Test by Joseph Durham

The Expositor FALL 2011

PRESENTS

“ T H E

S E L F - C O N C E P T ”

SELF-ESTEEM F RO M Y O U R H U M A N N A T U R E

“ T H E

D I V I N E - C O N C E P T ”

JUSTIFICATION F RO M J E S U S C H R I S T

ALSO INSIDE THAT ONE SIN — D. MARTYN LLOYD JONES EXHORTATIONS ABOUT COMMUNION WITH GOD THE FATHER — JOHN OWEN NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST JESUS — JOHN PIPER

Contents Fall 2011 The Expositor

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Self-Esteem vs. Justification Page 2

Volume 7, Issue 3

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† Editor † S. Michael Durham † Assistant Editor † Joseph Durham † Design Assistant † J.T. Crawford † Copy Editor † Missy Reed

That One Sin Page 8

Exhortations about Communion With God the Father Page 14

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus Page 19

From The Editor In this edition we make doctrine practical. We’re dealing with wrong thinking and how it drives the feelings and actions of Christians. Wrong thinking leads to hopelessness. Many Christians are plagued with a paralysis of mind that leaves them limping spiritually. They feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things. They attempt the fight of faith but fail, and often. Their many defeats lead them to think God is upset with them, that He doesn’t care for them as much as He cares for Christians who don’t fail like they do. These self-inflicted wounds are fueled by the accusations of hell. The “accuser of the brethren” broods over them and spews out one suggestion of condemnation after another. God is seen as an angry judge who can’t wait to dispense His justice. The guilt is like a mountain they feel buried under. But as someone said, that’s “stinking thinking.” It isn’t anywhere close to being biblical. Yes, we saints do fail to please the Lord. And yes, we are often guilty of sin. But our guilt is not irreparable. The truth is, it’s already been repaired. The guilt-busting news of the gospel declares Jesus died under the curse of every Christian’s guilt. The same message of the cross that brings deliverance to the sinner is the same deliverance for the guilt-ridden saint. All who believe in Christ’s substitutionary death for guilty sinners are forever justified. The Apostle Paul could say, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” The believer will never, never, never be under the avalanche of God’s anger, wrath, or disfavor. He stands in God’s eyes as clean, as complete, and as holy as Jesus. This is absolutely crucial for every true Christian to understand. Its implications have radical and deep impact. It changes how we view our relationship with God, how we think about our fellowship with Him, and how we experience both. This issue of The Expositor discusses these awesome life-changing, guiltkilling, and joy-giving effects of justification. Please pray for RTM as we labor to promote the pursuit of Jesus Christ as the gospel. Currently, we are working on a new website called Disciples Academy that will be a unique site dedicated to having something for every phase of the Christian life. It begins with pre-conversion, offering the unbeliever many resources giving him or her the gospel. Second, it gives the new convert material to begin his or her Christian life biblically. Finally, there will be a section for advanced studies for the mature believer. I always want to take opportunity to thank those of you who financially support this ministry. We are completely dependent upon the Lord. It’s so amazing to watch how God uses people like you to help us. We’ve seen answers to prayer that could be a complete article in this issue. Perhaps one day we will share some of them with you.

Heartily yours,

Self-Esteem Vs. Justification

or years I struggled to see myself as an object of God’s love. Before my conversion at 26, I mouthed the words “God loves me,” but my heart was never persuaded no matter how many times I said it. There were many factors that contributed to my poor self-image, but that doesn’t really matter now that I’ve learned the truth. Those who struggle as I did are often told the answer is as simple as replacing the negative self-image with a positive one. But it isn’t that easy. Trying to feel good about yourself doesn’t solve the problem. Pumping more pride into a pride-filled vessel makes a big mess. Those who struggle with low self-esteem, poor self-image, and feelings of unworthiness are people who have real pride issues. Appealing to their pride will not help because they have too much pride already. How is pride the problem? Several ways. Some sufferers of “low self-esteem” want people to feel sorry for them, to pity them, and pay attention to them. They like, the braggart, make the announcement, “Hey world, look at me.” They are obsessed with themselves. They are always comparing themselves with others whom they desire to be like. They believe they deserve to be successful or liked as much as anyone else, but for some reason they’re not. Usually, they believe the defect is in them and so they see themselves in a negative way. They think if they could improve or try harder or get a specific skill, then they would be appreciated. In my case, I thought not even God could love me. In other words, I was special in my own estimation, not in the normal way of being conceited, but conceited nonetheless. No one was as unlovable as me. That is pride, and it was pride that barred my way to God. But what was odd was if you didn’t treat me as I thought I deserved, I would be angry. There was something in me that thought, surely one day I will get God to love me, and then people will know I’m somebody. Even though I suffered from low esteem I wanted to be better than everyone else. That’s why trying to make someone with low self-esteem feel better about himself is like pouring gasoline on the fire. What made the difference in my case? The grace of God—literally! He made me to see how truly unworthy I really am in a way I had never seen it. And then He showed me what Jesus did for unworthy sinners. The light came on. I understood for the first time what grace really meant. It was no longer an acronym, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. It was more than “undeserved kindness.” It was holy God loving an unholy sinner through His Son, Jesus Christ. Self-awareness seemed unconscious as the love of God was poured into my heart, wave after wave of love. All I could do was praise the Lord for His amazing love for me. As wonderful as that experience was, the problem was not over. My issues with pride, self-image, and God’s love did not cease. At the moment of faith the guilt of sin was forever removed. Sin’s power was broken, defeated, and I died to it. But being dead to sin doesn’t mean sin is dead. The Apostle Paul pled with Roman Christians, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Romans 6:12). Sin was no longer my master but that didn’t mean it didn’t try to rule me. Paul continued, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). Sin must still be confronted. Conversion is not perfection, at least not now. That’s coming. Now is God’s work conforming us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 2:10).

Self-Esteem Vs. Justification

I had a new heart but an old head. My thought patterns had been shocked by grace but not altogether changed. From time to time I struggled with feeling God didn’t love me as much as He did others. Usually it was when my performance wasn’t what I thought God expected. I may have not witnessed for Christ as much as I believed I should, or didn’t pray as much as I imagined God wanted. Other times this feeling would occur when my ministry seemed unproductive. Unfortunately, it would be several years before I understood what the Bible had been saying for centuries.

giving you perfect standing with Him, forever. Because of Calvary you can be on this kind of standing with God. The death and resurrection of our dear Savior sounded the death knell to the guilt of our sin. As Jesus struggled to breathe His last breath and proclaim, “It is finished!” our guilt before God was also breathing its last gasp. Through the sacrifice of Christ the penalty of sin was paid. There is nothing left for the believer to suffer. Jesus became our whipping boy. A whipping boy was a common young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince disobeyed. In our case, the Prince of Heaven was punished on behalf What did I finally learn? Several things. Some of the of us commoners. There is nothing standing between the lessons I’d had knowledge of and accepted them to be Prince’s Father and the sinner who trusts in the Prince. true but had little reality of them in my soul. This is The Apostle Paul explains, “Therefore, having been the blight of the American justified by faith, we have church scene, an intellectual peace with God through our agreement with no sensible Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans This is the of the reality in the heart. Surely 5:1). There is no other work you have experienced the for us to do except believe church scene, an “wow” moment when this with all of our hearts. agreement something you knew and believed in theory became This is so momentous. We with no sensible in real and experimental. This must receive this truth and is what I’m talking about; its radical implications; the that’s what happened to me. otherwise, we will base our relationship with God upon The one “wow” that made our performance. When you the most difference was I came to understand with a trust Christ, God removes all of your sin, guilt and deeper reality the doctrine of justification by faith. penalty. He accepts you as His adopted child. You, Again, I knew about this truth. I could theologically too, become a prince of heaven! Never, ever, will your explain it; in fact, I had preached it strongly. But I was Heavenly Father hold you guilty for your sin, any sin, not living its powerful implications. I had experienced past, present or future. Your legal standing before it, yet I somehow relegated the entire doctrine to the act God is the standing of Jesus Christ. Not only does He of my conversion, i.e., getting saved. To put it simply, I not account your sin to you, but also He graciously knew I was justified but I didn’t really understand how gives you an alien righteousness. In other words, a to apply it to walking with God in perfect peace. righteousness you did not perform. He gives you the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Your life is hidden How does justification by faith work in everyday life, in Christ and His spotless purity is accounted to you especially when it comes to fellowship with God? as your righteousness. I love how the Apostle Paul It works when you remember it’s the basis of your traces this glorious theme through the Old Testament fellowship with God. Justification is the act of God and strings verses together by the Messianic thread

blight

American intellectual

reality heart.

Self-Esteem Vs. Justification

of our Savior’s redemption. He begins with the life of Abraham and shows that Abraham was justified, even as we are, by faith.

The most wonderful implication of this, dear child of God, is that you and I are forever acceptable to the Father. He accepts you. You are His inheritance, His joyful claim, and His prized possession. His acceptance “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed of you has nothing to do with your performance. He God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” didn’t accept you because your performance, and if you (Romans 4:3) were not accepted because of performance you cannot be unaccepted because of it either. You are accepted, And then Paul moves to the life of David and quotes loved, and appreciated on the basis of Christ’s union the psalmist rejoicing in the beauty of God’s acquittal: with you. Jesus identified Himself and joined Himself to you by the Holy Spirit. You have become bone of His “‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, bone, flesh of His flesh (Ephesians 5:30). Therefore, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom no accusation against you will stand, no more than an the LORD shall not impute sin.’” (Romans 4:7, 8) accusation would stand against the Only Begotten. How can you not be joyful when you believe the Lord will not “impute sin,” your sin, to you? If you’re truly “Who shall bring a charge against God’s a Christian, sin you commit will not be accredited to elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he you. The word impute means to reckon to one’s account. who condemns? It is Christ who died, and God does not put your sin on your account, nor will furthermore is also risen, who is even at He. Why? Because all your sin was reckoned to Jesus’ the right hand of God, who also makes account. Isaiah prophesied, “the LORD has laid on Him intercession for us.” (Romans 8:33, 34) the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). God the Father put our guilt on the record of Jesus and made Him to suffer for it. Your sin has been penalized in the person of Christ. There is no more for you to suffer. He does not impute The writer to the Hebrews also presents the same your rebellion to you; He imputed it the Lamb of God. heavenly logic, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason As I said earlier, this is the basis of your standing with He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews God. This is the foundation upon which you stand. 2:11). There is no separation between Christ Jesus Jesus absorbed God’s anger for your sin. He took the and His brethren. Inseparably linked in the love of the blunt force, the awful and righteous rage against your Father and the righteousness of the Son. lawless deeds. Therefore, as Romans 5:1 says, you have peace with God. You have been reconciled and are no I will never forget the day when this became so real longer His enemy. This is true of all who believe, not to me. As I was suffering from self-pity and feelings a believing that is just a mental agreement with the of failure, the Lord penetrated my heart with His facts, but also a commitment of oneself to Christ. We unchanging love and acceptance. I clearly saw that my are united to Him through faith. He isn’t opposed to us Father through Jesus, and for His sake, had brought me in the very least. Never will we come under His holy into relationship with Him knowing all my faults and wrath. Jesus came under its terrible cloud and there failures. He loved me in spite of me. I was His. And died. With His death was the death of our separation if the God of the universe accepted me, why should I from God. Believe it! need anyone else’s acceptance? I experienced the rest

Self-Esteem Vs. Justification

of divine love. From that moment I have experienced the security of what it means to be justified.

The young man had to believe the truth and reject the lie. That’s our work. The work we are to do is trust God. We must trust what He said, we must trust so that we’ll do what He said; and we must trust that He will supply what we need to do what He said. And the work of faith begins with the truth that if we are justified, then we are forever righteous before Him based upon the work of Christ and not our own work. All your performance is the product of God’s justification. As a result of justifying the guilty, the no-longer-guilty love Him, serve Him in complete freedom, joy, and full-acceptance.

One day I counseled a young man who could not forgive himself of a serious sin he had committed. He had repented and given evidence of it. But he could not feel he was acceptable to God as he had been before his fall. Condemnation dogged him. He couldn’t experience the presence of God. I asked him if he believed God had forgiven him. He said, “Yes, God has forgiven me, but I must suffer the consequences of my sin and part of that is the loss of God’s presence.” I was amazed at the level of the enemy’s deception the young man had believed.

Most Christians today are like the Galatians the Apostle Paul corrected in his epistle bearing their name. He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). In other words, Paul was asking them why they thought they could grow in godliness simply by their efforts and not by faith in the Holy Spirit. Performance didn’t save any Galatian and it hasn’t saved you. God declares you righteous. “It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). And if God justifies through faith, why do you think you can keep yourself justified by your performance? Do you really believe He turns you over to yourself and I asked him how long did he think he would have to says, “I saved you; now you finish it”? Not at all. Paul remain outside the “favorable son” status that he once showed the Galatians that the grace that justifies is the enjoyed. He answered that he didn’t know and then same grace that sanctifies. If God’s grace is sufficient to said, “I guess until God sees I’m really sorry for what forgive me of sin and rescue me from sin’s penalty, then I’ve done.” I told him that if he were justified before surely it is sufficient to work holiness in me. We’re not God, then there was no condemnation. This is what saved by works, but the faith that God imparts by grace the Bible says. Condemnation is the very opposite works. It will work in me so that I will obey and strive to of justification. God cannot see you justified and be Christ-like. This striving to be Christ-like is the result condemned. I continued to explain to him the wonderful of the grace of God and not me. Paul tells the Philippians implications of justification. I showed him that he had to work out their salvation with fear and trembling for it believed the devil and doubted God. He was trying to was God who worked in them both to desire God’s will pay a form of penance by wallowing in condemnation. and to do it (Philippians 2:13). And if our getting into God’s favor and blessing depended on our performance, we could never receive What has this done for me? It has made me to see that it. We will never perform what is necessary for God’s God is truly my Father. I never need fear that He is approval. He began to weep, as he believed the truth of opposed to me, even if my performance is less than Scripture acknowledging that Christ had suffered all of what either He or I thinks it should be. Instead of trying sin’s separation from God. to run and hide from Him, thinking He is angry with

Self-Esteem Vs. Justification

me, it makes me quick to repent. The implications of my justification has made me to know, with a reality that goes beyond the mind and fills the heart, that He delights in me and is perfectly at rest with me. His love for me keeps Him from complaining or murmuring against me that I’m not sufficient for Him, or that He should find another who is better. No, His love is at rest with His children. “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). The word rest means to be quiet. In other words, the Lord is silent against you. He offers no complaint. This is completely amazing since I have enough complaints against me for both Him and me. But Jesus suffered those complaints and more. Now all that is left is God’s rejoicing over me. You may ask, “Doesn’t this understanding of justification and God’s love lead to pride as much as trying to build your self-esteem? It sounds like it would make individuals to think highly of themselves and make light of their sin and disobedience?” Just the opposite. The cross takes away that kind of boasting. The Apostle Paul says, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Paul knew his only boast was the death of Jesus Christ for by it Paul had relationship with God. This is an acknowledgement that Paul knew he was nothing special, in and of himself. He was special in the sight of God because of God’s love and not anything he did. The cross made it possible for God to pour out His blessings on Paul since Jesus received the blunt force of God’s condemnation. This is what the apostle says in Romans 5:11: “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” The word rejoice is the same word boast in Galatians 6:14. We boast in God and have this astonishing relationship because of the reconciliation of the cross of Christ. The cross removes any reason for pride and self-satisfaction. The believer rejoices in a God who loves the unlovable, and lifts up the undeserving. You and I can exult in the faithful love of God who shows infinite mercy by elevating us who were enemies to the status of sons, co-heirs with the Only Begotten Son. It is the gospel and only the gospel that can make the proud, humble and the self-obsessed become Christ-consumed. The pop-psychology of self-esteem wrapped in the Christian banner cannot fix the person who sees himself in a negative light. It can never teach self-denial, which means it can never set a person free of self-absorption, negative or positive. Self cannot undercut self. To try to do so only leads one deeper into the dark maze of introspection. What one needs is something bigger than self to lead away from self. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only thing able to do so. It is the very place where you and I are brought to the real truth about who we are. By accepting its declaration about us and its demonstration of God is love we can boast in the same who loves us based on no reason but that He delights to do so. Jesus’ death didn’t make God love us; rather, His death is the evidence of God’s love. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). For me to think somehow I cannot go to my Father because of my sins, failures, and unworthiness is to diminish the work of Jesus on the cross. It is rank unbelief, and it breaks the Father’s heart. In the end, I am nothing, but God loves me in Christ Jesus, and more than that, He accepts me in the beloved. This is the news that can cure the pride issue of all who will rejoice in the God of the gospel.

That One Sin BY

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. (1 Timothy 1:16) 8

n the last chapter we were considering those people who are unhappy and who never really enjoy their Christian life because of a failure to maintain a balance between mind and heart and will. That lack of balance is one of the great causes not only of unhappiness, but of failure and of stumbling in the Christian life.

In this chapter, we are going to consider one very common way in which the devil attacks along this line. It is the one suggested not only by this particular verse before us but by the entire chapter in this biographical section. The problem here is the case of those who are miserable Christians or who are suffering from spiritual depression because of their past—either because of some particular sin in their past, or because of the particular form which sin happened to take in their case. I would say that in my experience in the ministry, extending now over many years, there is no more common difficulty. It is constantly recurring and I think that I have had to deal with more people over this particular thing than over anything else. Now at first sight some of you may wonder whether such people are Christian at all. But you are quite wrong. They are Christians. They are not relying upon their own lives or activities or anything they can ever do. They are fully aware of their complete helplessness and their entire dependence upon the grace of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, you ask, what is the matter with them? Their condition is that they are nevertheless unhappy, and they are unhappy because of something in their past life. They come to you looking unhappy, indeed miserable, and they always talk about this thing, they invariably bring it up. As a rule it is some action, some deed—which may or may not have involved other people—some wrong committed by themselves. They are always analyzing it and scrutinizing and condemning themselves because of it. And the result is that they are unhappy. Let me give you what is the most graphic illustration of this that I have ever come across in my own experience. I remember an old man who was converted and became a Christian at the age of 77, one of the most striking conversions I have ever known. That man had lived a very evil life; there was scarcely anything he had not done at some time or another. But he came under the sound of the gospel and was converted in his old age. The great day came when he was received into the membership of the Church, and when he came to his first communion service on the Sunday evening it was to him the biggest thing that had ever happened. His joy was indescribable and we were all so happy about him. But next morning, even before I was up, that poor old man had arrived at my house, and there he stood looking the picture of misery and dejection, and weeping uncontrollably. I eventually succeeded in controlling him in a physical sense, and then asked him what was the matter. His trouble was this. After going home from that communion service he had suddenly remembered something that had happened thirty years ago. He was with a group of men drinking in a public house and arguing about religion. On that occasion he had said in contempt and derision that “Jesus Christ was a bastard.” And it had all come back to him suddenly and there was, he felt sure, no forgiveness for that. This one thing! The drinking and the gambling and the immorality were forgiven. He understood that clearly. But this thing that he had said about the Son of God, he could not be consoled, he could not be comforted. This one thing had cast him down to utter hopelessness. (I thank God that by the application of the Scriptures I was able to restore his joy to him.) But that is the kind of thing I am referring to, something a man has once said, or done, that haunts him and comes back to him, and makes him miserable and wretched, though he still subscribes to the full Christian faith.

...Satan who, though he cannot rob us of our salvation, can definitely rob us of our joy. That then is the kind of condition to which I am now calling attention. These are people who seem to be quite clear about the doctrine of salvation, except that they feel that in their case there is something—their sin, this particular sin or the form that sin has taken in their case—which somehow puts them in a different category. They say, “Yes, I know—but . . .” They are held down, they are miserable Christians, they are suffering from this state of spiritual depression. What is the real trouble here? Well, there are two main explanations of the condition. First and foremost, of course, it is the work of the devil; it is just Satan who, though he cannot rob us of our salvation, can definitely rob us of our joy. His great concern is to prevent anyone becoming a Christian, but when that fails, his one object then is to make them miserable Christians so that he can point men who are under a conviction of sin to them and say: “That is Christianity; look at him or her. There is a picture of Christianity! Look at that miserable creature. Do you want to be like that?” But there is also a subsidiary cause, and this is the thing I want to emphasize here. I would say this condition is almost entirely due to an ignorance of doctrine—a failure to understand the New Testament doctrine of salvation clearly. Let me put this plainly and bluntly in order that I may emphasize it even at the risk of being misunderstood. There is a sense in which the one thing that these people who are in this condition must not do is to pray to be delivered from it! That is what they always do, and that is what they have invariably been doing when they come seeking help—indeed, it is what they are generally told they must do. Now the Christian must always “pray without ceasing,” but this is one of those points at which the Christian must stop praying for a moment and begin to think! for there are particular problems in the Christian life concerning which I say that if you do nothing but pray about them you will never solve them. You must stop praying at times because your prayer may just be reminding you of the problem and

keeping your mind fixed upon it. So you must stop praying and think, and work out your doctrine. What are you to think of? The first thing I would suggest is that you think of this case of the Apostle Paul and of what he says here: “I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.” Now this is wonderful. What he claims here is that in a sense the Lord Jesus Christ saved him in order to set him up as a model for those people who feel that their particular sin somehow or another passes the limit of grace and the mercy of God. In other words, here are people who believe that sins can be graded and they draw distinctions between particular sins. They classify them saying that some are forgivable and some apparently are not. To these the Apostle says that his own case is more than sufficient to deal with the argument. “Whatever you may think,” he says, “whatever you may have done, think of me, think of what I was, a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious.” Could anything be worse? That is the first argument. You think of his case and say to yourself: “If he obtained mercy, if he could be forgiven, I must think again of this sin in my life.” That is where you start. But the Apostle does not stop at that, because in a sense we must not differentiate between sin and sin. On the surface the Apostle seems to be doing that. He says: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief,” as if to say there are big sinners and lesser sinners. He did not mean that, however: he cannot possibly mean that, for that would be to contradict his

essential doctrine. What he does mean is that the nearer a man gets to God the greater he sees his sin. When a man sees the blackness of his own soul, he says: “I am the chief of sinners;” and it is only a Christian who can say that. The man of the world will never make such a statement. He is always proving what a good man he is. But Paul seems to be saying more than that, as I have just been saying. He makes his meaning plain when he puts it like this, “I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.” In putting it like that he demolishes these grades of sin. Looking at it from one angle his sin was the worst sin conceivable, but from another angle it is the sum of all sins because finally there is only one sin and that is the sin of unbelief.

sin. So do not allow the devil to mislead you. It is not any particular sin, but our relationship to the Person of God Himself that matters.

That is the great New Testament doctrine on this matter; it is the thing that these people have to grasp above everything else, that we must not think in terms of particular sins but always in terms of our relationship to God. We all tend to go astray at that point. That is why we tend to think that some conversions are more remarkable than others. But they are not. It takes the same grace of God to save the most respectable person in the world as the most lawless person in the world. Nothing but the grace of God can save anybody, and it takes the same grace to save all. But we do not think like that. We think some conversions are more remarkable than others. Because we are wrong in our doctrine, we differentiate between sin, and think some sins are worse than others. It all comes back to our relationship to God; it is all a matter of belief or unbelief.

That brings us to the third point. The trouble with this type of unhappy Christian is that he does not really believe the Scriptures. Have you thought of that? You say: “My trouble is that terrible sin which I have committed.” Let me tell you in the Name of God that that is not your trouble. Your trouble is unbelief. You do not believe the Word of God. I am referring to the First Epistle of John and the first chapter where we read this: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is a categorical statement made by God the Holy Spirit through His servant. There is no differentiation between sin. Whatever your sin—it does not matter what it is, “if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So if you do not believe that word, and if you go on dwelling on your sin, I say that you are not accepting the Word of God, you are not taking God at His word, you do not believe what He tells you and that is your real sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin and all unrighteousness.” Believe the Word of God, my friend. Do not go on praying frantically to be forgiven that sin. Believe God’s Word. Do not ask Him for a message of forgiveness. He has given it to you. Your prayer may well be an expression of unbelief at that point. Believe Him and His Word.

James has put this point once and for ever in his Epistle in the second chapter and the tenth verse: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” So you see we are all on the same level; and if the Evil One tries to make you think that your sin is different, tell him in reply that it does not matter what particular point a man breaks with respect to the law, that if he breaks it in one point he is guilty of all. It is not the one point in particular that really matters; it is the law that matters. That is God’s way of looking at

Another trouble with these people is that they do not seem to realize fully what our Lord did on the cross on Calvary’s Hill. They do believe in His sacrificial, atoning death, but they do not work out its implications. They have not fully grasped the doctrine. They know enough to be saved—I am speaking of Christians—but they are in a state of depression because they do not realize fully what this means. They forget that the angel announced to Joseph at the very beginning that He should “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1: 21). The angel did

not say that He shall save from all sins except this one sin that you have committed. No! “He shall save His people from their sins.” There is no qualification there, no limit. All the sins of His people are there, every one of them. Indeed, He said it Himself, did He not, on the cross? He said: “It is finished,” absolutely finished. In what sense? It is finished in the sense that not only all the sins committed in the past were dealt with there, but all the sins that could ever be committed were also dealt with there. It is one sacrifice, once and forever. All the sins were dealt with there finally and completely, everything. Nothing was left undone—“It is finished.”

now one with Christ. The teaching is that we have died with Christ, have been buried with Christ, have risen with Christ, are seated in the heavenly places in Christ and with Christ. Let me sum it up in this way, therefore. You and I—and to me this is one of the great discoveries of the Christian life; I shall never forget the release which realizing this for the first time brought to me—you and I must never look at our past lives; we must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in Christ Jesus. I challenge you to do that. If you look at your past and are depressed by it, if as a result you are feeling miserable as a Christian, you must do what Paul did. “I was a blasphemer,” he said, but he did not stop at that. Does he then say: “I am unworthy to be a preacher of the gospel”? In fact he says the exact opposite: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry, etc.” When Paul looks at the past and sees his sin he does not stay in a corner and say: “I am not fit to be a Christian, I have done such terrible things.” Not at all. What it does to him is to make him praise God. He glories in grace and says: “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

The next step, therefore, is that we must be clear about justification. Let us remember that our justification means not only that our sins are forgiven and that we have been declared to be righteous by God Himself, not merely that we were righteous at that moment when we believed, but permanently righteous. For justification means this also, that we are given by God the positive righteousness of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what justification means. It does not only mean that your sins are forgiven, but much more. It means that He clothes us also with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He says in effect: “You are righteous; I see, not a sinner, but a righteous child of My own; I see you in Christ covered by His holiness and righteousness.” And when God does that to us, He does it once and That is the way to look at your past. So, if you look for ever. You are hidden, you yourself and your whole at your past and are depressed, it means that you are personality and life stand in the righteousness of Christ listening to the devil. But if you look at the past and before God. I say, therefore, with reverence and on the say: “Unfortunately authority of the Word of God that God sees your sins it is true I was no more; He sees the righteousness of Christ upon you. blinded by the god Lay hold of that. of this world, but thank God His grace Ultimately it all comes to this, that the real cause of was more abundant, the trouble is failure to realize our union with Christ. He was more than Many seem to think that Christianity just means that sufficient and His love we are delivered in the sense that our sins are forgiven. and mercy came upon But that is only the beginning, but one aspect of it. me in such a way that Essentially salvation means union with Christ, being it is all forgiven, I am a new one with Christ. As we were one with Adam we are man,” then all is well. That is

the way to look at the past, and if we do not do that, I am almost tempted to say that we deserve to be miserable. Why believe the devil instead of believing God? Rise up and realize the truth about yourself, that all the past has gone, and you are one with Christ, and all your sins have been blotted out once and forever. O let us remember that it is sin to doubt God’s word, it is sin to allow the past, which God has dealt with, to rob us of our joy and our usefulness in the present and in the future. Rejoice in this wondrous grace and mercy that has blotted out your sins and made you a child of God. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” This is an adaptation from the book Spiritual Depression. Printed with permission from Eerdmans Publishing.

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Exhortations about Communion With God the Father

By John Owen

Christians Are Commanded to Commune With God 1. First, this is a duty wherein it is most evident that Christians are not very practiced—namely, having close communion with the Father in love. Unfamiliarity with our mercies, our privileges, is our sin as well as our trouble. We do not listen to the voice of the Spirit, which is given unto us, “that we may know the things that are freely bestowed on us of God.” This leads to frustration, when we might rejoice; and to be weak, where we might be strong in the Lord. How few of the saints are in experience acquainted with this privilege of holding close communion with the Father in love! With what anxious, doubtful thoughts do they look upon Him! What fears there are, what questioning of His goodwill and kindness! At best, many think there is no sweetness at all in Him towards us, except what is purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus. It is true, through the cross is the way of communication; but the free fountain and spring of all is in the bosom of the Father. “Eternal life was with the Father, and is manifested unto us.” Let us, then— Eye the Father as love; don’t look on Him as an always threatening father, but as one most kind and tender. Let us look on Him by faith, as one that has had thoughts of kindness towards us from everlasting. It is misapprehension of God that makes any who have the least stirrings for Him to run from Him. “They that know thee will put their trust in thee.” But men cannot abide with God in spiritual meditations because of this wrong view of God. The Lord loses communion with His saints by their lack of this insight into His love. They fix their thoughts only on His terrible majesty, severity, and greatness; and so their spirits are not endeared. Would a soul continually eye His everlasting tenderness and compassion, His thoughts of kindness that have been from of old, His present gracious acceptance, it could not bear an hour’s absence from Him; whereas now, perhaps, it cannot watch with Him one hour. Let, then, this be the saints’ first notion of the Father—as one full of eternal, free love towards them: let their hearts and thoughts be filled with breaking through all discouragements that lie in the way. To raise them to communion, let them consider— Whose love it is. It is the love of Him who is in Himself all sufficient, infinitely satisfied with Himself and His own glorious excellencies and perfections; who has no need to go forth with His love unto others, nor to seek an object of it outside Himself. There might He rest with delight and pleasure to eternity. He is sufficient in His own love. He had His Son, also, His eternal Wisdom, to rejoice and delight Himself in from all eternity, Prov. 8:30. This is enough to satisfy the whole delight of the Father; but He will love His saints also. And it is such a love, as wherein He seeks not His own satisfaction only, but our good therein also—the love of a God, the love of a Father, whose proper outgoings are kindness and bounty. What kind of love it is. It is— a. Eternal. God’s love was fixed on us before the foundation of the world. Before we were, or had done the least good, then were His thoughts upon us—then was His delight in us—then did the Son rejoice in the thoughts of fulfilling His Father’s delight in Him. “Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.” (Proverbs 8:30, 31)

So the order of the words require us to understand it: “I was daily His delight,” and, “My delights were with the sons of men”—that is, in the thoughts of kindness and redemption for them. It was from eternity that He planned in His own heart a design for our happiness. The very thought of this is enough to make all that is within us, like the babe in the womb of Elisabeth, to leap for joy. A sense of it cannot but prostrate our souls to the lowest abasement of a humble, holy reverence, and make us rejoice before Him with trembling.

Let, I say, the soul frequently eye the love of the Father, and that under these considerations—they are all soulconquering and endearing.

c. Unchangeable. Though we change every day, yet His love changes not. Could any kind of provocation turn it away, it would have long since ceased. Its unchangeableness is that which makes the Father infinitely patient and forbearant, which He exercises towards us (without which we perish), 2 Pet. 3:9.

Let it have its proper fruit and effect upon your heart, in return of love to Him again. So shall we walk in the light of God’s countenance, and hold holy communion with our Father all the day long. Let us not deal unkindly with Him, and return refusal for His goodwill. Let there not be such a heart in us as to deal so unthankfully with our God.

So eye it as to receive it. Unless this is added, all is in vain as to any communion with God. We do not hold communion with Him in anything, until it be received by faith. Therefore, I would provoke the saints of God to believe the love of God for themselves—believe that such is the heart of the Father towards them—accept His witness herein. We b. Free. He loves us do not experience because He will; the sweetness of it there was, there is, until it is received. nothing in us for Continually, think which we should It was from eternity that He thoughts of faith on be beloved. If we planned in His own heart a God, as love to you— deserved His love, as embracing you then the value of His design for our happiness. with the eternal free love love would be less. If before described. When God owed love to us, then the Lord is, by His word, we would have no need to presented as such unto you, let be thankful. But love that is your mind know it, and assent that given before we existed must be it is so; and your will embrace it as absolutely free of obligation. This being so; and all your affections be filled gives it life and being. It is the reason of with it. Set your whole heart to it; let it be it, and sets a price upon it, Rom. 9:11; Eph. bound with the cords of this love. 1:3, 4; Titus 3:5; James 1:18.

d. Distinguishing. He has not thus loved all the world: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Why should He fix His love on us, and pass by millions from whom we differ not by nature—that He should make us sharers in His love, which most of the great and wise men of the world are excluded from?

More Aids for Communion With God 2. Now, to further us in this duty, and the daily constant practice of it, I shall add one or two considerations that may be of importance whereunto; as—

It is exceeding acceptable unto God, even our Father, that we should thus hold communion with Him in His love—that He may be received into our souls as one full of love, tenderness, and kindness, towards us. Flesh and blood is apt to have very hard thoughts of Him—to think He is always angry, yea, cruel; that it is not for poor creatures to draw nigh to Him; that nothing in the world is more desirable than never to come into His presence, or, as they say where He has anything to do. “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” say the sinners in Zion, Isa. 33:14. And, “I knew thou wast an austere man,” says the evil servant in the gospels. Now, there is not anything more grievous to the Lord, nor more helpful to the design of Satan upon the soul, than such thoughts as these. Satan claps his hands (if I may so say) when he can take up the soul with such thoughts of God: he has enough—all that he desires. This has been his design and way from the beginning. The first blood that murderer shed was by this means. He leads our first parents into hard thoughts of God: “Has God said so? Has He threatened you with death? He knows well enough it will be better with you.” With this method he battered and overthrew all mankind in one; and being mindful of his ancient conquest, he readily uses the same weapons he successfully used against the first parents.

hands of His, than such hard thoughts of Him, knowing full well what fruit this bitter root is like to bear— what alienations of heart—what drawings back—what unbelief in our walking with Him. How unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father! Consider, then, this in the first place—receiving the Father as He holds out love to the soul, gives Him the honor He aims at, and is exceeding acceptable unto Him. He often sets it out in an eminent manner, that it may be so received—“He commendeth his love toward us,” Rom. 5:8. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” 1 John 3:1. Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. Where does this folly come from? They think it a boldness to eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving: I speak of saints; but for sinners, they can judge Him hard, austere, severe, almost heartless, and fierce (the very worst affections of the very worst of men, and most hated of him, Rom. 1:31; 2 Tim. 3:3), and think herein they do. Is not this soul-deceit from Satan? Was it not his design from the beginning to inject such thoughts of God? Assure yourself, then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father, than for us to keep up our hearts unto Him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus. And,

Now, it is exceeding grievous to the Spirit of God to be so slandered in the hearts of those whom He dearly loves. How He argues this with Zion! “What iniquity have ye seen in me?” says He; “have I been a wilderness unto you, or a land of darkness?” Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman,” etc. The Lord takes nothing worse at the

This will be exceeding effectual to endear your soul unto God, to cause you to delight in Him, and to make your abode with Him. Many saints have no greater burden in their lives, than their hearts do not constantly delight and rejoice in God—that they still have an unwillingness to walk close with Him. What is at the bottom of this disorder? Is it not their unskillfulness or neglect of this duty, even of holding communion with the Father in love? To the degree we see how much God loves us, we will delight in Him, and no more. Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from Him; but if the heart be fascinated with the superiority of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto Him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode

with Him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts will not delight in Him. Objection 1. But some may say, “How shall I hold communion with the Father in love? I know not at all whether He loves me or no; how then do I venture to cast myself upon it? What if I should not be accepted? Should I not rather perish for my presumption, than find sweetness in His bosom? God seems to me only as a consuming fire and everlasting burnings; so that I dread to look up unto Him.” Answer. I know not what may be understood by knowing of the love of God; though it be carried on by spiritual sense and experience, yet it is received purely by believing. Our knowing of it, is our believing of it as revealed. “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love,” 1 John 4:16. This is the assurance, which at the very entrance of walking with God, you may have of this love. He who is truth has said it; and whatever your heart says, or Satan says, unless you will take it up on this account, you make him a liar who hath spoken it, 1 John 5:10. Objection 2. “I can believe that God is love to others, for He has said He is love; but that He will be so to me, I see no ground of persuasion; there is no cause, no reason in the world, why He should turn one thought of love or kindness towards me: and therefore I dare not cast myself upon it, to hold communion with Him in His special love.” Answer. He has spoken it as particularly to you as to any one in the world. And for the cause of love, He has as much to fix it on you as on any of the children of men. Never anyone from the foundation of the world, who believed the Father’s love, and returned His love to Him again, was deceived; neither shall ever any to the world’s end be so. You are, then, in this, upon a most sure bottom. If you believe and receive the Father as love, He will infallibly be so to you, though others may fall under His severity. But, Objection 3. “I cannot find my heart making returns of love unto God. Could I find my soul set upon Him, I could then believe His soul delighted in me.” Answer. This is possibly the most preposterous course your thoughts can take, a most ready way to rob God of His glory. “Herein is love,” says the Holy Ghost, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us” first, 1 John 4:10, 11. Now, you would invert this order, and say, “Herein is love, not that God loved me, but that I love Him first.” This is to take the glory of God from Him. He loves us without any cause in us, and we have all cause in the world to love Him, but this objection is the contrary. It is that something should be in you to make God love you, even this, your love to Him; and that you should love God, before you know whether He loves you or not. This is a course of flesh’s finding out, that will never bring glory to God, nor peace to your own soul. Lay down, then, your reasonings; take up the love of the Father upon a pure act of believing, and that will open your soul to the Lord in the communion of His love. This is an edited and revised excerpt from John Owens’ book, Communion with God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost.

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus By John Piper

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

hat Paul is saying is that all of God’s condemning wrath and all of His omnipotent opposition to us in our sin has been replaced by almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance. In other words, if you are in Christ Jesus all of God’s action toward you is almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance. It is not mixed. It is not as though some days He is against you with wrath - and those days are bad days—while other days He is for you with love—and those days are good days. That is emphatically not the case and not the way to think about it. It may seem that way. But that is precisely why we need the truth of God’s revelation in His word. Most of the time in this world of pleasure and pain things are not what they seem. To understand what things are really like and what is really happening we need to put on the lens of God’s word. So I say it again: what God wants us to understand from Romans 8:1 when He says through the apostle Paul, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” is that all of God’s condemning wrath and all of His omnipotent opposition against us in our sin has been entirely replaced by almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance. In Christ Jesus God is always for you. Always! This is where Paul is going in Romans 8. He gets there in verse 31 and says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us!” His point is that in Christ Jesus “no condemnation” means that God is always omnipotently for us and not against us. Always! Now this is breathtaking. If we could believe it, practically, morning till night deep in our souls—if this truth that God is only for us and not against us, and that He is for us with almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance all day and all night, waking and sleeping, Oh how differently we would live and sleep! What freedom! What a joy! What a peace! What a risk-taking boldness! What a fearlessness! What a sacrificial life-style of love and service and mercy! What a patience! What a serenity . . . we would have. Two Obstacles and Solutions for Believing God Is Always For Us But it just seems too good to be true. It doesn’t seem to fit this fallen world of sin and sickness. So let me try to help you believe it by dealing with two obstacles. I’ll try to show how each one is dealt with in God’s word. The first obstacle is remaining sin and the feelings of guilt that follow. And the second obstacle is remaining experiences of sickness and the feelings of doubt or fear that follow. Sin and guilt on the one hand, and sickness and fear on the other hand. If there is no condemnation, if God is not against me, but He is only for me with almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance at the time, what do I make of my sin and my sickness? 1. Sin and Guilt: Fight with Gutsy Guilt First, let me point you to a text that helps us with sin and feelings of guilt, Micah 7:5-10. I will relate this text to the situation in North Korea. I was in Jackson, Mississippi, this week and spoke with a Korean man whose burden is reaching North Korea. True Christianity is an illicit faith in North Korea. I asked him what the real state of things was. He said that there is a thin veneer of public Christianity in a few officially endorsed churches. But in fact there are probably as many as 80,000 Christians in the underground church. He said that recently the communist government made it known that this was illegal and urged people to report their own family members. He said that even some children and

young people were turning in their parents—betraying I preached a sermon on this text in July of 1988 and them to death. called it “When I Fall I Will Rise.” And in it I called the people to “gutsy guilt.” And that is what I want to You remember that Jesus said that would happen, hold up again today. Notice the jarring words in verses “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his 8-9. This is a description of what we do when there is child; and children will rise up against parents and have “no condemnation” and yet we have sinned. How do them put to death” (Mark 13:12). Those words come from we think and act? a prophecy in Micah 7:6, and that leads into some of the most astonishing words on grace and “no condemnation” (8) “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I in the Old Testament. Here is Micah 7:5-9: fall I will rise [So there has been a temporary “fall”]; Though I dwell in darkness [so there is a season of darkness and guilty feelings], the Lord is a light for me [so the Lord who is angry with him is nevertheless His Do not trust in a neighbor; Do not light]. (9) I will bear the indignation of the Lord [so have confidence in a friend. From the Lord is displeased, and angry with Him—but it is not the anger of a condemning judge, but of a lighther who lies in your bosom Guard providing disciplining Father! He spanks the child and your lips. For son treats father sends him to his room for a time, but He does not turn contemptuously, Daughter rises off the light of hope] Because I have sinned against Him [so there is real sin], Until He pleads my case up against her mother, Daughterand executes justice for me [so this angry God is FOR in-law against her mother-in-law; HIM and not against him. He will justify him and not A man’s enemies are the men of condemn him!]. He will bring me out to the light, And I will see His righteousness.” his own household. But as for me,

I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will see His righteousness.

Now that is a picture of how to think and act when you sin against your Father whose whole disposition toward you is almighty mercy and omnipotent love. He will not always handle you gently. But He will always love you. And always be for you and not against you. So we take our sins seriously. We hate them. We see them as a contradiction of who we are in Christ and a contradiction of our Father’s love. We confess our sins (1 John 1:9). We look to the cross where all our pardon and righteousness was fully secured. We accept the Father’s displeasure and discipline, and may dwell in darkness for a season. But if our enemy rejoices and says to us in our night of sorrow, “See, God is against you. He is angry. You are guilty and under His condemnation,” then we will say, with the authority of Romans 8:1 and on the basis of Jesus Christ’s death

and righteousness, and in the words of Micah 7: “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will see His righteousness.” That is what I mean by gutsy guilt. I know of no other way to persevere in the Christian life in view of our constant failings—no other way to stay married for Christ’s sake, to rear children, and be single and chaste, and maintain hope and fruitfulness in ministry, than this gutsy guilt: When I fall I will rise . . . though I have sinned, the very one against whom I have sinned will plead my case and execute justice for me –not against me, but FOR me! Oh, love this gospel! Love and live this gospel!

I am not saying that every time you get sick or if you die, it is always owing to a particular sin that you committed are, Paul says, being disciplined by the Lord so that we would not be “condemned with the world.”

Let me make crystal clear what I am not saying: I am not saying that every time you get sick or if you die, it is always owing to a particular sin that you committed— like the abuse of the Lord’s Supper. I am saying that 2. Sickness and Fear: May Be a Saving Judgment it might be. And here is the stunningly good news: even if and when it is, this “judgment” from the Lord Now what about sickness and fear? If that is how “no is a loving judgment. A fatherly judgment. Indeed a condemnation” endures through sin and guilt feelings, precious, saving judgment. how does it endure through sickness and fear? 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 is Paul’s warning not to treat the And you can see this clearly in verse 32: “But Lord’s Supper lightly but to examine yourself to see if when we are judged, we are disciplined by the you are trusting Christ when you eat. Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” Don’t miss this: God’s design in your A man must examine himself, and in so doing he weakness or sickness or death is “so that you will is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For not be condemned.” There is “no condemnation” he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment for those who are in Christ Jesus, EVEN IF their to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. sickness is a token of God’s fatherly displeasure For this reason many among you are weak and and discipline. sick, and a number sleep [that is, weakness and sickness and death may be owing to our misuse Here is another call for gutsy guilt. You may be lying of the Lord’s Supper]. But if we judged ourselves there in the hospital room and wondering: “Has God rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are turned against me? Has he become my enemy?” That’s judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we what Job cried out in his sickness: “Why do You hide will not be condemned along with the world. Your face And consider me Your enemy?” (Job 13:24). But Job was wrong (James 5:11). God had not become Now look carefully at this last verse (32). When we are his enemy. And He won’t become yours either. Not judged—with weakness or sickness or even death—we even if He brings you weakness and sickness and death.

Things Are Not as They Seem We must learn this. Things are not what they seem. We need the Word of God to know what is really happening when we sin and feel guilty for it and experience a season of indignation from God. We need to know what is happening when we are sick and on the brink of death. And what we know is this: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” When we fall we will rise. Our displeased Father loves us with almighty mercy and omnipotent assistance, and He will bring us out into the light. And if we are sick and dying we know that even if it is the very judgment of God, it is to spare us condemnation with the world because He loves us with an omnipotent, death-dealing, death-defeating love. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Believe this. Take Christ as your Treasure and live in Him. Glory in this truth and this Savior! Live this freedom! By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!