Obeying the Gospel: How (and Why) to Become a Christian

PRESENT KINGDOM, FUTURE KINGDOM (JULY 2)

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"The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen" (2 Timothy 4:18).

IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD SOMETHING THAT EXISTS IN THIS WORLD OR IS IT SOMETHING THAT WILL EXIST IN ETERNITY? The answer, if we let the Scriptures be our authority, is that it is both.

PRESENT. The Scriptures clearly teach that the kingdom is a present reality. Jesus said it was “at...

WHOLE HEART, WILLING MIND (JULY 1)

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"And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind" (1 Chronicles 28:9).

SOLOMON WOULD BE A NEW KING WITH SOME SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. His father David having subdued all the surrounding enemies of Israel, Solomon (whose name meant “peace”) would have to lead his people in the rightful, godly enjoyment of the peace that David had made possible. But not only that, he was also charged with building the temp...

THE RESURRECTION OF CONDEMNATION (JUNE 30)

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"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28,29 NKJV).

RESURRECTION! The very word stirs the soul — it is the very essence of the gospel. It was Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, thou...

AWAY FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD (JUNE 29)

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"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:9,10).

THE STARK TRUTH IS THAT OUR CHOICES WITH REGARD TO GOD WILL HAVE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. Having been created in the image of an eternal God...

LEARNING ABOUT LOVE FROM GOD (JUNE 28)

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"Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"?'" (John 14:9).

NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR CONCEPT OF GOD. What we think of our Creator — both His character and His will — is the principal force that shapes our lives. Since ideas have consequences, the bigger the subject, the more our ideas need to b...

JESUS' MISSION: HE CAME TO SAVE SINNERS (JUNE 27)

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"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15).

EVEN BEFORE JESUS DIED, PEOPLE DISAGREED AS TO WHAT HIS PURPOSE WAS. And those disagreements continue today. Whatever He may have done or not done, what was it that He intended to do? What was His mission (and His apostles’ mission) in this world? What is the main point of the go...

LEARNING ABOUT THE FATHER FROM THE SON (JUNE 26)

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"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).

IF YOU HAD DOUBTS ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, WHAT IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU THAT HE HAD COME FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND COULD PERSONALLY VOUCH FOR GOD’S EXISTENCE? And suppose that person gave compelling ev...

GOD’S STEADFAST LOVE (JUNE 25)

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"'For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you" (Isaiah 54:10).

ONE OF THE GREAT ANCHORS OF OUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD IS THE STEADFASTNESS OF HIS LOVE. Unlike our human love, which is tragically fickle and fluctuating, God’s love will still be there though “the mountains may depart and the hills be remove...

THE LORD’S SUPPER, THE LORD’S PEOPLE (JUNE 24)

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"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7).

IN THIS VERSE, WE FIND THE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH AT TROAS DOING SOMETHING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT IN THOSE DAYS THAN MANY PEOPLE THINK IT IS TODAY. They gathered together on the first day of the week to “break bread,” which in this...

GOD’S GRACE IS NOT “IRRESISTIBLE” (JUNE 23)

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"Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1).

IN THE SCRIPTURES, ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD IS THE FERVENCY WITH WHICH HE APPEALS TO HUMAN BEINGS. In many dire circumstances, God is shown pleading with people to let Him save them. But there was always a choice to be made by those needing God’s help: would they receive God’s grace or not? The basic...

SCRIPTURAL TEACHING ABOUT GOD’S “ELECTION” (JUNE 22)

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"Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33).

TO “ELECT” IS TO “CHOOSE.” So if we were talking about our salvation by God and we said that it’s a matter of His “election” or “choosing,” what would we mean? John Calvin (and various others before him) argued that before God created the world He chose which individuals would be saved. Yet it goes far beyond the truth concerning God’s election in Romans 8:33 to t...

THE FALLACY OF ORIGINAL SIN (JUNE 21)

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"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18:20).

IN THIS OFTEN-QUOTED TEXT, A PRINCIPLE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IS ENUNCIATED: THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Our eternal destiny will be determined not by the deeds of others but by our own...

LESSONS FROM NAAMAN (JUNE 20)

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"So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean' . . . So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:9,10,14).

...

THAT WHERE I AM YOU MAY BE ALSO (JUNE 19)

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"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John 14:1-3).

IT IS EXTREMELY ENCOURAGING FOR US TO...

A POWERFUL CLUE TO GOD'S NATURE (JUNE 18)

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". . . as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man" (Acts 17:28,29).

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS FULL OF WONDERS. It is, as Tolkien said, “full of strange creatures beyond count.” But surely, the strangest of these by far is the human...

LETTING THE SCRIPTURES DECIDE (JUNE 17)

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"And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2).

IN THE TEXT ABOVE, NOTICE THE STANDARD OF AUTHORITY TO WHICH PAUL APPEALED. With the task of convincing a Jewish audience that Jesus’ claims were true, he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” If Jesus was the promised Messiah, everything about Him would match up with the portrait of the Messiah in the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. And if the...

DIFFERENT SOILS, DIFFERENT HEARERS (JUNE 16)

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"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them" (Matthew 13:5-7).

IN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER, JESUS MADE THE POINT THAT THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL DON’T ALL HAVE THE SAME KIND OF HE...

AN INSURMOUNTABLE OBJECTION (JUNE 15)

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"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, 'We will hear you again about this'" (Acts 17:32).

THERE IS NO PROPOSITION SO COMPELLING THAT EVERYONE ACCEPTS IT. No matter what is affirmed, some objection or other is always possible. So with any idea, the question is not whether anyone can come up with objections but whether those objections are valid. Taking an opinion poll won’t help us much either. Regardless of which way the op...

ASSURANCE THAT JESUS WILL BE OUR JUDGE (JUNE 14)

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". . . because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

CONCERNING GOD, THE IDEAS OF “ACCOUNTABILITY” AND “JUDGMENT” ARE NOT CONGENIAL TO THE MODERN MIND. Those who believe there is a God do not usually think in terms of being judged by Him, such that their eternal destiny will be depen...

DOES JESUS' RESURRECTION REALLY MATTER? (JUNE 13)

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"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised" (1 Corinthians 15:14,15).

THERE IS A VERSION OF “CHRISTIANITY” IN WHICH ALL OF THE MIRACLES ARE ELIMINATED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. Many people today take it for granted, based on their phil...

THE APOSTLES: DOUBTERS WHO BECAME EVANGELISTS (JUNE 12)

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". . . who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:3,4).

PHYSICALLY, JESUS WAS A DESCENDANT OF DAVID. But that does not tell the whole story about Him. He was also, as Paul said, “declared to be the Son of God . . . by his resurrection from the dead.” Even if a person had not...

NORMATIVE NATURE OF THE APOSTLES' TEACHING (JUNE 11)

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"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:1,2).

WHEN WE ARE ADRIFT, WE NEED AN ANCHOR. But when it comes to the gospel of Christ, it is extremely important what anchor we choose to employ. Changing the metaphor, we might say...

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE APOSTLES (JUNE 10)

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"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

IN GOD’S PLAN TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS, THE APOSTLES HAD AN IMPORTANCE THAT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD. The entire message of the gospel depended on the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:13-17), and the apostles served, first and foremost, as eyewitnesses of th...

SAVED FROM, SAVED FOR (JUNE 9)

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". . . by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4).

THE QUESTION 'NOW WHAT?' IS ONE OF LIFE’S MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. Unfortunately, many of us who have sought salvation from our sins do not understand what salvation is for. Like ancient Israel, we’ve been rescued from “Egypt,” but we d...

WHAT WE NEED TO BE SAVED FROM (JUNE 8)

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"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander" (Matthew 15:19).

THE CANCER THE GOSPEL WAS MEANT TO CURE IS MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN MANY PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO ADMIT. If we want any help at all, it is usually just with our outward behavior or our external circumstances. But the gospel proposes to help us with our character — which in the Scriptures is often called our “heart.” It is our charac...

FROM GOD, FOR OUR PROFIT (JUNE 7)

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"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

MANY OF US, LIKE TIMOTHY, HAVE BEEN ACQUAINTED WITH THE SCRIPTURES SINCE WE WERE CHILDREN. But we, also like Timothy, need to be reminded of the extraordinary nature of these books that comprise the sacred writings. In 2 Timothy 3:16,17, Paul points to several fundamental facts about...

DELIVERED FROM THE POWER OF DEATH (JUNE 6)

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"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Hebrews 2:14,15).

WHEN JESUS ARRIVED AT BETHANY AFTER HIS FRIEND LAZARUS HAD DIED, HE FOUND MARY AND MARTHA GRIEVING THE LOSS OF THEIR BROTHER. To Martha, Jesus said, “Your brother wi...

JESUS' FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS APOSTLES (JUNE 5)

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"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age'" (Matthew 28:18-20).

JESUS’ FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS APOSTLES SHOULD BE OF MO...

SIN STRIKES DEEPER THAN WE ADMIT (JUNE 4)

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"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:12,13).

MOTIVES MAKE A DIFFERENCE, DO THEY NOT? When we fail to use good judgment, we...

THE INCARNATE WORD (JUNE 3)

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"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1,2,14).

THE INCARNATION (GOD TAKING UPON HIMSELF HUMAN FLESH) IS THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL. It is, as C. S. Lewis put it, the “Grand Miracle” that makes all...

SALVATION IS NOT EARNED, BUT IT MAY BE FORFEITED (JUNE 2)

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"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it" (Hebrews 2:1).

NONE OF THE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN WILL DESERVE TO BE THERE. Having sinned, we deserve to be punished, and if mere justice were allowed to run its course, we would all be lost. But the wonder of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ we may hope to receive what we do not deserve to receive...