On This Day: The Defeat of Death and the Reign in Christ

   And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:16-17)

   Halfway through Romans 5 we come to Paul’s elaborate contrast between the “first Adam” Jesus created and Jesus the “second Adam”. These two men have had the most profound effect on the world of anyone else, and understanding what Jesus did to redeem what Adam did is indispensable to the justification that is by faith.

   The part of this that stood out the most to me this morning was the contrast between how “death reigned” through the first Adam, but believers “reign in life” through the second Adam.

   My first thought was one of fascination. It was like my mind expected “death reigned” to be matched by the rhyming thought of “life reigned”. But the contrast is that “death reigned” on Adam’s side, but on Jesus’ side it is “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” who “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” Yes, very fascinating!

   The next thing I wanted to know is, which kind of life is Paul talking about. The Greek of the New Testament has three words for life. One is our physical/biological life; one is our soul-life, and one is eternal life, or the life that is in God. Obviously reigning in “life” would have different connotations depending which of the three words is used!

   Because Paul is using the word that speaks of the life that is in God, or eternal life (zoe), we get the distinct picture of how all believers in Jesus Christ are alive in Christ in a world where everyone else is dead (in relation to eternal/God life). In that sense, we can already see the amazing contrast. A world full of dead people; a kingdom full of alive people, and the alive people in Christ reign over the dead world through Jesus Christ.

   I think the biggest part of this for me is that we are living in a world that is constantly trying to demoralize God’s children with dire warnings. Evil worldlings are inventing ways to kill people. The dead people of the world are making laws to punish living people from talking about the good news of eternal life. Churches are being infiltrated with the weeds of false teachers, false prophets, false worship leaders, all adding enough poison to the mix that you can’t be sure people could actually be made alive through the “gospel” they preach.

   And then there’s us little guys. The everyday kind of church member. The God-lover with a small voice. One of the “few” who tremble at the word of God while the “many” trample it underfoot or tamper with its glorious message.

   And what God ministered to me is to let myself feel the wonder of being one of the people who received the good news of grace, who received the free gift of righteousness, and now “reign in life” through Jesus Christ our Lord.

   What I mean is that I don’t need a left-brain explanation as much as a right-brain attachment. I don’t need to stop and study everything the Bible says about believers ruling and reigning with Christ.

   What I need is to stop myself on the path of worry and despair about our time in the world, throw off the baggage of self-deprecating messages, and stand up, do my part to put the full armor of God on the one new man, and live with other believers as the “more than conquerors” we are in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Today, simply knowing that all Jesus’ true disciples have been born again into eternal life so that we reign in THAT life over the cemetery of the world encourages me to act like I am a priest in Jesus’ kingdom where Jesus is opening the seven seals to fulfill God’s eternal will over this sin-ravaged planet.

   And, because Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, we who are priests in his kingdom (meaning, all true believers) ought to be all the more energized to stand before God with the needs of this dead world on our hearts, and stand before the world with a message of good news of great joy from the one who sits on the throne, always watching for the sheep who will hear Jesus’ voice and follow him straight into this kingdom.  

 

© 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: Why the World Hates Jesus Christ

   After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee. (John 7:1-9)

   There is a well-known Christian evangelist named Ray Comfort who begins his sharing of the good news by walking people through the 10 commandments. He sees that “since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), people need to see themselves first measured by the law so they realize they are condemned sinners, and then to hear the good news of great joy that God has given us a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came into the world to save sinners.

   Today I noticed that, when Jesus was explaining to his brothers why he wasn’t ready to go to the “feast of booths” in Jerusalem, he distinguished between them and him by the fact that they were of no threat to the world’s worldliness because they were part of the religious world system of Israel, while he was a threat to the world system of Israel because he was testifying “about it that its works are evil.”

   One thing that really stood out was Jesus’ use of “the world” in relation to Israel. Israel’s spiritual standing before God was so lost that Jesus identified it as “the world”. The same world the Romans and Greeks lived in. It was the world system operating without God. That world would hate him because he was not of the world. He had a kingdom that was not of the world. Israel was not of his kingdom because it was of the world. And, at that time, so were Jesus’ earthly brothers.

   What Jesus was saying was that Israel’s worldly hatred toward him was based on him testifying that their works were evil. What they were doing as a nation was evil. There were some faithful ones in the mix (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, Anna, John the Baptist, etc), but the nation itself was of the world. And it hated being told that it was living in sin, particularly because they were such good religious people.

   As I pondered this in prayer, it then stood out how the reference to “the world” is used in John’s gospel. That famous verse, John 3:16, states it clearly, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” For a long time, I have noticed the contrast between God loving Israel (as seen throughout the Old Testament), and God loving the other nations. John 3:16 is Jesus words to Nicodemus, a leader in Israel, identifying that the message of love God had communicated to them was for “the world”, meaning, all nations. But it also means that Israel was part of that world as well and needed the same salvation as the despised Romans, Greeks, and Samaritans of the day.

   All of this together got me realizing that if the world loves the message, the messenger is likely NOT addressing that “its works are evil.” On the other hand, those who know the good news of great joy the best know that “through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20) leads to,

   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 3:22-25)

   You see, even there it’s “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” as a necessary-to-believe truth that prepares hearts for “and are justified by his grace as a gift…” Jesus came into the world to save sinners, so he told them the truth about their sin (which is why the worldlings hated him), and told them the truth about the so great salvation he would secure through his death (which is why the poor-in-spirit sinners loved him).

   We all know that Jesus did not only go around testifying to the sinfulness of the world. He didn’t say that was the whole message, only that it was the part of the message that caused the world to hate him. But it was a necessary thing for people to know that only because God put Jesus “forward as a propitiation by his blood” to deal with the evil in us can we have a redemption that is “received by faith”.

   The reason “repent” and “believe” must always be kept together (even when one is used as a summary for the whole) is because repentance focuses on changing our minds about our evil deeds so that what we once loved we now hate, and faith focuses on changing our minds about the triune God so that the God we once hated we now attach to in childlike trust and love.

   I am ever so thankful that God has been quick and relentless to call me out on my evil deeds. By seeing that I was,

   dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3),

I could also see how,

   God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)

   Earlier in John’s gospel we read, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Today we see how Jesus became hated by the world because he was calling them out on their evil works in order to open their hearts to the good news. Many continued loving the darkness, their very religious darkness, while others heard the good news that there was a kind of redemption from sin they had never experienced, and they came into Jesus’ kingdom to have it.

   So, what is your reaction to Jesus putting the spotlight on your evil works?

   And does your answer show you where you stand with him?

 

© 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 Ultimate Higher is Jesus Himself

   But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
(John 4:23-26)

   For a very long time I have had a verse of Scripture overlaid over everything I do, and everything I desire for other people. It is Jesus’ words in his High Priestly prayer of John 17, “And this is eternal life, that they KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

   Everything the Scriptures say about eternal life is ultimately about knowing the Triune God. Everything we do in the church is about people knowing God. Every leader of anything in the church should have a testimony of knowing God in a constantly growing and maturing kind of way.

   With that in mind, when I look at Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman, and I consider his aim of leading her to drink of the living water that would well up within her to eternal life, and then I feel the weight of his concluding words, “I am he”, I see how masterfully he led her to HIM. He was leading her to KNOW him.

   As I consider a lifetime of Highers-Deepers with Jesus, I see how he led me through “the valley of the shadow of death” on so many occasions to get me to the next experience of feeding in green pastures and lying down beside quiet waters. These experiences were all coordinated by God to lead me to know that “The LORD” who is “my shepherd” is “Yahweh” the Son. Meaning, Jesus is the shepherd David was talking about.

   This is why David was so personal about everything long before “the gospel” (good news) rang out at Jesus’ birth. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd, “I shall not want”, or be lacking in anything I need. And then it is so clear:

   “HE makes me lie down in green pastures.”

   “HE leads me beside still waters.”

   “HE restores my soul.”

   “HE leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

   Therefore, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for YOU are with me; YOUR rod and YOUR staff, they comfort me.” Note the amazing change of focus from telling us about HIM, to speaking to HIM about how personally we can know him.

   “YOU prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”.

   “YOU anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

   “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD (Yahweh) forever.”

   What David testified in Psalm 23 a thousand years before Jesus came was a prophecy of the believer’s life. It would be about knowing God. Our life “in Christ” would be all about knowing God. The grand conclusion to Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman gives us an enduring picture of what it looks like to come to know God.

   I often talk to God about why he chose such a lonely road for me. He often reminds me that his ways and thoughts are so much Higher than mine that I need to trust his sovereign goodness and join him in whatever work he shows me each day. However, he also reminds me that his Holy Spirit has directed me into my place in the body of Christ so I can just be myself in Christ and trust him to build up others as he chooses. 

    Which makes me want to encourage you all the more to set your heart on knowing God. Agree with him about every Higher he shows you in his word no matter how painful or hopeless your life appears to be. Admit to him every Deeper thing you come to next and present it to him the way the Samaritan woman did. And remind yourself that the Samaritan woman was interacting with Jesus for real before she even knew who he was!

   As I write this, I keep having Paul’s words echoing in my mind, “that I may know HIM and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). Paul’s example is based on the universal gift of God to all who believe: eternal life. And that eternal life to all believers has a universal reality: to KNOW God.

   Our journey through the Higher-Deepers of the Samaritan woman, along with our own personal experiences of God’s gracious ministry to our souls, invite us to “hunger and thirst” for the “righteousness” of knowing God, because Jesus has already provided everything we need to fulfill the “they shall be satisfied” promise.

 

© 2025 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 Higher-Deeper of Love and Prejudice

   Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

   A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:1-9)

   Years ago, my journey through Jesus’ visit with the Samaritan woman led me to see the way Jesus would say something to her that made her thoughts go HIGHER than ever before, but that led to her having to look DEEPER into herself than she had ever done. Ever since, this HIGHER/DEEPER way of relating to God in his word has richly blessed me.

   So, coming again to John 4 is like a return trip to Ucluelet, BC. There is a history of visits to this passage of Scripture, an anticipation of seeing things I haven’t seen before, and the expectation of experiencing it as the person I am this time through the journey.

   The first Higher/Deeper experience came in the opening scene of the drama. We have what appears to be a typical Jewish man resting by the local well. Enter stage right is a not-typical Samaritan woman. Typical in being Samaritan, yes. Typical in being a woman, yes. But not-typical in coming to the well all alone.

   Think of the shock and strangeness to this woman when a lifetime of animosity between Jews and Samaritans is blasted with something she could never have expected. The cultural stereotype of prideful and hateful Jewish men relating to despised and hated Samaritans (and the feeling was mutual) was being utterly broken by Immanuel, God with us, the Word who became flesh to dwell among us.

   The first application of this is to encourage you to have a daily time with God in his word and prayer where you listen for what he is saying, look for how he is working to accomplish his will in those things, and diligently join him in his work as best as you know to do. As much as we can learn from someone else’s sharing from the word, we always learn more from attaching to God for ourselves in the two-way relationship of his word and our prayer.

   The second application is to consider our own experience with encountering God’s Highers and our Deepers. Every time we read God’s word, he will be revealing something to us that is Higher than what we have learned about him. When we say, “I’ve never noticed that before,” or “something stood out that I never considered,” or “Why have I never noticed that verse!”, or even just, “What stood out today was…”, we are describing a Higher. And, since God says that “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9), we sure better expect that when we meet with him, seeing “higher” things is a way of life for his children.

   The Deepers to look for are always where God points his spotlight inside us. What do we suddenly see inside ourselves that tells us how we are doing? What clash do we feel between the Higher thing God is showing us in his word and our “blessed are the poor in spirit” acknowledgement of how sadly we aren’t experiencing what is written, or we just don’t know him like that. This is the gift of the Deeper, seeing where we are in relation to what God is saying and doing.

   In the case of the Samaritan woman, her Deeper was the inescapable feeling of being despised and rejected by the Jewish people. She had to feel that before discovering that this was the Messiah who “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

   Do you see that? In the first-step of the Higher/Deeper she encounters a man who is willing to break all the barriers of custom and culture to give her the honor of helping him out with a drink of water, and she feels this strange event on the Deeper of a heart that has borne the shame and disgrace over her ethnicity in the eyes of Jewish men. And that, we will see, is the genius of the Savior who has compassion on the people living in darkness because he saw them as sheep without a shepherd.

   I am truly looking forward to the rest of this journey through John 4 and the gift of meeting with Jesus and this woman who becomes my sister in Christ before the scene is finished. I am in awe and wonder that John takes us from Jesus’ one-on-one with Nicodemus, a good, Jewish religious leader who struggled with Jesus’ teaching on being born again, and leads us through Jesus’ one-on-one visit with a sinful Samaritan woman who entered the kingdom of heaven on the same day she just went to the well for water.

   In all of this, as John put front and center in his prologue, “…we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace… No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known” (John 1:14-18).

   This is what was happening to this poor and unsuspecting Samaritan then, and it shines even more brightly for us today as we get to see the whole scene in just a few minutes of reading (and hour-upon-hour of meditating!). Can you see how God is doing this very thing with you today?

 

© 2025 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: When Today’s Nicodemus Meets Jesus

   Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:9-12)

   For a long time, I have pondered how different modern “apologetics” is from what I read in Scripture. The whole idea of apologetics comes from the Greek word “apologia”, which means to make a defense. Peter spoke of this when he wrote about “always being prepared to make a defense (apologia) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

   As I have considered that Peter was writing to persecuted Christians, not contemporary Bible students, and that the New Testament is full of examples of what it means to give a defense for the reason we have hope, it has stood out that the biblical focus is not proofs for creation, proofs for the worldwide flood, proofs for the divine authorship of any particular book of the Bible (all good things), but on explaining what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and then watching how it divides the “few” from the “many”.

   Quite recently, when I went through the book of Acts, I was drawn to the way Paul shared the good news in Athens where the people had no knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures or what Jesus of Nazareth had done to secure our redemption. It was very instructive to see what Paul did and did not emphasize. I could see that he stated the truth of what we all must deal with in relation to God, and then met with those who believed.

   Now I am in John 3 where Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus is showing me how the Messiah addressed what this “teacher of Israel” needed to hear. And what I conclude today is that Jesus wasn’t doing left-brain apologetics. He wasn’t matching proofs to challenges.

   Instead, he was seeing the soul-condition of a man who was not alive. This teacher of Israel was still dead in his trespasses and sins.

   And THAT attracts my attention. How did Jesus speak to a man who saw nothing more than signs that proved Jesus must be from God in some way he couldn’t figure out?

   Answer: Nicodemus, “You must be born again”!

   How does that explain the hope that is within me?

   The reason for the hope within me is that I have been born again!

   How have I been born again?

   Well, let me tell you a story…

   And on we go into the “good news of great joy” that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

   Let me tell you what Jesus Christ did for us through his sinless life, his horrifying death, and his liberating resurrection. 

    Let me tell you about how “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and how the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 came “to seek and to save the lost”.

   Let me tell you how “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), and how “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

   And let me share the wonder that “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) so that my hope is perfectly defensible. It makes perfect sense that I would have hope in Jesus’ return, in my resurrection, in me becoming like him when I see him as he is, when you list all the things that God did for us through Jesus Christ so that the faith I have in the present time is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

   Which brings me back to this whole soul-condition stuff. Jesus came to give “rest to our souls”. That rest includes the justification by grace through faith I have already experienced upon being born again by the Spirit. It rests on the sanctification by grace through faith whereby I am presently being “transformed into the same image (as Jesus) from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). And it rests on the promised glorification by grace through faith by which I will finally be “glorified with him” who secured our so great salvation.

   How do I see Jesus doing this with Nicodemus?

   The central thing is that Jesus spoke exactly what Nicodemus needed to hear to be born again. We can’t improve on that.

   What do our present-day Nicodemuses need to hear? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

   And when they complain that this doesn’t make sense, what do we say? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

   And how do we explain why we aren’t going to argue in earthly ways? Because “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Which means, arguing in the flesh only produces fleshliness. Earthly thinking. It goes nowhere. That’s why Paul warned Timothy not to waste time in such things.

   And when the Nicodemuses still defend their right to unbelief, we echo Jesus’ words, “You must be born again.”

   This continues into Nicodemus asking, “How can these things be?” Isn’t that a perfect time to go into contemporary apologetics and explain all the reasons we know the Bible is true? There may be some room for this, considering most people we will talk with don’t know their Bibles like Nicodemus did.

   However, while contemporary apologetics seems to aim at helping people understand, Jesus’ focus was on helping Nicodemus see that in his soul-condition he did not understand. Jesus made a point of it. He made Nicodemus admit, at least in his mind, that he was a teacher of Israel and did “not understand these things”. He pointed out that his problem was, “you do not receive our testimony”.

   And today, I have been meditating on this: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12).

   What stands out is that Jesus did not try telling Nicodemus earthly things to help him accept heavenly things. Rather, he exposed the sinner’s soul, that his inability to understand the earthly things made the heavenly things impossible.

   This wasn’t to show him it was impossible, but that it was impossible for HIM, for Nicodemus, for the man who was not born again!

   And just in case anyone is wondering if I would turn this into a system whereby I develop my own brand of apologetics, no, I’m not interested in that. Neither am I suggesting that the apologetics that can explain all the background information to other religions, to atheists, agnostics, and skeptics is without value.

   All I am sharing is that, when we look at how Jesus did things, his work was to address people’s soul-condition in a Beatitudinal way that would cause them to feel poverty of spirit, to mourn their sin and ignorance, and to meekly resign to their own helplessness and the authority of Jesus Christ. Why? So they would hunger and thirst for righteousness that is satisfied while every man-centered quest for righteousness is constantly denied.

   Ever since I began factoring in the Beatitudes into everything God is doing with me and others, it is apparent that Jesus was doing this all the time. He wanted Nicodemus to feel his poverty of spirit. This would not come from earthly arguments about how we know the Bible is true, but from the admission in a sinner’s heart that he or she does not have eternal life.

   I am eager to see how John 3:16 will sound to me a few verses from now when I get to it. But right now, do any of us need to admit that we are not born again and that is why we are always looking for signs instead of attaching to Jesus’ words?

   Do we need to agree with Jesus’ assessment that, for all our searching, our problem is that we do not understand (because we are not born again)?

   Do we need a reminder that we have already repeatedly NOT received the testimony of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles in what they have written of the kingdom of God?

   And do we need to admit that we have struggled to understand the earthly things (like evidence for the Bible’s divine authorship), and that is why we are having so much trouble accepting the heavenly things?

   I know I have a propensity to say far too much. But I hope this little bit explains how Jesus seems to focus on exposing people’s soul-condition rather than giving left-brain evidences that prove the Bible can be trusted. If people aren’t born again, they cannot see beyond the “signs”, the external evidences of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

   As I’m watching Jesus’ ministry to Nicodemus, I have in mind that there is good reason to believe he did become a disciple in the end. He was one of the men who took Jesus’ body down from the cross and placed it in the tomb. But I’m also watching how Jesus shared the good news with him in a Beatitudinal way so that, instead of left-brain arguments, he gave right-brain attachment to show that Nicodemus did not have attachment to God. And Jesus’ signs weren’t enough to give him that. He needed to be born again.

   Centuries ago, Augustine described how he had to believe to understand rather than understand to believe. He was expressing the new birth. He had to be born again to “get it” about everything else, and that is what we see Jesus doing for Nicodemus back in the day, and us in our time.

   If none of this is clear to you, take the time to read the first two chapters of John to see how they lead to Jesus’ visit with Nicodemus in chapter 3. Perhaps you need the same journey he took to come to know Jesus for real.

 

 

© 2025 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: Getting In Trouble For Speaking God’s Truth

   “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. (Acts 26:19-21)

   Yes, the parallel to Charlie Kirk is plain to see. However, I want to both expand the picture from “Be like Charlie” to “be like the Apostles”, and narrow the picture from what everyone out there is doing to what God is doing with you.

   My first concern would be, how are you doing with this whole getting in trouble for talking about Jesus stuff? Are you one of the troublemakers who hate it when Christians claim that there is “no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”? or that Jesus alone is “the way, the truth, and the life”?

   Are you one of those fearful Christians who has never settled with God that “Jesus Christ is Lord”, and so you don’t see why you should set yourself up for trouble by telling people about him?

   Or are you a believer who sincerely tries to find opportunities to talk to others about Jesus but finds the scary side of things a bit overwhelming?

   I have never been a believer who has felt I had the right to keep the good news to myself. You know, just go to church, soak in the grace of God so we feel good and safe, and just leave that scary evangelism stuff to the hero Christians. I think I have known from childhood that the good news I was told was the good news I had to tell.

   However, I can really relate to the fear-based side of evangelism. You know, getting in trouble even when doing nothing wrong! That was such a painful thing for me in my growing up that it was ingrained into me to avoid danger. If I got someone mad, it always meant I was doing something wrong.

   Over the years, God has clearly ministered to me about this fear as John described, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (I John 4:18). Yes, my fear had to do with fearing punishment (getting in trouble for doing things the wrong way), and God’s love for me as his adopted son has been constantly working to “cast out fear” and fill me with faith in Jesus as my security with God.

   I am now able to look back at a long history of getting in trouble for “speaking the truth in love” and accept that it is the norm. If Jesus got crucified for BEING the truth in love, and Paul kept being persecuted for telling the truth in love, then us facing hate and hardship from the world for declaring to them “the good news of great joy” is just a fact of life. There’s nothing we can do about that except water down the message so people are no longer offended by truth, and that is NOT an option (even though so many churches are doing it)!

   I regularly find that Scripture, God’s word, is “teaching” me what to believe and share with others, “reproving” me in areas I was mistaken in something I believed and taught, “correcting” me in what I should believe and teach from hereon, and training me to walk in the “righteousness of faith” that is constantly growing up to be and act like Jesus.

   And the trouble that comes is simply a badge of honor that the world would treat us the same way as it treated our Savior. We don’t seek trouble. We don’t seek to be troublemakers (we are peacemakers). But we do accept the trouble that comes no matter what the direction and who the instigator. We unite with Jesus’ church in “the obedience of faith” without favoritism or partiality, and we support one another in whatever troubles we get in for sharing the good news about Jesus.

   I am pretty sure this is the first time I have gone through Luke’s account of the gospel and straight into his history of the early church as written in the book of Acts (normally I would have continued into John’s gospel).To see what happened to Jesus, and how the apostles led the way in living for Jesus no matter what, is still our living example of how to live for Christ.

   And if we need encouragement to tell people about Jesus, the best examples are right there in the word of God. So let us get in the word so we can go into the world with this good news. 

 

© 2025 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: Making No Apologies for an Apologetic Defense

 

   “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

   And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said… (Acts 22:1-2)

   As my post to the left states, I had spent considerable time yesterday addressing for myself and anyone listening that there is a way Jesus wants us to rejoice when we are slandered instead of defending ourselves. So, when I turned the chapter to Paul’s message to the angry audience, I had to chuckle at his use of the word “defense” in reference to what he had to say.

   When I looked up the meaning of the word in Greek, I discovered it was the familiar word “apologia” from which we get the idea of “apologetics”. This is not the making of an apology, as though we are sorry for offending anyone with our sharing of the gospel.

   Rather, it means, “defense (legal) n. — the speech act of attempting to prove some act or belief to be reasonable, necessary, or right; especially occurring in a court of law” (Bible Sense Lexicon). With this one word, everyone listening understood that Paul wanted to make a legal defense of his ministry to the Gentiles, showing that he did nothing to disparage the law of Moses as the slanderers claimed.

   One of the threads in my journey of growing up in Christ has included the discovery that I had learned a self-protective way of making a defense. It was conditioned into me because I was constantly being traumatized by accusations of failing, doing wrong, not measuring up, when I knew that I had done none of the above. I knew the accusations were unjust, so I would have arguments in my mind about why I was not guilty of the charges angrily levelled against me. Sometimes I would take a chance and argue my case, but, as I think of it, it wasn’t when I was being attacked personally, but when someone else in the family was the target. Then I could be quite defensive!

   It has been around 50 years since I developed those self-protective strategies. Since then, I have had to learn that anything to do with self-protection, self-justification, self-indulgence, or self-centeredness is contrary to Christ. What, then, is Paul’s example in making a defense that uses the specific word “apologia” as a legal defense of his teaching?

   I know this will become clear in what I explore next (in Paul’s speech), but my first thought was what Peter said in I Peter 3. I will share the longer section here because it explains what it looks like for all us everyday disciples to follow Paul’s example.

   But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. (I Peter 3:14-17)

  In this paragraph, Peter affirms Jesus’ words that we are to consider ourselves blessed when we suffer unjustly (see the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12). However, he calls us to “make a defense” using the same word as the apostle Paul. The key is in the focus of our defense: “a reason for the hope that is in you”.

   I have not done much studying of the early history of the church outside of what is written in Scripture. I am not sure how making a defense of our hope as the apostles meant it developed into what we now call “apologetics”. Today’s apologetics seems like a calling for gifted men, while Peter spoke as though every believer could make a defense (apologia) of the hope we have been given in Jesus Christ.

   Whatever I will learn in examining Paul’s defense in Acts 22 will include a mix of Paul’s unique calling. But what I learn about how every believer can give to others a defense of our faith comes down to the “reason for the hope that is in you” as is clearly taught in Scripture.

   In other words, if we have opportunity to share with others why we have hope in Jesus Christ, we do not need an apologetics degree in how to prove the Bible is the word of God, or how we know the Bible has not been corrupted over the years, or how to answer every claim of contradictions presented by skeptics. Some people are gifted in that, but it is not the way every believer is to give the reason for their hope in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Instead, when I picture the everyday Christians of the first century being asked why they had hope in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah/Christ, the reasons they gave would be the biblical ones. It would be sharing what Jesus did for us on the cross that gave us our hope of eternal life. It would include sharing whichever of the prophecies we could remember that were clearly fulfilled in his coming. And it would most certainly revolve around how the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives us the absolute assurance that everyone who believes in him will also be raised up to be with the Lord forever.

   I do listen to the apologists of our day who can show how the Bible stands up to the evolutionary religion, to the Bart Ehrman kind of skeptics, to antagonists who try to hide their sins behind problems with the Bible, and to Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I respect the truly biblical ones who are gifted to share the good news with people in all these different backgrounds and cultures.

   However, I do not believe that’s what Peter had in mind when he called us to always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us. I believe he was talking about how every Christian can state the reasons that we have hope in Christ according to the Scriptures.

   And, with that in mind, I am quite sure that Paul’s defense in Jerusalem will help us everyday Christians in today’s world share the reasons for our hope even while Paul did at such a foundational level. Every believer has the same reasons for why we have hope. Those reasons are all in the Scriptures. So share what you know from the Scriptures that Jesus did to give “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, and thank God for the gifted men who are doing the same thing in each of their gifted areas.

 

 

© 2025 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: Accepting the Dangers of Preaching Christ

   While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” (Acts 21:10-14)

   In over 3 decades of treating God’s word like he is speaking to me, one of the most comforting and affirming characteristics has been the way God teaches me things that are exactly what I need at the time.

   Sometimes those things are just personal. God ministers a scripture to my heart for thoughts, feelings, and needs no one else even knows about.

   Other times, like today, the Scripture God uses speaks to me personally, but while addressing something going on in the world around me on a much bigger scale.

   And right now, as the world is reeling from the murder of a young lady on public transit and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, what in the world would God say in his word that is perfectly timed to how his children are doing in handling all the griefs and sorrows we are facing?

   I have just gone through Acts 20, where Paul was preparing the elders of Ephesus for his departure. He told them they would never see him again because he could see the finish line ahead and knew his race would soon be over. What a weight to carry! Not only were suffering and death always looming over Paul’s life, but he knew this particular journey would be the end of his ministry and the elders needed to know how they must build on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:20-21).

   What really stood out to me was the impact of the relational dynamic between Paul and the disciples. In relation to Paul leaving the Ephesian elders, Luke writes, “And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38).

   In the case I shared above, Paul’s heart was breaking over the way the disciples were weeping at his willingness to suffer and die for the gospel. Even though Paul was the one who had endured so much already (with one “near-death experience”), these things affected everyone around him. You know, like is happening all around the world right now as people who never met Charlie Kirk are feeling deep grief over the ugliness of his death, the shock to his wife, and the loss to his children.

   The fact is that Jesus said this would happen. He warned about the suffering. He warned about the martyrs. He warned about the unjust trials and unfair persecutions. He made clear that the people living in darkness would see the great “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:4) because “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (vs 6).

   And the next thing he testifies to is “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies” (vss 8-10).

   The two things I want to leave with you are the specific testimonies of Paul and the other apostles that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We may never face the same threats to our lives as Paul did. We may never be in danger of being in an assassin’s crosshairs. But we must have the same heart and mind, that our temporary and transient earthly lives are lived for Christ, and our deaths will give us the greatness of being with him forever in his eternal paradise

   And the other encouragement is to have your daily time with God in his word and prayer so you can see for yourself how personally God speaks to his children, that we know what he is saying, we can recognize what he is doing, and we can get to know him by experience as we join him in his work.

   That God would do this for me today in such a profoundly obvious way is not just for me. We are all to benefit from “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” because that’s how we know how to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom,” and how to “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” even when the relational dynamic in our churches is filled with heartache and sorrow (Colossians 3:16).

 

© 2025 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: How the ‘Unknown God’ Makes Himself Known

   So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)

   As I was waking up this morning, it hit me: the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has not been the central interest in the churches I have been part of. The impact on me was that I must know how to attach to these realities with all my heart and, hopefully, to help others do the same!

   The reason this is standing out right now is that I have arrived in the chapter in Acts I was waiting for more than any other. In this present journey through Luke’s historical narrative, I wanted a fresh encounter, so to speak, in how Paul shared the good news of the kingdom with a thoroughly Gentile audience. And the Greeks of Athens were about as Gentile and disconnected from the Jews and the Scriptures as we could find.

   What I noticed yesterday was that, in Paul’s mingling with the Greeks in the marketplace, his side of the conversations revolved around “preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” In one way, this was nothing new. In another way, it was exactly what I needed settled in me: that it doesn’t matter who we are talking with, church-familiar, scripture-ignorant, evolutionist, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, religious, irreligious, it simply doesn’t matter. The “good news of great joy” is that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That Savior is Jesus, and the way he saves is through his death and resurrection.

   The very personal part of this is in the mirror. What do I see in the guy looking back at me? Do I see a longing that Paul described as “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10)?

   Do my prayers for myself and Jesus’ church exemplify knowing “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20)?

   Do I long to hear,

   ...around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)

   My point is simply this: that if telling people about the person of Jesus Christ and what he did for us through his death and resurrection is the way Paul would begin sharing the good news with the worldlings of Athens, then we can’t imagine we have a better way of doing things in our time.

   In Philippians 2, after detailing how Jesus died for us on the cross, Paul continued:

   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

   Knowing the person, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the “It is finished” realities of his death and resurrection, ought to be everything to us so we cannot help but make Jesus and his resurrection everything in how we relate to everyone.

   Today, I am going to begin introspectively. I want to know Jesus in person, and I want to know his resurrection in power, more than ever before. In fact, the measure I often present to God applies very well here, that I may know Jesus and his resurrection as much as is possible to know these realities this side of heaven. If there’s more I can experience of this (and there is), I want it!

   And then, after whatever God wants to do with me about this, I will weave this into my conversations with people and see how God uses it to find his lost sheep.

 

© 2025 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.)