All posts by Bruce Henry

Gospel Centrality

The Radical Grace of God

“For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”” (Isaiah 30:15 ESV)

“Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18 ESV)

God calls His people to return, repent and rest in Him and He will provide for and protect them; their strength was to be found in quietness and trust in God (30:15).  But the people were unwilling (v 16) and depended, instead, upon the perceived strength and power of their Egyptian protectors (v 16-17).  So how does God respond?  With wrath, with judgement, with His strong oppressive arm?  No, God responds in unmerited favor – He responds with radical grace (v 18)!  Don’t miss the fact that He is still a God of justice, but He has determined that He will extend mercy and grace.  These rebellious, idolatrous, heard hearted people (sound familiar) were constantly rejecting the loving, protecting hand of their God in lieu of every idol that they could find and yet, God mercifully and patiently extends grace!  The fact that the sovereign Creator of all things is merciful to any of His treasonous creatures is foreign to me, but it produces worship.  It is, indeed, the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

 

Gospel Centrality, Meditations

A Liberating Truth

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”” (John 8:47 ESV)

“but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.” (John 10:26 ESV)

“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” (John 18:37 ESV)

“We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6 ESV)

These passages highlight a liberating truth. That truth is that God is the One that works in the hearts of men so that they can hear His words. The pressure to convert or convince is not ours to carry; carrying this pressure serves as poor motivation to labor faithfully, joyfully & dependently.  We should work tirelessly, study faithfully and prepare diligently, but only those who are of God hear God’s words. What a relief! It doesn’t depend “on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16 ESV). Now, let’s go labor with all of our might because God just might allow us to play a part in His cosmic plan – not because He needs us, but because it glorifies Him to use such an incapable people as us and brings us profound joy in the process!

Gospel Centrality

What is Gospel Centrality?

There is a lot of talk about Gospel centrality these days.  What do we mean by this?  Here are a few questions to help diagnosis whether we are really keeping the Gospel of Grace as the central component in our thinking, devotional life and ministry.

1.  Is the bulk of our thinking and teaching devoted to revealing who God is and what He has done or is it oriented to application, self help and what we must do?

2. Is the lasting impression that we leave in our minds and the minds of those that we are around something that must be done or what God has already done?

3.  Does our teaching and thinking accurately and intentionally reveal God for who He really is (ultimate, sovereign & supreme) and us for who we really are (depraved, wicked & without hope apart from the gospel)?  Do we unknowingly make Him in our image?

4.  Is it rooted in biblical, historical, orthodox Christianity?

5.  Does it produce worship?

The Gospel is an announcement about what God has done on behalf of sinners.  It’s not good news if we have to do something to make ourselves good.

Gospel Centrality

Sin exploits our empty places

Aside

“On the most basic of levels, I desire fullness, and fleshly lusts seduce me by attaching themselves to this basic desire. They exploit the empty spaces in me, and they promise that fullness will be mine if I give in to their demands. When my soul sits empty and is aching for something to fill it, such deceptive promises are extremely difficult to resist. Consequently, the key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel . . . As I perpetually feast on Christ and all of His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free.”

Hedges, Brian G. (2010). Christ Formed in You (Kindle Locations 3189-3194). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.

Growth/Pursuit

Your plan or His

““Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”” (Isaiah 30:1–5 ESV)

Judah sought protection from Assyria by entering into a pact with Egypt for protection.  But God had promised to protect them.  They were a stubborn people who carried out their plans that was not His and they they had not sought His wisdom or insight on.  They made an alliance for protection that was not fueled by the Spirit – all the while, true protection was found in yielding to God and casting their cares upon Him.  When we make our own plans and execute our own agendas, the ultimate result is always disgrace and failure – there is a way that seems right to us (and may go well for a time), but in the end it always unravels.  When we reject God’s plans and do not earnestly consult Him for wisdom and direction then we are really rejecting God then judgement and one sin following another happens.  Let us never abandon a practical trust in the living God and seek His will and way in our lives, let us not lean on our own understanding or press our own agendas.

Growth/Pursuit

Religious motions or real worship?

“So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”” (Matthew 15:6–9 ESV)

Have we made our own traditions and religious preferences on par with the doctrines taught in the scriptures?  This is the same thing that the religious elite did in the first century.  Are we going through the motions externally, but worship is absent?  It is easy to look good on the outside by our mechanical obedience to a list of dos and don’ts, but God is after our hearts!

Growth/Pursuit

Our blind, small desire

“my biggest problem is not that I desire to be happy when I ought to be more concerned about doing my duty. This is not Jesus’ diagnosis of human need. My biggest problem is my blindness to the source of true joy. I need opened eyes and a renewed heart so that I will desire what is truly satisfying! ”
“The greatest hindrance to our deep transformation and spiritual growth is the smallness of our desire. We trifle with the “mud pies” of lust and greed, when we could enjoy a “holiday at the sea” or, to use biblical language, “pleasures at God’s right hand forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). We are content to play with Monopoly money when we could have eternal treasure. We desperately try to drink from broken cisterns, while neglecting the Fountain of Living Waters (Jer. 2:11–13). “

-Hedges, Brian G. (2010). Christ Formed in You (Kindle Locations 3113-3116; 3125-3129). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.