Passage of the Day: Reading Plan Reference … Genesis, Chapter 4 – 7 … Study Scripture Reference: Genesis 4: 1-5 NIV … 1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. … Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
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Genesis 7: 1-5 NIV … 1 The Lord then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." ,,, 5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
My Journal for Today: Day 2 of my year-through-the-Bible chronologically. I hope that some who’re reading my journal entries might have joined me in this reading plan – or maybe some other plan to read through God’s word this year. But even if you’re just following here what I’m journaling, we’ll be going through some great truth issues; because they’ll be coming directly from God’s word – for His purpose; and we know the promise of Isaiah 55: 11 (check it out!).
Today, from a vast source of scriptural meat in Genesis, Chapters 4-7, there was much one could choose to discuss; but God’s Spirit seemed to bring two passages to my consciousness, the ones I’ve selected and reprinted above, … first from the story of Cain and Abel and then from the account, later in history, when God charged Noah to save mankind. These are two biblical accounts of the results of man’s fall from grace in the Garden to have to deal with the evil effects of sin.
But both of these stories do illustrate clearly how God deals with man’s choice to either succumb to selfishness in sin or for mankind to choose righteousness, which is his “LIVING SACRIFICE” of obedience to God’s will and His way.
When we view the account of the first two siblings, Cain and Abel, we see how one, Abel, chose to give God his best, i.e., Abel’s living sacrifice, and the other chose to give a more restrained, selfish sacrifice; and we know the result of how God looked upon the two … as well as the human result of Cain killing his brother because of his jealousy.
Then there is the account of how mankind had degenerated in their sinfulness to the point that God had to cleanse the earth. And the Lord chose Noah as His vehicle of cleansing; and we read in this story how God gave His free grace to the one, Noah, who was obedient and had lived a life of LIVING SACRIFICE.
Are we getting the picture? God favors and imparts His grace upon those who CHOOSE to live their lives in obedience and worship to the Lord. God gave mankind this God-like ability of free choice; and when we exercise it, God wants to see that exercise of free-will to be a LIVING SACRIFICE to the Creator rather than the created.
Yes, we who have chosen – by our free-will – to surrender our lives to God in the living sacrifice of faith are going to get the same rewards as did Abel and Noah. But you may be saying, “Didn’t God allow Abel to be killed.” Yes, he did; but my friend, if you’re a born-again Christian, one day you’ll see Abel in heaven; and you may even see Cain … IF … he repented of his sinful act of murder and came back to God, living the rest of His life in contrite pursuit of God as a LIVING SACRIFICE.
But we’ll definitely see Noah in heaven; because his life was an exemplary one of sacrifice in righteousness for His Lord. In this regard, we all need to be asking ourselves if we’re living as the Apostle Paul charged believers to life in Romans 12: 1-2 [hope you have that one memorized]. Are we living lives of worship … i.e., “LIVING SACRIFICE,” … apart from the very human and worldly tendency to live for self rather than to live for our Savior. Jesus was THE One who came to us to redeem us from the forces which drove Adam and Eve from the garden or caused Cain to kill his brother, Abel. Jesus was God’s plan to save us from those self-driven forces which caused God to bring a flood to cleanse mankind of the evil brought into the garden by the serpent and into the hearts of mankind by their own sinful choices.
My friends, we need to take stock of how we’re living as we move into this New Year. Are we living life as a second-rate sacrifice (as we see in the life of Cain); or are we bringing our best to God in the way we live (as did Abel)? And are we living as did Noah, … lives of obedience and surrender to the will and the ways of God, rather than lives like the world around us? In other words, are we living up to what Paul wrote about in Romans 12: 1 – 2, … i.e., “… lives of LIVING SACRIFICE, … holy, … acceptable to God, which is our reasonable act of worship?”
If we are doing the latter, we’re off to a really good start in 2012. If not, … well I think it’s obvious then where we need to direct our choices.
My Prayer Today: … Oh, Lord, help me to remain true to Your will/way with a life of living sacrifice to You. Amen
Showing posts with label slave to righteousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slave to righteousness. Show all posts
Monday, January 02, 2012
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
December 7, 2011 … Christ As A Servant – As a SLAVE
Passage of the Day: Philippians 2: 7b [ NIV - see highlight passage in bold/underlined] … 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!
Philippians 2: 7b [NASB] … 7b …, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
My Journal for Today: John MacArthur ends his Strength For Today devotional on this date, while focusing on today’s verse, but also by quoting the words of Jesus in Matt. 20: 27, where our Lord said, “…whoever wants to be first must be your slave [or ‘bond servant’ in the NASB].” And then MacArthur asks his readers if we, who call ourselves Christians, really pursue that model of Christlikeness by serving others in lowliness – as their SLAVE - as we have also read in Phil. 2: 3 – 4. That’s how Christ came into the world to serve as a slave to the will of His father, humbling Himself, even unto the cross, to serve mankind as was the will of His Heavenly Father. And since Phil. 2: 5 commands us to take the attitude of our Savior, we should see ourselves as a SLAVE to our God, first, and then to others as modeled by Jesus.
Today’s highlighted verse (Phil. 2: 7b), uses the Greek term “morphe” when it refers to Jesus taking the “very nature” (or “form” in the NASB) of a bond servant [or more accurately “SLAVE” according to MacArthur]. That, of course, is the Greek word which is the base from which comes our word “metamorphosis” or the more modern term “morph,” which refers to something changing its essence, from one form to another. And as we’ve been studying thus far this month, Christ did this by His “kenosis,” or by emptying Himself of His claims to Trinitarian majesty as He was incarnated into a babe and lived for 33 years as a man, finally dying as the Lamb of God on a cross for all of us. So, as MacArthur points out, Christ, fully God, “morphed” into a servant or slave to live His life as a man on earth. And again we read Paul’s exhortation in Phil. 2: 5, that our attitude, as Christians, must MORPH from our basic sin nature to become that of Christlikeness as we aspire to live like Him. So, above all, the logic and truth of today’s verse would point us to become bond servants of God as was our Savior; and our servanthood to Christ, in our surrender to His Spirit, is our status as bond-slave to Him as we live our lives for His purposes.
Jesus was the ultimate slave model, totally “bonded” to the will of His Heavenly Father - and also to the needs of all of mankind - as He ultimately served us by dying as the suffering servant that we might have eternal life (see John 3: 16). In fact over 700 years before Christ came among us, Christ, the Messiah, was depicted as the One who would become almost unrecognizable on the cross, serving mankind [see Isaiah 52: 13 – 14]. What we’re reading in Phil. 2, is how Christ’s fulfillment of those prophesies plays out in the lives of those who come after Him … those of us who serve Him as His disciples [really, more accurately, as His “slaves”]; and in doing so, those who serve God’s Kingdom do so by serving others.
Christ’s servanthood is our model as we strive toward Christlikeness; and it again begs the question, “Are we, in fact, living out this mandate for servanthood or slavery to our God?” I, for one, have far to go; but I’m bolstered by God’s promise (in Phil. 1: 6) that He is doing a work in me to shape me into His image – and this most certainly leads me to become more of a slave to His Spirit in this process.
But stay tuned; … there’s even more to come about our Servant and Lord.
My Prayer Today: Transform us, Lord, into Your likeness … as a true slave to the Father as we serve others as You did. Amen
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Blogger’s Note: If you’re a follower of John MacArthur’s teaching, as you certainly can perceive I am, you may want to read Dr. M’s book, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity In Christ, which goes deep into a study of the term “slave” in the New Testament, which is a term which has become watered down and slighted by many Bible translations. That book really helped me when I was writing the journal entry you read above.
Philippians 2: 7b [NASB] … 7b …, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
My Journal for Today: John MacArthur ends his Strength For Today devotional on this date, while focusing on today’s verse, but also by quoting the words of Jesus in Matt. 20: 27, where our Lord said, “…whoever wants to be first must be your slave [or ‘bond servant’ in the NASB].” And then MacArthur asks his readers if we, who call ourselves Christians, really pursue that model of Christlikeness by serving others in lowliness – as their SLAVE - as we have also read in Phil. 2: 3 – 4. That’s how Christ came into the world to serve as a slave to the will of His father, humbling Himself, even unto the cross, to serve mankind as was the will of His Heavenly Father. And since Phil. 2: 5 commands us to take the attitude of our Savior, we should see ourselves as a SLAVE to our God, first, and then to others as modeled by Jesus.
Today’s highlighted verse (Phil. 2: 7b), uses the Greek term “morphe” when it refers to Jesus taking the “very nature” (or “form” in the NASB) of a bond servant [or more accurately “SLAVE” according to MacArthur]. That, of course, is the Greek word which is the base from which comes our word “metamorphosis” or the more modern term “morph,” which refers to something changing its essence, from one form to another. And as we’ve been studying thus far this month, Christ did this by His “kenosis,” or by emptying Himself of His claims to Trinitarian majesty as He was incarnated into a babe and lived for 33 years as a man, finally dying as the Lamb of God on a cross for all of us. So, as MacArthur points out, Christ, fully God, “morphed” into a servant or slave to live His life as a man on earth. And again we read Paul’s exhortation in Phil. 2: 5, that our attitude, as Christians, must MORPH from our basic sin nature to become that of Christlikeness as we aspire to live like Him. So, above all, the logic and truth of today’s verse would point us to become bond servants of God as was our Savior; and our servanthood to Christ, in our surrender to His Spirit, is our status as bond-slave to Him as we live our lives for His purposes.
Jesus was the ultimate slave model, totally “bonded” to the will of His Heavenly Father - and also to the needs of all of mankind - as He ultimately served us by dying as the suffering servant that we might have eternal life (see John 3: 16). In fact over 700 years before Christ came among us, Christ, the Messiah, was depicted as the One who would become almost unrecognizable on the cross, serving mankind [see Isaiah 52: 13 – 14]. What we’re reading in Phil. 2, is how Christ’s fulfillment of those prophesies plays out in the lives of those who come after Him … those of us who serve Him as His disciples [really, more accurately, as His “slaves”]; and in doing so, those who serve God’s Kingdom do so by serving others.
Christ’s servanthood is our model as we strive toward Christlikeness; and it again begs the question, “Are we, in fact, living out this mandate for servanthood or slavery to our God?” I, for one, have far to go; but I’m bolstered by God’s promise (in Phil. 1: 6) that He is doing a work in me to shape me into His image – and this most certainly leads me to become more of a slave to His Spirit in this process.
But stay tuned; … there’s even more to come about our Servant and Lord.
My Prayer Today: Transform us, Lord, into Your likeness … as a true slave to the Father as we serve others as You did. Amen
=================
Blogger’s Note: If you’re a follower of John MacArthur’s teaching, as you certainly can perceive I am, you may want to read Dr. M’s book, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity In Christ, which goes deep into a study of the term “slave” in the New Testament, which is a term which has become watered down and slighted by many Bible translations. That book really helped me when I was writing the journal entry you read above.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
October 19, 2011 … Slaves of Righteousness
Romans 6: 17 – 18 [highlighted verses in bold] … 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
My Journal for Today: Oh how the Apostle Paul, the great discipler, wanted the Roman Christians (and for you and me, by extension) to grasp the truths in today’s (and yesterday’s) passages, which would allow them (us) to be free from our past in Christ. And another Apostle, John, must’ve felt much the same thing when he quoted Jesus in John 8: 31 - 32: “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Both Paul and John wanted the bonds for believers who surrendered to Christ to our past sins to be broken by the Living Truth, Who, of course is Jesus. As John MacArthur puts it, “Christian liberty is not the freedom to choose to sin, but the freedom to choose not to.” And in today’s passage we read of the spiritual heart transplant performed in the life of the true, born-again believer who moves from being a slave to sin to becoming a slave to righteousness.
I believe … from Paul in Romans 6 and John in 1st John 1 and Peter in 1st Peter 1 … there’s ample biblical truth to say that true Christians are spiritually compelled to become slaves of righteousness; … that is, we are convicted with a growing sensitivity to sin as well as a growing power in the Spirit to overcome its grip on our lives. And that maturing conviction and enablement comes from our building/growing relationship with Christ and our surrender to His Spirit, where we will glean the empowerment to make the choices which lead to our freedom from sin and unto righteousness.
A Christian’s first step of repentance in faith to truly believe and receive Christ as Savior and Lord at conversion begins this process of relationship building with our Lord; but it is matured and completed as a spiritual process in our lifelong sanctification, carried out by the same Holy Spirit Who saved us. This change, as we’ve seen in past devotionals is documented in 2nd Cor. 5: 17, Gal. 2: 20, and/or Phil. 1: 6 [all verses one should have thoroughly memorized and internalized]. And our sanctification is the reality of each of us, as Christians, becoming loyal volunteers and surrendered slaves to Christ, humbly and joyfully wearing His Robes of Righteousness to cover over our rags of sin (see all of Colossians 3).
So, we must ask ourselves … do we feel under a compulsion to become an indentured servant of Christ, free from the enslavement to sin in our past? If so, what patterns in our life demonstrate our willingness to surrender to Christ’s Spirit and wear His robes to allow others to see Christ by the way we choose to live? When we answer that with our 24/7 lifestyle of worship, we’ll be the “living sacrifices” of Rom. 12:1, which reflect the freedom in truth Christ talked about in John 8: 32.
My Prayer Today: You are my Master, Lord! I pray my life choices show to others that I’m a slave to righteousness. Amen
My Journal for Today: Oh how the Apostle Paul, the great discipler, wanted the Roman Christians (and for you and me, by extension) to grasp the truths in today’s (and yesterday’s) passages, which would allow them (us) to be free from our past in Christ. And another Apostle, John, must’ve felt much the same thing when he quoted Jesus in John 8: 31 - 32: “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Both Paul and John wanted the bonds for believers who surrendered to Christ to our past sins to be broken by the Living Truth, Who, of course is Jesus. As John MacArthur puts it, “Christian liberty is not the freedom to choose to sin, but the freedom to choose not to.” And in today’s passage we read of the spiritual heart transplant performed in the life of the true, born-again believer who moves from being a slave to sin to becoming a slave to righteousness.
I believe … from Paul in Romans 6 and John in 1st John 1 and Peter in 1st Peter 1 … there’s ample biblical truth to say that true Christians are spiritually compelled to become slaves of righteousness; … that is, we are convicted with a growing sensitivity to sin as well as a growing power in the Spirit to overcome its grip on our lives. And that maturing conviction and enablement comes from our building/growing relationship with Christ and our surrender to His Spirit, where we will glean the empowerment to make the choices which lead to our freedom from sin and unto righteousness.
A Christian’s first step of repentance in faith to truly believe and receive Christ as Savior and Lord at conversion begins this process of relationship building with our Lord; but it is matured and completed as a spiritual process in our lifelong sanctification, carried out by the same Holy Spirit Who saved us. This change, as we’ve seen in past devotionals is documented in 2nd Cor. 5: 17, Gal. 2: 20, and/or Phil. 1: 6 [all verses one should have thoroughly memorized and internalized]. And our sanctification is the reality of each of us, as Christians, becoming loyal volunteers and surrendered slaves to Christ, humbly and joyfully wearing His Robes of Righteousness to cover over our rags of sin (see all of Colossians 3).
So, we must ask ourselves … do we feel under a compulsion to become an indentured servant of Christ, free from the enslavement to sin in our past? If so, what patterns in our life demonstrate our willingness to surrender to Christ’s Spirit and wear His robes to allow others to see Christ by the way we choose to live? When we answer that with our 24/7 lifestyle of worship, we’ll be the “living sacrifices” of Rom. 12:1, which reflect the freedom in truth Christ talked about in John 8: 32.
My Prayer Today: You are my Master, Lord! I pray my life choices show to others that I’m a slave to righteousness. Amen
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