I’d like to start off by laying again the foundation that we keep coming back to and should never forget. We are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ’s work of redemption on our behalf alone. Once this salvation has occurred in our life and shown itself through repentance and a changed life by the power of God the Holy Spirit, it can never be taken away from us!

A lot of the material I cover in this article I owe to Kevin DeYoung, whose book, The Hole in our Holiness, really brought home to me the importance of seeking to live a holy life. It is a doctrinally sound book that encourages born again believers to seek to live in holiness without giving us a bunch of moralistic checklists. I’m thankful to him for writing it and I pray that God uses it in many lives to bring glory and honor to Himself as I pray He continues to mature and build me up in the faith.

The following is a combination of my study notes for the Men’s Group I lead and thoughts and notes from DeYoung’s book which again, is well worth your time in reading. Read more →

Romans 8:31-39 contains some of the most inspiring, beautiful, motivating promises in all of the New Testament. We are promised, if we are in Christ, that: God is for us, we have everything we need in Christ, no charges brought against us will stand, because God is our justifier, we cannot be condemned, Christ Himself is interceding for us, none of the trials mentioned (Rom 8:35-39) can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ!

We are not, however, promised that we will be kept from the trials, only that they will not ultimately defeat us. In Christ we have the ultimate victory – life eternal with Him! So many of us, myself included, spend most of our lives trying to avoid the trials mentioned instead of following Jesus whole-heartedly and depending on His strength and grace to get us through. Because we have the promises proclaimed by Paul, we can confidently and boldly abandon ourselves to the cause of Christ.

In his message to The Gathering, B. Taylor did an outstanding job communicating these truths to us. I encourage you to listen to his entire message “The Motivating Power of Our Future Hope of Glory.” He expands on the depth of the promises God gives us in the gospel and what it means for us, the Church. This has really made me examine my own life and repent of trying to shield myself and not trust Christ. My favorite part of the message is at the very end when he reminds us that, “There are zero commands in this passage.” To turn this into a “do” passage would be to confuse the meaning of the whole thing.

This is a phenomenal message simply because he stayed true to the gospel saturated Text! He realized that he did not have to give a big moralistic, motivational speech. Men preach the Word and it is the Spirit of God through the preached Word of God that motivates and changes lives!

I believe the reason a lot of people don’t study their Bible more in depth or tackle theology and doctrine is because they don’t see how all this “stuff” relates to their daily lives. We live in such a pragmatic society that if someone can’t see how something directly effects their day to day life why, bother with it? Though I don’t believe pragmatism (truth is preeminently to be tested by the practical consequences) is something we should praise or endorse, nevertheless, I will try to show how taking the time to dig a little deeper in your studies can benefit everyone, every day.

Theology and studying doctrine can sometimes seem a bit intimidating or overwhelming simply because there are some big words we have either never heard, seen, or understood. Taking the time to dig into the Word, commentaries, and other theological works from trusted men will help us break these large words into smaller, more manageable parts. As we begin to understand the parts, we can then begin to understand how they relate to the whole, and the next thing you know we magically know what we believe about an issue and why we come down where we do on it.

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I recently ran across a couple of videos from two of my favorite teachers being questioned about their positions on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The interviewer, Adrian Warnock, does a great job of getting Matt Chandler and Wayne Grudem to help us understand what it means to be a reformed charismatic.