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Author: Bob Christopher

How the Bible Comes to Life

Posted on by Bob Christopher

At the beginning of my freshman year at the University of Georgia, I had determined to be God’s guy. Reading the Bible daily, I thought, was the key to getting me to that goal. The first morning of my college career I picked up my Bible and started reading the Gospel according to Matthew. I read four chapters that day, and four the next, and so on for several months.
I have to confess. I didn’t get very much out of what I was reading. If someone asked, I could tell them the chapters I read, for example, Matthew 9 – 12, but I couldn’t speak with understanding about the content of what I read. Honestly, it was nothing more than words on a page. But why? What was I missing?
It was four years before the answer came. When it did, the Bible came to life. Here is what I learned and what I am continuing to learn.

  •  The Bible is about Jesus; it is God’s testimony concerning His Son. Jesus put it this way: “These are the Scriptures that testify about Me” (John 5:39). We are to read the Bible to know Jesus and discover all that He has done for us. That is what I missed. I was reading to ascertain the rules and regulations I was to live by in order to be God’s guy. For some reason I was trying to make the Bible about me. But the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points us to Jesus. The Bible is His story, and when we read it with that understanding, we grow in our knowledge of Him.
  • God’s Spirit teaches us the meaning of the Bible. We cannot figure out the mind of God through human intellect, logic or reason. Our finite minds are not capable of such an enormous undertaking. Paul made this point to the Corinthians: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV). God wants us to know what He has prepared for us. He never intended for His love and grace to be unlocked mysteries. He sent His Spirit to us so that we can understand what He has “freely given us.” Apart from God’s Spirit, we cannot comprehend the meaning of the Scriptures. When reading the Word of God, do so with a dependent attitude, a teachable spirit, trusting God’s spirit to open your heart and mind to the meaning.
  • The Spirit of God reveals the meaning of the Bible to us through the lens of the New Covenant. As believers in Jesus, we live in the New Covenant, not the Old. Trying to blend the purposes of these two covenants leads to great confusion. Everything in the Old Covenant was written to point us to the New. The Old consists of shadows and types and examples. In the New Covenant, we see and experience the realities of all that God has for us in Christ. Those days in college, I approached the Bible with an Old Covenant mindset. I was looking for rules, regulations and commandments. I was reading the Bible with a veil over my eyes and I missed Jesus. Seeing the Bible through the New Covenant lifts the veil and enables us to see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

The Bible is unique among all other books. It contains the very words of God, and specifically His word, or testimony, concerning His Son. God wants us to know Jesus and to share His life. The next time you open the Bible, do so knowing that God’s Spirit will take the message of Jesus and make Him real in your heart.

What's Love got to do with it?

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Paul may be the first on record to give an answer. To him, it meant everything. Just check out 1 Corinthians 13. Love is more important than speaking in tongues or giving all that you have to the poor, or even having the faith to move mountains. As impressive as these may be (can you actually imagine that any of these would impress God?), if they are done without love, they are meaningless; just a bunch of noise makers. Of the three things that will remain, faith, hope and love, love tops the list.
It holds that top position because it is the very nature and character of God. John tells us, “God is love.” He is the source. When love flows through us, it comes from Him. It is not something we can produce through human effort or legalistic obedience. Love is the fruit of the Spirit. And it is the evidence that we have been born again and indwelt by the resurrected life of Christ. John put is this way, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7 ESV).
If you don’t know what love looks like, Paul paints a detailed picture. It is patient, kind, and never easily angered. Love does not keep records of wrongs, it does not delight in evil, and it always rejoices in truth. Love protects, trusts and hopes the best. Love perseveres. This is the love of God. This is how He loves you. This love never fails.
What’s love got to do with it? I hope in your life that His love means everything.

God's Workmanship

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Most of us are familiar with Ephesians 2:8-10. This is the passage quoted most often to affirm that salvation is a free gift, not something that can be earned through human effort. Here is the passage:
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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Most of us stop with verse 9. When we do, we miss the full impact of God’s purpose in saving us by grace. According to verse 10, this gospel message that leads to salvation extends well beyond that moment when we cross over from death to life. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection ushers us into a new way of life altogether, one characterized by good works.
These good works have been prepared for us beforehand by God. And as a new creature in Christ, we are to walk in them. But how do we know what they are?
In one of their many conversations with the Lord, the disciples asked Jesus this: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28)
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).
Paul echoes this truth in Colossians 2:6: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” This new life that we have been raised to live is a life of faith. But this still begs the question concerning good works. Isn’t there something that God wants us to do other than merely trust Him?
In a word, no. We are His workmanship. What counts as far as God is concerned is faith in Jesus. As we trust Him and our hearts respond to the leading of His Spirit in us, we will see the good works He has prepared for us begin to flow through us. And they will be recognizable.
Here is how. First, God gives us new desires. Paul calls them the desires of the Spirit. According to the terms of the New Covenant, these desires equate to the laws God puts into our minds and writes on our hearts. They flow from God’s love and are different, night and day, from the desires of the flesh.
Forgiveness is one of those desires God’s Spirit works in us. It is not normal, humanly speaking, to want to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. But as children of God, forgiveness of others is a work God has prepared for us to walk in. We know it because God places that desire to forgive in us.
Next, the results of walking in those desires, living them out, can be attributed only to God. We can never be sure how someone will respond. Our imaginations are quick to jump to the negative possibilities, but God always has a better outcome in mind.
Calling up all the courage that we can, we step out in faith and extend forgiveness. What we first experience happens inside. Extending forgiveness calms the soul, brings peace to the heart and turns an anxious moment into one that surpasses understanding.
And then we see God’s work within the relationship. Maybe not instantly, but over time, it becomes clearer to us just how He is working what was a painful situation together for good. Couples on the verge of divorce have testified to the power of forgiveness in restoring their marriage. Assemblies of believers that were divided have come back together as they have walked in the forgiveness of God.
What happens both within and without is far too extraordinary to attribute to human effort. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Let’s walk in them.

Walk in the Spirit

Posted on by Bob Christopher

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). To live in the Spirit is to be controlled by the love of God. When the New Testament speaks to the new life we have been raised to walk in, faith in Jesus expressed in love to others is it. Through His Spirit, God has poured His love into our hearts and has given us the desire to walk by faith in Jesus. As we do, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Learning to say “no” is the by-product of saying “yes” to the Spirit.
It is important to understand this distinction. So many well-intentioned believers spend a life time trying to overcome sin in their lives. They wake up each morning with this prayer on their lips: “Lord, please help me to not sin today.” At the end of the day, they look back only to see their prayer went unanswered.
A better prayer is this: “Lord, teach me to abide in you and to follow the leading of God’s Spirit in my life.” God’s Spirit is never going to lead us into sin. He leads us to trust in the Lord, to live righteous and upright lives. He leads us to love and serve others. If living out the Spirit’s work in our lives, we will automatically be saying “no” to sin. Peter put it this way:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Walking in the Spirit is trusting God to complete the work He began in us. We can count on Him to complete this task, even when we do not fully cooperate. This is His promise to us: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…”
When we do get off course, and we will, the Holy Spirit merely recalculates our journey and continues His work in conforming us to the image of His Son. He does so without condemnation. Nor does He manipulate us with fear and guilt to get us back on track. He uses our mistakes, reminding us of the forgiveness we have in Christ, and works them together for our good. He comforts our hearts with this amazing promise: “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
You are not alone on your journey. Jesus is there with you every step of the way. Trust Him, rely upon Him, and live out what He is working in your life. When you do you will be saying “no” to sin and “yes’ to the will of God.
The center of God’s will, that’s the place where believers are to live their lives. Temptation may look exciting; the world makes sure of that. But it has nothing on its menu that can satisfy the soul and bring contentment to the heart.
The world promises happiness, but delivers pain, sorrow and misery. There is only one person who does deliver on his promises, Jesus. And He gives so much more than mere happiness. Peace, contentment, a life of godliness and love: these are His gifts of grace to us.
And there is nothing more rewarding than experiencing Jesus living His life through you.
It is time for us abandon ourselves to Jesus, to put all that we are in His hands. It is time for us to live out Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Let’s walk by the Spirit and discover that His will is good, pleasing and perfect for us.

Three Questions

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Is your mind boggled by the fact you belong to Jesus Christ? In spite of all the junk that comes your way, the daily trials and tribulations, does the love of God still rock your world? Of all your relationships, are any as satisfying as the relationship you have with God and the fellowship you experience with Him through His Spirit?
What would happen if we started asking ourselves these tough, penetrating questions on a regular basis? Paul’s hope in raising these issues in his letter to the Philippians was to help his readers live out what ultimately matters in life.
Here is their story; one you will see is much like ours today. They were affluent and worldly, but they had become complacent and discontent in their hearts. They complained, they argued, they exalted themselves above others, they took pride in their flesh, and they worried about the future. They held tightly to their worldly possessions. They were uneasy, restless, always striving for something more. The busyness and clutter of life bogged them down and robbed them of the joy of knowing Christ.
We’ve probably all been there and know exactly what that feels like, and it is not good. But is doesn’t have to be that way. We really can say that nothing compares to knowing Christ and experiencing the joy of our salvation. Sometimes we just have to be reminded what we truly have in Him, and that He is the source of our contentment and joy.
Ask your self these questions. Digest what it means to belong to Christ, to know and experience the love of God, and to walk in fellowship with His Spirit. These are the realities that matter, the realities that bring satisfaction and contentment to the soul.

Who is in Control?

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Are you saying that since you are totally forgiven you can just go out and do anything you want? Anytime the grace of God is discussed, the critics drone away with this ridiculous question. All it does is betray their shallow understanding of salvation.
In Christ, we have received much more than forgiveness. We have been made alive so that we could walk in the newness of life led and guided by God’s Holy Spirit. Is God’s Spirit going to lead you to sin? To the person who believes that salvation is nothing more than the forgiveness of sins, freedom doesn’t make sense. So they ask the question.
The question isn’t new. Paul was hit with it almost everywhere he traveled. He gave an alarming answer to these critics in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “everything is permissible to me.” Yes, he was free to submit to the desires of the flesh. And so are you. But what was more important to Paul was that in Christ he was free to submit to the desires of the Spirit. And guess what? You are too. Both are permissible, but only one is profitable.
Here is the real issue. When we give in to the desires of the flesh we put ourselves under the control of sin. For the child of God, this doesn’t make sense. Paul didn’t want to be mastered by anything. He had had enough of that as a lost person. He wanted to live his life under the control of the Holy Spirit and experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.
We are not independent beings, we are dependent. But God has given us the freedom to choose who or what we will depend upon at any given moment. Who is in control? That is the question we should be asking. When we submit to the desires of the Spirit, we will experience the abundant life Jesus promised. Who is in control of your life?

Forgiveness

Posted on by Bob Christopher

God remembers your sins no more. I don’t know about you, but when the lights came on concerning this truth, my life changed.
For the longest time, it seemed everywhere I went, or whatever I tried to do, guilt was right there with me, haunting me and toying with my mind. My sins weren’t the stuff of legend, but they were sins just the same and they (I) deserved to be punished. But when, how? I didn’t have the answer, only the sobering thought that some day God was going to punish me.
Even though I knew of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, forgiveness was not a reality. I wasn’t even convinced that it was a possibility. I wondered if God was willing to forgive me at all. I pleaded with Him, asked Him into my life countless times, but still guilt kept hanging around, until…
Hebrews 10. There, I found out exactly what Jesus’ sacrifice did for me. His work on the cross cleansed me, took away my sins, made me holy and perfect in God’s sight, and fulfilled the old covenant on my behalf. And this just blows my mind: Jesus’ death erased my sins from God’s memory.
Oh, the relief I felt knowing that my sins had been forgiven once and for all, and then to be unshackled from the guilt and shame. They kept telling me I could never go into the throne of grace, even though the door was wide open. But no more, forgiveness is mine. I’ve entered in. How about you?

The Change Begins

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Paul had it all wrong. Not just a little wrong mind you. He missed God’s purpose and plan altogether.
He knew the OT Scriptures, but He missed the Author. He embraced the law but was totally at odds with its intended purpose. He was a staunch apologist for the Jewish way of life and a leader of the leaders, but he was blind to the real blessing of being a descendant of Abraham.
It doesn’t make sense that he was so far off the mark. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, born of the tribe of Benjamin. He even claimed to be faultless as to legalistic righteousness. With this pedigree, God’s purposes should have been clear to him, and he thought that they were. His approval of the stoning of Stephen proved otherwise.
Something radical happened to Paul on his way to Damascus. In a blinding light, the voice from heaven asked the question that stopped Paul dead in his tracks; “Why are you persecuting me?” The truth became clear; this Jesus he was persecuting was both Lord and God. In that moment, Paul’s self-effort melted into faith, and salvation was his. He was alive in Christ.
And then the change began. Three years in the Arabian Desert reordered his mindset, specifically his understanding of the Law. The following verses detail the changes that took place in him.

  • “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death” (Romans 7:10).
  • “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin” (Romans 3:20).
  • “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19, 20).
  • “He has made us competent as ministers of the New Covenant–not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Paul tried to live for God, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t do it through observing the law. And then he experienced the grace of God. He was made alive, and dramatic changes followed. Jesus’ love and mercy turned a blasphemer into a preacher, changed an enemy into a friend, and transformed the chief of sinners into a saint. That is the power of the gospel.
How has this Gospel changed you?

Here's What Happened

Posted on by Bob Christopher

What happened to you the moment you were saved? Each of us has a unique story to tell in response to this question. These stories are powerful and deeply moving. Today, however, I raise the question not to prompt personal testimonies, but to direct us to God’s work in our lives. In other words, what would He say happened to us the moment we were saved?
Although the list below is not an exhaustive one, it does show the magnitude of this great salvation you have received in Christ Jesus.

  • God made you alive together with Christ (This was the subject of the first two posts). Paul explains in Ephesians 2:4, 5 and Colossians 2:11-14.
  • He transferred you out of the kingdom of darkness and placed you into His kingdom : “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13, 14).
  • He added you to His body, the church of Jesus Christ: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews of Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 13). “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it” (1Corinthians 12:27).
  • God declared you to be His child: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
  • He sent His Spirit to live in you: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father'” (Galatians 4:6). “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

As you can tell from these few verses, being saved is a big deal. It is much more than receiving a ticket for entry into heaven when you die, or even forgiveness of sins here and now. What happened to you and me at that moment of salvation is monumental.
We weren’t aware of all that happened. We simply responded to the message concerning Christ. When I did, I gained a sense of purpose in life. For the first time, I felt like I was anchored, that I knew I belonged. You may have experienced peace or freedom, or felt that you had been cleansed and a mountain of guilt and shame removed. You may have been overwhelmed by God’s unconditional love and acceptance.
All these experiences are real and genuine because Christ came to live in us. We are different, new creatures according to the Bible. What happened to us is a story worth telling.

First Life, Then Change

Posted on by Bob Christopher

I grew up reciting the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday. “The third day He arose again from the dead”; I affirmed this statement with reverential gusto. But outside the confines of the sanctuary it had little meaning to me. I had never reasoned that God actually had power over death, my spiritual death. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know that I was dead in sin.
The summer before my seventh grade year, the death of Jesus overwhelmed me. It was the last night of church youth camp. The pastor graphically portrayed the crucifixion. My heart ached and tears rolled down my cheeks as I realized Christ died for me. Right then and there, I knew I needed Jesus. I prayed and thanked Him for dying for me.
I asked Him to come into my life to help me become the best person I could be. The irony is that my life got worse. Temptations and peer pressures got the best of me. I wanted to be God’s guy. I tried valiantly, but life kept spiraling out of control. The things I wanted to do, I couldn’t. The things I didn’t want to do, I did. I wondered, “Why isn’t God helping me be a better person?
Jesus wasn’t interested in making me a little better. He was not marketing the latest self-improvement program. That is what I was looking for, but self-improvement is not what I needed. Jesus’ work is this: to take someone dead in sin and make him eternally alive.
News that a close friend had taken a drug overdose stirred a sense of desperation in me. I was on the same path. Something had to change.
I started attending a Bible study in Atlanta. Dan DeHann was the teacher. I liked him, and I listened to what he had to say. His message on Colossians 2 answered my heart’s cry. It was so clear that I wondered why I had never seen it before. Here was the verse that connected: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).
What this verse taught me boggled my mind. And it still does. God made me alive together with Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, God directed toward me. I was raised spiritually to walk in the newness of life. Until that moment, Paul’s words to the Colossians were meaningless to me. I had made mistakes, committed sins, but still I was basically okay — a good kid, just off track. My hope was that Jesus could help me get back on track and make me the person I wanted to be. The problem was that the “me” I wanted to improve was actually dead in sin.
Admitting my spiritual death lifted a huge burden. I no longer had to try to fix something that was unfixable. However, this admission was frightful. Death is final, the end. It is unchangeable. No amount of human effort or ingenuity can reverse this sinister state. Mankind has tried, but to no avail. Dead is dead, and that is what I was spiritually. Control of my destiny was out of my hands. Life had to come from another source.
The Bible declares that God has power over death. That first Easter was a glorious, earth-shaking demonstration. This truth authored a belief inside of me that God could raise me to life. And He did. Resurrection is Jesus’ story, and through faith in the resurrected One it became my story.
Change wasn’t what I needed. I needed life. In my mind, it was first change, then life. God’s ways are not ours. With Him, it is first life then change.
You may be tired of the struggle to improve, to make your life better. You’ve asked God a thousand times or more for help, but nothing changes. Perhaps it’s time to step into the faith of Abraham and experience the reality of resurrection.