Nothing but the blood

I need to write about my God today. I have mixed emotions about everything else so I come back to the rock. The rest is sand and it can’t be trusted. It moves around with the wind and changes everyday. But not God. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Alpha and the Omega. He doesn’t change like shifting shadows. And He can be trusted.

On my way to work this morning, Nick and I were quiet because our minds were full and spilling out our thoughts at that stage wouldn’t have helped. We were deep in our own minds and probably both praying. Then God used Gareth Cliff to speak to us. I laugh as I write this because people doubt the sovereignty of God, and here God uses South Africa’s best known atheist to speak to us. Somebody who denies God often was used by the God he denies. The irony was amazing to me.

We have had miracle after miracle happen recently. It’s the kind of miracle that happens when you need to cross a raging river by walking on the rocks, but there is only one rock at a time for you to stand on. As you step off that rock into the torrent, the next rock appears from under the water and you say “Phew. If that rock didn’t appear, I would’ve drowned in these rapids.” There are two ways of looking at these kinds of miracles. You can either be in awe of God that even the rocks obey Him as He raises them up under your feet just before you fall and drown. Or you can be angry. Why is there no bridge? Why must every step I take be so frightening. Why must my veins be pumping with adrenalin everyday because of the fear of my next step when others are driving across this torrent on a beautiful well-lit, engineer-designed bridge.

First off, you need to realise that the bridge you see others crossing is an illusion set up to trip you up by the enemy. Yes, we have an enemy. The Bible says he prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. His native tongue is lying. You can be sure that every time he whispers anything in your ear, it’s a lie because that’s the only language he speaks. The Bible says he seeks only 3 things - to steal from you, to kill you and to destroy you. You can’t forget about him. He wants your faith, he wants your hope and ultimately he wants your soul and he’ll do anything to get it using his most powerful tool - lies. That beautiful bridge you think others are walking on is a lie. Everyone has their own set of stepping stones across the torrent. Many fall and are carried away, but the just shall live by faith! Come on! I want to shout it out like Braveheart “The juuusssttt shall livvvee byyy FAITH!”

As born again believers, we have two choices everyday – Am I going to live today in faith or in fear? Only two choices. You are living by one of them whether you realise it or not. You can recognise fear in the fact that you try and retain control over everything because you don’t really trust God with it. The words of fear are “God, I’ll just hang onto this one because I think I know better what needs to happen here than you do. You can have the unimportant stuff. This is too important to trust you with.” And you recognise faith with the words “I am not my own. I trust you. Not my will, but yours."

Faith can only come when the gospel is deeply rooted in your heart. The gospel is not just necessary for justification and then we leave it behind. No! It is the gospel that justifies and it is the gospel that sanctifies. You don’t say to a new born again believer “Ok, you have heard the Gospel, you have accepted Jesus, you are now justified by your faith. The cross has done its work, let’s move on! Now we teach you how you are supposed to live according to the bible.” No! The Bible says that the Gospel is the POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION.” In other words it is the only power that takes us to our salvation.

What is salvation? Many will say salvation happens the moment you are born again but salvation is far more all encompassing than that moment. According to the word of God it is

1)      Righteousness (justification)

2)      Sanctification (more of Christ in your life and less of you) and

3)      Redemption (being raised up on that last day.

Salvation consists of all three of these things. So if the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation that means the gospel is required every single step of the way in our journey. We need to constantly be reminded of the cross, of the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the worth, of the power of the blood sacrifice that was made on our behalf and of the fact that we are made righteous because of what Christ did that day at Calvary. We are righteous because of Him. From that place of constant awe at the gospel comes the power unto salvation, which includes righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

Something hit me like a ton of bricks last night when I was thinking about these things and talking to some friends. The power for change is in the cross. No amount of teaching will bring the power required for change, it doesn’t matter how brilliant a teacher you are. All teaching should start with “This is what Christ did. Because of what He did, you are justified by the pure and powerful blood of the lamb and you are made righteousness. Your sin is therefore not counted against you. Can you believe such grace? THEREFORE… (and the teaching about what the bible says about holy living should start).” Most preaching today around the world starts after the THEREFORE and leaves the first part out… The gospel is used once off for salvation and then the teaching and preaching is separate from the gospel. This is not what the bible teaches. The gospel is to be front centre everytime we meet anywhere in his name. It is the starting point and the ending point. In between, the bible teaching happens but it happens on top of the foundation of the gospel. So the gospel is actually the middle point as well.

Once you are a born again believer, the gospel never gets old. It has the power to grip your heart anytime of the day and no matter how often you hear it. Never will a born again believer say “Oh no, is this preacher talking about the cross again (sigh)?” If they do, then I have to doubt whether they are in fact born again. The gospel unlike anything else in this world grows in power in our heart the more we hear it, it does not lose its power because of “over-use.” Never, as preachers, should we think “My preach was about the gospel last week, so I can’t go with that subject again. I need fresh material. No, we preach the gospel every week. Not as an add on at the end of the preach aimed at justification of non-believers, but as the power unto salvation which includes the sanctification of the believers who are sitting there.

Now that I have finished writing this, I have quickly googled to see if someone else has said it better than me and I found good old Spurgeon. Many, many years ago...There is nothing new under the sun – just a constant enemy who knows where the power lies and will do anything to avert the eyes of the church off the cross and onto ‘christian living’.

“Leave Christ out of the preaching and you shall do nothing. Only advertize it all over London, Mr. Baker, that you are making bread without flour; put it in every paper, “Bread without flour” and you may soon shut up your shop, for your customers will hurry off to other tradesmen. . . . A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. However grand the language it will be merely much-ado-about-nothing if Christ be not there. And I mean by Christ not merely his example and the ethical precepts of his teaching, but his atoning blood, his wondrous satisfaction made for human sin, and the grand doctrine of “believe and live.”