Category: Grace

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.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Posted on by Michael Wine

Acts 20:35

It can be easy to give without really giving, to use gift giving as a way of showing off. But the blessing of giving only comes when the gift is real. When there are no strings attached or expectations that the giver will be rewarded in turn.

Living generously is risky because it invites rejection of the gifts you want to give. To be generous, then, is to accept the possible rejection of your generosity, but to still make the attempt.

The World’s Trap

Posted on by Michael Wine

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

This is the trap we fall into without the gospel:

  1. We see that we are not perfect, and make many mistakes.
  2. We try harder to do better.
  3. We fail, and make even more mistakes.
  4. We try even harder and do even better, but we still fail.
  5. Eventually, if we are lucky, we admit to ourselves that we are hopelessly lost.

And this is the point where the trap comes.

6. We begin to be content with our failures. We embrace the identity of a someone who can never reach the standard. We live with it.

This is the world’s message. “Live with your flaws and embrace them. You will never be perfect, so don’t even try. Be happy.”

But how can we be happy like this? How can we have meaning in life if we are less than we could be? How can we be content when the standard of perfection is dangled in front of us our whole life, and still not able to reach it? Trying to be content with our failures is like a drowning man trying to be content with the water in his lungs.

The gospel does things differently. Here is an alternate step 6.

6. Receive the perfection of Jesus, and keep trying to reach the standard!

It is so simple. If you lack righteousness, receive it from the righteous one who gives it. If you are a sinner, that is good. Admit it and receive pardon and a certificate from Jesus that says, “This sinner is declared righteous because of the death and resurrection of Christ!”

We don’t have to be content with our failures, because perfection is attainable now that it is a gift. And we don’t have to live defeated and ashamed either because we can never live up to the righteousness we have been given. Why? Because we have been declared righteous already, and can now live in that reality.

How to have peace

Posted on by Michael Wine

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

The LORD  – The letters are capitalized because the word is Yahweh. This is the God who spoke to Abraham, promising him a son in his old age, promising to bless him and the nations through him. It is the God who promises and is always faithful.

Bless – What we all want and need is blessing. We seek it every day. But many seek it from the wrong source. It is only the LORD that can really bless.

Keep – To be kept is the inverse (not opposite) of blessing. Blessing pours out good on you. Keeping protects you from incoming harm. To be kept by the LORD is to be ultimately protected.

Make his face to shine – The source of blessing is the face of God. The shining face of Yahweh gives us life. We must be near to God for his face to shine on us. He must be near to us.

Gracious – And yet for God to draw near to us, he must be gracious with us. For we have many impurities and sins that pollute our souls. God’s grace is the only hope to be near him.

Turn his face toward – This is beyond nearest to God’s shining face. This is speaking of God’s focused attention. It is eye contact, connection, relationship. To turn your face away is to ignore, to dismiss. To turn the face toward someone as low and unworthy as a sinful creature (like us), is to bless.

Give you peace – Peace is the result of God blessing, keeping, drawing near to us in grace, and focusing on us in our unworthy state to have a relationship with us. Peace is not the result of rule keeping, being perfect, pretending we don’t have any sin, or anything else we can do.

May God give you this peace today. May you receive it.

Receive Redemption

Posted on by Michael Wine

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

Don’t try to redeem yourself. You will just end up failing again, possibly in a worse way. Simply receive the redemption offered though Jesus. God’s grace is enough to redeem you, to buy you back from the bondage your sin has held you in. The Christian life is about living as someone who is already redeemed, not about redeeming oneself from past failures.

Oh, For Grace To Trust Him More

Posted on by Michael Wine

“Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er; Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus! Oh, for grace to trust Him more!”

Why trust Jesus? Why would you not trust Jesus? The songwriter trusts because he has ‘proved’ Jesus again and again. I think many fail to trust Jesus because they have not proven Him yet.

What does it mean to ‘prove’ Jesus? I do not mean the legal sort of proof, given to convince a jury. I do not mean the cold, scientific proof of the researcher. I mean ‘proving’ Jesus like you prove a rope bridge crossing a bottomless canyon. How do you prove that? By stepping on it. By letting the full weight of your body rest on it. By Jumping up and down on it. It’s a risk-taker’s proof. It is not safe.

Most people fail to trust Jesus because they are waiting for proof that the bridge can hold them, without stepping out onto it.

How should one go about proving Jesus in this way? Simply by looking to Him, and asking Him to take all the guilt of all your sin. Like the rope bridge, we can only prove Jesus by putting all the weight of our sin onto Him and seeing if He holds. And let me tell you, He does! Why go on bearing all the guilt yourself, when Jesus died to take it from you? Believe Him. He is able to take all your sin away. He will never leave you when you put your trust in Him.

But you have to take that desperate step to really see how trustworthy Jesus is-how real He is. Oh, that God would give grace to allow us to see our desperate need of a Savior, so that we will risk trusting Jesus- the only one who can save us. He is mighty to save!

Do we really understand the mercy of God?

Posted on by Michael Wine

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

This is the prophet’s conclusion when considering all of the works of God. Immediately before this often quoted verse, the prophet Jeremiah lists some of God’s deeds:

  1. God has afflicted him with a rod of wrath (vs 1).
  2. Driven him into darkness with no light (vs 2).
  3. Been against him all day long (vs 3).
  4. God has wasted away Jeremiah’s skin and broken his bones (vs 4).
  5. Besieged him with bitterness and tribulation (vs 5).
  6. Has made him live like a dead man in the dark (vs 6).
  7. God has trapped Jeremiah in walls without escape (vs 7).
  8. Has ignored all Jeremiah’s prayers for help (vs 8).
  9. Made all his plans crooked (vs 9).
  10. God acts like a vicious wild animal toward the prophet (vs 10).
  11. God has torn Jeremiah into pieces (vs 11).
  12. God uses Jeremiah for target practice (vs 12-13).
  13. God has made the prophet forget what happiness means (vs 16-17).

The result of all of this is that Jeremiah despairs saying, “…so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord” (vs 18).

If anyone could question God’s love, his goodness, his faithfulness, it would be Jeremiah. And yet he does not. Instead he says:

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!

Lamentations 3:21-40

God’s mercy and faithfulness, wrath and justice, towards us, must never be divorced in our minds from our sin and rebellion against him. Notice how Jeremiah mentions man’s sin, and how it leaves him no excuse or defense.

“Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?“

When we forget the magnitude of the offense we have given to God with our wicked ways, we cheapen his mercy, and run the risk of not accepting it from his hand. When that happens we must take his wrath. God will give one thing or another. He will give either his great wrath because of our sin, or he will give his great mercy and grace to cover our sin and accept us when we return to him.

The mercy of God is not a free pass. It is not sparkly fairy dust sprinkled on your life to make your dreams come true. It is the only thing that will keep you safe from the mighty wave of God’s wrath. Let us not complain when that wrath is manifested in our world.

Earthquakes, plagues, buildings falling, fires eating away homes and lives, panic and riots and hate – these are all results of our sin, and God’s wrath towards that sin. They are signs that we must return to God, and receive the mercy He freely offers to us in the cross of his Son Jesus.

Living by the Faith that First Received Jesus

Posted on by Michael Wine

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2: 6-7

How did the Colossians receive Christ? By faith. (Col. 1: 4) Walking in Christ must use the same faith in which the soul first received Him. Obedience to Jesus is, therefore, no more a work of ours than was our salvation. For both are through faith which rests only in God’s power, not our own.

Once the seed of the soul is planted in the soil of faith, we are “rooted and built up” in Christ. We became strong trees that stand firm in times of suffering, because our very souls are tapped into Christ by faith. And the fruit produced is an ‘abounding thanksgiving’ to God for His mercy in granting us faith to receive the Son.

How wonderful God is, who loved us enough, while we were his enemies, to grant us faith to receive his love. Thank you Jesus for your infinite grace.