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But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.Philippians 3:7-11 Changes in behavior always start with a radically new way of thinking, because what we believe shapes what we do. The same is true of becoming more like Jesus (Romans 12:2). In order for us to change our thinking, we must learn about the spiritual treasures that are part of our salvation — things like freedom in Christ, free access to God’s rich spiritual resources, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the immeasurable love of God. The Bible says that as followers of God, we have every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). A New Creation As Christians we become more like Jesus by drawing on these Christ-given riches to enable us to behave like the new creations that we are (2 Corinthians 5:17). We determine to be humble, loving, pure, grace-giving people. When we make mistakes and bad decisions, we confess our sins and repent, which keeps our relationship with the Lord strong. When we discover our weaknesses, we draw on God’s wisdom and power for help. Growing in Relationship with One Another No one can become more like Jesus without having close relationships with other believers. As the body of Christ, Christians need one another to grow. We need a church in which fellow believers are speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and in which the Bible is being preached so we know how to do works of service in Jesus’ name (Ephesians 4:12). In addition, Christians have always found that practicing spiritual disciplines — such as regular Bible reading, prayer, fasting, solitude and giving, among others — provide deep insights into their own souls and open pathways into Christlikeness. Disciplined by Our Loving Father Finally, we must reckon with God’s discipline (Hebrews 12:6). As a loving Father, God sometimes invests in our growth by allowing us to experience painful situations that arrest us in our sinfulness, reveal our weaknesses, and build into our lives a deeper reliance on Christ and his Word (Hebrews 12:4 – 13). Drawn from the NIV Quest Study Bible.

The Prayer of Faith: Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.James 5:13-18 Near the end of his letter, James encourages any Christians who are sick to have the elders or leaders of their church community pray for their healing (James 5:14). Then he writes, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up” (5:15). What is this prayer of faith? And does it guarantee the restoration to health of the person who is sick? To understand better what James means by “the prayer of faith,” we can look to James 1, where Christians are encouraged to ask God for the wisdom they lack, but to do so believing and not doubting (1:5–6). The key to such unwavering faith is not to muster it up out of our own will power. Instead, the conclusion of James 1 highlights the proper focus of our attention: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (1:17). Trusting our God for good gifts (like wisdom), including the gift of healing, contributes to praying by faith. Another indication of what the prayer of faith is comes in the previous verse, where James notes that the elders of the church are to pray for the person who is ill (5:14). This is a prayer offered by the community—by its leaders or by a single faithful (“righteous”) person in that community (5:16–18). Yet a prayer of faith should not be a presumptuous prayer, as if to think that God is bound to act in a particular way in response. James counters such a perspective in 4:13–17, where he encourages his audience to base their outlook on the Lord’s will and not assume they are in charge of their future. Again, as in James 1, the focus is on God and what God can do rather than on what prayer can do. A call to prayer is always fitting, as the church should be a community that turns first and in faith to their loving God to help those in their midst who are ill or struggling. But effectual prayer is always humbly reliant on an effectual God. Drawn from the NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition.

Can a person separate water from the sea? When I think of the sea, I picture a vast body of water with waves crashing as they approach the shore. I cannot imagine separating a sea from water. But when it comes to God’s glory filling the earth, my mind typically separates the two realities of God’s glory and our earthly experience. I might glimpse God’s glory when I look out on a spectacular landscape in nature or watch the stars come out as night falls, but not in my day-to-day world. Where is His glory in a busy office space, in a shopping center, or on a city street? In the Book of Numbers, God says that both His existence and the fact that His glory fills the earth are fixed, certain, and unchanging truth. “As surely as I live . . .  the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth” (Numbers 14:21). The twelve Israelite spies had just returned from exploring the promised land. There they had found a lush landscape with abundant produce guarded by a fierce people who looked to them like giants. Ten of the twelve spies forgot about the God who had sent them. They spread a bad report among the tribes of Israel so that they rebelled against God in their fear. This was only a year after God had miraculously delivered the Israelites from Egypt and revealed His glory to them at Mount Sinai. Here God reminded them that His glory—the same glory that had recently delivered them—already filled the earth, but their unbelief prevented an entire generation from entering into His promised land. The Hebrew word used in these verses for God’s glory is “kavod,” which means “weightiness,” “splendor,” or “abundance.” Have you ever experienced a taste of this heavy “weight” of God’s glory during a time of worship at church? Or sensed His glory drawing closer as you pray alone in your room? The prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk recognized the need for us to be made more aware of God’s glory. Isaiah looked forward to a day when God’s kingdom would bring peace on earth. His vision of the knowledge of God filling the earth stands at the end of a messianic prophecy; it describes a descendent of David who would come to restore justice and righteousness for all nations. “They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). In contrast, Habakkuk calls humanity to recognize the presence of God’s glory in the midst of a world where evil is growing and seems to be winning. Writing at a time when the people of Judah were determined to live their own lives without God, Habakkuk saw the coming judgment in the form of an evil army: “Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples” (Habakkuk 2:5b). Yet the strivings of all evil armies will eventually come to nothing because, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). The Jewish people expected Isaiah and Habakkuk’s prophesies to be fulfilled at the time of the coming of the Messiah, who would be a descendent of David. When Jesus was born, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). Jesus’ disciple John described that glory as something that could be seen and touched: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This glory multiplied bread and fish to feed thousands; this glory touched and healed lepers; it mourned with those who were grieving. Finally, this glory overturned the power of death. As Christ followers, we are called to show this very glory to the world: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). God’s glory already fills this earth. We cannot separate these two realities any more than we can separate water from the sea. Let’s pray for our eyes to be open to see that glory and show it to our communities through acts of love, compassion, and generosity. By Wendy Halloun, Creative Communications Officer MENA, Biblica.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.—2 Timothy 2:13 He Is Trustworthy This verse pictures a radically different way of living, one not natural to most of us. Most human beings buy into a view of life characterized by the “life is on your shoulders,” “you make or break your life,” “pay your money and take your choice,” or “ you have no one to look to or blame but yourself” outlook. In this view, you are the master of your fate. You have little to rely on other than your instincts, your strength, the wisdom that you’ve collected over the years, your ability to anticipate what is around the corner, your character and maturity, and the natural gifts that you have been given. It is a scary “you against the world” way of living. But your welcome into God’s family turns all of this upside down. God not only forgives your sins and guarantees you a seat in eternity, but welcomes you to a radically new way of living. This new way of living is not just about submitting to God’s moral code. No, it is about God covenantally committing himself to be faithful to you forever, unleashing his wisdom, power, and grace for your eternal good. Think about this. The One who created and controls the world, the One who is the ultimate definition of what is loving, true, and good, and the One who alone has the power to finally defeat sin has chosen, because of his grace, to wrap his arms of faithful love and protection around you, and he will not let you go. You can take your life off your shoulders because God has placed it on his. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter how you live, but that your security is not found in your faithfulness, but in his. He can be trusted even when you cannot. He will be faithful and good even when you’re not. He will do what is right and best even when you don’t. And he is faithful to forgive you when convicting grace reveals how unfaithful you have been. Rather than giving you license to do whatever, this truth should give you motivation to continue. His grace calls you to invest in the one thing that will never come up short, and that one thing is the faithfulness of your Lord. The Effects of Your Sin Sin does two very significant things to us all. First, it causes us all to insert ourselves into the center of our worlds, making life all about us. In our self-focus, we are all too motivated by our wants, our needs, and our feelings, and because we are, we tend to be more aware of what we don’t have than of the many wonderful blessings that we have been given. But there is more; because we are self-focused, we tend to be scorekeepers, constantly comparing our piles of stuff to the piles of others. It’s a life of discontentment and envy. Envy is always selfish. There is a second thing of equal significance that sin does to us. It causes us to look horizontally for what can only ever be found vertically. So we look to creation for life, hope, peace, rest, contentment, identity, meaning and purpose, inner peace, and motivation to continue. The problem is that nothing in creation can give you these things. Creation was never designed to satisfy your heart. Creation was made to be one big finger pointing you to the One who alone has the ability to satisfy your heart. Many people will get up today and in some way will ask creation to be their savior, that is, to give them what only God is able to give. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:25–26). These are the words of a man who learned the secret to contentment. When you are satisfied with the Giver, because you have found in him the life you were looking for, you are freed from the ravenous quest for satisfaction that is the discouraging existence of so many people. Yes, it is true that your heart will rest only ever when it has found its rest in him. Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace—a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want. It is grace and grace alone that can make this kind of peaceful living possible for each of us. He can be trusted even when you cannot. This article is adapted from New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp.

1. Predestination should result in humility, praise, and comfort. Sometimes Christians passionately disagree with each other about predestination. But it is pitiful how we can take a Bible teaching that should result in humility, praise, and comfort and instead talk about it with sinful pride, divisiveness, and anxiety. We unreservedly affirm and cherish whatever God has revealed (cf. Isa. 66:2b). 2. Predestination has two parts: choosing to save some (election) and choosing not to save others (reprobation). Predestination means that God predetermined the destiny of certain individuals for salvation (election) and others for condemnation (reprobation). Election is positive predestination: God sovereignly and graciously chose to save individual sinners. God predestined certain individuals (i.e., predetermined their destiny) for salvation—“vessels of mercy, which [God] has prepared beforehand for glory” (Rom. 9:23); “the elect” (Rom. 11:7); Jesus’s sheep (John 10:27–29). Reprobation is negative predestination: God sovereignly and justly chose to pass over nonelect sinners and punish them. God predestined certain individuals (i.e., predetermined their destiny) for condemnation—“vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom. 9:22); “the rest” (Rom. 11:7); not Jesus’s sheep (John 10:26). 3. The goal of election is for God to save us so that we praise him for his glorious grace. The Bible says in various ways that the goal of election is for God to save us. For example, Paul praises God because “he [God the Father] chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4). One goal of election is that when we stand before God we will be morally pure and blameless. He predestined us “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). The ultimate goal of election is to praise God’s glorious grace. Negatively, it is to shame the elite so that no human might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:26–29). Positively, it is to praise God’s glorious grace and God’s glory (Eph. 1:4–6, 11–12). 4. God chose to save humans before he created the world. Paul exclaims that “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4a). That means that God chose to save humans before he created the world (cf. John 17:24; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). 5. The basis of election is God’s forelove. There are two basic (and mutually exclusive) ways to explain how God’s foreknowledge is the basis of God’s election: The Bible teaches that God did not choose to save individuals on the basis of his foreseeing that they would freely choose to believe in him. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that the basis of election is God and not man (e.g., Rom. 9:6–19; Eph. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:9; cf. John 10:16, 26–27). 6. Unconditional election is merciful and gracious. A common objection to unconditional election is that it is unfair. But God is always fair. God is fair when he sovereignly has mercy on whomever he wants (Rom. 9:14–18). And God is fair when he is undeservedly kind to some and not others (Matt. 20:1–16). Does anyone deserve God’s kindness? No. When God is undeservedly kind to some people but not others, he is still fair to all people without exception. We deserve God’s wrath, and yet he sovereignly chose to be merciful and gracious to save his people. 7. Unconditional election does not mean that our wills are like robots or puppets. We do not have a free will in the sense that we can equally make alternative choices (Rom. 9:19–23). We have a free will in the sense that we always choose what we most want. That does not mean that God has programmed us to be robots or that God is a puppet master who forces us to do things against our will. A good analogy for God’s sovereignty is a novelist and the characters in his story. In C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the character Edmund betrays his three siblings and Aslan. Who is responsible for that betrayal—Edmund or C. S. Lewis? Do they share responsibility—50% Edmund and 50% Lewis? Or maybe 75% Edmund and 25% Lewis? No, Edmund is fully responsible, and Lewis is fully responsible. But they are responsible in different senses. Edmund is fully responsible as a creature—a character in a fictional story; and Lewis is fully responsible as the creator—the author of the fictional story. Lewis (the author) ordained what Edmund (the character) freely chose to do. Edmund has moral responsibility for his choices, and Lewis does not. That’s something like what we mean when we say that God (the Creator) ordained what humans (the creatures) freely choose to do. The Creator has authority over his creation like a novelist has authority over his story. It is clarifying to distinguish natural ability (natural freedom to choose what I want) from moral ability (moral freedom to choose what God wants). All of us—unregenerate and regenerate—have the natural freedom to choose what we want. But we do not all have the moral freedom to choose what God wants. Moral freedom—true freedom—is a gracious gift from God. (John 6:65). God’s meticulous sovereignty (particularly regarding predestination) is compatible with human freedom (particularly the God-enabled freedom to believe in Christ and the moral responsibility for not believing in Christ). The most remarkable example of this is the crucifixion of Christ (Acts 2:23; 4:27–28). God is so amazing that he ordained both (1) what we choose and (2) that we freely choose what we most want. How? It’s a mystery. We do not fully understand. 8. God’s sovereign choice to save only some humans is compatible with God’s desire that all humans be saved. It is helpful to distinguish two aspects of God’s will—what God would like to see happen (e.g., Matt. 18:14) and what God actually wills to happen (e.g., Matt. 11:25–26). God values something else more highly than saving all humans without exception. According to Arminianism, God more highly values a genuinely loving relationship, which requires us to have a free will in the sense that we can equally make alternative choices. According to Calvinism (and I think according to the Bible), God more highly values displaying his glory in mercy and wrath (Rom. 9:22–23) and receiving all the glory for sovereignly saving individuals (1 Cor. 1:26–29). God’s choice—not our choice—is the deciding factor. That is why Paul writes, “God may perhaps grant them repentance” (2 Tim. 2:25–26). 9. God ultimately causes reprobation (but not in the same way that he chose to save individuals). God the potter prepared vessels of wrath for destruction (Rom. 9:6–29). God destined certain people to disobey the word and thus stumble (1 Pet. 2:7–8). God designated certain people for condemnation (Jude 4). God intentionally did not write the names of certain individuals in the book of life before he created the world (Rev. 13:8b; 17:8b). God hid Jesus’s message from the wise and understanding (Matt. 11:25–26; Luke 10:21). But when God chose or passed over individuals, he did not think about those individuals as unfallen and morally neutral. Rather, he thought about them as fallen and sinful (Rom. 9:22–23; Eph. 1:4). 10. The goal of reprobation is to glorify God for his wrath and power and especially to glorify God for the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy. We do not know all the reasons that God sovereignly and justly chose to pass over nonelect sinners and punish them, but God has revealed two of his goals: (1) to glorify God for his wrath and power (Rom. 9:17–18) and (2) to glorify God for the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:22–23). Those goals are not parallel. The first is subservient to the second. The second is ultimate. We unreservedly affirm and cherish whatever God has revealed. Andrew David Naselli is the author of Predestination: An Introduction.

How can a person make sense of the Bible? After all, it was composed by some forty authors at different times in different countries, and it covers thousands of years. What is it trying to say? What’s the story? What is God doing with humanity? Many people who look to the Bible for answers become confused by it because they see only disconnected pieces. They know a story here, a verse there. And they don’t know how all the pieces fit together. It’s as if they had ten, twenty, or fifty pieces of a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and were trying to make sense of it. The Bible, like much of life, is just another puzzle that can’t be solved. I believe there is a solution, and it is similar to solving a jigsaw puzzle. It starts with having the whole picture of what you’re trying to put together. If you were given a thousand-piece puzzle, how would you put it together without the picture of the finished puzzle on the box top? If you didn’t have any idea of what the complete picture looks like, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to put it together. The Big Picture of What God is Doing in this World The Bible does have a single big picture, a context into which everything fits. Though the Bible consists of many pieces, all of those pieces tell one story—God’s big story of interaction with us, the human race. It is the big picture of what God is doing in this world. It’s the story of not only all the people who have come before us, it is also our story, and the story of everyone who will come after us. It tells what God is doing on earth, and once you see it, you’ll wonder why you had never noticed it before. God’s Big Story will enable you to make sense of how you got here, why you are here, and where you are going. It communicates that God put you here on purpose and for a purpose. It’s one storyline that threads from the beginning (from Genesis, the first book of the Bible) to the end (to Revelation, the last book of the Bible). And it will help you to make sense of all the pieces. The entirety of the Bible’s big story can be summarized in a mirror-image drawing that looks like an isosceles triangle with a vertical line dividing it in half. The story has two main parts, and there are five major events in each half. The events on the left-hand side of the mirror image occur in the Old Testament. The events on the right-hand side occur in the New Testament and parallel the five Old  Testament events. The remarkable symmetry of these events is no accident, and they point to the person at the apex of the triangle: Jesus Christ. Altogether, the mirror image encompasses the entire story  of humankind, and when you see it laid out, all of our history makes sense. The left side line going up contains the first half of the story of humanity from the beginning of creation to Jesus. The events occur in the Old Testament. Another word for testament is contract. The left side of the mirror image tells the story of the contract God draws up with humankind through a man named Abraham. His descendants eventually became the nation of Israel. The right side going down contains the second half of humanity’s story, from Jesus  to the end of the world. These events can be found in the New Testament, which describes the story of the new contract God offers through Jesus. This contract is offered by God to everyone on earth. To understand the big picture, you need to understand both the Old and New Testaments. I’m no lawyer, but if I were reading a contract, and it kept referring to the previous contract it replaced, I would want to read that older contract, wouldn’t you? Likewise, when trying to understand the Bible, you need to understand the old contract for the new contract to make sense. In the Bible, the old contract sets up the new contract, and everything in the old contract points to the need for Jesus and for his arrival. Everything in the new contract points to what God did before, making the new contract possible. Old Testament Times If you look at the mirror image, you see that the Old Testament starts with God creating the heavens and earth along with righteous people without sin or guilt, whom God places with him in the Garden of Eden. That’s the first major event in Scripture. The next major event occurs when Satan and sin enter the world, turning people against God. When God has had enough of seeing people harm one another and dishonor him, the third major event occurs: God destroys the world by flood. The good news is that people bounce back; the bad news is that they return to their wicked ways. All of humankind works together in a unified effort to build the Tower of Babel in their desire to elevate themselves and declare their self- sufficiency away from God. Their actions precipitate the fourth major event: God confuses people’s languages, and he scatters them across the earth. Fortunately, God’s love for people will not be thwarted, and he chooses to make a contract with Abraham. God promises Abraham that he will have many descendants, including the Messiah, who will provide all of humankind with a way back to him. Abraham’s descendants become the twelve tribes that make up the nation of Israel, and the rest of the Old Testament recounts their story. New Testament Times The turning point in God’s big story is Jesus, the promised Messiah. This is the event upon which all of mankind’s history with God hinges. That’s why his arrival is the apex of the mirror image triangle. Jesus is God in human flesh, and he offers mankind a new contract and fulfills God’s part in it. That is the start of the New Testament. Jesus’s most trusted followers are the twelve disciples. These men in the New Testament parallel the twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament. Just as the twelve tribes found Israel, the twelve disciples found the church. Most of the New Testament tells the story of beginning of the era of the church. You and I are currently living in this era. The remainder of God’s big story with humankind is still in the future and is described in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. The events unfold in reverse order to the major events in the Old Testament. The people of the world will again unite. They will form a one-world government. After that God will again cause the destruction of the world, this time by fire instead of flood. Just as Satan entered the world bringing sin with him, he will be forced to exit the world along with sin, once and for all. And the story ends with people with God in paradise once again. Life to the Full Why is it important to understand the big story contained in the mirror image? Because understanding Scripture is the starting point for real maturity. Growth in Christ and the full life Jesus promises in John 10:10 come as the result of engaging three areas: The mind, which grows in maturity with biblical knowledge;The heart, which grows in maturity with spiritual intimacy; andThe will, which grows in maturity with holy obedience. Understanding the context of God’s big story helps you to better understand everything you read in the Bible. Understanding the Bible helps facilitate spiritual intimacy with God, and that heart engagement with God inspires our willingness to obey him. If we neglect any of these three areas, we will not become spiritually mature. If we elevate one at the expense of the other two, we develop blind spots that hinder our life in Christ, because: Biblical knowledge without spiritual intimacy and holy obedience becomes intellectualism.Spiritual intimacy without biblical knowledge and holy obedience becomes emotionalism.Holy obedience without biblical knowledge and spiritual intimacy becomes legalism With an ever-growing knowledge of God’s Word, you will begin to understand him more. Your desire and ability to experience spiritual intimacy with him will grow. And your desire to obey what he is asking of you will increase. So will your ability to follow through. As these things happen, you will grow in spiritual maturity, and your life will begin to change for the better. And so will your ability to help and serve others. By Kevin A. Myers. Drawn from the NIV Maxwell Leadership Bible.

Discerning God’s Will For the believer wanting to know God’s will for his or her life, the first question to pose is not “What should I do?” but “Who should I be?” Perhaps you’ve tried to use the Bible to answer the question “What should I do?” Facing a difficult decision, perhaps you’ve meditated for hours on a psalm or a story in the Gospels, asking God to show you how it speaks to your current dilemma. Perhaps you’ve known the frustration of hearing silence, or worse, of acting on a hunch or “leading” only to find later that you apparently had not heard the Lord’s will. I know that process better than I’d like to admit, and I also know the shame that accompanies it—the sense that I’m tone-deaf to the Holy Spirit, that I’m terrible at discovering God’s will. But God does not hide his will from his children. As an earthly parent, I do not tell my kids, “There is a way to please me. Let’s see if you can figure out what it is.” If I do not conceal my will from my earthly children, how much more our heavenly Father? His will does not need discovering. It is in plain sight. To see it we need to start asking the question that deals with his primary concern. We need to ask, “Who should I be?” Start with the Heart Of course, the questions “What should I do?” and “Who should I be?” are not unrelated. But the order in which we ask them matters. If we focus on our actions without addressing our hearts, we may end up merely as better behaved lovers of self. Think about it. What good is it for me to choose the right job if I’m still consumed with selfishness? What good is it for me to choose the right home or spouse if I’m still eaten up with covetousness? What does it profit me to make the right choice if I’m still the wrong person? A lost person can make “good choices.” But only a person indwelt by the Holy Spirit can make a good choice for the purpose of glorifying God. The hope of the gospel in our sanctification is not simply that we would make better choices, but that we would become better people. This is the hope that caused John Newton to pen, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” It is what inspires the apostle Paul to speak of believers “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). The gospel teaches us that the grace that is ours through Christ is, by the work of the Spirit, transforming us increasingly into someone better. But not just anyone better. The gospel begins transforming us into who we should have been. It reimages us. Want to know what it should have been like to be human? Look to the only human who never sinned. The hope of the gospel in our sanctification is not simply that we would make better choices, but that we would become better people. This article is adapted from In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character by Jen Wilkin.

The Widow’s Offering Jesus sat down across from the place where people put their temple offerings. He watched the crowd putting their money into the offering boxes. Many rich people threw large amounts into them. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins. They were worth only a few pennies. Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said, “What I’m about to tell you is true. That poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. They all gave a lot because they are rich. But she gave even though she is poor. She put in everything she had. That was all she had to live on.”Mark 12:41–44 Ultimately, life decisions are investment decisions. Whether the subject is time, talent or treasure, we’re continuously making decisions about what we’ll invest in. In this simple account, “rich people” made large investments designed to impress others. The poor widow, in contrast, donated a small amount of money. Given her circumstances, it was actually a gigantic investment: It was all the money she had. She wasn’t trying to impress anybody — not people, not God. She simply placed a priority on investing in God’s work. She was willing to give all in an act of worship and sacrifice from a pure motive of love for her God. This is especially striking since she was a victim of difficult circumstances. Widows in that day and culture often faced privation. She could have resented her circumstances, fixing her thoughts on what she had lost. Instead, she chose to focus on God and the privilege of worshiping him. She gave out of gratitude for what she had instead of grieving over what she had lost. This made her heroic in Jesus’ estimation, so exemplary that her humble act of faith would be recalled throughout the history of Christianity. Those who know God desire to please him. Like the widow, we can offer no more than what we have. But, again like the widow, we can give all we have to God. Time, talent and treasure, in whatever degree we enjoy them, are God’s gifts to us. He asks us only to invest what he has already freely given us. We need to stop talking and start giving out of gratitude to God for his grace in our lives. For Reflection Where are you investing? Whose glory do you seek? Are you faithfully seeking to share with others the Good News that you’ve discovered? Act Give all you have: time, treasure and talent.Give out of gratitude to God for his grace in your life. Content drawn from the NIV Celebrate Recovery Bible.

Infinite Condescension In this act of taking on human nature, Christ’s infinite condescension [“descending to be with”] wonderfully appeared, that he who was God should become man, that the word should be made flesh, and should take on him a nature infinitely below his original nature. And it appears yet more remarkably in the low circumstances of his incarnation: he was conceived in the womb of a poor young woman, whose poverty appeared in this, when she came to offer sacrifices of her purification, she brought what was allowed of in the law only in case of a person . . . [who] was so poor that she was not able to offer a lamb. And though his infinite condescension thus appeared in the manner of his incarnation, yet his divine dignity also appeared in it; for though he was conceived in the womb of a poor virgin, yet he was conceived there by the power of the Holy Ghost. And his divine dignity also appeared in the holiness of his conception and birth. Though he was conceived in the womb of one of the corrupt race of mankind, yet he was conceived and born without sin. . . . His infinite condescension marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others who were looked upon as persons of greater account. The Blessed Virgin, being poor and despised, was turned or shut out. Though she was in such extreme circumstances, yet those that counted themselves her betters would not give place to her; and therefore, in the time of her travail, she was forced to betake herself to a stable; and when the child was born, it was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. There Christ lay a little infant, and there he eminently appeared as a lamb. But yet this feeble infant, born thus in a stable, and laid in a manger, was born to conquer and triumph over Satan, that roaring lion. He came to subdue the mighty powers of darkness, and make a show of them openly, and so to restore peace on earth, and to manifest God’s good-will towards men, and to bring glory to God in the highest, according as the end of his birth was declared by the joyful songs of the glorious hosts of angels appearing to the shepherds at the same time that the infant lay in the manger; whereby his divine dignity was manifested. . . . Though Christ dwelt in poor outward circumstances, whereby his condescension and humility especially appeared, and his majesty was veiled, yet his divine divinity and glory did in many of his acts shine through the veil, and it illustriously appeared, that he was not only the Son of man, but the great God. Thus, in the circumstances of his infancy, his outward social lowness appeared; yet there was something then to show forth his divine dignity, in the wise men’s being stirred up to come from the east to give honor to him their being led by a miraculous star, and coming and falling down and worshipping him, and presenting him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. . . . Christ’s incarnation was a greater and more wonderful thing than ever had yet come to pass. The creation of the world was a very great thing, but not so great as the incarnation of Christ. It was a great thing for God to make the creature, but not so great as for the Creator himself to become a creature. . . . God becoming man was greater than all [previous events in history]. Then the greatest person was born that ever was or ever will be. Humility and Exaltation Jonathan Edwards was one of the most important religious figures in the history of American Christianity. He was a theologian, preacher, and prolific writer. The particular contribution of the passage printed here is its balance between contrasting aspects of Christ’s incarnation. The context that best enables us to see this balance is the way in which most of the selections in this anthology emphasize either the humility seen in Christ’s birth and life, or the exaltation of it, as seen in such miracles as a virgin birth and the appearance of an angelic host and the supernatural guidance of the wise men. Edwards brings both of these together, and seeing how he works this out is the key to our assimilation of the passage. As the template for this balanced picture of the incarnation, Edwards has in mind two biblical metaphors for Jesus—the lamb and the lion. The way in which Edwards gets us to see the complementary sides of the incarnation is subtle and masterful. The main principle is that of a back-and-forth movement like a pendulum. First Edwards places data before us that demonstrates the humility of Jesus seen in his nativity and incarnation. Then the words but and yet set up a countermovement that rehearses the signs of Christ’s majesty and exalted status. A few of the paragraphs are devoted exclusively to one or the other of these themes, but mainly we need to keep alert within paragraphs to see the swing of the pendulum. This is entirely appropriate, because the humility and exaltation were intertwined on the night of Jesus’s birth and afterward. Edwards repeatedly uses the word condescension, and we need to understand that this is a theological word and concept, with no hint of the negative connotations that the word holds in common usage today. Christ’s condescension was his descent from a higher divine state to a lower human one, accompanied by his relinquishing of divine privilege in order to accomplish an action (the salvation of people) that strict justice does not require. The final paragraph steps back from the analysis that has preceded and makes sure that we comprehend the greatness of what has been presented. Having been led to see the complementary facts of Christ’s humility and greatness as seen in Christmas, at the end we are prompted to celebrate those facts. The takeaway from this meditation is that we need to see that the nativity and incarnation combine opposites (humility and exaltation), and that we need to keep an eye on both as we celebrate the season. Jonathan Edwards based his sermon “The Excellency of Christ” on Revelation 5:5–6: And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. . . . The creation of the world was a very great thing, but not so great as the incarnation of Christ. This article is adapted from Journey to Bethlehem: A Treasury of Classic Christian Devotionals by Leland Ryken.

What Are Angels? While God’s word does not offer us a detailed description of how and when God made the angels, or of what exactly they look like, we can nevertheless gather truths and principles from various Scripture passages that teach us about these beings that are in eternal service of God. You have probably seen pictures, movies, or cartoons portraying angels, but it’s likely that none of them portrayed angels in any way close to what they are actually like! What does the Bible say? Angels are created beings. First, the Bible is clear that angels, like humans, are created and living beings, made by God. In Psalm 8, the psalmist points out that human beings have been made “a little lower” than the angels and “crowned . . . with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:5). Angels, then, have greater glory and honor than humans; it is noteworthy that the natural human response to these beings when they appear is first fear and then worship. Nevertheless, angels were created by God, and therefore are less than God. They are another kind of living being that God made. Angels are eternal, nonmortal beings. Jesus makes it clear that angels—unlike human beings—are eternal and nonmortal (they do not share in human institutions such as marriage, for example; see Matt. 22:30). Angels were created by God to live forever; they do not grow old and die. While it seems that angels can certainly take on physical form, they are spiritual beings. Angels are servants of God. Primarily, angels were created by God to be his servants (we will talk much more about what their service looks like in the next section). You saw this in the passage from Revelation 22 that you read just above. John was tempted, as we discussed above, to bow down and worship the angel who was showing him this vision of heaven. The angel stopped him, though, reminding him that, although glorious, he was nothing more than a “fellow servant” of God with John (Rev. 22:9). Angels are not to be worshiped; they are servants of God, who alone is worthy of worship and praise. Angels dwell in heaven with God. Angels, unlike human beings, never have lived on earth and never have been subject to the fall in the same way that human beings are. Angels, then, do not have sinful natures; they are not guilty of sin, rebellion, and death. We know this because they are portrayed (in Rev. 4, for example) as dwelling closely with the holy God in heaven. Sinful beings would not be able to do that! So the permanent dwelling place for angels is in heaven with God. The Purpose of Angels Now that we have considered what angels are, we are going to dig a bit deeper into their purpose, as we see it revealed in the Bible. We will identify several of the chief roles that we see angels filling in Scripture as they obey God and help his work to move forward in the world he made. While we are not certain about the work of angels in the world today, we can look at how they have worked throughout the history of God’s people. Above all, the Bible presents angels to us as servants of God. This was the point that the angel in Revelation made clear to John when John attempted to worship him (Rev. 22:9). But what do these servants do? What is their purpose? In the Bible, we see them acting in several key ways: Announcement. This is the purpose that you saw in the passage from Luke that you read just above. The angel Gabriel (one of the few angels who is named in Scripture) was sent to Mary to announce the coming birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. The angels had a busy season, as another heavenly messenger (perhaps Gabriel again) was sent to Mary’s soon-to-be husband Joseph as well (Matt. 1:20–21). God was clearly using this angelic servant to make important announcements to his people about his coming salvation and powerful work in the world through his Son. We also see angels making announcements to people in the Old Testament from time to time. Protection. At various points in the Bible, angels are presented to us as God’s means to protect his people. Psalm 91:11–12 mentions this protective role of angels. Likewise, in Daniel 6, after his deliverance from the lions’ den, Daniel explains to the king of Babylon that the lions’ mouths were shut by God, who sent his “angel” to take care of him (Dan. 6:22). Worship. Revelation 4 and 5 make it clear that, among other purposes that angels fulfill, one seems to be simply worshiping God and singing praises to him in heaven. Revelation 4, in particular, shows us a scene from the throne room of heaven, which John sees as a part of his vision. In this scene, he sees angels singing praises to God continually (Rev. 4:8). Provision. At various times in Scripture, angels are shown to provide for the needs of God’s people—even in tangible ways. In the life of Jesus, in fact, when he was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan and went without food for forty days, we are told that angels were “ministering” to him (Matt. 4:11). Carrying out God’s purposes. There are other ways in which angels carry out the purposes of God in the pages of Scripture, including guarding the garden of Eden, defeating God’s people’s enemies in battle, and rescuing righteous people from a city about to be destroyed by God’s judgment (see the story of Lot in Genesis 19). Clearly angels do God’s bidding and carry out his purposes in this world, whatever they may be. As noted earlier, we are not sure how angels function today, but we can be sure that God is still using these faithful heavenly servants to carry out his work in the world—probably in ways that we will not fully understand until we meet them in heaven. The Christian Response to Angels Having learned about the essence and purpose of angels, we can now think about the right relationship that Christians are to have with them. Some people tend to be overly obsessed with angels, talking about them a lot and even focusing on them in a borderline worshipful way. Other people act as if angels and the spiritual realm do not even exist at all. Hopefully, based on what we’ve discussed so far, you can see why both of these responses are a bit unbalanced—and unbiblical. Another common idea is that there is a “guardian angel” for each person, but this is not taught in Scripture. That does not mean it is not possible for people to have individual angels “assigned” to them, but the Bible does not explicitly teach anything about this. Our goal is to work toward the right way for Christians to think biblically about angels and properly relate to them. The biblical response to these heavenly beings is somewhere between worship and obsession on the one hand, and a total denial of their existence on the other. Christians can learn from Scripture how to relate to angels as they follow the great God and Savior of the world. Our Response What should be our response to angelic beings as we seek to live for Jesus Christ in this world? We should worship and thank God because of angels. First and foremost, the existence, work, and purpose of angels throughout history and now (though we do not always see it) should drive us to give more praise and worship to God himself. John’s response to the angel in Revelation 22 reminds us that angels are beings with beautiful and terrifying glory, yet they do not even begin to compare in glory and power to the almighty God of the universe. We should see angels as our fellow servants. Second, we should—as the angel said to John in Revelation 22—see angels as “fellow servants” of God with us. We should recognize that, as they are made for God’s purposes, actions, worship, and service, they stand alongside us in service and praise of him. This means, of course, that Christians are not to pray to angels or worship them in any way. God alone is worthy of worship; prayer should be directed to him alone, in the name of Jesus Christ alone. As glorious and powerful as angelic beings may be, they are to be seen as servants of God, who is the Creator of them and us. We should look forward to sharing heaven with angels. Finally, as we look ahead toward eternity, we should be hopeful for the day when we will share heaven with angels and join in praise and worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with them! We know from Revelation 4 that angels are praising God in heaven constantly; we also know that they are spiritual beings who do not die. So we can biblically assume that these angelic beings will be with us in the new heaven and the new earth; they will be our worship “partners” as we live eternal lives in praise and worship of our great God. God alone is worthy of worship; prayer should be directed to him alone, in the name of Jesus Christ alone. This article is adapted from Knowing God’s Truth: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by Jon Nielson.

Praying the Word means reading (or reciting) Scripture in a spirit of prayer and letting the meaning of the verses inspire our thoughts and become our prayer. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we find instances of God’s people “praying the Word” by quoting Scripture in their prayers. Our life should be soaked in God’s Word, so it is only natural that our prayers be filled with it too. In doing so, we can experience numerous benefits to praying the Word. For example, it helps keep our prayers in scriptural proportion. “We may tend to pray about the same few issues over and over and over,” says Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology Andy Naselli. “But if we pray Scripture as we read through the Bible, that will force us to pray about a rich variety of issues in scriptural proportion.”¹ To help you get started, here are four suggestions for how to pray using Scripture: 1. Recognize the Context Read several chapters or verses before and after the passage to ensure you understand what the passage is about. 2. Select Applicable Passages Some parts of a passage will be more useful for your own prayer than others. Consider, for example, David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 17:16 – 27. We’re not kings over Israel, yet like David we can say, “Who am I, LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” and “There is no one like you, LORD, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears” (verses 16, 20). 3. Pray from Your Perspective When we pray a passage, the perspective might differ from that of the original speaker or writer. For instance, David prayed, “You, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him” (1 Chronicles 17:25). While God has not promised to build us a house like David’s, he has promised that in his own house are many rooms and that he is preparing a place for us (see John 14:1 – 4). We have to be careful about twisting the texts in a way that transforms their meaning. But when we pray Scripture we can include our own context in a Biblical way. 4. Personalize Your Praise One of the best uses of praying Scripture is to expand our methods for praising God. By personalizing a passage, we can make almost any passage of Biblical adoration our own. Ways to Incorporate the Psalms Into Our Own Prayers: One of the most obvious ways to pray Scripture is to pray the prayers found in Scripture. The Psalms, the prayer book of the Bible, are worthy of particular attention. When it comes to prayer, a primary stumbling block is the idea that when speaking to God we should be original and impromptu, that our prayers should be spoken “from the heart” and done without preparation. But when we look in the Bible we find Christians praying the Psalms. For example, in Acts 4:24 – 26, the believers pray Psalm 2. Even Jesus himself prayed using the Psalms: His dying prayer on the cross was a quotation of Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (see Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34). Use the “Three R’s” Method Ben Patterson recommends an approach to praying the Psalms that can work for other Bible passages: Rejoice, Repent, Request.² To pray using Scripture, ask the following three questions:1. What about a passage gives you reason to rejoice, to give thanks and praise?2. Is there something about this passage that reveals sin in my own life that should lead me to repentance?3. Does the passage lead me to make a request of God for myself or others? Pray with Jesus The German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that when we pray Scripture, we are praying with Jesus: All prayers of the Bible are such prayers which we pray together with Jesus Christ, in which he accompanies us, and through which he brings us into the presence of God. Otherwise there are no true prayers, for only in and with Jesus Christ can we truly pray. If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ.³ Following the example of Christ and the early church, praying the Psalms can help us focus on God rather than on our own need for self-expression. Other examples are found throughout the New Testament, such as —Ephesians 1:16 – 23; 3:14 – 19Philippians 1:9 – 11Colossians 1:9 – 141 Thessalonians 3:11 – 13Hebrews 13:20 – 21Revelation 4:8, 11; 5:9 – 10, 12 – 14. Takeaway Praying through Scripture can be a helpful way to ensure our prayers are shaped by God’s Word. Try using one of the above techniques the next time you are in God’s Word. ¹Andy Naselli, “12 Reasons You Should Pray Scripture,” Themelios, 38, no. 3 (November, 2013).²Ben Patterson, God’s Prayer Book (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2008).³Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Eberhard Bethge, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1970). Article drawn from articles in the NIV Lifehacks Bible ebook

We Have Come to Worship Him Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. . . .’ And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:1–2, 11) From the Bible story, we know very little about the wise men. Millions of Christmas cards show three kings presenting gifts to a tiny child in a manger. People sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” But we do not know that there were three wise men who brought the gifts. We are not told that they were kings, or even when they arrived in Bethlehem. It is likely, actually, in view of their long journey and of Herod’s command that all children under two years of age be killed, that they arrived when the infant Jesus had already become a young child. The fact that so little information is given about the wise men clearly shows that Matthew’s interest was not focused upon the wise men themselves. Rather, he was interested in the fact that Gentiles came to worship the Jewish Messiah, and in the gifts they bore. A literary critic would draw special attention to the gifts, for they occur at the end of the story after the child has been found and thus occupy a place of prominence. Gold It is easy to see why gold is an appropriate gift for Jesus Christ. Gold is the metal of kings. When gold was presented to Jesus, it acknowledged his right to rule. The wise men knew Jesus was the King of kings. When gold was presented to Jesus, it acknowledged his right to rule. Incense Incense was also a significant gift. It was used in the temple worship. It was mixed with the oil that was used to anoint the priests of Israel. It was part of the meal offerings that were offerings of thanksgiving and praise to God. In presenting this gift the wise men pointed to Christ as our great High Priest, the one whose whole life was acceptable and well pleasing to his Father. Myrrh Myrrh was used for embalming. By any human measure it would be odd, if not offensive, to present to the infant Christ a spice used for embalming. But it was not offensive in this case, nor was it odd. It was a gift of faith. We do not know precisely what the wise men may have known or guessed about Christ’s ministry, but we do know that the Old Testament again and again foretold his suffering. What Gifts Do You Offer? There is a sense in which by faith we too may present our gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. Begin with your myrrh. Myrrh is not only a symbol of Christ’s death but also of the spiritual death that should come to you for your sin. Lay it at Christ’s feet, saying, “Lord Jesus Christ, I know that I am less perfect than you are and am a sinner. I know that I should receive the consequence of my sin, which is to be barred from your presence forever. But you took my sin, dying in my place. I believe that. Now I ask you to accept me as your child forever.” After you have done that, come with your incense, acknowledging that your life is as impure as the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is sinless. The Bible teaches that there is no good in man that is not mixed with evil. But is also teaches that Christ comes to live in the believer so that the good deeds produced in his or her life may become in their turn “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Finally, come with your gold. Gold symbolizes royalty. So when you come with your gold you acknowledge the right of Christ to rule your life. You say, “I am your servant; you are my Master. Direct my life and lead me in it so that I might grow up spiritually to honor and to serve you accordingly.” If you have come believing in all that the myrrh, incense, and gold signify, you have embarked on a path of great spiritual joy and blessing. For those are the gifts of faith. They are the only things we can offer to the one who by grace has given all things to us. This article is adapted from Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, by James Montgomery Boice.