to the rest of the world. Today, it is Christians, coming from both the Jewish and Gentile races, who represent God before the watching eyes (and listening ears) of the world. So, for example, the Book of Revelation begins with this doxology: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1:5,6).

A HOLY NATION. God wanted Israel to be what His people in Jesus Christ would later be: a group of people who were “holy.” In other words, they would be devoted exclusively to Him, set apart for His use and reserved for the accomplishment of His purposes. 

Writing to Christians, Peter used all of these ideas: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Much more could be said about being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, but I want to end with the most important way in which those who are God’s people represent Him to the world: we are to be those who speak God’s truth to the world. And the ultimate goal is always the same: people who, based on God’s truth, come to share His likeness and enjoy His presence in eternity.

"We are called to be God’s transmitters, to be completely separated from all thoughts which are contrary to his thinking, so that we may transmit his thoughts to others" (Hannah Hurnard).

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"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

THIS TEXT RECORDS GOD’S FAMOUS CALL FOR ABRAHAM TO LEAVE HIS HOME IN UR. It also summarizes the remarkable promises that God made to Abraham concerning the future of his family.

First, God was going to lead Abraham to a land that would be given (over four hundred years later) to the family of Jacob, one of Abraham’s grandsons. Next, God said He would make Abraham’s descendants so numerous that they would constitute a great nation. And finally, God said the whole world would be blessed “in you,” i.e., “in your seed” (Genesis 22:18 NKJV). Since “seed” here is singular rather than plural, this refers to the Messiah, the Savior who descended from Abraham, as Paul points out in Galatians 3:16.

Of these three, only the Seed promise was universal and ultimate in its scope. The land that God gave to Abraham’s descendants has fulfilled its purpose in the history of salvation, and so has the physical nation of Israel. The Messiah having come and God’s plan now being complete, the preliminaries have been laid aside (Galatians 3:24-26). Consequently, the people of God are those from every tribe and tongue who have been justified by faith, the same kind of trust that Abraham was known for. Of course, not even Abraham could have been justified by his faith without the sacrifice of Christ, so Christ’s sacrifice works backward in time just as it works forward (Hebrews 9:15; 11:1-40). Every person who inhabits heaven will have gotten there on the same basis as Abraham: the obedience of faith, based on the sacrifice of Christ. Abraham, then, is the prime example of how salvation works; he is the forefather of all who trust in God’s promises enough to actually walk by faith. And when the whole host of Abraham’s spiritual family gets together in heaven, what a reunion that’s going to be!

"The physical aspects of God's promise to Abraham were but a means to the far more important and eternal end of salvation from sins for all mankind. 'There is neither Jew nor Greek . . . you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise' (Galatians 3:26-29)" (Robert F. Turner).

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"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen" (Deuteronomy 18:15).

TOWARD THE END OF MOSES’ LIFE, HE TOLD ISRAEL THAT IN THE FUTURE GOD WOULD RAISE UP ANOTHER PROPHET LIKE HIM. At Sinai, Moses had received God’s word and brought it back down the mountain to the people. So the time would come, Moses said, when another spokesman would act as God’s representative, revealing things about God that the people could not have known if God had not spoken to the prophet, and the prophet, to the people.

We see here the meaning of “prophet”: a spokesman or mouthpiece (Exodus 7:1,2). We often think of prophecy as a prediction of the future (and sometimes it is), but the basic idea is that of one who represents God and speaks in His name. The prophet is one through whom God reveals His word to the people.

We should not miss the importance of this point. The will of God cannot be discovered by human efforts such as divination, mystical experience, subjective emotions, or philosophical effort. Anything true we may know about God will have been revealed to us by Him — using an authoritative spokesman. The prophet could say, “Thus sayeth the Lord . . .” and not simply, “I feel this to be true.”

By the Roman era, the Jews were expecting the coming of the new prophet who would be like Moses. When John the Baptist began preaching, some thought he might be this prophet: “When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No’” (John 1:19-21). It was John’s mission to prepare for the One who was the coming Prophet, Jesus the Messiah.

“It is to him you shall listen” is what Moses had said in Deuteronomy 18:15. And when Jesus was transfigured and seen by His disciples talking to Moses and Elijah, God spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7).

"Moses predicts that the Lord will raise up another prophet like to himself . . . This promise received its complete fulfillment when God finally spoke through His own Son. Such was the definite assertion of Peter concerning Christ: 'Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers"' (Acts 3:22)" (Charles R. Erdman).

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"But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2).

WHO IS THE PERSON WHO RECEIVES GOD’S SPECIAL CARE? To those who worship self-confidence, the answer is surprising: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at God’s word.

A text very similar to Isaiah 66:2 is Psalm 34:18, where David said, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” When we hear this perspective expressed, we can’t help but think of the “Beatitudes” of Jesus in the New Testament: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3,4). While these words sound almost absurd to modern ears, the truth is still the truth. When it comes to the most important parts of life, the broken heart is not a problem; it’s a blessing. As long as sin is a reality in our lives, we will need to see it for what it is and, in godly sorrow, seek God’s forgiveness.

What we see in both the Old Testament and the New is that the door to God’s blessing is opened not by satisfaction with our lifestyles or a sense of our own fullness, but by a sense of how empty we are. If we humble ourselves before God, what we see is that in the presence of His holiness we are not wealthy; we are bankrupt. Especially in the so-called “developed” nations of the world, we need hearts that are more broken. To the self-satisfied, James put it clearly: “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:9,10).

It is true — and what a wonderful truth it is — that joy comes from God’s forgiveness (1 Peter 1:3-6). But who are the forgiven? It is those who come to God with their hearts broken (2 Corinthians 7:9,10). And we see no better illustration of this than the description of Saul of Tarsus grieving because of his new awareness of the need for God’s forgiveness. He had fasted for three days before the Lord knew he was ready to be told what he must do to have his sins washed away (Acts 9:8-19; 22:11-16). In this world, even in Christ, it will always be the penitent who are able to find true joy.

"The only things that are improved by breaking are the hearts of sinners" (Anonymous).

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". . . looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2 NKJV).

IF WE ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, WE MUST NOT GET TO THE POINT WHERE WE TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. We must never fail to appreciate the magnitude of what God has achieved in His Son, Jesus, who is the “author and finisher of our faith.”

THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH. Faced with persecution, the original readers of Hebrews needed to fix their eyes on Jesus and His faithfulness in hard circumstances. He is the supreme example of faith: both the archegos (“leader, pioneer”) and the teleiotes (“completer, perfecter”) of faith’s endurance. As far as “the faith” is concerned, He is both the Originator and the Consummator of it.

HAS SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD. Following His resurrection and ascension, Jesus took His place at the right hand of God, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah (Psalm 110:1; Acts 2:32-35). He rules today over the kingdom of God as the King of kings. “And he is the head of the body, the church . . . that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18).

All of these great things are leading up to a climax that will occur at some point in the future. Concerning our resurrection at the return of Christ and the ultimate victory that will then have been won over Satan and his forces, Paul wrote, “Then comes the end, when [Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).

So when we say, as we often do, that Jesus is our “Savior,” we are saying a great deal. If we don’t see the magnificence of that, it is because we don’t see the horror of what we had to be saved from or we don’t appreciate the wisdom, love, and power that it took to rescue us. After we cut ourselves off from God, we could never have gotten back to Him. To be delivered from death, it took more than a Great Teacher or even a Courageous Martyr. It took a Savior.

"God has set a Savior against sin, a heaven against hell, light against darkness, good against evil, and the breadth and length and depth and height of grace that is in himself for my good, against all the power and strength and subtlety of every enemy" (John Bunyan).

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"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?' She said to him, 'Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world'" (John 11:25-27).

LAZARUS HAD DIED SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE, AND MARTHA, ONE OF THE SISTERS OF LAZARUS, RAN TO MEET JESUS WHEN SHE HEARD THAT HE HAD ARRIVED IN THE VILLAGE. “Your brother will rise again” (v.23), Jesus said, and she expressed confidence that he would indeed rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

But Jesus had something more in mind than what Martha was thinking of. He intended to raise Lazarus from the grave, then and there. But He wanted Martha to understand something. Any resurrection from the dead, now or at the end of time, would always be by His power. “I am the resurrection and the life,” He said. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Jesus’ own resurrection would prove Him to be the Son of God (Romans 1:4) — and as God, the Giver of life, Jesus held the power of life and death. In John 5:21, He had made this momentous claim, at once sobering and hope-giving: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”

Martha not only saw the force of what Jesus said; she believed that He was telling the truth. “I believe,” she said, “that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” She saw that the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament was not to be an earthly ruler over a restored kingdom of Israel; He would be nothing less than God Himself, breaking the power of sin and death — founding a kingdom where the redeemed people of God could enjoy a life that was eternal in every sense of the word. This life, then, is our great hope, as Jesus promised: “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

"The resurrection of Jesus is our hope today. It is our assurance that we have a living Savior to help us live as we should now, and that when, in the end, we set forth on that last great journey, we shall not travel an uncharted course, but rather we shall go on a planned voyage -- life to death to eternal living" (Raymond MacKendree).

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"I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots" (Psalm 22:17,18).

ALL FOUR OF THE GOSPELS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ALLUDE TO THIS PART OF PSALM 22. In Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; and John 19:24, there are references to the dividing of Jesus’ garments by the soldiers at His crucifixion. John specifically mentions that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. Yet this is only one of several details in Psalm 22 that describe Jesus’ death. Let’s look at some of the others, and as we do, ask yourself how these could have been fulfilled so vividly and specifically in the death of Jesus if He were not, in fact, the person being pictured in this Psalm.

(1) There is, as we saw yesterday, Jesus’ cry of agony from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (v.1), which is quoted in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. (2) The mocking that was hurled at Jesus, recorded in Matthew 27:39-43, is powerfully depicted in vv.6-8 of Psalm 22. (3) The devastation of the body of a person being crucified is pictured realistically in v.14. (4) The thirst described in v.15 is emphasized in John 19:28. (5) In v.16, there is the saying, “They have pierced my hands and feet.” This wording, while controversial, is supported by the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translations and is attested by the earliest manuscript of Psalm 22 discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. (6) Finally, there is in v.18, as we saw above, the gambling for the garments of the one being executed. This point is included in all four of the gospels.

In addition to these points, there is the general impression in Psalm 22 — an absolutely profound impression — that one is reading an actual description of what happened when Jesus died. If it was only a vague resemblance, one might argue that the similarity was just a coincidence. But an account with this many specifics, and corresponding so closely to the death of Jesus, can be explained in only one way: David was enabled by God’s Spirit to predict what he could not have known about in any other way.

So we come back to the point we began with yesterday. How can it be that the Messiah, of all people, would die such a death? It is simply that His death was required for our atonement. He reigns in glory today, but the cross had to come before the crown.

"It is suffering and then glory" (Robert Crawford McQuilkin).

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"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?" (Psalm 22:1).

PSALM 22 IS A PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH’S SUFFERING. The familiar words of v.1 were spoken by Jesus while He was in the throes of death, as recorded in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. Among those expecting a personal Messiah, many would have been horrified at the very thought of the Messiah being killed — but that is exactly what David, as a prophet (2 Samuel 23:1,2), had predicted. Psalm 22 ends on a note of triumph (vv.21b-31), indicating that the Messiah’s death would not be the end of the story, but it is v.1 that Matthew and Mark single out. Their quotation of Jesus’ cry of agony on the cross showed God allowing Him to suffer, exactly as David had said in Psalm 22 that the Messiah would suffer.

When Jesus began to tell His disciples what was going to happen to Him, they did not comprehend it (Luke 9:43-45; 18:31-34). After it happened, however, Jesus explained that His suffering had to take place. “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled . . . that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:44-47). The Messiah’s death was not an unexpected interruption of God’s plan. It was the most important part of the plan, foretold in the Scriptures long before.

We will look at some of the details of Psalm 22 in tomorrow’s reading, but for now, I ask you simply to get a Bible and read the Psalm. It is the gruesome, heartbreaking picture of an innocent person being tortured to death. Death by crucifixion was intended to be torture, and Jesus was certainly not the only man to be put to death in this way by the Roman government, but as you read Psalm 22, just contemplate what it means that the Son of God was subjected to a death like this — and that even the particulars of it were foreseen ten centuries before it took place.

"Psalm 22 makes it clear that Messiah was first to come and die for the sins of the world. It is a picture of the crucifixion, years before crucifixion was a method of capital punishment. The parallels between this Psalm, written nearly 1,000 years before Jesus, and the Gospel account are uncanny" (Mitch Glaser).

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"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, 'The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill'" (Zephaniah 1:12).

THROUGH ZEPHANIAH, AS THROUGH THE OTHER HEBREW PROPHETS, GOD PROMISED SURE JUDGMENT UPON THOSE WHO LIVED WITH NO REGARD FOR RIGHT AND WRONG. Then, as now, there were many who had declared independence from God, for all practical purposes. Perhaps still believing in His existence, they saw no need to take Him into daily account. He could be disregarded. “The Lord,” they said, “will not do good, nor will he do ill.”

Might not this “practical atheism,” as I call it, have been partly the result of God’s unseen nature? The people of Jerusalem could not see Him with their eyes, so eventually their minds drifted into a lazy disobedience. “If He expects us to obey Him, why doesn’t He show Himself openly?” is what they might have been saying.

There is no denying that the things our physical senses can experience — right now, in the present moment — seem much more real to us than intangible realities. Even things that can be experienced physically don’t seem as real if they are in the past or the future. What is here and now has such a powerful pull on our minds, it sometimes blots out everything else. We know full well that the here and now is not all there is, but it has such a strong gravitational force that its orbit is very hard to break out of.

Yet God expects us to use the powerful minds He gave us. We are able to deal responsibly with unseen realities, and if we do not, there will come a day of reckoning. The foolish man who “says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1) is not necessarily the philosophical atheist. He may be the man who simply disregards God in his daily affairs. “Out of sight, out of mind,” as we say.

Yet we do not diminish God by disregarding Him. He created us, and it is He “to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). He continues to be a benevolent Father whose promises have never failed to be fulfilled when the time was right. So let us not suppose that a mere “never mind” on our part will make Him disappear.

"Were every man on earth to become an atheist, it could not affect God in any way. He is what he is in himself without regard to any other. To believe in him adds nothing to his perfections; to doubt him takes nothing away" (A. W. Tozer).

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"But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12).

STUDIED TOGETHER, THE WORDS “KINGDOM” AND “CHURCH” HAVE A GREAT DEAL TO TEACH US. The first emphasizes authority, and so the expression “kingdom of God” has to do with God’s rule or authority as King (1 Timothy 1:17). The second conveys the idea of an assembly of persons “called out” from the world to belong to Him (Matthew 16:18). Perhaps we might say that “kingdom” focuses more on God and His sovereignty, while “church” looks more specifically at the people — those who have answered the call to come back to God, be forgiven, and live under His rule.

As far as the citizens of the kingdom are concerned, one cannot be a member of the Lord’s church and not be a citizen in His kingdom. The reverse is also true. To be in the kingdom is to be in the Lord’s church (with some responsibilities to other “called out” ones). This is an important point because of the popularity of the “spiritual but not religious” concept. Many who speak favorably of the “kingdom of God” would quickly say they have no desire for anything that could be called “church.” However, in the New Testament, those who were members of God’s kingdom were the same people as the members of Christ’s church, and vice versa. They weren’t two different groups; they were the same group.

In regard to kingdom and church, there is another confusion we need to avoid. The Scriptures do not teach that we are in the “church age” now but the “kingdom age” will begin when Christ comes back and establishes a government on the earth. The kingdom age is right now, and so is the church age. In fact, the very thing that defines the church is that God has “transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). That’s what a Christian is: a loyal subject in God’s kingdom, joyfully accepting all that Jesus taught about how God’s rule should govern our lives. Jesus Christ did not fail. He began His kingdom, as He said He would. We can accept the gospel — and the kingdom — right now.

"As saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae were delivered from the power of darkness and “translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:12-14), so the true people of God today are citizens in Christ’s kingdom and a manifestation that His power is yet very much alive" (Robert F. Turner).

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"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world'" (John 18:36).

IT TOOK A LONG TIME FOR JESUS’ DISCIPLES TO UNDERSTAND THE KIND OF KINGDOM HE CAME TO ESTABLISH. They assumed that the Messiah, when He came, would lead His people in throwing off the shackles of any earthly empire (like Rome) that might be ruling over them and reestablish the Davidic dynasty of kings in Jerusalem. We see this misunderstanding in the disciples’ question in Acts 1:6, even after Jesus’ resurrection. But we shouldn’t be too quick to criticize them. If we had been in their shoes, we wouldn’t have understood things any better than they did.

Today, many people still strongly desire for Jesus, as the Messiah, to be the king of some sort of earthly government or nation-state. That, however, was not His aim. “My kingdom is not of this world,” He said. We would do well to consider how His rule is different from the kingdoms that are of this world.

It does not have a capital city. David had a physical throne situated in a particular city, but Christ’s government does not have a home office anywhere on the globe. He does indeed rule, but He does so from His seat at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).

It does not have a territory defined by geographical boundaries. In political science, we can hardly think of a “kingdom” without thinking of the physical “territory” it controls. But the kingdom of Christ is not defined by the boundaries of any earthly territory — nor are its citizens defined as those born inside a certain territory.

It does not grow by means of military conquest. Earthly kingdoms have armies that fight, either to defend their territory or to expand it, and Jesus was being honest when He said, “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting.” But it is not territory that Jesus wishes to rule over — it is the hearts of men and women, no matter where their earthly citizenship is. His kingdom exists wherever there are people who have truly given their hearts to Him, so that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).

"Jesus made clear that the Kingdom of God is organic and not organizational. It grows like a seed and it works like leaven: secretly, invisibly, surprisingly, and irresistibly" (Os Guinness).

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"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:13,14).

THE KINGDOM THAT GOD WAS GOING TO ESTABLISH THROUGH THE MESSIAH WAS REVEALED TO DANIEL IN VARIOUS WAYS. He was enabled by God to interpret a dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s in which four earthly kingdoms were envisioned, but in the days of the fourth kingdom (which was the Roman Empire), “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people” (Daniel 2:44).

Later, we hear very similar language in 7:13,14. During the reign of Belshazzar, Daniel saw a vision in which “one like a son of man” came with the clouds of heaven and was given by God, the Ancient of Days, “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.”

This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus ascended back to heaven after His resurrection and was seated at the right hand of God (Acts 2:32-36). It is the coronation of the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, predicted in Psalm 2:7-9, where we hear the Messiah say of God, His Father: “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’”

The kingdom of the Messiah is now a reality. It was established in the days of the Roman Empire, and as Daniel had said in 2:44, it shall not “be left to another people.” That is, there will never come a time when it falls apart and its place is taken by some other kingdom. This kingdom is permanent. It is indestructible. In fact, not even the end of this world will bring it to a close; it will continue in eternity. When we become members of this kingdom, our “citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20,21) — and we need not fear the rise and fall of any of the kingdoms of this world.

The kingdoms of earth pass away one by one,
But the kingdom of heaven remains;
It is built on a rock, and the Lord is its king,
And forever and ever He reigns.
(Henry R. Trickett)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'. And let the one who hears say, 'Come'. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Revelation 22:17).

HAVING SEPARATED OURSELVES FROM GOD, WE NEED TO COME BACK TO HIM. By His grace, in the death of His Son on our behalf, He has made it possible for us to come back. By accepting the gospel, we can be baptized into Christ’s death and receive the forgiveness of our sins (Romans 6:3-5). And as Paul said, “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (v.5). But the question is: will we do this? Will we make the decision to receive what God is offering? He invites us, but what will we do?

All that stands between us and God’s mercy is our stubborn will, our persistent refusal to accept His invitation. The Book of Revelation, the last book in the Scriptures, ends by emphasizing the desire of God for everyone to come and partake of the salvation He has provided. The fifth-from-the-last verse in the last chapter of that hopeful book says, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

We accept this invitation when we repent of our sins, confess our faith, and are baptized into Christ. As a child, I heard Charlotte Homer’s hymn sung often as an “invitation song,” inviting people, at the end of a sermon, to come and obey the gospel. “Hear the invitation, come, whosoever will; praise God for full salvation, for whosoever will.” Powerful words, these. And we are the losers if we have heard them so often they have lost their appeal.

In its most far-reaching application, Revelation 22:17 is an invitation to drink of the “water of life” in eternity. There is no conflict of meaning here — we drink of this water now, as a foretaste, but it will also be ours to enjoy in eternity, in an even greater sense. But we need to bear this in mind: only in the here and now can we accept God’s invitation. When this life is over, it will be too late for us to decide that, yes, we would like to enjoy the water of life.

Hear the invitation,
Come, whosoever will;
Praise God for full salvation,
For whosoever will.
(Charlotte G. Homer)

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"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

WHEN JESUS WAS BORN, THE CHILD WAS NOT MERELY ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. He was God in the flesh, come into the world to “save his people from their sins.” This is an astonishing claim.

Several years later, after Jesus had ascended back to the Father following His death and resurrection, His apostles were directed by the governing authorities in Jerusalem not to preach anymore in His name. Respectfully, they refused to comply with this order. “This Jesus,” they said, “is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11,12).

The idea of Jesus being the only way makes a good deal more sense when we consider the nature of the problem that has to be fixed. If all we needed was a little moral instruction or the example of a noble life, there might be many teachers and many paths to the goal. But if the problem is actually sin, then we have a very different situation: this problem will have only one solution.

GOD. If we have, in fact, alienated ourselves from our Creator by rebellion against His rule, only He has the right to set the terms of our return to Him. Reality is an objective fact, and facts are stubborn things. We need not expect that the path to reconciliation with God will involve anything less than the real truth about God — and that truth will inevitably exclude everything except itself.

SIN. A part of our problem is our insistence on writing our own rules. But if sin is the objective violation of the will of a God who truly does exist, the rectification of that problem will require letting God define exactly where we have gone wrong.

SALVATION. If the gospel is about sin, that means “salvation” must be seen from a different perspective. Various proposals by the world’s greatest teachers will not be enough. What we need is a grace that only our God can supply, and it is God who has said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35).

"Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are his enemies, can go to heaven" (Lewis Sperry Chafer).

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"But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:39).

IF WE DECIDE TO FOLLOW CHRIST, WE WILL MOVE IN A FORWARD DIRECTION AS LONG AS WE FOLLOW HIM. But having decided to follow Him, we must never change our minds and revert to going backward, the way we used to live. As the writer of Hebrews put it, we must not be among those who “shrink back and are destroyed.”

Whether we ever turn back or not, one thing is certain: we will be tempted to do so. It is nothing but naive to think the Christian will never be discouraged or have second thoughts. Our enemy, the devil, will do all he can to get us back. And make no mistake, if we do return to his bondage, we will once again be in a lost condition, just as Peter wrote, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first” (2 Peter 2:20).

Surrounded by difficulties and distractions every day, there is little chance we’ll hold out if we haven’t made a commitment to hold out. Becoming a Christian is more than a mood or a whim — it comes from (1) a sober assessment of the evidence, and (2) a commitment to take a stand that is lifelong and binding. Looking at it more personally, obeying the gospel involves a commitment of love for Christ Himself. Since we love Him, we will never betray Him. He can count on the faithfulness and obedience of our love.

Such a great commitment is more than a one-time act. As our lives unfold, we will find it needful to get a fresh grip on our commitment from time to time, meditating and reminding ourselves of the evidence that our decision rests upon and vowing anew that we will never be a traitor to our Lord. Every Lord’s Day, we will make new promises of faithfulness to Him when the church gathers and we remember His death in the Lord’s Supper.

So the Christian life is a long sequence of stronger and stronger commitments. But it all begins very simply. Whether we say it out loud or not, at baptism our hearts are entering into this pledge: From this day forward, I will follow Jesus faithfully, so help me God.

I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, no turning back.
(Old Gospel Song)

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"[Samuel] looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.' But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart'" (1 Samuel 16:6,7).

WE CAN BE GLAD THAT THE LORD IS MORE CONCERNED WITH OUR HEART THAN WITH OUR EXTERNAL APPEARANCE. He knows things about us that others can’t see. That is a comforting thought (and to tell the truth, it is also sobering). When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint Israel’s new king, he naturally thought that Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, would be the Lord’s choice. But no, God wanted David, the youngest son. Below the surface, God could see that David had the character that was needed.

Today, the Lord is not looking for the next king of Israel; He is looking for those who will be “a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9) — those who will respond gratefully to the gospel and be eager to live in a reconciled, joyful relationship with Him. But if He is to have a people who are uniquely His possession, what will their character be like? What kind of heart is the Lord looking for?

PENITENT HEARTS. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Are we humble individuals who know what the tears of godly sorrow taste like?

COMMITTED TO THE LORD’S WAYS. Of King Jehoshaphat, it was said that “his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 17:6). God has always looked for hearts like that.

LOYAL TO THE LORD. God said of Solomon, “His heart was not loyal to the Lord his God” (1 Kings 11:4,6 NKJV). Of the traits that God desires, few, if any, are more important than loyalty and reliability.

When we obey the gospel, we begin to grow in these qualities. But there is a sense in which these are the traits that make a person responsive to the gospel in the first place. And lest we make excuses, let’s admit this fact: we ourselves choose whether we will have such hearts or not. So let’s choose wisely. With His help, let’s learn to have the kind of heart the Lord is looking for.

"O Lord, let me not henceforth desire health or life, except to spend them for thee, with thee, and in thee. Thou alone knowest what is good for me; do, therefore, what seemeth to thee best. Give to me, or take from me; conform my will to thine" (Blaise Pascal).

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"So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?'" (John 4:28,29).

LIFE IS FULL OF DECISIONS, AND OUR RELIGIOUS LIVES ARE ESPECIALLY SO. If we are serious about wanting to have a right relationship with God, we will have to sort through the many options presented by the world around us and determine what His will for mankind really is. But first, let’s go back two thousand years.

When the Samaritan woman in our text hurried back into town, having just talked with Jesus, she said to the people, “Can this be the Christ?” Her question illustrates two things: (1) people were in a state of expectation that the Messiah might soon appear, and (2) deciding whether a certain person actually was the Messiah was a matter that needed to be weighed carefully. If you were looking for the Messiah, Jesus wasn’t the only one making that claim. You would have to consider the different claims and choose rightly.

If you were a Jew in the Roman age, there was also another choice to make: which synagogue to attend. By some estimates, there may have been several hundred synagogues in Jerusalem, and perhaps even more in big cities like Alexandria and Rome. No two synagogues were alike in demographics, doctrine, or practice. Would you go to a liberal Hellenistic synagogue or a conservative Hebraic one? Would it be simpler to just go wherever your friends went, those who shared your traditions, your likes and dislikes?

Today, if you begin to live as a Christian, you will have to decide what relationship you will have with other Christians. Just as in the first century when many synagogues claimed to follow Moses and many persons claimed to be the Messiah, there may be many churches near you claiming to follow Christ. The question of “church” is important. If you’re serious about pleasing God, you’ll want to worship where the Scriptures are followed most closely.

Complexity turns some people into cynics; they just give up. I hope you won’t do that. Instead, I hope you’ll pray and ponder the Scriptures diligently. If you truly want to do what is right, you’ll get the information you need to make your choices. But be careful. Not all paths lead to God — and making wise choices can be hard work.

"The choices of time are binding in eternity" (Jack MacArthur).

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"And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22,23).

PAUL WROTE THAT GOD HAS MADE CHRIST “HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE CHURCH.” This is consistent with what Christ Himself said to the apostles prior to His ascension to heaven: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20).

In its widest, most universal sense, the word “church” encompasses all the saved everywhere. This is the sense in which it is used in Ephesians 1:22,23. But it can also refer to a group of the Lord’s people in a particular place. So we read, for example, about “the church of the Thessalonians” (1 Thessalonians 1:1), “the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2), and many other places. In this local sense, the Lord’s people don’t just share a saved relationship to Christ; they are able to “assemble as a congregation” (1 Corinthians 11:18 Amplified Bible) and jointly participate in the Lord’s work.

We need to recover the importance that first-century Christians saw in the Lord’s church. In the local congregation, we need to see the essential nature of that arrangement as the Lord designed it. And beyond the local churches in which we take part, we need to value our connection to “the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17; 5:9) — a relationship bigger than the affairs of our own local assembly, and one, in fact, existing in heaven as well as on the earth (Ephesians 3:14,15). We hurt ourselves spiritually — and we hurt the Lord’s work of evangelism — when we undervalue the church.

Above all, we need to emphasize the sovereignty of Christ over the church. The church is “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” God Himself made Christ “head over all things to the church.” To be a part of that body, then, is a privilege. And it means we submit to Christ’s headship lovingly, radically, and respectfully.

"Christ is the head of His church. His word is authority; all things relative to the church are at His feet. Its characteristics must, therefore, be Christ-determined. Questions must be Christ-answered; and problems must be Christ-solved . . . If it is important enough to be an issue, it is important enough to let Christ settle — that is, there must be authority for our conclusion in the New Testament" (Robert F. Turner).

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". . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10:9,10).

CONFESSING OUR FAITH IS A PART OF WHAT JESUS CHRIST REQUIRES FOR OUR SALVATION IN HIM. He said, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32,33).

To “confess” something is to acknowledge it. It means that we openly admit the thing to be true. So if we are believers in Jesus Christ and followers of His teaching, He expects us to confess our faith openly. We would not be His friends at all if we were no more than fair-weather friends, abandoning Him when it might be unpopular, or even dangerous, to be one of His people.

It is entirely appropriate for us to be asked to confess that “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9) before we are baptized. The confession of our faith is no less a prerequisite to the remission of our sins than is faith itself. But don’t forget: the confession which Paul calls “the good confession” (1 Timothy 6:12) is not just a one-time act, checked off the list as nothing more than one of the “steps of salvation.” Our confession prior to our baptism is the beginning of an entire life that will confess Christ from that point onward, in deed as well as word. And we dare not go back on the promise we made when we first began to confess Christ. “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:14).

Dag Hammarskjöld once said, “Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or conviction.” The idea is not to make trouble merely to be militant, nor does it mean being obnoxious to other people with an in-your-face kind of aggression. The confession of our faith is simply a matter of being genuine and authentic. I call it “courageous sincerity.” We are not to hide the truth about who we really are. When questioned — or even threatened — we should be able to say what Martin Luther said, “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”

"Weak persons cannot be sincere" (François de la Rochefoucauld).

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"But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life" (Romans 6:21,22).

IF WE COULD SEE OURSELVES AS GOD SEES US, WE WOULD PROBABLY BE SHOCKED AT HOW CONTRADICTORY OUR LIVES LOOK TO HIM. We say we desire life, but so much of what we do is inconsistent with that goal, it must be sad for our Creator to observe.

If we persist in sin, hell is the only place we can get to. The path that leads away from God is never going to get us back home to Him. But foolishly, that is what we seem to believe. We don’t want to change paths, but somehow we suppose that the destination of the path might change. Yet the law of cause and effect applies to all of us. No special exceptions are going to be made. And one definition of insanity is, as we’ve been told, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Solomon observed, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12). That is the very point Paul made in the text above: “the end of those things is death.” In other words, eternal banishment from God is not an arbitrary punishment — it is the telos (a Greek word meaning “goal” or “result”) of our decision to refuse God’s rule. God is not going to force us to love Him in eternity if it has been our decision not to love Him in this life. So it is a very serious thing to refuse (or even procrastinate) reconciliation to God. And we are not in a position to dictate to God what the terms of our surrender will be. If He has chosen that it is through Jesus Christ that He will save us, then refusing that plan can’t be anything but disastrous.

As Robert Louis Stevenson famously said, “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Ultimately, there are only two paths available. Jesus counseled us to be careful. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13,14). It’s time to clear up our contradictions. Let’s choose the path that goes where we want to end up.

"The way to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem" (Old Saying).

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"I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).

TO MODERN PEOPLE, PREOCCUPIED WITH WHAT WE NAIVELY CALL “REAL” LIFE, WORDS LIKE “SIN” AND “DEATH” SOUND HOPELESSLY OLD-FASHIONED. To us, “dying in our sins” is a ridiculous concept.

But Jesus really did say these things. We may have a personal distaste for it, but there is no historical reason to deny that these were the claims Jesus made. We must grapple with whether His claims were true. And frankly, there is no way around the radical nature of what Jesus taught. He said that salvation from our sins requires believing Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, and that if we do not believe in Him, we will die in our sins. In other words, Jesus taught that He was (and continues to be) the only path back to God. Without Him, there is no remedy for our sin problem.

It is hard for us to grasp the full import of Jesus’ words: “die in your sins.” For one thing, “sin” is not the serious word it used to be. It’s not how we explain misconduct. We talk of dysfunctions, diseases, and undesirable habits, but not sin. But Jesus did talk about sin. He did not diminish the seriousness of our problem. In turning away from our Father’s will, we have cut ourselves off from Him in the very worst way. And there is only one word that adequately describes the consequences of what we’ve done: “death.”

“Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” is what He said. But let us be clear: if we die in our sins and are lost eternally, our lost condition will not be the penalty for simply not having come to Jesus. It will be the penalty for our sins. In sin, the status quo is that we are lost. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). A friend of mine, Robert F. Turner, used to say that it’s like a person bitten by a rattlesnake. If he dies before he gets to the doctor, he didn’t die of “not getting to the doctor.” He died of rattlesnake venom.

But if sin is the problem and Jesus is the solution, He is the only solution. He is the only “savior” who has the power to do what has to be done. Sin is no ordinary problem, and its cure will not be ordinary either. Only Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God Himself, has the power to get rid of the condemned person we used to be and bring to life a new person, fit for eternity with God.

"Only when the axe is put to the tree does the fruit of sin wither" (Erwin W. Lutzer).

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"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" (Romans 5:10).

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST CALLS ON US TO TAKE SIDES. To be more precise, it calls on us to change sides. Jesus was clear that if we have not cast our lot with Him, that amounts to a decision to stand against Him. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). If our present position (the status quo, if you will) is that we have said no to Christ, we are on the side of the enemy. But Christ invites us to change our minds and say yes. He will makes us His friends and treat us just as if we had never left the rule of God in the first place.

Having been enemies, we are urged to be reconciled to 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 5:10,11). But this involves far more than simply a change in our legal status before God. To be reconciled means that we not only pass from a wrong relationship with God to one that is right — it means that our character is brought back into conformity to God’s character. God having removed the barrier and made us His friends, we learn to think — and act — as His friends.

Writing to Christians who were not living as they should, James said, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Having changed sides, we need to make sure that we don’t live like people who are still friends with the enemy!

But what if we have not yet obeyed the gospel at all? We need to see the reality of the position we’re in, without glossing it over or making it seem more innocent than it is. If the gospel is false, it should be rejected. But if it is true, indifference is not an option. If we die in our rebellion, it will not go well with us at judgment. 

"You may say you are far from hating God; but if you live in sin, you are among God’s enemies, you are under Satan’s standard and enlisted there. You may not like it, no wonder; you may wish to be elsewhere. But there you are, an enemy of God" (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

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"[Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26).

THERE IS PERHAPS NO GREATER TEST OF OUR HONESTY AND HUMILITY THAN WHEN WE FACE THE KIND OF SITUATION THAT APOLLOS DID. Fervent and faithful, at least to the best of his previous understanding, he needed to be shown “the way of God more accurately.” And to his credit, when Priscilla and Aquila showed him where his understanding had been lacking, he changed.

Today, we face a challenging set of circumstances. In some countries, like the United States, millions of people are devout members of religious groups that call themselves “Christian” in some sense. But in very many, if not most, cases, the doctrines and practices that are being followed are not true to the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles in the New Testament.

For those committed to a return to the “Way” reflected in the New Testament (Acts 9:2; 24:14), the challenge is to get people to take a second look at their convictions. There is no harder person to convert to Christ than the one who thinks he is already following Christ. The shell of popular “Christianity” is very hard to penetrate. And there are few who will do what Apollos did: humbly admit that his previous understanding was inadequate. People do not like to be shown that they’ve been on the wrong path.

Yet there is nobody, including this writer, who does not need an “Apollos experience” now and then. Our salvation depends on our willingness to be instructed by others. But such teachability requires a humility that is hard. As Winston Churchill said, “I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.”

So what are we to do when we sit across the table discussing the Scriptures with someone whose understanding is significantly different from ours? What did Apollos do when he was lovingly confronted by Priscilla and Aquila? In the end, it doesn’t matter who is right; it only matters what is right. And the Scriptures must be our guide. Each of us must have the courage to adjust ourselves to the truth when we learn “the way of God more accurately.”

"We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed" (Charles Caleb Colton).

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"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Proverbs 14:12).

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE IN PROVERBS 14:12 IS APPLICABLE TO LIFE IN GENERAL, BUT IT HAS A VERY SPECIFIC IMPORTANCE IN REGARD TO OUR ETERNAL SALVATION. Our own opinions and feelings can be dangerously wrong, despite our self-confidence about what “seems right” to us. Sincerity about our salvation is no guarantee we’re on the right track. So of all the questions in the world, this is the one where we need the most help in getting the right answers.

THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT TO A MAN. Our minds, given to us by God, are marvelous mechanisms for figuring things out. But if we were trying to figure out the way to be saved from our sins, there is no chance we would be able to do so. If God did not reveal His mind to us, we wouldn’t know the first thing about any plan that He might have for our reconciliation (1 Corinthians 2:11). What we could do, of course, is exercise our rational powers to envision how we think God would or could (or even should) set up His plan, and then suppose that because such a plan “seems right” to us subjectively, it must be true objectively, even if it conflicts with what the Scriptures teach. And not content with that, we might even go further and suppose that our subjective feelings about our salvation were, in fact, God speaking to us in our hearts. No amount of objective evidence from any source would be enough to dislodge from our minds our idea of what “seems right” to us.

ITS END IS THE WAY TO DEATH. The problem, as Solomon observed, is that what seems to a human being to be the right path is often “the way to death.” History is replete with examples of people who acted with great inner feelings of reasonableness but their feelings turned out to be disastrously wrong. In fact, as George Moore observed, “The wrong way always seems the more reasonable.”

But God has not left us to figure out the path that leads to Him. He has revealed that path in the Scriptures, objectively and for all time to come. As Paul reminded his friend Timothy, the Scriptures are able to make us “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). Whatever may seem right to us, we would do well to listen humbly to what God has said and accept His plan gratefully.

"Where God has put a period, do not change it to a question mark" (T. J. Bach).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

FREEDOM IS ONE OF THE PRIME BENEFITS OF THE GOSPEL. In a world characterized by rebellion against God, we find ourselves fettered and frustrated by sin. But we can be delivered from this slavery. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Yet freedom is often misunderstood. The very essence of sin is the attitude which says, “I do not wish to do anyone’s will but my own. I wish to be free of any limitations, so that I can do as I please.” And when we first hear about the gospel of Christ, we may see it as a ticket to this kind of freedom. No longer will we be bound by the petty rules of “legalism.” We will be free!

But ponder these words by Charles Kingsley: “There are two freedoms: the false, where man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.” True freedom is not the absence of any limits at all; it is being governed by the wisdom of God — within limits that help us to do what is right.

What Adam and Eve found was that throwing off the restrictions of God’s law did not enable them to enjoy the “good life,” as they had been led to believe. Contrary to the tempter’s lie, they discovered that God had been telling the truth in the first place: outside of His will, human life leads, in the end, to nothing but death.

After the establishment of Christ’s church in the first century, there began to be those who taught that what one does in the flesh is of no consequence to the spirit. Christians should pursue “freedom” and disregard the old-fashioned precepts of right and wrong. But these advocates of “liberty” were lying, just as the tempter had been lying back in the Garden of Eden. And Peter called them out when he said, “For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:18,19).

Eric Hoffer said, “The best test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.” If that is true politically, it’s also true spiritually. We’d do well to listen.

"Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent" (William Ralph Inge).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

NEW BEGINNINGS SHOULD BE WELCOMED INTO OUR LIVES. It is an exciting, strengthening experience to turn a corner and make a fresh start — and there is no more powerful new beginning than obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ, our starting over is so deep and complete that we are said to be a “new creation.”

Having died with Christ in baptism, we walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). And what does that mean? Paul described it in Colossians 3:1-17. We have new goals (v.1), new thoughts (v.2), and new habits (vv.5-16). With Christ as our Lord, we live under a new authority (v.17). And most important, having been forgiven of the sins that separated us from God, we live with a new hope (vv.3,4).

At baptism, we commit ourselves to actually living like what we have become: a new creation. Growing to maturity in Christ takes time. We can be encouraged by the fact that God will be patient. He will provide the help that is necessary. But if we don’t open our eyes and see what needs to change, we’ll be hindered.

Unfortunately, most of us fail to see how radical the surgery needs to be. We see ourselves as “good” people — we may stumble now and then, but basically, we think we’ve lived without any very serious errors. Yet nothing could be further from the truth (Matthew 3:7-9). We need more than a little polishing up; we need to be destroyed and completely rebuilt. There is only one word to describe what must be done: “re-creation.” If we’re going to be fit to live in God’s presence, we’re going to have to be “re-created.”

But in Christ, what needs to happen can happen. What God offers us is absolutely unique. There is nothing else like it in the world. So Peter appealed to his hearers in Jerusalem, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Act 3:19-21).

"In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).

THIS TEXT IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL GIVES US THE MAIN POINT OF A DREAM THAT DANIEL INTERPRETED FOR NEBUCHADNEZZAR, THE KING OF BABYLON. It speaks of a kingdom that God would establish in the days of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that would be unlike any other kingdom that had ever been known to mankind.

A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. If people thought the kingdom prophesied here was going to be just a more powerful type of earthly government, they were disappointed. When the King finally came, He did not set up a worldly regime: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting . . . But my kingdom is not from the world” (John 18:36).

A KINGDOM WHOSE RULE WOULD NOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SUCCEEDING RULERS. Unlike earthly kingdoms in which rulers are always replaced by other rulers, there would be no line of succession in this kingdom — “nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people” (RSV).

AN INDESTRUCTIBLE KINGDOM. The stability of this kingdom would be such that it “shall stand forever.” The ups and downs of history would not faze it, and no enemy could conquer it. With the Son of God as its King, this kingdom would be impossible to overthrow.

This kingdom, we now know, is the rule of God in Jesus Christ, inaugurated on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection. In Christ, we submit to this rule and are saved (Colossians 1:13,14).

When we consider the majesty of God’s plan to bring us back under the benevolence of His rule, we are struck with awe. And it is our privilege to honor Jesus Christ, “the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5,6).

"Only when God hath brought to light all the hidden things of darkness, whosoever were the actors therein, will it be seen that wise and good were all his ways, that he saw through the thick cloud, and governed all things by the wise counsels of his own will, that nothing was left to chance, or the caprice of men, but God disposed all strongly and sweetly, and wrought all into one connected chain of justice, mercy, and truth" (John Wesley).

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"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

THIS TEXT IS ONE OF A HANDFUL OF OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Much that is said in the New Testament about Jesus Christ would be incomprehensible without an understanding of what it was that God was promising to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.

OFFSPRING. On the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death, Simon Peter, a pious Jew, affirmed that he and others were eyewitnesses of the fact that Jesus had been resurrected. And Jesus’ resurrection, he argued, fulfilled what the Scriptures had foretold about the much-anticipated Messiah. To make his point, he quoted Psalm 16:10, where David had said, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:25-28).

Now follow very carefully what Peter said next: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses . . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:29-36).

KINGDOM. God said to David, “Your throne shall be established forever.” Just as “offspring” meant more than David’s son Solomon, there would be more to David’s “throne” than the government of Israel. The kingdom of which God spoke to David would not be geographical but spiritual (John 18:36) — and this is the very kingdom over which Jesus Christ, the Messiah, now reigns. So if we’ve obeyed the gospel, we may gladly say that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14).

"The kingdom of God does not exist because of your effort or mine. It exists because God reigns. Our part is to enter this kingdom and bring our life under his sovereign will" (T. Z. Koo).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24).

SORROWFUL. PENITENT. CONTRITE. These don’t sound like positive words. But if we’re looking at life from the perspective of the Scriptures, they are some of the most positive words in the dictionary — not because they are comfortable but because they are conducive to our salvation. Ponder with me their importance.

There are a handful of texts in the Bible (I call them “fundamental” texts) that describe the heart of the person who is truly turned in God’s direction. We might think, for example, of Micah 6:8 or Deuteronomy 6:4,5. Out of all the texts like these, none is more helpful to us than David’s cry in Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” I believe this basic truth would have been the background of Jesus’ statement of blessing in Matthew 5:3,4: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Godly sorrow is not an end in itself; it is a part of the path that leads us back to God (2 Corinthians 7:8-11). Without sorrow for our sins, we will not seek salvation with any deep passion or fervent desire. And in the end, it is this sort of seeker who will be rewarded. It is not the one interested in intellectual information or theoretical philosophy, but the seeker of salvation who will find the object of his desire. And as often as not, it is our tears that show what is most important to us in regard to God (Luke 7:36-50).

If we’re seeking salvation, we will naturally be eager to experience the joy God has promised to us. We long to be reconciled to Him. There is, however, no shortcut to salvation. The path to heaven passes through the territory of repentance, and as anyone knows who has been there, it is a painful place to be. But the horror of our sins has to become real to us. If that does not happen, the Promised Land will not seem much better than the wilderness. “Until sin be bitter — Christ will not be sweet” (Thomas Watson).

Ah! happy they whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May the Lord Christ enter in?
(Oscar Wilde)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:17).

PAUL WANTED IT UNDERSTOOD THAT HE WAS NOT RELUCTANT TO COME TO ROME. Rome might have been the most powerful and prestigious city in the world of that day, but Paul was just as willing to preach the gospel of Christ there as he was anywhere else. “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” he wrote to the church in Rome, “for it is the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).

And then, still speaking of the gospel, Paul said, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (v.17). It is in the gospel that the righteousness of God is revealed. That sounds important, obviously, but we need to know what Paul meant by “the righteousness of God.”

In the context of Paul’s letter to the Romans, the phrase does not refer to God’s personal righteousness but rather His way of making sinful man righteous — that is, God’s chosen means of reconciling us to Himself, as opposed to any system of righteousness or plan of salvation by which we might try to save ourselves. 

This contrast is clearly seen in Romans 10:3: “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Paul was speaking here of the Jews who had rejected the gospel. It grieved him, as a former rabbi, to point out that by preferring a Jewish system of moral credits to achieve their own salvation, his Jewish brethren had turned away from God’s salvation: the plan that He had provided for all mankind, one based on faith rather than Jewishness.

God, as the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, has the right to set the criterion separating those who will be saved from those who will not, and it is in the gospel that He has revealed His choice. The righteousness that He is willing to provide is based upon faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. We might have devised some other plan, but God’s plan is what it is — and it is in the gospel that He makes it known. The “good news” is that, because of Christ’s death, the door of forgiveness is open to the entire world. Only God could have opened this door. The wonder is that He did so.

"Christ died that we might live — but live as he lives, by dying as he died who died to himself" (George MacDonald).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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