Do You Not Hear?

Listen to this question from the Bible in Galatians 4:21: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?” Galatians 4:21-31 is clear the apostle Paul addressed that question to Jewish teachers who in fact where NOT hearing the law, at least not accurately. An elaborate argument follows verse 21, and Paul completely turns on its head the way the Jewish teachers heard the law. They heard it teaching the Jews alone were God’s favored people because they physically descended from Abraham. Their preconceived, long-held way of viewing and hearing the law left them unable—or more correctly, unwilling—to hear it saying that the Gentiles, too, could be favored by God, not by being physical descendants of Abraham, but by being Abraham’s spiritual descendants through a trusting and obedient faith in Christ (see 3:26-29). Paul sought to change their perspective and to get them to hear the law more carefully and perceive what the law actually said. Paul’s words in Galatians 4 remind us we need to “get the whole picture” when it comes to the Bible and the gospel. The ancient Roman dramatist Terence once warned about the power of preconceived ideas to close our ears and eyes and minds to fuller insight. He said, Beware of prejudices. They are like rats, and men’s minds like steel traps. Prejudices get in easily, but rarely do they get out.” Paul’s question, “Do you not hear the law?” was directed to people (Jewish teachers) who were convinced they heard the law of God more accurately than anyone on earth, but they didn’t!                               

Author Gary Patterson, in Character Forged From Conflict, relates a story that challenges how we hear when we listen to the Bible being taught and / or read it for ourselves. Here is Patterson’s story When the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, there was a story about a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clicked away. A sign on the receptionist’s desk instructed applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other waiting applicants. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally, the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They took more than a little satisfaction in assuming the young man who went into the office would be reprimanded for his presumption and summarily dismissed for the job. In a few minutes the young man emerged from the office escorted by the manager who announced,

“Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has been filled by this man.” One applicant spoke up with great irritation in his voice, “He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Why was he hired? That’s not fair.” The boss responded, “All the time you’ve sat here, the telegraph ticked out the following message in Morse code: ‘If you understand this message, come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard or understood it. This man did. The job is his.”         

In our very noisy world, Jesus still challenges every person in Luke 8:18, “Take heed how you hear.” So, do you read the Bible? Do you listen to it preached? Tell me, do you not hear the Bible? 

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Be Like Kevin ... or Christ?

Preachers often urge people to follow and imitate and be like Christ. They are speaking very Biblically when they issue that call. For instance, the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 --- "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Another passage presenting the same challenge is Ephesians 5:1 — “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.” Most professing Christians readily express a desire to follow and be like Christ. But are you sure you want to be like Him? Professing to be like Him and even wanting to be like Him are noble and even necessary things, but actually being like Him is sometimes very difficult to do. Years ago I ran across a little told by story by Alan Smith (Boone church of Christ, Boone, North Carolina) that humorously drives that point home. He told about a mother who was preparing pancakes for her sons Kevin, age 5, and Ryan, age 3. The boys argued over who would get the first pancake. Mother seized the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus was sitting here,” she told them, “He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.’” Kevin turned to his younger brother saying, “Ryan, you be Jesus.” Brother Smith then added, “I think it’s safe to say we’re all a little like Kevin. We want everyone else to act like Jesus. We want everyone else to make the sacrifices and be kind and giving. We want everyone else to make the sacrifices and be kind and forgiving of us.”

I could mislead myself here and say that I always want to be like Christ. But if I’m honest, I have to confess there are more times than I’m comfortable with when I am more like Kevin. How about you? A Scripture at Galatians 4:19 presents a tremendous thought about what it means to truly be a Christian. There the apostle Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” The Greek word translated “labor” in the New King James Version is ódinó (pronounced in English o-dee'-no) and is defined by Strong’s Concordance as “to have birth pangs, to travail.” The King James Version renders the word as “for whom I travail in birth again.” We have little space to explore the context here, but the letter        of GALATIANS makes clear Paul experienced pain when he first preached and established congregations in the region known in the first century as Galatia. Some of the pain was physical (see Acts 13, 14, especially 14:19 where it is recorded that Paul’s Jewish opponents stoned him in the city of Lystra, dragged him out of town, and left him for dead). After some time he’s still experiencing great emotional, mental, and spiritual anguish over the Galatians who are being led astray by false teachers trying to convince them to trust in and keep the Law of Moses for salvation instead of trusting and obeying Christ and His gospel (Galatians 1:1-9 and all of chapter 2). Now in 4:19 he uses childbirth and the agonizing pain that accompanied it in ancient days (modern medicine has relieved some, but not all, of the pain of birthing a child) as a metaphor. He confesses he is in that kind of intense anguish “again” and declares it will continue “until Christ is formed in you.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines this phrase as meaning, “literally, until a mind and life in complete harmony with the mind and life of Christ shall have been formed in you.” God’s goal for us is “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17a). His will is that we walk and act “just as He    walked” (1 John 2:6). To end where we began above, we must not be like Kevin. We must be like Christ.

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

By All Means!

The apostle Paul was driven by a conviction many in the church lack today. A scan of 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 reveals an unquenchable fire burned deep inside his heart — a deep love and compassion not only for Christ but also for the immortal souls of men and women. The text says to the Jew he became as a Jew, to the Gentile he became a Gentile, to the weak he became as weak. His purpose? “... that I might win the more ... that I might by all means save some” (vs 19, 22b). No real student of the New Testament would take Paul’s words to mean he ever changed or adapted the gospel message and its demands to fit whatever crowd he happened to be in. He is not arguing that the church should adapt the Gospel so that it will be more acceptable to the culture or people or age we happen to be in (Galatians 1:6-9 * 1 Corinthians 4:17). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow” insofar as His spiritual accomplishments in our behalf, His commands to us in the Gospel, and the promises He holds out to the faithful (Hebrews 13:8). The same gospel system and process that made a Jew a Christian in the first century also made a Gentile a Christian (Acts 15:11 * Romans 10:12 * Mark 16:15-16 * Acts 2:36-38 * Acts 10:47-48). Paul is not saying he changed the gospel to reach Jews or Gentiles. He is saying he wants to make the gospel available to as many people as possible. And he is willing to do anything within the will of God to accommodate himself to that end, his personal customs and conveniences aside! Note again, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Note Paul said “some.” He was never under the illusion he could bring the whole world to Christ. Some are unwilling to give their lives to Christ no matter what means we use. But that didn’t dampen his passion to bring Christ to the whole world if he could by any means do so.                   

What means have you used to save some? Have you used any?  Are you praying for someone you know is lost? What have you done to bridge the gap between yourself and some lost person so that you might win them to Christ? In a Gospel Advocate magazine article back in October 1989 Don Humphrey wrote an article entitled: “Jonah – An Unwilling Missionary.” His words still sober my soul to this day — “Someone observed that the average member of the church of Christ has heard 4,000 sermons, sung 20,000 songs, participated in 8,000 public prayers, and saved zero sinners. How close to average are you?” I do not mean to indict every member of the body of Christ. The years have taught me there are always Christians with no desire for recognition who are involved in ongoing and intentional efforts to reach their children, neighbors, friends, and co-workers for Christ. They visit, pray, live a Christ-like life before others, regularly invite people to attend worship and Bible study-assemblies. They eagerly share their faith verbally and tactfully, and study the Bible with other people. Many who can’t “go” themselves “become fellow-workers for the truth” (3 John 8) by supporting efforts to reach others, far and near. Behind it all is a passion for souls, a willingness to “by all means save some.” How about it? What means are you using to save some? 

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Holy Unclaimed Inheritance!

 "It turns out it’s not just in the movies that you can get a huge inheritance from that uncle you never knew about.” Those are the opening words of an October 24, 2022, article by Mack Liederman posted on the internet @ blockclubchicago.org. The long title of the article succinctly summed up its contents: “A Chicago Man Quietly Left Behind $11 Million — The Largest Unclaimed Estate In American History.” The article told about Joseph Stancak who lived a quiet life in Gage Park (near Chicago). Stancak, who never married and had no children or immediate family, was found dead in his modest bungalow in 2016, according to the state treasurer’s office. He was 87 years old. Little was known about him. He left no will. But according to Rudy Quinn, president of

Linking Assets Inc. (a company that finds unclaimed money), what Stancak did leave was $11,000,000! It took a while but Linking Assets Inc. finally unraveled his accounts and family tree. That tree includes 119 heirs located in the U.S. but also Canada and several European nations. Piercey noted that after taxes, the average heir would get a check in the $60,000 range. None of them had heard of Stancak before, said attorney Kenneth Piercey who represents Stancak’s estate, adding, “There’s no shortage of people who had money tucked away and nobody ever knew.”

Anybody reading this thinking about checking it out to see if you were distantly related to Stancak?! His estate may be the largest estate in American history, but it is not the largest unclaimed estate in the world’s history. Not by a long shot. The apostle Paul describes that estate in Galatians 4:1-11. His words in that text are part of his long argument that salvation and right standing before God are not achieved through the works of the law of Moses or dependence upon any merely human work that earns or merits salvation. Instead, he argues justification before God is received as a gift through an obedient faith that spiritually puts us in Christ (the gist of that message in Galatians is succinctly summed up in the passages found at 2:16 and 3:26-29). Now, in the passage at 4:1-11 Paul argues the law of Moses had a temporary purpose “until the time appointed” (vs 2) ... But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent for this His Son ... to redeem those born under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (vs 4-5). He continues in vs 6 that “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” providing an intimacy with God so close we can cry out, “Abba, Father!” That phrase was used by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in His agonized prayer the night Judas betrayed Him (see Mark 14:36). “Abba Father” occurs in the New Testament only one other time at Romans 8:15. There Paul uses it in the context of us having “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ ”, indicating a an especially close intimacy. God has declared He wants to adopt us! If we trust and obey the Gospel of Christ and live in union with Jesus, we are no longer slaves to sin but sons  (and daughters of God), “and if a son, then an heir, an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 3:7), and a “joint heir with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17)! The inheritance He promises is literally out of this world (1 Peter 1:4), and gloriously rich (Ephesians 1:18). Those who obey God’s will tap into staggering spiritual riches, summarized in Ephesians 3:8 as “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” God has an eternal inheritance for all who are willing to come into and stay in Christ. Don’t leave that holy inheritance unclaimed!

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putting Words in God’s Mouth?

 A man told a friend, “My dad always said I loved alphabet soup growing up. But really it was just him putting words in my mouth.” Hmmm – I wonder if God might sometimes say that same thing about the things people say He said in His Word? The following (clearly fictional) story by James Meadows is a little lengthy but clearly illustrates the point. One Sunday, a minister was talking on baptism and illustrating that baptism should be performed by sprinkling and not by immersion. He said, “In the Bible where it says that John baptized in the River Jordan (John 3:23), it didn’t mean ‘in’ but close to, round about, or near by. Again, when it tells us Philip baptized the eunuch in the river (Acts 8:38), it didn’t mean ‘in’ but close to, round about, or near by.” When the service ended, one old fellow stopped by and said, “Preacher, that was the best sermon I ever heard, and it uncovered many mysteries of the Bible to me. For example, the Bible tells us Jonah was ‘in’ the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17), but now I see he was not ‘in’ the fish, but that he was just close to, round about, or near by the fish floating in the water. Then there’s the story about the three young Hebrew men who were thrown into a fiery furnace but not burned and didn’t even get their hair or clothes seared. I thought that sounded impossible, but now I see they were not ‘in’ the furnace at all, but really were just close to, round about, or near by. But the hardest thing of all for me to believe was where Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den for a whole night but wasn’t hurt. Thanks to your sermon I now see he wasn’t ‘in’ the den but was close to, round about, or just near by, kind of like when you go to the zoo. The revealing of these mysteries was very rewarding to me. But the greatest comfort to me was because I have lived a wicked life and sinned much and the Bible tells me that the wicked will be cast into hell. But now I see I won’t really be case “into” hell at all, but just close to, round about, or near by. So every Sunday from    now on, I won’t have to be ‘in’ church, I can just be close to, round about, at the lake near by.”

The idiom “put words in someone’s mouth” is to suggest someone said or meant something that he or she did not actually say. Almost all believers agree that being saved from sin requires sinners to get “into” Christ. The spiritual blessings accessible to those “in Christ” are too numerous to list here. Ephesians 1:3 sums it up by saying God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Him” (Christ]. So how does someone  “dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:1) come into Christ? The apostle Paul answers in Galatians 3:27 – “For as many of you as  were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” That verse follows hard on the heels of the statement in verse 26 that “you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (note Paul didn’t say by “faith alone”). Both statements are part of a long argument by the apostle that sinners are not saved by keeping works of the law of Moses or any other law whereby we can earn, pay for, and merit God’s salvation. But Paul, unlike many preachers and believers in Jesus today, had no hangups in saying that faith in Christ and baptism into Him are part and parcel of the package we call “salvation from sin.” There is no ambiguity if we take God at His Word — if we want to be “in Christ” and not just close to, round about, or near by, we must be baptized into Him. Those words are in and from God’s mouth. We best leave them alone.

  by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Loopholes in the Bible?

W. C. Fields (American actor and comedian) was a self-avowed Bible skeptic & atheist. On one occasion a friend entered Field’s dressing room and was shocked to find the famous old comedian reading a Bible. When asked why, Field’s quickly shut the Book, & looking rather embarrassed, replied, “Looking for loopholes, just looking for loopholes.” ("The Sinai Summit," Rick Atchley,  Sweet Pub’g, 1993, p 138). The website merriamwebster.com defines “loophole” as “an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded.” Remember that definition as we think for a few moments about New Testament teaching about baptism. 

Brother Edward Wharton wrote: “According to the New Testament writers’ own statements of its purpose, baptism, preceded by repentance, is an expression of faith in Christ to receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) and to bring us into union with Christ (Romans 6:1-7) . . . It is, then, at baptism that the lost sinner is united with Christ as His own possession” (commentary on Galatains, "Freed For Freedom," p 118). Jesus taught baptism is involved in saving us after we believe the gospel (Mark 16:15-16). Both men and women in Samaria were baptized “when they believed Philip” as he preached the gospel in their city (Acts 8:18). When Lydia heard the gospel preached by the apostle Paul, her heart was opened to heed and “she and her household were baptized” (Acts 16:15). Later in Acts 16 a Roman jailor came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized after midnight (verses 25ff, esp’ vs 34). Saul of Tarsus (who became Paul the apostle of Christ) was confronted by Christ for persecuting Christians in Acts 9:1ff. After being without sight and neither eating or drinking and praying for three days, a disciple named Ananias was sent to Saul by Jesus to tell him what the Lord wanted him to do (Acts 9:9-11). Years after those dramatic events, Paul testified that when Ananias came to him, he said, “And now why are you waiting? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). The apostle Peter wrote that baptism is involved in saving us (1 Peter 3:21), not  from any dirt on our bodies, but from sin on our souls. Colossians 2:10-13 teaches we are “buried with Him [that is, Christ] in baptism” and then “raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Baptism is a work, yes it is! But it is not the penitent sinner who works nor the baptizer. Rather, the apostle declares, God is working, excising a person’s sins in a “circumcision made without hands,” making the baptized person “complete in Him” and “alive with Christ” and “forgiving you all trespasses”!! Galatians 3:26-27 declares, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” [the NIV says “clothed yourselves with Christ.” In these passages, the purpose and place of baptism in the conversion process is clear.

Here’s the take-away point. All these words about baptism are inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). What preachers’ and theologians’ say about them are not! Look, and look long as you want, but there is no “faith alone” loophole that allows us to evade or escape inspired teaching about baptism. God’s pronouncements are clear, not ambiguous. Baptism was an essential and beautiful part of the plan Christ and His apostles taught. There are no loopholes in God’s Word. God help us to faithfully proclaim the same gospel they did.  

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN 

The Tree That Can Set You Free!

The greatest story ever told doesn’t begin, ‘Once upon a time.’ It begins, ‘Once upon a tree.’” I heard that ear-grabbing statement nearly 45 years ago from Irish preacher Jim McGuiggan, and like an annular nail driven into a piece of hard oak, they have stuck fast in my head and heart throughout the years. McGuggian was referring of course to the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins. The image of the cross as a tree is a very Biblical one. Let me cite one passage and note a few others.

In Galatians 3:13-14 we read these amazing words: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” The apostle’s reference to one who hangs on a “tree” is from Deuteronomy 21:22-23. In that passage the Law of Moses legislated that the body of one who was stoned for a capital offense, that is “a sin deserving of death” (verse 22) would be hung up on a tree as evidence that “he who is hanged is accursed of God” (verse 23).

New Testament images of the cross as a “tree” can be found not only in Galatians 3:13, but also at Acts 5:30 * Acts 10:39 * Acts 13:29 * 1 Peter 2:24. The 1 Peter 2:24 passage is specific that Christ “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree ... by whose stripes we were healed.” The verse also calls Christians in response to this to die to sin and live for righteousness. This passage provides what amounts to inspired commentary and keen insight on the apostle Paul’s declaration in Galatians 3:13 that Christ has “redeemed us from the curse of the law.”

We don’t stone people for sinning these days, but that doesn’t mean the penalty of death has been lessened, for God’s word still declares “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a), that is estrangement and separation from God in hell (Isaiah 59:1-2). This is the “curse of the law” Paul mentions in Galatians 3:13. From that estrangement and from that curse, Paul claims Christ has “redeemed” us, that is (we don’t have space to study it out), paid the price / cost to buy us back and set us free the guilt and condemnation of sin (see Acts 20:28 * 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 * 1 Peter 1:18-19 * Ephesians 1:7). How did He do that? Paul is blunt: He “became a curse for us” and gave His life for us.

We’ve only skimmed the surface here. But you don’t have to be a trained theologian to understand that, whatever the more technical nuances and meanings of words in these verses may be, one truth is crystal clear — God is dying to save you! I read a story (fictional but helpful) about a young man, twice-convicted for a lesser offense, on trial for yet a third time for murder. Terror washed over him as he surveyed the jury in the courthouse. Positive he’d never beat the murder rap, he managed to get a message to one of the kinder-looking jurors & bribed her with a large amount of cash through an anonymous person, asking her to go for a manslaughter verdict. Sure enough, at the end of the trial the jury convicted him of the lesser charge, saving him from the death penalty. Tears of gratitude spilled from his eyes, and he managed a moment with the juror before being led away to serve 20 years in prison. “Thank you, thank you, thank you — how did you ever pull it off?” The juror admitted, “It wasn’t easy. The rest of them wanted to acquit you.” That’s what Christ wants to do for you!  Praise God for the tree that can set you free!  (see Galatians 3:26-29.

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Ransom Paid to Save!

You may or may not have ever heard the name Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Hauptmann was arrested, incarcerated and eventually executed for being the perpetrator of one of the most famous kidnapping cases in American history. His victim, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, was the 20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The case was a complex one. It involved a series of ransom notes ranging from $50,000 upwards to $100,000, received over a period of several weeks. A payment of $50,000 was eventually paid. Some ten weeks after the baby was kidnapped, his little body was found, partly buried and badly decomposed, about four and a half miles southeast of the Lindbergh home on the rural outskirts of Hopewell, New Jersey. The head was crushed, there was a hole in the skull, and there were some missing body members. The Coroner’s examination concluded the child had been dead about two months and that death was caused by a blow to the head.

A super-intensive investigation by many different law-enforcement agencies eventually led to Hauptmann’s arrest two and half years after the crime. After his conviction by a jury for first degree murder, Hauptmann was electrocuted at 8:47 p.m. on April 3, 1936 after several appeals. The crime was exceedingly heinous, and the case is a fascinating one about a ransom that was paid but failed to save. A sad and tragic story.                       

 Let’s look much further back in history to the day another famous crime took place, and a ransom paid at the same time and place! The apostle Paul describes it in Galatians 3:13 with these words: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” We don’t have space to dig very deep here, but Paul is teaching that Jesus made a ransom payment that paid off our debt of sin, a debt He did not owe and that we could not pay! The word picture Paul paints is from the slave market. The Greek word translated by the English “redeemed” means to buy up at the marketplace. The term involves the idea of going into a slave market and paying the price to take somebody completely out of slavery and setting them free! Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines “to redeem” as “payment of a price to recover from the power of another.” The term is used metaphorically by Paul in Galatians 3:13 of Christ freeing men and women from the dominion of the law at the price of His vicarious death on the cross. Don’t miss it — by hanging on the “tree” of the cross, He became a curse “for us,” that is, in our place (Deuteronomy 21:23 * Acts 10:39 * Acts 13:29). Isaac Watts’ rousing song asks, “Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree?” The answer is yes, yes! — for at the cross “the Mighty Maker died for man, the creature’s sin” (verses 2 and 3 “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?”). The unspeakably glorious and good news is “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” — and if we die to sin and live for righteousness, then “by His stripes we are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). At the cross Christ paid in full the ransom sin demanded to set us free. That ransom fails to fully save only if we fail to trust and obey our Redeemer (see Galatians 3:26-29 * Romans 6:4-6, 16-18 * Colossians 2:10-13 ). Praise be to God!

 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” — Ephesians 1:7    

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

What’s Wrong With The Solas (keep reading)?!

As soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescued soul to heaven springs.” Ever heard those words? They form one of the outrageous claims of the 16th century Roman Catholic cleric John Tetzel. Some people quote the last phrase in the claim as saying, “another soul from purgatory springs.” Tetzel was put in charge of raising money for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome through the sale of “indulgences,” and he became famous (better, infamous) for being good at the job. The          wacky idea of indulgences is that a full or partial remission of the punishment of sins could be procured, even for dead people, by contributing money to the church. The teaching was popular, especially among the rich! To be fair, the official position of the Catholic church is that they never sanctioned indulgences. Sanctioned or not, Tetzel sold them. Ray Cavanaugh said Tezel was “peddling purgatory relief” (“Peddling purgatory relief: Johann Tetzel” @ nconline.org). The idea that forgiveness and grace could be bought and merited by human payment stirred the ire of Martin Luther who became the seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. He rejected some teachings and practices of the Catholic church, and in particular disputed the sale of                indulgences. Rejecting the idea sinners could earn or buy forgiveness, Luther taught that salvation is by “sola fide,” Latin for “faith alone.” So it is that phrase and the phrase “grace alone” have been around since Luther’s day in the early 1500's. In our time preachers are heard saying, “We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.”                                     

But let’s hold our theological horses for a minute! Our tweety world loves to use cliches and sound bytes in an attempt to squeeze huge, vast ideas and subjects into a few catchy words, even in religion. The problem with that is well stated by David Servant in these words: “It isn’t easy, however, to summarize all that God has revealed about salvation in Scripture with four Latin words. In fact, it is impossible. That is one reason why God gave us an entire Bible, and not just four words” (“Grace Alone and Faith Alone: What is Wrong With the First Two Solas?” @ davidservant.com). The Bible is clear we are saved by grace (Romans 3:24) and justified by faith (Romans 5:1). But it never says we are saved by “grace alone” or “grace alone through faith alone.”

In Galatians 3:6-12 the apostle Paul affirms we are, indeed, children of Abraham, if we exercise the trusting, obedient faith he did, as opposed to believing we earn or merit salvation by perfect performance and rule keeping. The spectacle of God’s bloodied, battered Son on a cross is proof enough we could never do that. Add to that the words Servant said above, “God gave us an entire Bible.” It is most unwise to try and squeeze the Bible’s doctrine of how God saves into a few selected verses and words. The    Bible says in Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham obeyed ...” (see James 2:21-24). Let us say what Scripture says in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” But let us also affirm what another inspired writer said at Hebrews 5:9 (speaking of Jesus): “He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Bible writers stiffly opposed the idea sinners can ever earn or merit salvation. But they never taught we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. They taught that faith obeys God’s commands. We will teach that, too, if we teach what they taught.

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN  

Our Only Hope!

 

"The power of hope defines the psychological victim and psychological survivor. If I could find a way to package and dispense hope, I would have a pill more powerful than any antidepressant on the market. Hope is often the only thing between man and the abyss. As long as a patient, individual or victim has hope, they can recover from anything and everything.” Those words were written by Dr. Dale Archer, M. D., in an online blog @ psychologytoday.com (“The Power of Hope,” posted July 31 2013). The doctor also said, “However, if they lose hope, unless you can help them get it back, all is lost.” 

        I don’t know if Dr. Archer is a Christian or even a believer. What I do know is that our world needs hope. Unless you just arrived from another planet, you don’t need me to tell you why. Another thing I know for sure is that the New Testament and the church described on its pages are unequaled when it comes to hope and the power that comes packaged with it. Hope is standard equipment when you buy into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ’s apostles heralded the message that Jesus Christ is “our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1). They believed people outside of Christ had “no hope and [were] without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). The apostle Paul referred to God as “the God of hope” who can “fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). We are saved in a hope that cannot yet be seen and we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (8:4-25). The early church preached Jesus as the “one hope” we have for overcoming sin and death (Ephesians 4:4). The apostle Peter describes the Christian hope as “a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3), grounded not on wishful thinking or a hunch or luck, but in the rock-solid reality that Jesus Christ died on a cross, went into a tomb, but three days later got up and walked out of it alive, never to die again (Revelation 1:18)! The writer of Hebrews 6:18b-19 urged Christians to “lay hold of the hope set before us”, and that, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence [of God, that is] behind the veil.” That hope anchors our souls in Heaven even as our ship is battered and tossed by earthly winds and storms that beat into our souls here on earth. Edward Mote expressed it this way in his beautiful song “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” (1834: "In every high and storm gale, My anchor holds within the veil ... When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.” For that reason, it is wise to “put on ... as a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8b).

This verse suggests hope in Jesus Christ is like a “helmet” to cover the head, protecting against the mind’s proneness to wander and providing spiritual protection against the vagaries, doubts, and fears we often encounter as human beings, and even as God’s children. Terri Guillemets said, “I still believe in some faraway place where it’s all okay.” It’s not all okay here on Planet Earth. The Bible’s message is that in this devil-dominated, sin-saturated world, it never will be okay. But there is a place where all is okay. A place where “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying ... no more pain ...” (Revelation 21:4). A place “where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). Is there any other hope of being forgiven of sins, defeating death, and being with God forever? The world denies it, but the Word of God says Christ is our only hope. That being the case, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful who promised” (Hebrews 10:23).

        by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Senseless Christians?

 

Sometimes it seems we humans just “park our brains” or at least sound that way. A man named Jack Ray illustrated the point with a humorous piece in the March 2004 edition of the Readers Digest (p 76). He wrote: “The trouble with being a landlord? Tenants. Especially those who write letters like these: * The toilet is blocked and we cannot bathe the children until it is cleared. * This is to let you know that there is a smell coming from the man next door. * Will you please send someone to mend our cracked sidewalk? Yesterday, my wife tripped on it, and she is now pregnant.” Sometimes the “funny” things we say or hear are just funny. But at other times not so funny. It may be that the senseless-sounding things people say sound “senseless” because they are senseless — that is, the people saying them aren’t “thinking it through” and aren’t being fair and reaching a logical conclusion from the facts.

A passage written by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:1 accuses some first century Christians of being mindless, that is acting on and / or believing something without thinking logically and reasonably. In a very blunt approach, Paul asked in Galatians 3:1, “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” When is the last time you heard a preacher address his congregation that way?! These days, Paul would be chewed up and spit out on social media as being harsh, judgmental and non-inclusive. But I digress. We don’t have space here to lay it out in detail, but in essence Paul is accusing them of being mindless! Through Paul’s teaching they were people “before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified”!             

Throughout the letter Paul juxtaposes two opposing ideas. First, being saved from sin by faith in Christ and by the grace of God expressed supremely through the death of Christ for our sins (2:16; 1:3-6). The second idea (the one Paul sees as totally senseless and foolish) is the idea that keeping what in the original context was “the works of the law” of Moses (2:16), including circumcision (5:2-3), somehow merits and qualifies sinners and puts God in their debt. No way, Paul says, suggesting such an idea means he has “set aside the grace of God (2:21). Think carefully now, it’s not that Paul thought that seeking to obey God’s teachings and commands wasn’t important or even necessary for God’s Old Testament people who lived under the Law of Moses or for those under the New Covenant who were saved by grace. Later at 3:26-29 this same apostle who is arguing so vigorously we are saved by God’s grace through “the faith of the Son of God who love me and gave himself for me” (2:20) — that same grace-preaching apostle in this same letter shows that being saved by grace through faith does not negate the fact we must be “baptized into Christ” if we are to “put or” or “be clothed with Christ,” thus belonging to Christ and becoming a spiritual descendant of Abraham! At the same time the cross of Christ is Paul’s ultimate argument against the notion anyone can merit, earn and deserve salvation from sin to the point God owes it to us without Christ. George Washington Robertson said, “God gave us two ends, one to sit on and the other to think with. A man’s success depends on which end he uses most. It is a case of heads you win, tails you lose.” God grant us to be fair with His word and not be senseless in what we believe. The success of our very souls depends on it.

        "These were more fair-minded...they searched the Scriptures to find out whether these things were so” - Acts 17:11

   by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN      

Does Jesus Know You Love Him?

        What would you do if you were worth $3.2 billion? When media mogul Ted Turner found out in    late September 1997 his wealth had grown from a paltry $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion in a year, he decided to give away a billion. On September 25, 1977, Turner electrified an audience in New York City when he announced he would give away one billion dollars to the good works program of the Nations — a hundred million dollars a year for the next 10 years. A Newsweek article entitled “Why Ted Gave It Away” (September 29, 2997, pp 29-32) referred to his gift as “... the largest pledge in philanthropic history.” The article went on to describe the audience as “stunned.” Why did Ted give it away? No one but he and God knows for sure. Maybe he sincerely wanted to help people. The article pointed out he would get tax benefits and that after the gift he would still be a billionaire two times over. 

        Turner’s gift was a stunning one by any measure. But be sure to know — his $1,000,000,000 gift was neither the largest nor most stunning one in history, not even close. That trophy was claimed 2,000 years ago when God, “when the fulness of the time had come, sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). In the most familiar verse in the 31,102 verses of the King James Version of the Holy Bible, John 3:16 still says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The cross of Christ is the place where the greatest, largest, most stunning gift in the history of man was given. There God’s sinless Son suffered and died for sinners, giving us what can only be described, in the words of 2 Corinthians 9:15, as an “unspeakable” or indescribable gift! Now, if it is not clear what moved Ted Turner and what moves other fabulously rich people like him (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffet have given away multiple billions), the Bible leaves no doubt as to why Jesus died on a cross. Romans 5:8 says God “demonstrates His love toward, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” First John 3:16a declares, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”                                                                           

        Another verse about the love of Christ is Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” That verse is often used to call us to deny ourselves and take up the cross of self-denial as Jesus taught (e.g., Luke 9:23). Appropriately so. Romans 6:1-7 is clear before sinners can “raised to newness of life” and "freed from sin” they must first “die to sin” (in repentance) and then be “baptized into Christ Jesus ... buried with Him through baptism into death.” So, it is Galatians 2:20 teaches us the what behind Paul’s intense devotion to Jesus – Paul had died to self and Christ lived His life out through Paul. But don’t miss the last dozen words of that verse — “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Those 12 words reveal the why behind Paul’s love for Jesus and ceaseless efforts to bring others to Him! Paul knew Jesus loved him because Jesus gave Himself for Paul. Jesus knew Paul loved Him because Paul gave himself for Jesus. You know Jesus loves you, but does Jesus know you love Him? 

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

An Apostle Called on the Carpet!

A guy said, “I once had a goldfish that could break-dance on a carpet. But only for like 20 seconds.” My apologies to goldfish and those who love them. This little article is about a Bible passage in Galatians 2:11-21 where the apostle Peter is doing a little dancing of his own. Not on a carpet, mind you, but around the truth of the Gospel. To use the words of the apostle Paul’s inspired indictment at verse 13, Peter “played the hypocrite”! Incredible thought — one apostle accusing another of being, for the moment, a hypocrite! And so Paul, as we say, “calls Peter on the carpet.”

Back to that passage in a few moments. According to website @ grammarist.com, to “call on the carpet” is an idiom meaning “to reprimand someone, to be criticized, scolded or blamed for some sort of mistake or infraction.” Early on the idiom was “walk the carpet” and came to describe a servant being called before his mistress or master in order to be scolded or blamed for a mistake. The idea is that the servant has been called out of the kitchen with a flagstone floor, or the servants’ quarters with wooden floors, into the quarters of the master of the house where the floors are carpeted. Today the phrase “call on the carpet” may be used to describe a reprimand to anyone, from anyone, but it is often a superior who calls a subordinate on the carpet.

The passage mentioned above in Galatians chapter 2 records an incident between two equals. Two apostles of Christ, that is. Peter was one of the original 12 apostles chosen by the Lord and Paul’s call by Christ came later in dramatic fashion (see Acts 9, 22, and 26) “as one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:8b). Both Paul and Peter had preached the same gospel — salvation and justification through faith in Christ, not by keeping the Law of Moses or circumcision, Paul preached mostly to Gentiles and Peter mostly to Jews (Galatians 2:6-8), and the two were in full fellowship (2:9). But alas, Galatians 2:11ff relates a sad day in Antioch (of Syria, some 300 miles north of Jerusalem) when Peter began to backtrack and “play the hypocrite.” Read carefully – when no other Jews were around, or at least when leading, influential ones were not, Peter did as the Gentiles did, having table fellowship with them (vs 12a). But when influential Jews (that is, Jewish Christians who still preached circumcision) showed up, he gave in to peer-pressure and did as the Jews did. He “withdrew [from the Gentiles] and separated himself from them, fearing those who were of the circumcision” (vs 12). It was then that Paul “called Peter on the carpet” and charged him with hypocrisy (vs 13). Paul “withstood him to his face [note, not on Facebook!], because he was to be blamed.” He challenged Peter’s conduct “before them all” (vs 14), not behind Peter’s back or in a tweet.

Here’s the point — while the apostles’ message was inspired, their manner of life was not. To quote Edward C. Wharton in his commentary on GALATIANS, “The apostles were not super-human beings. They had to fight sin and self.” Peter lost one battle but not the war. No doubt Paul and Peter cared for each other as brothers and fellow soldiers in and for Christ. But Paul and Peter also knew their Hebrew Scriptures said in Psalm 141:5 – “Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.” Consider: do we fear people too much to “call them on the carpet” when the need arises? God help us always be sensitive and kind but have a stiff spine to stand for the truth.

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

The Sure Way To Forfeit Forgiveness!

        A grudge was apparently held by Mark Twain when he wrote about someone who died: “I did not attend the funeral, but I wrote a nice note saying I approved of it.” Twain’s words remind us it is easy to “nurse a grudge.” But nursing a grudge is never easy on us. As Ken Kesey said, “The man [or woman] who seeks revenge digs two graves.” English poet Alexander Pope [died 1744], in his “Essay On Criticism” (1711), reminds us there is a better way with the familiar saying, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” The saying echoes the Bible’s teaching that all accountable human beings sin (even Christians – Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10), and that God forgives when people meet the conditions He laid out in the Gospel (Acts 2:37-38; Colossians 2:10-13). Pope’s saying hints at something Jesus taught clearly and forcefully – if we want forgiveness, we must work at having a forgiving spirit. The Lord said in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not  forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.” That’s blunt stuff.  Jesus didn't qualify what kind of trespasses. He didn’t say, “You have to forgive other people of the easy and lightweight stuff or the stuff that’s easy to get over.” Instead, He jars us with one the toughest demands He ever laid out for those who would genuinely follow Him – if we forgive, God forgives us. If we don’t forgive, God won’t forgive us. That’s how you forfeit forgiveness. And before you decide God will let you off the hook for being unwilling to forgive, recall the cross where God’s beaten, bloodied, battered, blasphemed Son, with not a single sustainable charge of sin against His pure and innocent soul, prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). A few weeks later the Father did forgive many of them who complied with Gospel conditions (see Acts 2:36-41). Does what you see at the cross suggest to you there was anything easy as God, through His Son, brought to completion His ages-long plan to be able to righteously and justly forgive your sins and my sins and everyone else’s sins? I think not.

         Elizabeth O’ Connor reminds us, “Forgiveness is a whole lot harder than any sermon ever made it out to be.” One clear message from the cross is that forgiveness is horribly difficult and costly. To forgive us cost God His Son, and cost the Son excruciating physical torment and agony, let alone the unimaginable spiritual pain and torture He suffered there in His soul. If it proved that costly to God and His Son to forgive our sins, why would we expect it to be easy to forgive others who have trespassed against us? By the way, before I forget to say this, can you imagine how costly it would have turned out for us if God and His Son had been unwilling to pay the price to forgive us? Yes, to forgive is sometimes very, very difficult. As some sage noted, “To err is human, to forgive is unusual.” It may be unusual for those who don’t know Christ to offer forgiveness. But the call for those who claim to follow Jesus could not be more plain or direct – “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Burton Coffman’s commentary on this verse provides a succinct if sobering summary of the New Testament’s teaching on God’s demand that we be forgiving – “The watchword for Christians, and for all people, is, ‘Forgive or forfeit forgiveness.’” The sure way to forfeit forgiveness is to refuse forgive.

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN 

A Church of Velvet and Steel!

A very unusual tribute was paid to Abraham Lincoln by American poet and biographer Carl Sandburg. He wrote, “Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.” You may or may not agree with that assessment of Lincoln. But one thing is sure — the kind of character Sandburg describes is all too scarce in human beings. And, may I add, rarer in the church than we should hope.

 Jesus Christ was a man of velvet and steel. He was tough and He was tender, depending upon what different people and different occasions might call for. To those who had been done in by the devil but who were open to His teaching, guidance, and forgiveness, Jesus was tender as a loving mother and / or father. In John 4 He encountered a woman at Jacob’s well who had been married five different times to five different husbands, and Jesus reminds her the man she is currently living with is not her husband John 4:18). And yet, and yet — He didn’t write her off.  He didn’t castigate or scald or scorch her for living in sin.” He deftly and directly but gently spoke to her about “living water” and His desire to provide it for her (verses 10-14). Read the whole account and you will see how tenderly Jesus dealt with her as He sought to lead her to faith in Himself as the long-awaited Messiah. Another example of Jesus’ tenderness is found in John 8:1ff where the Pharisees sought to trap the Lord. They brought Jesus  “a woman caught in the act of adultery.” They urged Him to be hard as steel and tough in dealing with her, reminding Jesus, “Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? You can read His response in John 8:6-9. With skill He turned the tables on these religious hypocrites, and His tender response to the woman is, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She answered, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you” — but then tough words followed as He urged her, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:10-11). Even a casual reading of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life shows Him to be a man of velvet softness when dealing with hurting people and suffering sinners, but hard as steel when it came to truth.

 The apostle Paul gives more than advice or a suggestion with his directive in Ephesians 4:15 that Christians be “speaking the truth in love.” Any Bible student knows the apostle Paul was anything but soft on the truth. At great personal cost to himself he preached it up and down the first century Roman Empire. He had an iron will when it came to preaching God’s truth. In Galatians 2:5 (we don’t have space to get into the context), Paul made this unbending statement about some people who attempted to change the teaching of the gospel: “to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.” But before that book ends, we hear the apostle calling for tenderness between Christians — “... through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:13b-15)!” Let every Christian take notice — God        wants a church characterized by velvet and steel. Velvet when it comes to dealing with people and their problems and sins. But a will of steel when it comes to holding fast to the truth of the gospel. 

  Dan Gulley, Smithville TN

The Greatest Text Ever Sent!

            Texting is all the rave these days. But you have to be careful to send the message you really want to send, especially if your phone has autocorrect. For instance, someone observed that thanks to autocorrect, 1 in 5 children will be getting a visit from Satan this Christmas. Some other wag texted, “The guy who invented autocorrect for smart phones died today. Restaurant in peace.” Then there was this exchange between a mother and her son:   * Mom: Your aunt just passed away. LOL.   * Son: Why is that funny?    * Mom: It’s not funny, David! What do you mean?   * Son: Mom, LOL means Laughing Out Loud.   * Mom: Oops! I thought it meant Lots of Love. Whether all texts convey what the sender really means to say or not, texts are flying off our fingertips and out of our phones. Statistics on texting are staggering. Some 81% of Americans text regularly. Over 6 billion texts are sent daily. Over 180 billion texts are sent every month. 27 trillion texts are sent every year. America is responsible for approximately 45% of the world’s text volume. Adults under 45 send and receive 85+ texts every day, on average. Adults 18-24 years old send and receive over 128 texts every day. Adults 18-24 years old send and receive 3,853 texts a month. I can’t go on with this except to note that texting, like just about every other technology, is a mixed bag. It can be so helpful, but also so harmful. If used reasonably it is a useful tool and can even be fun. But if allowed to, it become a tyrant that turns in to an addiction. Like other potentially dangerous activities, maybe there should be a warning to texters that says something like, “Text responsibly.” 

            Now that I’ve said all that, let me print out the greatest text that has ever been sent, and it was sent almost 2,000 years ago, before anybody on earth ever thought of “texting,” let alone sending one on a smart phone. That “text” is found in what always polls as the most famous and favorite verse in the Bible — John 3:16. It reads this way in the New King James Version: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  No single verse in all the Bible more effectively captures the heart of what we call the gospel or good news of God’s love and desire to save mankind from sin than that 25-word text! It is the most frequently quoted, used (and we might add, misused), and preached verse in the Holy Scriptures. Consider this from Bible scholar of past years B. C. Goodpasture. He wrote, “Forty men engaged in writing the Bible over a period of 1,500 years (1,400 B. C. to 100 A. D.). They wrote as moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) and not in words of human wisdom but in words given by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). The Bible contains 3,566,840 letters; 773,746 words; 31,173 verses; 1,189 chapters; 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New).”

He goes on to say, “We cannot be far off the mark when we insist of all letters, words, verse, chapters and books in the Bible, none more effectively and comprehensively captures in a single statement of Scripture the Good News God brings to mankind that    the statement in John 3:16.” Amen, Bro. Goodpasture! John 3:16 is simply the greatest text ever sent!

Dan Gulley, Smithville TN 

Heirs, Not Spares!

The ire of many British people has been stoked to red-hot intensity of late, since the release of (former) Prince Harry’s book “Spare” (January 10, 2023). The title is a provocative reference to the notion that as the second child in line to the British throne, Harry was a “spare,” able to inherit the throne only if something happened to older brother William. Royal historian Robert Lacey stated on a Pod Save the King podcast, “I would say William has been more kindly treated than Harry has been, but that has always been the fate of the spare,” Lacey said. He went on, “Harry follows, sadly, in the tradition of Princess Margaret or Prince Andrew as number twos in the system, who are treated harshly by the logic of the royal system, which actually favors the main bloodline.”  Lacey explains that as time goes on the number 2 or “spare” to the throne gets increasingly pushed down the line to number 3, or 4, or 5 etc. Anyway, a royal stink has been stirred, and, of course, millions of us un-royal folks in America can’t wait to read the book and hear all the juicy, possibly un-royal, stinky, inside-the-royal-British-family stuff Harry spills in his tell-all type book.

 The idea of being a spare, not the heir, leads my brain to think far beyond Britain’s royal family to God’s spiritual family, the church.  Everybody who genuinely and Biblically comes into that family is declared to be an heir, not a spare! Romans 8:14-17 is but one place in the New Testament that makes that clear, and what it makes clear ought to thrill every child of God from our spiritual heads / hearts down to our toes! Hear it: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Christians are people who have been adopted into the family of God! The act of adoption was a big deal in first century Roman culture. The adopted child received a brand-new name and identity, a complete break with the past and its debts and obligations, and equal legal and social status as any other children who had been born into the adoptive family. This act on God’s part has an eternity-altering impact on our standing and status and relationship with Him. Though we are not now nor ever can be a Son / child of God’s in the same way Jesus was or is (God’s unique, only begotten, one-of-a-kind, virgin-born, crucified-buried-resurrected- ascended to God’s right hand Son!), yet we can, through faith in Christ and obedience to the Gospel, enjoy all the spiritual standing and status His perfect life and work at the cross made available to us. In Jesus Christ we stand to be joint heirs with Him, even if some suffering is required to do so. Christians have been given access to “every spiritual blessing” and “unsearchable riches” (Ephesians 1:3; 3:8). The apostle Peter describes the Christian’s inheritance as  “incorruptible, undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).  The big take home point: there are no spares with lesser spiritual standing or status in the family of God! Every person with genuine faith in Christ puts on Christ and becomes a child of God when baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-29). What faithful Christians stand to inherit makes anything in any earthly royal palace pale by comparison. God’s heir, not a spare — as the old adage goes, if that doesn’t light your fire, your wood’s wet!

Dan Gulley, Smithville TN

The Best Book in the World!

Millions past and present refer to the Bible as “The Good Book.” America’s first vice-president and second president, John Adams, paid an even greater tribute to the Bible when he observed, “The Bible is the best Book in the world.” Many, of course, would      disagree, some of them on the flimsy basis that it disagrees with them! Like Judah’s foolish King Jehoiakim who lived 600 years before Christ in the days of God’s prophet Jeremiah. Upon hearing parts of Jeremiah’s inspired words he didn’t like concerning his and Judah’s conduct and future, the Bible says Jehoiakim “cut it [that is, the scroll] with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire.” But God had the prophet write the words down again, and Jeremiah’s scroll, along with the rest of the inspired writings of God’s Book, has stood the test of time. In the words of the late Charles Colson, “The Bible — banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked, than any other book in history ... Yet nothing has affected the rise and fall of civilizations, the character of cultures, the structure of governments, and the lives of the inhabitants of this planet so profoundly as the words of the Bible” (A Dangerous Grace, p 18). The Bible, measured solely on the basis of its beneficent and positive influence in human history and lives, is indeed the Good Book, yea, the Best Book.  When respected and practiced, the Bible’s teachings bring into human society and institutions and relationships such things as “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Thomas Jefferson, who, by the way, rejected Jesus’ miracles in New Testament and Christ’s Divinity, never-less paid tribute to the Bible’s powerful effect for good. He declared, “I have always said and will always say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better fathers, better husbands . . . The Bible makes the best people in the world.” Indeed, as W. J. Bryan noted, "There is not a community which cannot be purified, redeemed, and improved by a better knowledge and broader application of the Bible to daily life. The Good Book makes good people.

For 1,000's of years the Bible has outlasted its critics. The reason can be found in 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Bible is the Good Book, even the Best Book, but it is more. It is God’s Book. Herein lies the secret to its staying power — it is God’s Word. The Bible is still going because God is still going. The Bible is still relevant because God is still relevant. You can ban and burn copies of the Bible, but no man or court of council or government can bury it forever. Oh, men can pronounce it dead and attempt to bury it and, just as they did Jesus, seal the tomb and make it as secure as they know how (Matthew 27:65-66). But they might as well try to extinguish the sun by spitting on it. It is tougher than the black boxes designed to survive intact through the worst plane crash. It is quite simply but absolutely, indestructible. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). You and I will pass away, but God’s Book is here to stay. Joseph Cook said, “Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when are dying? Very well. That is the Book you want to study when you are living. There is only one such Book in the world.” The Bible — the Good Book, the Best Book, God’s Book! 

Dan Gulley, Smithville TN 

No Improvements Ever Needed!

Question: Why are calendars becoming obsolete? Answer: Because their days are numbered.” Obsolescence is defined as “no longer produced or used; out of date.” Packages of perishable food and other things are stamped with the words “Use by” or “Best if used by” followed by a date. Of course, the most common way for a product to become obsolete is for it to be replaced by something marketers frequently claim is “new and improved.” The truth is many products humans dream up and produce will wear out and be improved as time goes on! From cars to clothes to computers, stuff wears out and advances are made, making obsolescence practically unavoidable.                      

 But not God or His Son Jesus Christ or the Bible! They endure and are never out of date! That’s why they continue to be so compelling today. In a world where everything we see, wear, eat, and drive is temporary and perishable (including our physical lives and bodies — 2 Corinthians 4:16-18), God and Jesus and their Gospel go on and on and on! Today’s critics and skeptics and foes of God loudly claim that He and His Son are out of date with the modern, technological 21st world. To those foes and          critics and claims, Bernard Ramm made this insightful response about the durability of the Bible (and God and His Son): “A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow, the corpse never stays put. No other Book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized and vilified ... the Bible is still loved by millions and studied by millions.” In addition to “out-of-the-closet” foes, many who claim to respect the Bible swallow the shallow charge that the Gospel is “irrelevant” and isn’t addressing the needs and problems we face today. So they adjust its message and add on some “apps” to make it “more relevant” for worldly culture today and announce a “new normal.” Others seek to bend or amend the truth of the Gospel to fit their own religious beliefs and practices. Admittedly, research, education and technology have made us people smarter and even improved life in many ways, but the evidence is in that technology has not and cannot make people morally and spiritually better. Sin still saturates human society. Immorality is perennially pandemic. The death rate is still 100%. The Gospel always has been and always will be the only thing known to mankind that addresses those issues, forgiveness of sins, enablement to live in a holy way, and hope in the face of inevitable death. We don’t have space to examine the context, but the inspired words of Galatians 1:7b-9 send a sobering threat to anyone who would dare to tamper with the Gospel as God gave it — “... there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” My friends, those jarring words make this truth clear — the Gospel as God gave it never needs any add-ons, App’s, updates or improvements. Those who dare tamper with it do so at the risk of their souls. You could never improve the Bible, but its inspired teachings can improve you. Will you think about it?         

                          “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” — Hebrews 13:8 

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN