What will I choose to live my life for?

A few days ago I was sitting at a red light, while I was waiting for the light to change, I began to read the bumper stickers on the cars around me. The car directly in front of me had a Twilight movie bumper sticker on the rear windshield which said,

"When you can live forever, what will you live for?"

That question is one of those fun, conversation starting questions that people ask as a great ice breaker for large groups. If you asked that question to 10 different people, you would probably get 10 different answers:

Love, relationships, marriage, family, physical pleasure, success, prestige, respect, money, career, adventure, service, others, God, and the list goes on and on.

However, this question is not just a surface, "get-to-know-you" question, it makes a very profound statement directed right at the heart of each and every person:

What will you live for?

That got me thinking, what will I live for...what will you live for? Our very lives are defined by this simple yet powerful question. Religious or secular, no one can escape this one question if they desire to find meaning and purpose in their life.

In one sense, we don't live forever. We are born, we grow old, and we die. On the other hand, God through the Bible tells us that we will live forever. We will all most certainly die a physical death, but that death is not the end but the beginning. Death ushers the Christian into heaven where we will see, experience, and worship God for all eternity; while death ushers the non-Christian into an infinite separation from God. This is an in-escapable truth.

In light of eternity and an eternal God, what will you and I choose to live our lives for?

What we will live for is centered upon what we value most; what we value most is what we will desire most; what we desire most is what we pursue hardest; and all of these things combine to define what our purpose in life will be.

Will we choose to focus on that which is eternal or on that which will perish and end someday?

What will matter beyond this life? Not success, prestige, wealth, respect, careers, physical pleasures, adventures, no not even family or friends. There are so many amazing, wonderful things this life has to offer and many bad as well, but do we realize that they all, no matter how good or meaningful, will come crumbling down at the end? When we get to the end of our lives there is going to be one thing, and one thing alone that matters and that is God and our relationship with him. This is why Jesus says in Luke 14:26-27, 33:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple...So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus is not saying is, "Hate everyone you ever knew including yourself, leave everything, and carry your cross or else you cannot be my disciple." What he is saying is, "Do you love me enough that you are willing to abandon everything for my sake; do you love me so much that it makes your love for your family appear to be hatred; and do you love me enough to suffer as I have suffered and even die for my sake?" He is in reality asking the very same question we have been asking above,

Are you willing to give up everything and everyone for my sake because in the context of eternity nothing else really matters?

Jesus is asking, Am I worth it to you? Is he? Is he worth more than all your dreams, desires, goals, pursuits, and possessions? When we ponder our lives what will we choose to value most?

When we gaze at the cost of discipleship that Jesus demands, it is very easy to say, "That is a lot to ask, Jesus!" or "It seems like I'm giving more than I'm receiving." or "This is an unreasonable cost, that it doesn't appear to be worth it." Haven't we all said or thought something along those lines? The amazing truth is that Jesus is absolutely worth it; and when we see him for who he really is we will be gripped with the absurdity of our previous questions and doubts, and be consumed with his magnificent worth and beauty! Jesus reveals this truth in a simple parable,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Don't miss the amazing truth in this verse, the man finds something that is of great value and so he goes and sells all he has in order to buy the field that the treasure is hidden in. Imagine the ridicule that he would have received from his friends and family, because from the outside it appears absurd to sell everything you have to buy one field. It is the exact opposite of what any Wall Street stock trader would advise. They would say never put all of your eggs in one basket, but that is exactly what the man does. Why does the man do this? Because he alone understands that the treasure in the field is worth more than all of his possessions combined. Therefore he is no longer a fool, but the smartest man in the world. He has seen the treasure and knows that he gives up essentially nothing in order to gain everything. The cost of discipleship is nothing compared with the gain we have in Christ.

We do live in the context of eternity whether we like it or not, so what will you and I choose to live for? What will we value most, desire greatest, and pursue hardest? Will we continue to live for things that perish or will we grasp on to the one thing that matters beyond this life, God? We have such a warped sense of worth, in view of eternity, we so often choose to settle for things that are momentary and finite. Jesus has placed himself opposite all of the momentary things this world has to offer and said,

Am I worth more to you?

Am I worth giving up virtually nothing, your life, in order that you may gain absolutely everything, Jesus Christ?

Heart Idolatry

This is an extremely challenging quote from Timothy Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods.

Archbishop William Temple once said, “Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” In other words, the true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement? Or material goods such as a dream home? Or a relationship with a particular person? One or two daydreams are no an indication of idolatry. Ask rather, what do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?

Just think and ponder this quote for a little while and see if you have any idols in your life that you did not realize that you had. Sometimes we get caught up in searching for physical idols and forget that the heart is the root of those physical idols. Let us go to the root and destroy these idols from our lives!

Righteousness by Grace through Faith

"Righteousness by grace through faith," those very words resonate throughout church sanctuaries across America every Sunday morning. May I invite you to set out on a journey to explore this momentous statement, and the freedom we have to pursue Christ woven within those incredible words? What do the words "by grace through faith" mean? A brilliant Christian theologian and writer, John Stott aptly states

In consequence Christ has no sin but ours, and we have no righteousness but his.

Walk with me as I ask the question, "How can a statement that is at the very heart of Christianity, be so far from the hearts of many Christians?" We seek to gain a more complete understanding of this root of the Christian Gospel so that it can begin to transform our everyday lives into lives that truly embrace our grace bestowed righteousness, and result in unhindered pursuit of the Most High.

Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. One or two weeks before my appointment, I began to take excellent care of my teeth. I made sure to brush three times a day, flosh every evening, and drink 2-3 glasses of milk every day. I became devoted to the cleanliness of my teeth on a level that I had not been in months. Then it occurred to me how ridiculous my actions were. What is the purpose of the dentist? To clean your teeth. So why on earth, was I so concerned with having great looking, clean teeth when I got there? Don't we all do that though? We are so obsessed with making our teeth presentable that we lose sight of why we go to the dentist in the first place. We try and try to make ourselves clean when the reality is that as much as we try to make our teeth white, we can only do so much.  Once I gotten my teeth cleaned, my dentist said, "You are all cleaned up, I've given you a nice fresh start."   The dentist's tools (ones that we only dream about in our worst nightmares) clean our teeth to a point that we could never attain on our own.

How often have you approached God in this same manner? So focused on cleaning yourself up, making yourself right, picking yourself up off the ground, that you have forgotten the very essence of your faith. In the same way that the dentist is in the business of teeth cleaning, God is in the business of life clean-up,  restoration, and redemption. We can try to grit our teeth and grunt our way up to God, but the truth remains as Isaiah 64:6 says,

Our righteousness is as filthy rags...

No matter how hard we try to make ourselves righteous in God's sight, compared to his righteousness, all we can produce on our own is like filthy rags. We often quote this verse, and reference it in Bible studies and church services; but stop for a moment and truly ponder the depth of this simple, yet powerful statement. To me it appears that the way many of us live our lives is not based on God's righteousness by grace through faith, but by our righteousness: works produced through our own strength. I want to let you in on a little secret, our righteousness is not sufficient...and praise God it's not. All we need to do to see where righteousness by works leads is to look at stories riddled throughout the Old Testament. As we read, we see the people of Israel, trying to earn righteousness according to the law and failing; trying again and again failing  over and over...God's point? Righteousness in his sight cannot be achieved apart from his grace.

Why are we ashamed to go to God with the messed-up-ness of our lives? With our sin, our shame, or our pain? Why do we feel as if God will not hear our voice or grant us an audience with him unless we fix ourselves first? We place the burden of our sin and our righteousness squarely upon our shoulders and begin the trek up Mount Everest and hope to reach the top someday. The good news is: this was never what God intended. Listen to the words of Ephesians 1:4-10:

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God doesn't expect us to climb the mountain to reach him, he descended the mountain to reach us, and then he carries us to the top to be with him. What a glorious truth that is! God grants us righteousness...how beautiful is that? How beautiful is he? Righteousness by grace through faith means that we receive the righteousness of God as a gift through the person of Jesus Christ, granting us immense freedom in Christ. We no longer have to feel the need to earn our righteousness in his sight, this allows us to throw aside the weight of self-righteousness and run towards Christ (Hebrews 12:1) freely and unashamedly.

Once we throw our self-righteousness aside, it brings us to the issue of our sin. So often when we sin, our first response is to run and hide; to wallow in self-pity, guilt, and fear. This is not the response of a Christian who has been set free from the weight of sin by receiving God's grace through faith.

Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Complete freedom in Christ. Not freedom to go on sinning as Romans 6:1 and 6:15 state, but freedom from sin. So often we feel as if we cannot escape the clutches of a particular sin in our lives, but the great news is we have already escaped the clutches of that sin through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are freed men and women but so often we forget to live and walk in that freedom.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

So how does this effect our approach to God? Listen to Hebrews 4:16:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

We may approach God with...

       ... boldness not shame,

       ...love not terror,

       ...completely secure, not insecure.

The truth is, sin no longer has dominion, but we often give sin power that it no longer has when we hide sin. When we do this, not only are we not living in God's grace, we are diminishing the person of Jesus Christ and his victory over that sin. John Newton, who was a slave ship captain and author of the song Amazing Grace, said,

I know two things to be true: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior.

He understood that his sin made the grace of God that much greater. As 2 Corinthians 13 states, "My power is made perfect in weakness..." When we accept in humility that we are sinners saved by grace, we make Christ look great. Martin Luther agrees,

Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.

We must be careful lest we interpret these truths to mean that we have license to sin, as Romans 6, 7, and 8 clearly speak against, however we can rightly interpret them as freedom from the chains of sin that shackle those people who are apart from Christ because we are his. Rejoice in Christ because Jesus has overcome sin, death, and the world.

We can therefore walk in the amazing freedom of God's grace, letting loose the sins which hold us in a bondage of guilt and shame. Our identity has been changed through Jesus victory on the cross, now let us pursue him as he desires. Let us walk boldy into the throne room of God. Freedom is ours, righteousness is ours, all because of God's grace. Let the very essence of Christianity, which is Righteousness by grace through faith, finally reign in your hearts and see the amazing work which God will do.