When It’s Time to Leave a Church

By / Apr 2

I detest church hopping. Yet I accept the fact that there are times when Christians transfer church membership. But there is a proper time and way to leave a church.

What are the legitimate reasons for leaving a church? When is the right time to leave a church? How should one leave a church to join another?

Red Lights: Wrong Reasons for Leaving a Church

Here are seven wrongs reasons for leaving a church. 

Sin. Someone has sinned. Maybe it was a leader. Is this a good reason to leave? No. It is not promote holiness to leave because of sin. There was gross sin in the church of Corinth. But Paul commanded the church to deal with the sinning member, not leave the church (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). When Paul bids the saints to “come out from among them,” he was talking about the world, not the church (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). We should respond to sinning brothers with restoration, not amputation (Galatians 6:1-5).

Disagreements over secondary doctrinal issues. Biblical convictions matter. But don’t be willing to die on every hill. Contend earnestly for the faith (Jude). But don’t break fellowship over every disagreement about scripture. Paul advised Timothy, “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness…” (2 Timothy 2:14-16)

Disunity. God hates those who sow discord among brothers (Proverbs 6:16-19). But evidence of salvation is love for your brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 3:14). And this love is demonstrated by preserving the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3). Don’t jump ship because you can’t get along with others. You will only have the same problem at the next church. “Do nothing from selfish ambition of conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself” (Philippians 2:3).

Personal offenses. There will be times when Christians sin against one another. What then? Leaving is not the answer. Moving every time you are (or feel) wronged will only lead multiple church transitions. Or you will remain at the fringes of the church, which is just as bad. Jesus gives the answer: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18:15). These simple instructions could jumpstart revival in many churches. But what if he doesn’t listen? Turn up the pressure (18:16-20).

Unwillingness to submit to authority. Aaron was more spiritual than Moses. And Joshua was a better leader. But the rod was in Moses’ hand. Don’t fight those the Lord puts in leadership over you. Of course, you should not sit under unbiblical, immoral, or abusive leadership. But there is a way to deal with disqualified leaders (1 Timothy 5:19-20). Without a doubt, you should hold your pastors accountable. But don’t handcuff the spiritual leaders of the church to personal preferences, empty traditions, or unbiblical priorities. Let the leaders lead. And be willing to follow (Hebrews 13:7, 17).

A low view of the church. There is no chapter and verse that commands you to be a church member. But scripture teaches by what it assumes, just as much as it teaches by what is commands. There is no biblical category for an “unchurched Christian.” The apostles would have asked, “Why are you calling her a Christian if he is not a part of the church? Christ is the head of the church. And he does not have out-of-body experiences. You cannot be connected to the head and disconnected from the body. Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25-27). And to love Christ is to love what he loves.

Disregard for truth. Paul charged Timothy to preach the word (2 Timothy 4:2). He then warned that faithfulness to the charge would cause some to flee: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) Faithful preaching will drive some away from the church. But they will not go home. They will find a church where the preacher will tickle their ears. Don’t let that be you. If you are under sound teaching and faithful preaching, for God’s sake, stay put!

Green Lights: When it’s Time to Leave a Church

Here are three basic and acceptable reasons for leaving a church.

A gospel reason. If the church you are a member of does not believe or teach the biblical gospel, you need to leave. Now. Sinners are saved by grace through faith in Christ, plus or minus nothing. Nothing we do saves us. Salvation is God’s free gift to those who trust in the righteousness of Christ who died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification. Anyone who teaches any other “gospel” is accursed (Galatians 1:6-9). And any church that embraces a false gospel is not a Christian church. Run for your life!

A doctrinal reason. Here’s the bottom line: You must leave a church when a church requires you to deny what you believe or believe what you deny. You have three responsibilities when it comes to faith: (1) the duty to live by faith (Romans 14:23); (2) the guarding of your conscience against sin (James 4:17); and (3) the command to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21-21). Don’t treat doctrinal matters lightly. Truth and peace must be protected. But to ignore truth in the name of people only produces a pseudo-peace.

A personal reason. There are many personal reasons for leaving a church. The most common is relocation. If you have moved to a different city, you need put yourself under the authority of a local church where you live. That was Phoebe’s situation (Romans 16:1-2). Or your church can be so far from your where you live in the city that skipping church becomes a convenient excuse. These and other similar personal reasons are acceptable, sometimes necessary, reasons for leaving a church.

Yellow Lights: How to Leave a Church

How can you leave a local church in a Christ-honoring way?

Pray. Important decisions should only be made after diligent prayer. Leaving a church is one such decision. Pray about your motives, duty, and relationships. Pray to guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23). Pray for wisdom (James 1:5). Pray for submissiveness to God’s will (Colossians 1:9). Pray quietly. That is, pray about it. Don’t talk about it. Loose talk about your unprocessed thoughts and feelings can sow discord.

Examine your motives. Why do you want to leave? I am not talking about the politically correct reasons you tell others. I’m talking about the true motivations of your heart. Do you even know them? Ask God to search you (Psalms 139:23-24). Then be honest with yourself. And be honest with God. Be careful not to move for the wrong reasons.

Review the commitments you have made to serve. Do you serve in the church? Are you a leader? Will your move disrupt the ministry? Answer these questions prayerfully before you leave. If you have made commitments, do everything within your power to honor them. Put the honor of Christ ahead of yours. Push past unworthy quitting points (1 Corinthians 15:58). You do not want to be found AWOL from an assignment God has given you.

Make sure you have no unresolved interpersonal conflicts. Don’t leave a church because you are mad about something. Don’t leave because someone has offended you. Be ready to forgive and eager for reconciliation. Jesus said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). Broken fellowship suspends true worship.

Consider how your transfer will affect others. Christianity is not about you. It’s about Christ and others. If your heart is right, you will feel the weight of how your potential move will injure or influence others. If you can leave without affecting anyone, you were not a good member. If your presence matters, consider how your absence will move others. “Let each of you look not only to his own interests,” instructs Paul, “but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).

Determine where you will transfer your membership before you leave. It’s not the Father’s will for his children to be spiritually homeless. Paul says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The Lord typically leads to a place, not just away from a place. You should be able to leave a spiritual forwarding address when you leave a church. And you should be able to go to your new church with a recommendation from your old church.

Have an exit-interview with your pastor. It is right for you to talk to your pastor before you leave a church. Is he the reason you want to leave? That is all the more reason why you should schedule a conversation. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Editor’s Note: this originally published at HBCharlesJr.com



Another Easter

By / Apr 2

Editor’s Note: The weekend can be an incredibly distressing time for many pastors to enter into. The desire to spend quality time with family while juggling the pressures of an unfinished sermon can be an exhausting reality. What many pastors need are not more tips on how to prepare better sermons as much as some encouragement to better prepare their hearts to preach the sermon they have. Join Ronnie Martin every Friday for The Preachers Corner, where he offers some words of comfort and stories of hope to help preachers enter the weekend encouraged by the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus. 

One of the early signs that spring is drawing near is when I hear the birds begin to sing. I’ll be in my library (ok, it’s an enclosed porch with books) when, right before the sun rises, a symphony of birdsong surges joyously through the morning air. It’s a chorus that thoroughly affects me, and in my better moments, reminds me to thank God that winter will not be forever. 

This Easter, more than any other, is a reminder of the long year of winter we have experienced due to the global pandemic. It was only 12 months ago that my worship leader and I were planning our livestream for Easter Sunday and now, a year later, we’re seeing registrations steadily fill up for our in-person gatherings. Despite this good and glorious progression, I still have one nagging fear, and it’s that Easter 2021 will feel like just another Easter. Am I alone in this? I really don’t think so. 

So how do we approach a service as special as Easter, but one that can quickly become a perfunctory exercise for pastors? 

I’m going to be very simple today (granted, I am every day) and say that my whimsical illustration at the beginning holds the key to what some of us may be lacking: thankfulness. So here are three things that might help our hearts be moved to greater thankfulness. Yes, I’m going to struggle with all three of these simple suggestions, too.  Maybe we can struggle together?

Pause – I know that Holy Week has the reputation of being one of the busiest weeks of the year and for some of you it may well be, but taking some intentional time to hit pause will allow you to turn the volume down on some of the noise of the week. What does it mean to “hit pause?” I think it means, whatever you’re doing…stop.

Ponder – But don’t just pause…ponder. Take a walk, listen to some music, find a bench in the park, and fix your eyes on something beautiful. Give your mind a minute to imagine the resurrection and to focus on the face of Christ and the stark beauty of our painful and tear-filled redemption. Let your soul be moved by Christ’s movement toward us.
Pray – Whatever your week has been like, it’s not too late to come before the Lord in both helplessness and hopefulness. Talk to Him about the year you’ve had, and share your hopes and fears with Him about the weekend ahead. Plead with Him to declutter your mind and fill your heart with a newfound song of praise and thanksgiving. 

Letting your heart be moved to thankfulness will be some of the best sermon prep you can do before Easter Sunday, which is not just another Easter, but another Easter to rejoice, be glad, and to hear the birds sing. Again. 



Pastors, Train Future Pastors

By / Apr 1

“Part of my responsibility is to send younger pastors into the land that I cannot go—the future.”

I heard these words roughly ten years ago while serving as a pastoral intern under Mark Dever. Prior to that I’d been a pastor for seven years, but I had never even considered that faithfulness in gospel ministry meant investing in other pastors. I had struggled enough to be a pastor, let alone help other pastors.

Yet the more I studied Scripture and watched pastors I respected, I became convinced that pastors have the opportunity and responsibility to train other pastors. Not all pastors will do this work the same way, but every pastor should be devoted to the work.

Pastor training isn’t just another item on our to-do-list; in one sense, it’s central to our task. We want to protect and proclaim the gospel not only in our generation but also in the generations to come. We must train younger pastors to take the gospel to the land we cannot go.

THE BIBLICAL MODEL

As the gospel went forth from Jerusalem, sinners repented and churches were planted. The Lord called Paul and Barnabas to appoint “elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting” (Acts 14:23). God charged them with the responsibility to recognize, train, and establish pastors to lead churches in carrying out the Great Commission.

But pastoral training wasn’t reserved for the apostles. Consider Paul’s instruction to Timothy: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Part of the way Timothy would “guard the good deposit” of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:14) was by training other men to faithfully teach it to others.

Paul gave a similar commission to Titus: “I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5). The Apostle Peter seemed to expect younger men to be humbly training under experienced elders while they awaited their opportunity to serve in a similar capacity (1 Pt. 5:1–7).

When you search the Scriptures, you don’t find seminaries training pastors, you find pastors training pastors. To be clear, seminaries have their place, but churches must not outsource the work of training gospel ministers. Seminaries should serve as a supplement to a church’s pastoral training efforts, not a substitute for it.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

Being a pastor who trains pastors requires thoughtful leadership. What follows are five elements that go into developing a pastor-training ministry. Reading these may feel daunting, but I encourage you to bring brothers along with what you’re already doing as much as possible.

1. Entreat God desperately.

Jesus gives pastors to his church as a gift (Eph. 4:7–16; 1 Cor. 12). Unless he gives them and makes them grow, all of our training will be in vain (Ps. 127:1). So “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:38). Plead with God to raise up pastors for you to invest in. Pray that he’d raise up pastors to serve alongside you, pastors to send out from you, and pastors to one day replace you.

2. Equip men intentionally.

Though pastors are gifts, we also believe gifts from God are to be fanned into flame and not neglected (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6). To that end, create contexts in which future pastors can be trained. Whether you’re investing in one brother or a whole crop of them, be intentional.

As we refine our pastoral training program we are continually asking: if I were an aspiring pastor, what would I want and need someone to teach me? What key books should be read? What skills need to be taught? What theological convictions must be formalized? What opportunities could be given? What feedback ought to be delivered? Asking questions like these will help you develop an intentional approach to training aspiring pastors.

3. Exemplify faith vulnerably.

Many of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in ministry came from watching other pastors in action. That’s because training is caught as much as it is taught. Aspiring pastors should hear us say to them “imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. 1 Cor. 4:6, 10:33; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:9; Heb. 6:12). They should have a front row seat to “consider the outcome of [our] way of life and imitate [our] faith” (Heb. 13:7).

Something I always tell our pastoral interns is to observe me. Watch me serve well and watch me struggle. Watch me resist sin and watch me confess it. Watch me serve my family and watch me botch it. I tell them I’m an imperfect open book. As they observe me, there will be aspects of my life and ministry they will want to emulate and others they’ll want to avoid.

4. Entrust opportunities plentifully.

Because ministry is not merely theoretical, training must include opportunities to serve. Creatively find ways to get aspiring pastors involved. Give them chances to pray, preach, teach, disciple, counsel, lead meetings, visit members, perform funerals, etc. Resist the temptation to hold onto ministry opportunities as if they were really yours to begin with. Remember this is Jesus’ kingdom and that he delights in us investing in the shepherds who care for his sheep.

5. Examine their work honestly.

One of the most important elements of pastoral training is to provide regular, honest, constructive feedback. If brothers serve without receiving godly encouragement and godly critique, they will not know how they need to grow. Study 1 Timothy 3:1–7 together and encourage evidences of grace while also pointing out areas where they need to grow. Give them opportunities to preach and then share feedback on what was edifying and what they could improve. Affirm their strengths and help them see where they need the strengths of others to complement them.

At times, this includes telling brothers when they aren’t ready to be pastors. These are some of the most difficult conversations you may have. But if a brother isn’t called or isn’t ready, you serve them, their families, and other churches by telling them the truth. You should be gentle as you walk with them through this and also remember that John Mark ended up being useful after all (2 Tim. 4:11; cf. Acts 15:36–41).

I am eternally grateful to the pastors who loved me enough to take the time to help me cultivate my gifts—and to point out my flaws. If they had not spent time teaching me the Scriptures and modeling how to apply them, I know I would be of little help to those around me today.

Brother, I pray that as you read this list, it does not feel burdensome. God has called us to this work and my prayer for us is that we would “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). He delights in giving grace, so we have much hope!

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at the 9Marks blog and is used with permission.



Clint Pressley on Who Has Influenced His Preaching the Most

By / Apr 1

FTC.co asks Clint Pressley, Lead Pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, "Who has influenced your preaching the most?"



Episode 111: Exceptionalizing Easter

By / Mar 31

For The Church Podcast

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ronni Kurtz encourage churches to rethink some of the contemporary approaches to Easter services.



A Life Poured Out

By / Mar 31

In the traditional church calendar, this week is Holy Week—the period between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Each day, Christians reflect on the acts of Christ and the events leading unto his death, burial, and resurrection.

During this celebration, many recognize the stories of Jesus riding into Jerusalem, overturning tables in the temple, or breaking bread at the last supper. Yet amid these important moments, there is one description that is easy to overlook: Christ’s anointing at Bethany.

This quiet, profound work was accomplished by Mary (the sister of Lazarus) in the house of Simon the leper. Within days of Jesus’s death, Mary “took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the head of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair” (Jn. 12:3a).

Matthew 26:8-9 describes the disciples as indignant at this gesture; counting it wasteful and remarking the ointment “could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” Jesus rebukes them saying, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me” (Matt. 26:10). This woman’s anointing has prepared the Messiah’s body for burial (Mark 14:8).

Mary pours out the expensive perfume understanding that the priceless blood of Jesus will be poured out for her forgiveness. She breaks the flask above his head knowing that it will soon be pierced by thorns; comprehending his body will be broken in the stead of sinners. Even so, she is not only scoffed at but scolded for her actions (v.5).

Have you ever heard the voice of the world whisper, “Why this waste?” as you offer up that which is most dear to you to the Lord? (Matt. 26:8).

Do family members question the value of your ministry service? Do friends scoff at use of your gifts for advancement of God’s kingdom rather than your own? Do you find yourself staring back in the mirror questioning whether a heart surrendered in obedience to Christ is worth losing all earthly treasures?

In his commentary on Matthew 26, theologian Charles H. Spurgeon noted, “When you do the best you can do, from the purest motives, and your Lord accepts your service, do not expect that your brethren will approve all your actions. If you do, you will be greatly disappointed.”[1]

A life poured out for Christ seems like the biggest waste in the world to those who do not know him. The world scoffed—and still scoffs—at the blood of Christ poured out at the cross. How much more will they ridicule his followers for pouring out their lives for him?

Even those who do know and love him sometimes do not understand the extent of certain sacrifices, let alone the value of them. Yet we can rest assured that our obedience does not go unseen by God. For we know “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Jesus Christ not only approves of a heart trusting in his work and captured by his glory; he calls it beautiful.

Beloved, as you meditate on the events of Holy Week, may you remember: “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Recall that “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34).

This week and always, pour out your life and love to the one who poured out his for you.

[1] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. “Commentary on Matthew 26”. “Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/spe/matthew-26.html. 2011.



Hope for the Faltering Christ-Follower

By / Mar 31

In Luke 5:36-39, the Lord Jesus says a curious thing. He tells us that the new life that He came to give us – a life we live through faith in His work and His promises – is completely incongruent with the old life He came to save us from – a life we live . It would be impossible to mix the old way of living – where we attempted to earn God’s approval through our obedience – with the new way of living – where we receive God’s approval as a gift through faith in Christ. It was so impossible, in fact, that Jesus compared it storing old wine in new wineskins. The new wineskins would burst – they weren’t made to contain old wine. But, as Jesus said, “no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Trying to earn God’s approval, forgiveness, and love is part of our fallen nature. We paradoxically try to be worthy while knowing, but still trying to counteract, our own unworthiness. It’s an expression of the “old man” that we have to put off every day. And, just like Jesus described, it’s incongruent with the new life that He have in His Spirit.

We rarely slip back into this “old wineskin” way of thinking consciously. We may not even be aware it’s there…until we falter. And we believe if God is angry with us, or at least disappointed. Then, in our shame, we avoid Him until we get our act together again. We feel as though we can’t even pray.

But this debilitating logic is little more than old wine in a new wineskin, and “old man” way of thinking in a “new man” life.

At the moment when our hearts condemn us, we need the God who is greater than our hearts, knows everything about us, and loves us the same (1 Jn 3:20). At the moment of our need for mercy, we need Psalm 130.

This Psalmist begins with a cry to God out of the depths, from the pit into which he fell. This man knows his need for forgiveness and he comes to the Lord in hope of finding mercy – but not because he is worthy of it. No, not all. Instead, he cries out for mercy precisely because he is unworthy of it.

Psalm 130 is a proclamation of hope for the faltering follower of Christ. The truth is that no one can stand before Him without fault (v. 3). When we stumble into sin, we must not cast aside God’s promise of mercy in an effort to make ourselves worthy. Our unworthiness reminds us of the one thing that makes us worthy to call out to Him – not our obedience, not our faithfulness. Only grace.

Martin Luther explained it this way: “Some say: ‘Yes, I would gladly trust that my prayer would be heard, if I were only worthy and prayed aright’. [But] the very reason we do pray is because of our unworthiness.” Neither the strength of our prayers or the faithfulness of our obedience ensure that God will receive us in our time of spiritual need. Instead, it is belief in God’s promise – in His kindness, mercy, and forgiveness through Christ alone that ensures our access to God: “Your worthiness does not help you, but your unworthiness is no barrier. Disbelief condemns you, and trust makes you worthy and sustains you.”

This expectation of God’s mercy means we can wait on the Lord with hope (v. 5). Despite our faltering, He will forgive us again because of grace (1 Jn 2:1-2). Think about it – when He promised to redeem and heal you, He already knew everything from which you’d need to be redeemed and healed. To our performance-driven, self-assessing souls, this often sounds too good to be true. Perhaps that’s why it can only be received by faith.

The Father knows when you feel condemned by your failures, cut off from His compassion. He sees when we shrink back to the old way of living in fear, of believing that God’s love for us and forgiveness somehow depend on us. And He tenderly reminds us that His love and forgiveness depend entirely upon Him.

When we are most aware of our need for His mercy, He invites us to draw near through faith. He is ready to restore the faltering Christ-follower. He overflows with redemption and unfaltering love (vv. 7-8).

Editor’s Note: This originally published at Biblical Woman.



Ronni Kurtz on the Danger in Only Caring About Christ’s Work

By / Mar 30

We asked Ronni Kurtz, managing editor at FTC, “What is the danger in only caring about the work of Christ and not the person?”



The Resurrection’s Higher Math

By / Mar 29

And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”—Mark 12:18-27

I love the way Jesus begins his answer not by answering but by asking. “Is this not the reason you are wrong… ?” That’s what theologians call “bringing out the boom sauce.” Essentially, what he is saying is that you can know the Bible and not know the Bible.

He then answers more directly, and he makes a rather complex point, but I think what he’s saying is this: When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were long dead. Yet God said he was their God. This means they still existed in some sense. They were “alive” in some sense.

Jesus is using the Sadducees’ own source text to show them that the signs of resurrection are everywhere in it.

See, in their question the Sadducees are showing all their work. They’ve come up with a predicament that’s logical. They think it’s a stumper. But they’ve forgotten the central equation: Christ is better than the law and the law cannot account for the eternal kind of life (Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 3; Galatians 3:1-6; Hebrews 7).

They’ve got all the old covenant data, but they don’t know how to read it. Christ’s work – his life, death, and resurrection – inserts new variables into all of our equations. The Pharisees and Sadducees kept forgetting to account for Jesus! They are trying to solve these riddles with the simple math of the law when Jesus is doing the advanced calculus of the gospel. He’s got the higher math. He is the higher math.

And we cannot afford to leave the resurrection out of our spiritual arithmetic, or else all our calculations will be off.

This is a great picture of the gospel of grace being better than the law. The law condemns. It cannot give life. So when Christ comes to fulfill the law, he’s saying, “Anyone who trusts me and loves me, has reached the end of the law’s condemnation. You are no longer dead, but alive!”

Now the devil will come with his finely articulated arguments. He has his facts straight:

“Don’t you know, Jesus,” he will say, “this Jared Wilson is a flat-out sinner. He wakes up sinning, Jesus. When he was a kid, he lied a lot to make himself look better to others. Even when caught in lies, he’d stick to his guns. And he still does this. He’s a born liar! And you know, Jesus, how he’s thought about women. He’s a lustful pervert. And you know he cares so much about how people think of him. He worships his self-image. He is stubborn and defensive. And, Jesus, should we even mention October 18, 2006?* So Jesus, let me ask you this: When he dies, should this Jared guy go to some kind of purgatory to get straightened out? Or should he just go straight to hell?”

But my Jesus will look at my accuser and say, “Isn’t this why you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? Because Jared is in me by faith, and because there is no condemnation for those who are in me, he is an heir of eternal life. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of Jared. I’m not the God of the dead but the living.”

The devil and all his unwitting spokespeople love the logic of our condemnation. And they might have some Bible verses—heck, they may have some Bible degrees—but they don’t know the Bible. Christ Jesus our Savior accounts for our life.

* I have no idea what happened on that date, by the way; I just picked it out of thin air because I’m sure I was a huge sinner on that day.



Links For The Church (3/29)

By / Mar 29

One Another Texts: Living in Harmony

“Christian unity ultimately isn’t something we manufacture; it is a gift of God.” – Kevin Kauffman

Sometimes the Best Explanation Is ‘Forgive Me’

Tanner Kay Swanson writes about the ways we sin and avoid ownership of what we do. This article encourages true repentance.

Breaking the Devotions Rut

Motherhood is hard and can make devotional time with the Lord difficult. Gretchen Ronnevik points to God’s great faithfulness when moms feel like they are struggling in their devotions.

Jesus Changed Everything for Women

“If we could read the Gospels through first-century eyes, Jesus’s treatment of women would knock us to our knees.” – Rebecca McLaughlin