by Tom Brown

Have you ever read through the book of Romans and come across a phrase like, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass…” (Romans 5:20)? Confusing, right? What on earth does that mean? What exactly is the purpose of God’s law? My hope in writing this article is to help bring light to the grace God has shown to the world by giving us the law. That might sound a bit contrary at first, or as if I am playing with words, but I assure you I am not. God’s law is a gift of his grace, a symbol of his desire to show mercy, and a publication of how he intends to save repentant sinners from the wrath to come. Let’s unravel what I mean…

A Powerful Lesson From A Bad Professor
During my second year of college I nearly failed one of my classes. The hardest part about it was that it was a subject I had always scored well in, a subject I typically enjoyed. All semester in my English course I had been turning in papers and receiving A’s, so in my mind, things were going great! I had no stress going into the final exam. But then it happened. I got my final paper back and there were these strange marks all over it. Red ink was everywhere! And this obscure symbol was on the top of the paper, a big letter “D” with a circle around it. My heart sank. “What happened?” I though to myself. My only reasonable conclusion was that my professor had made a mistake. So I made an appointment to meet with her and discuss my paper. As I sat in her office she explained to me, “You’ve been making these mistakes all semester… your grammar is very poor.” All semester? Really? I wanted to shout, “Why didn’t you tell me!?” Instead, I did my best to a put a smile on, thanked her for her time, and went back to my dorm room to sulk. Thankfully, I ended up passing the class, but my overall GPA was lowered significantly as a result. And yet, as disappointing as all this was, God used it profoundly in my life to help teach me a much more important reality.

My professor didn’t give me the correction I needed until it was too late for me to do anything about it. All semester I received A’s and pats on the back. I had no idea my grammar was horrendous, (and still is: my apologies to all you grammatical elites reading this). Why? Because she didn’t lay down the rules for me. She apathetically assumed that I would somehow figure it out for myself along the way. What I needed from her was instruction and correction, but what she gave me was a strange mix of flattery and perfunctory service. We ought to be extremely thankful that God is not like my professor. Instead we learn in Romans 3:20 that, “…by works of the law no one will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Catch that last phrase, “through the law comes knowledge of sin.” What I needed from my professor were some edits and critiques over my poor use of commas and semi-colons, not ‘ada-boys’ and fluff. What I needed was the “laws of english” so that knowledge of my errors could be realized. Do you see the beautiful connection? The world often looks at the law of God as cruelty and meanness, but it is actually the complete opposite.

So What Is The Purpose of God’s Law?
Romans 3:20 helps us see that the law’s purpose is not to oppress us with harsh standards, but to reveal the truth. We must understand that the law is not medicine, it is a thermometer. It reveals the fever, but it can’t take away the illness. A great illustration I once heard compared the law to an MRI machine: If something is wrong an MRI machine cannot do anything about it. If a person has an MRI and finds out that they have a tumor, what do they do? Get back into the machine for another round? No. They can have 1,000 MRI’s and all that each will do is confirm the same objective reality. So what do they need? They need a doctor. The MRI reveals their illness and points to their need for a doctor. This is how the law of God brings grace into our lives.

We have also mentioned in the beginning of this article that Romans 5:20 says that God gave the law “to increase the trespass.” What a seemingly bizarre thing for a holy God to do… If, as many people believe, God gave the law as his answer for the sinfulness of humanity, or the cure for the problem of sin, why does the Bible say that his law was given so that the sin might increase? In order to understand the grace of God’s law we need to understand what this means. God knows how prone we are to think of the law as a doctor and not an MRI machine. He is fully aware that we want to try to be our own professor, and ignore the red marks all over our paper with a big “F” circled at the top. Humanity has rebelled against God in sin, and yet God in his mercy has endured our rebellion with great patience. Rather than leaving us with our failing grades until the end of the semester, he has marked up our hearts with the red ink of his law. He gave us the law, that “the trespass might increase.” In other words, the law was given so that humanities awareness of their need for Christ might resound.

You might think of the way a smoke detector works. Have you ever noticed that smoke detectors signal one another with their unique sound? When one goes off in proximity to another, it triggers them both to begin resounding with the loudest and most annoying noise you have ever heard. Pretty soon, your whole house is booming with this noise which was triggered by the problem detected by the first. Think of this as a picture of the “trespass increasing”. Once, through the law, we begin to realize that we all fall short of God’s holy standard we begin to see that reality everywhere in our lives. It seems like one alarm triggers another until we can plainly hear our whole life shouting, “I need help!” This is the sense in which the law makes the trespass increase, it amplifies and magnifies the reality within; that we are sinners in need of God’s mercy and grace. But there is more: why is a fire alarm so loud and annoying? The answer is simple: because something is terribly wrong. The house is on fire! Does anyone just roll over and go back to sleep when they hear the alarm? Does anyone ignore the problem and pretend like it isn’t there? No. They get up and act. You might say that the smoke detector is an extremely annoying grace. But if you pay attention to it, it will lead you to safety. The smoke detector can’t save you, but it can point you to salvation. And if you ignore it, rest assured that the fire won’t be stilled by your refusal to listen to the alarm.

In the same way that the MRI nor the fire alarm can save you, neither can the law of God. But what it can and does do is point loudly and clearly to the person who can. “Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,” (Romans 10:4). The grace of God’s law is that it prods our hearts and pokes our souls toward the truth that without faith in Jesus Christ we are lost and hopeless, deserving of God’s justice against sin. The grace of God’s law is that it points us to the hope of the gospel. Jesus Christ lived the life that you and I have utterly failed to live, a life of perfect obedience to God. And he died the death that you and I owe for our failure and rebellion, a sinners death upon the cross. But the gift of God is this: Christ lived that life for you, and he died that death for you so that you might receive salvation through faith in him. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” (Romans 3:28).

God’s law is a gift to the world of his patience and grace.
His law is meant to sound an alarm in our souls that we are lost in sin and separated from God.
His law is meant to reveal that we are incapable of saving ourselves and point us to our need for we the Savior.
Jesus Christ is the Savior. For he is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

by Tom Brown

Do you ever find yourself wrestling with how you are supposed to relate to God as a Christian? Is he your heavenly Father, or the Holy God? Is he approachable, or to be feared? Is it safe for you to curl up in his lap, or do you need to stand at a distance? I have struggled often with the tension of God's supremacy and worth vs. the scandalous level of safety and intimacy he offers sinners through the gospel. The question that has puzzled my mind is this: How can I come to God as my Father without belittling God as my King? For as long as I didn't have an answer to this question I came to God the entirely wrong way, and in turn, missed out on the deep and meaningful relationship he means for every believer to have with him.

The Foundation Of Our Relationship
We know from many scriptures that for those who believe in Jesus, "they have been given the right to become children of God," (John 1:12). We must realize that while God has always been God, he has not always been our Father. Through the blood of Christ, we have been given a new way to relate to God altogether, or you might say, our relationship is now based on an entirely new foundation. Let me try to explain what we are getting at through an illustration.

When a child is born, how do they first relate to their parents? Based on their profession or their paternity? Based on their employment hierarchy or their heredity? The obvious answer is that a child relates to his or her parents as mother and father first, not Truck Driver, Nurse, or Carpenter. But what if your father is an extremely powerful and important leader? What if he doesn't just have an average job? What if he were the president? What if he were the king? Would that change the way a child relates to his daddy?

This is where Christians find themselves; caught in the tension of our Father's power, might, and authority, and the open invitation of personal intimacy with him as 'Daddy' through the work of Christ. He deserves our reverence, our devotion, our outright supreme allegiance. To rebel against the Lord God is none other than treason. After all, we occupy his world, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein…" (Psalm 24:1). "God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases," (Psalm 115:3). "He does according to his will among the host of heaven… and none can stay his hand," (Daniel 4:35). These things are true about God before he becomes our Father, and they are still true about him after he becomes our Father. So what are we supposed to do? It feels scary to get too close, to take our relationship too lightly, to put our guard down and come running into our Daddy's arms, and at the same time it feels hollow and exhausting to never draw close enough for a hug, to never rest in his lap, to never experience real intimacy…

As we said before, through Christ our entire foundation for a right relationship with God has been changed. Imagine someone who sold a plot of land in one town, and bought a new plot of land in the next town over. Which plot would they build their new house on? The old or the new? Obviously the new. Why? Because the old is no longer theirs. They don't own it anymore. And this simple concept applies very well to the way we must understand our new relationship with God, our Father. The whole world is born separated from God through sin. In short, he is not our Daddy. He is God the Judge. He is God the Holy. He is the Almighty and Unapproachable. This is the basis for how the world relates to God outside of Jesus Christ. Our rebellion in sin puts us at odds with God. But when we are "born again," (John 3:3), we are born into a new foundation for our relationship with God. While all those same characteristics about God are still defining of who he is, they are no longer the functional foundation for how we engage with him. Our entire relationship is now defined by our adoption through faith in Christ.

To Know The Whole Person
To carry on the previous illustration of how a child relates to their parents when they are born, let's consider how that relationship grows over time. A five year old boy has no ability to comprehend what it means that his daddy is the king. He may know the title, but he cannot yet know the substance. Still, this doesn't decrease his sonship or stifle the reality that his father is both daddy and king. Instead, it simply reveals that the depth of his relationship to his father has an immense amount of room to grow. As the boy matures in knowledge and understanding, so too will grow his ability to fully comprehend the identity of his father. Let me try to say it another way: When a father comes home from work how does he enter his house? Does he say, "The CEO is home!" Or, "The Electrician has arrived!" No. He says, "Daddy is here!" Why? Why doesn't he define himself by his profession? By his credentials? By his job title? Because those are branches on the tree of his most significant identity. What is most central to how he relates to his children is his fatherhood, not his career. To his employees or coworkers he may refer to himself by his job title, because that is what defines their relationship, but not so with his children.

When you, as a Christian, face the tension of trying to grasp the whole identity of God, drawing near to him as Father and honoring him as Lord, here is my advice: Anchor your soul in the identity that God has chosen to make primary. "…who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God," (John 1:13). Our salvation cannot be disconnected from our spiritual adoption. God's Bible calls him Father and us his children through faith in Christ. This is not man's metaphor, but the Lord's. Therefore, take rest in the identity he has chosen to be defining for your relationship with him. And yet, although a child may have no ability to understand what it means that their father is the king when they are five, they should understand that important part of their fathers identity more and more as they age. The point is this: While the foundation for our relationship with God is to view him as Father through our adoption, we must never forget that God is not only our Father. He is also Lord. He is King. He is Holy. He is Judge. He is Almighty. He is Eternal. He reigns. He rules. He governs the universe according to his will. His wisdom is inscrutable. He does whatever he pleases. His might is unstoppable. He is the Lord of Hosts. The whole of creation was made, "through him and for him," (Col. 1:16).

The tree trunk of the Christian's relationship with God is to relate to him as their heavenly Father, but on every tree are many branches. Rest in your Father's lap, curl up next to him him on the couch, let your heart spill over, be honest, be blunt, be sincere, but by all means seek to know the fullness of his identity that you might mature to relate to him as more than just Daddy, but as "My Daddy, the King."

By Tom Brown

Have you ever thought to yourself, "What's the big deal? No one will ever know." Or maybe you have been with some friends and as someone was having second thoughts about a questionable activity the ring-leader snapped, "Shh! No one is going to find out anyway. Just keep quiet!" Most of us have thought this, heard this, or maybe even said this ourselves... but is it true? Will anyone ever know? We might be able to keep secrets from each other, but can people keep secrets from God?

Invisible Costumes
What do you always see on the highway when the speed limit is 65mph, everyone is going 75mph and a police officer is parked a half-mile up on the side of the road with a radar gun? Break lights. Why? Because the drivers know that the authorities are watching. Every car knows that the only way to get a speeding ticket is to get caught, and nobody wants to get caught. The break lights come on because they are hoping that the police lights won't.

Or consider a little child who knows that there just so happens to be a chocolate cake on the kitchen counter in their home. They also happen to know that mommy likes to lay down and rest for a small nap in the afternoon. What might be coming into the child's mind? A plan: "Operation Sticky Fingers." But would the child ever consider doing this while one of their parents were washing dishes or cooking dinner? Of course not. Why? Because they know that if they went for the cake they would be caught red-handed. The eyes of their parents would be on them, their actions would be in full view of their authority.

These simple deductions are easy for us to render; the solutions are obvious. When we know our actions are in plain view of our authority we always respond accordingly. And yet it is so easy to forget this basic truth when it comes to God. We like to think that there are parts of our lives that God sees and others parts where God is on lunch-break, or on vacation. We often think that God is watching only during certain religious functions, or at certain geographical locations like church, or grandma's house. For instance, some of us would never think of wearing Friday night's date outfit to Sunday morning's church service, or dropping the punch-line from the joke we told our coworkers this week in front of the whole congregation. Likewise, many of us would never want this week's internet searches to be broadcast publicly on the projector screen. Why is that? Because our lives are riddled with duplicities. We often change our behavior before men, in order to please them and avoid trouble, but we seem to have this wild idea that God doesn't see whats going on in our lives behind closed doors, that somehow God can't see into our heart. It is common to think of obedience to God much like the police officer and radar gun, we are happy to change our exterior behavior for a moment as we pass by, but as soon as we are out of his view we return to 'business as usual'. 

Now is a good time to be wondering, "How much of my life does God see?" Fortunately we can do more than just wonder, the Bible gives us the answer. For instance, Hebrews 4:13 reads, "No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Or consider what David wrote in Psalm 139:4, "Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." And Jeremiah 17:10 records God speaking to the prophet saying, "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." The Bible is clear. Our common phrase, "No one will ever know," is an empty lie. 

God knows. God sees. God is fully aware. No one's life is hidden from his eyes. 

The Other Half Of The Story
It is important to realize that God sees all of our life, even the really mundane and seemingly unimportant stuff. But grasping that God knows is only half of the story. We also need to ask, "How does God respond to what he sees?" Once again, the Bible gives us the answer: "…at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). Don't miss this. Who did Jesus die for? The good guys? The people who were living really moral lives? The religious folk? No. He died for the ungodly. In other words, he died for you and me. 

The lesson for us is simple: Our whole lives are lived before the God who sees into the very depths of every heart. External modifications don't blind his eyes from the reality of who we are on the inside. Every thought, every motive, every feeling, every desire, every word, every action; God sees it all. As Ephesians 1:4 says, "…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." That last phrase is key, "before him." In other words, we should live our whole lives under the reality that God is in the room. If we slow down for police officers to avoid speeding tickets, how much more should we strive by faith to walk obediently before the King of Kings? Remembering the truth that God is in the room, that he is in the car, that he is aware of our thoughts and actions will reshape the way we live. 

Yet we cannot read only half of the story and assume we understand it's meaning. We need the whole story; we need the truth of the gospel. God sees our sinful hearts, he knows the depths of our being, and yet he has acted in love through Jesus Christ to save us from a life defined by sin and hopelessness. A simple phrase that can help in remembering the whole story is this: Through faith in Christ I am both fully known, and fully loved by God. This phrase captures the essence of the whole story, rather than leaving us in fear and anxiety under the watching eye of a tyrannical god who doesn't exist. God sees, God knows, God is fully aware… and yet he has offered mercy to anyone who will believe in the work of his Son.

Everyone's life is lived, "before him." All our deeds are done in the full view of God. If this truth brings to mind all kinds of sins and failures 'done in secret' I want to encourage you to pray. Confess your sin, and believe in Christ. Jesus' cross is the cross of God's mercy for ungodly people like you and I. Jesus only died for sinners. Confess, repent, and believe. 

A Closing Remark
**Although I have spent this entire article pointing out the reality that God is fully aware of our sin, I wanted to at least make mention of the opposite reality as well. God doesn't only see our sin, he also sees our obedience. He sees us when we are tempted and struggling, and by faith cling to him and persevere. God isn't just in the room when you are failing, he is in the room when you are having victory. God sees it all, both the good and the bad, and he smiles over the moments of victory that Christ is winning in the hearts of his people.**

God loves stories. In fact, most of the Bible is made up of stories. So what’s the purpose of all these stories? Are they just interesting Sunday-School lessons for children? Of course not. The stories in the Bible were written for you. This is what the Apostle Paul refers to when he says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Themes and Chords

If you learn to faithfully read the stories that God wrote and understand how God writes stories -then you can understand how God is writing your story. In other words, you learn to read the story that God is writing in the present by reading the stories that God has written in the past. So when a trial comes upon you, or you face a question you can’t answer, or perhaps receive a promotion you didn’t expect, you can remember the stories of Noah, Joseph, David, Daniel, Esther, and all the rest, and learn to read the story that you are in and respond appropriately. Think about it this way, if you have a particular author or singer or movie director that you really like, and you begin to get into his or her work, you soon realize that this author loves to come back to these particular themes or this singer really likes these particular chords. It works the same way with God. God doesn’t have just one theme, but he does have some favorite themes. He has some favorite chord progressions. So what are God’s favorite chords? What are his favorite themes? One theme that comes up again and again is testing and deliverance  - God loves to bring His people to the edge of the cliff and deliver them at the final moment.  

Testing and Deliverance

In the story of Abraham offering up Isaac, God didn’t deliver Abraham after he saddled his donkeys and headed out the door. God didn’t deliver Abraham after his three-day journey to the mountain. God didn’t deliver Abraham after he got to the top of the mountain. God didn’t even deliver Abraham when he laid Isaac on the altar. God brought Abraham right to the point of holding up the knife, and then literally at the last second, God delivered Abraham. God provided a ram at the last moment, and it says, “So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide;” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it will be provided”” (Gen.22:14). Notice, it became a saying in Israel that, “On the mount of the Lord, it will be provided.” That is, at the last minute, God will deliver you. The people of God learned to read their stories through the story of Abraham. The story of Abraham offering up Isaac reminds you that God is going to test your faith, but at the last minute he will deliver you. God loves “Just-in-Time Deliveries.” God brought the Israelites to the edge of the Red Sea with the Egyptian armies bearing down, and then just in time, God parted the sea. I wonder, what is your “Red Sea” that needs to part? What is your “mount” that God will deliver you on? Hold fast. Keep believing. God will deliver you, even if it’s at the very last second. How did Abraham persevere in faith? He trusted God’s promises. God had promised him that “Through Isaac your offspring will be named.” Abraham believed that God would even raise Isaac from the dead rather than break his own promise. Often God will command you to do something that looks like it goes contrary to his promises. Keep believing. The thing is, you want to see God do the miraculous in your life, but that happens as you walk by faith and put yourself in a situation where God has to deliver you. Unfortunately, Christians can fail under temptation or turn back in fear, not realizing that deliverance was right around the corner. Every trial of blessing or difficulty is a testing of your faith.

Trials and Faith

Over and over, the Bible continues to point out that your trials are not meaningless. Your trials are not pointless. The things that seem to “come out of nowhere,” are in fact, coming from somewhere. Every aspect of your life is under God’s sovereign control who is testing and growing your faith. This is glorious news when you remember that God is absolutely perfect.

God is supremely and only good. Think about the story of Job. God allowed Satan to bring suffering into Job’s life, but was in complete control the whole time and delivered Job in the end. God doesn’t directly cause evil, but he does allow it and transforms it for your good. Think about the cross. At the cross you see the evil of man and the sovereignty of God bringing about the greatest deliverance known to man. The cross and resurrection of Jesus, his story, reminds you that God is in control of your story, and the best is yet to come! Remember, God is not the author of sin, but he is the author of your story, and before the curtain closes and the credits roll, he is going to display his glory and goodness to you and to the world. What must God know that he can tell you not to be anxious about anything? What must God know that he can tell you not to fear? What must God know that he can tell you to always be patient in tribulation? He knows the end of the story, and the end of the story is complete deliverance. Your eternal salvation is in God’s hands and so is your present situation.  Trust God and watch the sea part. Trust God and walk up the mountain with faith in your heart. 

Is experiencing peace really possible in the real world? How do you have peace when you continually hear about the terrible things in the news, never mind the various emotional pressures of everyday life? It’s just so easy to get frustrated and agitated about a situation, worried about a problem, or anxious about the future. Is the peace you read about in the bible or see in certain people actually possible? That’s the question. Because it’s not enough to just rest in peace when you die; you want to practically experience peace while you live. So how do you pursue peace?

The Pursuit of Peace

It’s hard to pursue something if you are unsure what it is that you’re after. Peace becomes possible when you better understand what it actually is. The peace of God is an inner confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God. Peace is the security and well-being of soul that flows from the truth of who God is no matter what is happening in your life.

For example, a couple months ago, the New England Patriots cut Tim Tebow from their football team. Understandably, the media swarmed Tebow, one of the most outspoken Christian athletes in all of sports, to see how he would respond. Here is a man whose dream is to be a successful quarterback in the National Football League, but in just four years, he’s been let go by three teams. How would he handle it? Tebow told reporters, “I'm blessed, because of my faith, that I don't have to worry about the future because I know who holds my future. It's something I try to live by. It really gives you a lot of peace in whatever circumstance I'm in." Tebow was experiencing an inner confidence and security in who God is for him. The world tries to get peace through maintaining a series of good circumstances, but that is an unstable peace because good things come and go. Situations rise and fall. True peace comes by looking at the changing circumstances of your life through the lens of God’s unchanging character. And what was Tebow refusing to do? He was refusing to step into God’s role. He doesn’t know the future, but God does. He’s not wise enough to work things together for good, but God can and will. A person loses the peace of God when he or she tries to step into shoes that are too big to walk in. Like small children who want to wear their parent’s shoes, they quickly realize they can’t get very far. Anxiety and fear comes when you try to step into God’s role and realize you don’t have God’s resources. But how can this peace be developed and fostered?

The Right Kind of Praying

In Philippians 4:4-9, the Apostle Paul explains that prayer is one of the main paths to peace. Yet there are several people who pray and still don’t have peace. The reason is that not any type of praying will do in achieving true peace. Biblical peace is confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God and both of these attributes of God must be informing and guiding your prayer life. For example, you present your requests to God with trust because you believe that he is good, and you present them with thanksgiving because you believe that he is sovereign. You tell God what you need and thank him for what you already have and for who he is. This means the prayer that brings peace is the prayer that knows God cares and is in control. The bicycle of prayer must have the two wheels of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty attached or else you’re not getting anywhere. C.H. Spurgeon put it this way, “Prayer without thanksgiving is like a bird without wings.” In other words, it can exist, but it can’t get you very far. For prayer to “work” in bringing peace, you must come to the place where you can draw near to the Lord in thanksgiving even in the darkest of times. How can you do that? Think of the cross. God wisely ordered and governed the most tragic sinful event to become the most beautiful and celebrated redemptive moment in history. If God could do that with the suffering of Jesus, then what could he be doing with your suffering today?

Now, make no mistake, peace is not the absence of disappointment or grief; it’s the absence of fear and anxiety. When you refuse to step into God’s role and trust that he can order your future better than you can, his peace begins to protect you and guard you from the enemies of anxiety and fear. But you not only need the right kind of praying, you also need the right kind of thinking.

The Right Kind of Thinking   

To gain peace, the Apostle Paul also stresses the importance of meditation and proper thinking. What you choose to focus on matters. This means that the peace of God surpasses all understanding, but it doesn’t bypass all understanding. It is a rational peace. The world doesn’t understand it because it tries to get peace by sort of emptying your mind. But whenever the Bible speaks about peace, it reminds you not to empty your mind, but to fill it. Jesus continually said, “Consider.” Consider who God is for you. Consider your Father who cares and is in control. Christian peace is not the absence of thought; it’s the focus of thought. This is why the Bible says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). This means it’s not the wrong things that keep you from peace; it’s the wrong thoughts. True peace doesn’t come by trying to escape from the hard issues of life; it comes by praying about them with trust and thanksgiving and looking at them through the lens of God’s character and truth.

Facing a difficult Monday after Easter Sunday is a great test of whether you actually understand the Easter message. When you’re struggling to pay the bills, the kids are still sick, the dryer breaks, and suffering and loss seem more real than Jesus does, how do you respond? You may wonder, “Where did the joy of Easter go? Is the resurrection really all that relevant to my life? How does the message of Easter really change the way I face a job that I hate, a family member who constantly raises objections to my faith, and a habit that I can’t seem to break?” Thankfully the Bible is not silent when it comes to the daily relevance of Jesus’ resurrection. In fact, at least three things should come immediately to mind - Assurance, Power, and Hope.

Assurance

The resurrection provides assurance that everything Jesus said and did was right and true. Every other religious teacher throughout history has made large claims and given opinions of how to view the world, but no religious teacher except Jesus has made the claim that he is God, is going to die for your sins and physically rise again, and then do it. Jesus is the only one who has risen from the dead never to die again. This should motivate every Christian to stand for Jesus and share Jesus without fear. For example, you’re not going to share some exciting news with the world, if you’re not positive it’s true. The resurrection assures us that Christianity is true. Furthermore, Jesus’ resurrection acts as your receipt. What’s a receipt? It’s proof of payment. In certain stores there are employees at the exits checking for people’s receipts on their way out. What do they want to know? They want to be sure that all the items are paid for. And there’s nothing more frustrating than getting to that door and fumbling around for the receipt you can’t find. Keeping your receipt close at hand gives you assurance as you approach the exit. Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus is your receipt that must be close at hand. For, it is the receipt that all your sins (past, present, and future) have been paid for, and you’re free to live with complete forgiveness. The resurrection is the receipt that Jesus’ check cleared. His payment on the cross for all your sins was approved. So when the voices of accusation and condemnation ask, “What right do you have to walk out in freedom?” Just wave your receipt. Jesus’ resurrection provides assurance that you can trust who he claimed to be and that what he accomplished on the cross is enough.

Power

Can you think of any greater power than the power over death? This is the power that Jesus displayed at the resurrection. But is this great resurrection power somehow available for you today? The Bible’s answer is an emphatic, “Yes!” The Apostle Paul teaches that the same Spirit of power that raised Christ from the dead is now at work within every Christian (see Romans 8:11). This is why in another letter, Paul says that he wants to “Know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Phil.3:10). This means that he wants to experience more of the Spirit’s power in overcoming sin, because the Spirit of power that raised Christ to physical newness of life is the same Spirit that is now raising every Christian to spiritual newness of life. The resurrection of Jesus reminds you that there's not just pardon for your sins; there's power to overcome them. The power of Christ’s resurrection enables you to die more to lust and rise to love, to die more to bitterness and rise to forgiveness. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, addictions can be overcome, fear can turn into faith, pride can give way to humility, and selfishness can be transformed into radical generosity. This resurrection power becomes a reality as you utilize by faith all the resources that God has given you (spiritual resources and disciplines like prayer, fellowship, reading the Bible, etc.).   

Hope

The word hope often conveys uncertainty, such as “I sure hope they show up on time.” But the nature of biblical hope is not wishful thinking; it’s the life-shaping certainty in a positive future. In the very beginning of 1 Peter, suffering Christians are reminded that they have a living hope because of Jesus’ resurrection. No matter what is happening, a Christian’s hope is never dead, because Christ is the Christian’s hope, and Christ is alive. But how does this practically work itself out? Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as the “first-fruits.” First-fruits are the first of the harvest; they’re a sign of what’s certain to come. The physical resurrection of Jesus is the sign of what’s coming to every Christian and to this world – complete redemption. Another biblical way to view suffering with hope is through the lens of childbirth. Why does Jesus compare the sufferings of this present life to birth pangs? The reason is that the painful contractions of a laboring woman are not signs of coming death, but coming life. The sign of coming life doesn’t minimize the pain; it infuses the pain with life-shaping hope. What this means is that all the natural disasters and problems of life are to be viewed as contractions that remind you of coming life in Jesus. Moments of suffering for the Christian are not death pangs, but birth pangs. The resurrection of Jesus is life-shaping certainty that your future is going to be great and filled with life. So when you confront objections and doubts about the Christian faith, temptations to sin, or situations that seem impossible to overcome, you can say, “For this I have the resurrected Christ.” It turns out that the resurrection of Jesus is extremely relevant Monday through Sunday. It turns out, it’s not just a holiday to celebrate once a year; it’s a message to apply every day of the year. 

Sarah couldn’t believe what her Pastor said on Sunday. He was teaching from the book of James and she thought, “You want me to do what in my trials? Count it all joy? Impossible.” If you’re anything like Sarah, joy is the last thing you think is possible when you’re right in the midst of suffering and sudden difficulty. You frequently find yourself asking, “Why is this happening to me? Why now? Has God abandoned me?” In times of trials, joy can seem so out of reach. So how are Christians supposed to count it all joy when they face various trials? Let me give you four biblical ways of looking at trials that can help.

Drills and Wisdom

James goes on to explain that Christians can face the various trials of life with joy because they know something. They know that the trial is not meaningless. He says, “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:3). An attitude of joy is impossible if someone thinks that the pain or trial is pointless. But James teaches the opposite. The pain is never pointless. Rather, God is using the trial to make you into someone great. Imagine a good coach who must put his players through grueling conditioning drills during practice. Why does he do that? Because he doesn’t like them? Because he’s out to get them? No, far from it. The drills are designed to prepare the players for what’s ahead and make them into something great. Like the purpose of drills in practice, joy in trials comes by knowing what God is up to. But sometimes that’s extremely hard. So what do you do? A Christian must go to God and ask him for wisdom. So imagine that one of the players comes up to the coach and asks, "Why all these drills? What’s the point of putting me through this?" Does this player really want to know why, or does he just want to get out of doing the drills? That’s what makes all the difference. James says, if you really want to know why you’re going through the trial, if you really want to know, then God will give you wisdom to understand why every single time. You may not understand everything, but you will understand enough to experience joy. It takes wisdom to live with joy. But Christians must not go to God and ask him why just to get out of the drills, because it is the drills that are designed to make them into something great.

Silver and Gold

Another biblical image is that of the refiner sitting by the fire to purify silver and gold. In the Bible, God is frequently referred to as the Refiner. “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver” (Malachi 3:3). In order to make the raw elements of silver and gold into something truly great, they must be placed in the refiner’s fire. But every refiner knows that the fire cannot be too hot or too cold. And the sliver and gold cannot be in the fire for too short of a time or too long of a time. What the Bible is teaching is that your trials are that perfectly designed fire, and God is the perfect Refiner who does not leave you, but is very near. God has not abandoned you. He sits close by knowing just how hot the trial must be, and just how long you need to experience the trial to be purified and brought out of it better than before. God is perfectly refining every Christian, removing the dross of unbelief, impatience, pride, greed, selfishness and all sorts of other remains from the old self through the fiery trials of life.

Fire and Water

This is an image that comes up a lot in the Bible. For example, in Numbers 31 God commanded his people that when any spoil was taken from the enemy army in war, before it could enter into the Israelite camp, it had to go through fire and water. It had to be cleansed and purified before it could be brought into the holy camp of God. How does this relate to your trials? Well, Christ is the true Israel, and he is the true Warrior King who has conquered his enemy and redeemed every Christian as his spoil. Christians are Christ’s treasure, his ransomed vessels from the kingdom of darkness, yet before they enter into the heavenly camp of abundance and holiness, they must be cleansed. The dross and impurities must be taken away. Christ does this by taking you through the fiery trials of life and by cleansing you with the water of his word. 

Admission and Challenges

Another way to look at the trials of this life is - If you received an admissions letter from the Navy Seals, you wouldn’t think, “Oh boy, this is going to be easy stuff.” No, you would expect the admission to bring challenges. You would expect it to be tough. You would expect the process of making you into somebody great to make you uncomfortable. You would think, “This is going to be hard. This is going to involve change, but this is all going to be worth it.” That’s what trials are in every Christian’s life. God is admitting you into another grade in the character-shaping college of Christ. God wants to change every child of his to be more like Jesus, and it may be uncomfortable, but it is always for your best. Like Sarah, joy can seem impossible in times of trial, but it’s not. The trials may bring weeping, They may bring sorrow, but in every Christian’s heart, in every trial, there can be an undercurrent of joy running through it all because God is love and what God is up to is always for your good and his glory. 

For those who are in Christ and feeling defeated over sin today ... 

Why is the whole world under the power of the evil one? Why are so many people discouraged when they look at themselves? Because the devil has got something on everyone. The devil is the slanderer and accuser and at any moment he can point the finger and say, "Look at what you did," and there's nothing that can be said in reply. But not so with the Christian. When Satan points his finger at us and says, "Gotcha!" We point our finger at the cross and say, "Gotcha!" When Satan reminds us of what we did, we remind Satan of what Christ did. This is how we resist the devil. By resisting self-righteousness and receiving Christ's righteousness. By resisting the urge to condemn ourselves and embracing the message of the cross. What's the message of the cross? 

There is NO condemnation for us right now because ALL of the condemnation we'll ever deserve already fell upon Jesus at the cross. There's not one drop of judgment against us that Christ didn't drink. God didn't overlook any of our sins. No, not a single one (past, present, or future) went unpunished. He willingly took the punishment for ALL of them in Jesus. God died for us so that we might die to self-righteousness. God rose for us that we might live in the joyful freedom of complete forgiveness and fellowship with Him.

What would happen if this truth was let loose and people deeply and daily believed it? What would happen? True revival and reformation. Dead men would become alive. Discouraged men would rise up and walk. That's what would happen. Look at the cross and the empty tomb today and live. 

"There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

How do you change your life? How do you overcome that habit and break free from that destructive pattern of behavior? Do you know how to become more like Christ? What do you say to your friend who tells you, “I want to change, but I don’t know where to start?” Thankfully, the key to lasting change can be known. The Apostle Paul says, “…Be transformed by the renewal of your minds” (Rom.12:2). The secret to all lasting transformation is the renewal of your mind. But what does renewing your mind really mean? Why is it necessary for change? And how does it actually work? 

The Meaning of Renewing The Mind

What did Paul mean by “the renewal of your minds?” What is “mind-renewal?” Simply put, renewing your mind is the process of exchanging the lies for the truth. It’s the exchange of your natural way of thinking for God’s way of thinking. This means that renewing your mind is much more than knowing more information or the power of positive thinking. There are some who think that the fundamental problem with the mind is that it doesn’t have the knowledge it needs. Therefore, simply more education is the natural conclusion to the perceived problem. All you need is to know more and you will become a better person. Or some think the problem with the mind is dwelling too much on negative thoughts instead of positive ones. But the Bible has a deeper diagnosis. It teaches that you need more than new information; your mind itself needs to be renewed. You need more than the power of positive thinking; you need the power of God’s way of thinking. Let me explain.

The Necessity of Renewing The Mind

In Ephesians 4:23, Paul says you must be “renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Now, what is “the spirit of your mind?” It’s the power or governing principle of your mind. Think of it this way – the human mind is like a movie theater. It doesn’t just have a screen of random images and thoughts; it has a projector that is set to run particular thoughts and images on that screen. This is what some call “your mindset,” and as a result of the fall the human mind is set up to project lies instead of truth, false images instead of true images. This is the fundamental problem of the mind that needs to change through the “renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). This is why the Bible speaks of the mind needing to be set “on the things above” (Col.3:2) or “set on the things of the Spirit” (Rom.8:5). Lasting change must start with the mindset that directs what images or thoughts the mind projects. 

This is not an optional step in the process of change; it’s the essential step. Mind-renewal is absolutely necessary to make any progress in the Christian life. Think of it this way – no mind-change, no life-change. Our manner of life is directly linked to the life of our mind. Your particular mindset about God, other people, yourself, situations, things, the future, etc. has a direct influence on how you will feel, speak, and act. For example, the reason you may live for money or human approval is because of a lie that you believe about what money or the praise of people will bring you. The reason you may live in despair is because of a lie that you believe about your past or future, etc. But how does this work? How does the process of renewing the mind actually happen? What does it practically look like to set your mind on “the things of the Spirit?”

The Process of Renewing the Mind

The Bible compares renewing your mind with the process of changing your clothes. You first need to take off your old clothes (the lies) and change into your new clothes (the truth). This means through daily confession and repentance putting off the lies you are tempted to believe like, “I’m still the same person, I can’t change, I have to earn God’s grace, God has given up on me, today is going to be a horrible day, more money is going to make me happy, etc.” Take the lies off and put on the truth such as, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, Jesus has died for all my sins, God is for me and not against me, I’m not trying to be a new creation; I am a new creation, right now God is working all things together for my good, etc.” And in order to do all this we must study the Bible and learn God’s truth. Your mind is the object of renewal, God’s truth is the instrument of renewal, and God’s Spirit of Truth is the agent of renewal.

So, if you desire to be transformed and live like Christ, then you must give yourself to the pursuit of renewing your mind. What images or thoughts are running in your mind that is causing you to act in a certain way? What are you allowing to be projected? Christian, like Lazarus, Jesus has called you out of darkness and into the light and the grave clothes must come off. Live in fellowship with others who help you to put off the lies and put on the truth and then watch the lasting transformation take place. 

"Daddy, help!" It was just two words, but that's all she needed to say, and in a moment I was in the other room to see what my two-year old daughter needed. She didn't need to use big impressive words. She didn't need to construct a long explanation. Just a cry for help was all she needed to make and all I needed to hear.

We see this from David in Psalm 12:1. He doesn't start out addressing God with a bunch of "deep religious jargon." No, he just rushes right in with "Help, Lord" (NASB). The most powerful person in all of Israel modeled the essence of child-like prayer - a humble, bold and dependent cry for help to the Lord, the sovereign name of God.

One of the most spiritually mature things we can do today is just cry out with a simple prayer for help and know that God hears us and is a very present help in time of need. Remember the words of Jesus - We are not "heard by our many words" (Matt.6:7); we are heard because we are God's children. This means we don't need to turn prayer into a form of self-righteousness that attempts to manipulate God into doing something for us. No, our Heavenly Father says to us today, "My children whatever is troubling you, whatever is on your heart, just cry out, 'Daddy help!' I will hear you and help you."