Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 71

The Importance of Christ’s Resurrection

As you read these quotes from God’s Word and His people about the importance of Christ’s resurrection (excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus) may your heart overflow with gratitude to Jesus for living as He did and dying as He did and rising as He did, so we can live forever with Him and Him people in a world where He will, once and for all, make all things right.

What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NIV

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”  John 11:25-26 ESV

“When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”  John 14:20 NLT

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

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.  1 Peter 1:3 ESV

No resurrection. No Christianity.  Michael Ramsey

In the New Testament the Resurrection is that central miracle around which the Christian faith is gathered. The apostle Paul said that without believing the miracle of the Resurrection, faith was impossible (Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:17).  Calvin Miller

Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith.  John S. Whale

Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection. If this event is historically true, it makes all other religions false, because Jesus claimed to be the only way to God. To prove this, he predicted he would rise three days after his death. And he did.  Randy Alcorn

Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.  John Stott

If Christ be not risen, the dreadful consequence is not that death ends life, but that we are still in our sins.  Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy

Had He not emerged from the tomb all our hopes, all our salvation would be lying dead with Him unto this day. But as we see Him issue from the grave we see ourselves issue with Him in newness of life. Now we know that His shoulders were strong enough to bear the burden that was laid upon them, and that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him. The resurrection of Christ is thus the indispensable evidence of His completed work, His accomplished redemption.  B.B. Warfield

If Christ has risen the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown. Satan has fallen like lightning from heaven; and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery, is forever secured.  Charles Hodge

If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.  Jaroslav Pelikan

Christianity is realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope; and there can be no truth if there is no adequate base. It is prepared to face the consequences of being proved false and say with Paul: If you find the body of Christ, the discussion is finished, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It leaves absolutely no room for a romantic answer.  Francis Schaeffer

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.  Timothy Keller

The sepulchre calls forth my adoring wonder,

for it is empty and thou art risen;

the four-fold gospel attests it,

the living witnesses prove it,

my heart’s experience knows it.  The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Without the resurrection, at the name of Jesus every knee would not bow; more likely, people would say, “Jesus who?”  John Young

In ancient times before the divine sojourn of the Savior took place, even to the saints death was terrible; all wept for the dead as though they perished. But now that the Savior has raised his body, death is no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ trample on it as it were nothing and choose rather to die than deny their faith in Christ.  Athanasius of Alexandria

Christ has turned all our sunsets into dawns.  Clement of Alexandria

The power of Christ’s resurrection is enough not only to remake us but also to remake every square inch of the universe.  Randy Alcorn

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

The Evidence for Christ’s Resurrection

This Easter weekend, may we celebrate the magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ’s physical resurrection, a real event that changed everything! Hope you enjoy these quotes on the evidence for the resurrection, excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus.

“He has fixed a day in which he will judge the whole world with justice by means of a man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death!”  Acts 17:31 GNT

There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.  Billy Graham

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it, that if we do in the least degree receive the credibility of men’s testimonies, we cannot and we dare not doubt that Jesus rose from the dead.  Charles Spurgeon

As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter Day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on evidence, and a truthful witness is always artless and disdains effect. The Gospel evidence for the Resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.  Edward Clarke

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.
Flavius Josephus

He appeared to every one of His friends, and to His best friends, but not a single one of His enemies got to see Him. I know that this story of the resurrection is true, because none but God would have had things happen in the order that they did, and in the way in which they occurred. Had the story been false the record would have made Jesus go to Pilate and the high priest, and to the others who had put Him to death, to prove that He was risen.  Elijah P. Brown

I went to a psychologist friend and said if 500 people claimed to see Jesus after he died, it was just a hallucination. He said hallucinations are an individual event. If 500 people have the same hallucination, that’s a bigger miracle than the resurrection.  Lee Strobel

The least plausible of all explanations of the resurrection was that it was generated out of the despairing imagination of the disciples. For that does not explain why they were willing to risk their lives for it. Nor does it account for one of the most characteristic literary features of the Easter narratives: the report that the beholders were utterly surprised by the appearance of the risen Lord. The “surprise” element of the Easter narratives is too recurrent to be considered an anomaly.  Thomas Oden

Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection. It was the resurrection which transformed Peter’s fear into courage and James’ doubt into faith… It was the resurrection which changed Saul the Pharisee into Paul the apostle and turned his persecuting into preaching. John Stott

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.  Charles Colson

Ghosts, apparitions, and various psychological hallucinations may do a lot of things, but they don’t fire up the charcoal grill and cook fish for breakfast.  Pheme Perkins

The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.  Clarence Jordan

From the empty grave of Jesus the enemies of the cross turn away in unconcealable dismay. Those whom the force of no logic can convince, and whose hearts are steeled against the appeal of almighty love from the cross itself, quail before the irresistible power of this simple fact. Christ has risen from the dead! After two thousand years of the most determined assault upon the evidence which demonstrates it, that fact stands. And so long as it stands Christianity, too, must stand as the one supernatural religion.  B.B. Warfield

The Saviour is working mightily among men, every day He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all over the world, both within and beyond the Greek-speaking world, to accept His faith and be obedient to His teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt that He has risen and lives, or rather that He is Himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men?  Athanasius of Alexandria

The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.  Wolfhart Pannenberg

If Jesus rose from the dead, then there is no room for doubt that death is not the end of our journey. If Jesus truly rose, then there is for every person a heaven to embrace and a hell to shun.  Bruce Milne

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Christ’s Words from the Cross

As you contemplate these words of Jesus He spoke while on the cross, and also the reflections from Christ-followers on His words (excepted from my book It’s All About Jesus), thank God for His willingness, in those three hours of unfathomable darkness, to make the ultimate sacrifice to purchase our place with Him forever.

Father, forgive them

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.  Luke 23:34 ESV

Even the excruciating pain could not silence his repeated entreaties: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”… The rulers sneered at him, shouting: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself    !” Their words, spoken as an insult, were the literal truth. He could not save himself and others simultaneously. He chose to sacrifice himself in order to save the world.  John Stott

Whenever I see myself before God and realize something of what my blessed Lord has done for me at Calvary, I am ready to forgive anybody anything. I cannot withhold it. I do not even want to withhold it.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The victim was stripped of his clothing, beaten and in many instances nailed to the cross (   John 19:1, 18, 23). It was dirty business, and the Romans were experts at it—known for lining the roads that led into a conquered city with people dying on crosses. The steady crack of their hammers could be heard above the screams of the victims. Each blow not only resulted in nearly intolerable agony but also reminded the victim that there was no hope left. But even in the middle of so horrific an ordeal, Jesus demonstrated his character. Unlike many others, he was no writhing, screaming, pleading victim, nor was he an angry, cursing man. Instead, as the hammers rang out, one voice could be heard to call out above the clamor, “Father, forgive them!” (Luke 23:34).  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

Today you’ll be with me in paradise

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” And Jesus said to him, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23:42-43 NLT

To die is to be with the Lord. It is not just an idea; it is a reality. But at the same time, Christ, the same Christ, gives the promise just as definitely that when I have accepted Christ as my Savior, he lives in me.  Francis Schaeffer

Woman, behold your son

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.  John 19:26-27 ESV

Jesus’ mother, who almost certainly was widowed and probably in her early fifties with little or no personal income, was dependent on Jesus, her oldest son. In keeping with the biblical injunction to honor one’s parents (Exod. 20:12; Deut. 5:16), Jesus makes here provision for his mother. It may be surprising that Jesus entrusts his mother to the “disciple Jesus loved” rather than to one of his brothers, but this may be explained by his brothers’ unbelief.  Andreas J. Köstenberger

My God, my God

Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  Mark 15:34 NLT

God allowed his own Son, as our substitute, to be forsaken, in order that we might never be forsaken.  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

The unrighteous damned have no right to ask God why He has forsaken them (the reasons are self-evident to all who understand His holiness and our sin), but God’s Son, the Beloved One, was the only righteous one ever damned, and He had the right to ask… even knowing the answer.  Randy Alcorn

Jesus’ cries went unanswered so that my cries can always be heard. His loss is my gain. His sorrow is my rejoicing.  Melissa Kruger

The amazing beautiful wonderful truth is that because Jesus was forsaken, I never will be.  Vaneetha Rendall Risner

I thirst

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.”  John 19:28 NLT

Our Lord came down from life to suffer death;

the Bread came down, to hunger;

the Way came down, on the way to weariness;

the Fount came down, to thirst.  Augustine

It is finished

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  John 19:30 ESV

After creation God said, “It is finished”—and he rested. After redemption Jesus said, “It is finished”—and we can rest.  Timothy Keller

The concept of finished… can signal the realization of a goal or successful completion of an assignment… It can also mean fulfillment of a religious, legal or social obligation or accountability… One can also complete something in the same sense in which we finished a race… To finish might also signal the full repayment of a debt… When Jesus mouthed the three short words, “It is finished,” from the cross, he was in effect declaring that he had fulfilled all meanings: He had completed his assigned task, kept God’s law, finished the race and fully paid the debt for our sin.  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

When Jesus said “it is finished,” he used the Greek word teleo, which was commonly written over certificates of debt once they were fully paid. It’s not that Christ paid for 99% of your sin and guilt and you must somehow pay the other 1%. He paid it all.  Randy Alcorn

You can’t imagine a more victimized person than Jesus. Yet when he died, he didn’t say, “I am finished” but “It is finished.” He did not play the victim, and thus he emerged the victor.  Joni Eareckson Tada

The task Jesus had come to accomplish was indeed finished, but Jesus himself was not. The devastated disciples concluded that the mission into which they had poured their life energy had ended with Jesus’ final breath (Matthew 26:56). The soldiers who had pierced Jesus’ side with a spear assumed that the social upheaval caused by the activities of this rabble-rouser were “finished” and that they wouldn’t have to deal any longer with this thorn in their side (   John 19:33-34). The edgy religious leaders hoped that the influence of our Lord was “finished” but asked Pilate to seal Jesus’ tomb to ensure that the disciples wouldn’t steal his body (Matthew 27:62-66). Satan gleefully presumed that the threat from this sworn enemy had come to an end, and he gloated in the realization that Jesus was dead and buried (Colossians 2:15). But all of them were wrong. Three days later the Redeemer rose triumphant from the dead!  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

All of salvation is from and about Jesus. No one can boast. He starts and finishes it.  Trillia Newbell

Jesus’ last word is our first word. It is finished. When he died, our life began.  Louie Giglio

Father, I commit my spirit

Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.  Luke 23:46 CEV

Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.  Matthew 27:50-52 NRSV

As a true human being Jesus endured every kind of temptation and every kind of suffering a person can experience (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15), especially in those final, dying moments, and he could do nothing other than commit his life to the Father… His suffering, pain and death were all very real. He recognized, just as we must, that his “times” were secure in the hands of his loving and faithful Father (Psalm 31:15).  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

Photo by Yoal Desurmont on Unsplash

Reflections on Christ’s Crucifixion

At the beginning of this Passion Week, it’s fitting that we turn our eyes to the cross. No tragedy could be greater than God’s blameless Son being slaughtered without mercy in horrid crucifixion. Yet as a result of His suffering, countless people will spend eternity with God in joyful celebration and endless pleasure. Jesus Himself will be forever exalted, and all will recognize Him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Eternal benefits are ours, all because He suffered.

May these verses and quotes (excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus) fill your heart with gratitude and worship as you consider Christ’s sacrifice for us.

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  Isaiah 53:5-7 NIV

When they came to the place called “The Skull,” they crucified Jesus there, and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.  Luke 23:33 GNT

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.  1 Peter 2:24-25 NIV

There is no doctrine more excellent in itself or more necessary to be preached and studied, than the doctrine of Christ, and him crucified.  John Flavel

My entire theology can be condensed into four words, “JESUS DIED FOR ME.”  Charles Spurgeon

To know Jesus and Him crucified is my philosophy, and there is none higher.  Bernard of Clairvaux

The gentle, compassionate Jesus is also the Jesus who drove the merchant-thieves from the Temple and spoke condemnation against self-righteous religious leaders. Were Jesus as meek and mild and utterly tolerant as many think, He never would have been crucified. But His less popular qualities so outraged people that they nailed Him to a cross.  Randy Alcorn

Jesus was crucified not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves.  George F. MacLeod

The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God’s kingdom would come on earth as in heaven.  N.T. Wright

Though many recent writers have spoken of God’s vulnerability and weakness demonstrated on the cross, we must see this truth in the context of God’s sovereignty. Christ chose this “weakness.” His obedient death on the cross demonstrates it. “The reason my Father loves me,” Jesus said, “is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (   John 10:17-18). He willingly chose to suffer as a victim. Scripture portrays a God so strong He can take on weakness to overpower all opposition and accomplish His eternal purposes.  Randy Alcorn

It was not the people or the Roman soldiers who put Jesus on the cross—it was your sins and my sins that made it necessary for Him to volunteer His death.  Billy Graham

The true Son left his home with the Father and went to the cross so that we who had run from the Father could be welcomed as sons.  Trevor Laurence

When God sent His only Son, Jesus, to this earth to bear your sin and mine on the cross, He put a price tag on us—He declared the value of our soul to be greater than the value of the whole world.  Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

When Jesus went to the cross He didn’t fall into Satan’s trap—Satan fell into His.  Randy Alcorn

Satan’s motive in Jesus’ crucifixion was rebellion; God’s motive was love and mercy. Satan was a secondary cause behind the Crucifixion, but it was God who ultimately wanted it, willed it, and allowed Satan to carry it out.  Joni Eareckson Tada

What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of Goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by Goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.  John Stott

God on a cross. Humanity at its worst. Divinity at its best.  Max Lucado

Jesus knew He was being betrayed by one of His best friends at that very moment. He knew He was facing imminent arrest, trials, torture, crucifixion, and death. He bore the eternal weight of responsibility for fully completing His Father’s will and redeeming mankind from sin. If ever there were multiple reasons for praise being interrupted, Jesus had them on that Thursday night. Yet Matthew 26:30 says that He sang!  Anne Graham Lotz

Photo by John Thomas on Unsplash

Christ’s Sacrifice for Us

I recently beefed up my blog "Does Scripture Say Baptism Is Necessary to Be Saved?" with much more Scripture in response to the many negative comments on social media. While some readers may be permanently entrenched in their view that baptism is necessary to salvation, those who are open to the biblical teaching to the contrary will benefit from this revision. But at the same time I developed more clearly my belief in how central and important baptism really is, and how every Christian should obey the command to be baptized.

On to today's blog: As you read these quotes on Christ’s sacrifice (excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus), remember that the Cross was no afterthought. God planned it from before the world’s beginning and foretold it centuries in advance. While we have no choice but to suffer in this life, Jesus did have a choice and elected to suffer for our sins so we don’t have to in eternity. Words cannot capture the shocking nature of Christ’s redemptive work.

Telling Him thank you is not nearly enough. But it is at least a place to begin.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  John 10:14-15 ESV

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  John 15:13 NIV

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  Romans 3:25 NIV

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Romans 8:32 ESV

Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered his life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God.  Ephesians 5:2 CEV

In all human history, who has paid the highest price for evil and suffering? Poll a hundred people on this question, and only a few would come up with the right answer: “Jesus.”  Randy Alcorn

In Abraham’s case, God provided a substitute for Isaac, a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. But there could be no substitute when Jesus offered his life as the sacrifice for the sin of all humanity. On the cross, God’s own Son took upon himself the Father’s wrath against all sin for all time.  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

For Christ to be the propitiation for our sins means that He became the sacrifice upon which God’s wrath against sin was brought. Some object to this because they claim if the Father brought our punishment on Jesus it sounds like divine child abuse. But it isn’t, because Jesus, God’s Son, is not a helpless child but eternally God, and He fully consented to this plan.  Randy Alcorn

Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy—but the Father, for love!  Octavius Winslow

The fact that Jesus had to die for me humbled me out of my pride. The fact that Jesus was glad to die for me assured me out of my fear.  Timothy Keller

Think as little of yourself as you want to, but always remember that our Lord Jesus Christ thought very highly of you—enough to give Himself for you in death and sacrifice. A.W. Tozer

He loves us in our sin. Only such a view of love correctly appreciates the sacrifice of Christ and respects the infinite chasm between what is deserved and mercy.  Jim Elliff

Do not refuse the Lord Jesus who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you are.  Charles Spurgeon

Christ was utterly innocent, yet because He took our sins on Himself, He became temporarily damned on our behalf. Not damned forever, but damned on the cross so He experienced Hell on our behalf. Unthinkable. Inconceivable. And yet it happened… for us.  Randy Alcorn

If we again ask the question: “Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?” and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.  Timothy Keller

Christ’s scars will remain forever. The only one who will appear less than perfect in eternity will be the eternally Perfect One.  Randy Alcorn

Photo by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash

Are You Living Like a Functional Gospel Amnesiac?

From Randy: I’ve mentioned before how much Nanci and I have loved reading Paul David Tripp’s book New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional. It is just terrific, and we highly recommend it. Here’s another entry I especially appreciated.

As Paul so skillfully communicates, we need to daily retell ourselves the gospel, to stave off dementia of the spirit and to understand how it applies to the here and now. May we follow the advice of Jerry Bridges: “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.” 

If you’re God’s child, the gospel isn’t an aspect of your life,

it is your life; that is, it is the window through which

you look at everything.

It has been a theme of my ministry, a sad recognition that has motivated me to speak the things I speak and to write the things I write. Thousands and thousands of sincere believers have a huge hole right smack dab in the middle of their gospel. They tend to see the gospel as a thing of the past and a thing of the future; an entrance thing and an exit thing. Sure, they celebrate the forgiveness they have been given and their welcome into God’s family, and they look with hope to the future, when they will be with the Lord forever, but they don’t understand the radical, mind-changing, and life-altering nowism of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don’t grasp that when they came to Christ, it wasn’t just their past and future that changed; no, everything in their lives right here, right now changed.

For a believer, nothing in his or her life is unchanged by the gospel. If you look at life from the vantage point of the present benefits of the person, work, presence, and promises of the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing in your life looks the same. The apostle Peter encourages people to live in a radical new way because they have been given “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). So you and I aren’t left to our own maturity, character, ingenuity, righteousness, wisdom, or power. Not only that, but the gospel redefines how we understand our whole story, how we think about the meaning of life, how we understand the human struggle, where we get our identity, where we look for peace and security, what we consider in life to be dangerous, what we see as successful living, and so on. It is true that when Jesus takes up residence in us, everything in life changes. Nothing remains the same.

Now, if you don’t know this, you celebrate your salvation, but for help with your marriage, parenting, sex, money, friendship, fear, addictions, decisions and such, you don’t look to the gospel. You log on to Amazon.com and scan for the latest self-help book that addresses your topic of concern. You do this because you’re a functional gospel amnesiac. You’ve forgotten who you are as a child of God. You’ve forgotten the glorious warehouse of spiritual wisdom that you have been given. You think you are poor when really you are rich. You think you need wisdom when you have been united by grace to the One who is wisdom. You think that there is something you need that you haven’t yet found, when in fact you have already been given every single thing you need to be what you’re supposed to be and to do what you’re supposed to do in the place where the Savior has positioned you. The gospel gives you everything and changes everything in your life. Are you living as if you actually believe that? 

For further study and encouragement: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5  

Taken from New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp, © 2014, March 31 entry. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

Photo by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash

Does Scripture Say Baptism Is Necessary to Be Saved?

Someone asked me if I could address the relationship between salvation and baptism in Scripture, because they have a friend who believes that you cannot be saved unless you are baptized. In this person’s view (and they are part of a denomination that believes this), the physical act of baptism washes you from your sin. They cite Acts 2:38: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

For years I taught biblical interpretation at a Bible college. One of the things we discussed is that Scripture must always be compared with other Scripture. God doesn’t contradict Himself. The Bible is its own best interpreter. If a particular text, in this case Acts 2:38, seems to violate what many other texts teach, we need to question our interpretation of that text.

The many biblical texts insisting that we are not saved by works, but by faith, should lead us to seriously question an interpretation that says being baptized—or any other work we can do—is part of what saves us. Acts 10:44-48 is a key text because it’s so clear that these people were saved first, had already received the Holy Spirit, and only THEN were baptized.

First Corinthians 1:14-17 ends with “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel...” This clearly demonstrates that baptism is not necessary to salvation, because if it were, Paul would not separate it from the gospel message.

Acts 2:38 makes it clear that baptism is important, and it certainly is. But other passages show repentance involves placing saving faith in Christ. Granted, if Acts 2:38 stood alone, without taking other verses into consideration, you could conclude baptism is necessary for salvation. But there are many texts that call on people to repent and believe in Christ that make no mention at all of baptism.

Baptism is something we do, or choose to have done to us, and is therefore a work. Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7, and Romans 5:1 are just a few of the verses that demonstrate salvation is by faith alone, not by works. Think of the thief on the cross who placed his faith in Christ and was promised by Jesus he’d go to Heaven. Obviously baptism wasn’t necessary, or even possible, for him.

As circumcision was a sign of the Old Covenant, baptism is a sign of the New Covenant. God makes clear that circumcision doesn’t save. Circumcised people can be lost; uncircumcised people can be saved. God says there is an inner circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit (Colossians 2:11-12; Romans 2:29). Likewise there is an invisible baptism of the heart into Christ that happens at conversion. Water baptism is an outward symbol of the inward reality that preceded it. The relevant point related to baptism and circumcision is that salvation is always a matter of the heart, not an external action.

If I had a friend who believed baptism is necessary for salvation, and is deeply ingrained in a denomination that believes this, I would gently challenge them to look at what Scripture actually says—ALL of Scripture, not just a few isolated verses.

While there are many things out there on this subject, here are the best three online resources I could find in terms of clarity and helpfulness:

First, if you share only one resource with a friend, I would go with this first one. It has a clear and accurate handling of the Greek language used in Acts 2:38: Does Acts 2:38 teach that baptism is necessary for salvation?

One of the main points, which I know from studying New Testament Greek, is that the Greek preposition EIS does not always mean “for/resulting in/to get” but often means “because of/as a result of.” Hence Acts 2:38 can be translated, as the Amplified Bible renders it, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ BECAUSE OF the forgiveness of your sins…”

Second, this next article is good, but I would skip his handling of the Greek text at the beginning because he gets technical and confusing. But after that, it gets very good: Baptism and Acts 2:38

Third, this 10-minute video is helpful, though it would be better without using the King James Version which most people don’t use these days. Still, he makes some excellent points: Acts 2:38: Baptism for salvation? No!

Finally, here’s a blog I wrote on the meaning and importance of baptism. It was part a devotional series and includes a video of NFL linebacker Demario Davis talking about baptism. 

Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash

Abortion’s Role in Allowing the Sex Trafficking Industry to Continue to Exploit Women

The abortion industry’s role in empowering the abuse of women trapped in the sex-trafficking industry is often overlooked. One study of 66 human-trafficking survivors found that between them they had 114 abortions, with coercion playing a role in at least some of their abortions. “Notably, the phenomenon of forced abortion as it occurs in sex trafficking transcends the political boundaries of the abortion debate, violating both the pro-life belief that abortion takes innocent life and the pro-choice ideal of women’s freedom to make their own reproductive choices.”

Several investigations have also shown Planned Parenthood’s failure to report statutory rape and sexual abuse. One victim said she was taken to Planned Parenthood “because they didn’t ask any questions.” This is decidedly not pro-woman.

In this video from Students for Life, Patrina Mosley explains why abortion enables sex trafficking and violence against women.

Also see Patrina’s article “Abortion And Sex-Trafficking Are Undeniably Linked Abuses Against Women.”

Download the PDF of Randy’s book Pro-Choice or Pro-Life: Examining 15 Pro-Choice Claims—What Do Facts & Common Sense Tell Us? 

In this thoroughly researched and easy-to-read book, author Randy Alcorn examines fifteen major claims of the pro-choice position and shares fact-based, rational responses. If you have mixed feelings about abortion, as many people do, this book can be part of your quest for truth. If you’re pro-choice or pro-life, it can help you think through your position.

If we have any hope of understanding and engaging with each other, let’s move our dialogue beyond bumper stickers, memes, and tweets. Randy encourages readers to listen carefully to arguments on both sides of the abortion debate, and to look at the evidence and weigh it on its own merit.

The print book is available from our ministry.

Photo by Ashley Byrd on Unsplash

Beware the Temptation to Be a Pharisee on Social Media

In this article, Daniel Darling addresses a temptation we as believers can often face on social media: “I’m a good person. I’m on the right side of all the right issues. And I’m here to publicly declare this to those not as good as me.”

As Daniel says, “From COVID to racial unrest to a divisive political election, there was no shortage of ways in 2020 to trust in ourselves and look down on everyone else.” I couldn’t agree more with his main point. May we examine our own hearts and see where we may be trusting (and broadcasting) our own self-righteousness instead of trusting in and proclaiming Christ. —Randy Alcorn

Resist the Pharisee Temptation on Social Media

By Daniel Darling

If you could have chosen one type of person to cancel in the first century, it would have been a tax collector. Jewish people, rightly skeptical of Roman power, viewed tax collectors as turncoats, those willingly colluding with the government to collect heavy taxes while taking a hefty commission off the top. Their work was gross, profiting off the economic misery of their own people.

In the Gospels, tax collectors—often referred to as “publicans”—were frequently lumped in with flagrant sinners as social bottom-feeders.

So when Jesus wanted to teach his disciples a lesson on repentance, forgiveness, and genuine faith, his choice of a tax collector as the hero came across as strange, almost insulting. And for him to choose a Pharisee as a foil was even more offensive.

And yet listen to the way Luke frames Jesus’s parable: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else” (Luke 18:9).

Who Are the Good People?

The Pharisees were the good people. They were rightly disgusted at the corrupt public servants who chased down their fellow citizens on behalf of the government and skimmed money off the top. And yet in this parable, who is the most aware of his own sin? It’s the publican, who went to the temple with lowered head and heavy heart, confessing his sin and begging God for mercy.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

At the same time, the Pharisee—the one known in the community for benevolence and goodness, who could be depended on to finger-wag the greedy—was the least self-aware and the farthest from mercy. Listen to him and hear the echoes of our age:

“God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.” (Luke 18:11–12)

I’m a good person. I’m on the right side of all the right issues. And I’m here to publicly declare this to those not as good as me.

Our Pharisee Culture

From COVID to racial unrest to a divisive political election, there was no shortage of ways in 2020 to trust in ourselves and look down on everyone else. Brands are quick to remind us they’re on the side of science, against racism, and want us to vote. And our social platforms are like modern-day temples where, like the Pharisee, we can clarify multiple times a day that we are not like those grifting public servants. Even at home, we are not immune to displaying our creeds on lawn signs.

For Christians, there is value in letting the world know where we stand, declaring the truth, and being ready to “give a defense to anyone” (1 Pet. 3:15). We shouldn’t hesitate to use our voices to stand up for the vulnerable and against injustice. And yet our words can so easily morph from prophetic witness to Pharisaical tribal signaling. In an era where it has become a cultural rite to declare that we’re on the right side of history on every issue, Christians are not immune to this. We are tempted to broadcast our own righteousness by letting everyone know—on social media, in articles and blogs, even in published books—that we are not like those other kinds of Christians.

Consider the story our church websites sometimes tell. “A New Testament church” implies, well, that other evangelical congregations are unfaithful to the New Testament. “A different kind of church experience” implies that the experience at every other church in town isn’t all that great. Or peruse a list of popular books or op-eds that get published in secular outlets. Often a key theme is differentiation: I am different than the Christians you dislike.

Social media may be the most public forum for this kind of Pharisee. Here we dunk on the worst, cherry-picked extremes from other traditions and tribes in order to let the world know we are better—more sophisticated, more biblical, more pure. And the algorithms encourage this! The way to go viral is to call out someone else with incendiary language that leaves our critics seething and our fans cheering.

Learn Humility from Jesus—and Paul

So how do we avoid this temptation? Perhaps we need to revisit Jesus’s lesson in the parable: remember, he’s rebuking the people who emphasized, but didn’t embody, holiness and purity. What the Pharisees longed for wasn’t illegitimate, but they failed to recognize their own fallenness. The way to renewal, though, wasn’t in public demonstrations of piety; it was in humble cries for mercy from a holy God.

Paul understood this. A former Pharisee, he described himself as the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). When he saw himself, he didn’t see someone who tithed a tenth of his income; he saw someone whose heart was bent toward sin like the mercy-begging tax collector. This didn’t keep Paul from courageous truth-telling, but it did engender a spirit of humility. Paul saw himself as a forgiven sinner talking to other sinners about the One who forgives sin.

And so should we. There is a vast difference between answering public heresy with public rebuke in a way that honors the dignity of those with whom we disagree, and moral preening that refuses to give the benefit of the doubt to a brother or sister. One refutes false teaching and edifies the body of Christ; the other declares our righteousness before an adoring chorus.

To resist the Pharisee temptation is to be countercultural. It’s to resist building a reputation or platform on the backs of other Christians. We can do this in small ways, by the controversies we decline to engage and by the words we use when we do engage. But most of all, we resist self-righteousness when we freely confess that our sins are just as wicked as the sins of those we’re most tempted to despise.

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition , and is used with permission of the author.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Evolution Can’t Account for Our Inborn Longing for Happiness

If you asked any group of people what they want out of life, chances are that most, if not all, would give some form of the same answer: “To be happy.”

This inborn longing for happiness has been observed for thousands of years by theologians, philosophers, atheists, and agnostics.

Augustine (354–430), perhaps the most influential theologian in church history, wrote 1,600 years ago, “Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy.”

Nearly 1,300 years after Augustine, the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception.”

Since then, countless others have observed the same.

Even Charles Darwin (1809–1882), best known as the father of evolutionary theory, wrote, “All sentient beings have been formed so as to enjoy, as a general rule, happiness.”

Darwin, near the end of his life, also spoke of what he called his “loss of happiness”:

Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds . . . gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare. . . . Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. . . . I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did. . . . My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. . . . The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

Darwin may not have traced his diminished happiness to his gradual change in worldview, but it’s likely that the naturalistic perspective he embraced gradually undermined his early delight in studying God’s creation, leading to a joyless, machinelike indifference.

Fast forward to today. Evolution still can’t account for the fact that all human beings seek happiness, so some of its proponents simply dismiss it completely. Rafael Euba, Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry at King's College London, writes in his article “Humans Aren’t Designed to Be Happy—So Stop Trying”:

Humans are not designed to be happy, or even content. Instead, we are designed primarily to survive and reproduce, like every other creature in the natural world. A state of contentment is discouraged by nature because it would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.

The fact that evolution has prioritised the development of a big frontal lobe in our brain (which gives us excellent executive and analytical abilities) over a natural ability to be happy, tells us a lot about nature’s priorities. Different geographical locations and circuits in the brain are each associated with certain neurological and intellectual functions, but happiness, being a mere construct with no neurological basis, cannot be found in the brain tissue.

…The current global happiness industry has some of its roots in Christian morality codes, many of which will tell us that there is a moral reason for any unhappiness we may experience. This, they will often say, is due to our own moral shortcomings, selfishness and materialism. They preach a state of virtuous psychological balance through renunciation, detachment and holding back desire.

In fact, these strategies merely try to find a remedy for our innate inability to enjoy life consistently, so we should take comfort in the knowledge that unhappiness is not really our fault. It is the fault of our natural design. It is in our blueprint [my emphasis added].

…we are not designed to be consistently happy. Instead, we are designed to survive and reproduce.…Postulating that there is no such thing as happiness may appear to be a purely negative message, but the silver lining, the consolation, is the knowledge that dissatisfaction is not a personal failure. If you are unhappy at times, this is not a shortcoming that demands urgent repair, as the happiness gurus would have it. Far from it. This fluctuation is, in fact, what makes you human.

What a depressing and hopeless perspective! But no amount of explaining away the idea of happiness changes the fact that it’s what everyone, in all times and all places, seeks. The question is, “Why?” Why would we even know there’s such a thing as happiness if it can’t be found in our brain tissue?

Consider, for example, laughter. Did this powerful, heart-energizing, body-healing thing called laughter come from random chemicals, protons, and neutrons? Can natural selection and survival of the fittest account for humor, laughter, and happiness?

Or are humor and laughter gifts to us? And if they’re gifts, where could they originate but in God? And if God gives us the gifts of humor and laughter in this fallen world, what does it tell us about God Himself?

That’s why what Scripture has to say about happiness is such good news! In its pages we find that God doesn’t condemn or merely tolerate our desire to be happy; He gave us that longing. Through the Cross, He granted us the grounds and capacity to be happy forever. He encourages us here and now to find happiness and joy in the very place it comes from—Him.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8, CSB).

“May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!” (Psalm 40:16, NET).

“I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am.” —Jesus (John 15:11, CEV)

Happiness  on Sale from Eternal Perspective Ministries

The International Day of Happiness is coming up on March 20! To celebrate, EPM is offering Randy Alcorn’s Happiness book for just $8 (68% off retail $24.99), plus S&H.

Sale ends Thursday, March 18 at 4 PM PT.

Photo by Lisha Riabinina on Unsplash