On This Day: When the "Since" of Justification is Ours

   But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 4:23-5:1)

 

   I was surprised to discover that “since we have been justified” is ONE WORD in the Greek! All the grammar is in the form of the word. That means that the word “since” isn’t stated, but is necessitated by the grammar. The NASB translates it, “having been justified by faith”. The sense is clear, that justification is something that has happened and is now in effect.

   The Bible Sense Lexicon definition of justified is, “to be or become judicially vindicated as having complied with the requirements of the law (of God).” This is the wonder of the gift of salvation, that sinners are no longer viewed as sinners, but as “the righteousness of God”. The verse I shared in the box is from II Corinthians 5:21, and it makes clear what Jesus became for us (sin), and what we become in him (the righteousness of God).

   But what this brought up for me is my aged-view of life in the church where so many people have professed to have faith in Jesus Christ but have no experiential peace with God.

   This has been a mystery to me, how people can say they believe in Jesus but are constantly challenging whether God loves them, or their sins are forgiven, or they are accepted in the beloved, or so many other ways of saying, “We don’t believe we are justified by faith”!

   The sad thing in my mind is that anyone who genuinely has faith in Jesus Christ is in a state of peace with God because of this justification by faith, and yet so many do not let themselves rest in that peace. Some won’t even entertain the thought that this is their right in Jesus Christ our Lord. They are too busy trying to measure up in church activities to feel accepted and loved. Or trying to suppress childhood trauma or other painful life experiences as if having “a broken and contrite heart” somehow nullifies the work of Christ to give them peace with God!

   Or (the one that took me a very long time to admit), that some people in the church actually do not want to live publicly as a justified believer in Jesus Christ and so the “God doesn’t love me” stuff is just a diversion, blaming God for the fact that they actually love the world more than him. 

   I can’t describe all the possible scenarios of why someone would profess faith in Jesus Christ and yet not live in experiential peace with God through the objective reality of peace with God through Jesus’ redemptive work.

   However, each of us can assess whether we have embraced this reality Paul describes in genuine faith, or whether we are arguing against it, resisting it, avoiding it, or struggling with hopelessness about how we could ever feel it as true.    

   My testimony is that God has spent decades showing me that he will resolve whatever we need as we seek him in his word and prayer about everything. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), so building up our faith in what God has accomplished through Jesus’ salvation work comes by meditating on what is written in the Scriptures and applying it to everything going on in us and around us.

   And yes, sitting down for half an hour to read from Romans 1:1 up to Romans 5:1 (and keep going) so we can see for ourselves how certain it is that sinners of every kind can be justified by grace through faith is certainly a good thing to do. It’s not that reading Romans 5:1 repeatedly will build up our faith, but that reading the context, and reading other Scriptures that speak of the same things, and telling God we believe him even where we don’t understand, will keep building up our faith as we take these things to heart.

   Do you know peace with God in the way Paul describes? Praise him that he alone could accomplish and apply such a wonder. Do you feel like a stranger to this teaching that you become “the righteousness of God” by faith because Jesus became sin for us? Praise God that it is true anyway, and tell God how much you are hungering and thirsting to know this righteousness. He promises to satisfy that hunger and thirst, and a big part of doing so is simply convincing us of what he has already done. 

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Only Way to be Justifiably Righteous

   But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25)

   With the proliferation of influencers trying to tell us what the Bible does and does not mean, and the ongoing controversies over every topic of the Bible, one thing is standing out very clearly: some people show what the Bible says and means and use Scripture to interpret Scripture, while others show what they believe the Bible means and then treat their opinions like that’s what the Bible says.

   Sometimes these contrasts are evident simply because a topic is popular and we can tell which sides use “the whole counsel of God”, and which sides add and remove without regard for what God breathed out in his own words.

   And no one seems to spend more time at center stage than Paul. And Romans? Well, let’s just say that the government’s hatred of Romans speaks for itself!

   All that to say that, as I journey through Romans 3 and consider what Paul teaches about justification by grace through faith, I have this very sad marveling feeling that people can “tamper” with God’s word so freely as they do. Yes, Paul’s teachings in Romans can feel like trying to hold a fist full of sand without anything falling out. No sooner do we think we got the last thought straight when the next one sends sand flying everywhere!

   Okay, long introduction, sorry (kinda), but I think that happens when we hang around Paul. Some thoughts are just not ready for a period, if you know what I mean. Anyway…

   What stands out is how clear God’s word is when we let it speak for itself. And when we pay attention to the relational dynamic of what stands out any given time we are in the word, we discover that the Holy Spirit is teaching us the very things God has in mind for us in our walk with him.

   Which brings us to this focus on “the righteousness of God”. It has helped me for a long time to consider that holiness relates to nature and righteousness to character. Holiness is God’s nature, who he is, while righteousness is about his character, how he expresses himself. The two cannot be separated, but keep that in mind as we go through this. God is holy. He expresses his holiness in righteousness. And apart from redemption in Jesus Christ, that would be a terrifying reality!

   However, the main point has to do with our experience of the righteousness of God. It shines out from God whether we see it or not. It “has been manifested apart from the law” in the work of Christ and the preaching of the gospel. The Law and the Prophets bore witness to the righteousness of God, including its distinction in the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. And it is experienced by sinners “through faith in Jesus Christ”.

   The addition of “for all who believe” is a huge theme in Romans. There is no distinction in how sinful we are, both Jews and Gentiles, and there is no distinction in how people are saved. This is why Paul already said,

   For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

   Do you see that? Paul says that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed”. In Romans 3 he is getting back to this, that it is about the righteousness of God, how it is revealed, how it is manifested, how it is experienced. And our starting point is that it must deal with the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

   We will get to this explanation shortly, and all through Romans, but this is the wonder we should consider, that Paul is talking about a gospel he is not ashamed of because it is all about how the holy God has acted in righteousness to make it real that his righteousness can become ours.

   To the Ephesians he would write, 

   For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

   To the Corinthians he would write, 

   For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21).

   But this isn’t just theology, or doctrine, or correcting all those tamperers who mess with God’s words. It’s about whether you and I know that we have become the righteousness of God through faith in the good news that God has given us a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

   Because, with all God did to provide redemption in Jesus’ blood, and communicate all about the new covenant in his word, it would be awful if we missed the wonders of the gift because the haters and hecklers don’t have it.

   So, how’s your faith-attachment to Jesus doing?

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: The Obedience of Faith is Faith that Obeys

   ...and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, (Romans 1:4-5)

   I can still remember the delight I felt when “the obedience of faith” first stood out to me. It was both a sense of surprise (like why people would teach a lesser view of faith when God’s word is that clear!) and of joyful clarity. It was like my mind understood more than my brain could explain, and I love when that happens!

   Because the partnership between faith and obedience is a favorite target of the evil one, let me just emphasize that there is only one view even though churches teach three.

   The churches that teach a legalistic view of religion emphasize obedience without faith. The churches that teach a cheap grace view of churchianity emphasize faith without obedience. Both are equally poisonous!

   How can we tell if we are in a church, a family, or a friend group, that promotes one of the pendulum extremes rather than the plumbline of obedient faith? We simply watch what happens when we come across a Scripture that requires something of us our churches or groups don’t teach and ask them to include it.

   Legalistic churches have no interest in speaking truth in love or expressing faith through love. Their interest is the rules. And, just like the religious elite of Jesus’ day, they turn God’s word into an expanded list of rules that must be obeyed to fit in.

   Cheap grace churches, on the other hand, are all about faith without obedience and love without truth. Everything is a poisonous view of grace that tolerates sin as a no-big-deal issue because God is so amazingly (and unbiblically) gracious.

   Once we see that the apostles were teaching what Jesus himself commanded, a faith that obeys our Savior, we learn to “trust and obey”, as the old hymn has stated for decades. We do not accommodate legalism because it is a denial of the gospel. We do not accommodate cheap grace because it is a denial of the gospel.

   To be clear, the gospel has NEVER been about a faith that doesn’t obey. There is no such thing. It is impossible to trust the head of the church without doing what he says. It is impossible to have faith in “our Father in heaven” and not do what he says.

   Jesus said, that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21), and, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). The three parts of the Great Commission are to make disciples, baptize disciples, and teach disciples to “observe (obey) all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

   I have heard too many well-meaning young bucks out there trying so hard to clarify that we are saved by grace through faith “not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9) that they teach their own version of faith instead of “the obedience of faith” the apostles taught. Too many people who know what it feels like to be burdened by legalistic churches think the only alternative is the cheap grace Kool-Aid that saves from legalism but kills with kindness.

   My encouragement to anyone who reads this is “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (II Corinthians 13:5). And the “faith” Paul is talking about there is the same one he spoke of to introduce and conclude Romans, “the obedience of faith”.

   It would be far better to recognize today that we have been taught one of the pendulum extremes instead of the plumbline view of the apostles so we can repent (change our minds to line up with the truth) and begin talking with God about how to walk in this “obedience of faith” rather than a deficient teaching that requires ignoring certain scriptures.

   The apostle Paul reached the end of his race declaring “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27), and then warned them about the false teachers who were just waiting for his departure.

   I have met legalistic power-brokers who were very nice church folk until you broke one of their rules. I have met very nice cheap grace folk until you asked them to talk with you about an obedient-faith Scripture and suddenly saw their angry narcissistic side.

   Everything that covers living by “the whole counsel of God” and living “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” can be summarized as “the obedience of faith”. If we will pursue that kind of faith, God will keep us in step with his Spirit in both knowing and doing the will of God in love.

  

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: Pruned to Bear Fruit in the Beatitudinal Valley

   "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:5-8)

   There are times when I am feeling negative emotions to the point of despondency, but suddenly I look around and realize where I am: in the Beatitudinal Valley! That always reminds me that it is a blessing when we find ourselves feeling poor in spirit about what we are reading in God’s word.

   As I considered this in relation to a dubious track record in the “bearing much fruit” category, God again blessed me with another Beatitudinal Journey that reminded me who I am, and for whose glory I am alive.

   If "bearing much fruit" requires saving lots of souls, or building up lots of disciples into living for Christ, or helping people spend a lifetime seeking God in his word and prayer, I am obviously a failure.

   If "bearing much fruit" means looking to others like we are filled with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control" (the fruit of the Spirit) then this would be strike two.

   However, if letting myself meet God in the Beatitudinal Valley so he can bless me with a genuine journey into real fruit bearing is how I will "bear much fruit", then recognizing where I am on the downside of the valley gives me hope that the upside is ahead.

   The Beatitudes are the way Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). They are eight statements that begin, “blessed are…”, and then describe the qualities people will find in themselves when God is blessing them. Yes, this is the focus, that Jesus is describing what it looks like to be blessed by God, NOT what we must do to earn God’s blessing.

   So, if any of us feel “poor in spirit” in relation to bearing much fruit, that willingness to admit how poorly we are doing is a blessing from God.

   And if any of us go deeper into “those who mourn” what is wrong with us, it is further evidence that the Father is at work to bless us by grace through faith.

   When we find ourselves going even further into meekly acknowledging that we cannot fix our problem of bearing so little fruit and so we must submit to Jesus Christ who can “transform” us into his image, that meekness is a blessing of God to break our attachment to self-effort and lead us to fully rely on his Son.

   When we submit to Jesus Christ and find ourselves hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of bearing much fruit to the Father’s glory, we are being blessed. This downside of the Beatitudinal Valley brings us to valley bottom where God satisfies our longings by grace through faith in ways no amount of doing good works or trying harder could ever accomplish.

   This results in God blessing us to become his “merciful” children with “pure hearts” in our single-hearted devotion to him. We become the “peacemakers” whose pure hearts want nothing more than to see everyone we meet come to experience peace with God through the good news of Jesus’ kingdom. And we become such an annoyance to the world, the flesh, and the devil who do not want people glorifying God by bearing much fruit, hence their incessant efforts to “persecute” Jesus’ church into oblivion.

   Since I am sharing this on the morning of Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday), it is fitting that we would celebrate the new covenant in Jesus’ blood by seeking with all our hearts to bear much fruit in this world to the glory of God the Father, and the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord who has provided so great a salvation.

   And then we go from here to abide in Jesus Christ as branches abide in the vine, and to praise the Father for any ways he deems fit to prune us (knowing that much more is required than pride would ever admit). If we truly hunger and thirst to bear much fruit to the glory of the Triune God, we welcome every pinch of Father’s pruning shears as a gracious and necessary good to make us like his Son.

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: The Arrest that Leads to the Rest

   And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled. (Mark 14:43-50)

   Because I love to encourage a love of the Bible as God’s word, seeing how often Jesus himself refers to the Scriptures as the word of God is always of special interest. Added to this is the time I spent this year testing a book that claimed the scriptures weren’t Christlike enough. To see Jesus constantly and only affirm scripture without once correcting anything that was written puts those false teachers to shame for placing their words above his. 

   When we keep these two things together, that Jesus IS the Word, and he always treated Scripture as the word of God, we can look at the way he said things, view them through the words breathed out by God into Scripture’s record about him, and let ourselves feel the childlike wonder of the Master’s revelation of truth in love. 

   In this case, Jesus spoke what he wanted in everyone’s minds. Their evil deed would fulfill the Scriptures and lead to our salvation, but identifying their cowardice in coming for him at night, and away from the people, must be in their minds for down the road.

   One Scripture I see fulfilled so many times in God’s word is this: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). This is often fulfilled in seeing the way God expresses his kindness to lead people to repentance. However, it is also seen in the way people presume on this work of God thinking that his kindness means he is okay with their sin! 

   Now, how does the very next line express both sides of this? Consider, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). 

   This expresses God’s kindness aiming to bring people to repentance by telling them the truth in love about what is happening when we presume on God’s kindness and keep sinning. It isn’t a message that God’s kindness means he is okay with our sin. It’s a message that when we respond to God’s kindness with self-justification instead of repentance we are storing up judgment against ourselves. God’s kindness is telling us this because he wants us to repent so he can forgive us. 

   This also shows the truth about what is going on when people presume on God’s kindness. It describes God’s view of the people who came to arrest Jesus, but with Jesus detailing their sin so that after his death and resurrection some of these men would realize what they had done and benefit from what Jesus did for them through his death on the cross.

   My main point is to put the spotlight on the way Jesus put the spotlight on Scripture. If anyone will receive his will that we live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God”, we will “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly” so we know how to live out our place in the body of Christ for God’s glory and the good of everyone in our lives. 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

A Personal Journey from Shame to Honor

LONG AGO, when God first showed me the “Deeper” of my orphan-mindedness, he began leading me on a journey of getting to know the Triune as the “first” of my family. Each “higher” that followed revealed to my orphan-mind what it meant to have a Father in heaven, a Firstborn Brother as Savior and Lord, and a Helper in the Holy Spirit who would be Jesus with me always. 

HOWEVER, in one memorable Deeper I discovered that, of the three persons of the Triune, it was Jesus who triggered the most negative-emotion reaction in me. I realized that I had a “fear-based identity”, and the fear reactions seemed to come from a stronghold of shame that was free to do whatever it wanted in my life. I also learned that the shame felt strongest when I pictured Jesus looking at me. 

THIS MORNING, I was traveling through a deeper layer of the familiar orphan-minded territory. I was facing how my life has been affected by the reviling and harsh criticism Jesus is talking about in his Beatitudes. And God totally surprised me with one word of his word: “HE”. 

I HAD BEEN praying through the first chapter of John’s gospel in a surprising journey of statements I was affirming as true in themselves, but also very real to me personally. I acknowledged that Jesus was the true light who came into the world, that he was the Creator who made all things, that the world did not know him and his own people did not receive him, but that there was this glorious contrast in God’s gift of grace to those who did receive him, and who did believe in his name. 

AND THEN it hit me: “HE gave the right to become children of God”, and that “HE” is talking about JESUS!!! 

WHEN I REPLAYED my life, starting with my first awareness of God at age seven, and knowing that I had been one of those in the world who did not know him or receive him, God was adding Jesus to the picture in a way I had never seen him before. What I have always thought of as “God” letting me know he was watching over me even from an early age now had this distinctive addition, that it was JESUS who was giving me “the right” to become a child of God! 

THE POINT is not that I have been a dufus all these years and had never noticed the left-brain-obvious. 

RATHER, the point is that today was the day God chose to expose a “deeper” of woundedness infected with shame that needs to be healed for me to rejoice in the persecutions of the past, present, and future. His love, grace, and mercy chose this for today because it was the only way I would notice the “higher” of “HE” (Jesus) gave me the right to become a child of GOD! 

WHICH MEANS THAT, in the most real and personal of ways, Jesus Christ my Lord was granting to me, a seven-year-old boy, the divinely-given right to become a child of God right then and there (1965). And, because Jesus did this, personally giving me the right to become a child of God, I was “born, not of blood (my human lineage) nor of the will of the flesh (me trying to be born) nor of the will of man (my parents wanting to have children), but of God (by God foreknowing me, and predestining me to the adoption of sonship, and calling me to himself by the gospel, and justifying me by grace through faith, and glorifying me in his presence when I will be just like Jesus when I see him as he is).” 

AT PRAYER MEETING last night we were just talking about how, when we pray about things, we do not decide what to look for that will match our expectation of how God will answer our prayers. Instead, we pour out our hearts to God like children, and then watch what happens in the coming days to see how God is working everything together for good in our lives. We know that whatever he does next will come from his thoughts and ways that are so much higher than our own that we can’t possibly imagine we can tell him how to answer our prayers! 

WHICH MEANS THAT, noticing the beautiful pronoun “HE” is like a one-word answer to my prayers from last night. It serves as the first domino falling into every truth and reality about Jesus Christ my Lord that God wants to be far more real and personal to me than ever before. 

AND, it is knowing Jesus Christ as the Savior who personally granted me the right to believe in him, and to receive him, and to become a child of God by grace through faith, that shines in direct contradiction of all the shameful things this orphan-minded child has ever felt, and all the fear-based-identity reactions that have hindered my walk with God, so I could feel the attachment to my Savior that he was not merely doing what his Father told him to do, but he was doing for me what his own love delighted to do! 

AND SO, I “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that I may not grow weary or fainthearted” in the hostilities that have come against me because of knowing him. HE granted me the gift of the new-birth into the adoption of sonship. And HE is worthy to be worshiped by me rejoicing in the reviling and harsh criticism that is now a badge of honor instead of a bruise of shame. 

I HAVE heard what God is speaking to me about this morning. I can see what he is doing in me to prepare me for things he is doing around me. And I am joining him in his work by praising Jesus for personally granting me the right to become a child of God by grace through faith, and by practicing joy in response to any form of persecution that may come today, and in every memory of harsh criticism and reviling that plucks at the heart-strings. 

AND I HOPE that facing these things in my walk with God this morning is as helpful to you as it has been to me!

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

Morning Sharing: To Be Trained by Grace

Well, I pushed through my first thoughts and meditations on the word this morning and came to another genuine experience of God teaching me and ministering to me by his Spirit. It was one of those “brought tears to my eyes” moments, and I am so thankful. 

It is interesting to reread my journaling and see how negative I felt about myself at the beginning of my time with God. This past year has done quite a number on me, not only with such a grievous loss, but also the pain of the horrid things people I have loved are able to believe about me. 

So, I stood again on this foundational verse as of late:                 

“In a time of favor I have answered you;
    in a day of salvation I have helped you;”[1] 

I told God how I want to experience this, such an outpouring of his “favor” that we would see “answers” to our prayers for people’s salvation, revival, and spiritual awakening, and such an outpouring of “salvation” that our home church would feel “helped” to bring people to Christ. 

And when I stood again on this scripture to see what the view looked like this morning, “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain”,[2] I suddenly found myself feeling very personal with Paul like he was answering me himself about my longing to not receive the grace of God in vain. What he said was,[3] 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…[4] 

As I began meditating on this, praying it through with God, feeling amazed and delighted and thankful that he would speak such a clear answer to my soul, the Spirit of God taught me something in a very real and personal way. It was the deep realization that what it means to bear fruit in the kingdom of God is not measured by how many souls I save! 

In other words, to NOT receive the grace of God in vain is seen by us learning to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions”. It is seen by a growing and maturing reality of living “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”. 

I can’t explain this well enough, but it was like a huge burden was lifted from my heart as Jesus’ teaching that “a tree is known by its own fruit”[5] changed from the weight of guilt and shame that I have  no “fruit” of souls that I have brought into the kingdom, to the comforting grace of God that is at work to lead me in things THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ME!!! 

In other words, to measure myself by what seems to be happening (or not happening) in others is a bad goal. It is okay to bemoan that the church is not winning souls, but the measure of how we are doing with God is just that, how WE are doing with God, not how OTHERS are doing with God. 

I guess one more thing to add is that I did some processing of this through the Beatitudinal Valley[6] and was reminded that the “blessed are those who hunger and thirst” is not followed by “for soul-winning”, but, “for RIGHTEOUSNESS”. THAT is what the grace of God is working in me, and so it is clear how to avoid receiving the grace of God in vain, and how to receive it to the full, by letting it do exactly what Paul said it came to do. 

I know I will be camped at this viewpoint for a bit as God makes it all the more real to me, but I testify that God truly lifted my heart as I admitted to him how I was doing, and his grace spoke into that need with “truth in love”[7] so I am feeling at rest that everything looks so different now that the Spirit turned me around to see what I was missing. And I hope the encouragement of this was worth the extra read!

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

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[1] I came across this in Isaiah 49:8, and in II Corinthians 6:2 is the only place it is quoted in the New Testament, so I have been meditating on the context for weeks now.

[2] II Corinthians 6:1

[3] I mean this in a personified way, that what I was learning from the word was like Paul teaching it to me in person, or at least in a personal letter.

[4] Titus 2:11-12

[5] Luke 6:43-44

[6] Based on the Beatitudes at the introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12

[7] God taught us to do this in Ephesians 4:15-16 because that is who he is and how he communicates with his children

For Men Only: Men Unashamed of Their Shame

SHAME IS a healthy emotion. It is there to tell us when we have screwed up. It calls us to apologize and reconcile with people we have wronged. And it always calls us to make things right with God in both repentance and faith.

HOWEVER, shame is a horribly debilitating emotion because we hate feeling that way. We learn early on in life that shame can feel like the worst attachment-pain ever because it is often partnered with rejection and demoralizing criticism.[1]

THIS MORNING, God got me up early, so I asked him what he wanted me to pray about and who he wanted me to pray for. It wasn’t long before I found myself praying for all kinds of men in my life, some close and some distant, that God would deal with our shame so we would be healed and free to fully join his work as beloved sons of the Almighty.

IN A BOOK I recently started reading, I was confronted with this quote: “Boys and men need to know that the foundation of life is to be able to receive what we have not earned without shame."[2] I am one of the many men who have never been given such a foundation, so what do we do?

THAT’S WHERE prayer comes in. I was led to begin praying through this verse again, not only for me, but especially for all the men who were coming to mind: “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.”[3]

YES, I KNOW that the imagery is a simile of God as a husband relating to his sinful people as an abandoned wife, a widow who has shamed herself. But we can just as much make this a real-life picture of God as Father speaking to his boys who have screwed up in life and left a trail of shameful sins and relationships. The promises definitely apply in the New Covenant we have with Jesus Christ our Lord.

SO HOW do we pray this comforting expression from God our Father (and, yes, this easily applies to any women who carry a shame-based reaction to God as Father)?

FIRST, we ask that God would speak his “fear not” into the hearts of every shame-filled heart we are praying for. We pray that God would speak an end to fear into our storms of shame as obviously as he spoke his peace into the storm that had stirred his disciples to hopeless despair.

SECOND, we pray that God would fulfill in all these men we are praying for (and more) his promise that we “will not be ashamed” after all. We are not asking God to make it so we haven’t done shameful things. It is far too late for that! In Isaiah’s time, God was not saying that the people would not do anything shameful. Rather, he was promising that after their horribly shameful sin and rebellion, the end of the matter was that they would not be ashamed. They would be so restored to him that their shame would be gone.

AND THAT is what so many men need, not Good-Boy Christianity that says we can only be free of shame if we act like good Christians and don’t do anything wrong, but Good-God Christianity that says that every instance of shameful sin in our lives will be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ so that, when we repent and return to God, we will not be ashamed any longer because all our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ.

THIRD, we ask God to proclaim over all these men his, “be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced.” Some men have abused their children and need to be called to Jesus with this promise of cleansing that, even if they must bear the disgrace of what they have done in one way, they will not be disgraced before the throne of grace where they will receive the help they need to walk through reconciliation and healing with those they have wronged.

BUT WE ALSO have men who are simply carrying so many shame-wounds, perhaps because of what was done to them instead of what they have done, and they need to know that if they open their hearts to Jesus about it, and surrender the cesspools of secret-hearted shame to him, they will not be left in a state of confoundedness, and nor will they live a life of disgrace with God and his Spirit-filled boys.

FOURTH, we pray that God would speak into the hearts of all these men his promise, “you will forget the shame of your youth”. In fact, David gives us help in how to pray about this with a ready-made prayer request when he says, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!”[4] We join him by praying that God would assure men that their repentance and faith and reconciliation will result in everyone forgetting the sins of our youth, or whatever sins are in focus, because they are forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

FIFTH, while the last phrase speaks of “widowhood” as a simile of what things were like for the disciplined people of God, we can pray it specifically for men something like, “Father, assure all these men that the reproach of their disconnect from you will be remembered no more.” We are asking God to do such a work on attachment-pain, abandonment issues, hidden worlds of self-protection, even the painful self-justifying of narcissism, so that men will face their reproach, the sins they have committed against others, and bring them so honestly before God and whoever they have wronged that the reproach of anything shameful at all would be forgiven and cleansed and washed away into the sea of God’s forgetfulness, as they say.[5]

I KNOW it would be easy to expand this verse into even more in-depth prayer for specific situations, for both men and women, based on the real-life stories of what has happened in our lives. I share this as an example of how God ministered it to me this morning, even getting me up quite early to direct me into this kind of prayer. And when I go out on my prayer walk in a bit, I will pour my heart out all the more for all the men (and women) God brings to mind.

AND YES, for any women who have read this far, men need you praying for them like this as well. And pray for women who have been shamed by men to experience all these things so they can forgive the men who repent of their shameful acts and seek to reconcile with the people of God.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that God has revealed his heart in his word with scriptures like this one from Isaiah, and we can pray his word back to him in confidence that he will guide us into his will as we do so, and then will answer the prayers we pray.

FOR ME, this has been a morning of prayer that almost demanded that I share this to try and get others to join me, or to join with others where you are, so the horrible wounds of shame would be healed, and all the ground we have surrendered to the evil one by hiding our shame from God would be restored to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and life-after-life, and generation-after-generation, would experience the powerful and wonderful work of Jesus setting the prisoners free.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] No, I don’t believe little boys are as resilient as the experts claim.

[2] Jim Wilder, the Stages of a Man’s Life

[3] Isaiah 54:8

[4] Psalm 25:7

[5] https://www.gotquestions.org/sea-of-forgetfulness.html

The Old Gospel that Protects From the New

 The new trend in handling “the gospel” (the good news of salvation) is to relate to it in self-justification instead of in self-denial. People who do not want to be saved from their sin self-justify why God is okay loving them with their sin intact. 

The original way (the genuine way) was to see the gospel as the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.[1] Sinners would hear this good news and feel such poverty of spirit over their sinful condition that they would call out in mourning and meekness, with a hunger and thirst for the righteousness they did not have, and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of being saved from the condemnation of their sin and into the adoption as sons of the living God.[2] 

The new way of relating to the gospel is to treat it like Jesus came into the world to find good people to help be better. Now we have “good” people (by their standard, not God’s) admitting they have a few things they need help with (only the ones they admit to) and claiming Jesus is here to help them do better, to feel better, to get healing for the hurt feelings of life, and to just love everybody the way they are. 

The original way of the gospel called people to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ.[3] The denial of self came when people heard the good news and knew they were the sinners Jesus came to find.[4] This gave them hope because admitting they were sinners meant their hearts were open to the Savior. By admitting their sin, they found themselves being found by Jesus.[5] And being found by Jesus meant they were now entering the very life God created them to experience. 

The new way of the gospel calls people to self-justification, rejecting the conviction of the cross, and inviting Jesus to follow them through life helping them and their mates feel good about themselves. You know, participation ribbons for everyone no matter how well or poorly they actually ran the race. 

So why is the original gospel “good news of great joy”[6], while the new gospel (which is nothing new at all) is the scariest thing in the world? Or, put another way, why is the original gospel filled with the message of life while the new gospel is condemned and anyone who preaches it, “let him be accursed”?[7] 

The answer is in Jesus’ words, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[8] The new gospel is designed by Satan, the thief, who uses it to steal, kill, and destroy people in the condemnation of their sin for their utter destruction. The original gospel is the means by which Jesus gives life of the “abundantly” variety. 

The new gospel is actually a deception called “cheap grace”. Grace is central to the good news of salvation, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his death in our place; it costs us dying with Christ and being buried with him in order to be raised into the newness of life in the kingdom of God.[9] 

“Cheap Grace” is the belief that God is so loving and gracious, and he has done all the work of salvation through Jesus Christ, that there is no judgment on God’s children for anything they do wrong. The belief is that God’s grace does everything, and we are not expected to address or deal with the sin in our lives because Jesus “paid it all”, and there is nothing more to do (only partly true). 

This was something the church faced way back in the first generation of believers after Jesus’ death and resurrection. God was teaching his church that, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”[10] and the leaders had to deal with the challenge, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”[11] And what was the answer to such an absurd question? “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”[12] 

You see, it was absolutely true that, when Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and when he comes to sinners now through the original gospel, the grace of God in the gospel super-abounds in relation to even the very worst of sinners so that anyone can hear the good news and know there is more than enough grace to cleanse them from any amount or degree of sin. This is why it is noted in God’s word that it was people like the prostitutes and tax-collectors who were repenting of their sins and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. They understood that God’s grace was super-abounding over the horrible regrets of their sins. And that grace drew them to leave their sin and love the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The point is that this grace gives people hope of cleansing from sin and acceptance with God, not condoning of sin and a nod and a wink from a manmade grandfatherly figure who let’s the kids get away with what the parents have forbidden. 

One way to think of the accountability of the original good news is that the salvation by grace through faith fully saves a person without any contribution of good works at all, but when the dead sinner is made alive in Christ (like spiritual CPR), the newness of life in the abundant life of God’s kingdom calls them to live as obedient children of God rather than disobedient children of the evil one. 

My point in sharing this today is simply that I have been watching the new gospel[13] make inroads into groups who call themselves Christians. It is nothing new. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians address this false gospel in great detail. The apostles also make repeated warnings about the false gospel all through their writing of God’s breathed-out words. 

I am at the point of pleading with people to please measure your heart and mind against the original gospel, the genuine gospel. Have you experienced Jesus Christ delivering you out of the domain of darkness, leaving behind your sin, and transferring you into his kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, or are you trying to convince yourself that God sees enough good works in you that you don’t actually need the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross? 

If any of your security for salvation rests in anything at all that you have done or are doing, it is a false gospel. But if you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone to save you, and you know that he has done everything required of God for you to have eternal life, then I “urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”[14] by walking with God’s children in “the obedience of faith”.[15]

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] I Timothy 1:15

[2] Romans 8:1-2, 15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5

[3] Luke 9:23

[4] Luke 19:10

[5] The three parables of Luke 15 show the joy of God when Jesus finds sinners and brings them home.

[6] Luke 2:10-11

[7] Paul condemns any new and divergent and progressive gospels as utterly contemptible in Galatians 1:6-10 because they make people think they are saved when they are still in their sins.

[8] John 10:10

[9] Romans 6:3-4

[10] Romans 5:20

[11] Romans 6:1

[12] Romans 6:2

[13] The “new gospel” is actually an oxymoron because “gospel” means “good news” and this new gospel is the worst news ever. The original gospel gives life by grace through faith, which is good news of great joy, and the new gospel, which is no gospel at all (because it is not good news) secures people in the condemnation of their sins and the judgment of God over their sin.

[14] Ephesians 4:1

[15] Romans 1:5; 16:26