Gospel.com Blog

The offer of redemption is almost incomprehensibly generous… but it’s even more incredible when you realize that God extends this offer to human beings who actively hate and reject Him.

That’s the theme of this devotional from Words of Hope, which looks at the corrupt, arrogant ancient church at Laodicea. This was a church that was busy ignoring every one of God’s commands, but incredibly, Christ still persisted with his offer of forgiveness and restoration:

The church in Laodicea had a high opinion of itself. They felt that they were rich, had prospered, and needed nothing. But to the searching eye of the risen Lord they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Quite a different evaluation!

The Laodiceans were so self-satisfied and complacent, so lukewarm, that the Lord was ready to “spit them out” of his mouth. No other church in Asia had received that kind of withering rebuke. They were in desperate need of repentance.

Yet the Lord wanted to give them true riches, white robes to clothe them and new vision…. Then came the astonishing offer. “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.” To even the most proud, nauseating, and messed-up people, Jesus offers his abiding presence and fellowship when they turn afresh to him.

Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

If you’ve ever worried that sin in your life—or in the life of a loved one—is too much for God to forgive, this is the most reassuring passage in the entire Bible. If God’s offer of forgiveness and love stood for the broken hypocrites of Laodicea, it stands for all of us!

Have you ever felt so guilty about a sin that you’ve tried to cover it up?

This devotional from Woodrow Kroll of Back to the Bible begins by telling the story of Achan in Joshua 7. Achan stole and hid some of the spoils of war from Jericho that were supposed to be destroyed in devotion to the Lord.

Because of Achan’s sin, the Israelites were handily routed when they tried to take Ai. Achan kept silent about what he had done until he was confronted directly by Joshua. After the truth came out, he along with the things he had taken were stoned and burned. From Achan’s story and others in the Bible we can learn that despite our best efforts, in the end the truth will come to light:

Luke 8:16-17 records, “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candle-stick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be made known and come abroad.” The seeing eye of God searches even the innermost secrets of men. No sin, however large or small, escapes the eye of God.

Exodus 2 describes how Moses spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no man watching him he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand (Exodus 2:12). The very next day however Moses’ sin was discovered and he had to flee from the land of the Pharaoh and spend the next forty years in Midian. Moses’ sin was unsuccessfully hidden. Beloved King David had a similar experience. After sinning with Bathsheba and attempting to cover his sin through the death of Uriah the Hittite, the trespass of David soon came to light when Nathan the prophet pointed his finger in the king’s face and said, “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7). In remorse King David said, “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee” (Psalm 69:5).

From the sad experiences of Achan and these others, let us learn well the truth that sin is never successfully hidden. We cannot hide our sin from God; we only can deal with it. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Don’t try to hide sin today; let God forgive it instead.

Read the rest of the devotional at Back to the Bible.org.

Have you ever faced consequences for covering up your own sin?

I should have started my spring cleaning last week. There are unfolded blankets on the couch, jackets on the floor and the detritus of half-started projects strewn about my living room. I’ve been waiting for sunnier weather, and now that spring is here, I’m anxious to start the slow, rewarding process of reordering my life.

Spring isn’t just a great time to physically clean our homes; it’s an opportunity to do some spiritual cleaning as well. This devotional from Delve Into Jesus urges us to take stock of our lives and work on the niggling sins that have been wearing us down:

But how are we doing with the little sins? I’m referring to the ones which keep getting put off and pushed down our chore list as we battle for control over the larger and more serious sins. We can procrastinate for a little while, but eventually the combined effect on your spiritual health of these so-called “smaller” sins can cause just as much damage as the larger ones. If we are going to keep our spirits clean and healthy, then maybe it’s time for a little spring cleaning.

Little sins have two big problems – they are hard to identify and easy to justify. Few non-Christians would think twice about committing these sins and would have little remorse afterward. Not many people seem to think it’s a problem to steal supplies from work, cheat on taxes, download illegal software or watch pornography. It’s become old-fashioned to wait for marriage before sharing physical intimacy, and we barely notice anymore when someone tells vulgar jokes or uses our Lord’s name as a curse. […]

Now is the time to compile a list of these behaviors and get honest about what they really are – rebellion against God. Are you surprised to hear such a dramatic description applied to such common, mundane behavior that most people would excuse or condone it? That may be fine for a world which has turned it’s back on God, but that is not acceptable for those who follow Christ. He instructed us to “be perfect” in all things, large and small. If we choose to willfully engage in these behaviors knowing that it is not God’s will for us, what else could we call it but rebellion or defiance?

Read the rest of the devotional at Delve Into Jesus.

Is God convicting you of any sin that you need to work on this spring?

Is pride a sin you struggle with? Most of us try our best to steer clear of the most commonly understood definition of pride—believing ourselves to be better or more worthy than others. But in a devotional at Lutheran Hour Ministries, Meron Tekle Berhan cautions Christians about a more sinister form of pride: the belief that we can do something to earn or complete our own salvation.

In addition to duping us into thinking we’re better than other people, pride can also drive a deadly wedge between God and us. How? Though we may acknowledge that God, through the saving work of Christ Jesus, is willing to forgive all our sins, pride can deceive us into thinking that somehow that doesn’t really mean our sins.

As a consequence, some people mistakenly feel that though God offers complete liberation from every sin through Christ’s work on the cross, this offer must somehow, some way, be added to by them completing the deal — i.e. doing something on their own that puts the finishing touch on God’s work for their salvation….

Unfortunately, there are many who are too proud to accept that their sins, though grievous, are as damnable — and forgivable — as the next person’s. No more, no less. Therefore, being cleansed of those sins requires one thing: faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world.

Read the full devotional at Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Have you ever found yourself too proud to admit that you couldn’t make up for your own sins? What happens when we do good works in the hope or belief that those good works, and not Jesus’ grace, will seal our salvation?

Do you know what it means to ask for—or grant—forgiveness? We see plenty of apologies offered and accepted in public life. How many politicians, disgraced pastors, or other public figures have mumbled halfhearted apologies after they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t?

According to Tammy De Ruyter in this Words of Hope devotional, Biblical forgiveness goes far beyond saying “I’m sorry”:

Our culture has reduced the “apology” into a justification for wrongdoing. Politicians regularly appear on television to apologize for “errors in judgment.” Sins are airbrushed as “mistakes.” A quick “I’m sorry” and everyone is expected to overlook the offense and carry on with life. And often that is what happens.

….Forgiveness, according to Scripture, demands that we look squarely at our
sins and assume full responsibility for our actions. Only then can we ask God to forgive us. We, in turn, have the responsibility to do likewise when we are sinned against. C. S. Lewis writes, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” Faith is living with the understanding of how much Christ has forgiven us, then turning around and forgiving someone else. It’s not easy, not by a long shot, but it is life-giving, God-honoring, work. Is there someone you need to
forgive today?

Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

When you think about the people in your life, what stands out? Do their flaws and mistakes irk you? In this devotional, Dick Innes draws on 1 Peter 4:8 and an interesting visual trick to make the point that what we see in others often says more about us than it does about them:

…we see things not they way they are, but the way we are. For instance, if I am a negative person, I will see negative things in what others do—things that may not even be there—and be critical about them. If I am a supersensitive person, I will read into what others say or do and overreact—not on the basis of what they have said or done, but on the basis of who and what I am. On the other hand, if I am a loving person, I will overlook the petty faults in others and be accepting and forgiving of them, for love does “cover a multitude of sins.”

Indeed, what we see is who we are or who we are is what we will see.

Read the full devotional at Acts International.

Think about the people around you today—your coworkers, your family and friends, the clerks and passersby you encounter as you go about your day. What do you see in them? And what does that say about you?

Recently, I’ve been reading and watching stories that deal with time travel. It hasn’t been a wholly intentional move; in particular, the last book I read snuck it in without warning a hundred pages from the end. Interacting with so many stories with time shifting elements has made me start to wonder why it’s such a popular trope.

I think the reason we keep telling story after story of returning to the past is because it allows us to envision a world without guilt and regret.

We can go back and say “yes!” when we said “no!”, save ourselves or others from making a terrible mistake, or maybe even keep ourselves from sinning. We think it would allow us to keep tweaking our lives until we were perfect—or at least what we think is perfect. It’s an attractive proposition because it might even let us manufacture a life that didn’t need forgiving. We could, in short, create a sort of simulacrum of God’s grace cobbled together through an alternative timeline of correct choices.

Yet, as many of the characters in these stories realize, attempting to recreate the world to your own design usually introduces more problems than it originally had. Most time travel stories end with the characters foreswearing the ability to mess with the past. There’s an admission that our problems and mistakes are worthwhile in the light of a future guided by a small minority’s whims and ideals.

Also, it’s interesting to me as a Christian to read stories where secular authors come to the conclusion that, in the end, the original Creator’s intention with His Creation is better than anything humanity could come up for it. It’s a strong statement about man’s place in relation to an all-knowing God.

What about you? Why do you think people are fascinated with time travel? Or do you personally find it uninteresting?

Are there any sinners in your church?

Of course there are—no matter how well-dressed they are or how sincere in their worship, everyone in the church struggles with sin in their personal lives. Lust, anger, greed, jealousy… we know for a fact that these sins plague us all, and yet it’s all too easy for us to look at the congregation gathered around us and imagine that there’s nobody out there who has these “issues”… or even worse, to feign shock and surprise when sin comes to light in the church.

This devotional from Delve Into Jesus asks us to imagine how our churches would respond if the congregation knew all of your secret sins:

If all those gathered at your church on a Sunday morning knew of these sins, would they be as gracious as their Lord who suffered and died for these very sins He forgives?

There would certainly be a great deal of hushed whispering between friends in empty hallways, but most of it would consist of feigned disgust and manufactured outrage. We all know from personal experience that sin remains an ongoing problem after we give our lives to Jesus, yet many remain incredulous that anyone at their church could be battling any given particular sin. It makes them uncomfortable but at the same time it’s interesting and curious. And so, in order to maintain the pretense that everyone in their own circle of friends, at least, would never indulge in that particular sin or vice, they reassure one another that it’s a heinous sin to which none of them would ever fall victim. When this phenomenon gets really bad, as I’ve seen on a few occasions, the whispers escalate into staring glances and loud talking which halts abruptly when the person who is the topic of conversation walks into the room. The people being stared at and talked about are not oblivious – they know exactly what’s going on and what’s being said about them behind their back. It won’t take long before these people move on to another church where they can battle their sin in loneliness and anonymity.

There is only one acceptable motive for talking about someone else’s battle with sin, and that is to ask, “How can I help?” If there is something tangible which we can do to help, then we have an obligation to offer that help. An offer of help does not in any way suggest that we condone the sin. It’s entirely possible to demonstrate great love and compassion even as we let the person know that what they’re doing is at odds with God’s will for their life and that we want to help if we can.

Read the full devotional at Delve Into Jesus.

The proper response to sin when it crops up in the church is to offer love, prayer, and help—not disgust, outrage, or smugness. When sin appears in your church, which reaction is more common?

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the human condition? Centuries of literature and theology have presented wildly different perspectives on what it means to be human. Some writers paint a rosy picture of humanity and human potential, while others look at the evil and sin around us and declare that to be human is to wallow in worthlessness and futility.

Or perhaps neither of those extremes sits well with you. Jill Carattini, writing in the Slice of Infinity devotional agrees, and describes Christianity’s more balanced approach to the meaning of human life:

In deep contrast to such severe or optimistic readings, the Christian view of humanity adds a nuanced dimension to the conversation. Christianity admits that while there is indeed an error of a serious sort, the error is not in “humanness” itself. Rather, something has gone wrong. Thus, the great paradox of humanity can be rightly acknowledged: we find in being human both a deep and sacred honor and yet a profound disgrace. This inherent recognition of imperfection is simultaneously a recognition that there must indeed be such a thing as perfection. Here, the Christian’s advantage is not that they find themselves less fallen or closer to perfection than others, nor that they find in their religion a means of escaping the world of fragility, brokenness, guilt, suffering, or error; the Christian’s advantage is that they are aware of their own broken humanity within a broken, fallen world because they are aware of the one perfect human.

Read the full devotional at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

“Church discipline” is a challenging topic. Most of the (Protestant) churches I’ve attended throughout my life have adhered to the idea that it’s the duty of believers—and the church communities they form—to confront serious sin within the community. Church discipline is derived from passages like Matthew 18 and Titus 1, which encourage Christians to lovingly but earnestly challenge sin, always with the goal of encouraging repentance and restoration.

In my experience, most churches don’t talk too much about this duty, presumably because they don’t want to sound too authoritarian; and perhaps because it’s easy for such discussions to take on a gossip-y tone.

My introduction to the practice of church discipline came when a member of my church congregation publicly confessed to a sexual sin that had affected part of the church community. The church elders, made aware of the sin and its impact on the church, talked to the responsible person and helped him through a process of repentance and restoration. It was the sort of situation that might have resulted in a lot of nasty and lurid gossip; but it ended up being a positive experience of grace for the church (and for the individual who publicly repented).

Witnessing loving church discipline in action was a fascinating experience. It did, however make me wonder about a few things: What would have happened if the church had not confronted the person in such a compassionate manner? What if the individual had refused to repent or acknowledge his sin? Given that everyone in the church is a sinner, how do we decide which sins require confrontation?

Have you ever experienced church discipline, and if so, what was the result? What does godly church discipline look like in action?