FBC Daily Devotions

A FRIEND IN NEED…

Read 2 Timothy 1:15-18.

Craig shared on Sunday that the most important thing we have in life are our relationships. As Paul entered the last phase of his life, he mentions several people who had a positive and a negative impact on his life. There were those who brought disappointment and discouragement. Paul mentions two: Phygelus and Hermogenes. At a time when Paul was down and out – imprisoned, weak, and near the end of his years, these men only added to his possible discouragement. Friendship has responsibilities. These men did not rise to the challenges that help true friends through difficult times.

On the side of encouragement was Onesiphorus. He brought refreshment to Paul, as a cold drink on a hot day, he revived Paul. A true friend, Onesiphorus met the challenges that come with maintaining a strong relationship, he sought on foot the whereabouts of Paul in a large city (Rome) never ceasing until finding him. He stood by Paul despite being associated with a criminal in prison. As Craig shared, when something is valuable to us, we make a great effort to search it out when it is missing. True friendships are maintained with equally hard work.

In addition to the enjoyment of good friends, there is also the reward of blessing others around us. When we are a good friend to someone, those around us are also blessed. As Paul prayed, “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus…” (v. 16). Paul’s favor was not limited to Onesiphorus only, but his entire household. As it has been said, “A friend of yours is a friend of mine.” When we are a friend to someone, we can be a friend to a friend.

Perhaps there is no greater example of a friend than Jesus. He went to great lengths to be near to us. He emptied Himself to seek and save us. He didn’t give up – it cost Him everything. He is the example of the ultimate friend.

So today, I ask you: How good a friend are you?

FAITH

Read Romans 1:16-17.

“We believe that reconciliation with God is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Jesus may have died for the sins of the world, but its effects are appropriated only by faith in Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in the work of Christ for our sins and agree to follow after Him, God gives to us the gift of salvation. Now that may sound like a conditionally earned gift, but in reality the Scriptures speak of even our faith being from God (Eph. 2:8-9). Therefore, everything (including faith) is from God and nothing of ourselves. It’s all God.

Some struggle with the idea that only by faith in Jesus Christ can one ever hope to gain salvation. But consider that faith in anyone else (including ourselves) cannot possibly resolve the issue of sin. Sin MUST be dealt with and a penalty MUST be paid. Faith in anyone less than Christ could not pay the debt or penalty of sin. How could it? A sinful person can only pay for his or her own sin – and that by death. How could anyone possibly pay for someone else’s sin when they can hardly pay for their own? And even then, their payment comes in the form of punishment – the punishment of death and hell. Therefore, no man – not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Abraham – can pay for our sins and enable us to be reconciled to God and reach heaven.

But Jesus… Jesus is the only one capable of paying for our sin because He didn’t have any (as seen in yesterday’s devotion). That is why faith in Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to salvation. Salvation is a gift given by faith in Jesus Christ.

If you have not put your faith in Christ for your salvation, do it now, “for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Make the choice to believe that Christ was God in the flesh who died for the sins of mankind and rose from the dead to give victory over sin and death, enabling us to be reconciled to God and live with Him forever. Choose to believe.

MAN AND SIN

Read Romans 3:9-20.

“We believe that the entire human race is separated from God by sin and that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead.”

The human race has been under the curse of sin since Adam’s first act of disobedience. Unlike some who see mankind as inherently good, the Bible teaches that under the curse of sin mankind is inherently (or should I say ‘inherit-ly’) bad. That is to say, he is born with the natural bent toward self-centeredness in opposition to God-centeredness. Sin broke the relationship between man and God back in Adam’s day, and that continues today in us, Adam’s offspring. No amount of apparent goodness on our part can repair that relationship. As a result, man dies both a physical death and a spiritual death that leads to eternal separation from God and a life that has been described by Jesus as a place of “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12).  Paul describes us as “by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) and our destinies as “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). In theological terms, mankind is totally depraved – unable to always do what is good and right.

The solution to this problem? Either destroy man or change man.  God chose to change man. How? Through Jesus Christ. Because man was unable to change himself, God made the change for us by making us new people (new creations) through the death of Christ. Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sin, cleaning the slate for us once forever. We are changed people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says this was a gift from God. Not earned. Not deserved. A gift.

How do we receive that gift? More on that tomorrow…  For now, if you are a follower of Christ, God did an incredible thing for you. We were separated from God by sin. Jesus Christ removed the barrier of sin and enabled us to have a new relationship with God as new people. Today consider the size of that gift. There has never been nor will there ever be a gift of such height, depth, or breadth. God is deserving of all praise.

JESUS

Read Philippians 2:5-11.

“We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.”

That Jesus is both fully God and fully man is beyond human comprehension and logic. How could someone be 100% twice and still only be 100%? But the Scriptures are clear that Jesus had to become man to save mankind, and He had to be God in order to satisfy the just penalty of sin only capable through God, who alone is righteous.

Why is this important? Consider that Jesus as a man can identify with us as human. The writer of Hebrews notes-

“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb. 2:18)  

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15)

On the flipside, because Jesus is also God, He is able to deal with our sin in a way that no mere man could. In His infinite power and dominion, Jesus was beyond the limitations of man. All things were created by Him and for Him (Col. 1:16); God’s fullness dwelled in Him in order to reconcile all things to Him (Col. 1:19). And we were reconciled to Him by Christ’s physical body through death (Col. 1:22). (Actually this entire section of Colossians1:15-23 speaks of the necessity and power of the union of God and man in Jesus – a very rich passage.)

The union of God and man in Christ unites the finite with the infinite.  It was not only necessary for salvation, but it also serves to fill the infinite vacuum in the human heart. The writer of Ecclesiastes states: “He has also set eternity in their hearts…” (Ec. 3:11). As such the eternity we seek cannot be found in the finite, but only in the infinite. The intimacy we seek in our relationship with God cannot be found in the transcendent, but in hearts united in the common bond of humanity (cf. Heb. 2:11). As John Piper writes:

“Because of this hypostatic, one-person union, Jesus Christ exhibits an unparalleled magnificence. No one person satisfies the complex longings of the human heart like the God-man. God has made the human heart in such a way that it will never be eternally content with that which is only human. Finitude can’t slake our thirst for the infinite.”

Jesus Christ is unique among us, and the amazing thing about His incarnation (God in the flesh) is that He did this for us. Jesus Christ did not need to leave His throne in heaven, but He did. And in becoming God in the flesh, He gives us every reason to worship Him. Reflect on that today. Consider the wonder of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man… all for our sake.

GOD

Read Deut. 6:4. (There will be other passages to refer to later.)

“We believe God is one and exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

The triune God (i.e. the Trinity) made up of the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit is perhaps one of the most widely accepted and yet least understood doctrines of our faith. It is not a biblical word, yet it grows out of the Scriptures, so it is a biblical teaching.

Both the Old and New Testaments affirm the unity of God. The Old Testament passage from today’s reading (Dt. 6:4) establishes the oneness of God – “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The New Testament shares the same view (cf. 1 Cor. 8:4-6 – “…yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live…”).

There is no debate that the Father is recognized as God. But what about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? I encourage you to check out the following passages that recognize Christ and the Holy Spirit as God:

Jesus Christ

• He possessed the attributes which only God possesses (Matt. 9:4; 28:18; 28:20).
• He did things only God can do (Mark 2:1-12; John 12:9; Col. 1:17; John 1:3; John 5:27)
• He is equated with God (John 1:1, where the “Word” is Jesus).

The Holy Spirit

• He is called God (Acts 5:3-4).
• He possesses attributes which only God has (1 Cor. 2:10; 6:19; John 3:5-6, 8).

The oneness and threeness of the Trinity is asserted by associating equally the three persons in the Great Commission of Matt. 28:19 (“baptize in THE NAME (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”). They are associated equally in passages like Matt. 3:16-17 and 2 Cor. 13:14.

Why is this so important? To diminish who God is, is to diminish who the three persons of the Trinity are. God is less than God without Jesus Christ. He is less than God without the Holy Spirit. He is less than God without the Father. To worship anything less than God (may I say it?) is to not worship God at all. Imagine further if Jesus Christ was not God. Who would He be but a powerful man unable to save Himself from the cross. How much greater His love for us knowing that He had the power to save Himself, but chose instead to save us. As it is, because He was God, He possessed the power to save. Imagine if the Holy Spirit wasn’t God. What power would we have living in us? There would be no power over sin in our lives. There would be no rebirth, no new creation. We would continue to be slaves to sin and slaves to the Law. The deity of the Holy Spirit ensures that we have God in us to help us live rightly in this world.

What is your concept of God? Who is the God you worship? The more one dwells on the depth of who He is, the more one will be in awe of Him. Man is so limited in his understanding of God. Perhaps the more we realize that, the easier it will be for us to put God in His rightful place on the throne.