Christian Hospitality, Part 1
As those who have been given grace from God through Jesus, we are now obligated to serve and build up our brothers and sisters who are struggling. Believers have often been marked by abusing others with their strength but Jesus used his strength to serve us in our weakness. God has given us the scriptures to endure and be encouraged to do this—not through good moral lessons but through the centrality of Jesus throughout all of the bible. Looking to him, we have a foundation for pursuing unity and serving one another.
Christian Liberty, Part 2
What are the responsibilities of the strong to the weak? According to Paul, the Gospel and the Kingdom inform the way the strong relate to the weak concerning secondary issues. Christ died for our brothers and sisters, so we shouldn’t seek to offend them; and the Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace, and joy. So we should joyfully lay down our rights for our brothers and sisters and seek peace with them—even in areas of disagreement.
Christian Liberty, Part 1
Non-essential issues can often be a point of division among christians, but it doesn’t need to be this way—it shouldn’t be this way. So instead of division and quarreling, Paul calls us to welcome and love one another. For those who are weaker, he calls us to not judge or despise those who are stronger. For those who are stronger, we are called to not cause the weaker to stumble. No matter what the issue is, we are called to deal with it in love.
Submission to Authority
Paul writes to the church in Rome to be submissive to the governing authorities. When we hear that, we seem to immediately question when it’s acceptable for us to not be submissive. Although there is a time to be disobedient, Paul calls us to submit to our nations leaders because God has placed them in their positions. God is the one who gives our leaders their authority and Paul even goes so far to say that they are God’s servants—even the ones that we disagree with.
Same Is Different
We have so much to rejoice about as we celebrate our five-year anniversary at Veritas. We have experienced a lot of change, but what is most true about us has not changed: we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Gospel has continually been our focus and we are committed to displaying and proclaiming the Gospel through rhythms of worship, community, service, learning, and mission. As we continue to mature and grow, we see a few landmines to avoid, some areas where we can grow, and a lot to celebrate.
Transformation
The call Paul makes on the lives of Christians is that they be wholly sacrificed to God. Our tendency is to hold on to parts of our selves that we don’t want to lay down before our Father. But Paul appeals to our excuses and hesitations to make such a drastic sacrifice, by asking us to look upon the mercies of God, to remember Christ and His sacrifice for us. The spiritual, true, and reasonable outpouring of our lives practically in light of God’s mercy towards us is two-fold: to not be conformed to the world and what it worships and to be transformed by God. As we choose to lay down our lives before God and experience and engage in the transformation that the Gospel promises, we will be made holy and experience the discernment of God’s will.
Restored in Grace
God’s plan of salvation carries abundant grace and mercy as well as mystery. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are greater than our thoughts. His plan is not always obvious at our first glance. However, Paul does answer one question on the mind of the church: “What now becomes of Israel?” Has God rejected His people? Have they fallen so far into disobedience that God has replaced them with the Gentiles? Paul’s answer is a resounding “No.” It is not God’s plan merely to now save the Gentiles just as it was never His plan merely to save Israel. Yes, some branches of Israel were indeed cut off. Yes, many Gentiles have been grafted in. But Israel’s branches can be brought back! God did not allow them to disobey and fall away forever, but gave them up to disobedience so that all the nations could be shown mercy, including them.
Remnant of Grace
Most of us don’t know what it is to truly rest. We are too tired, too stressed, and too busy. But Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it because we believe that we are saved by our religious duties and works? Is it because in our rebellion we refuse to rest in the grace given to us in Christ? Like Elijah, we often fall into religion and rebellion because we refuse to see evidence of God’s grace around us and that God’s work does not depend on us. Whether it is religion or rebellion that we pursue, grace is what God has provided for us in Christ.
Gospel Essentials: Results
In the past few weeks, we have heard of God’s sovereignty, goodness, love, mercy, and justice. These are great things to know about God. They help prove just how worthy God is of lordship. But it isn’t enough to hear these things and it isn’t enough to know these things. We must truly believe these things in our heart: trusting, experiencing, and confessing His lordship and making the freedom of that lordship known to all, no matter who they are.