I always wanted to cross it out. Every time I read John 14:21 it discouraged me. It condemned me to being a perpetual failure. I disconnected it from the gospel and read it this way…

“You need to obey to show God you love him so that He will be pleased with you and will love you   back.”                    

Another day trying hard but most likely not hard enough and therefore unloved. But when I put my version of verse 21 in the context of the gospel, I knew it could not have the meaning I was giving it.

• It makes His love for us dependent upon our love for Him…which we must PROVE by our obedience.
• It makes us the initiator
• It puts our love first.
• It makes God the responder.

When I learned to re-read this beautiful verse in the light of the gospel – it changed from a “prove your love verse” to an “identity verse” – a verse describing me and who the gospel has made me to be. The gospel has taught me to read it like this:

“You keep my commands and love me because I have given you a new nature and I have loved you first. Don’t ever think you obey and love me so that the Father and I will love you back.   We made you into someone who has the ability and desire to obey, not so you can earn our love, but so that you can experience the love we already have for you.”

Or more simply:

“He who has my commands and keeps them and loves me (because of who I have made them to be and because I loved them first) is that person who experiences the love of God. And that is you!”

It is no longer a prove it or a performance verse…it is an identity verse that describes me…and it showcases the GOOD NEWS of the gospel! I have my “gospel version” taped in the back of my Bible so I can keep reminding myself of the gospel everyday.

ACTION: Tape this “gospel version” in your Bible and then Facebook a friend who needs some good news today and suggest they become a subscriber.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Our first Tuesday PODCAST is available. You can find it by scrolling down here or on the podcast page…soon they will always be on the podcast page. Also – an RSS feed will soon be available for your convenience.

 

 

 

Three winters ago my Bible reading program was reading the NT and marking all the verses I did not like. Ones that were burdensome. Took the fun out of life. Ones that made the Christian life one of hard work but never quite enough. They all seemed contrary to the idea of having “life and having it abundantly.” But I trudged on.

It was easy to put Romans 12:2 on the list, “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” I heard it telling me I was responsible for my transformation. More Scripture memory, more Bible study, more books, more church – more, more, more. Time to read a novel? Nope. Go have fun? No way…I need to keep renewing my mind.

And then breakfast with Jerry and a discussion of Romans 12:2. He  gently shared two insights that changed everything.

• First Jerry mentioned that “be transformed” was an imperative. I knew that. That’s what made me work so hard. I had to transform my mind.
• But then he made a second observation – it was a passive imperative. It is something that I was to let happen to me.

The lights went on – and the burden disappeared. The word mind refers to the non-physical aspect of us, just like the word heart. Can I transform that? NO! It is something that God does to me…hence the passive tense.

Do I still work hard at the spiritual disciplines? You bet. But the reason is totally different. No longer do I do them to transform myself into someone that is pleasing to God. Now I practice the disciplines to discover and experience the transformation God has already done in me! When I do these things I am reminded that everything between God and me is permanently fixed. Becoming acceptable to God is no longer dependent upon my hard work. It is by faith alone and by grace alone.

John Stott captured this good news when he wrote this:

“It is our new creation that has given us our new mind; and it is our new mind which understands our new creation and its implications.”

And you know what – the joy that comes in understanding and experiencing the implications of my new creation helps me understand and experience not only newness of life, but life abundant!

ACTION:

• Don’t forget to subscribe. You get a quick link in your email every Thursday.
• Check out the new Monday Quotes – they are ones that help me stay gospel focused.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Podcast coming next Tuesday!!

 

 

 

This has been a hard week. I lost a hero and a friend. Jerry Bridges was both to me. There is no way to express the magnitude of his impact on my life. To me it feels like an unnatural silence has come over the Christian world without Jerry’s faithful voice. He was an untiring teacher of the gospel of grace.

Jerry was a friend. We taught conferences together and retreats together. On the Sundays that we were both in town, we would sit near each other in church…if space allowed next to each other in the same pew. Just a few months ago Sue and I sat with Jerry and his wife Jane over dinner telling stories and laughing. It was a special time. Now it not only seems quieter, but emptier and lonelier.

And he taught me. Next week I will share with you my most memorable breakfast with Jerry and the insight he gave me into the grace of God that has been key in laying down my performance driven Christian life. He taught me something I never heard from anyone else.

For now, just a quote from his book Transforming Grace. 

“My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of His grace. If we’ve performed well – whatever ‘well’ is in our opinion – then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works, rather than by grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the ‘sweat’ of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to ‘try harder’. We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. We give lip service to the attitude of the Apostle Paul, ‘But by the grace of God I am what I am (I Cor 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, ‘God helps those who help themselves.'”

Jerry never gave lip service to the grace of God.

ACTION:  The only appropriate action this week is to pray for Jane and the Bridges family and that God would raise up a new generation of men like Jerry to stand in the gap he has left.