Worth

samuelock:

If you are worth nothing, then why would your creator write himself into your life? Why would he die for you? In Christ you are worth the ultimate price. You are loved. You belong to him. Won’t you trust in him?

You’re not alone 

You’re now a part of me

You feel the cure

I’ll feel the toil that brought you

Hold tight it will be alright, reach for the light at the edge of the dark

Been a roller coaster of a weekend… been such a mess. Haven’t been myself at all. But I can already see the grace of God pouring into my life and the start of healing. I know that the weeks to come will only bring further hardships and stuggles but I can stand a little taller knowing God always has my best interest in mind in this sanctification process. 

Thankful that even in the midst of all my inadequacies and wretchedness, God always seems to remind me that there is sufficient grace and hope for change through the cross. Reminding me that He is in control. I am not deserving of any of this. (Ephesians 1:20-23)

Paul Tripp Blog 3

What Does the Gospel Mean Right Now?

Do you have a gap in the middle of your Gospel? Do you understand more about salvation past and future than you do about the spent benefits of the work of Christ in the here and now? Permit me to explain.

Lost in the Middle of His Own Faith

Jason sat in front of me with the head-down, humped-shouldered posture of a confused and disappointed man. It wasn’t that Jason’s life had been a sad narrative of personal suffering. Sure, he’d faced some hard things, but they were the typical things that you face when you’re living in a world that’s been broken by sin. It wasn’t that Jason was alienated and friendless. He was surrounded by a group of less than perfect, but pretty faithful companions. It wasn’t that Jason was impoverished or homeless. No, he had a decent job and an adequate condo.

Jason’s problem was that he was lost in the middle of his own faith. It had become harder and harder for him to connect the beauty of what he believed to the gritty and often difficult realities of his daily life. Jason’s problem was that he carried a gospel around with him that had a great big hole in the middle of it.

Jason could explain to you what it meant to say that he had been “saved by grace,” and he knew that he was going to spend eternity with his Savior. His problem was in the here and now. Day after day, in situation after situation and relationship after relationship, Jason didn’t carry with him a vibrant and practical sense of the nowism of the grace of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jason believed in life after death, but he desperately needed to understand life before death; the kind of radical life you’ll live when you understand what Christ has given you for the life he has called you to right here, right now.

Let me suggest four critical aspects of the nowism of the gospel (there are more) that Jason seemed functionally blind to.

1. Grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you’ve never had.

Grace will expose your sin, but it won’t leave you without identity. Grace had liberated Jason, but he didn’t know it or live like it. He’d not only been forgiven and empowered, but he‘d been given a brand new identity. Jason had been freed from looking inward for his identity. No longer did he have to measure his potential by his track record or the size of the problems he was facing.

His potential was as great as the grace of Christ. He’d been freed from looking outward for his identity. No longer did he have to search for identity in his relationships, possessions, or achievements. Jason had been freed from looking horizontally for what he had already been given vertically.

His sense of self was no longer rooted in what he could earn or achieve, but in what he’d already been given in Christ. The problem was that he didn’t know it, so he was on a constant quest for meaning and purpose, looking for identity in places that could never deliver.

2. Grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus.

No longer did Jason have to work to excuse, deny, rationalize, or minimize his sin. No longer did he have to exercise his inner lawyer when someone pointed out a wrong. Because of the cross of Jesus, Jason could admit his weakness and failure before a holy God and be utterly unafraid. And if a holy God had accepted him as he was, why would Jason fear the opinion of others?

Jesus took Jason’s rejection so that he would never see the back of God’s head. Grace had freed Jason from having to prove to God, himself and others, that he was righteous. Jason’s hope and security was no longer in his own righteousness, but the righteousness he’d been given in Christ. The problem was that he didn’t know it, so Jason careened back and forth from fear to pride, swindling himself with self-atoning excuses and defending himself to others.

3. Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.

Grace does require you to admit how weak you are, but it doesn’t leave you there. The cross not only dealt with the guilt of sin, but with the inability of sin as well. In this broken world of regular difficulty and constant temptation, Jason did feel weak and unprepared, so he lived more out of fear and avoidance than with hope and courage.

Jason had not only been granted forgiveness, he’d been filled with power; power beyond his ability to calculate. (Ephesians 3:20, 21) The problem was that Jason didn’t know it, so Jason gave into things he had the power to defeat and he avoided things he had the power to conquer.

4. Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One whose plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.

Jason had some kind of distant belief in the sovereignty of God, but it was almost completely separate from his everyday experience. He lived as though he had no idea that Jesus was ruling over all things for his sake (Ephesians 1:20-23). So Jason was constantly dealing with the frustration of trying to control people and things which he’d little power to control.

He spent way too much time calculating the “what ifs” and regretting the “if onlys.” He seemed as if he didn’t know that his security and rest were not to be found in his ability to predict the future and control the present, but in the faithful love and expansive wisdom of his sovereign Savior, Jesus, so his living was always more anxious than restful.

You see, Jason didn’t need more grace. No, he needed to understand and live in light of the grace he‘d already been given. Jason was a grace amnesiac and so he lived as if he was poor, when grace had made him exotically rich. He lived as if he was weak, when grace had made him strong. He lived as though life had no plan, when, in fact, he’d been included in the unalterable plans of the God of redeeming grace.

Jason had a big hole right in the middle of his gospel, and because of that, he didn’t live out of the freedom, beauty and security of what he’d been given right here, right now. What about you? What about the people you serve?

Paul Tripp Blog 2

Big Grace

Total depravity. What a devastating and hard to swallow description! Maybe you’ve had it happen to you. A friend tells you they want to talk to you, and when you get together, you realize that what they really wanted to do was confront you. You’re not really excited about being told bad things about yourself, but this is your friend, so you’re willing to listen.

As they begin to lay out their concerns, you begin to feel pain inside. You can’t believe what you’re being told about yourself. Silently and inwardly, you begin to rise to your own defense. You marshal arguments that you’re a better person than the one being described. You want to believe that what you’re hearing is a distortion, lacking in accuracy and love, but you know you can’t. You’re devastated because deep down you know it’s true. Deep down you know that God has brought this person your way. Deep down you know what you’re being required to consider is an accurate description of you.

Such a description is found in Genesis 6:5, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (ESV) What a devastating description! It’s hard to swallow isn’t it? You want to think that this biblical description is of the people who are more sinful sinners than you and I are. But this verse is not describing a super-sinner class. No, it’s a mirror into which every human being is meant to look and see himself. It is capturing in a few powerful words what theologians call “total depravity.”

Now total depravity doesn’t mean that as sinners we are as bad as we could possibly be. No, what it actually means is that sin reaches to every aspect of my personhood. Its damage of me is total. Physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, motivationally, socially, I have been damaged by sin. It’s ravages are inescapable and comprehensive. No one has dodged it’s scourge and no one has been partially affected. We are all sinners. It reaches to every aspect of what makes us us. Sadly, when each of us looks into the mirror of Genesis 6:5, we see an accurate description of us.

Now, you have to ask yourself: Why is Genesis 6:5 so hard to accept? Why do we spontaneously rise to our own defense? Why are you and I devastated when our weakness, sin, and failure is pointed out? Why do we find confrontation and rebuke painful even when they are done in love? Why do we want to believe that we are in the good class of sinners? Why do we want to believe that we are deprived, but not depraved? Or that we are depraved, but not totally? Why do we find comfort in pointing to people who appear to be worse sinners than we are? Why do we make up self-atoning revisions of our own history? Why do we erect self-justifying arguments for what we have said or done? Why do we turn the tables when someone points out a wrong, making sure that they know that we know that we’re not the only sinner in the room? Why do we line up all the good things we’ve done as a counter-balance for the wrong that is being highlighted? Why is this all so hard to accept?

There’s only one answer to all of these questions. There’s only one conclusion that fits. We find this all so hard to accept because we studiously hold onto the possibility that we’re more righteous than the Bible describes us to be. When we look into the mirror of self-appraisal, the person we tend to see is a person who is more righteous than any of us actually is!

We were at the end of a wonderful service at Tenth Presbyterian Church, that had been punctuated by a powerful sermon from the Ten Commandments. I immediately turned to my wife at the end of the service and said, “I am so glad our children were here to hear that sermon!” She didn’t even have to say anything to me. She simply gave me that look. You know, the one that says, “I can’t believe you are actually saying what you are saying.” Immediately I felt embarrassed and grieved. It had happened to me so subtly and quickly. I had placed myself outside of the circle of the sermon’s diagnosis. I had accepted the fact that whatever Exodus and Phil Ryken were describing did not include me. And I was glad that the people in my family who really needed the diagnosis had been in attendance.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2, ESV)

If the Bible’s description of us is accurate, then God’s grace is our only hope. Thank God that He has given us big grace! Each one of us needs grace that’s not only big enough to forgive our sin, but also powerful enough to free us from the self-atoning prison of our own righteousness. We’re not only held captive by our sin, but also by the delusion of our righteousness as well. Resting in God’s grace isn’t just about confessing your sin, it’s about forsaking your righteousness as well. So we all need the big grace that’s only found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must all, with humility, say to the God of big grace, “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me…Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:1-5, ESV) And then rest in his righteousness alone.

Paul Tripp

The Wrong Address

Do you ever think that perhaps you’re at the wrong address? Did you ever wonder or wish that the things you deal with everyday weren’t meant for you? Did you ever look at the blessing of someone else and wish that it had landed at your address?

Do you ever feel lost in the middle of your own story? Do you ever feel as though you don’t have what it takes to deal with what is on your plate? Have you ever felt ill-prepared and ill-equipped to carry the responsibilities that are your daily duty? Does life at times seem too hard? Have you ever wished that you had more control over your own story or a greater ability to deal with all the things that are in your life, but which you did not plan or choose?

Listen to what Paul (in Acts 17:24-27) says about how each of us landed at the place where we now live, relate, and work.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breathe and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the exact times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

Consider what the Apostle Paul is saying about you life and mine:

1. When and where you live is never a mistake. Although many of the things that have shaped your story are out of your control, they are under the careful administration of the God who not only created the world, but is the ultimate definition of everything that is wise, good, loving, and true.

2. Your life has not worked according to your plan because it is part of a bigger plan. There is One who is Lord of heaven and earth. He has written your personal story into his grand redemptive story. He welcomes you out of your own little kingdom of self to be part of his wonderful, big-sky kingdom.

3. God has you just where he wants you. Sometimes it is hard to face, but God really does determine exactly where you live, who you live with, the exact period of time in which you live, and the exact length of your life.

4. God has a wonderful purpose for bringing into your life the things that you now face.Rather than working to deliver to us our personal definition of happiness, satisfaction and contentment, God is working so that so that we would know him in a heart and life transforming way. So he will put us in places that take us beyond the boundaries of our own character, strength, and wisdom. He does this so that in humility and weakness we will reach for the help that only he can give us. He is working to pry open our fingers so that we will let go of the things that we tend to hold to so tightly, not because he wants us to have less, but because he wants us to have so much more. His rule is never separate from his love and grace. It is comforting to know that his rule is an expression of his grace and his grace would not be reliable without his rule.

5. God does all of this so that he will always be near. Paul’s view of God’s rule is tender and encouraging. He does not picture God as the ultimate, impersonal chess player, moving the pieces according to his whim. No, Paul pictures a God who understands our weaknesses, who sympathizes with our struggles, and who rules his world in a manner that makes him near and available. And he welcomes us to reach out and find him.

So, even in moments of confusion, you and I can rest; not because we know exactly why God is doing what he is doing, but because we trust him. Real rest of heart is not the result of understanding everything in my life. That will never happen. Real rest is the result of a relationship, just the kind of relationship that God sent his Son to make possible and now invites you to have with him.