“What do I do now that I don’t have to do anything for righteousness? It’s like, we’ll consider some of the things that we’ve just outlined: love, humility, patience, bear with one another, weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. You know, these things. Do these things for the brothers and sisters around you.”
“What does someone do when they find themselves too weak to believe in the goodness and lovingkindness of the father; when their faith feels almost gone? Paul describes it as those who are spiritually weak and sick. What does that person do? James tells him, call for your elders. You do not depend upon yourself.”
“After he’s pronounced salvation for Zacchaeus, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. So just consider this, this section of Luke’s gospel- not much more than a chapter, you have this: you have a tax collector crying out, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus saying, I tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other.”
“You don’t have an adequate answer in terms of- to explain all of the nuances of suffering and pain. But one thing that Christianity has to offer is the fact that God the Son took on flesh and dwelt in this world and he suffers these things with us. Like he’s, He’s not just some distant deity sitting off in the heavens who cannot identify with what we’re going through.”
“No matter how hard we work, how hard we discipline ourselves, we manipulate ourselves, we will never reach true satisfaction in this life if it’s based upon us and our performance. But if we humbly embrace the word of Christ, we can have full joy.”
Fallen human beings have always had issues with authority. And, in a fallen world, authority is often abused. All of this is true in our day–even in the church. In today’s episode, Jon and Justin have a conversation about authority, how it can be used well, and how it can be abused. The guys give some particular time to discussing how not to abuse pastoral authority. That part might surprise you.
“One’s entrance into the kingdom hinges upon whether one receives God’s son. And one’s admittance into the wedding feast at the end of history hinges on whether one receives God’s son and thereby receives his righteousness to wear.”
“But dear Christian, what kind of fear do you have if you stand based on the ground of Christ’s perfect work? What kind of fear is it?”
“According to James, the reason you should be here is that you need to be reminded to be patiently waiting for what? The return of Christ. And while you wait, what are we doing? We’re loving and caring for one another.”
“For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise, according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world.”
“So we don’t want to live in fear of loving one another because that, again, misses out on what the joy of what love is. And I think this is why the constant preaching of the gospel – I believe that the love of God has diminished in churches, because we have preached a fear-based, guilt-driven relationship with God.”
On today’s podcast, Jon and Justin have Chad Bird on to discuss the ideology of having a personal relationship with Jesus. Where does this ideology and language come from? Is it helpful? Is it biblical? The guys consider these things and then move on to discuss the fact that the Christian life is inherently corporate and our Christian devotion is church-shaped. Why do we need the church? What is the point of the corporate gathering? (Hint: this has everything to do with our need for Jesus to minister to us and give us his gifts.)
“What are your good works for? They’re to help you be effective in loving your brothers and sisters and creating unity within the body of Christ. When we just shove off that responsibility of like, yeah, whatever. I mean, it’s, I know it’s important but… No, it’s more than just important. It’s more than just important.”
“So closely does he identify with his church; so significant is his union with his people. May this encourage our hearts today. The Lord Jesus, beloved, is jealous for us. He protects us. He has always fought for us, just like David and Goliath. We thought about that last week, right? How David stood. He fought on behalf of God’s people.”
“Grace is to receive something you don’t deserve. And what is it that you received that you didn’t deserve, right? Which was forgiveness and righteousness. And how did that come to life in you? Faith. All of that is a gift to you. That’s the good news of the gospel. It’s that you have nothing to boast of.”
“We all felt it this week. How many of you felt the shame of your sin this week? I did. And how many of you went, “I can’t believe I fell for that lie again, that if only I have this, I will be satisfied. I will be happy. I will be safe. I will be secure. I will be liked. I will be wanted. I will be beautiful. I will be of value. I will be of worth.” How many of us believed that this week?”
“So he’s not saying that everything’s easy, you know. Just deny the hardness because it’s all great because God is good. That’s not how he’s thinking. He’s talking, though, about the comparative greatness of the glory that’s coming. It’s so great we can’t fathom it. By comparison, what we’re going through is light and momentary.”
Jon and Justin follow up on the conversation last week about smuggling works into faith. Today’s episode is a little different than the norm. The guys critique teaching from John Piper, John MacArthur, and Doug Wilson on the relationship between faith and works. Multiple excerpts and quotes are cited, all of which are available in the show notes. The reason for this episode is to defend the clarity of the gospel–that we are saved by Christ alone and receive his merits by faith alone, apart from any works we could ever do.
“If you don’t understand these uses of the law, you’re going to butcher passages like the good Samaritan and like the rich young man. Because – and here’s how we do this – we collapse law and gospel, and we confuse the way the law is supposed to be used rightly.”
“Blessed is the one who endures, meaning circumstances cannot change the satisfaction that I have. Do you know what we look for every single day? We want to be satisfied. We want to be satisfied. That’s what joy is. Joy is ultimate satisfaction. And James says you’ll have ultimate satisfaction in Christ when you follow his truth, and you don’t wander from it.”
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