The Significance of Jesus Dying Outside of the Camp – Charles Spurgeon

“And it is remarkable that the Romans should have chosen a hill on the outside of the city to be the common place for crucifixion made for punishments by death. We might have imagined that they would have selected some mount in the center of the city, and that they would have placed their gibbet in as conspicuous a spot as our Newgate, that so it might strike the multitude with the greater awe. But, in the providence of God, it was arranged otherwise. Christ must not be slain in a tumult, he might not die in the city; and when he was delivered into the hands of the Romans, they had not a place of execution within the city, but one outside the camp, that by dying without the gate, he might be proved to be the Sin-offering for his people.

Concerning this great truth, I have one or two remarks to offer to you very briefly. First, I want to ask you a question. Do you know who the people were who lived outside the gate? If you could have gone to ‘the great camp of Israel, you would have seen the tents all placed in order, the standard of Dan there, of Judah there, of Ephraim there,—surrounding the ark of the covenant; but you would have seen a few wretched huts far away in the rear, outside the camp; and if you had asked, “Who lives, there? Who are the poor people that are put away from kith and kin, and who cannot go up to the sanctuary of the Lord, to present their offerings unto him, or to join in the songs of praise unto his holy name?”—the answer to your enquiry would have been, “The people out there are lepers and others “who are unclean.” And if, in later days, you had walked through some of the shady glens around the city of Jerusalem, you might, have heard in the distance, the cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!”—a bitter wail that sounded like the sighing of despair, as if it came from some poor ghost that had been commanded to walk this earth with restless step for ever. Had you come nearer to the unhappy being, who had uttered so mournful a sound, you would have seen him cover his upper lip, and again, cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!—to warn you

not to come too near him, lest even the wind should blow infection towards you from his leprous skin. If, for a minute, he had moved his hand from his mouth, you would have seen, instead of those scarlet, ruddy lips of health, which God had originally put there, a terrible, white mark not to be distinguished from his teeth. His lips were unclean, for there the leprosy had discovered itself; and, in a minute, he would have again covered up that lip that had the white mark of disease upon it, and again he would have cried. “Unclean! unclean! Unclean!” Of whom was that leper a type? He was a picture of you and me, my brethren, in our natural state; and if the Holy Spirit hath quickened us, and made us to know our ruined condition, we shall feel that the leper’s cry doth well become our unholy lips.

Leper, leper! be of good cheer; Christ died without, the camp, that thou mightest be sanctified through his blood. I see the leper now stealing through the desert places, not daring to sip of the clear stream that lies in his track, lest he should communicate contagion to the next person who drinks from it; but seeking out some filthy puddle, that there he may satisfy his thirst, where no others are likely to drink. I see him covering up his lip. If his father met him, he must run away from him; if the wife of his bosom saw him, she must shun his presence, for a loathsome disease is in his skin, and in his gay merits; and in the very breath that comes from his lips there is death. Well, suddenly, as he steals along, he sees a cross, and on it lifted up One who is dying. He standeth there astonished; he thinketh that surely he may come near to a dying man, leper though he be; to the living, he must not approach, but to the dying he cannot bring a new death. So he draweth nigh to the cross, and the lips of the dying man are opened, and he says, “Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Oh; what joy and rapture, rush through his poor leprous spirit! How his heart, that had long been heavy, and baked like a black coal within him, begins again to burn with lambent light! He smiles, for he feels that that, marvellous Man upon the cross has forgiven him all his sins; and ere he has begun to feel it, his leprosy is cleansed, and soon, he goes his way, for his flesh has come unto him like unto the flesh of a little child, and he is clean. O leprous sinner hear this, and believe it for thyself! To-night look unto him who died without the camp, that poor unclean sinners might find a Savior there.” – Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon on the Pruning of God

“That old oak in the forest is one of the noblest works of God. Look at it just now bursting into full leaf, bearing well its verdant honors, and making a picture worthy of the artist’s rarest skill. What are these dry pieces of wood which strew the ground beneath it? What are these large branches which rot under its shade? It is needless to ask, for we all know that they fell from the tree during winter’s storms. Is it a cause of regret for the sake of the tree that those rotten branches were broken off? It may be a lamentation as far as concerns the broken boughs, but the tree itself had never been so healthy, and never looked so complete if the rotten branches had been suffered to abide. When the hurricane came howling through the woods, the old tree shivered in the gale, and mourned as it heard the cracking of its boughs, yet now it is thankful because the sound healthy branches with sap and life in them are all there, and the withered ones no longer encumber the trunk.” – Charles Spurgeon

The Pursuit of Holiness

A few years ago, a movie came out called “The Pursuit of Happyness”. The premise of that movie was all about a man seeking after success and the American Dream. Will Smith’s character struggled, and fought, and sacrificed much, all to gain what the world deems as “true happiness”. As I watched that movie, it was easy to get wrapped up into this plot and into this character and exalt this man for all he was willing to do for the sake of happiness and success. After all, it didn’t come easy; he indeed had to pursue it, but  nothing got in the way of his pursuit and his dreams. It was a heart-warming, inspiring, and motivating way to give people confidence to never let anything stand in the way of their true desires. And yet as I watched, I couldn’t help think about 1 John 2:17, “The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

My study has brought me to Hebrews chapter 12. The lessons I’ve gleaned from this Hebrews study have been many (focusing on Christ, running for the prize, strengthening the hope of my eternal security found in the power and promise of God, walking by faith, and now pursuing after holiness).

The holiness referenced here in verse 12, “without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” is not the holiness that we receive when we’re born again into Christ. That holiness is apart from any doing on our own; Christ alone paid it all with His death on the cross. When He stated “It is accomplished” on the cross; it indeed was. God’s righteous demand for citizenship in Heaven and His wrath for the sins of mankind were satisfied once and for all, so that those who come to Christ and trust in Him as Lord and Savior will find reconciliation with God forever. And yes, apart from that holiness, we also will never see the Lord.

However, the aim of the writer of Hebrews has always been on maturing our faith, not reaffirming it. The holiness he is referring to in this chapter is practical holiness. And this isn’t a new theme in this book. He’s already stated in previous chapters, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”, and “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” He wants us to take the knowledge we’ve ALREADY been given, and now use it to run the race that we’re currently in. Let me see if I can explain myself further to make sense of this.

Righteousness; we couldn’t attain it on our own. Holiness; we couldn’t achieve it on our own. God knew this. So, His standard for perfection must be thrown out of the window if we don’t have Christ. Ah, but we DO have Christ. And therefore, God’s standard is wholly met. No more righteousness or holiness can be attained to satisfy God’s standard. Jesus Christ is our righteous/holy sacrifice, not our merits or doings on this earth. Those merits and doings are stained with sin; Christ is not. So it begs the question, where could practical holiness fit in the equation? If Christ is our holiness before God, why and how should a Christian live holy while on this earth? That is a very broad question I fear, but maybe I can lay it out for you the way it makes sense to me.

Because of Christ, those who trust in Him are declared holy. Are we holy? Absolutely not. But Christ is and we’re associated with Him. God’s promise is that we’ll receive the holiness of Christ and our sins will no longer be held against us. So now that we are associated with Christ, we should live like we are holy; or live like Christ. Not for the reason of gaining holiness (we have it already through Christ), but because we now have the freedom and the power to; and because holy living pleases God. Do we gain anything extra by living holy? No, we get what is promised to us through Christ; a pardon for our sins and an eternity with God forever in Paradise. So why do it? Well this question shouldn’t need an answer honestly, but I know I had to answer it in my own life.

The reason it shouldn’t need an answer is pretty simple, and it’s 2-fold; (1) we should want to, and (2) we will. Why should Christians want to live holy? It’s the only way we can bring honor, glory and thankfulness to our great God for all He’s done for us. If we’re struggling for a desire to do that, we need to search deep and see if we truly have a relationship with God through Christ. The desire to please God comes with Christ. If we don’t have a desire to please God, we don’t have Christ; plain and simple. Christ desired to please and serve God with His entire life and death on earth. To say that we have Christ and yet don’t have a desire to please and serve God is an arrogant lie.

The 2nd reason we should live holy is because we don’t have the choice not to. So many passages from God’s Word point to this truth. Good trees bear good fruit, faith without works is dead, we reap what we sow, and the passage I already referred to in Hebrews 6, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” We HAVE come to share in Christ, not we WILL come to share in Christ. Notice the verb tense in that passage. It’s not saying that our works on earth will eventually earn us eternal life. We already know that it is found in Christ alone. But look at the rest of that verse; “IF we hold firmly till the end.” It means if we endure, if we bear fruit, if we pursue after holiness, we will have proved that we were true children of God’s through Christ. Should the opposite be the case, if we don’t endure through trials, if we don’t bear fruit and if we don’t pursue after holiness, it’s not that we had Christ’s righteousness and lost it; it’s that we never had it. I hope that makes sense. It took me a while to wrap my mind around it. But it perfectly lines up with Hebrews, and it perfectly lines up with the rest of God’s Word. Test it.

So even though we have received righteousness and holiness through Christ, we still must pursue it in our lives. In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the fastest runner in the world still having to compete in the races to receive the reward. It’s the same concept. If we don’t pursue after holiness, we were never in the race to begin with and we will never receive the reward at the end. Now, don’t confuse the facts. We will never attain perfect earthly holiness like Christ. We have a sin nature, Christ did not. But that shouldn’t stop us from going after Christ-likeness. And thanks be to God and the writer of Hebrews for highlighting the fact that once we’re saved, we’re always saved. We can never lose a relationship with God through Christ, that’s God promise and God’s oath according to Hebrews 6:16-20, Matthew 18:12-14, Romans 8:38-39 and Philippians 1:6. (look them up)

So how do we live holy lives? Get to know Christ. If we want to live like Christ, and hopefully we do for the sake of pleasing God, we must have a deep understanding of how Jesus lived while on earth. How did He love? How did He pray? How did He submit to God’s will? How did He seek the lost? How did He resist the devil? How did He endure suffering? These answers are the key to holy living. And we must search the Scriptures to find them. If we do not, we may desire holiness, we may even long for it, but we will never live the lives we were called to live. As the moon has no light of it’s own, it only reflects the glory of the sun, so we have no light of our own, we can only reflect the glory of Christ. It’s not found in rules and regulations, it’s not found in understanding doctrines and theologies, it’s not found in church attendance and song singing, it’s certainly not found in our own strength; it’s only found in Christ.

We also must HATE sin. God hates it, Christ hates it, we must follow suit. If we try to add holiness on while continuing to sin, we simply don’t understand God’s stance on sin. He punished Christ for it on the cross and He will punish forever in Hell those who choose to reject Christ as Lord and Savior. Sin must go to make room for holiness. The more sin we shed, the more room we make for holiness. And then once we shed the sins and weights that are holding us down, we must pursue holiness, it will not come after us.

As the great Charles Spurgeon so eloquently stated, “You will not gain holiness by standing still. Nobody ever grew holy without consenting, desiring, and agonizing to be holy. Sin will grow without sowing, but holiness needs cultivation. Follow it; it will not run after you. You must pursue it with determination, with eagerness, with perseverance, as a hunter pursues his prey. Run after holiness. It will often seem to run away from you, so you must pursue it, and capture it.” Make it your deepest desire, because it’s God deepest desire for us (paired with walking by faith).

I am leaving you with some choice passages from God’s Word which relate so perfectly with this topic. Hopefully you’ll be able to see how they relate to what I’ve been saying.

Ephesians 1:4, “For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

1 Peter 1:13-15, “ But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

2 Timothy 1:8b-9, “But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…”

Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

2 Peter 3:11-12a, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”

Pursue holiness; it’s the proof of every Christian.

Scripture Apart From the Love of God and Christ

How Scripture might look if God’s and Christ’s love was taken out of it…

“For God despised the world, that He refused to give up His one and only Son, that even those who believe in Him, will perish for their sins and spend an eternity in Hell.” –John 3:16

“For the wages of sin is death, and the punishment of God will be eternal damnation for every sinner that ever lived.” Romans 3:23

“Jesus answered, I am the way the truth and the life, but no one will ever come to the Father through Me.” – John 14:6

“For it is by wrath that you have been cursed, through sin – completely by yourself, it is the punishment of God – by detestable works of man, so that man is without excuse.” –Ephesians 2:8-9

“He (Christ), Himself refused to bear our sins in His body on the cross, so that we will live to sin and die in our sin; we will never be healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24

“That even if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that He could save you, you will still be cursed.” – Romans 10:9

“Even if we confess our sins, He is just and will punish us for those sins and condemn us forever for all our unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

“To all who attempt to receive Him, and believe in His name, will still earn the right to be punished forever in the lake of fire.” John 1:12

“Therefore, sinners, I want you to know that Jesus refused to die and forgiveness of sins is impossible.” Acts 12:38

“Therefore, since no one can have a relationship with Christ, all remain dead souls, the new life will never come, and the old will always remain.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God despised you and refused to forgive you or save you.” – Colossians 2:13

“For God appointed us to suffer wrath and to never receive salvation through Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:9

“For the grace of God that could have brought us salvation will never appear.” Titus 2:11

“Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, because of your sin, no one will ever see the Kingdom of God.’” – John 3:3

Now read the REAL truth found in those verses!

Christ vs. The Law

This topic is a weighty one for me, mostly due to the fact that the better part of my life was spent serving the wrong team. I made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ when I was 5 years old and trusted in Him for salvation for the penalty of my sins. I can recall that day even as I write this, and remember the joy I gained from the hope that was in me even at a young age. However, sadly Christianity became very different over the course of my life. And it wasn’t until the age of 25, that I started to regain that joy I had when I was just a young boy. This post isn’t to highlight my life to any degree, it’s simply to show the work God has done in me and the passion He’s given me to write about this topic.

Somewhere in the race of Christianity, myself being a prime example, it seemed I was falling off the tracks. I don’t think any true Christian would struggle to explain the message of the gospel to anyone. To trust it for salvation, we must have a clear understanding of it. However, for me, it seems my mind and my heart hadn’t had a meeting in quite a while. My mind could reproduce the truth, and yet my heart was beating in a different fashion.

Let’s pause here to first take time to consider Christ and the message of the gospel. Let’s see the wonderful truths in God’s Word…

Step one of the gospel is admission. Admitting we’re sinners. There is no step two unless that hurdle is crossed. In Romans 3:23, it says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And who would need salvation unless there was an admission of sin? If we’re not sinners, who needs Christ? Ah, but we are indeed sinners; great sinners! And sin must be dealt with. Anyone who says that God is too loving to judge the sin of mankind has apparently never read the Word of God. On the day God has appointed it, every sinner will stand before God – Himself, and God will judge sinners severely and permanently in the place designed for Satan and his followers; Hell. Hell is not a punch line or a curse word, it’s an actual place of torment for those who didn’t live by God’s perfect standard of holiness. However, this is where the greatest truth in the history of time takes shape. There’s salvation available! God grants sinners the chance to admit their sin, repent of it, and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. As long as we remain on this earth, that opportunity is available. It doesn’t matter the magnitude or longevity of the sin, God forgives all who come to Christ. But we must come; and we must come with a genuine, repentant heart. We must have complete faith that Christ is the Lord, and that He can and will save us if we fully trust Him. And if we do, we are saved and saved forever, held to God by the power of God for all of eternity. We will never have to pay for our own sins, judgment will never touch us, and much greater than that, we will be in the presence of God forever and ever!

Ah, but one day, just like the gate on Noah’s ark, the opportunity to enter will cease and door will be shut, and it will be shut forever. And then nothing will be left but the rain of judgment for those who didn’t get to God through His gate – found only in His Son, Jesus Christ.

That is the gospel. It is more truth than any truth we’ve ever witnessed. God grants pardon to sinners through the death and resurrection of His perfect, spotless sacrifice. Jesus is the only One who could satisfy the wrath of God’s judgment on sin. Jesus was the only One who ever fully met God’s required standard of perfect holiness. Therefore, “For God so loved the world, that He GAVE His one and only Son, what whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life.” THAT is love! What amazing grace! Undeserving sinners like myself, who place their trust in Christ will not only NOT receive the penalty due to them, but are granted eternal life in God’s paradise where we will reign with God forever and ever. If we haven’t grabbed onto the magnitude of that truth, today is the day. Either to accept it for the first time, or begin to appreciate it with joy and humble thanksgiving.

And because of Christ’s complete humble obedience to the will of God and His sacrifice for sinners, God has exalted Christ to the highest possible position. Hebrews 1:3-4 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So He became as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is superior to theirs.” Christ could not possibly have been given a higher exaltation. He is seated next to God! God has put everything underneath Christ.

So according to the Word of God, the only way to have a relationship with God and to please God is through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s crystal clear; or at least it should be.

Now enter the law…

Now the law isn’t the foe I think of when I picture the Christian battle. Satan is the one who normally comes to my mind. Well, don’t worry, we’ll get to him. However, the reason the law has become such a mighty foe in our lives is because it appears to be a friend. The law is buddy/buddy with Christians, or so it seems. No one speaks about the dangers of the law, no one prays that the law wouldn’t snatch their attention and focus off of Christ; in fact, the law, seems to be the perfect recipe for living the Christian life. How come? Can we find scripture to back us up in that thinking? I would think so. But the answer is dramatically opposite. The Bible never calls the law evil, but it does say plenty in regards to it.

Let’s begin in Romans 3:20; it’s so blunt. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Wait, through the law we become conscious of sin? I never heard that in a Sunday school lesson. I thought the law was helping me achieve something. It appears in this verse, however, that it basically works as a mirror into the filthy pits of my heart. Well, there must be two laws then. That’s not the law I grew up with. The law I grew up with was doing much for me. The law I knew was indeed declaring me righteous. It told me to go to church, it told me to read my Bible, it told me to stop making fun of my brother and stop hitting my sister, it told me what to watch/what not to watch, it told me what to say, listen to, obey and even when to pray. “The law making me conscious of sin?” Okay, well maybe this verse is isolated or I just misread it.

Let’s look at Galatians 5 for some assistance. Verse 4 says, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” Whoa, Paul buddy, ease up there. Did you just hear yourself? Alienated from Christ? That doesn’t make any sense. Again, the law that I knew was teaching me how to please Christ, wasn’t it? It indeed was justifying me. It had to be. I did so much because the of the law. The 10 commandments is where it’s at. If you’re anybody in Christianity, you’re living by the 10 commandments. Why are these verses telling me that the law can’t do anything for me? Is it possible these are true and I’ve been living wrong my entire life?

Let’s get some context here from the very beginning of sin, AKA – “the fall of man”…

When Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, the standard of the law was shattered. What standard is that? God’s standard; perfection. God could not create imperfect beings and He could not accept any sacrifice less than absolute perfection.  And now man brought sin into the world. Sin equals imperfection. Sin is everything that God is not. God is holy and righteous and just and good, and sin is evil.  So God’s standard could no longer be met. Living by the law to absolute perfection was now impossible. Sin made sure of it. So, since then, the law has only had one main job; to show us we’re imperfect. Sure the 10 commandments were great. What a great peek into the mind of God. How wonderful it would be if myself and all humans everywhere could live by the 10 commandments perfectly! What glory and praise we could bring to God. However, such is not the case.

As we all ready looked at, Christ is the only way to be saved and the only way to get to God. Again, I don’t see any true Christian debating that for a second. However, why did Galatians tell me that if I’m trying to be justified by the law, that I’ve been alienated from Christ? Why would God give me the law then? All my life I heard how good the law was. Do this, don’t do that, it was a great system. I thought that’s how God wanted it. But if we go back to Romans 3:20, Paul again tells us that the only job of the law was to make us conscious of sin. Interesting. In fact if we keep reading in Romans 3, verse 28 says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law?” Wow, okay. So what that seems to be saying is, as long as we have faith in Christ, we don’t have to abide by the law? Could that be true? That sounds a lot like heresy to me.

What does this mean? We now serve Christ! This is a good thing! Why would we ever go back to the chains of death that the law offered us? We have been set free! Christ has paid it all! Even though we’re still sinners, God no longer looks at us that way. He now looks at us as having the righteousness of Christ. Unbelievable!

So for the God of all creation to exalt His Son, Jesus Christ to the highest possible position and then for the sinners that Christ died for to attempt to take Him off His throne by attempting to serve the law instead is the saddest and most pathetic thing imaginable. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Colossians 2:20-23, “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” In other words, it’s not only sad and pathetic, it’s a mockery to God and Christ!

Why would Christians ever struggle with this? I think we need to highlight two main reasons. First of all, it’s tangible righteousness. When I go to church, and when I read my Bible, and when I pray, and when I tithe, and when I witness, and when I serve,  then I’M the one who did the work, and I can receive the glory for it. But when I do it purely because I desire to love CHRIST for all He’s done for me, then HE receives the glory and that’s called worship. The aforementioned list of things are not wrong at all; in fact those can be great avenues to serve Christ, but if that is the way I measure my righteousness before God, then I am sorely mistaken and I have just tread underfoot the name of Christ. There is no bigger shame imaginable.

And reason two, and I told you we’d get to him, is Satan! Satan is the deceiver, he loves to take away from the glory of Christ. But I don’t often consider Satan using the law as his weapon of choice. When I think of Satan’s tools, I think of sin. Well, Satan tempts me with lust, and greed, and pride, and hatefulness, and apathy, but never would he use something  good as his tool to take away from the glory of Christ. Be cautious Todd, because you may have underestimated your opponent. Satan is not over the top and flashy. Satan is subtle. Many times Satan CAN use outright sin to get people’s eyes off of Christ, but for the Christian who desires to see the name of Christ lifted up, he will often use the subtle tactics that are necessary to get even the focused ones away from where they should be. And what more perfect way than the law? Satan must be one crafty enemy if he can take what should be a mirror to our sinful hearts and make it our spiritual barometer before God.

Well, maybe you’re like me. Maybe you grew up going to church, maybe you grew up in a Christian family with parents in the ministry, maybe you went to a Christian college, and were taught theologies and doctrines and all the trivia of the Bible. Maybe you think this topic isn’t a danger to you. Oh be careful Christian! Allow me to test you quickly. Have you ever had someone ask you how you were doing spiritually, and you immediately thought about how many times or hours you spent in Bible study and prayer that week? That’s the law. Why would that thought ever enter our brains instead of “How am I loving my Lord and Savior?” Because Satan deceived us and made us think that we could please God by adhering to a list of mandates and spiritual chores. “Well, it was a good week, I spent 5 days in Bible study in my “devotions” (sad that the word devotion is now 20 minutes of Bible study and prayer instead of a life long commitment to an actual person). Or perhaps, “It wasn’t a good week at all. I rarely prayed, I didn’t make time to read the Bible and I had lustful thoughts.” We know we’ve gotten off track when Christ doesn’t even come up in conversation when we’re asked about spiritual matters. People, we have been duped! Satan is winning! Christ is who we serve, not a grocery list of do’s and don’ts.  If God were to ask us the same question day by day, He would not check our church attendance, or place a star next to our Bible reading time. He would purely pry open our hearts to see if we had sincere love and devotion to Christ that day and if we lived in humble service to Him. The same way we come to God for salvation is the exact same way we please Him every day; Jesus Christ.

But so often I’d rather send my spiritual resume to God; as if He would smile on my attempt to please Him with an imperfect approach to His standard of holiness. And the Apostle Paul wanted us to make real sure that we got that point in our heads when he stated so humbly in Philippians 3:3-11, “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Christian, whenever we think that we can offer God a resume, recall these words of Paul. If the Apostle Paul had all of that to offer God and still considered it a pile of manure compared to knowing and loving Christ, then we should understand that our attempts to do so is beyond futile.

The only two ingredients that God desires from every Christian is faith and love towards His Son, Jesus Christ. If those two things are present in our daily routines, that is a sacrifice acceptable to God; nothing less. Let’s go back to Paul in Colossians 2:6-7, where he says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” What righteous poetry! Paul says it there himself. We were rooted in Christ for salvation – continue to build on Him! Love Christ, thank Christ, serve Christ, trust Christ, get to know Christ, worship Christ, emulate your life after Christ’s! God set it up that way since the beginning of time. Let our love of Christ be our righteous barometer.

Consider it this way, if we find no joy in Christianity, then we’re doing it wrong. Because the one who has Christ and who is loving Christ, will always produce joy. It’s a promise from God. Will it always be easy? No. Will it cause for sacrifice and work? Absolutely. But will it satisfy? Oh yes indeed! Like a cool drink of water on a hot day.

My sister asked me this when discussing this topic with me, and it made sense to me. What are those things in life you do purely because you enjoy doing them? For me it’s sports. I don’t have to summon up the love to watch and play sports. It’s just there. I don’t have to remind myself to be a fan of sports, I do it without thinking. In fact, when other things come into conflict with sports, they often lose out. Why? Because I love sports. It’s natural for me.

So, what is it for you? The same should be said of our relationship with Christ, only to a MUCH higher degree. If we’re struggling to find love for Christ, or to do things for Christ, or to spend time with Christ, we either need to genuinely accept Him for the first time as our Lord and Savior, or we need to consider again what He’s done for us.

What judgment would be waiting for me because of my sin if I didn’t have Christ? Where would I physically be today if it wasn’t for the love of Christ? What fear of death would be chaining my heart if I didn’t have the certainty of salvation due to the love of Christ? We need to reconsider what love must exist for God to become a man, to be rejected by His own people, to be beaten with rods, to be spit at, to be blasphemed, to have a crown of thorns to be shoved into his skull, to have nails pounded through His hands and feet and to be hung on a cross to die, purely to satisfy God’s wrath for our sins. Love so amazing that our minds can’t fully comprehend it.

So what is our response? Live to the standard of the law or live to love Christ? Let me leave you with even more words of the Apostle Paul, found in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Let that be our fuel as long as God allows us time on this earth. There is nothing left to do but love Christ and strive to attain crowns to be able to lay at His feet when we meet Him face to face.