Category: Gospel

Stop using the gospel and start believing it.

Posted on by Michael Wine

Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Satan can be so subtle and deceptive. He can make us think that the purpose of the gospel is merely to awaken us, to turn us into stronger, more spiritual versions of our sinful selves, so that we have some new power to keep the old law.

The union with Christ that comes through faith is no mere battery pack for the soul that simply gives you strength to be a better follower of Moses.

The “law of sin and death” is the Mosaic Law. Earlier in Romans (in chapter six and seven) Paul shows how from the law comes the knowledge of sin. When I tell my five-year-old not to play with the soap, he is instantly tempted to do just that. A simple command or law merely informs the hearer of what is required (and what is the opposite of that – sin) without providing any means or power with which to actually meet the requirement.

The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that He is the perfect fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. Through faith, we can be united with Him, obtaining God’s pardon for all our sin, adoption into His family, and access to Jesus Himself through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. This means we are no longer obligated to keep the law, as if we still need to please God by keeping all the rules.

Instead, we are obligated to Christ by way of our relationship with Him, because of His love for us that stirs up our own hearts to love him in return. This obligation to Christ, whose life was the purest picture of what the law meant, is far greater and higher than any previous obligation to the law.

What does this actually look like in real life? If I were trying to keep the law, my day may look like this: I wake up to my alarm, and dutifully get up because it’s what I should do, even though I’d like to sleep a bit more. I make my bed and brush my teeth because I’ve been told those are good things to do. I may not tuck the sheets in perfectly because, let’s face it, I don’t really care about the bed. But this failure to be perfect, however small, may start to nag at me on a subconscious level. Next, the big one, it’s time for me to read my Bible. This is where I really prove how spiritual I am or not. I’ve had a good streak going for a month now. If I don’t read my Bible again today for at least twenty minutes, I’m going to regret it all day.

Need I go on?

Anyone can see that I am only doing all these things because I am trying to follow a list of rules, and not because I really want to.

And here is where Satan can get so tricky. He likes to sneak in like an angel of light and offer me the “gospel.” He first capitalizes on that nagging guilt that builds up inside as I fail to keep all the rules perfectly. He whispers that if I really wanted to keep the rules better, perhaps even perfectly, I need to use “gospel power!” I need to “trust God” and maybe even get into an accountability group. He tries to get us to see the gospel as just a means of keeping the law better.

We think we have to use the gospel to be better versions of ourselves, when in reality, we simply must believe it.

In reality, the gospel frees us from the law completely. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” When I wake up in the morning, I can immediately approach God with full confidence, knowing that He loves me in Christ. I am now joyful and eager to grow closer to him each day. This relationship with Jesus Himself makes me want to know Him more and see more of Him through the study of His Word. That gives me even more joy and peace which then energizes me to obey God’s commands, not because I must obey in order to remain in God’s love, but because obedience is itself just another way of receiving God’s grace toward me. (God only commands what is by definition good for us in the first place)

“So many people are seeking sanctification from the “law of sin” and life from the “law of death”! But the gospel speaks of life. Its doctrines, its precepts, its promises, its exhortations, its rebukes, and its hopes are all infused with spiritual life, and come with quickening power to the soul. “The words that I speak unto you,” says Jesus, “they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). There is life in the gospel because it is the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2). It testifies of “Christ who is our life” (Col 3:4) and declares that there is no spiritual life outside of Him. Although “the letter killeth” (2 Cor 3:6) when it works by itself, yet in the hands of the Spirit it gives life. Thus clothed with the energy of the Holy Spirit, the gospel proves a “savour of life unto life” (2 Cor 2:16) to all who believe in it to the saving of the soul.”

Octavius Winslow, Evening Thoughts, November 22nd.

The True Power to Change

Posted on by Michael Wine

By Jim and Michael Wine

Would a man drowning in the ocean calmly get his cell phone, type in the screen lock password and call 911?

OR, would he scream as loud as he could for help every chance he could before he sunk down to death?

Would someone experiencing a heart attack proceed to give himself CPR? Or would he desperately call out for help?

As obvious as these questions seem, they highlight an important fact of life – physically helpless people need to depend on others.

No one denies that there are times in our lives when we are physically helpless. However, we resist the idea that we are mentally, morally or spiritually helpless. After all, the body may fail but the human mind and will remains under the sovereignty of the individual, right?

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl discovered this as he suffered in the camps of Nazi Germany. No matter what his captors did or said to him or forced him to do, he was free within his own mind. They could not take that away.

This idea is, in fact, the cornerstone of the massively popular ‘self help’ genre. How do we tap into that individual freedom of our minds, and use it to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps?

It gives a certain amount of hope to people because it is partly true. We are free within our own minds in the sense that no one else can control our minds if we don’t want them to.

However, are we free in our own minds from ourselves?

Here are some facts to consider:

  • “Suicide rates increased 33% between 1999 and 2019.”
  • “…there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.”
  • “Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year.”

But even without these statistics, we all feel deep down that there is a problem. We have to fight against our own demons constantly. We are not the men or women that we want to be. We aren’t the parents we feel our children deserve. We go into debt when we should save. We can’t stop eating things that are bad for us. We tell lies to our trusted friends. We don’t measure up to even our own standards of where we should be in life.

The fact is that we are physically helpless to some degree in every stage of life. We all know this and deal with it. That is why societies exist – so that we can help each other get through life.

But the truth is that we are also morally helpless as well. And while we are free (for the most part) from other people who try to control how we think, we are never free from ourselves.

We are constantly locked in a deadly battle with our own darker nature. And the darker nature is stronger. It always wins. It always drags us down into the depths of the ocean where we can no longer breathe.

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) There is no way that we can overcome our own sin. We must instead call out to another for salvation.

The Good News

The Bible says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Great! Problem solved, right? Simply place a call to God and you’re all set? Not exactly.

While it is good news that there is someone we can call out to for mercy, it has been misunderstood in our day. How?

First, it must be said that ONLY those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Second, the “call” we are speaking of is not like making a phone call, but rather an urgent and profound plea for mercy while hating the thing that is killing you. Third, when God grants us mercy, He changes our identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.

The exclusivity of the call for help.

Only those who call on God will be saved in the end. No one else.

The primary reason God has not wiped the human race off of the face of the earth is that He desires to show mercy (2 Pet 3:15). And He ONLY gives mercy to those who ASK. Those who will be saved are the ones who “call on the name of the Lord” and not those who refuse to call.

Important: If we refuse to ask God for mercy, then we are negating the basis of God’s provision of mercy. God loves truth! (Psalm 51:6) And what is the basic truth of the human race? Are you ready? Here it is: We are broken in such a way that it is impossible for us to fix ourselves; in fact, God Himself has determined that “fixing ourselves” will never work (Rom 11:32). FLASH: If you don’t get this, then you will NEVER understand the universe.

And you will never understand your own life with all its shortcomings and failures.

God is in control. He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isa 64:7). Why is this the BEST news you could ever hear? Answer: because it opens the possibility that you might tell God the truth, and ask Him for His mercy – which He ALWAYS grants! ONLY those who call for mercy are the ones who get it.

How should one ask God for mercy?

The plea for mercy, this “call” we are speaking of is not the casual call to your landlord that a drain is plugged. It is not a transaction, as though God were gaining the pleasure of your company through saving you.

The plea for mercy is not just a philosophical contemplation. It is the certain and clear understanding combined with a sense of urgency that if I don’t get help from outside myself, then I am doomed.

The picture of a drowning man is very helpful. The drowning man HATES the thing that is killing him and wants immediate deliverance. Knowing that he must be rescued or else perish, he wholeheartedly gives up any false notion that he can save himself and urgently and energetically devotes his whole person to crying for help – in other words, for mercy.

Mercy is not something you deserve. It is not something you can demand. You must ask for it, or you will not get it. If you ask for it, you will receive it. If you do not receive it, you are lost. So ask.

Can we say it any clearer? If you maintain any hope that you can make progress in life by “self-improvement” then you are a liar, and you are maintaining the very self-delusion that will PREVENT the God of the universe from helping you.

How the Mercy of God Changes Us

When we make this plea to God, and He graciously responds (as he promises to do), He changes our deepest identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.

The foundation for all personal growth is a call for mercy. “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

Only those who walk by the Spirit will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So I ask you: Will your fleshly lust for “self-improvement” be honored by God? OF COURSE NOT! Whenever we make an attempt at earning our own righteousness, we revert back to making ourselves an enemy of God! Such efforts guarantee that we will fail (Jas 4:6).

We cannot do a single thing to make ourselves better in anyway. In fact, the very desire to change can be the thing that keeps us from changing. The desire to improve can turn into what is most important to us, an idol, something that is more important than God. And when our personal growth takes God’s place, it actually becomes sin.

Imagine a man wants to go on a journey from his home to some destination on the other side of the country. But, to get there, he must travel through an impassible desert, save for the single train that snakes through it.

To cross the deadly sand, he must abandon the idea of attempting to cross the desert using his own two legs. That will never work. He will die without ever reaching the other side. Instead, he must get on a train, and sit still for hours, not moving a muscle (except perhaps to stretch his legs and admire the view from the window).

In fact, the only way to cross the desert is to stop trying to cross it on your own. You must give up on the idea of effortful change and sit down on the train.

The train is the mercy of God. The only real way through this life to the other side is through resting in that mercy.

Our sin makes us enemies of God. He will surely unleash his wrath against us unless we ask Him to show us mercy. If we ask, He will. Why? Because Jesus Christ, God’s perfect son, died on a cross, taking God’s wrath in our place. When we look to that sacrifice, and ask that God show us mercy, He will not refuse to do so.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Now we are forgiven of our sin. Now we are on the train. Our whole situation has changed. Our very identity has changed. (Colossians 3:1-4)

As we continue to look to Jesus and trust in the power of God, we receive the power to live life differently than we used to before. The word “receive” is important. Life is no longer about trying to change or “grow” or improve. It’s about resting in the mercy of God and receiving the grace that allows us to live in a way that pleases God.

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

So what is the path forward? It is simple. Ask God for mercy. Tell Him the truth about your situation, and delight in the fact that the very reason you are struggling is that God wants you to know (again) that you can only move forward by resting in His mercy.

Won’t you call out to God today?

Job’s Wish: Mankind’s Only Hope

Posted on by Michael Wine

It was long ago. Before Moses wrote the ten commands of God on stone, before (or perhaps while) Abraham lived, there was a man who wrestled with the core, foundational problems of existence. That man’s name was Job.

In a single day, perhaps in a single hour, Job lost everything. His wealth, his family, his reputation, all were destroyed by the ancient enemy of man – the devil; Satan.

Of course, Satan was authorized to do what he did by God Himself. And Satan was ever the con man. He destroyed Job’s life with such gusto and flare that it appeared to come directly from the hand of God Himself.

Job does not curse God, however, but worships instead. He praises the God who both “gives and takes away.” (Job 1:21)

However, as all great suffering does to each of us, the pain Job experiences launches him into a desperate quest to find answers to the ultimate questions of the universe.

Was catalyzing this questioning from Job the reason God allowed his suffering?

One thing is clear. The book of Job is not merely about suffering, or God’s sovereignty, or anything on the surface. It is about the fundamental problem of human existence. That is, how can sinful, wicked and unclean man be right with God?

Through looking at a key passage, we can catch a glimpse of Job’s dilemma of hopelessness as well as his wish that shines through the heavy fog; a beacon of hope.

Job, the first book in the timeline of Scripture shows us just how deeply in trouble we are. Yet, it also points to a slight chance, a glimmer of hope, a Hail Marry pass for humanity that rests fully on the willingness of an all-powerful enemy to be merciful.

Here is the passage I will be looking at. I am putting it all here for you to read first:

Man who is born of a woman
    is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers;
    he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
    and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
    and the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
look away from him and leave him alone,
    that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be roused out of his sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal should come.
You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.

Job 14:1-17 ESV

There is, first, a reality alluded to by Job – that of hostility between God and man. Job mentions that God sees him, judges him, and how he is unclean before God who is the standard of purity and holiness. This points to a broken relationship. Man’s sin, his uncleanness, puts him forever apart from God. God looks on man and judges his wickedness from on high.

There is a war between man and God. They are not on the same side.

Job’s first question, then, is why God continues to fight a defeated opponent. Why is God still sending the bombers of judgement to crush the sinful city which is already a smouldering ruin?

Job says that man is of no account – like flowers that come to life only to die in a blink. Man, says Job, is like a shadow that fades and vanishes away. So why does God care?

Could it be some form of fatherly discipline? Is God trying to punish the sin out of us before we die? Job rejects this idea saying, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” Mere discipline or pain cannot purify the heart of man. God is not changing sinful hearts through wrath and judgement. So why is God doing it? What hope is there in it?

He moves then, from this argument that God is waging a pointless war, to his proposal. Whether it is a genuine proposal or more of a hypothetical one given to promote his real agenda remains to be seen. It is this: God should let man live his transient life in peace and not constantly make him face the consequences of his sin.

His reasoning is that God is in total control and knows every detail of a man’s life. Man is a defeated foe, and he cannot live a single moment outside of God’s plan. These facts add to Job’s argument that God’s judgement of sin is of no use in changing our sinful hearts. And if God knows the future, as Job says, God also knows this to be true.

What comes next, I think, is where Job begins to hint at his real agenda. He starts talking about death.

He says first, that “there is hope for a tree.” The word hope is critical. Hope for what? For change. For growth even after being chopped down. For new life. Why does hope exist for the tree? Because even when it dies, it can grow back. In other words – it has time.

But time is not on man’s side. We live a fleeting number of years and are gone forever. we don’t get another chance to earn God’s favor, to live a better life, to make God happy with us enough to overlook our sin. Once we are in the ground that is it. No do overs. No second chances. Job says that, “till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.”

We now begin to understand the source of Job’s confusion. He faces, on one hand, the truth that sinful man is not right with almighty God, and that a holy God must judge sinners. Yet, on the other hand, he sees the hopelessness, the vanity of the entire situation. Who wins? Surely not man, who dies in his sin. But does God win when time after time his wrath toward sin never results in reconciliation, in change, in an end to the hostility between God and man? No.

If God were satisfied with wrath against sin, would he not simply wipe mankind out once and for all? Why allow us to continue to live and die and face judgement, with no hope or time to change?

There must be another way.

So Job, in a stunning display of hope in the middle of a hopeless dilemma, makes a wish. Here it is again in his own words.

Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity Job 14:13-17

Job’s wish is for death to not be the ultimate doom of man, but to be man’s ultimate salvation. He wishes for a resurrected life after death, one where his sin had already been dealt with and is no longer between him and his creator. He begs God to mercifully kill him, and hide him away in the earth, safe until the day when God is ready to make him new.

How amazing it is, that before a word of Scripture was penned, a man knew the truth. He knew that the only way to solve the problem of mankind’s war with holy God, was for God to be willing to forgive us, to offer us mercy, to kill us, and to use his infinite power – which sinful man so foolishly rebelled against – to give us all a new life. And not just a second chance to earn God’s approval, but a new life entirely. One in which our sins from the first life were already burned in the fires of God’s holy wrath.

“And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” Job 42:17

That’s the last verse in the book of Job. And how fitting an end to Job’s story it is.

Job died, just as he requested. And the reader is left wondering, will the second half of Job’s wish also come true? Will God do it? Will he save Job? Will he save the world?

That is what prequels are for. They show us the problem, so that we read the rest of the story.

So read Job. Ponder your dilemma along with him. Let the danger you are in wash over your consciousness as you face the fact that God hates your sin. His wrath burns against your rebellious heart. There is no escape from it.

Death is coming.

And then, don’t stop at Job! Read the rest of the story. But especially read about Jesus.

The Reason For Living

Posted on by Michael Wine

Why try? What does it matter in the end?

Everyone dies.

All the hard work, the sweat, the love, and the pain you pour into life, will evaporate when your last breath leaves your lungs.

Yes, some say, but you are still alive now. You may as well try to live the best life you can. You can put in the effort, the work, and the sweat, and reap some rewards at least. You can make life better for yourself and the people you care about.

By the way, that last paragraph basically sums up the work of a popular self-help author and speaker today named Jordan Peterson.

It’s true. Why make life more miserable than it has to be by giving in to that tempting voice that whispers hopeless woes of vanity. It is the voice calling for the shirking of responsibility in light of your own ultimate doom.

Everyone dies.

So, why try? Why work? Why care about anything?

Work hard to avoid as much pain as possible before you die!

Is that really the best we can do?

Yes. That really is the best we can do. Let that sink in.

It’s no wonder many choose to end it quickly though suicide. On some level, whether consciously or not, they must feel the weight of the vanity of life.

Death is the enemy that waits around the corner. If he is cruel, and he usually is, he waits until we’ve done something that matters, that makes a difference, and then he strikes. He takes us away from our families, our loved ones, our accomplishments, and he laughs.

“See if anyone remembers all you’ve done in five years’ time.” He mocks. Because most won’t.

The above paragraphs put into words some of the wordless thoughts and emotions that ran through my body this evening as I sat in a chair in the dark, looking at a spinning ceiling fan.

I don’t know why I was in such a gloomy frame of mind, but I am ashamed to admit that I was.

I spoke a silent prayer, then, to God in my mind, “If I could hear your voice.” That’s all I thought. I’m not exactly sure why. But I think it was for the same reason a boy runs to his father when he is afraid.

Immediately upon thinking that prayer, I became suddenly aware of the Bible laying on the stool beside my chair. I asked for God’s voice? Well there it was, written and waiting.

Why try? That same refrain echoed in my mind. Why hope for anything but vanity.

Everyone dies.

It was more difficult than I expected to simply reach out and grab my Bible. It was like all my motivation was gone. But I did. I picked it up, put it in my lap and turned it open, not aiming for any particular book or chapter.

It fell open to John chapter twenty – the chapter about the resurrection of Jesus.

It is hard to put into words what the sight of that chapter did for my soul. I hadn’t even read it yet. The mere fact of Jesus’ resurrection stood out from the pages like a blazing spotlight of pure hope.

But I did read it. I read about Mary finding an empty tomb. She told Peter and John who ran to investigate but found only folded linens. No body.

And then there came the scene where Mary finds Jesus in the garden. She thinks he’s just the gardener, until He calls her name.

He rose from the dead. He defeated death in a garden, just as death first defeated humanity in a garden thousands of years before.

If it is really true, that Jesus rose from the dead, that fact changes everything.

Breaking news from about two thousand years ago: In an Unprecedented Turn of Events, Jesus of Nazareth Conquers Death.

One fact changes everything in the universe, like a single flick of light switch transforms a dark room.

All the questions have answers now.

Why try? What does it matter in the end? It always mattered. You only thought it didn’t because of death. And death was defeated. Nobody stays dead forever. Everything you do today matters forever, because you will live forever. Either with Jesus, or not.

Everyone dies.

And then we live again.

You might wonder what I did after such an astounding revelation. The answer is that I did the dishes. Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead, of course!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

-Bill & Gloria Gaither

What must change is not where you can see it.

Posted on by Michael Wine

To try to change is human.

To know, deep down, that there is something wrong, and to want to fix it, is part of who we are.

Because something is wrong.

One college student knows that something is wrong with who they are. They have gone to school. They’ve learned about evolution, and the idea that humans are accidents of matter, and energy, and chemicals.

The thought occurs, maybe in my case, the accidental luck of evolution did not quite work out. Maybe my internal self came out a man, while my outer body came out a woman.

The idea sits and lingers. It becomes one of those compulsive ideas. It re-frames the person’s whole experience of life, so that everything is colored by this question. What if I am the wrong gender?

Eventually, at some point, the question turns into a fact. The ‘what if’ is dropped from the front. The ‘?’ at the end turns into a period.

Without any argument, or evidence, they believe that they are the wrong gender simple because they asked the question long enough.

Imagine being so courageous, so brave, that you would change part of you body because you believe it is wrong. Imagine believing something so strongly, that you risk the shame of culture, the derision of society.

And isn’t it tragic, that these brave, strong willed, passionate people, have missed the mark? They know that something is terribly wrong with them, just as it is with the alcoholic man, who does not question his gender. Just as it is with the woman who eats too much, and with the one who doesn’t eat enough. Just as it is with the teenage boy standing on a tall building, about to do a tragically brave thing to end the horrible sense of wrongness in his life.

Just like me, with all my faults and failings.

Just like you, reader.

We all fall for the same trap in different ways. We think the problem is that we must do something to change. We think something on the outside, within our control, is the answer. We want to fix the unfix-able problem ourselves. But we can’t.

And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. Luke 11:49

The Lord’s words to the Pharisees point out the real problem, our sinful hearts. Those religious men did not think they had a problem, so set were they in their belief that they could control the outside so well, that they could actually fix what was wrong.

As tragic as it is to see a person go through physical pain and the resulting shame in attempting to fix what they cannot fix, it would be even more tragic if that person emerged from their self-made cocoon actually believing that it worked.

It is right to feel the deep problem within all of us. It is right to sense the need for a metamorphosis, a change. It is wrong to attempt to build our own chrysalis. But it is even more tragic to believe our self-wrought solution succeeded when it did nothing to heal our sinful heart.

Our only hope, is to finally reach the end of all our attempts to change ourselves with our self-reliance shattered, our belief in ourselves crushed, so that we will turn to Jesus.

How good He is who patiently waits for us to try to change. He allows the attempts because He knows how sinful we are. We will never believe in Him unless we fully grasp how futile our own efforts really are.

Jesus Christ is the only one who can enter into the dark places within our hearts, forgive us, and with unfathomable compassion – heal us.

John 4:14 – But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In this is love.

Posted on by Michael Wine

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52

How can God become a man? How can the infinitely wise increase in wisdom?

The Son of God, the Word, God Himself, joined himself to human DNA strands, and wrapped himself up in the flesh and mind and frailty of a human baby.

The all-powerful became suddenly helpless. The invincible became vulnerable. The self-sufficient one became instantly dependent on his mother and father.

It strikes me as almost blasphemy if it did not actually take place – if it were not the most glorious, wondrous display of my Lord’s heart. Because I know he did it for me, a flawed and sinful human, whose only hope was for God to humble himself and save me.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

Jesus Is The Safety Net

Posted on by Michael Wine

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. John 11:25

Living this life is like walking a tightrope. There is a greater margin of error in living life than walking a tightrope, but the result of crossing over that margin is the same: death.

One misplaced step can land you in front of a bus on the road. One wrong placement of the foot can put you off balance on the high wire. A tightrope walker is really just living a life with very narrow walls for as long as he is on the rope. He is only allowed one thing, to walk across the rope or he dies.

But the man on the hire wire has a safety net (usually). If he falls, he will not actually die if he is safely caught by the net. He is thereby freed to live on the wire with confidence and boldness, not in fear. He has the mental strength he needs to walk across the wire. To live his life.

I would like to suggest that the one who believes in Jesus is free to live life similar to the tightrope walker. Even if they die, they will live again with Jesus. They will rise again as He did. Jesus is, in a way, the Christian’s safety net. He allows us to be bold, to really live our lives and take risks to make a difference for His glory.

I feel sorry for those who are trying to live this life without the safety net of Christ beneath them. What are they trusting in? Some trust in other gods who are not real. These wind blown nets are nothing but spider webs and clothes lines. They will not hold the weight of human sin.

Some have no net at all. They only have the rope under their feet. They trust only in the rope, this physical world, the life that we have to live. They are sure of themselves too. They trust in their ability to walk the narrow path alone.

But what happens when this world itself begins to unravel? When the weight of humanity begins to slowly break the strands holding the rope together? I would rather be the one trusting in a spider web. At least I would not be filled with panic as I watch the snap, snap, snap of the rope under my feet; the only thing between me and a long fall to my death.

But better still it is to trust in the real God, in Jesus Christ who came to this earth, lived righteously in God’s eyes, and died for sinners, bearing the wrath of God. He was buried in the ground for three days, and then He rose again in glorious victory over sin and death. And He lives in heaven now, watching all who trust in Him. He will surely catch us in our last moments, and bring us to Himself to live eternally.

Between Two Anchors

Posted on by Michael Wine

For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. Romans 6:5

A conditional statement communicates the certainty of the result, provided the condition is met.

Paul tells us the condition is that we have been (in the past) united with Jesus in a death like (not the exact same death) his. The result is a certain future ( ‘shall certainly be’) where with him in a resurrection like (not the same resurrection) his.

First, there is a past union with Christ in a ‘death like His.’ Our death is like His death because it is a death to sin, just as his was. It is unlike His because we did not die physically as He did.

If this union takes place, if we die to sin in Christ, we can be certain of the result. Namely, we will be united in a resurrection like His. It will be like his because we will rise from the dead with sinless bodies. It will be unlike His because ours is the result where His was the cause.

So, the Christian is certain of two things (from this verse). One is the past death to sin, and the other is the future resurrection. But what about now?

Now, we live in between these two anchors. Now, we recognize our deadness to sin as we gaze at the promised life eternal. And the promise is so certain, we can bank on it. we can act as if it were already here, in a way. We can “put on” (to quote another Paulism) the traits of that perfected person we will someday be.

Because, you see, the process has already started when you died with Christ. Nothing is more certain than that Jesus will finish what He started.

See other Romans 6 Posts

Dying and Living with Christ

Posted on by Michael Wine

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4

This comes after the previous question posed by Paul where he asks if we should continue in sin so that God’s grace may abound. The answer he gave to that question was (to paraphrase), ‘absolutely not that would be insane because we are dead to sin!’

But how exactly are believers dead to sin? What happened to make that true? That is what he touches on here.

He uses the word baptism to describe the believers connection to Jesus. Baptism, the practice of submerging someone under water and bringing them up again, is a Christian symbol that communicates how a sinner has been reborn into Christ.

Paul is saying here, by use of the analogy of baptism, that sinners who have been spiritually submerged into Jesus Christ are so closely united with Him that they share his death.

If we share in Christ’s death through this union with Him, we also share in His new life.

The point here is that we are only able to say ‘no’ to sin because Jesus died, and we died with Him. We can only say ‘yes’ to righteousness because Jesus rose, and we rose with Him. We have no power, will, or strength in ourselves to please God. It only comes through the union with Christ.

And how are we united to Christ? Paul answered this in the previous chapters: only by the grace of God that He gives to those who believe (have faith) in Jesus. By grace, through faith.

It is worth pondering for some time, Christian, that in a very real sense you have died. You share in the death of Jesus through the grace/faith union you have with Him. You also share in His life since He was raised from the dead.

Dead to Sin

Posted on by Michael Wine

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who have died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1-2

Imagine you were in debt, the kind of debt you could never pay off in your life time. Then, a wealthy benefactor comes from out of nowhere and gives you enough money to not only pay off all your debt, but it so far exceeds the debt, that it will never run out no matter how much you spend.

You have gone from the most extreme poverty, to the most extreme wealth in a moment.

The great thing now is that you can go back into debt, and have enough money to pay off that debt! You can max out all the credit cards you want, and still have enough to pay them off again.

Of course, that would be ridiculous wouldn’t it? You have no need to go into debt ever again, there is no advantage to going into debt again. Simply use the new riches you now have. In a way, you would have died to debt. Having so much wealth at your disposal makes it practically impossible to be in debt, because you can pay it off at any moment.

This is an analogy for the Christian who is freed from sin, who has the infinite grace and mercy of God covering him. If God forgives all our sin, why not continue in the sin so that God’s grace can overflow?

But, if we are in Christ, we have died to sin like the poor person died to debt. There is no way to continue living the life of sin once you are in Christ. All you are doing is pretending to continue in sin, like the newly wealthy person insanely pretends to go back into debt.

There is no reason to be someone you are not. You cannot be dead if you are alive. There is no reason to seek out the rush of sin when you have the joy of Christ.