Tag: Romans

Stealing God’s Glory

Suppose a wealthy church member were to buy me a car. Let’s indulge this fantasy a little, shall we?

Suppose this wealthy church member purchased for me, a brand new, 2026 Ford Bronco, Raptor edition, four-door, removable hard-top, trail-rated, and loaded with luxurious features. These vehicles retail for about $90,000. I have no business owning one, but what a cool vehicle! You can own one, and I’ll rejoice for you.

This church member drives this new vehicle up to my house and says, “Here you go, it’s a free gift!”

Now, receiving a gift like this makes me a little uncomfortable. Am I really worthy of such a gift? (I doubt it.) Will I ever live up to the expectation that prompted such a gift to be given?

I have issues.

So, I talk with this member, and I offer to give back.

“At least let me give you something for it,” I say.

“I wouldn’t have it. This is a gift. I want you to be happy.”

“I just know this came at a big sacrifice for you. At least let me give you something for your sacrifice,” I reply.

“It’s really not necessary.”

“Can I at least give you a couple of thousand? You can donate it if you like.”

“Okay.”

So, I pay my church member $2,000, then go test drive my new Ford Bronco. It’s a fun drive, but the experience has been ruined.

For my church member, the complete selfless act of donating this vehicle has been marred by the exchange of money. It’s just not the same.

For me, the humbling experience of receiving a valuable gift was changed into an amazing purchase. I now have the satisfaction of knowing that I gave something for the vehicle, and so, in some way, I deserve this Bronco.

I have no longer received the amazing gift of a new Bronco. I bought one, brand new, for $2,000! I’m either an amazing negotiator, or an amazing person to command such a steep discount.

My church member… now looks as if he’s been taken advantage of.

I hate this fantasy. I hate this story. It’s not going to end well. Let’s end it right now.

Nothing about the above-described situation is redeeming, comforting, or gives hope. What was presented as a selfless gesture of love became a conflict of pride and ego. Because I insisted on giving something, I ruined a good thing.

Yet, we do this all the time to God.

Ask anyone why they think they will go to heaven, and very often, you will hear something like the following:

“I’m basically a good person.”

“I read my Bible and pray every day.”

“I go to church.”

“I was baptized.”

“I supported __________”

Any act of piety or righteousness listed as a reason to go to Heaven is that person’s $2,000 paid for the free gift of the Bronco… I mean, any act of piety or righteousness, any religious act listed as a reason for salvation is a pittance paid toward the free gift of salvation.

And when we try to claim anything we have done as a reason for our salvation, we do to God what I did to my fictitious church member in response to the fictitious gift of the free Bronco. It’s easy to see how this would offend this church member, but do we even consider that we may be offending God by claiming credit for the free gift of Salvation which came at the price of His only begotten Son’s life?

In Romans 4:2, the Bible says, “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.”

Abraham is the patriarch of Israel. He is the hero of the Old Testament religion, and is known for following God through some pretty tough situations.

If Abraham’s obedience to God and his great works were what saved him, then the glory of his salvation belongs to Abraham, not God. Romans 4 takes this a step further in verse 4, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”

In other words, if there were any single work, no matter how small, required for salvation, then once that work is completed, God owes a debt of salvation to the sinner who completed the work.

What you have in that situation is an offer, acceptance, and the exchange of consideration… the makings of a legally binding contract.

In that system, we are the victors and overcomers, and the glory is all ours. God is simply the one who asked too low a price for eternity in His Kingdom.

This is blasphemous, offensive toward God, and it is not the way salvation works.

Romans 4 is part of a greater thought being expressed in Romans that demonstrates that salvation comes by God’s grace, and is accessed by our faith, apart from any act of faith or work of righteousness. For Abraham, Romans 4:3 simply says that Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

It’s a free gift that we cannot purchase, and even if we could, we could not afford it.

Our salvation was purchased by Christ when He gave His life on the cross for our sins, and it was secured when He rose from the grave. All we are capable of doing is accessing that salvation by believing in that Gospel, and knowing that it is His death, burial and resurrection that will bring us into Heaven.

Therefore, we simply trust in the Gospel and we give all the glory to God, and we shun the temptation to steal any part of that glory by advertising our own righteousness, because at the end of the day, we know that we have none.

So, don’t steal God’s glory. Place your faith in Him, and Him alone, and trust Him to save you based on what Christ did, not on what you can do.

Why the Gospel is Key

What is the point to Christianity? What is the central belief of the Christian faith?

I fear that for the most part, we’ve gotten so involved in preaching the Christian lifestyle and participation in faith communities that we have forgotten what it is truly all about.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Paul defines the Gospel as how Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

The Gospel, the central message and belief of our faith, is that the Lord Jesus Christ became man, lived a sinless human existence, before going to the cross to bear the wrath of God for the sins of all mankind. Then, He rose again to defeat death and to give us all eternal life.

This is not only key to our faith and belief system, but it is absolutely necessary for us to have hope for life beyond this life, because faith in the Gospel is absolutely necessary to have our sins forgiven and to be given salvation and eternal life.

In the above posted message, we discuss the universal need for the Gospel.

This Week at FBC Hermleigh

Sunday morning, we will continue our study in the Gospel according to John. Last week, we kicked off this study in chapter 1, as the Apostle John made the case that Jesus Christ is God in flesh who came into the world to save us from our sins.

This week, our focus will be on John 1:15-34, where John references the testimony of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was fairly controversial as far as the Pharisees were concerned, but few denied that he was a prophet sent from God. The Apostle John points out that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy from the book of Isaiah, and then points out that John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah and deliverer.

On Sunday night, we will begin an amazing study in one of my favorite books of the Bible, the book of Romans.

Sometimes referred to as the fifth Gospel, the book of Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a group of believers in Rome who were enduring persecution without pastoral leadership. Paul’s aim was to encourage and strengthen their faith by giving them a deeper understanding of the Gospel.

Many Christians are intimidated by the book of Romans because they see it as deep and complex, but the book is actually very simple and straight forward. It’s the theologians who make it complicated.

Our study Sunday night will focus on Romans 1:1-17, where Paul introduces himself, establishes the Gospel as his theme, and expresses his good desire toward the Roman believers.

The book of Romans is one of my favorites because it transformed my faith, and ultimately my ministry. I think you will be blessed by it as well.

I hope to see everyone at First Baptist Church of Hermleigh this weekend, 483 Harlan Ave., Hermleigh, TX. Sunday School at 10 a.m., Worship at 10:50 a.m., Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m.

Confession to God

Adam stood before the Lord guilty of breaking God’s one rule of the garden, he had eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam’s explanation? “The woman you gave to be with me gave me the fruit, and so I ate.”

David was confronted by Nathan the prophet after having an affair with the wife of one of his best soldiers before having that soldier killed to cover his sin. David’s response to being confronted with his sin? “Against thee, thee only have I sinned: and done this evil in thy sight…. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51)

Which of these two men from the Old Testament offered God a true confession? If you answered David, you would be correct.

As we discussed in our previous post on confession, confession moves beyond an acknowledgement of one’s own action and admits fault, being transparent in one’s motivations and belief and placing one’s self at the mercy of another. Our previous exploration of the topic of confession was framed in the context of confessing our faults and struggles to each other, so that we can pray for one another, minister to one another, and be healed.

In this post, we will discover how this level of confession toward God not only brings forgiveness of sin, but also brings reconciliation to God and healing from the sin that has plagued one’s life. 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

According to 1 John, confession is the key that unlocks God’s forgiveness, cleansing, and thus healing. Denying sin, downplaying sin, or acknowledging the action without confessing that it is sin leads to a life marked by continued darkness, isolation and destruction. To deny sin is to call God a liar, which is the ultimate blasphemy, since lies are the hallmark of Satan.

Confession to God is made through one’s own prayer life, and while one may choose to confess their sin to their pastor, one has not truly confessed to God until one has approached God directly in prayer.

One of the great examples of confession in the Bible is the afore-mentioned Psalm 51. In it, David goes beyond confessing to his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband. In fact, he does not even mention it. Rather, he focuses his confession on the very darkness within his own soul, and within his own heart that led to the sin.

In essence, David’s confession was not about the action, but rather the heart that birthed the action. His confession is like bypassing the symptoms in order to treat the disease itself.

In his Psalm 51 confession, David mentions that he is, at his core, a sinner. He then pleads with God to cleanse him, to create in him a clean heart, and to restore the joy of his salvation while restoring the fellowship he and God once enjoyed.

This level of confession is the mark of true repentance, to which God responds every time.

Another great example of confession in the Bible is Paul’s confession in Romans 7:15-25, where Paul confesses that no good thing dwells within him, therefore he is predisposed to rebelling against God’s law and leadership in his life. His confession is that he needs Christ to rescue him from the body of that death and to enable him to serve the Lord (Romans 7:24-25).

In Paul’s confession, we see the sinner move beyond confession and repentance and toward faith, as Paul’s only option is to trust the Lord.

Most people live life defeated. We sin, we face the consequence of sin, we promise God to never do that sin again if he will rescue us from the consequence, and then we go on and sin again. In this vicious cycle, we never confess what’s truly in our heart. In fact, we often deny it.

Furthermore, we never stop to consider the sin within our heart, and what it would take to be cleansed from that sin, if we even desire cleansing at all.

By stopping, assessing the sin within us, and confessing that sin to God, we can not only identify the cause of our destructive behavior, we can truly turn from it and allow God to heal that brokenness within us. Anything short of this is an exercise in futility.

With all this in mind, what will you confess to God today?