Megan Langan

Undeserved Privilege

Re:Verse passage – Romans 5:1-8 (day four)

The NLT version of this text describes our position before God as “undeserved privilege.” Because of the work of Christ on our behalf, we can now stand confidently before the Father with peace and joy knowing we are awaiting an eternity spent in his glory. We’ve done nothing to earn a place in his presence. No matter how hard we try, we will continue to come up empty handed in an effort to earn a place in the Kingdom. But because of Christ’s sacrifice, we’re given the undeserved privilege of eternity with God.

This is an encouraging text, although when we read a little further, Paul is discussing this idea in relation to suffering. When we stand in this privileged position, our experiences of suffering are even turned for our good, producing endurance, character, and ultimately a renewed hope in the work of Christ. In our undeserved privilege, we can call upon the God of the universe in our suffering, knowing that he meets us in the lowest of places. While we were helplessly disconnected from God by sin, he entered into our hopeless state and offered us eternal life. Now, in our times of suffering, we’re reminded that God continuously enters into our lowest lows and offers us undeserved hope.

The Long Haul

Re:Verse passage – Romans 3:21-31 (day four)

Last Sunday, we had a conversation in Sunday School about the nature of following Jesus for the long haul. You would think that the more you walk with Christ, the less sin you have to repent for. That over time, you would eventually have fewer and fewer weeds of sin to pull up in your life. But the opposite is true. The more you walk with Christ, the more you realize how sinful you truly are, and how far you have fallen from the standard of God’s glory. As we continue to walk with Christ, we keep finding new areas of life, new rooms in the house of our heart where we need to repent and invite the Lord to change us. The longer we stand in the light of Christ, more parts of our character and our flesh are illuminated, and we realize how desperately we need Jesus. We realize how incapable we are of fulfilling the law and having righteousness of our own. This realization isn’t meant to depress us, it’s simply meant to make us increasingly grateful for the sacrifice and work of Jesus. The longer we walk with Christ, the more we realize our need for him and the more grateful we are that he satisfies our every need.

Two Paths

Re:Verse passage – Romans 2:5-16 (day four)

Paul’s writing really flies in the face of today’s preferred way of thinking. In a world that prefers relativism and pluralism (saying things like “I follow my truth and you follow your truth,” or “there are many ways to the same endpoint”), Paul makes it clear: there is good, and there is bad, there is righteousness, and there is unrighteousness, there is one way to the Father, not many. Paul writes this to an audience in Rome that desperately needs to hear this, and we equally need this message today.

Paul makes it clear that there are only two paths in life – you can live God’s way, which includes putting your faith in Christ and allowing your heart and actions to be shaped by his character, or you can stubbornly deny God, and live according to your flesh. This is true of everyone, whether they were born into a Jewish family and felt a sense of spiritual superiority (like Paul used to), or if they had never heard God‘s law before. Paul makes it clear that there is no other criteria for eternal life apart from hearing the gospel and responding to it in faith. A family name does not qualify you, and a lack of knowledge of the law doesn’t disqualify you – the fork in the road comes with how we respond to the gospel of Christ.

How might we as believers preach this message in love to the world in which we live?

Simple

Re:Verse passage – Romans 1:14–17 (day four)

We tend to want to overcomplicate the gospel. I wonder if we do that because the gospel itself seems too simple, so simple it’s illogical. We devise ways of over complicating the gospel because surely, salvation can’t be that easy. It can’t simply come down to faith – a secret password, birthright, or a resumé of good works has to fit in somewhere. It’s almost offensively simple. The only thing required for salvation and eternal life is faith in Christ.

The fact that it’s that simple tells us a lot about who God is and who we are. We can do nothing to earn salvation because nothing we have to offer can satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness. We are so sinful, so fallen from God’s glorious standard that we could spend our lives scraping up all we can find to offer to God, and it would not be enough to earn a place in his Kingdom. That is the effect of sin. But it says even more about who God is. God is so loving that he offers his people – all of his people – a way to enter his kingdom and live with him for eternity. Knowing we cannot offer anything of our own, he offers himself as the perfect sacrifice. All we must do is trust in him and accept the gift of his sacrifice on the cross. It’s as simple as receiving a gift that has already been bought. The simplicity of the gospel shows us the depth of our sin, and even more so the depth of God’s love for us.

Role

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 4:18-19; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9; Galatians 4:4–7 (day four)

It’s proper to end this study with a discussion of who we are and who we’re called be. If we’re going to be discipled, we need to know the shape we’re being formed into.

Matthew tells us that we’re called. We aren’t passive actors in God’s world, with life simply happening to us. We’re called to go into the world with intention and share the gift we’ve received. We’re called to seek after the lost, to be “fishers of men.” We have a role to play in this grand cosmic play. 1 Corinthians reminds us that while we have a role to play, we are not the end-all be-all. We can prepare people to encounter Christ, we can introduce them Christ, but we cannot enact salvation in their life. Our role is to point people to Christ, knowing he is faithful to work in their hearts.

Galatians reminds us that because of God’s mercy and Christ’s sacrifice, our identity is now wrapped up in Jesus. We are adopted into the family of God, sons and daughters – not slaves. As we continue to understand our identity in Christ, we will be able to more faithfully live out the role he has given us – faithfully showing others the love and mercy of our Father.

How have you felt this identity and role taking shape in your life lately?

Authentic

Re:Verse passage –Mark 1:1-4; Luke 4:42-44; Acts 5:42; 11:19-21 (day four)

Between Scripture and our Baptist theological tradition, we are left with no excuses to not be preaching the gospel. Baptists believe in the “priesthood of the believer,” which in part means it is not only the job of the clergy to preach the gospel, but every believer is called to this work. Scripture makes it very clear that sharing the gospel is a core tenant of the life of faith and dedication to Christ. We are left with no excuses to not share the good news.

So what keeps us from sharing it? Is it fear? Worry over how it will be received? Concern that we’re “not doing it right”? Have we overcomplicated it? All of these may be true. Preaching the gospel is simply giving testimony to what you have experienced in Christ. It’s letting people into your knowledge of and friendship with the Savior. The call to preach the gospel is a call to live authentically in our relationships and encounters with those who are lost. We don’t have to memorize a formula or have an answer for every possible question; we simply have to share what is true about our life with others – that we have been redeemed by the grace and mercy of Christ. If your identity in Christ is the most true and most important thing about you, then it must be shared with the people you encounter. That is preaching the gospel. How might the Lord be asking you to live authentically this week?

Refining Relationships

Re:Verse passage – 2 Thessalonians 2:13–17; Hebrews 5:11–13; Romans 16:17–18 day four)

Discipleship is one of the primary ways we can keep from becoming stagnant or “dull of hearing,” as the writer of Hebrews says. When we allow our spiritual life to be reduced to an individualistic experience, we lose out on the refining that comes through Christ-centered relationships. When I’m content to keep time in prayer and Scripture reading just to myself, when I show up to church without truly engaging in community, and when I don’t engage in intentional discipleship relationships, I’m not challenged in the way I ought to be. I make excuses for myself, I don’t get my sin into the light as quickly, and I’m not as motivated to grow in holiness. Deep relationships are required for us to move from spiritual milk to solid food. They’re required for pursuing and knowing the truth. They’re required for a vibrant Christian life. If you feel stagnant in your spiritual growth, prayerfully consider how the Lord might be leading you into deeper relationships.

Grow

Re:Verse passage – John 15:6–10; Hebrews 12:10; Acts 13:2–3; Colossians 4:2–4 (day four)

Practicing spiritual disciplines can sound daunting. For one, the word “discipline” implies that there’s some effort on our part we will find challenging. The spiritual disciplines can also start to sound like a to-do list for our spiritual life, or the criteria for making an A+ with God. When we view them this way, we might have moments of motivation where we feel we can surely master them all, and we set out to do so only to find that our motivation is short lived and you’re not entirely sure how to go about some of them.

But this isn’t the biblical vision of the spiritual disciplines. Rather, the disciplines are more like a trellis, a structure that the ivy hangs onto as it grows, forming its path. The spiritual disciplines are the form, structure, and anchor points that we hang on to as we grow, seeking to become more like Christ. Prayer and Scripture reading, fasting and celebrating, service and solitude, among many others, are the things which anchor our souls and give us a structure to hang on to as we grow towards the source of light and life. They are means of grace, not a check list. Disciplines for sure, but not a rubric.

How might that change the way you practice these things in your life? How is God calling you to grow in these disciplines?

Rightly Ordered

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:21–6:4; Matthew 12:46–50; 19:27–30 (day four)

One of the primary places discipleship takes place is in our home, among our family. This is the place where the fruit of our spiritual growth should be most evident. It can also be one of the hardest places to engage in discipleship. Home is where we go after a long, hard day. Home is where we let our hair down, and are more likely to let our true emotions out. The members of our family tend to be the ones who get under our skin or upset us most. This is true no matter what stage of life you’re in. Whether you have a house full of kids, it’s you and your spouse, or if you’re single – the people you consider family will be a significant part of your journey in discipleship, and you will experience challenges as you try to model Christ in these relationships.

Christ calls us to first and foremost submit to him. Every other relationship or endeavor comes second to him, including our relationship with our family. When we increasingly submit ourselves to Christ, we will find that we can live in rightly ordered relationships with those closest to us. When they take the right place in our lives, these relationships will become discipleship-focused. Submission to Christ helps us submit to one another in love.

What changes do you need to make to let Christ be first and foremost in your life? What does discipleship look like in your family? What steps might the Lord be asking you to take to engage in discipleship with the members of your family?

Basics

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:9–11, 28B–29; 4:2–4; Ephesians 4:11–16; James 1:2–4 (day four)

When we first become a Christian, we realize that there are certain “basics” to living the Christian life. Praying, reading our Bible, being kind to others. It’s easy to think that Christian maturity means we eventually move beyond these “basics,” and on to heavy-hitters like doctrine, theology, and apologetics, like a mathematician moves on from addition and subtraction to algebra and calculus.

But that’s not the picture that Scripture paints. These things aren’t “basics,” they’re pillars of living the Jesus way. We don’t grow beyond them, we deepen our roots in these very things. Christian maturity means deepening our prayer life – confessing sins more readily and praying for others more fervently. It means reading Scripture with more attention to what the Spirit is saying. It means interacting with others in such a way that the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is more obvious to them.

Christian maturity doesn’t mean graduating to high mindedness, it means growing deeper roots.