Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11

When the wise men came to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews at the end of what was likely an 800-mile journey, they quickly discovered that they had arrived in the wrong place. They came to the king’s palace in Jerusalem because of an entirely logical deduction: they thought the palace in the capital city would be the best place to begin. Yet they soon realized that they were going to need more guidance than the stars could provide.

When King Herod heard that the wise men were inquiring about the birth of a new king, he assembled the chief priests and scribes, who determined that the Christ was to be born “in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet” (Matthew 2:5). The religious specialists were themselves indifferent to this great knowledge, but they demonstrated to the wise men that they needed the Scriptures to point them in the right direction. God may employ all kinds of extraordinary means to draw people to Himself, but He always brings them to His word, the Bible, in order that they might encounter the living Word, His Son. There is no other way to God except by the Christ of God, who is revealed to us in the word of God.

Having been led by the Scriptures to Jesus, the wise men then made their greatest discovery: worshiping Christ was the only appropriate response. When they finally encountered Jesus, they fell down, worshiped Him, and offered Him gifts. In the same way, whatever God may use to trigger our thinking and investigation of the truth, whenever He finally brings us to Jesus, we don’t arrive before Him as arrogant researchers. No, when our eyes are opened to the majesty of King Jesus, we bow before Him in humility, wonder, and awe.

In your search for the truth, have you yet discovered that the Bible is the surest guide? And, having discovered Christ, have you also discovered that mere knowledge of Him is insufficient—that the only right response is worship, laying before Him the best of all you have: your time, your possessions, your energies, your heart? You know you have grasped the message of the first Christmas if you have sensed that there is a God who is at work, if you have met with Jesus His Son through His word… and if you have bowed down before Him and now offer Him your life daily.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Psalm 29

Topics: God’s Word Jesus Christ Truth

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.”

Matthew 2:4–5

When Jesus was born, seven centuries after the prophet Micah had prophesied where He would appear, His arrival was met with a variety of different reactions—and those responses are the same today as they were then: hostility, indifference, or faith.

King Herod was the epitome of hostility toward Jesus. He stands for everyone who says to themselves, “I don’t mind some religious person sitting quietly in the back seat, but I don’t want anybody driving the car of my life.” A religious leader who keeps quiet is acceptable; one who makes claims on a person’s life and who does not agree with what they already think is not. Herod did all he could to ensure there would be no king to rival him (Matthew 2:16-18). And many do so still today.

Jerusalem’s religious professionals responded to the arrival of Jesus with indifference. When Herod asked them about the coming of the Christ, they were able to answer his questions with great specificity. They were aware that Micah had prophesied that He would be born in Bethlehem; but they simply didn’t care. They wouldn’t even take the time to make a six-mile journey to meet and worship the newly born, long-awaited King of the Jews. They completely disregarded Him. They were too busy with their religion to make time for their rescuing King.

Then there were the wise men, this group of foreign astrologers who saw a star in the heavens, worked out what it was announcing, packed their bags, and responded to Jesus in faith. What moved men who were authorities in their field to bow down at the cradle of a child? How does that happen? Only by the power of God. And it was they, and not Herod or the priests, who were the ones who “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10).

There is only one true dividing line between people. It has nothing to do with skin color, intellect, or social status. It is the dividing line between unbelief—whether that unbelief manifests itself as hostility or indifference—and unbelief. We may note that the Western world grows in hostility to a God who insists on ruling His world, but we should also note that “religious” people are also at risk of unbelief: the unbelief of indifference. Those of us who have heard the Christmas story countless times, who know our Old Testaments, and who are in church Sunday by Sunday are not immune to the indifference that is seen in a lack of joy over the Lord and a lack of response to His word when it calls us to change our plans. And whoever we are, if we won’t have Jesus as our King in this life, we won’t live in His kingdom on the other side of death. If you choose to ask Jesus to leave you alone, either in your hostility or in your religiosity, He will leave you alone—forever. Your response to Jesus has eternal significance. Look on Him who came to die for hostile and indifferent sinners, then, and allow His great love to soften your heart so that you respond to Him in real, joyful, obedient faith, today and every day.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Matthew 2:1–11

Topics: Free Will Jesus Christ Pride

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Psalm 27:14

Do you enjoy waiting? Most of us, if we’re prepared to be honest, would answer with an emphatic “No!” We need only to sit and wait for somebody to reverse out of a parking space to be reminded of how impatient we really are. Usually, we desire that our needs be met according to our timetable, and modern life teaches us that this is a fair demand. And yet this lack of patience poses a major problem for the Christian—because if we find it difficult to wait, we’re going to find it very difficult to walk by faith.

In the Bible, we often see faith demonstrated as men and women wait on the promises of God. (See, for instance, Romans 4.) Indeed, God’s “precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4) are seldom given with any kind of time guarantee. This makes all the difference in the world. Most of us can muster up the ability to wait if we know that we only have to wait until next Friday, or until five o’clock, or whenever. But that is not waiting in faith. Rather, Scripture exhorts us to wait not on a specific time but on the faithfulness of the one who promises—namely, God Himself.

If we are in need of strength—strength to endure illness, to resist temptation, to show kindness to a challenging coworker—and we turn to the Scriptures for encouragement, we discover that “they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Likewise, at the birth of the church, the word of Christ to the disciples was that they should wait in Jerusalem “for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). In the same way, we are called to wait “for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). The Bible tells us to wait, to watch, to pray, to look, and to be ready, not with a knowledge of the timeframe but with the knowledge that God is faithful.

You likely know what it is to have your character tested in faith’s waiting room. Remember that genuine faith involves waiting, and it requires that we wait not on external circumstances but on our God, who sees His people and who “acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). Let that build patience within you, both for the waiting times in this life and as you wait for the Lord to return and bring you into the glory of your eternal life.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Romans 4:13–25

Topics: Faith Faithfulness of God Patience

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus …” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

Luke 1:31, Luke 1:34–35

It is not Jesus’ birth which is so remarkable but His conception. When the angel announced that although she was a virgin, Mary would have a baby who would rule the entire universe, she simply asked the sensible question: “How?” And with that question we arrive at the very heart of the Christian story.

How was this child to be conceived? God was going to make it happen. He would do it. The language of being “overshadowed” reminds us of God’s divine presence being symbolized to the Israelites by a great cloud (Exodus 40:34-38). The conception, in other words, would be supernatural, able to be accomplished by God alone.

As Paul worked through the theology of the incarnation, he wrote, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). He emphasized that the Redeemer had to be human so that He would be of the same nature as those whom He came to save: a man dying for mankind. But it was equally imperative that the Redeemer should be perfectly holy, because no sinful person could effect atonement for the sins of others. He had to be Immanuel—God with us—and He had to be man.

The early Christians hammered out the incarnation’s implications and came up with ways to describe the one who was conceived by the Spirit in Mary’s womb, coming to the convictions that have passed down to us in the early creeds. Our spiritual forefathers identified the wonder of the incarnation, bowed before the mystery of it, and affirmed that Jesus was, and remains, very God and very man.

The idea that God would supernaturally invade this world shouldn’t surprise or discomfort us. It takes a supernatural invasion of God into individuals’ lives, after all, to bring them to living faith, just as God sovereignly worked a miracle in Mary’s womb in order to bring us the Redeemer. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless someone is born from above—a birth brought about by God through His Spirit—they would not see God’s kingdom (John 3:3). If we have been brought to salvation, it is only because God has done it. You did no more to save yourself than Mary did to become pregnant with your Savior. The “How?” of salvation is always answered only by “God did it.”

So, bow today before the wonder and mystery of God taking on flesh. And bow today before the wonder and mystery of God redeeming you. For that, no less than the virgin birth of the Son of God, is the supernatural work of God.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Luke 1:26–38

Topics: Christ’s Birth Incarnation of Christ Salvation

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

This is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

2 John 1:6

Genuine Christian love involves much more than warm feelings, affectionate hugs, and tender affection. While love may very well include emotions and stir our feelings, the love that the Bible calls us to is first and foremost an act of the will.

When the apostle John exhorted his readers to love, he linked that call directly to what God commands. Jesus spoke of love in the same way when he said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). So to express biblical love is to do what God has commanded. The world tells us that love means affirming and admiring; the Scriptures do not. In fact, love means obeying our Creator’s commands. Perhaps heeding God’s commands will sometimes require us to give a hug—as when we “rejoice with those who rejoice” or “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). But at other times, genuine Christian love may call for correction, admonition, rebuke, or exhortation.

One key to understanding this love is to consider the manner in which Jesus called His followers to love one another. “This is my commandment,” He said, “that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12, emphasis added). Then He added, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (v 13). The call to love, then, is ultimately a call for us to give as Jesus gave. It is a call for us to resolve, no matter what, to seek the good of others—even when that pursuit comes at great risk or cost to ourselves.

We know that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). That joy, however, was not immediate. We need only look to Gethsemane or Christ’s cry of forsaken anguish from the cross for evidence of that. Likewise, there is an eternal joy set before us, and we need not doubt that every act of costly love “will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). But for now, to love well will often take a toll. It will require us to press on with loving someone when we don’t necessarily feel like doing so. It will demand that we give when we just don’t want to anymore.

But the good news is that “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Not only is Christ your example, but, by His Spirit, He will empower you to walk with Him on the sacrificial path of love. Ask yourself, then, whom the Lord has given you to love today. And then ask yourself what loving them in the way that obeys God’s commandments will look like. For that is real love, and it is that love that we are called to walk in each day.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

1 John 4:7–12

Topics: Jesus Christ Loving Others Obeying God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg,

http://www.truthforlife.org

Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, “I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed” … May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.

1 Samuel 24:10, 1 Samuel 24:12

The verb to grab means to seize something forcibly or roughly or to get something by unscrupulous methods. When we were young, most of us would have been taught by our parents not to grab something but instead to wait until it was handed to us. This is not just good behavior for children; it is biblical living for believers.

After God rejected King Saul, David was anointed as the next king over Israel. The throne would eventually be his when Saul died. In the meantime, however, Saul chased David for years, attempting to kill him. David knew that all it would take for him to be able to leave the wilderness and sit on the throne was Saul’s death. And then the opportunity to end Saul’s life—to take hold of safety, security, and the kingdom he had been promised—presented itself (1 Samuel 24:2-4).

Yet David refused to end Saul’s life and take hold of the throne. He did not succumb to the temptation to grab something which was only God’s to give.

David’s pathway to the throne was a long and winding road, but he chose not to take matters into his own hands or try to speed up the process. Instead, he was prepared to wait for God’s time and to rest in His providence.

Imagine how hard that must have been! But this is a faithful response—not to grab a shortcut out of difficulty but instead to serve God in the situation He has placed us in. It’s the way of David. It’s the way of Jesus, who entrusted Himself “to him who judges justly,” even unto death (1 Peter 2:23).

How are you handling the circumstances that seem to threaten your security, satisfaction, or prosperity? How are you responding to people who challenge you? To use the words of Jesus, will you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), trusting that all your preoccupations and passions will be taken care of by God? Make it your aim not to grab at those things which seem to be yours by right or to grasp at a shortcut out of a hard situation. Rather, like David, leave God to order your life, knowing that He has promised you eternity with Him and called you to serve Him along the way.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

1 Peter 2:21-25

Topics: Providence of God Trust Trusting God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

James 3:13

It’s easy to confuse wisdom and intelligence. If someone has all the right answers and an encyclopedic knowledge of seemingly every subject, and particularly of Bible verses, we may be prone to assume that they are wise—and they very well could be. But equally, they may well not be, for raw intellectual ability and the capacity to retain a vast number of facts don’t necessarily equate with wisdom.

In his epistle, James links wisdom not with knowledge but with good conduct and meekness. The one who is truly wise in God’s sight will act in a way that accords with the humility (Philippians 2:3-4), gentleness (Ephesians 4:2), and joy (1 Thessalonians 5:16) that God asks of His people. God, who needs no counselor (Romans 11:34), doesn’t need us either to impress Him with what we know. Rather, God tells us that what draws His appreciative gaze is the man or woman, girl or boy, who is “humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). James has a memorable phrase for this approach to ourselves and to life: “the meekness of wisdom.”

A genuinely wise person knows how much they don’t know. They know that however much they know, it is only a tiny portion of the vastness of the knowledge that God has. Intelligence marked by wisdom will not be polluted by showy displays of verbosity or railroad others with intellectual vigor. Instead, it will be marked by a humility that always aims to build others up with whatever we have—be that physical, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional strength. Wisdom echoes the prophet Isaiah, who acknowledged, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary” (Isaiah 50:4).

The truly wise maintain a high view of God, a sober view of themselves, and a generous view of other people. How do I know if I have a high view of God? If I am constantly aware of just how much I depend on Him for everything. How will I know if I have a sober view of myself? If I am aware of my own shortcomings and understand that all I have is only what I have received from God—if I am in the habit of pointing away from myself instead of toward myself. How do I know if I have a generous view of other people? If I am routinely building them up instead of cutting them down.

This is the sort of wisdom that pleases God and which the world so desperately needs from you—a gentle wisdom that demonstrates itself in good conduct and consistent meekness. How does this challenge you? How will you pursue living with this true wisdom today?

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

James 3:13-18

Topics: Christian Living Wisdom

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

The people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

Luke 23:35-38

In Roman-occupied Judea, it was customary for an executed individual to have a sign hanging around his neck declaring the crime he had committed. But with Jesus, there was a problem: Jesus was completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

Why, then, did Pilate put a sign on Jesus’ cross that read “This is the King of the Jews”?

The answer comes in John’s Gospel. John reminds us that Jesus was the heralded Messiah. Here was the Chosen One of Israel. And Pilate, aware of these prophecies, aware of all the hope and expectation surrounding Jesus, wanted to force the Jews to wrestle with the reality that their apparent king was no king at all—that here he was, a disfigured body hanging on a bitter cross.

Therefore, John records, the Jewish leaders came to Pilate and asked him to change the sign. They wanted it to read, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.” But Pilate retorted, “What I have written I have written” (John 19:21-22). His decision was final. And so it was that Jesus died under a sign proclaiming His true identity.

Yet in response to the sign, in response to Jesus’ kingship, “the rulers scoffed at him” and “the soldiers also mocked him.” From the top of society to the bottom, from the most refined to the roughest, the reaction was the same: rejection. Rulers and soldiers alike took the view that a genuine Messiah would deliver Himself. In other words, they assumed they would know that Jesus really was the Messiah if He saved Himself. It is a tragic irony, for it is actually because Jesus didn’t save Himself that He is able to save those who come to God through Him. God’s ways are not man’s ways. The proof of Jesus’ identity, and of His love, is that He chose to die under that sign.

It is easy to assume that we do not scoff and mock like those around the cross. Yet sometimes we think and act just like the rulers and soldiers, waiting for God to do something that makes perfect sense to us, refusing to trust that His ways are always good and loving, and then failing to see His perfect plan unfold right in front of us. When such temptation creeps in, remember just how accurate Pilate’s inscription was. Christ was and is the King of the Jews. Indeed, He is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), worthy of all our trust, praise, and adoration.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Revelation 19:11-16

Topics: Christ as King The Cross Salvation

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Hebrews 12:7-8

Suffering does not necessarily lead us into a deeper relationship with God. Prolonged trials can tempt us to give in to rebellion and distrust. But when we’re prepared to bow under God’s sovereign purposes, He enables us to endure suffering to the end.

The Bible clearly teaches that God is in control over all of our lives—the blessings and the trials. For example, in Job 1 we find Satan slandering Job, accusing him of loving God solely because of the blessings he has enjoyed (Job 1:9-10). In response, God commands Satan, “All that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand” (v 12). God’s sovereign rule extended over Job’s affliction and Satan’s jurisdiction.

What then can we say with biblical certainty concerning the purposes of God in our suffering? First, God uses hardship in our lives to assure us of our sonship. The experiences of discipline that He brings into our lives prove us to be His true sons and daughters: “If you are left without discipline … then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” Second, God uses trials to develop our dependence on Him. Paul realized that it was “to keep me from becoming conceited” that “a thorn was given me in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Pride can lead to a total downfall. God therefore may mercifully ordain experiences of deep pain in order to instill in us that sense of depending on Him. That humility is the soil in which all the seeds of His grace grow to maturity. Third, God uses suffering to keep us on track spiritually. It’s easy to wander when everything is going smoothly. But have you noticed how your prayer life can change with one visit to the doctor, or how your desire to call out to God can be strengthened by a shadow looming on the horizon? The psalmist noted this tendency when he confessed, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Psalm 119:67).

As God’s child, you can live with the confidence that your heavenly Father knows best and is in control. When the present feels overwhelming and the days ahead seem unsure, you can trust that there is a purpose, hidden though it may be, and you can say:

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control:
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed his own blood for my soul.
It is well with my soul;
It is well, it is well with my soul.^[1]

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Hebrews 12:3-11

Topics: Dependence on God Sanctification Suffering

FOOTNOTES

¹ Horatio Gates Spafford, “It Is Well With My Soul” (1873).

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

Jesus never promised His followers the absence of trouble. Nowhere does He say to us that as a result of His coming, dying, rising, and ascending, the world is going to be a more peaceful place or that our place in it is going to be more comfortable. In fact, what He says to us is this: “In the world you will have tribulation.”

Sometimes we want to import to now that which is promised only for then—that is, for the eternal future of which Christ has assured us. We might want to claim for ourselves today those promises—wealth, healing, or absence of tribulation—that God intends to bring to fruition during the age to come. Yes, His kingdom has broken into our world with the advent of Christ. But we still await its full benefits. And if we make the mistake of thinking that God has promised us today what He has in fact only promised us in eternity, then we will certainly be disappointed, and we run the risk of turning our backs on Him on the basis that He did not deliver what He had never actually promised us.

But though we can expect to encounter trouble and tribulation right now simply because we follow Jesus as our King, we still have hope for true peace in this world. Paul writes, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1, emphasis added). This is a peace with God that we can claim now as our own. It is freedom from the fear of judgment and death, from recrimination, and from the dredging up of all the vileness that Christ has already dealt with on the cross.

The gospel is the “good news of peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36). We still have trials. We will groan and suffer under the weight of sin—both our own and that of others. But in the good news of the gospel we have a true and steady peace, even in turbulent times. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” says Jesus, “neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). You may not feel like it’s true today, but your Lord Jesus has already overcome the world and all its troubles. The day is not yet here when He will dry all the tears from your eyes, but you can know that that day will arrive, for there is nothing in all the world that can prevent Jesus bringing His final victory. And, in the meantime, you can know that Jesus stands with you by His Spirit, no matter what trouble meets you. What tribulation faces you today? Be sure that Jesus is with you in it and that Jesus will bring you through it—for He has overcome the world. Take heart!

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

John 16:25-33

Topics: Affliction Union with Christ Victory

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg,

http://www.truthforlife.org

Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

Luke 24:36-37

We might use many words to sum up the achievement of the gospel and our experience of the gospel. One phrase which deserves meditation and inspires worship is simply this: the gospel is a “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15).

When the risen Jesus appeared to the disciples three days after His death, they were understandably frightened. So Jesus spoke to them. What He said was a typical greeting: “Shalom!” or “Peace to you!” But it was also a necessary greeting to calm His disciples’ fear. And His words offered His followers far more than just temporary relief. They also pointed to a deeper, eternal peace.

Throughout the Gospel of Luke, peace and salvation are almost synonymous. At the start of Luke, Simeon had responded to the news of Jesus’ coming birth by praying, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:29-30, emphasis added). When Jesus was grown, He’d told the woman who had anointed His feet with her tears, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:50, emphasis added). When the risen Jesus spoke peace to His disciples, then, He was using familiar terminology—but in a whole new context.

Jesus’ promise of peace can be a stumbling block for those new to Christianity. At Christmastime, people hear phrases like “Peace on earth and good will to men” and perhaps say to themselves, Well, clearly such peace isn’t happening. There seem to be more wars, factions, and disagreements today than there have ever been. So what did Jesus mean in promising His disciples peace?

Notice that His declaration of peace was followed by an invitation to see His hands and His feet—evidence of His crucifixion. And what was His crucifixion? It was His substitutionary death on behalf of sinners in order to make “peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).

If what Jesus meant by peace was the instant end of all bloodshed and the inhumanity of man to man, then yes, Christianity is a dud. If He was referring to a kind of valium-enhanced tranquility whereby we just drift through our days with nothing able to cloud our vision or bother us, then Christianity is a failure. But if He was speaking of the peace which would be established between the holy God and sinful humankind through His blood shed on the cross, then the gospel truly is the greatest story ever told.

Just as Jesus appeared to His unsettled disciples amid their emotional turmoil, so He comes to us and promises us peace unlike any other. Indeed, He says specifically, “My peace I give to you” (John 14:27, emphasis added). Do not be troubled or afraid, then. For you are at peace with your Creator, loved in the only eyes that matter. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Luke 2:25-32

Topics: Peace Salvation Substitutionary Atonement

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Hebrews 3:12

You may have heard of the doctrinal teaching that some people have come to call “the perseverance of the saints.” It is a beautiful doctrine that attempts to capture the keeping power of God over His chosen ones. Jesus said, for example, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). Romans 8:29-30 similarly offers to us what some have called “the golden chain of salvation,” affirming that anyone whom God “predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” God’s promise to glorify those He has chosen is so certain that Paul speaks of it in the past tense.

Sometimes, however, this precious doctrine gets reduced to a dogmatic mantra: Once saved, always saved. Too often, this slogan is misconstrued to mean that as long as someone has prayed the right prayer or said precisely the right thing, they are heaven-bound, no matter how they live. This way lies a complacency that the same Scripture which tells us that no one can snatch a believer from Jesus’ hand warns us against: “Take care,” the writer to the Hebrews warns church members—“brothers”—because it is possible to have an unbelieving heart that leads us to “fall away from the living God.”

How do we hold this assurance and this warning together? By understanding that it is actually as we persevere through the Spirit’s power that God continues His work of salvation in us.

The ground of our salvation is always the work of Jesus Christ, never our own. But the evidence that we are truly in Christ is the fact that we continue to the end. Christ Himself said that it is “the one who endures to the end” who “will be saved” (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13). And how do we continue to the end? Only by God’s persevering grace, which He has given to us in Christ through His Spirit and which is bolstered in us by the “means of grace”—the Scriptures, prayer, the fellowship of other believers, and so on.

Today, if you find yourself believing that “Once saved, always saved” means you don’t have to obey God or pay attention to the Bible’s warnings, know this: that is nothing more than a parody of Christian assurance. It is those who heed the warnings who are those the Lord is keeping. Yes, there will be struggles along the way. But be sure always to take care to cling closely to Christ and lay claim to whatever means He has given you to enable you to endure to the very end.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Hebrews 3:7-19, Hebrews 4:1-1

Topics: Assurance of Salvation Perseverance Sanctification

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

1 Samuel 1:1-2

Marked by social, political, and religious chaos, the biblical era described in the book of Judges was not dissimilar to our own times. The chaos was summarized and explained in this way: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). For people living in Israel at that point in history, around 1000 BC, it was almost as if the world were upside down. To many, it seemed that an earthly king was the only remedy for their problems.

In the midst of all this, we find the spotlight of Scripture alighting on the domestic circumstances of one man, Elkanah. His wife Hannah (presumably his first) was childless, while his second wife had many sons and daughters. Since God had promised that Abraham’s family, Israel, would grow to be countless and that it would be through a child born in Israel that He would bless the world, childlessness was more than a matter of personal sadness; it meant being unable to be a part of the way God was keeping His promises to His people. Small wonder, then, that Hannah was hopeless and helpless (1 Samuel 1:7-8). The simple statement that “Hannah had no children” describes a life of deep anguish. And yet through her, God would once again do what He had done throughout the history of His people: reach into the ordinary life of a family and, through His intervention, not only impact them but also direct the course of human history.

Hannah would surely have wondered, month by disappointing month and more and more with every passing year, “Why is this happening to me?” She could not have known that in the withholding, and then in the giving, of a child, God was doing something that would not only answer her own need but would begin to address Israel’s need. For her son, Samuel, would one day be the prophet who would anoint David, Old Testament Israel’s greatest king.

At times we may feel that we don’t fit in the grand scheme of things. Our situations, too, can appear hopeless and helpless. We, too, wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” But as with Hannah, the answer to our question may be in neither the “this” or the “me.” The ways of God are vast and beyond our ability to comprehend—and in many cases it will only be in glory that we will get past the surface of understanding how He works in our lives. For now, the story of Hannah reminds us that we can trust God to be at work, to keep His promises, and to reach into the ordinariness of life and intervene in ways that are beyond imagination.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Psalm 42, Psalm 43

Topics: Promises of God Providence of God Trusting God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

The disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work … Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

John 4:33-35

Today it is harvest time, and we are called to be at work.

In the Gospel of John, it’s not uncommon for Jesus’ teachings to sound literal but turn out to be figurative. In John 2, for example, He uses the imagery of the temple’s destruction and rebuilding to refer to His death and resurrection, but His hearers take Him literally (John 2:19-22). In John 3, He describes salvation in terms of being figuratively “born again,” but Nicodemus can think only of physical rebirth (3:3-4). With the Samaritan woman, Jesus uses a physical drink of water at the well to illustrate the eternal satisfaction found in relationship with God, but she mistakes His meaning and asks Him for a literal drink (4:7-14).

It should not surprise us, then, that in these verses Jesus again employs this method, this time with His own disciples. As they encourage Him to eat, Jesus speaks of a different and figurative food—about His mission, and about ours. Jesus’ “food,” or mission, was “to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (see also John 5:30; 6:38). On the cross, we see that work completed as He declares, “It is finished” (19:30). Christ died in the place of sinners so that He can offer grace to sinners. Anyone can be forgiven if they respond with faith to the offer of the gospel. But to respond, they must first be told.

So when the crowd from the Samaritan town approached them and the disciples became concerned about Jesus having something to eat, He called them to “look,” to see what was really going on—something much more exciting than a lunch plan! There were men and women who needed to hear the good news that He had come to offer forgiveness. There was a harvest ready to be reaped. We, too, often need such a wake-up call. We so easily miss what is in front of us, failing to notice the opportunities we have to share Christ with the people we meet who are hungry to hear of Him. We so easily make excuses, thinking no one will be interested in the gospel message, thinking we’ll take God’s mission seriously when we enter a different phase of life, when things are less busy.

Beware of persuading yourself that there is no harvest or that circumstances allow you to sidestep the call to be at work to gather it in. Christ’s work is indeed finished, but we are invited to share in His missional harvest, continuing to bring the good news of that finished salvation to lost souls. Do we see this harvest awaiting? Or are we preoccupied with shuffling soil in worldly garden patches which will never bear true spiritual fruit? Perhaps what you need is a perspective shift, an opening of your eyes. Who are the people around you? In what field have you been placed? Will you do the wonderful work of sharing Jesus with them? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). Today it is harvest time, and you are called to be at work.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Mark 4:1-20

Topics: Gospel Mission Preaching

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:22

There was a man on a golf practice range who was, by any standards, an appalling player. When he occasionally connected with the ball, it was with wild slashing movements that sent it in every direction but seldom where he intended. His drives were ineffectual and weak, and he consistently dribbled the iron shots along the ground.

In the middle of this sorry display, he took a call on his cell phone that went something like this: “Yes, I’m on the driving range. Actually, very good. Driving it to the far end of the range. My irons? Oh, straight as arrows, and incredibly long.” Those observing wanted to exclaim to him, “Don’t kid yourself!”

James is warning us here not to kid ourselves when it comes to the issues of the Bible, faith, believing, and behaving. He has already warned against being deceived in general (James 1:16). Here, though, he makes it personal, identifying a crucial area of jeopardy: the danger of being self-deceived.

To illustrate his point, James uses an amusing analogy, imagining a person who looks into a mirror and then forgets what he looks like (James 1:23-24). This word picture helps us understand our peril. If we have just put on mismatching shoes or have smudges of dirt on our face, a mirror is useful not so that we can congratulate ourselves but in order that we can see our predicament and do what is necessary to fix it. Self-deception, in other words, can prevent us from seeing grave shortcomings that need to be addressed.

The Bible is our mirror. Its purpose is not to congratulate us but to challenge us. When we look into it, we find out things that we wouldn’t know had we not looked there. But if we discover them and then do nothing about them, we are self-deceived and remain in our predicament.

If the Bible is going to be effective in our lives, we must listen to it, receive it, and apply it. Treating God’s word properly does not mean merely reading it, understanding it, and agreeing with it. It means doing what it says.

As you look into the mirror of God’s word today, tomorrow, and every day, notice what is reflected back to you. Then be careful: do not walk away and kid yourself but act on what you have seen, allowing the Bible to be a transforming word in your life, as well as in all the lives that God calls you to touch. Be a doer, not a self-deceiver.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Psalm 119:41-48

Topics: God’s Word Obedience Obeying God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:4-6

Why do we anticipate Christmas with such relish? For the believer, the answer must surely lie, above all, in the awareness that Jesus Christ appeared to take away our sins.

When we read the Gospel writers, we discover this truth at the very heart of their Christmas message. Matthew recorded the words of the angel to Joseph: “[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Ahead of what might be regarded as the first ever Christmas concert, the message the angel gave to the shepherds was similar: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). John began from a different vantage point. As he highlighted the commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry, having raised our gaze to the eternal Word becoming flesh (John 1:14), he gave us the words of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v 29). And Mark records nothing of Jesus’ birth or childhood, but in his Gospel Jesus’ first words are an announcement that in Him the kingdom of God has come near to people like us (Mark 1:15), and in one of His first miracles Jesus assures a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (2:5).

If we say that God has shown His love for us in the incarnation, that is accurate but insufficient. God demonstrated His love for us not simply by sending Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem; rather, His own word tells us that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added).

Of course, if we understand that Christ came to take away our sins, then it’s only logical to conclude that we have sins which need to be taken away. Rare is the man or woman who would say that he or she has never done wrong! We all have impure thoughts. We all speak bitter words. We all know what it is to live an unholy life. But the word of God comes to us and says, Here is the good news: Christ appeared in this world to take away your sins.

Today, lay hold of this message with renewed joy and gratitude. Let these eight words be the most precious part of your Christmas season: “He appeared in order to take away sins.” Your friends, coworkers, and neighbors may be more open to the gospel message during the holiday season; make it your aim, then, not to further the misguided perception that Christmas is nothing more than a sentimental emblem of God’s love, as though His Son lay gurgling in the manger but never hung in agony on the cross. God’s love can only be fully explained in the purpose of Christ’s coming: to take away our sins. This, and this above all, is what gives our hearts bountiful cause for celebration!

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Matthew 1:18-25

Topics: The Cross Incarnation of Christ Love of God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2

Nothing confronts us with our creatureliness quite like the watch that we wear on our wrist or the clock that ticks on our wall. Try and think about no time. It’s virtually impossible for us to do. God, who is outside of time, created time so that we might live each moment that He has given to us for His glory.

We don’t like to face it, but Scripture frequently calls us to face life’s brevity. It tells us that our life is “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The Bible confronts us with transience in this way not to manipulate us or crush us but in order that we might be sensible. We need to be reminded of how quickly time passes, especially when we are young, because we tend to think that we have more time than we really do.

The Bible almost always addresses us in the now: “Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Now, in other words, is the time to be reconciled to God. Now is the time to take heed—not someday over the horizon. Now is the time to hold out the gospel message to those around you. You are not to live dominated by the regrets of yesterday or the anxieties of tomorrow. You are not to live as though you will always have a tomorrow in which to do what you should be doing today. You are to face the fact squarely, head on, that the future comes in at the rate of 60 seconds a minute.

The time that God has allotted you is quickly passing by. If you are not careful, it will be gone before you realize it. In Psalm 90, the psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). May this prayer become your own, and may God enable you to be a good steward of the time that He has given to you. Today is a great day to enjoy your salvation and to speak of it. Now is the time. Be sure to use it.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Ephesians 5:15-20

Topics: Gospel Salvation Wisdom

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house.

Acts 20:20

Paul never succumbed to the temptation to shape his message to cater to his hearers’ tastes, and neither must we.

It is always tempting to temper what we say to avoid the prejudices or tickle the fancies of those we’re speaking to, whether we’re speaking from a platform or over a meal table. But if we are going to be honest stewards of the message given to us in the Bible, then our teaching and speaking about it needs to be marked by integrity.

Faithfulness to all of Scripture’s teaching is crucial. Scripture itself warns us that false teachers will arise and tell people what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). Times will come when people turn away from sound teaching, instead seeking out voices that don’t challenge them with biblical truth but simply reinforce their own views.

Paul spent more than two years teaching among the Ephesians, publicly and privately, and his message was always pure, open, and straightforward. It didn’t matter where he was or who his hearers were; what he knew to be profitable—the proclamation and application of God’s word—was what he brought.

If someone had come from one of Paul’s addresses and was asked, “What did Paul say today?” the response must always have included sentences like these: “He said that we’re supposed to turn in repentance toward God. We need to forsake our sins. We are to trust in Jesus as our only Savior. He really challenged me, but he really encouraged me.” No matter where you met him and no matter when you heard him, Paul always got to the heart of the gospel. His life and ministry were gospel-centered. He was not willfully offensive or obnoxious, but at the same time, he did not shrink from saying hard but necessary things.

The day will come, if it has not already, when you will be tempted to soften the message of God’s word—tempted to loosen your convictions in order to make the warnings, promises, and commands of Scripture seem more palatable to those in your hearing. How will you respond when this day comes? Will you shrink from declaring God’s message, as so many around Paul did? Or will you follow the example of the apostle by declaring the truth plainly, trusting that it will bring glory and honor to the Lord, and remembering that what people want to hear is not always or often the same as what they need to hear—what is profitable to them?

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Topics: God’s Word Gospel Preaching

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

John 11:25

In my years as a pastor, I’ve conducted countless funeral services. I remember one in particular, though, for the lesson that it taught me.

When I arrived at the funeral home, I was asked to wait in a side room. Being an inquisitive soul, I looked around and realized that I was sitting beside miniature coffins—models with their ends sawn off so that you could see what the inside of each coffin looked like.

As I was sitting there, I began to think of what it would be like not just to look inside but to be inside. I became greatly disturbed. I said to myself, “I am a Christian. I believe in the resurrection of the body. I believe that I will die and go to heaven.” And yet, I still looked at the coffin and thought to myself, “I don’t want to go in one of these things!”

Then the thought came to me: “What comes to the unbeliever’s mind when he or she thinks of death and dying?”

In the late 1960s, the United Kingdom introduced grids painted on the roads at particularly busy intersections, called box junctions, accompanied by signs that read, “Do not enter the box unless your exit is clear.” The purpose of these grids and signs was to help aid traffic flow. But that day in the funeral home, what entered my mind was how apt that sign’s warning is when we consider that we will all be dead and lie in a coffin. Though my body will one day be in a box, my soul will have departed—and my exit must then be clear.

Everybody knows that death is coming. The statistics are clear: one out of one dies. The affairs of life lead inescapably toward the end. Yet God the Son, who existed “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20) has come into time in order that we may know a Savior, a Friend, and a Lord and so that we might be prepared for—and even long for!—all that eternity will bring.

You may be one of many who are prepared for just about everything that might possibly happen—except for your exit from the box. But that exit is the one thing for which you must be prepared. You will stand before God. You will give an account for your life. But the message of the gospel is that you do not need to fear that day, provided that you are trusting in Christ to bring you through. And if you are, then you can look at a coffin and speak to your fears, for though your earthly flesh may end up in one, your soul will not; and you will enjoy a resurrection body that never sees the inside of a wooden box. “Do not enter the box unless your exit is clear”—but, gloriously, your route through is signposted with the blood of Christ and your heavenly destination awaits. Have no fear.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

John 11:17-44

Topics: Death Fear Jesus Christ

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!

Psalm 3:7-8

Does trouble drive you to God or from God?

In Psalm 3, King David is facing a severe trial: the apparently successful insurrection of his son Absalom. He has had to flee his palace and his capital. Many men he counted as friends have turned against him.

What does David do? He takes his trial straight to the Lord. He recognizes—and we ought to be humble enough to recognize with him—that any life-transforming change, any ultimate solution, any lasting success is owing ultimately and finally to the Lord.

Who can bring deliverance from the enslavement of habitual sin? Who can set captives free? Who can take the burdens from people’s backs? Only and ultimately the Lord. Whether we’re bothered by a mere nuisance or we’ve been struck by awful tragedy, God alone brings deliverance.

Even when David’s foes surround him, he doesn’t try to take vengeance into his own hands. He recognizes that God strikes the winning blow, because it is God who is the one true source of lasting victory. So David cries out, “Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!” because he knows that “salvation belongs to the LORD.”

Notice, too, that David has more than deliverance for himself in view: “Your blessing be on your people,” he prays. Trials have a tendency to drive us in on ourselves—away from God and away from others. It’s so easy only to pray for ourselves when we are struggling. But David reminds us that even in life’s valleys, we are traveling together and need to keep our brothers and sisters in mind and in our prayers—and not only those who already believe, for God’s salvation is for any who would cry out to Jesus for help. Our neighbors, our colleagues, the stranger in line with us as we wait for our coffee—they all need this deliverance just as much as any of us.

If you desire victory in your life, you must first recognize, like David, that you can have none apart from God’s help. And if you are going be an instrument of grace to the people God has placed around you, you must also look beyond your own needs and call out for their blessing and deliverance to the only one who is mighty enough to grant it. He alone is our eternal hope, our great gift of salvation, the source of satisfaction for our every longing—in the valleys as much as on the mountaintops.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

1 Chronicles 29:10-14

Topics: Dependence on God Prayer Victory

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org