[God] made us alive together with Christ. Ephesians 2:5 What’s been taken out of the white-flour gospel? It says nothing whatsoever about becoming a new person in Christ. The nourishment that God put in has been taken out, and the result is that many Christians have missed out on the substance that will build up their spiritual lives. To be a Christian is to be in Jesus Christ. When you are “in Christ,” it is not just that your past is forgiven and your future secure. It is that you become a new...
Feb 22, 2025•3 min
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Perhaps you have made the switch from white bread to whole-grain bread. You were told that white flour has most of the goodness taken out of it, so you began baking your own bread, and it is fantastic. Some of us have got used to a white-flour gospel—a gospel that has much of the goodness taken out of it. Although we can live on it, we lack the substance of what God originally gave...
Feb 21, 2025•2 min
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:18-19 The fourth dimension of your holiness is that you are sent to the world. When Jesus says, “I consecrate [that is, sanctify] myself,” He is not talking about a gradual growth in holiness. He is the Holy One. He fulfilled everything that the Father called Him to do, so Jesus is talking about giving Himself to a special calling—in this c...
Feb 20, 2025•3 min
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. John 17:6 The third dimension of your holiness is that you are called. You may have heard the phrase that we are called to be “in the world but not of it.” That’s a good summary, and it comes directly from John 17. Notice the words of Jesus: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world” (17:6). At the same time, He says, “The world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as...
Feb 19, 2025•3 min
The glory that you have given me I have given to them. John 17:22 That is a staggering statement. You share in Jesus’ glory! This is the second dimension of your holiness. Donald Grey Barnhouse was a church minister in Philadelphia. He conducted many weddings, but he never took money for doing them. This is what he says: For many years it has been my custom whenever I married anybody, that when the bridegroom hands me an envelope, I go and say to the bride, “Here is my wedding present to you. If...
Feb 18, 2025•3 min
“Yours they were, and you gave them to me.” John 17:6 In making you holy, God has put you in an entirely new position in relation to Christ and to the world. Four things are true of you in Christ: You are given, glorified, called, and sent. The first dimension of your holiness is that you are given. You are the gift of the Father to the Son. You are His, so be who you are. It is natural for us to think about Jesus being the Father’s gift to us, but did you ever stop to think about the fact that ...
Feb 17, 2025•3 min
You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 Here, Paul is talking about something that has already happened. “You were sanctified.” In this case, it is not an ongoing process. It is a completed act. The word holy, or holiness, is used in two ways in the Bible. The original Hebrew word could mean two things: “set apart” or “brightness.” The first meaning describes a position, in which something was ...
Feb 16, 2025•3 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us… sanctification. 1 Corinthians 1:30 We have seen that in Christ you are clean, and in Christ you are free. Now we come to the third dimension of who we are in Jesus Christ: Christ is our holiness. Another word for holiness is sanctification. These words mean the same thing, and it is worth knowing them both. Now this is an area where it is easy to become confused, so it is important to think clearly. If someone asks you, “Are you justified, forgiven, and reconciled...
Feb 15, 2025•3 min
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 There is a wonderful line in Victor Hugo’s great book Les Misérables. It is the story of Jean Valjean, a heartless criminal. A bishop shows him great kindness, and it changes his life. But later in the story, Jean Valjean’s past gets the better of him, and he steals a coin from a little boy. This is what Hugo says about Jean Valjean: Let us say simply it was not he who robbed, it w...
Feb 14, 2025•3 min
Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11 Maybe you are thinking, It’s all very well to tell me that I am free, but I don’t feel very free. In fact, sometimes I feel totally defeated. That’s not surprising. If you have thought of yourself as a slave for years, it’s no easy thing to start living the life of a free person. We hear that Christ has redeemed us, but we do not feel redeemed. We continue to think of ourselves as if we were in the cage. If you are to ...
Feb 13, 2025•3 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us… redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30 Notice the centrality of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is at the heart of everything that is truly Christian. The way in which you become free is not through a technique but through a person. Christ is our redemption. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Paul gives us a marvelous description of the man in the cage in Romans 7. He describes the experience of a man who is overwhelmed by the compulsive power of s...
Feb 12, 2025•3 min
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:2 What does Paul mean when he says that we have “died to sin”? Most of us find that sin is still pretty much alive, and sometimes very powerful. If you are in Christ, you are now in a whole new position in relation to sin. You are not in the cage, you are in the field. Sin is still your enemy, but it is not your master. That’s why Paul says, “Sin will have no dominion over you” (6:14). The angry man will still shout instructions across the ro...
Feb 11, 2025•2 min
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Colossians 1:13 Sin is a power. When it gains a grip in your life, it will not let go. Paul says, “Sin reigned” (Rom. 5:21). It is like a tyrant. It bossed you around. The impulses of sin were in the driver’s seat of your life. Sin was your master. But now, in Christ, Paul says we have “died to sin” (6:2). He does not say we must die to sin. He is saying that we have died to sin. We have been un...
Feb 10, 2025•3 min
Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 The gospel touches the deepest issues of our lives, even the most powerful issues of temptation and addiction. Is Christ able to help you here? If we are to be delivered from sin, we need more than a Saviour who is able to forgive our sins. We need a...
Feb 09, 2025•3 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us… redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30 If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. The heart of the Christian life is that you discover who you are in Jesus Christ, and then be who you are. We’ve seen that the first step in discovering our new identity in Christ is knowing that you are clean. The second step is knowing that you are free. Redemption is a freedom word. It is about setting a person free by the payment of a price. The wo...
Feb 08, 2025•2 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us … righteousness 1 Corinthians 1:30 In order to understand your purity in Christ, the first thing you need to know is that Christ is your righteousness. The second thing you need to know is that Christ’s righteousness is yours. Imagine that you are living in a derelict building that will soon be pulled down, and you have nowhere to go. Then you meet a man who offers his home to you. You tell him you have no money for rent, but he says that there will be no rent. You...
Feb 07, 2025•3 min
That I may… be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… but that which comes through faith in Christ. Philippians 3:8-9 The issue on the last day will not be how righteous Christ has made you but how righteous Christ is for you. Some think the important thing is how righteous we have become. If you put sugar into a cup of tea, it makes the tea sweet. In the same way, they say, Christ imparts His “sweetness” (or righteousness) to us. In a sense, this is true—the likeness of Christ is f...
Feb 06, 2025•3 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us… righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1:30 If you are to grasp and enjoy your new purity in Christ, there are two things you need to know, and they are both right here in this verse. The first one is that Christ is your righteousness. Your faith does not make you right with God, nor does your repentance, or your performance in the Christian life. Your service cannot make you right with God, nor can your ministry, or anything else that you offer to God. What would you want ...
Feb 05, 2025•2 min
To the one who… believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Romans 4:5 God justifies sinners. This is mind-boggling. You would expect this verse to say that God justifies the righteous. If God is just, surely He should be looking to justify people who have not broken His law. But nobody is righteous—not even one person (3:10). If God justified only the righteous, none of us would have any hope. The good news of the gospel is that God justifies the ungodly. H...
Feb 04, 2025•3 min
You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 This is the first of the four dimensions of our new identity in Christ: when we are in Christ, we are clean, though we still sin. The word the Bible uses to describe this is justification. “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). You are justified in Christ, and that means three things. Lega...
Feb 03, 2025•3 min
Because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30 This is one of the most marvellous statements in the whole of the Bible. In earlier verses, Paul reminds us that God calls ordinary, unimpressive human beings like us, who have nothing very much to boast about. Then he says it is because of Him (God the Father) that you are in Christ Jesus (so this is a statement about what it means to be “in Christ”), w...
Feb 02, 2025•3 min
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 This is one of the hardest truths for us to grasp in all of the Bible. If the old has really gone, then why do we still face the same old temptations? Why do we still struggle with the same temperament? The Bible tells us that we are a new person, but we still live in the same flesh, and the same world. We are still surrounded by the same problems and face the same battles. So, wha...
Feb 01, 2025•3 min
The women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying. "A son has been born to Naomi". They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse. the father of David. Ruth 4:17 We have seen that the baby born in Bethlehem is described as a redeemer. Here we are told that they named him Obed, and Obed means servant. So the baby born in Bethlehem is a redeemer and a servant. And from him comes a future king: “He was the father of Jesse, the father of David” (4:17). All of this is pointing to Jesus, the Red...
Jan 31, 2025•3 min
The righteous flourish like the palm tree… They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age. Psalm 42:12-14 Don’t miss the wise counsel that can be gleaned from the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.Wisdom for those who are older. Stay close to those who love you. Take an active interest in others, especially younger members of your family and the children of your friends. Anticipate blessings that are yet to come. God’s work would ...
Jan 30, 2025•3 min
He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Ruth 4:15 How will this child be a restorer of life and a nourisher of Naomi's old age? The redeemer brings love. “Your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him” (4:15). The women are saying, “Naomi, the love and loyalty your daughter-in-law has shown to you is better than you co...
Jan 29, 2025•3 min
The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!” Ruth 4:14 There was a close relative who was not willing to redeem. He could have helped Naomi, but he didn’t. Maybe you have had something like this happen. Friends or family could have helped you, but they didn’t, and you were disappointed. Help doesn’t always come from where you might expect it. When this first relative was unwilling to help Naomi, God gave...
Jan 28, 2025•3 min
May the LORD make the woman… like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah... and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you. Ruth 4:11-12 Ruth and Boaz are married in the presence of many witnesses, and what follows can be summed up in one word: blessing. The elders and witnesses pray for them, providing a template prayer for any newly married couple. Pray for the ...
Jan 27, 2025•3 min
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3-4 Why is this story in the Bible? It shines a light on our Lord Jesus Christ and especially on what it means for Him to be our Redeemer. Jesus is our Redeemer. To be our Redeemer, Jesus had to become our ne...
Jan 26, 2025•3 min
It is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I... If he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Ruth 3:12-13 The job description for a redeemer would be: To bring hope by restoring an inheritance and raising a family. What qualifications would a redeemer need? Must be a family member. A redeemer had to be a family member to keep the inheritance in the family and continue the family line. Tha...
Jan 25, 2025•3 min
“Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” Ruth 3:9 Ruth asked Boaz to commit himself to her in marriage because he was a redeemer. Redeemer is the single most important word in this story, and it is one of the richest and most beautiful descriptions of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is a redeemer? God revealed His truth progressively over time and at this point, God’s people did not know the joys of eternal life as we do today. Old Testament believers hoped that two things woul...
Jan 24, 2025•3 min
