Seeking God Successfully (Part Two)

Psalm 27:8

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek” (ESV).

We have heard God’s call to seek him. Next, let’s think about our response to God’s invitation.

Above all, let us realize that this is a personal invitation to a personal relationship. Seek my face. The living, Holy One wants to meet us up close. He doesn’t hold us at arm’s length. I have an injured shoulder that hinders me occasionally in giving or receiving hugs. Once, someone told me that my hug seemed awkward or reluctant, but that wasn’t the case at all. It simply felt physically uncomfortable at that moment. God has no such limitations. He, through his grace and love in Christ, is always able to invite us to draw very near. Seek my face.

God invites us to seek him, not the rituals of religion. This is where so many go astray from personal contact with God himself. Here is one way this happens. In the law or old covenant, God commanded Israel the way in which they could live in the presence of God and worship him at the tabernacle/temple. God set up laws of ritual cleanliness, prescribed sacrifices, which were administered through priests, as necessary to approach him. The religions of the ungodly in their worship of false gods also had religious rituals. But the true God ended all such things in Christ at his cross. Now true worship is to approach God the Father through the Son on the basis of his once for all finished sacrifice by the Spirit. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18 NIV). Jesus made it clear that the new covenant era was different from the age of the law covenant. Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24 CSB).

It is important to draw near to God through Christ and his finished work alone. We do not have prescribed rituals, because the Lord Jesus himself is our access to the Father. We do need the works of the law, because we live in the power of the Spirit. When we read the word, we hear the written voice of God in our personal nearness with him. Reading the Scriptures is not the means to gain God’s acceptance for a personal relationship. Instead, when we read, we simply listen to him in a state of nearness. The same is true of prayer, which is the believer’s communication with God. We speak with the living God as his dearly loved children, because he has brought us near in Christ (1 Peter 3:18). We meditate on God’s written word, because we have heard his voice and delight to ponder his word to us, as a husband or wife reflects on the words of their beloved. We eat and drink at the Lord’s Supper, not to receive grace, but because we remember the Lord in whom we already have grace. We sing in services, not as a means to gain God’s ear, but because he delights in the united voices of his children, as we declare his greatness to each other.

Therefore, live joyfully in your nearness to the God of glory. When you meet with your brothers and sisters in the Father’s family, delight in the blessing of shared grace. “We are here together with God the Father—set free, adopted, accepted, and eternally loved!”

Grace and peace, David

The Message of the Cross (Part Three)

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength NIV).

Here is the key issue. The message of the cross is the message of the Jesus Christ crucified (1:23).

Think of a striking contrast. If Christians would preach a certain type of Jesus, the world would be content to accept him, just as they politely accept other famous religious leaders. “Jesus the social worker” would be applauded for his efforts. “Jesus the morality teacher” would be remembered for suggesting a gentler way of life amid the world’s unceasing hatred. “Jesus the therapist” would be consulted when the headache or heartache refuse to go away. Fake “Jesuses” are easily accepted (2 Corinthians 11:4). Many years ago, Francis Schaeffer warned, “Increasingly over the last few years the word ‘Jesus’, separated from the content of the Scriptures, has become the enemy of the Jesus of history, the Jesus who died and rose and who is coming again and who is the eternal Son of God. So let us take care” (Escape From Reason, p. 79).

But people reject the Lord Jesus Christ who really lived among people. He is a stumbling block to the Jews. If they still have any concept of a coming Messiah, Jesus didn’t and doesn’t agree with what their ideas of what the Messiah should be. In contrast Jesus is foolishness to the Gentiles. They think, “Wow, he really suffered, that’s tragic; but how can a man dying on a cross do anything for me?”

When we proclaim Jesus Christ and his saving work on the cross, then and only then are we telling God’s message—the good news.

Focus on the person of Christ. Jesus Christ is the Savior that people need. He is able to rescue them from the ruin and sorrow that comes from our sinful condition. The identity and character of Jesus are important. The question is not, “What good can the death of a man 2,000 years ago do for me?” Instead, the question is, “Who died on the cross and what did his death accomplish?” The answer is that the One who died is both Son of God and perfect man. His deity gives power to his work and his humanity makes him an acceptable substitute for us humans.

Focus on his saving work. Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3:10-13). Jesus satisfied God’s wrath that was against us (Romans 3:23-26). And so he reconciled us to God (Romans 5:6-11).

In the message of the cross, we can hear the great wisdom of God. Human wisdom deals only with the surface aspects of humanity’s problem. People approach humanity’s problems like throwing some asphalt in the pothole when the road needs rebuilt. But in Jesus Christ we can see how God in his wisdom provided a Rescuer who could truly solve mankind’s greatest problem at its deepest core.

The way of salvation is to change your mind about Christ and trust in him as your Savior. Why should you continue in your life the way that you are going? It is the way to destruction (1:18a, 19); it is a way that cannot possibly succeed (1:25). Do not waste your life. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and commit your eternal destiny to him, you will find God’s power for salvation. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today.

Grace and peace, David