If even secular Uncle Sam can trust God, how much more can you? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 101 Q. But may we swear an oath in God’s name if we do it reverently? A. Yes, when the government demands it, or when necessity requires it, in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good. Such oaths are approved in God’s Word and were rightly used by Old and New Testament believers. Summary Our passage today comes in a context in which God's magnificent grace has been on display. God had brought His people, seventy in all, into Egypt four centuries earlier, and they had grown into a large nation. He overthrew their slave masters, and all the people had to do was watch the miracles unfold. He gave them His law, and then extended them mercy when they immediately broke it in one of the most heinous ways possible. God's grace came freely to them as it has to you, but though you've obtained it no cost, there are obligations you must fulfill as a recipient of this grace: Fear the Lord your God; Walk in obedience to Him; Love Him; Serve Him with all of your heart and soul; Observe the Lord's commands and decrees. Notice why Moses says you must keep these obligations: The heavens, earth and everything in them belong to the Lord (v14); The Lord set His affections on you and loves you (v15); He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords (v17); He defends the defenseless among us (v18); All of those things, AND: The Lord's commands and decrees have been given for your own good (v13) Dig Deeper We come to this passage today in the context of understanding when it's proper to swear an oath in the Lord's name. Granted, of all of the worries, challenges, and problems you have on your plate right now, knowing when it's ok to put your hand on the Bible and swear "So help me, God" probably isn't high on your priority list. But take a moment to just take in the fact that even our highly secularized government and society recognize the power of God's name and ask people to officially obligate themselves accordingly by swearing an oath in God's name. If Uncle Sam can trust God in this way, how much more can you? AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the God of gods and Lord of lords; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for His massive displays of grace, both in the Bible and in your own life, and pray that whether under oath or not, you will live up to His expectations; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Timothy 1

Ten commandments?? How about 10x10x10? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 93 Q. How are these commandments divided? A. Into two tables. The first has four commandments, teaching us what our relation to God should be. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor. Summary He started off so well. This rich young man asked Jesus the question that should be everyone's top priority: "what good thing must I do to be saved?" All of us - every person born since Adam - instinctively knows there's a relationship between salvation and doing good things. But this young man is smarter than most, for he can see that not everything that seems to be good actually is. He wants to focus his efforts on what really counts. Jesus didn't need to think about the question for too long. Although it's a profoundly important question to ask, it's not at all hard to answer: if you want salvation, perfectly follow the commands of the One who is good. Here's where things started to go off the rails for the young man. He asked Jesus, "Which ones?" It's moments like this that we really see the patience of our Savior. He would have been totally justified to burst out laughing at the glaring stupidity of the question, or even to have the young man instantly smote with fire from heaven for daring to suggest that some of God's commands are more important than others. But Jesus doesn't do what the rest of us would have done if we were in His position. Jesus continues to engage the man in conversation. Keep the second table of the law, Jesus tells the man. In other words, love your neighbor as yourself. At this, a smile likely came upon the young man's face. After all, he had certainly never murdered, committed adultery, stolen or lied. Or so he thought as he confidently reported this to Jesus, at the same time wondering if there was a detail or two Jesus could suggest he ought to add to the list, just to be really sure. Somehow the man missed the fact that Jesus had said nothing about the first table of the law: those first four commandments that teach us what our relationship ought to be with the One who said, "Be holy, because I am holy." Jesus goes on to tell the man that perfection requires much more than following ten commandments. After all, nowhere does the Bible command a person to give away all that he has. True godliness includes all of the implications of both tables of the law, whether they've been written down or not. Both this rich young man and the disciples are absolutely crushed by Jesus' answer. Who could possibly meet this exponential criteria for salvation? Dig Deeper We understand God's law to have three purposes: It shows us how sinful we are; It provides a general guide for how society should behave; It shows the saved how to live gratefully. The Heidelberg Catechism properly focuses on the third use of the law: gratitude. But don't forget that you will never really be truly grateful unless you first understand your guilt. This is why we read some portion of God's law in our worship services, so that we are regularly convicted by it; so that each week we're forced to ask with the disciples, "who then can be saved?" So when we hear Jesus answer, "with man, [salvation] is impossible, but with God all things are possible," we can look at these two tables of the law as a guide for grateful living in response to God's grace freeing us from our exponential guilt. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the One who is good; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for His law, that we've met its conditions in Christ, and pray that we';; use His law as a guide for grateful living. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 16

God's Word can be described many ways, but 'boring' isn't one of them. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 92 simply reproduces the Biblical text of the ten commandments Summary We're going to focus on the beginning and ending of our passage today, since we'll be learning lots about the commandments in the middle in the weeks to come. Notice how the passage begins: And God spoke We could turn multiple places in the Bible for a demonstration of God's awesome power at work in nature. Indeed, the Israelites had just witnessed it firsthand for themselves, having walked between two towering walls of ocean as the crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. But as amazing as God's command of nature is, the best demonstration of His power can be found when He speaks. Remember the opening words of the Bible, which record God creating all that is out of nothing by simply repeating the phrase "and God said..." Jesus Himself is called the Word, and His ministry begins with God's voice booming from heaven that Jesus is His son, whom He loves. The book of Romans begins with an announcement that the gospel - the proclamation of the good news of salvation - is "the power of God..." Imagine being there, hearing these words come out of the fire (Dt. 10:4), accompanied by thunder and lightning (v18). It would quickly become clear that the ten commandments are so much more than a historic document to hang in a courtroom or to doze off to as you hear them recited for the umpteenth time in church. These words, just like the gospel, are the power of God, and necessary for you to know well and follow as you live in Christ. Dig Deeper The Israelites didn't miss God's demonstration of verbal power: They "trembled with fear" and "stayed at a distance," convinced that if God were to utter another word to them they would instantly die. They knew they were not worthy to come face to face with God, so they sent a representative up them mountain in their place. As we begin our nearly three month study of these commandments, we're beginning with a much different attitude than these Israelites had. We're coming to them as people who have peace with God because we've been justified through faith in Jesus Christ. We come to them in gratitude because in Christ, we've fully met the conditions of God's law. As Moses reminds us, these commandments are given "so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning (v20)." AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The Lord our God, who brought you out of slavery to sin; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for giving us the tools and instructions to live as the holy people He's declared us to be in Christ. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 15

The fruit you bear isn't meant to impress others, but to assure yourself you're not a wolf. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 86 Q. We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it: why then must we still do good? A. To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood. But we do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Summary Scripture attests to God speaking through the prophets. The words given to these prophets were not their own but the words of God. A prophet is not the source of the words, but a vessel through which God speaks to humanity. The warning Jesus shares in Matthew 7:15 is to be aware of false prophets. These false prophets are those who falsely claim to speak on behalf of God. And like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the danger can lie in their ability to blend in. That although their words are falsehoods, they might sound close enough to the truth to go undetected. Knowing of these wolves hiding amongst the people of God, plotting to lead them astray, Jesus gives a means to test those who claim to come as prophets. We are to judge them by their fruits. What is the outcome of those claiming to be prophets? If they are leading others away from God, then this attests to the falsehood of their message. Dig Deeper The presence or absence of spiritual fruit does more than make us aware of the wolves in our midst. Just as you can recognize those sent of God by the fruit of their labor, the spiritual fruit in your own life can attest to your faith in Christ. While you are not able to see the presence or absence of faith in others any more than you can see gravity or the wind; like these other examples you are able to see the effects of their presence. Spiritual fruit is the outcome which points to the presence or absence of a genuine faith in Christ. Healthy trees bear good fruit while a diseased tree will produce bad fruit. The outcome of good or bad spiritual fruit is based upon the source feeding into the fruit. If your faith is rooted in Christ, this will manifest itself with good spiritual fruit. However, if your faith is placed elsewhere, this will be shown in the presence of bad fruit. Though you may have times where you doubt your faith, the presence of good spiritual fruit in your life can give you assurance that your faith is sincere. Be on the lookout for God working in your life because you can trust the sign of faith that is the good fruit produced by God’s work through you. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who expects good fruit from His creation; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God that you're created in His image, and pray that your life will produce fruit that corresponds to His image; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 7

The way you worship matters, says Jesus. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 80 Q. How does the Lord’s Supper differ from the Roman Catholic Mass? A. The Lord’s Supper declares to us that our sins have been completely forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he himself finished on the cross once for all. It also declares to us that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ, who with his very body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father where he wants us to worship him. But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests. It also teaches that Christ is bodily present in the form of bread and wine where Christ is therefore to be worshiped. Thus the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ and a condemnable idolatry. Summary One of the most painful consequences of sin is that the one thing that ought to unite all people - worshipping the God who made us - is arguably the thing that creates the most division and angst. Not only do massive divisions exist between the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Islam & Christianity), but the Christian Church itself is rent asunder with all sorts of different ideas and practices on how God ought to be worshipped. Division occurs when different expressions in how people worship begin to affect what they worship. The resulting battles shatter communities and even families, causing pain and bitterness that last generations. Our society's current live and let live attitude wants Jesus to come down and declare that all forms of worship, as long as its sincere and heartfelt, are acceptable to God and therefore all criticisms of divergent worship practices ought to cease. That's exactly what the woman at the well was hoping to hear Jesus say. But Jesus doesn't take her bait. One of the Bible's primary themes is that there are right ways and wrong ways to worship. Jesus doesn't pull His punches, telling the Samaritan woman that her countrymen have been worshipping incorrectly and even ignorantly. Certainly Jesus has lots of criticism for Jewish worship practices elsewhere in the gospels, but at least on the question of where true worship must take place, the Jews were getting it right. What a picture of God's grace, that out of all the people Jesus could have discussed true and proper worship with, it wasn't a learned scholar or a popular prophet, but rather it was this sinful, broken woman, and so she becomes one of the first people to truly worship God as He has ordained: in Spirit and truth. Dig Deeper The question of where to worship would soon become moot when Jesus would send His Church out to the nations before triumphantly ascending back to the right hand of the Father. But notice that the primary requirement for acceptable worship remains constant throughout the entire Bible: to properly know God (v22). The Lord's Supper is one of the primary ways you gain this knowledge that's so critical to fulfilling the purpose you were created for: to worship God. The Lord's Supper declares to you that you've been completely forgiven through Christ's one sacrifice on the cross and that you've been grafted into Him so that you can worship Him in Spirit and truth even while He is in heaven and you are on earth. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God our Father is spirit; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will continue to know God more and more, and thank Him for what He teaches you as you come to His table; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 19

God knows you remember what you see, so He sets out visible reminders for His people. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 79 Q. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood? (Paul uses the words, a participation in Christ’s body and blood.) A. Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that as bread and wine nourish our temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured-out blood truly nourish our souls for eternal life. But more important, he wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit’s work, share in his true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins. Summary God's people crossing the Jordan river is one of the most important stories in the Bible, representing the culmination of God saving His covenant people and returning them back to the promised land. The previous generation of Israelites had seen God part the Red Sea so they could escape Egypt on dry land, and now their sons and daughters crossed the Jordan River at flood stage on dry ground. As amazing as those miracles were, God knows how fickle people's memories are. Within days of crossing the Red Sea, Israel was once again doubting God's power to save them, having forgotten what they had seen with their own eyes. So God orders Joshua to pick up some souvenirs on the way. Twelve men, one representing each tribe, were to carry a large stone from the middle of the Jordan and then set them up where the Israelites spent their first night back at home. God wanted them to have a physical reminder of what He'd done for them. God not only commanded them to set a monument to remember, but He commands them what and why to remember. This isn't just for you, He instructed them, but it's a tool by which you must instruct your children by reminding them of how God saves His people. After all, there's always one consistent reason that God does what He does and provides what He provides: So that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God (v24). Dig Deeper Just about every communion table in every Protestant sanctuary has the same words of Jesus carved into it: This Do In Remembrance of Me. God knows that you need a physical reminder of what He's done for your salvation. He's invited you to His Table for an ongoing, tangible reminder that Christ did something much more powerful than splitting the sea or heaping up a flooding river: that His body was broken, and His blood poured out so that you could have complete remission of all of your sins. Make sure that you heed the next invitation so that you can be reminded and the next generation can know the hand of the Lord is powerful and always fear the Lord our God. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who saves His covenant people and meets them in their weakness; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the reminder of His grace communion represents and that you'll eagerly anticipate the next meal; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 17

Jesus doesn't give many orders, so when He does, pay attention! Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 75 Q. How does the Lord’s Supper remind you and assure you that you share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross and in all his gifts? A. In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat this broken bread and to drink this cup. With this command he gave this promise: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves, and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, given me as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood, so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured-out blood. Summary It's easy to look at Jesus as a victim as He goes to the cross, but as we read of His final days we see that He remained fully in control throughout His life. In preparing to celebrate the final Passover - not just for Him, but for all since He would Himself become the final Passover Lamb - Jesus gives the disciples specific instructions, even anticipating exactly what the owner of the house would be doing when the disciples arrived. Once gathered, Jesus tells His disciples that He's eagerly desired to eat this meal with them (v15). Does that describe your attitude in coming to the Lord's Table? If not, why not? It's at this point the story pivots from being the Last Supper - that is, the last Passover celebration - to the Lord's Supper, in which those who partake the physical elements of bread and wine participate in the body and blood of Jesus. Jesus makes this abundantly clear by declaring the cup to be representative of a new covenant in His blood. Participation in this sacred meal is not optional for Christ's followers. His command is simple and straightforward: Do this. It would have been enough for Christ to simply command, but He also explains the reason for the command. This meal serves as a reminder, not just of all that Christ did, but all that He said and continues to say as His Word is proclaimed. Dig Deeper There are very few hard and fast commands Christians must adhere to. Certainly there are gobs of ethical imperatives that flow out of God's Word that guide what we do, and more particularly what we are not to do. There are very few must do's obligating Christians to perform certain religious tasks. So it should catch your attention when Jesus orders you to do this. Often the sanctuaries in Reformed churches, though beautiful, are by design rather plain. This is because our primary focus is on reading and listening to God's Word, since this is the primary way He communicates Himself to us. Even the most beautiful art is a mere distraction from the glory that bursts forth from the proclamation of the Word. But your Creator knows you. He's very aware that you have five senses, and so He's given you this meal in which all of your senses are reminded of who Jesus is and what He did for you. You see the bread broken and the wine poured out. You touch the bread and taste the wine, and you feel the presence of Christian brothers and sisters gathered around you. Participating in communion is not an optional 'extra' that you can take or leave. Your Savior has commanded you to do this. Like Him, eagerly anticipate this meal. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is coming with His Kingdom; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will eagerly desire the next time your church gathers around the Lord's table, and that you will heed Christ's command to do this in remembrance of Him. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 9

The washing symbolized in your baptism gives you a clear conscience towards God. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 71 Q. Where does Christ promise that we are washed with his blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism? A. In the institution of baptism where he says: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism the washing of rebirth and the washing away of sins. Summary Baptism is a sign and a seal of God’s covenant of grace. There is a close relationship between the baptism as a sign of God’s grace and the work of Christ it signifies. Enough so, that Peter uses the words “baptism…. now saves you,” which is not used to describe salvation via the sacrament of baptism, but salvation via the grace symbolized in baptism. Peter also makes a connection between the waters of baptism and the waters of the flood during the days of Noah. This connection may feel out of place at first. Especially considering how the flood was an act of God’s judgment on the wickedness of mankind. What can be missed in this is how the flood was also a means of salvation for Noah and his family. While judgment was cast by God, grace was also extended. Dig Deeper There is a question from back when I was taking the written test to get motorcycle license that has stuck with me. The question referred to safety procedures when riding a motorcycle and which of the listed answers was the “most true” as a means of making yourself visible to other drivers. The trick here was that all of the answers were true and listed in the reading I had done ahead of time. While proper lane position and high visibility clothing were good answers, what they were looking for is which of the options was deemed the most important. In this case, I remembered the answer was to have a functioning headlight. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that one answer being correct does not mean the other options are without merit. As the catechism rightly points out from scripture, baptism is described as “the waters of rebirth” and “the washing away of sins.” It is easy to see the grace symbolized in baptism, but what we sometimes miss is the presence of God’s judgment. Just as both grace and judgment were present in the flood narrative, so too are both present in baptism. Salvation and new life in Christ are seen in the waters of baptism, but these waters also symbolize God’s judgment on sin, which can be seen in the removal of sin by means of Jesus’ death and resurrection. While the grace symbolized in baptism might appear to be the “most true” answer, this does not diminish the presence of God’s judgment on sin. In recognizing the price paid to separate you from that sin, do not overlook the importance of repentance. Jesus paid a high price to set you free from your sin, which speaks into the necessity to continually turn away from sin and abide in Christ. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who saved believing Noah and his family from the judgment on sin that flooded the world; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God that you would reflect your status as a baptised believer by continually repenting and turning away from sin; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 3

Sacraments are simply signs and seals symbolizing salvation. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 66 Q. What are sacraments? A. Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them he might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel, and might put his seal on that promise. And this is God’s gospel promise: to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ’s one sacrifice finished on the cross. Summary Jesus uses very interesting terminology when instituting the Lord’s Supper. He says to his disciples when they are eating the communion bread, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then when he gives them the wine to drink, he says, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant.” Why would Jesus use those terms? This builds on what we started to look at yesterday when we studied how the sacraments confirm our faith in Jesus Christ. When we eat the bread of the Lord’s Supper, we are not eating the physical body of Christ. When we drink from the cup of the Lord’s Supper, we are not drinking the physical blood of Christ. While Jesus is present spiritually in the Lord’s Supper through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are not eating his body or drinking his blood. Jesus uses these terms because the sacraments are signs and seals of God’s promises in Jesus Christ. Dig Deeper When we baptize an infant or a new convert, we know that baptism does not save them. We are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, baptism is a sign and seal of God’s gospel promise. As surely as water washes away dirt from our bodies, the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, washes away our sins. Baptism is a sign and seal because it points to the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, and shows us how we are saved through faith. It is why we can sing a song like Nothing But the Blood of Jesus so fervently. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. When we eat of the bread and drink of the cup of the Lord’s Supper, it too is a sign and seal of God’s gospel promise. Communion points to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ body was broken and his blood shed for our salvation. Not only that, just as bread and juice physically nourish us, Jesus nourishes us spiritually through his presence. The sacraments are a physical way for God to confirm a spiritual reality. We celebrate them to confirm our faith in Jesus and be nourished by him. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Amazing God, who shows us, as well as teaches us of your power and grace; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would contemplate the meaning of the sacraments as you are celebrating them; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Colossians 1

Jesus is coming to settle up. What does that mean for you? Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 63 Q. How can you say that the good we do doesn’t earn anything when God promises to reward it in this life and the next? A. This reward is not earned; it is a gift of grace. Summary It's always interesting looking at the famous last words of people throughout history. Often times people use such words to convey advice for those who continue to live. These words of Jesus that John records here could be classified as Jesus' last words, communicating key advice for how His followers ought to live as they wait for His return. We're just going to focus on v12 today as we continue looking at what it means that God promises to reward Christians for the good work we do, in addition to the saving grace that He gives to all who believe. The plain reading of the NIV’s translation could easily be misunderstood as presenting the returning, victorious Christ as some sort of a divine Santa Claus, coming back with a bag of rewards to give out for all of the good things that people have done in their lifetimes. Many people mistakenly place their hope for salvation in God by comparing the number of seemingly good deeds they have performed against their sinful deeds, and such a person might conclude after reading this passage that Christ’s words bear good news for them since, from their perspective at least, they have done more good things than bad. But this is a dangerous misunderstanding of the gospel. Your salvation is based on grace alone, through faith alone, so you must place all of your trust in Christ alone, since as we learned a few days ago, even your best efforts are tainted with sin and on their own are unacceptable to God. But as we learned yesterday, the work you for Christ's Church will not go unrecognized, and in His final words to us, Jesus promises that He will reward them! Dig Deeper When I was in seminary, I wrote a lengthy paper on how to best translate this verse. Here's where I landed: Look, I am coming soon. My settlement is with me to repay each one for what he has done. One thing that quickly becomes apparent with this translation is that Jesus has something for everyone: To those who have ignored Jesus' free offer of grace and have instead followed their own way, Jesus will settle up with them by giving them exactly what they want: an eternity devoid of grace (in which they'll face the full measure of God's unmitigated wrath for their sin); To those who trust in Christ for their righteousness, He will most certainly give to them the reward He's promised: peace with God; But to those who've not only trusted in Christ alone for their salvation, but who have also sacrificed their own wants and desires to work hard for Him in their lives, Jesus here promises to pay them with wages that will never fade away! Which of these three categories do you fall in? Be sure to heed Christ's famous last words. Trust in Him alone for salvation for sure, but also take full advantage to increase your reward by using the gifts He's given you to build up His body, the Church. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who accepts the sanctified work you do in Christ; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that when Christ returns with the settlement you deserve, you will not be ashamed of what you have done for Him. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Philippians 1