A Light in the Darkness

  Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:16 ESV             In Christ we have attained perfection, not as Paul says earlier that even the very best of us, Paul himself, have obtained perfection, but are to be striving towards it as a runner who expects to win: 3:12-21. This instruction is so oft repeated in scripture and the power of God which is behind it so frequently brought in view that to fully disclose the matter would be to quote the full canon. Jesus died that we might live John 3:16, etc. and live we ought then for we have the life of Christ in us, John 15:5.             Now if you will make resolves at this or any other time let them be such as glorify God and recognize who you are in Him. I recommend to you only one resolution which is easily found in scripture, and may be formulated in many ways, but here is powerfully given by...

  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15 ESV             This is the central question. You can find it explicitly also in Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20, and implicitly it is everywhere in scripture for scripture testifies as does John 14:6 to the exclusivity and necessary centrality of the gospel which has as its very center God. And God is made known only through Christ and so we arrive at the central question not only of scripture but of all things. It is the central question of this and every other season. It is the question which all human thought must finally arrive at and answer. Therefore, we may say with every confidence that all men and women and children who have ever been, or are now, or ever shall be must be theologians.             To be a theologian is not a choice we have, nor something we might seek to become; but we simply are by nat...

  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17 ESV                 God gives purpose and import to all of life. He gives a transcendent purpose and import to all of life as only He can. One of the aspects of the great gift of salvation is the return of purpose to life which was lost in the curse of sin. Apart from the work of Christ and the grace thus extended to us and received by faith we live futile toilsome lives under such conditions that it is rightly said we had been dead in our transgressions. For indeed the unregenerate life is not worth calling life as it has no definite purpose, nor any true import. Whatever it might be said to produce shall as the soul itself be consumed in fire.                 Therefore, we ought to b...