Category: Devotionals

Don’t Hide Your Sin, Expose It

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

What if you did not have to hide your sins? What if you could expose your sins, admitting them to God and one another? These questions and their answers do not have to be hypothetical.

Christians Can Expose Their Sins

As Christians, we really can expose our sins. We do not have to hide them from God or one another, which allows us to honestly evaluate ourselves. When we are freed to honestly examine ourselves, we can evaluate where we are doing poorly and where we are doing well. In other words, we can determine what sins we need to work on, so we can knock down those strongholds in our lives.

Christians are Saved by Grace

The reason we can honestly evaluate ourselves is due to the nature of our salvation. As Christians, our works do not save us, merit us favor with God, nor keep us in a saving relationship with God. As Christians, we are saved by God’s grace. God’s grace is given to us as a free gift. We do not have earn it, repay it, or work to keep it.

Christians have Jesus as their Advocate

Along with God’s grace, we, as Christians, also have Jesus as our Advocate. 1 John 2:1-2 tells us that those who are truly saved have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

Advocate carries the idea of someone coming alongside of you and pleading your case for you. When Jesus acts as our Advocate, He comes alongside of us, and He reminds the Father of His person (He is the Christ and the Righteous One) and His work (His death on the cross for our sins, taking God’s wrath on Himself, removing our defiling sin, and imputing His righteousness to us) and our profession of Him as our Lord and Savior, when we sin. When we realize this, we are free to evaluate ourselves.

Think about it like this:

Say you are called into your bosses, principal’s, or teacher’s office and asked to evaluate your work. To tell them where you believe you are doing well, and where you believe you are doing poorly.

Before they ask you to evaluate yourself, they say, “No matter what you tell me, your shortcomings will not be held against you. You will not be fired, demoted, or given a bad grade.”

When you hear those words, that you are going to be accepted no matter what you tell them, no matter how poorly you have done in your work, you are at that moment freed to honestly evaluate yourself. You don’t have to feel like you need to hide anything from them. You can lay it all out on the table, honestly evaluating what you have done, so that you will know what areas still need work.

Because we are accepted by God based on Jesus’ work, we don’t have to hide our short comings from God either. Rather we can honestly evaluate ourselves to see where we are doing well and where we are doing poorly, to see what sins and idols we are still allowing to affect our lives, so we can work to remove them.

A Cover Up

However, when we do not realize God’s grace is free and that Jesus stands as our Advocate when we sin, then we will never truly be free to examine ourselves. When we are not free to honestly examine ourselves, we will cover our sins up, thinking maybe God will not notice.

The reasons we cover our sins up are many, but most fall into a misunderstanding of God’s grace, which leads to people thinking we have to earn, repay, or keep our salvation through our works. If our works are subpar, then earning, repaying, or keeping our salvation is not going so well. Which means, instead of honestly looking at ourselves, we make things out to be better than they really are.

Conclusion

You see, based on Jesus’ work, we are always accepted by God no matter what we have done in the past, what we do right now, and what we are going to do in the future. That does not give us a license to sin. Rather it gives us a license to honestly evaluate ourselves, and to confess our sins to one another.

If we do not see ourselves as accepted by God through Jesus’ work alone, then we will never be freed to evaluate ourselves. And we will never truly grow in holiness. But when we have a right view of our salvation, we can honestly evaluate our sin and deal with it in a healthy manner. As we deal with our sin, we become more holy.

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How Do We Live Like the Elder Brother?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments

In my last post, I made some observations from the parable of the prodigal son. In doing so, I highlighted the Gospel as the third way to live, with the other two ways to live being the way of the Relativist and the way of the Moralist. You can read my post here.

In the parable, the younger brother represents the Relativist, and to him everything is about self. The elder brother represents the Moralist, who lives outwardly for God, but inwardly his heart has not changed. In an effort to help us see how we live like the elder brother, so we can correct our thinking and actions, I want to ask and answer the question: How do we live like the elder brother?

We Act Like The Elder Brother:

When we believe we are saved by our works

  • This manifest itself in the following ways
    • We do this so, so we get salvation type thinking
    • When we do not think of our sin as being offensive to God.
    • When we think we are not that bad saying, “Sure Christ died for me, but I really was not that bad.”
    • Comparing ourselves to others saying “I needed God’s grace, but not as much as this person over here does. Look at their sin and look at mine.”

When we believe our works earn us favor with God

  • This manifest itself in the following ways:
    • We show up to church every time it is open thinking if we miss a service we are not in God’s favor.
    • When we believe we may get in a car wreck, or lose our job, or fail a class, or that one of our kids will not turn out right, if we are not consistent with our quiet times because somehow God will pay us back for not spending time with Him.
    • When we believe God will not use us or bless us if we are not reading His Word or doing Christian type activities often.

When we believe we must pay Christ back for our salvation

  • This manifests itself when we say things like: 
    • Christ died for you, witnessing to others is the least thing you can do for Him.
    • Christ suffered for you, the least you can do is read your Bible and pray to Him everyday.
    • Christ went to the cross for you, the least you can do for Him is go on a missions trip, part with some of your resources in order to help the church, or show up to services on Sunday.

When we believe God owes us for being such a good Christian.

  • This manifest itself when:
    • We do not receive the recognition we thought we should have received at church for helping with a ministry project, serving the church, attending regularly, and we get mad about it.
    • When we get jealous when another person who obviously has not done as much as we have gets recognized or asked to help with another ministry/task even though we said we wanted to serve as the chairman of that committee, teach that class, or serve those people.

The Christian disciplines mentioned throughout this post are good, but they can become corrupted when we believe they: 

  • Earn us salvation
  • Earn us favor with God
  • Become a way to pay Jesus back for what He has done for us
  • When they are done because we want to gain things such as recognition, or opportunity.

Should we stop coming to church, serving the body, doing our quiet time, praying, teaching a class, etc? 

  • No, we should not. The reasons we do them though should change.

The Gospel: A Third Way

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

The parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32 is directed at two types of people. The relativist (younger brother) and the moralist (elder brother).

The Relativist

The Relativist lives how he wants. He does the things he wants to do because he does not believe it is important to follow God’s commands. He does not believe it is necessary to give God His rightful place, which is the Lord of His life. In doing so, he shows he believes he does not need a Savior.

In the parable, the younger brother represents the Relativist. He asks for and receives his inheritance from his father before his father’s death. He turns his inheritance into cash and leaves home to seeks fulfillment and joy in living how he pleases. Even though he thought living his own way would bring him joy, it brought him nothing but despair and enslavement.

The Moralist

While the Relativist does not obey God’s commands, the Moralist strictly seeks to obey God’s commands and please Him. He is at church every time it is open. He reads his Bible everyday, prays, and does a host of other things that look Christian. Even though he does and says all the right things, his heart is not right. He believes his good works earn His salvation and favor with God.

In the parable, the elder brother represents the Moralist. While, he did not ask his father for his inheritance early, turn it into cash, and leave home to seek his own desires, he still seeks to serve himself by staying home and serving his father faithfully.

Even though, his actions looked noble righteous, they did not stem from a righteous heart. He believes he should receive good things for his good works. Notice in the parable the complaint of the elder brother. He believes his father should have given him a young goat to celebrate with his friends because of his dedication in serving him.

Instead of living to glorify God, the Moralist does good, in order to attempt to control God.  Not only does he believe his works earn him salvation and favor with God, but his good works are an attempt to control God.

A Third Way

Jesus tells this parable not only to point out the error of the Pharisees in living like the elder brother, and the enslavement and joylessness that comes from loose living, but also to show us the gospel, which is the third way we can live. In the gospel, we are not accepted based on our works, but by God’s grace, and His grace is not something we can earn. It is something freely given to us.

In the gospel, we do not seek to please ourselves, or we do not obey God, in order to control Him and get our way. Rather we live a righteous life because we have been freed and empowered to do so.

Our belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior serves to change our hearts, and with it our desires. Not only are we given a new heart and new desires, but we are empowered through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to live out our righteousness. In other words, we do not perform good works to earn our salvation or favor with God, but we perform good works because we have been freed and empowered to do so.

Conclusion

In this parable, we do not see two ways to live, but rather three. We can live either like the Relativist, the Moralist, or we can rest in the gospel. For it is only in the gospel that we are truly free to worship and serve God, rather than ourselves.

Every Knee Will Bow

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

This morning I was reading Psalm 22 as part of my devotional. This Psalm is often referred to as a Messianic Psalm because it points forward to the work of Christ on the cross.

Similarities with Jesus’ Crucifixion

The first line of this Psalm is quoted by Jesus when He was hanging on the cross. In Matthew 27:46 Jesus says,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

As you read through the rest of the Psalm one notices a similarity to what happens to Jesus and how those crucifying Jesus act. Jesus’ bones are out of joint, His strength has dried up, He is thirsty, His hands and feet are pierced, but His bones are not broken (14-17). Those in the crowd mock Him, they call out for Him to ask God to deliver Him from the cross, and they divide His garments by casting lots (7-8, 18).

The Lord has not forsaken Jesus

It seems the Lord has forsaken Jesus on the cross, but He has not. His plan has always been for Jesus to die for the sins of mankind (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1). A plan worked out from before the foundations of the earth.

Every Knee Will Bow

Instead of forsaking Jesus, the Father resurrects Jesus and exalts Christ to His heavenly throne with the promise that everyone will worship Him (Psalm 22:27-28; Phil. 2:8-11). In verse 29, the Psalmist says,

All the prosperous of the earth eat
and worship;
before him shall bow all
who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not
keep himself alive.

Indeed, all will bow down to worship Him, even those who are not Christians. Every man, woman, and child will bow their knee before the Lord when He returns. Isaiah predicted it (Isa. 45:23), Paul confirmed it (Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10), and John wrote about the coming day when the Lamb (Jesus) would sit on His throne and every creature would recognize Him as Lord (Rev. 5:13).

There will be a day when Jesus will return, and there will be a day when every knee will bow to Him as Lord, whether you recognize Him now as Lord or not.

A Plea

Now is the time my friends to confess Christ as Savior and Lord of your life. If the Lord has given you the faith to believe in Him, then believe. For you can either confess Jesus as Lord and Savior now, or in the after life, but after this life is over, our chance of reconciliation with God and eternal life goes with it (Ecc. 3:17; 9:4-6).

Assurance

Those who are believers in Christ, be assured of your salvation. Place your hope fully in Christ and Christ alone, knowing He is our Savior and Lord. Know that the Lord will return and He will defeat the enemy, Satan. Know and trust that He will reign on His throne forever and ever, and that we will experience true joy for all of eternity as we worship and praise Him. Come Lord Jesus, come!

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The Great Paradigm Shifting Gospel

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals6 Comments

I have been reading through John Calvin’s Institutes. I picked up a read through the Institutes in a year plan, and it has been a blessing. Even though he wrote hundreds of years ago, his writings are still applicable to our times.

Right now, I am reading in chapter 8, where Calvin is establishing the credibility of Scripture. In talking about Sacred Scripture, Calvin says,

“Nevertheless it [Scripture] clearly is crammed with thoughts that could not be humanly conceived”[1].

He is right. Scripture is crammed with thoughts that those writing without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would never conceive. The reason a non-inspired writer would not conceive of them is because Scripture is often paradigm shifting in nature.

What does it mean for Scripture to be paradigm shifting?

It means what we think should be the case is not. How we think things should go is not the way God thinks they should go. Our normal model is not God’s model. I believe we do not have to look far to see where our model is different than God’s.

The Gospel

We do not have to look any further than the gospel message. You see, the gospel tells us that God’s Son left His heavenly abode, descended to the earth by being born of a virgin. He lived a holy and sinless life, being 100% God and 100% man. Instead of people worshipping Him for who He is, namely, God. He was ridiculed, mocked, beaten, and crucified. Even so, His crucifixion was not contrary to God’s plan, it was His plan (Eph. 1). Through Jesus’ person, life, death, and subsequent resurrection from the tomb, we, sinful man, who deserve nothing but punishment, can have life, if we believe it is Jesus who reconciles us to God.

The Paradigm Shift

Here is the paradigm shift in the gospel message. It is not through our works, our goodness, or our own self-righteousness that we are reconciled to God (Eph. 2:8-9). We cannot clean ourselves up, thinking somehow our works will earn us favor with the Father. The Pharisees tried, but Jesus condemned them (Luke 11:37-44).

Even after salvation, we cannot earn favor with God through our works. God has poured out His grace on us. He has filled our grace tank full. Our works cannot add anything to the tank.

Even though our works cannot earn us favor with God, we often live as if they do. Thinking if I don’t read my Bible or pray first thing in the morning, somehow I have lost God’s favor, and His hand will not be upon me that day. The gospel tells us that type of thinking is wrong.

Even though it is wrong, that type of thinking is natural to us. It is how we are hardwired. We do something and we expect it to earn us something. Not so with God. Instead of living the Christian life to get something from God, which would be a way for us to control God.

We live the Christian life not to get something from God, but because we can.

When God saves us, He changes our heart, releases us from the bondage of sin, and provides us with the Holy Spirit, empowering us to follow His commands. Commands we follow, not because they will earn us favor with God, but commands we follow because we are now able to and desire to (Phil. 2:13).

Conclusion

The Scripture is often paradigm shifting. Taking what we think to be the case, and showing us what we thought was the way things are, is not how they are with God. The gospel is the greatest example of a shift from man’s model to God’ model. We often believe we have to earn our salvation, but God tells us we are freely given salvation. All we have to do is believe, which is also made possible through God giving us the faith to believe (Rom. 8:28-30).

Even after we are saved, we believe we have to do good works to keep our salvation, or we have to do good works to merit God’s favor. The gospel tells us that is simple not true. We have been saved by God’s grace and we are kept until the last day when He will pour out a final measure of His grace on us, bringing us into a state of glorification and ushering us into eternal life (1 Peter 1:13). There is no amount of works we could do to earn our salvation, and there are no amount of works we can do to keep our salvation, or merit God’s favor.

This does not mean we do not live differently as Christians. It means the reason we live differently is a complete paradigm shift from what we thought. We live differently because we are now able and willing to. When we are saved, we are released from the bondage of sin, given a new heart, new desires, and the Holy Spirit who empowers us to do the will of the Father. In short, we live the Christian life because we delight in God and God is most glorified when we are most happy in Him.

Resources

[1] John Calvin, The Institues, Book 1, Ch. 8, Sec. 2, pg 83.

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Grace, Hope, and Holy Living

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals5 Comments

In 1 Peter 1:13, Peter tells Christians, based on the fact that God is a God of kept promises, that they are to confidently and fully set their hope on God’s future grace.

In order to grasp the magnitude of Peter’s command we need to look specifically at two words, which are grace and hope. Then we will look at what hope in future grace should produce in us, namely, holy living.

Grace

The context tells us God’s grace will be given to us at the revelation, or return of Jesus Christ. This means God has given us a measure of His grace now, but it is not all the grace He will pour out on us. When Christ returns, God will pour a final measure of grace on us bringing us into a state of glorification. The body of death Paul talks about that hinders him in living completely for Christ will be put away and we will receive our glorified bodies. Sin will no longer reign in our members, rather, we will be perfect.

So we see: (1) Our final salvation is completed in the future, at the return of Jesus Christ. (2) It is God’s grace and nothing else that will provide us with eternal salvation. (3) It is God’s future grace we are to place our hope in.

Now that we understand we are to place our hope in God’s future grace and what that grace will accomplish for us, namely, eternal salvation. We need to look at hope, understanding it from a biblical perspective.

Hope

The Bible defines hope differently than our modern secular society. Hope in modern English has the idea of a wish that is uncertain.

For example, if we are going to a ball game this weekend with our family, we may hope it does not rain. We don’t know if it will or will not rain, but our wish is that it will not.

So then, hope in modern English carries the idea of wishfulness, but not certainty.

In biblical terms, hope is defined differently. Instead of a wishful thought, hope is certain. When Peter tells us to put our hope in the grace that will be poured out on us at the return of Christ, he is telling us something we can be confident in. Jesus’ return and the grace that will be poured out on us then is certain. Meaning Christ’s return and the grace we will receive at His return is not a wishful thought, it will happen.

Knowing what God’s grace will accomplish for us, and that He is a God of kept promises, means we should fully place our hope in God’s future grace, knowing for certain His grace will be poured out on us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hope in God’s Future Grace Leads to Holy Living

Our hope in God’s future grace is not just the key to heaven, but it also is the key to holy living. If we don’t hope in God’s future grace alone, trusting in faith that He will pour out that final measure of grace on us at Jesus’ return, then living a holy life will not follow.

A holy life will not follow because it is pointless. If we don’t believe God will provide us with eternal life, then why would we live according to His commands? In other words, if the promises of God are not more satisfying to us than sin, why would we not sin?

All of this means that before we can live holy lives, it is important that our hope be in God alone, that we believe life with God for eternity is better than sinning now.

Challenge

So I must ask: Do you hope in God alone, realizing He will provide you with more satisfaction than sin ever will? If you don’t, then you will not live a holy life.

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