Favorite Book Friday January 29,2021
This is the last #favoritebookfriday I’ll write at home before I move into my dorm next Wednesday. That’s crazy cool. I’ve got a lot to do: like pack. I’m gonna try to think of WW so I can get caught up. I wanna share a lot of my journey with you all though so let’s see how it all goes. Let’s look at Chapter 5-6 in Classic Christianity.
Chapter 5 is “Putting the Pieces Together”. We’re talking about the life and death issue of salvation. So Jesus died for you past sin but what about the future sin?. Well when Jesus died all your sin was in the future and he paid for them all in full. Gods wrath is satisfied. The theological word for it is “propitiation”. It means God the Father is totally satisfied with the sacrifice made by His Son. This event gave us the ability to become right with God. There’s not any wrath for you. Like we have a guilty verdict before God but God gave us the free gift of his son.
Bob gives an example. If you died of cancer but you need to be saved. However you’ve got two problems. If you cured you’re cancer, you’re still dead. If you were raised to life, you’d eventually die of the cancer. The same is true for salvation. That cancer is called sin. Before we can be raised to life, sin had to be eradicated. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says Jesus because sin because he never sinned so we could be right with God. We don’t die spiritually again because sin has been forgiven. Your salvation is secure.
We’ve got to enlarge our view of salvation. We have to understand we’ve all be reconciled before God. That means there’s no longer a gap between God and man. The only sin that sends you to hell is unbelief. God decided to reconcile us to himself on his own doing. It’s not about man’s search for God but God’s search for man. It’s not from your own doing but God’s. He loves you and holds no grudge against you. We don’t beat people over the head with the law to keep them straight. It’s more of a marriage proposal. We’re royalty now and our new identity in Christ is our motivation to change.
This is one of my favorite parts of the book. The example given is a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. A new creature comes out of the chrysalis. The same is true for you and me. We’re a new creature. It was a worm now it’s a butterfly. You may not feel like a butterfly all the time but that’s who you are. You can’t call yourself a sinner because you’re not defined but what you do but what Jesus has already done: extend his grace. We’re called to live a life worthy of the calling we receive. Paul describes it as being a child of light. Why should you? Because that’s who you are. If anyone is in Christ, they’re a new creation.
That’s it for the Instagram version! Yo Can checkout chapter six on the website
So this next chapter is “towards a proper self image. So here’s a question: “how do you feel God sees you right now.” Maybe you feel good but so many of us feel bad or sad. Hebrews 4:16 says we are to enter God’s throneroom with confidence. So the problem is identity. We don’t have identity without attaching it to something or someone. But no one can take away the most stable identity: child of God. The core source of identity is your relationship with God. You identity isn’t labels or past failure. If Christ lives in you, you’re who he says you are. When we make labels based on what we do, it cements into you mind and determines your behavior. God wants to see you free from that bondage. There’s only people “in Adam” or “in Christ”. To be in is that person is the family head. You inherit everything. Being in Adam is being in sin. The question is who will you identify with? Baptism will help answer that. There’s not exactly one way to do it but the meaning behind it is total identification. We go down spiritually dead and come up fully alive. You’re totally identified with Jesus. We’re partakers in his divine nature. We get all these things though Jesus. The old you is gone, the new you is totally alive and forgive. That change in identity with result is some behavior change. You have a choice: do you present yourself before your creator the way he sees you or through your own flesh? The soul is like a piano. The music that plays comes from who’s at the piano. That’s a daily choice. Remember you do go to heaven but God loves you today and you can live in that freedom today. There’s no if’s on God’s acceptance. You’re who he says you are forever. That’s the way God chooses to love. When you focus on his love, you’re free from bondage. You can go confidently to his throne of Grace and remember who you are in him
Chapter Highlights (Chapter 5-6)
At the cross, God took every sin every man would ever commit and placed the all on Jesus Christ.
There at the cross, God poured out every ounce of hatred for sin so you and I deserve so that His justice is totally satisfied except Jesus took it for us
When the Lord Jesus gives us his resurrected life, it can truly be eternal life because the only thing that could cause you to die—sin—has been completely dealt with at the cross.
The greatest priority for you today: learning to experience real life-Christ Himself living through you.
The only thing that keeps any man from eternal life is his refusal to accept the salvation that God offers.
An emphasis on the cross and forgives of sins to the exclusion of teaching people about sharing Christ’s resurrected life that really leads to complacency
As long as a half gospel continues to be taught, we are going to continue produce Christians who are very thankful they are not going to be judged for their sin but who have no significant self-motivation to change their behavior.
Do not call yourself a “sinner saved by grace” that’s like calling a butterfly a “converted worm”
Too many Christians are trying to live the Christian life- trying to act like butterflies but they are still worms
The tragedy of the modern day Christian is our utter ignorance of who we are in Christ
The common denominator of all these human attempts to discover identity is that they are all temporal-they change with the wind.
There is only one way to determine your identity that cannot be shaken, one foundation that cannot be taken away from you: “I am a child of God.”
When God looks at you, he sees a child of his who is totally forgiven, perfect in his sight because you are in Christ and in dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God,
Truth is what God says you are
Being made into a new creation does not refer to your behavior, it refers to your identity
We don’t need a good self image, we need a proper self image that comes from God’s word
But God wants us to know and rest in who we are in Christ and to grasp the truth that we are beloved children, even in the middle of our worst failures. Only then will we have the confidence to come to him in our time of need
The believers identity is not a side issue. It is central to experiencing the real Christian life. If we don’t have a firm grip on this issue, we will not have the confidence to go to our God and Father for help when we need it most.
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