Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…
—1 Corinthians 1:17
{CHAMBERS} “Paul states here that the call of God is
to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the
reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make
sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences
only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not
commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift
up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). [….] The fact that we can experience
redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a
byproduct and not the goal of redemption. […] The one passion of Paul’s life
was to proclaim the gospel of God.”
{ELGIN} We have been redeemed by the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. Someone once wrote “He paid a debt He did not owe, I
owed a debt I could not pay.” Can you grasp that? I mean, does it sink in to
your heart? Does that truth serve as a filter for the way you live your life,
moment by moment. Or is it something that when you hear it from time to
time you think, “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Now what was I doing?”
This morning I went on a search for some coffee for Martie
and me. I found it by walking past people with coffee cups in their
hands. Smart, huh? Well, I found the coffee pots, huge
things. I was looking for the decaf. A green lid or a sign on a
chain telling me which was which. Finally I asked the guy next to me,
“How do you know which is which?” He pointed to the words printed in
black on each pot and said with a smile, “Decaffeinated and caffeinated, that’s
why we need coffee in the morning!” Sometimes we can’t see what is right in
front of us. And so it is with the truth of redemption. It is
right in front of us, all the time, but we can’t see it, until someone comes
along and helps us see.
No comments:
Post a Comment