Author Archives: Randy Buchman

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About Randy Buchman

I live in Western Maryland, and among my too many pursuits and hobbies, I regularly feed multiple hungry blogs. I played college baseball, coached championship cross country teams at Williamsport (MD) High School, and have been a sportswriter for various publications and online venues. My main profession was as the lead pastor of a church in Hagerstown called Tri-State Fellowship for 28 years before retiring in 2022. I'm also active in Civil War history and work/serve at Antietam National Battlefield with the Antietam Battlefield Guides organization. Occasionally I sleep.

“Talking, Talking and Talking” (Acts 20:7-12)

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If there is anything in life I find annoying, it’s a preacher who doesn’t know when to shut up and sit down! Amen?

There is the famous (surely apocryphal) story of a preacher who went on and on, far past his allotted time. The audience was growing terribly restless, and finally after about 70 minutes of the verbal torture, a man in the second row stood and hurled a hymnal at the loquacious preacher. The parson was able to duck it, but not so for a lady in the front row of the choir. She caught the hymnal at about the same anatomical location that Goliath caught David’s slingshot stone. As she was losing consciousness, she exclaimed, “Hit me again, I can still hear him!”

This did not happen in Troas in a meeting of the first century church, but it could have. The famous missionary, the Apostle Paul was visiting, and in Acts 20:7-12 it says …

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Eutychus was a common slave name (recall that about half the Roman world lived in this social situation that we might picture as a type of indentured servitude). Likely he had come to the late-day / early evening serving after many hours of labor. The upper room of the house (typically the largest room in homes of the time) was said to have had many lamps (that detail given to explain what will follow). These torches added to the oxygen-deprived, crowded conditions; and Euthycus, sitting in an open window, succumbed to the conditions and found himself in a freefall.

His experience was one of intimate fellowship with the ground, and he was dead. How dead was he? Or is this just an exaggerated description? Well, the writer of the book of Acts said he was dead-dead. Who wrote Acts? Luke! What was Luke’s profession? Yes, a doctor.

But our interest in this passage is to see what it tells us about what the gathering of the early church was like and what we may take away from it. Without a doubt, both then and now, a reason for gathering relates to growing in the knowledge of the truth through the teaching ministry. There was a dedicated time given to reading the Scriptures and having a teaching given on the passage(s). This happened earlier in the synagogue; recall the time Jesus said of the passage from Isaiah that foretold the coming of the Messiah … that it was fulfilled in their sight. And the early church also featured the teaching and instruction from God’s Word.

Looking back at the passage above, you will see where I have noted the words about verbal communication in red text. There are three different Greek words used here.

The first is a term that speaks of a reasoning-based communication. I would take this to mean that it involved a prepared teaching from the Apostle Paul … a sort of sermon, if you will.

The second and third times speak more of a systematic review of a body of truth, picturing probably something that was more like a class to review a written document for examination.

The final word involves a normal type of conversation. This word was used in the Greek writing of Luke 24 about the travelers on the road to Emmaus, two men who were conversing as they walked about all of the events that had taken place in Jerusalem in recent days.

So, Paul probably gave a sermon, did some teaching in a systematic way, and then hung around and talked all night.

A major reason for getting together in the church and gathering weekly and as much as possible is the need every one of us has for instruction. We need to be lifelong learners. You never completely arrive. Yes, probably the bulk of teaching that those who have walked with the Lord for a while is in the category of truth reminders — which are still very appropriate.  But you never get to the bottom of what the Scriptures teach and can instruct for daily living.  After all these years of education, preaching, teaching, etc., I still regularly find myself hearing something and thinking, “I didn’t know that.”

So it is appropriate for us to keep talking, talking and talking … and also listening, listening and listening, for that is the only way to grow, grow and grow.

“Can’t Help But Worship” (Colossians 3)

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Let me tell you the story of a fictional fellow we’ll call Herbie.

Abandoned as a little baby and left to die, he was found by a family who adopted him legally and raised him. He was given every helpful resource in life and parented with wisdom and excellence. Herbie was afforded fine educational opportunities and even had his college education paid for by his adopted family.

Herbie knew his life story from a young age. He was not arrogant about his good fortune, but neither did he value it highly in terms of his life commitments as he entered adulthood. Though he spoke well of his family and parents, the only time he visited them was on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And even then, all Herbie really did was run in for the meal, eat, and then leave. Beyond that, the family only ever saw him at weddings or funerals. He also fully expected that he would and should gain an inheritance from his parents.

What do you think of Herbie?  Rather weak in the attitude of gratitude category, don’t you think?

The application is probably completely obvious. But Herbie is a lot like a lot of people in the Christian family, adopted from a spiritually-dead condition and given abundant life. Though they have every reason to have a profound gratitude that should cause them to be people of faithful worship and service in the church family, they actually only show up for Christmas, Easter, and occasional special events when convenient. Yet they claim to be a part of the family of faith and expect an inheritance of eternal life.

When we truly realize the extent of what has been done for us in the gospel — (in the words of the last series) that we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope — we become people of deep gratitude and worship.

And this worship and regularity of participating in it is not because we have to out of obligation, but is what we do out of love and deep affection and appreciation for all that has been done for us. And the Apostle Paul anticipated that the faithful follower of Christ would find his weekly experience to involve being with others of the same conviction, expressing their belief and feelings in this way …

Colossians 3:15 – Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Worship was a big part of the Jewish background, particularly in the Temple. Three types of worship songs are mentioned here – the Psalms, formal types of hymns, and what were likely shorter expressions of the spiritual life — the songs were TO God. But they had a lateral element of “teaching and admonishing.”  They were full of worship, yet at the same time they taught truth and encouraged the participant in the things of God.

Think about how often you are able to quote a biblical passage or have familiarity with it, you realize, because it was a part of the text of a hymn or worship song. This too is the great value I see in our kids music programs. The songs we have given them to learn have great instructional value as well as teaching them about being people of worship.

Worship … it is another reason why we gather.

Why Gather? The Importance of Remembrance (1 Corinthians 11)

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As a child I can clearly recall my parents and grandparents bemoaning the way the world had changed and become more secular. Of course, this was in the time of the hippie generation and anti-war protests, etc. It seemed like a radical time in many ways.

But I have now lived long enough to probably sound like them to my children, and soon to my grandkids I suppose. But times have changed and become more secular, there is no doubt about it. People attend church far less as a total percentage of the population. And those who call a church their home family of faith … they too attend with far, far less frequency than did church folks of my teen and early adult years.

Witness for example the changes in “blue laws.”  Restrictions upon the sale of many items on Sunday, or the disallowance of certain businesses to be open on Sunday, now seem strange even to those of us who grew up in very conservative environs.

Youth sports and travel teams with tournaments, etc. that are so common on Sundays now would have never existed when I was a kid. This is true of a wide range of activities and events.

So, to many people, even many Christians, the notion of prioritizing church attendance above most everything else is an odd values system.

This week our devotionals in this new “Why Church?” series will seek to answer the question, “Why Gather?”  It is a good starting place.

The first of five reasons we’ll talk about is that of Remembrance … speaking of the remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ through the elements of the Lord’s Supper, what we commonly call communion.

In the earliest gatherings of the church of Christ in the decades of the Apostles and the writing of the New Testament, the Sunday gatherings of God’s people appear to have been in the context of a meal shared together. Why was this? It’s a bit complicated, and as I related in the sermon on Sunday, this was actually the topic of my master’s thesis at Dallas Seminary.

The sort of illustration I have used over the years is like this: Imagine if Jesus were to come back to earth, meet with us personally for a couple of weeks, encourage us and give us new instructions for life and a new understanding of God’s master plan. Imagine that he told us that in fact he was again going away, that he would return at a later time and then give us our new eternal heaven and kingdom. And suppose he said that until that time he wanted us to meet and remember his visit and his words by gathering on Tuesday evenings. And beyond that, he said we should remember him by sharing Krumpe’s donuts with each other, knowing how much he loved them in his visit with us.

So, when Tuesday night came, what would happen? Well, we would gather, probably with the room set up the same way. The worship team would play and one or two of us would speak. We’d spend time talking with each other and announcing other activities. And along the way, we’d add in a time for eating Krumpe’s donuts together. We would add the new teachings to our familiar past.

And that is what the early church did, being a group largely composed of Jews who had trusted in Christ as the messianic fulfillment of Scripture. All Jews would be familiar with the gathering of the faithful in their local synagogue, which by the way literally means a “gathering of people” … and later came to be the name of the place where those people gathered (just like the use of the word “church” first reference people, and then the place where the people met). The Christians now met on Sunday rather than Saturday, and they added to the familiar synagogue service the additional element of remembrance through communion.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians we see him rebuking the readers for their wrongful way of gathering. Meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week, the wealthier people were arriving first and eating and drinking (even in excess) before the poorer people were likely able to attend. The result was that the meeting was not accomplishing anything as it was supposed to in terms of a remembrance.

1 Corinthians 11:17 – In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

Oh my, it sounds like a total mess! Paul is telling them that their purpose was not to eat and drink and party and fellowship. There were other places for that to be a priority. No, their purpose in gathering was to participate in the Lord’s Supper — the time of remembrance. And Paul goes on to relate again the last supper story of Christ with the disciples…

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread … you know the story … skip down to his application in verse 33…

33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. 34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

The remembrance was a focal point of their early church gathering. Though there were other purposes (that we will be covering as the week goes on), it could successfully be argued that the coming together for remembrance — the communion — was the first purpose. The early church would have never met without observing this; they would have probably sooner not had any worship or teaching than to not have the Lord’s Supper.

So, should we observe it every week? It would not be a wrong thing to do, though I don’t think it is a specific command for EVERY week. But some do believe this. At a minimum, it should receive high value and importance. Those of you who have been with us for a longer period of time do know that as of the past couple of years, we have been observing it with greater frequency than the once a month pattern of the past.

So take away from this discussion that, indeed, communion is not a tack-on ritual to observe here and there. It is a major focal point and purpose for gathering as God’s people. His sacrifice for us was HUGE. We appropriately should gathering regularly with joyful gratitude for this great grace — the truth that makes all of the difference for both this world and eternity.

Why Church?—Understanding the Importance of Body-Building

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There was a time when Church made sense. It was a thing you did on Sunday, and the sermons, the music, everything about it was a part of the common social fabric. Like me, many of you can remember this time. I recall as a child in early elementary school knowing where every kid in the class went to church, as all but about two of them did such a thing every week.

But now, for many people, Church seems … weird. Attendance and involvement is at an all-time low in American history.

In many ways, the language and customs within the walls of the Church look a lot different than the world outside it. Even if you grew up in a “religious” home, many of the original meanings seem to have been long forgotten. Just in my short lifetime, so much has changed. I went to college 40 years ago and trained for a specific type of church music career. Within a decade, it had all changed into something very different.

So why do we do Church the way we do? For that matter, why do we do Church at all?

Our sub-title is: Understanding the importance of body building. Most of us are not sold out to physical body building, but we do need the discipline of regular exercise and activity to be healthy. And there is much truth in that concept spiritually speaking as well.

Christianity says that “Church” isn’t a program you attend; it’s a community you embody. Following Jesus means being a part of a larger network of believers who gather to celebrate this new society through the worship of God. What if we thought of Church like that? What if we were just crazy enough to do Church the way the Bible says?

For the next eight Sundays, we’re going to spend some time asking some simple, basic questions about what Church is all about. Whether you’ve been in Church for a while, or if Church has only become a recent commitment, we ask you to clear your mind of what you think you know about Church, and join us as we explore what it means to build this strange thing called “the body of Christ.”

I lead off this week with the question of why we gather … so you don’t want to mess up on week one and not gather with us!

And we will be writing on these themes on Monday to Friday following the Sunday topic. So come along with us!

Just Put it on my Account – Philemon

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This week we give you an extra bonus devotional, and it is one I wrote about three years ago in our series called “cross words.”  But it fits well with this gospel message discussion we are having right now. This is not a “didactic” passage — meaning it is not a time where Paul is teaching truth to the readers. Rather, it is a personal letter that has the truth in it as an illustration of the topic at hand this past week: imputed righteousness … or declared righteousness.

Have you ever wanted someone to do something, all the while realizing that it is indeed going to cost them some money to make it happen? Perhaps it is a scenario where you know something is good for them, or perhaps it is simply the right thing to do – though you are not sure they will quite see it the same way as you do? You hope so, but you’re not quite sure how they will react when you present it to them. In that you have a high view of them, you expect that it will be well-received, but you can’t quite be positive. So, to make sure that the proper deed will be accomplished, while asking and challenging the person to be responsible and take the high ground position, even with its costs, you finish off your request by saying, “If you won’t pay for it, I will.”

That is what is happening in this personal letter from the Apostle Paul to a fellow named Philemon. This recipient of the letter – an apparently wealthy individual who lived in Colossae and was a part of the church of the Colossians – had a slave named Onesimus who had run away. In the course of God’s sovereignly-directed events, Onesimus comes into contact with Paul, is converted to the faith, and is now being sent back to his owner Philemon.

There is not time now to talk about the issue of slavery in the Roman Empire. Understand that it was not exactly like slavery in American history, and in fact more than half of the population were slaves. Owners and slaves were in the same church together, and Paul did not write to upset these conventions. Though we might picture it more like indentured servitude, it was a crime to do as Onesimus had done.

So Paul writes to implore Philemon to accept him back. Paul speaks of the great benefit he has received from Onesimus, and he tells the owner that he will now not only have a better worker, he will be welcoming back a brother in Christ.

The reason I shared this passage with you yet again is because of verse 18 – If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.  Paul is saying to Philemon that if it is a matter of not accepting him back because of financial loss, that the owner should charge the loss to Paul’s account and he would make good on the debt. This is an example of imputation – the placing of a debt to another’s account, and the consequent transfer of credit that frees the person from the pending execution if the debt is not paid.

So here is the illustration. We had debt on our account. That debt was taken from us and put to Christ’s account and paid for. Coming back to our spiritual account is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We call this “imputation.”  It is the credit that we need that we cannot get by our deeds. It is what the gospel is all about.

Philemon 1:1-21

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker— 2 also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

8 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9 yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— 10 that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self. 20 I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

God REALLY Likes Remembrances – Exodus 12, Luke 22

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<I am sorry to have apparently dated this wrong when writing and scheduling it. It was supposed to have come out to you a day earlier — on Good Friday, not Saturday morning.>

I always say that I am not much of a sentimentalist. Fortunately for me, neither is my wife to a large extent. We did make a big deal of kid birthdays, and with five boys growing up, realize that it adds up to over three months’ worth of celebrations … lots of ice cream cakes! But we’ve never been much for anniversaries, Valentine’s Day or that sort of thing.

At the same time, I am very quick to remember dates of big things in our lives: loved ones who died, or anniversaries of relocation events, life crises and job changes, etc.

I wouldn’t call God a sentimentalist, but he was interested in remembrances of big events in the history of the nation of Israel. God understands the human capacity to forget important things and events, especially those of great significance where the Lord was involved in a big way to demonstrate His love and His plan.

The children of Israel (meaning the family of Jacob) went to Egypt at the time of Joseph serving the Pharoah, numbering about 75 people. Over the next roughly 400 years, the work of Joseph was forgotten in Egypt and the Israelites had become a slave people of perhaps up to two million.

The miraculous events through the ministry of Moses served to make their escape from bondage possible, marking their birth as a nation. All of this happened with the event of the Passover, with the blood of the sacrificial lamb applied to the doorframes of their homes … all of this with significance not just for that day, but for every day from that day forward … and not just for Israel, but stretching 3500 years later and all of the way to us today on this Good Friday of 2016 …

Exodus 12:1 – The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

The principle of innocent blood being shed to cover for the sin of another dated all of the way back to the first human sin and the animal sacrifice for coverings. Sacrifices were a part of the entire Old Testament history of the patriarchs and the Jewish people. But the perfect and final sacrifice for sin had to be of the same substance as humanity, yet perfect. Only one person qualified, and God orchestrated the events of that human sacrifice to take place on the observance of the Passover from 1500 years prior …

Luke 22:7 – Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

There is nothing more important for us than to understand what God has done in great grace to save mankind. He has had a plan (it says in Scripture) since before the beginning of the world. That plan of redemption has been intricately and beautifully interwoven and worked out over all of time. The gospel message of which we have been speaking in this series is the exposition as to how we may be connected to God’s eternal grace in Christ.

So, a review as to how it all comes together …

God said through Moses: “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.”

Jesus said to the disciples during the Passover dinner: “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Paul said to the Corinthians: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

And I say to you: “See you tonight at 7:00.”

The Dirty Shirt – Romans 4:13-25

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The Dirty Shirt Skit is something that I have done over the past three decades at various times and places, modifying it a bit here and there. I think it so clearly pictures in a humorous sketch exactly what the gospel message of imputed righteousness is all about.

I first did this on the beach in Scarborough, England in the late 80s while leading a high school music team summer mission trip. We were working with a British evangelist and running what was essentially a VBS on the beach at a hot vacation spot in England (as hot as a beach vacation spot can be along the North Sea — at the same latitude as Labrador!). We had kids running down the beach to get water from the North Sea in their plastic buckets, etc.scarborough england

The skit idea is that a fellow receives an invitation from the royal palace for a personal visit with the King (and of course in England this means more than in the USA). The fellow, who is dressed in a filthy shirt, is excited and takes his invite to the palace door. There a guard throws him out in a variety of ways, showing him the fine print of the invitation that says that a clean, white shirt is required. So the man begins to do everything he can to clean his shirt (with the kids helping). Though improved, it is still not perfectly white, and the guard throws him out over and over. Eventually, coming to the palace gate in exasperation, holding the paper invite and the large tube the invite was in, the guard points out to the man some more fine print at the bottom that says that a clean white shirt is provided with the invitation. He takes off his old shirt and puts on the new, and is immediately welcomed into the palace to meet the king.

We are the man invited to know God, the dirty shirt is our sin, we cannot ourselves clean away the dirt, the clean shirt is the righteousness of Christ, and when we replace our sin with his perfection, we can have acceptance in God’s presence.

As we continue to the second half of Romans 4, Paul takes on another issue that the Jews in particular leaned upon as being God’s special people, obedience to the Law of Moses…

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

Remember that the Law of Moses did not come until 400-500 years after Abraham, long after the principle of imputed righteousness through faith was established. And again, remember that the Law is not really about how to get right with God, it is not something to depend upon; its purpose is to bring wrath, as it is the perfect standard to show a person his sinfulness.
Without it “there is no transgression.”  For example, without the perfect law would be like a society without any rules, or like a road with no speed limits.

And here comes the principle: the promise of hope and righteousness is entered into by faith, be it Jews or Gentiles. This makes Abraham not only the physical father of the Jews, but more broadly the spiritual father of all who will trust in God’s promise …

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

This idea of bringing dead things to life is now talked about on several levels. Of course it relates to us having spiritual life that comes to us through faith, bringing life to the death that we had because of the curse of Adam’s sin.

But as well, it is illustrated in what God did in bringing life through Abraham and Sarah.  The child of promise (Isaac), the one through whom would come the redeemer Jesus Christ, would be born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah age 90.

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

That would take a lot of faith, wouldn’t it? But Abraham had a promise; it was from God; he couldn’t see it, but he believed it without wavering in faith.

And again, this principle is bigger than just the story of Abraham and Sarah; it is for all of us, for all people of all time…

23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

We celebrate this great truth in the commemorations of the days ahead.

Salvation Has Always Been the Same – Romans 4:1-12

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There was a Bible and theology professor at my college who was idiosyncratic to the max. He was famous for certain repeated expressions that were delivered with great pound-the-pulpit fashion in a fit of passionate verbiage. Often these rants seemed to be fully into the “rabbit trail” category relative to the topic at hand, and students would often sigh and drop their note-taking pens at that point until the verbal fit passed.

But over time, I came to understand that the best material that Dr. McGahey had to offer was the stuff that sent him into a theological rage about explaining the genuine truths of Scripture. I learned more from him than from any other prof at either Philadelphia College of Bible or Dallas Theological Seminary. Personally and privately, he was among the gentlest and godliest people I’ve ever known. He was extraordinarily kind to me and to Diana as well , and in fact we asked him to officiate our wedding in 1977. He is with the Lord now, having heard the Father say to him, “Well done James, you got more theology correct than anyone else down there!”

One of his famous lines he oft repeated was this: “Salvation has always been the same, it has always been grace through faith; but the content of faith has changed from dispensation to dispensation (meaning from one age to another in God’s dealings with mankind).”

A central passage to this understanding is our text today in Romans 4, looking back at the faith of Abraham and declaring that it was his faith in God’s promise that saved him, not any deeds that he performed.

4:1 — What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 

This verse 3 is a quote from Genesis 15 and the story of Abraham’s life. He had been given a promise from God that his name would be great, that he would be the father of a great nation, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him (which would be in Jesus – not that he understood that at the time). And as we wrote about this yesterday, the only problem was that he had no offspring, and time was not on his side. In baseball terms, it was about the 20th inning of the game.

Abraham had nothing to rest in for hope or confidence, other than the promise of God. But he believed that promise, and as it says in both of these passages: “It was credited to him as righteousness.”   In other words, he was given — credited (a banking term) — at that moment of faith and belief the stuff he needed for salvation … righteousness.

Paul writes more about this, saying that the principle is a timeless one; it was not just a one-time thing for Abraham. David had the same experience ….

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

Wages are not given as a gift, but are earned. Faith is another matter; it is about what comes as a gift …

5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” 

This is from Psalm 32, one of David’s penitential Psalms extoling God’s gracious forgiveness for his great sin.

So, who can experience this blessing of credited righteousness?  Is it a thing for the Jewish people, the nation that came from Abraham? Or is it for everyone?

9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

This issue of circumcision was a big thing for the Jewish people, and if righteousness — having what was needed to be right with God — was only for them, it would surely be tied to that issue.  But Paul asks …………

10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!

The distinctive mark of circumcision was not given until a number of years later than this crediting of righteousness to Abraham, after Isaac was born (so this was at least 13 years, and probably a few more). So, the issue of salvation was certainly apart from this ritual. Rather, the mark was a sign of a relationship with God, but was not the action that made the relationship.

11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

So declared or imputed righteousness was not something just for the Jews, it was for any who would fully trust in God’s promises and revelation of truth.

I attempted to illustrate this concept on Sunday with the two teenage girls I called up front. To recount the event for those who missed it, I told both of them that if they would trust me, I would reward them with a candy prize, even though it may seem nonsensical.

I told the first girl to leave the room, circle through the back hallway and come into the auditorium and return to the stage from the opposite side. And as soon as she walked out the door, I pulled candy and a receipt for the purchase of it out of my pocket and showed the second girl … then telling her to run and catch the first one.

As they both came back to the stage, they both were rewarded for trusting me in faith that I would do what I said I would do. The second girl had more reason to believe, for she had seen the payment and evidence of the reward, whereas the first girl went only on a promise.

Girl number one was like Abraham — the content of faith being a promise. Girl number two is like a person in the church age (our time after the work of Christ), seeing the payment and the evidence of the reward. The content of our faith involves belief in the payment of Christ and the proof of life — the receipt — in the resurrection of Christ.

See, salvation has always been the same – grace through faith; but the content of faith has changed. But really, how difficult is it to believe and trust in such a good and gracious God who has done it all for us?

Wait for it, Wait for it – Genesis 15:1-21

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I don’t like waiting for things, and I don’t like making people wait for anything either. A period of waiting causes one to doubt whether something is really going to happen or not. Like, I’m still waiting for that Baltimore Orioles scout who saw me pitch four shutout innings against Rutgers 41 years ago to give me a call like he promised. I’m beginning to doubt if it’s ever going to happen, and I’m fearing I might have lost a few miles per hour on my fastball.

This week we are going to talk about someone who did a lot of waiting, and about a God who is not opposed to making his people wait. Our focus is upon Abraham as illustrative of the theme of declared or imputed righteousness.

To understand our primary passage of focus in Romans 4, we need to recall the background story of the man who is often seen as the ultimate paragon of faith — Abram, or as he was to be known, Abraham.

On most fronts, Abram’s life was going pretty well in Ur and Harran where he lived with varied extended family. There were no children for he and Sarah, but the rest of life was marked by success in material things and the accoutrements of life. We don’t know much of the nature of his faith prior to God’s selection of him, though we know he came from an idolatrous family. He may well have been that himself early in life, but God called him and continued to call him. And God’s calling is generally not much oriented to what a person offers, but is rather according to God’s pleasure in choosing whom he is going to use. It’s a grace thing for sure.

Abram was called (actually first at an earlier time when living in Ur), and the record tells us that he acknowledged God and obeyed, even though it meant a change from everything he knew as familiar.

Genesis 12:1 — The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

This 12th chapter of Genesis gives us what we speak of as the Abrahamic Covenant. God made three promises: that Abram’s name would be great, that he would make a great nation of him, and that all the earth would be blessed through him.

Cool!  So, you would think that at ages 75 and 65 (Sarah) that God would get right to work on that building a family thing, right? No time to lose, that’s for sure! But then another 11 years go by, and no family. Now we are in Genesis 15 …

15:1 — After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

With no children, the custom of the day would be for the primary household servant to gain the estate as his own, in this case a guy named Eleazer. Here is an example where the original language in Hebrew throws in a play on words that has a ring of humor to it. The words for “household servant” and “son-heir” sound much alike and rhyme. It would be like saying, “this hired dude I’m paying now is going to be the retired dude who is paid ALL my stuff when I’m gone.”

But God said that this would not be so, rather it would be someone of his own posterity. Man, if it took extra faith 11 years earlier, it took 11 more years of faith to believe it now. But Abraham in verse six did believe, and it was put to his credit as righteousness — the “stuff” that is needed to be eternally in right relationship with God.

But Abram still heard no babies crying. He was wandering around with his sheep as a nomad, living in tents, with God telling him that he was going to inherit all of the land around him. So you can understand why, even while believing, Abraham would request an affirmation of his faith.

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

The act of cutting sacrifices into pieces and halving them was a means of verifying a covenant. Those making the promise would walk between the pieces of the carcasses, symbolizing that if they broke the covenant, they would end up like the chopped-up beasts. They were essentially saying that they were staking their lives, their everything, to the oath being made. And the torch of fire passing through was God giving his word to Abram.

The other details had to have been a mixed bag of blessing for Abram. Great things were going to happen, but he himself was not going to life to see most of it. God’s plans would not find fulfillment for generations … for centuries. And in terms of the universal promises that Christ would fulfill, it would be millennia; and honestly, that continues to today in the ongoing building of the church and Christ’s kingdom.

Yes, the life of faith has a lot of waiting. And the fact is that not everything about God’s promise to any of his people is ever fulfilled fully on this earth. God’s plans and God’s program are so much bigger, and to be a part of it at all is a greatest of blessings for us.

And the way that we are a part of it is by grace through faith. It was true for Abraham, for Moses, for David, for Peter and Paul, and for all of us today. Our faith is in the merit of a reality beyond this world, but by believing and trusting in it, that merit is applied to our spiritual account.

Equal Opportunity Sinners – Romans 3:21-31

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You’ll be glad to know that I have not spent a lot of time standing trial before a judge. I’ve had to testify a few times, and that is creepy enough. But there is really only once that I chose to go before a judge to plead about an accusation against me — about a speeding ticket.

It happened in Virginia on an occasion when I was at a Free Church pastors event in the Culpepper area. I had made some sort of wrong turn and found myself on an isolated road that went through what is known in that area as The Wilderness. It is a dense tangle of trees and brush, most famous because of a horrifically brutal Civil War battle fought in that region.

I was driving along trying to figure out where I was. There was nothing but thick forests on either side for miles, but suddenly I went around a turn and into an open area with schools on both sides of the road … and a policeman pointing a speed gun at me. There was no warning that I could see. I was amazed at how quickly it all transpired. After getting my paperwork, I went back to see if there were any signs along the roadway, and there was just one that was overgrown by trees and brush and hardly visible at all.

The judge was unimpressed with my story. I told him the circumstances and that I was not in any hurry or seeking to speed beyond any reasonable standard, never expecting a school zone to suddenly appear. He basically told me that he understood I had no intent to break the law and how I would be unfamiliar with the road, but the fact was that I had done so. Guilty!

Probably most people who go before a judge for small items like traffic violations do so with the hope that there will be some measure of leniency, and often there is. Your history, like a driving record, is considered. And perhaps if your overall goodness far exceeds the accused failure, the judge might let you go. At least you hope so.

And that is how most folks naturally think about what it will be like at the end of their lives when they stand before God. They know they are not perfect, and their hope is that He will agree that they have been clearly more virtuous and moral than the relatively scant accumulation of wrongdoing.

But that is not good enough. Perfection is needed. As we wrote previously, the need is to possess this stuff called “righteousness.” And the problem is that we don’t have it; and worse yet, we can’t get it or earn it on our own. It has to come from somewhere, someone, else.

The Jewish people in Paul’s time believed the same folly that frankly a majority of people essentially believe today: that by keeping the Law (the Jewish belief) or by living a very good and largely moral life (Gentile belief), one can expect to be OK with God in the end.

But the Scriptures teach that we all — Jews, Gentiles, whoever — are equal opportunity sinners; we have all failed and are in need of righteousness. That is the bad news. But the good news (the gospel) is that there is a righteousness that is out there. It was anticipated in the Old Testament Scriptures; it was revealed in Jesus Christ; it is preached as the gospel by Paul and the New Testament writers; and it is available through faith to those who will believe in this truth and trust in Jesus Christ.

3:21 – But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

It is all about gaining righteousness through faith. We call this “declared righteous,” which is essentially what justification is.  We also speak of it in terms of “imputed righteousness.”  This is a great topic … the BEST topic. And that is what we are going to speak about all of this week.