Devotions

Are you great enough to seek someone greater?

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Matthew 2:7-12

⁷ Then Herod called the great men in a secretive way and found out exactly from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “after you go, search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, report to me, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they proceeded. And see, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ After they saw the star, they rejoiced with extremely great joy. ¹¹ And after going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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Are you great enough to seek someone greater?

The magi were great men who did not mind pursuing Christ, because they were OK with someone else being greater than themselves. Herod pursued Christ, not to worship him, but to eliminate him. So, some today join a church, and then seek their own selfish desires from its members. A church can be a good place to start if you are actually looking for a relationship with Christ, but it can also sidetrack that pursuit if you want it to. A relationship with God through his son is the most valuable thing you can ever have. Seek him.

Most precious Christ, help us to find you this Christmas, and not to get sidetracked in the pursuit.

Posted in Christmas, church, genuineness, kingdom of God, relationship with God | Tagged Matthew 2 | Leave a comment

Don’t miss Jesus this Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Matthew 1:12-16

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel father of Abiud, and Abiud father of Eliakim, and Eliakim father of Azor, ¹⁴ and Azor father of Zadok, and Zadok father of Achim, and Achim father of Eliud, ¹⁵ and Eliud father of Eleazar, and Eleazar father of Matthan, and Matthan father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

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Don’t miss Jesus this Christmas!

The centuries that the people of Israel had to wait finally came to an end, and most of them did not notice. Jesus was born in an obscure village and lived in a forgotten region of Israel, and was ignored most of his life. The Christ – that is – Anointed one, came gently to the world, and even the religious did not expect that.

How long have you waited for the answer to your problems. Jesus is it. To ignore him is to lose out on the best that God has to offer. But, if you want to, you can ignore him. He is not going to snatch you up and force you to follow him. He is going to be passing by you on the side of the road, as he did with his disciples. If you do not stop him, he will keep going, and you will lose out on your destiny.

Fall to your knees today, and seek the Savior. He is the only destiny worth having, but he will not force you to trust him. There will be millions who will suffer and be destroyed in hell who will stand before him on judgment day, and remember when they had the chance to serve him. They will remember the day they said “Jesus who?”

God of quiet gentleness, do not permit us to look in the other direction when you are passing by. Thunder, get our attention, before our generation ignores you to their peril.

Posted in Christmas, destruction in hell, discipleship, gentleness, Jesus Christ | Tagged Matthew 1 | Leave a comment

the salary of sin or the salary of God?

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:15-23

¹⁵ What should we conclude then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!¹⁶ Do you not know that if you make yourselves available as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that systematic teaching you were entrusted to,¹⁸ and after being set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.¹⁹ (I am using normal language because it is what you understand.) Because in the same way that you once made your body parts available as slaves to impurity and anarchy leading to more anarchy, so now make your body parts available as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.²⁰ Because when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.²¹ So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? Because the end result of those things is death.²² But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end result is eternal life.²³ Because the salary of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

the salary of sin or the salary of God?

Paul continues to address the question as to whether it is appropriate for believers to continue habitually sinning since they have been saved by grace, not obedience. He has already reminded them that when they were baptized, they publically identified with Christ’s death to sin, and then with his resurrection to righteousness. Also, just as they submitted to every part being immersed in the water of baptism, so they should now surrender daily every part to God for righteous living.

Now, Paul takes a slightly different approach. He reminds them that they are slaves to the one they obey. Most of us today are used to thinking of slavery itself as a great sin, so we might miss Paul’s point. Paul was speaking of voluntary indentured servanthood. It is an employment arrangement, where a person agrees to become another person’s servant in exchange for a regular salary and other benefits.

We are already doomed to die because of our ancestor’s sin. We know mortality because of that salary of sin, which must be paid out, and we see tombstones everywhere as reminders of that ongoing transaction.

But Paul tells us of another option. We can live forever by putting our faith in Christ, and living out that faith through surrender to his righteousness. The present benefit of that arrangement is an ongoing process of sanctification. The future benefit (or end result) is the gift of eternal life which the LORD has added to the arrangement by his grace.

So, Paul argues against believers living in continual sin because such lives make it impossible for our commitment to be real.

LORD, make us people committed to one master, consistently drawing upon your power for righteous living as a demonstration of our faith in Christ.

Posted in eternal life, mortality, sanctification, servanthood, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

making body parts available

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:9-14

⁹ We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer dominates him.¹⁰ Because the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.¹¹ In the same way, you also must conclude yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.¹² This means not letting sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,¹³ and do not make your body parts available to sin as tools to be used for unrighteousness, but make yourselves available to God as those who are alive from the dead and your body parts to God as tools to be used for righteousness.¹⁴ Because sin will not dominate you, because you are not under law but under grace.

making body parts available

Christ’s death and resurrection was a victory over sin. In the same way, the believer was to see his or her life after baptism as a life of victory over sin, not one that must still be subjected to its dominion. So, the believers needed to make all their body parts – including their brains and hearts – available to God for righteous living. Just as Christ’s death was the only solution for the problem of sin’s penalty, righteous living is the only solution for the problem of sin’s power. Just obeying the law did not work. But identifying with Christ in faith, and daily, hourly, making our whole beings available to God for righteous living – that is the answer.

LORD, we surrender to you everything that we surrendered to the water when we were baptized. We make all our lives available to you.

Posted in grace, law, sanctification, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

baptism and the way out

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:1-8

¹What should we conclude then? Should we keep sinning so that grace may increase?² Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?³ Or do you not know that those who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?⁴ The conclusion is that we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that in the same way as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.⁵ Because since we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united in a resurrection like his.⁶ We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the sinful body would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.⁷ (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)⁸ Now if we died along with Christ, we believe that we will also live along with him.

baptism and the way out

The legalistic Jews of Paul’s day saw obedience to the law as the way out of sin’s domination. Paul blew that notion out of the water. The law is not the answer. It is not the way out. In fact, if you have nothing but the law you are going to sin more and more. The knowledge of God’s will is going to produce more guilt and more sin. Sin dominates. Since that is the case, some might potentially believe that the way out is to just have confidence in the atonement to cover every sin, and sin willfully and continually. Paul replies to that potential objection in emphatic terms: absolutely not.

Instead, he points believers to the gospel that they proclaimed when they were immersed in the burial waters of baptism. The symbolic ordeal that those believers went through was an identification with Christ’s death by crucifixion. Just as Jesus submitted to being knocked down and nailed to a cross, so they submitted to being knocked down and submersed into the water. When they were lifted up to breathe air again, they were identifying with Christ being raised to life again. Christ’s death and resurrection was a victory over sin. In the same way, the believer was to see his or her life after baptism as a life of victory over sin, not one that must still be subjected to its dominion.

LORD, when sin wants to drag us down, remind us of the time when you raised us up. Remind us that sin no longer dominates us.

Posted in baptism, sanctification, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

grace reigning through righteousness

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:18-21

¹⁸ Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came as a result of one transgression, so too by the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.¹⁹ Because in the same way that the disobedience of the one man made many sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.²⁰ Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

grace reigning through righteousness

The reign of sin accompanied by the law only produced more sin, which led to more death. The reign of grace came as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection. It now produces what the law could not: righteousness. Because of the grace of God which removed our condemnation, we can now live righteously more and more in this life. We will not experience sinlessness or perfection, but we can be obedient to the commands of our savior in faith. That grace can now reign in our hearts, producing God’s righteousness, and giving us glimpses into the eternal life which is our destiny.

LORD, we have had enough of sin reigning in our lives and producing death. We surrender our hearts to your grace. Produce in us the righteousness you want to demonstrate.

Posted in eternal life, grace, sanctification | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

the next Adam

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:12-17

¹² Because of this, in the same way that sin entered the world through one man and death entered as a consequence of that sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned–¹³ because before the law was given, sin was already in the world, but there is no judgment upon sin when there is no law.¹⁴ Yet death prevailed from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the next Adam) transgressed.¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the transgression in one way. That is, since the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!¹⁶ And the gift is not like the one who sinned. Because judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift led to justification from even the many failures.¹⁷ For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

the next Adam

Adam’s transgression brought condemnation to all those who were in him – that is, the whole human race. Christ’s obedience in dying on the cross did not change that. we still all die because of Adam’s sin. So, what did Christ’s death do? It changed the eternal outcome for all those who receive the gift of righteousness by faith. We who put our faith in the resurrected Christ will also be resurrected and will reign in life along with him.

The wages of sin is death, and that still applies to everyone in Adam. That still includes us. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. He is the next Adam, and because of his resurrection, we have hope of a new, eternal life in our future.

Thank you, LORD, for becoming the next Adam, giving us hope for a sinless eternity.

Posted in future, hope, mortality | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

resurrection reconciliation

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:6-11

⁶ Because while we were still helpless, at just the right time Christ died on behalf of the ungodly.⁷ (Because rarely will anyone die even on behalf of a righteous person, though someone might possibly dare to die for a good person, perhaps.)⁸ But God proves his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.⁹ So he did so much more, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved by him from God’s wrath.¹⁰ For if while we were his enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?¹¹ Not only this, but we also delight in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.

resurrection reconciliation

Christ sacrificed on the cross bought us reconciliation, but it is his resurrection which demonstrated that reconciliation. He did for us what we could not do – in our sinful state. Now, since he is raised, he gives us hope that we too will experience a resurrection unto eternal, sinless life.

When we feel helpless in our sinful broken lives, we can look up to the cross. And what we see is an empty cross and an empty tomb. It was necessary that Christ die for us, but it was not necessary that he stay dead. By overcoming death, Christ demonstrated God’s eternal plan for all those who put their faith in him.

Thank you, LORD, for the empty cross and the empty tomb.

Posted in atonement, reconciliation, resurrection | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

admission into grace

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:1-5

¹ Consequently, now that we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,² through whom we have also obtained admission by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we delight in the expectation of God’s glory.³ Not only this, but we also delight in the things that we suffer, knowing that the suffering produces endurance,⁴ and endurance, character, and character, more expectation.⁵ And what we expect does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

admission into grace

In the previous chapter, Paul put forth Abraham as an example of a person who had resurrection faith. Now, he shows why that faith worked for him. Behind Abraham’s faith was an act of God, a miracle that Abraham only saw from a distance: the death and resurrection of Christ. Because of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross, we can look beyond our sin and expect God’s glory in our future. Christ’s death and resurrection bought for us admission into God’s grace by faith.

If suffering in this present life does not taint the delight we have because of our admission into God’s grace. In fact, it makes us long for the renewal of all things all the more.

LORD, thank you for the price you paid for our admission into your grace, and our expectation of your coming glory.

Posted in atonement, grace, suffering | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

resurrection faith

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 4:18-25

¹⁸ Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of a crowd of nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.”¹⁹ Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.²⁰ He did not vacillate in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.²¹ He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.²² So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.²³ But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake,²⁴ but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.²⁵ He was sacrificed because we had transgressed and was raised because we had been declared righteous.

resurrection faith

Faith can be a nebulous thing if we do not pay attention to the concrete analogies that the scriptures use to describe it. One of those concrete analogies is found in Paul’s description of Abraham’s faith. He described Abraham’s faith as a trust in God’s ability to raise the dead. His own personal death was not in view. The death he feared was the deadness in Sarah’s uterus. She was absolutely too old to have children. Yet, God promised that she would not only have children, but that many nations would call her their mother. Abraham believed that God was able to do the impossible, so he trusted God to raise the dead.

Now, Paul turns to the present – first century Rome. He looked at a group of Christian believers – some Jews, the rest Gentiles. Their faith is like Abraham’s faith. Like Abraham, they faced an impossible reality. Their savior had been nailed to a cross, and died. But their savior was raised from the dead. Like their ancestor Abraham, they dared to have resurrection faith. That is the kind of faith that God gives – and responds to.

LORD, help us to reflect the resurrection faith of our father Abraham.

Posted in Abraham, faith, gospel, resurrection | Tagged Romans 4 | Leave a comment