Devotionals

Even within the evangelical community, there has been debate over the last decade on the crucial biblical teaching of justification. Luther called justification “the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls,” so we want to make sure that we put up fences to protect this precious truth.

What is so precious about justification? We could recite a long list to answer this question, but I want to focus in on one particular reason why this truth is precious, namely, it is the spark which ignites the fire of love for Jesus in the hearts of sinners like you and me. Let me show you this from Luke 7:36 – 50.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 ESV)

“Daddy!  Are you hungry?  What’s for dinner?  Can we go to…Shake Shack?!”  This conversation occurs semi-regularly in our family; my kids are well aware of my proclivity for Shake Shack.  They attempt to use my disposition toward their own ends in ways that are savvy beyond their years.  It’s not uncommon, however, in consideration of their question, for me to need to pause and take account of the state of my stomach.  I have to stop myself, attempt to gauge what is happening in my mid-section, and determine just how hungry I am.  It often surprises me that I can get so caught up with what I am doing (work, the NY Times, a good book, a basketball game on TV) that I don’t even realize, until I stop, pause, and assess, that I actually am hungry!  Certainly there are times when sizable hunger interrupts those distractions of its own accord and lets me know, in no uncertain terms, that it needs to be assuaged.  But there are also times when my physical hunger goes ignored until someone helps me to stop and recognize my own internal state.

It is possible to do all the right things in all the wrong ways. You may already know this, but it is something very easy to forget. It, therefore, ought to come as no surprise that we find warnings about this very thing throughout Scripture, especially in the Prophets. It is put perhaps most poignantly in the first chapter of Isaiah:

Hear the word of the LORD,
    you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.
"When you come to appear before me,
    who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?

Our culture is obsessed with being the most famous, the best, and the brightest. Perhaps it's not our culture so much as our human nature just exaggerated by technological capabilities. Regardless, this obsession has taken the secret, silent beauty out of the hard and mundane. The problem is that while perusing Instagram or Facebook, discontentment can begin to creep in as you creep on other people's so-called lives. We want to climb mountaintops and reach the stars so badly that the concept of being faithful in the little feels boring. But the truth is, the daily grind of small, faithful diligence is as admirable as it is difficult. Personally, my ability to be diligent is far from amazing, but with each new day I see that God has sustained me from the last and that I get to start over (Lamentations 3:23, Romans 8:28).

Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. . .” That’s good enough advice, if nearly impossible to follow.  But what I find so compelling in it is the reasoning that follows the directive.  Do you know what it is?  If not, take a guess.  What source of motivating power does the author append to this enjoinder?

Give up? It is this:  “. . . because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”

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