Go On Up To The Mountain Every Day (Part 2)

Always wear Packers gear when you know you'll be standing on top of a mountain. 

In part 1 of this 2 part blogstravaganza we looked at the depth of our need for a Savior. We saw that because of our sin, we find ourselves separated from the holy God and we are helpless to save ourselves by works of the law. The greatness of the gospel of God's grace to sinners is that while we are sinners, He redeems us and reconciles us to Himself through the blood of Jesus. 

This post will look at 2 more reasons why we should preach ourselves the gospel every day. 

2) The gospel magnifies God's grace in provision by bringing us in awe to the foot of the cross.

We have rebelled and ruined our relationship with God on account of our sin. We cannot obey the law or any other religious practices to purify ourselves in order that we may draw near to the holy God. It doesn't work! But that isn't the end of our story!

God takes us from hopeless sinners to hopeful sons!

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:6-9 ESV)

We were weak, we were ungodly. We were not righteous but sinners. But God, in Christ reveals His mammoth love for us. God loves us so much that despite our wretchedness and shortcomings He gives His beloved Son to die in our place.

God doesn't save the lovely, but sinners.

The holy and brilliant and spotless man, Jesus, went to the cross and died like a common thief so that we miserable sinners could be justified before God. For all who call upon the name of Jesus to be saved from the wrath of God will be saved, because God poured out His wrath for sin upon the man Jesus Christ. By the blood of Christ we gain our justification.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

Jesus Christ lived up to God's holy law - he never sinned! Therefore, Jesus being a man like us in every way, yet without sin, became the only sacrifice for sin that purifies us by faith. When we put our faith in Jesus we become united to him in his death to sin and his life. We are redeemed because he died for us!

Jesus is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin in the eyes of God. 

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10 ESV)

God gave of His Beloved Son for our sake! God initiated our redemption and sent his Son to secure it. We don't even like giving our change to the homeless man on the corner and God gave up the thing he treasured most to save those who hated and rebelled against him! And Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, meaning that the wrath of God that we so rightly deserve has been poured out upon Jesus in his horrific death on the cross. Jesus has atoned for our sins, and God's wrath has departed from us!

J.I. Packer writes, "Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgment has been inflicted for our ungodliness - but on Jesus, the lamb of God standing in our place. (Knowing God, p. 188)

Jesus died in our place. Jesus took God's wrath upon himself for our sins. If you have put your faith in Jesus, all your sins are nailed to the cross. Your debt has been paid, God has justly punished your sins in the person of Jesus Christ and you are freed from sin and death! We should never get over that!

Our restless hearts find their rest in Christ. In Christ we find peace with God our Maker. 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1 ESV)

We have to preach the good news of our salvation to ourselves on a daily basis! Remembering the truth of God's love for us changes every part of our daily lives.

Additionally, the gospel reveals incomprehensible love that Jesus has for us. We know that God the Father must ridiculously love us to send Jesus to die in our place. Now we see how Jesus' own death on the cross shows his great love for us as well. Consider what Jesus tells us in one of the many instances where he is describing his impending death:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11 ESV)

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” 
(John 10:17-18 ESV)

Jesus laid down his life, of his own accord, for our sake. God sent Jesus to die for us, and Jesus lovingly submitted to this plan and purpose because He and the Father are one. He loved not his life unto death because he loves us more than life itself. Do we marvel at this daily?

We have to remember that Jesus did not want to face death and God's wrath in such a way, but he laid down his life as his supreme act of love for us. Look at this powerful scene of prayer before Jesus' suffering and crucifixion:

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:41-44 ESV)

Jesus feared his death on the cross and experience of God's wrath for sin so much that his sweat became drops of blood. In this extreme pressure he still submitted to God's plan of redemptive love by laying down his life in obedience for us, his sheep!

Behold the man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders;

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished;

His dying breath has brought me life -

I know that it is finished.

We were completely separated from God and under just condemnation. But God was rich in mercy and sent Jesus into the world to die in our place, so that we could be redeemed from our sin and made alive in Christ! Jesus gave his life for God's plan of redemption and reconciliation because of his own great love for us.

But 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. 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 2:4-9 ESV)

Salvation is made possible in Jesus Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone. This is an inexpressible gift!

Do you see how much God loves you?
Do you see how much Jesus loves you?

O, love incomprehensible made thee bleed for me!
The Judge of all has suffered death to set the prisoner free!

God's grace is magnified as we see how lost we were and how saved we are!

When we preach the gospel to ourselves everyday, we remember that Jesus bought us and washed us with his blood. We see the cross as the supreme example of God's love for us and we are left in sheer awe and wonder. We encounter through the gospel the splendid display of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Standing at the foot of the cross in awe causes us to be prayerful, humble, and joy-filled followers of Jesus Christ with an extraordinary, out-of-this-world amount of hope.

How would your life change if you were filled with hope every single day?

3) Lastly, the gospel reminds us to trust not in our works but in what Jesus accomplished and confirms our standing as righteous sons and daughters of God.

One of the hardest aspects of the gospel is resting in the finished work of Christ on the cross for our righteousness and salvation. It isn't just the experience of American culture that we absorb that tells us to "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps." We naturally revert back to our default manner of thinking about ourselves. The gospel is such good news it can be hard for us to simply rest in Christ's work and we find ourselves hoping in something else, or trying to save ourselves. We find ourselves living out the works-based salvation mentality of "I have a problem, I have to fix my problem."

The gospel helps us remember that we are justified solely by our faith in Christ. The gospel reminds us that we are united to Christ by faith, and through that union we receive His righteousness for ourselves. We aren't just forgiven of our sin in Christ, we become heirs to the riches he is due!

If the gospel seems unfair, that's because it is! 
But Jesus is the truth, and that's how good God is!

Jesus lived the holy and perfect life for us so that we can rest in his completed work. 

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-14 ESV)

If we were under the law, we would have to live up to the law. Paul reminds us, no one is justified before God by the law. Rather, we live by our faith in Jesus Christ and because of that faith we are declared righteous because we have trusted the truth that Jesus fulfilled the law and redeemed us. This is why Jesus was raised from the dead, for our justification (Romans 4:25).

The gospel reminds us that we didn't (and couldn't) fix ourselves, but that Christ sends us the Holy Spirit as our helper. We receive the Holy Spirit for freedom's sake!

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:16-18 ESV)

The Holy Spirit within us confirms more of the good news of the Gospel! Not only has God justified us by our faith, we have received adoption as sons. The Holy Spirit within us has us crying out, "Abba! Father!" 

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)

All of us by faith are in the family of God as His sons and daughters because we have received the Holy Spirit. We are no longer under the law but we are born again of the Holy Spirit as members of God's family. We are God's adopted sons and daughters.

J.I. Packer helps us understand this:

"In the ancient world, adoption was a practice ordinarily confined to the childless well-to-do. Its subjects, as we said earlier, were not normally infants, but young adults who had shown themselves fit and able to carry on the family name in a worthy way. In this case, however, God adopts us out of free love, not because our character and record show us worthy to bear His name, but despite the fact that they show the very opposite. We are not fit for a place in God's family; the idea of his loving and exalting us sinners as he loves and has exalted the Lord Jesus sounds ludicrous and wild - yet that, and nothing less than that, is what our adoption means. 

Adoption, by its very nature, is an art of free kindness to the person adopted. If you become a father by adopting a son or daughter, you do so because you choose to, not because you are bound to. Similarly, God adopts because he chooses to. He had no duty to do so. He need not have done anything about our sins except punish us as we deserved. But he loved us; so he redeemed us, forgave us, took us as his sons and daughters and gave himself to us as our Father." (Knowing God, p. 215)

We are sons and daughters of God and we know this through the gospel! We are safe and secure in the care of our Father. God will meet our needs and never remove His choosing, self-giving love from us because He wants our best as our Father. We aren't just forgiven of our sin, and given Christ's righteousness - we are made family members of God with intimate loving relationship with God forever.

Tim Keller says, "The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access."

When we remind ourselves of God's Fatherly love and care for us, the cares of this world and this life just fade away. We know that God's love is upon us and that we can always rely on Him, trust Him, and call on Him to help us.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32 ESV)

When we preach ourselves the gospel and remember God is our Father because we have received the Holy Spirit, we know that we are secure. We can live as hopeful and fearless sons and daughters of God no matter what life's circumstances throw at us. God is our Father, He is for us! God has moved heaven and earth and sent His Son to die to have us!

We can be fully assured of our salvation in Jesus Christ! 

With that great news, we will be gratitude-drenched people of hope and love! We will be merciful and kind Kingdom-seeking people who joyfully pursue holiness! These are just some of the many benefits of preaching ourselves the gospel every day.

• The gospel helps us by mercifully reminding us of our greatest need - Christ.
• The gospel helps us by reminding us of God's grace in sending Jesus to die for us. 
• The gospel humbles us as we remember that God's grace to us was a gift, we didn't and couldn't save ourselves, but He has redeemed us in Christ!
• The gospel helps us by reminding us of God's love in giving Jesus for our sake. 
• The gospel helps us by magnifying Christ's love for us by showing how he laid down his life for our sake. 
• The gospel restores our relationship to God and helps us live unto Him. 
• The gospel helps us to rejoice that we have received Christ's perfect righteousness even though we did nothing to deserve it!
• The gospel gives us the freedom to rest in Christ's finished work on the cross by knowing that we don't need to add to our salvation.
• The gospel tells us that God loves us as His very children, that He is our loving and caring Father focused on our good.

I need to hear that every day!
We need to hear that every day!

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How do we preach the gospel to ourselves every day, even in the moment by moment struggles of life? 

PRACTICAL HELPS

Sing worship songs baby! But don't just sing them, meditate on the message they proclaim!

I used to carry note cards in my pocket to look back at throughout the day. These had great memory verses that summarize the gospel. Great examples are Galatians 2:20, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 1:7, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Timothy 1:15, Romans 4:25, and so many more. 

Try to listen to a podcast, read online articles, or follow a devotional that reminds you of the good news of the gospel on a daily basis. There are also many amazing apps and Bible reading plans available for your smartphone. 

Additionally, you can apply the gospel into day-to-day situations. 

Don't want to do the dishes? Remember how Christ went to the cross for your sake.

Worried about finances? Remember God as your providential Heavenly Father who has already met your greatest need in Christ.

Anxious about work? Remind yourself that you have received Christ's righteousness and your identity is in him.

Is someone in your life difficult to forgive? Remember God's free gift of grace and mercy that you didn't deserve and forgive!

These examples and so many more can help us in our day-to-day lives to keep Christ at the front and center. My prayer is that these two blog posts will help you go up the mountain of mercy and have a more joyous and intimate relationship with God.

Follow Christ to the Holy mountain

Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall

Cleanse your heart and your soul

In the fountain that flows

For you and for me and for all